Welcome to A Revelation of Jesus. In the last 14 videos we have been studying the Cosmic Conflict as it is presented in Revelation chapters 12-14. In this video, I want to put the cosmic conflict in Revelation into the context of the rest of the Bible.
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Going back to the beginning, there is an interesting and perplexing observation in the first three chapters of Genesis. In chapter 1 God creates everything that we experience here on earth: light, the atmosphere, the heavenly bodies, plants, animals, and human beings. When He is done God declares it all “very good.” There is no hint of anything that was not good.
But in chapters 2 and 3, sometimes called the “second story of creation”, we find the first humans, Adam and Eve, in “a garden which God planted eastward in Eden,” (Genesis 2:8), and here there were some things that were definitely not good. “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil… was in the midst of the garden,” and they were not to eat from it because they would die if they did! (Genesis 2:9).
At first Adam was the only human in the garden, and God Himself said, “it is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). And most ominously, “The serpent [who] was more cunning than any beast of the field” (Genesis 3:1) was there, subjecting Adam and Eve to the temptation that led to their expulsion from the garden and ultimately their death.
In Revelation 12 we learn that the talking serpent that was in the garden of Eden was actually a fallen angel: “The great fiery red dragon [is] that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world… with all his angels” (Revelation 12:9). From this we can see that angels existed and Satan’s rebellion against God began before Satan appeared as a serpent in the Garden.
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The Bible doesn’t say when the angels were created, but God’s question to Job shows that it was before the creation of the earth. “Where were you, [Job], when I laid the foundations of the earth… while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7). We get a few hints as to the issues and motives behind Satan’s rebellion in Isaiah 14, where the most prominent of the “morning stars,” “Lucifer, son of the morning… said in [his] heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne… I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12-14).
In Ezekiel 28, we see that Lucifer, “the anointed covering cherub… full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…became proud on account of [his] beauty, and corrupted [his] wisdom because of [his] splendor… [he] became filled with violence within and [he] sinned” (Ezekiel 28:12-17). And in Revelation 12, we see that he took down a third of the angels with him: “[He] swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth (Revelation 12:3,4). Here we see the beginning of the cosmic conflict, with Lucifer, now Satan, introducing evil into the universe and evangelistically promoting his anti-God worldview. I will put a link in the description about how evil could arise in a perfect creation.
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Most of the Old Testament writers seem to be unaware of the presence of the devil; God Himself is given the responsibility and the blame for activities that are obviously Satan’s. But throughout the historical narrative of the Old Testament, we see the cosmic conflict playing out. God chose a man, Abraham, and his descendants, the children of Israel, to be His representatives, and Satan worked hard to make them as dysfunctional as possible. He finally managed to get them to the point that they were brutally oppressed slaves facing genocide in Egypt.
God delivered them through Moses and gave them His law and the sanctuary system that symbolized salvation through Christ. Satan responded by instigating unbelief, dissatisfaction, and infighting, trying to make them perish in the wilderness. God eventually brought them into the promised land and empowered them to overcome their enemies, but Satan tempted them to forfeit God’s protection by inspiring idolatry and immorality.
God raised up godly leaders, but Satan tempted the people to demand a king so they could be like the other nations. Then “Satan rose up against Israel and incited” [their kings]” to make bad decisions that put them on the path of destruction. (1 Chronicles 21:1) Major successes in Satan’s campaign included the civil war that tore Israel apart into two nations, the total defeat and permanent exile of the northern kingdom, and the corruption of the southern kingdom to the point that Babylon could defeat them and take them captive. But God continued to use His prophets and those leaders that were faithful to bring His people back to Himself.
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Both the book of Job and the book of Zechariah pull back the curtain to reveal that during the Old Testament times, Satan had access to the very courts of heaven, where he lodged insults and accusations against God and his faithful followers, and demanded permission to harm them. (Job 1,2, Zechariah 3:1-5).
Satan and his army of fallen angels come out of hiding in the New Testament, particularly in the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life on earth. Satan and his demons used human agents to try to defeat Jesus and His ministry, beginning with an effort by King Herod to destroy Jesus by murdering all the babies in Bethlehem. This is where the cosmic conflict story begins in Revelation 12.
God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, is symbolized by a virtuous woman about to give birth, and Satan is symbolized by a dragon, who is attempting to “devour [Jesus], the Male Child… as soon as He was born” (Revelation 12:4,5). Satan personally assaulted Jesus after His baptism, trying to cast doubts on His identity as the Son of God. All through His ministry, Satan infused the religious leaders of Israel with jealousy and hostility, so that they would harass and endanger Jesus and His disciples.
