An Act of War Has Been Declared Upon Us!

 

As we begin Chapter 12 into our study of Revelation, we can clearly see a new stage is being set. A war is being waged in heaven and that will manifest itself on earth. There is an epic battle between Satan and God's plan. It deals with the nation of Israel, the birth of the Messiah, His resurrection and ascension into heaven, it deals with Satan and his antics that he is going to perpetrate upon the world. Chapter 12 opens as if two book ends spanning several millennia, and where this study shifts in the scene is this is God's view of what is going on behind the scenes as it were spiritually as we have been previously studying the ministry, judgment and wrath of God during the Tribulation period up to this point. God is pulling back at this point to show us the spiritual battle that is taking place in the spiritual realm that manifests itself in the physical realm. This is God's view and His perspective on the events that have been unfolding and are unfolding.

There is a war ongoing against the Word of God, against His Son Jesus Christ, the ministry of Jesus and it is just getting more hostile to those willing to take a stand for Jesus in the world today. There are two very different wars, the one on earth and the one in heaven throughout Revelation 12. We can never know the literal interpretation of Revelation without first understanding the Old Testament. We can't begin to understand the signs, symbols, types, visions, and wonders because they are first represented in the Old Testament. What is in the Old concealed, is in the New revealed!

Revelation 12:1-6 ~ " A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days." 

We have an enemy that wages war and is always planning surprise attacks against us even at this very hour. There are satanic powers that exist and are at work according to the Bible, and he is the personification and manifestation of evil, and according to the Bible, he was the first one to sin and fall from heaven and has his own collation of demonic allies comprised of demons and fallen angels. They are plotting against our demise as Christians and as a church. Even though the offices of Homeland Security, CIA and FBI have announced that the enemy is among us, they believe that there are strong cells of terrorists operating even within our own borders and states. They have for years been making their way up from Central America and Mexico with gang member ties specifically to the drug cartels of Al Qaeda and other terrorists groups.

However when you consider the church, the enemy has been among us for quite some times when you consider things on the spiritual level. The enemy has been in our midst even on September 10, 2001 obviously but in the spiritual sense the enemy has always been with us. The enemy has always been attacking us. Revelation 12, tells us about the specific attacks of Satan against God, against God's interests, the things that surround God's mission and His will, against God's nation Israel, His chosen people, the church and all of us that stand together believing and doing the work of God and to bring about God's will upon the earth. As Christians, we need to understand that we are always under attack.

Satan's first plan of attack is to get people to not believe in him. This is exactly what he did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He begins to sow seeds of doubt in her mind. He begins to interpret God's Word into his own persuasions, didn't he say, "Well don't you know why God doesn't want you to touch the fruit of the tree of good and evil? It's because he knows that the day that you touch it and eat of it, you will be just like Him. You will become a God." This doctrine of heresy has never left the planet since that fateful day in the garden. There are doctrines throughout the world that you can become a god or gods. Satan's job is to infiltrate and he does it by surprise attack.

If you look at three specific cases on US soil including the 1990 bombing of the World Trade Center, were these not surprise attacks? Was not September 11th a surprise attack? Was not December 7, 1941, a surprise attack? Apparently God is trying to teach America in the physical sense. This just shows us how vulnerable we are to surprise attacks because often times America is asleep at the wheel. We will not have massive church attendance or massive prayer meetings, or turn stadiums into prayer vigils until some surprise attack happens again. The government has even been warning us that more surprise attacks are coming, which should not make them surprise attacks if you are ready. Satan is launching surprise attacks against you and I all the time and he is doing it even now. It can't be a surprise attack however if we are on guard, watching and waiting. If we know the strategy that Satan has against us, we should not be caught off guard.

As Christians, we know that things are coming to the world, to nations, that frankly the CIA and the FBI ought to be interviewing us. They should talk to us about what is coming. The minute you mention what the Bible has to say about future events, they don't want to hear anything about it. An act of war has been declared against us. If we are walking in the Spirit, they won't come as a surprise. If we understand that Satan is against us, without us praying for our families, marriages and children, they are vulnerable. Satan has engineered things in this world to pull Christian families apart. He hates you and your entire family and has set out to destroy you more than anybody else on the block. Because your a Christian, he stays awake all night and day trying to figure out your demise. We don't need to panic, because if we are in the Spirit, warring in the Spirit, praying for our families, without our prayer coverage and interceding for them daily, naming by name and encouraging them with our own words, they are under attack daily.

