Satan Exposed In The Book Of Revelation Before the first advent of Christ the Gentile world lay in heathen darkness under the dominion of Satan, the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4). When Jesus came He engaged Satan, challenged his dominion over the spiritual life of Israel at that time, and defeated him completely through the events of His life, death, and resurrection. By virtue of His subsequent ascension to, and continuing session on, old king David’s everlasting messianic throne in heaven, Jesus has now become a universal Savior. Jesus Christ is portrayed as the “messenger” coming down from heaven to bind the Devil, who is called “the dragon and that old serpent” in Revelation 20:1-3. Jesus is also seen as the “man-child” in Revelation 12:1-5, who ascended back to heaven to accomplish the complete overthrow of Satan’s dominion in the spiritual realm by virtue of His messianic enthronement at the Father’s right hand (I Pet. 3:22). Although Christ did indeed achieve a complete victory over Satan at the time of His first advent, this did not mean that Satan had been removed from the world at that time, either. Satan was rather stripped of his legitimacy by Jesus for the stated purpose that the nations should no longer be deceived by him, but should now, rather, become Christ’s disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). In Revelation 12:3 Satan is identified as “a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” The seven heads of the dragon here represent the seven Gentiles kingdoms that Satan before Christ’s messianic enthronement then controlled. The five of these Gentile kingdoms already fallen in 17:10 were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The kingdom that now “is,” in that same verse, was Rome. The kingdom that is yet to come and when it comes it must continue a short space was the then-future final kingdom of the Roman Papacy, which was also the second beast or false prophet of 13:11-18. In Revelation 17:3 Satan is pictured as the “scarlet colored beast” upon whom the then-future antichrist system of the Roman Papacy was to ride. He is thus the beast that “was and is not and yet is” of 17:8, and the “eighth king,” or master mind and moving soul, behind the seven historical Gentile kingdoms of 17:11. Notice again the crowns that are upon the dragon, Satan’s, seven heads in 12:3. These crowns symbolize the ruler-ship that Satan then held over the Gentile nations, until Christ’s messianic enthronement freed them, and brought Satan under the Christian gospel constraints. All this began to happened with the dawning of the new age of universal human redemption that was realized on the Day of Pentecost 2,000 years ago. In Revelation 13:2 we see Satan as the dragon giving his power and dominion to the Roman beast. It is the Roman Empire here, and not the dragon itself, whose ten horns (powers) are now crowned. The crowns upon the ten horns of the Roman beast, instead of upon the seven heads of the dragon, as we saw in Revelation 12:2, indicates that Satan is now constrained to work through human intermediaries alone, because He has lost direct spiritual control of a world that has since become the scene of Messianic kingdom gospel grace (Jn. 1:9; 16: 8-11; Titus 2:11ff.). The dominion of the world now belongs to Jesus Christ! He is the white horse rider that goes forth conquering and to conquer (6:2; 19:11). His will---revealed spirituality---true holiness in heart and life---is God’s plan for the nations in this present age. With the fall of old Rome came the papacy of the Middle Ages, and now, the modern Western world, which yet enshrines within itself the image of that ancient Roman beast. Satan is the beast behind the beast that still conflicts the conquering Christ. “The mark of the beast,“ then, means Roman paganism, and all sinners bondage now to Satan through their lives of sin (Jn. 8:34-36; I Jn.3:8-9).
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:59:31 +0000
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