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Jesus “fought back” with love, grace, healing, encouragement, and teaching about the true character of His Father. In the “weapons of warfare” they used, we can see how Satan can wage war with an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. Satan uses lies, deceit, coercion, murder, and temptation to sin. God puts Himself at what seems to be a disadvantage by limiting His use of coercive power, instead using the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit, the evidence of His love, and the example of the transformed lives of those who have chosen to follow Him.
The culmination of Satan’s campaign took place when he incited the murder of Jesus, but this turned out to be his greatest defeat. Because of Jesus’ perfect, sinless life and sacrifice, He gained the right to rise from the dead and to provide eternal life to those who believe in Him. Revelation 12 touches on this major defeat of Satan. “[The] male Child who was to rule all nations… was caught up to God and His throne” (Revelation 12:5).
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Revelation 12 also reveals that because of Satan’s defeat at the Cross, he was permanently excluded from the heavenly courts. After Jesus “was caught up to God and His throne… War broke out in heaven… the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer” (Revelation 12:7,8).
Now that he was confined to the earth, Satan became brutally obsessed with defeating God’s followers in order to prove that he had as much right to the earth as anyone. As Revelation 12 puts it, “Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman” who now symbolizes the Christian church. We see in the book of Acts how Satan first used the Jewish religious authorities to try to stop the rapid spread of the gospel.
When that was unsuccessful, he used vicious Roman authorities such as Nero to annihilate apostles and ordinary Christians alike. History, illuminated by prophecy, tells us that when Roman persecution was unsuccessful, Satan corrupted the Christian Church and then used the church to wage war against the faithful believers.
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This long history of Satan’s attempt to tear down the church is outlined in the messages to the seven churches that were presented in videos 6-12. These messages reveal a slow but steady corruption of the Church that began when she lost her first love. In the face of persecution, she resorted to formalism and legalism.
When the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire, unconverted masses flooded into the church, bringing their idolatry with them. During the Dark Ages the church became Jezebel, persecuting all who refused to submit to her authority. Faithful believers were forced to go underground, finding refuge in the remote wilderness areas of Europe; eventually, with the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, they found a place of refuge.
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Revelation chapter 12 summarizes this phase of the cosmic conflict. “The dragon persecuted the woman… but the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood, [symbolizing a deluge of hostile people] after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood” (Revelation 12:13-16).
Revelation 13 depicts the same dark period, using symbols borrowed from Daniel chapter 7, to show how Satan the dragon used human agents to persecute the faithful followers of Jesus. “[John] saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns… The beast was like a leopard, his feet like the feet of a bear, his mouth like the mouth of a lion… the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority… The beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months” (Revelation 13:1,2,5).
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In videos 34 and 43 we saw that the reign of this beast symbolizes the more than 1000 years of the Dark Ages, during which the apostate Christian Church used the nation states of Europe to oppress the underground church of faithful believers. “And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation” (Revelation 13:7).
But God fought back, using His apparently weak and humble underground church to bring about the Protestant Reformation, overturning the power politics that ruled the world. The revolutionary movements in America, France, and Italy finished off the old world order. In video 45, we saw that Revelation 13 calls this “a mortal wound” which Satan’s earthly agents suffered. But Satan did not surrender. In the modern era, he has perfected secularism, materialism, and the massive entertainment industry to bring about an unprecedented level of religious indifference and spiritual apathy.
The history that John symbolically presented in Revelation was not chosen randomly. The book of Daniel, along with Revelation 12 and Revelation 13 have what seems like an obsessive focus on the oppression of the Dark Ages because it serves as a model for Satan’s end-time efforts to preserve his rulership of the world. Revelation 13 goes on to show that while the attention of the world is diverted, Satan is laying the groundwork for his final campaign.
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In video 45 we saw that the United States of America, the originator of the concept of religious liberty, will be transformed and become the world leader of religious intolerance. Religious and political leaders will convince the people that God is angry and is causing the Great Tribulation to punish the world for our sinful disobedience.
Under Satan’s influence they will devise laws that actually contradict God’s law, and then impose economic sanctions and finally a worldwide death decree against those who refuse to submit to the mark of the beast. In the midst of this final crisis Satan himself will appear as a heavenly being who is actually the beast, pretending to be Christ.