We will see truths in the opening verses of this chapter that are eternal. We will see historical facts in these opening verses that have actually happened. As a foot soldier during WWI, J.R.R. Tolkien believed that behind each of the nations, there were powers both heavenly and demonically at work in the war. In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote his interpretations of the demonic powers and the powers of light behind the empires of the world. He saw these epic battles being spawned by spiritual activity. Satan is locked in an epic battle. He cannot get out of this battle. In Revelation 12, we see a war on earth with a war in heaven at the conclusion of this chapter. What we see happening in the spiritual realms in heaven, manifests itself in the physical realm on the earth. This is true in every aspect of life and what we are going through. They all have spiritual meanings behind them. The kingdoms of light and darkness are at war.

Satan is locked into an epic battle with a very specific enemy with us being some of those enemies. The battle he is in is with a chosen people. What John is seeing in verse 1 is a manifestation of truth given by symbols or signs. The Old King James says "wonders." You can make a note in your Bible that what you are reading here is conveyed in symbols and signs. John is saying, "I saw this sign..." What is it?

Revelation 12:1 ~ "A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head."

When it speaks of a woman, it doesn't speak of a physical woman, because the Greek interpretation calls for it to be a representation of something, not an actual woman. That is important!!!

Tolkien saw that the atrocities of war, that they were demonically inspired. The movies are pretty graphic to what we are dealing with in the spiritual realm. The powers that are invisible in the world around me. Tolkien was brilliant. Revelation 12 let's us into the spiritual realm and the movies gives you insight into what is really going on in the spiritual realm. You might just want to rewatch it while studying this section and see it with spiritual eyes.

Time Is Running Out!

We know that the coming world leader will attempt to cohabitate the religions of the world. We are already seeing the bumpers stickers "Coexist" that is a step in that being looked at as being acceptable. While the Antichrist might not be physically empowered just yet, the spirit of the Antichrist, according to 1 John states that it is already at work. God is watching this happen as Satan begins to get things set up for this to happen. The stage is being set for the portion of Scripture we are going to study today. It hasn't happened yet, but things are being put in place for it to happen at a future time.

If you have one of those "coexist" bumper stickers on your car, you might want to remove it. You may want to research a bit about the man who created those stickers as well. You need to find out what it's all about. There is even a new one now called "tolerance." While he is making millions off these bumper stickers he firmly believes in anything but co-existence. You're driving around with an impossibility on the back of your car, because there is no way the religions depicted there on the sticker, could ever tolerate each other because its a collaboration of hostile world views and religious biases. All of those symbols will gang up and eradicate one of those symbols that are on that sticker and that is Christianity.

There is a time coming when deception will happen. This very specific warning of events involves a coming deception to the nation of Israel.

Revelation 11:2a ~ "But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles."

The Old Testament says that the outer court area of the Temple is defiled. The next time the Temple is rebuilt there will be a dividing line between something that it unclean, something that God says belongs to the Gentiles, something that is defiling, and something that the Jews will herald as the Temple. This is why I believe that the Dome of the Rock, that mosque will stay during the 7-year Tribulation Period. Here is the reason why, the Antichrist will engineer a peace agreement and its Muslim enemies. So how can the Temple Mount be used that is palatable to both the Jews and the Muslims? Somehow and someway, the Antichrist will appease the zealot spirit of the Muslims on the mount and at the same time, he will appeal to the zealousness of the Jews that want to worship on the Temple Mount. There will be a wall in between the two and I believe we are seeing hints of that wall today in Israel where they are building a defense wall, which is working tremendously. I think this is a forerunner to the wall that will be built between the Dome of the Rock and the Temple of the Jews.

God has stated that the area outside the Temple, is defiled. Now what would make it defiled? False worship? Misguided faith? Practices of an occult? Absolutely these things would. But the fact remains that all around, written in Arabic, on the Dome of the Rock mosque, in tiles says,"God is not begotten, and neither does God have a Son." No wonder God says to leave it out. Leave it out. A term for non believer.

Proverbs 30:4 ~ "Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!"

People might say this is a contradiction, but I will go with what the Bible says any day! The Bible says that when this man comes on the scene there will be a great deception and Israel will be deceived. This is the last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation Period.

Matthew 24:21 ~ "For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again." 

Jeremiah 30:7 ~ "How awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it. "

We know that Jacob got a new name and it was Israel. This is referring to the nation of Israel during the Tribulation Period.

Daniel 12:1 ~ "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of the nations until them. But at that time your people - everyone whose name is found written in the book - will be delivered."

John is giving us an insight as to how the tables are turning from the first 3 1/2 years to the second 3 1/2 years. He is making a connection. When this mid point happens there will come an end to human government. The Gentiles will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. This 42 months is a code word for Bible students,

Luke 21:24 ~ "They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations, Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

Remember prior to 1948, Israel was not a nation. Then it became a nation. In 1967, they took control of Jerusalem, then the Temple Mount, but then turned around and gave it back that same week. Why didn't they hang on to it? Because it wasn't time yet according to God. The time of the Gentiles was not yet complete. The "Time of the Gentiles" has two meanings. (1) It is certainly the control of the Gentiles over Israel, meaning that Israel does not have sovereignty over its own nation, nor its capital. That is true today in many ways. (2) A time would be given to the Gentile nation to hear the gospel and respond to the salvation message. The Bible says that time is running out. It will conclude. It will terminate.

Just like in the days of Noah, he had to wait. Noah had to wait 7 days after he built the ark for it to rain. The Bible says it had never rained before and that the water came up from the ground to water the plants. It had never rained before. The people were outside mocking Noah until the Bible says that God closed the door of the ark. We know that the clouds began to form, and imagine what people thought of that and then it began to rain and it didn't stop. There was a great earthquake and the bowels of the earth opened up and let the water out. We now know scientifically that there is more water beneath the earth, than above the earth. Did you know that? There are bigger rivers beneath the earth than are on the surface of the earth.

Zechariah 14:3 ~ "Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. ON that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem and, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from the east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountains moving north and half moving south."

This will happen at the culmination of the 7-year Tribulation Period to culminate human government. At the end of Tribulation Period, God will end human government and He is sending out warnings. Human government fails every time. We should not be looking for political leaders to provide all the answers, but look to the Lord. We should vote. People died so we can vote. To honor the dead and the veterans, we should all vote. If you're not sure who to vote for, vote for the lesser of the two evils. Even though God knows the outcome, He has asked us to be involved. Be salt and be light. The result, we leave up to God. Either not enough of us voted or a lot of us voted, but God made up His mind in 2000 anyway. Who put Bush in office? Not the Supreme Court. God put him in office. God says He raises up kings and He pulls kings down. Whoever God puts in office next will tell us what is coming next. Think about it!

God has given us through John, a window into the future. When you read or study the Bible consider this, the same Holy Spirit that was alive when all this happened, is alive in you today. Ask God to allow that Spirit to show you what it was like during that time, to see the things they saw, to feel the things that happened, to smell the smells and hear the sounds. Perhaps that is one of the reasons so many treasure hunters or archaeologists love what they do. It's exciting because you never know what you will find. What we are looking at right now, has never happened before. We've been allowed today to discover, to explore, to uncover, to see things that no one has ever seen before in our study. God gives us just enough to know about this upcoming event.

As we will study next week, we will look at these two witnesses, who they are, where do they go, where did they come from and what is up with their powers. It will be extremely important to know certain portions of the Old Testament to understand the ministry of these two witnesses. That is the point about the whole book of Revelation. God is basically saying, I've written down the future for you in my Book and you might want to take a look at it. No other man made gods of the religions of the world have done such a thing. 27% of the Bible is devoted to future events. He is saying, "Here is the future."

We will be studying more about the 42 months, which is 1,260 days according to the Biblical calendar which is equivalent to 3 1/2 years of the later end of the Tribulation Period. He is telling you that you can trust Him with your eternal life.