The Revelation chiasm shows that this is the high-water mark of Satan’s success in assaulting God’s followers. In Revelation chapter 14 the focus shifts to God’s glorious victory over Satan, which dominates the second half of Revelation. As we saw in video 48, God has been preparing his representatives, the 144,000, to counteract the evil influence of the beast and his minions. The 144,000 are symbolized by three angels, presenting the everlasting gospel to the world and warning of the dangers of Babylon and the beast.
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These are not just some Bible scholars sharing relevant information about correct theological interpretations. The messages of the 144,000 will be accompanied by the witness of their characters. Their patience in the face of chaos and persecution, their holy obedience to God’s commandments, and their faith like that of Jesus are so compelling that a great multitude will join them as they wait for Jesus to appear.
The cosmic conflict which we have been studying in Revelation chapters 12-14 has taken a detour from the Revelation timeline, so let me take a few moments to show where it fits in that context. You may want to review videos 13 and 41, which show that there are actually two timelines in Revelation, one outlining what God is doing in the heavenly realm, and the other which shows what is happening in the meantime here on earth.
Both timelines begin in approximately AD 90 when John wrote the book of Revelation. In order to show how Revelation 12-14 relates to the two timelines, I want to add a third timeline for the cosmic conflict. The timeline charts are getting a little complex, so you may want to pause from time to time to look closely at the details.
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The cosmic conflict timeline begins before the events on the Revelation timeline, and in fact, as we have already mentioned in this video, before the creation of the earth, with the rebellion of Lucifer. The next major event is Satan’s successful temptation of Adam and Eve. God pushes back with his promise to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).
The woman and her seed are symbolized by the pregnant woman of Revelation 12, portraying how the chosen people of the Old Testament nurtured the hope of a Messiah up to the point of the birth of Jesus. Satan the dragon is there too, wanting to devour the child, but after defeating Satan on earth with His perfect life, death, and resurrection, “Jesus was caught up to God and His throne.” (Revelation 12:5). With that, “War broke out in heaven” and Satan was “cast out” and confined to the earth.
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“When [Satan] saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman [now the church]” (Revelation 12:13). I’m going to compress the timeline to make room for the long history of persecution that is outlined in the messages to the seven churches that we mentioned earlier in this video. The persecution of God’s followers by the Jews during the Ephesus period and by the Romans during the Smyrna period gave way to persecution by the national church during the Pergamos and Thyatira eras of the Dark Ages, when the faithful had to go underground.
In Revelation this is symbolized by the dragon spewing water after the woman and the beast from the sea “waging war against the saints and overcoming them” (Revelation 13:7). The Protestant Reformation along with the American, French, and Italian revolutions inflicted a “deadly wound” to the beast, that provided an environment of relative religious freedom in which God’s followers could thrive. This opened the way for the revivals of the Philadelphia era. At this time the final judgment began in heaven, depicted by the seven seals.
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But “the deadly wound was healed.” The relative tranquility of the present lukewarm Laodicea era will be interrupted by the beginning of the Great Tribulation. I’ll compress the timeline again to focus on the sealing of God’s special messengers and the beginning of the Seven Trumpets as Satan and his demons are released.
At first, the trumpets are just a brutal war, but when the Holy Spirit transforms the 144,000 and they become God’s “two witnesses,” proclaiming the “three angels’ messages” with power, Satan himself, as “the beast from the bottomless pit” will appear to annihilate them with the mark of the beast. But God does not forget or abandon His faithful witnesses. The next four chapters of Revelation reveal a magnificent rescue mission that will culminate in the Second Coming of Christ. In Revelation 14 this is symbolically portrayed as the great harvest.
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“Then [John] looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on His head, and in His hand a sharp sickle… And He thrust in His sickle, and the earth was reaped” (Revelation 14:14-16). We do not have to guess about the meaning of this symbolism. Jesus Himself said, “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels… I will say to the reapers,… ‘Gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:39, 30).
Wheat is the primary ingredient of bread, which was the most important food in Jesus’ time. He referred to Himself as “the bread of life,” feeding the world, and his intention in calling people is to reproduce Himself in the lives of His followers. This is what He meant when He said, concerning His self-sacrifice, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds… If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:24-26).
There are a lot of details that we still need to look at in the Final Crisis series that comes next. But the bottom line is that those who have faithfully served Him, proclaiming “the everlasting gospel” and “patiently… keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” in the darkness and chaos of the final events, will be gathered to be with Him when He returns at “the end of the age.” This is our blessed hope.
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