Satan

“How art thou fallen from heaven”

In every age the people of God have suffered at the hands of evil men and it will be no different in the end-time. In fact, the saints will then be suffering even more. In Revelation 6:10 those who are martyred are crying out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” But though it is at the hands of ungodly men that God’s people are opposed and oppressed, we need to remember that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Behind the mere human is the real enemy, even Satan. He has always been active but will be most active during the time of Jacob’s trouble, for then it will be a last ditch effort on his part to exalt himself, to destroy the favored race, and to thwart God’s purposes for the earth. Then he will be going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Today he masquerades as an angel of light, and his ministers as ministers of righteousness.

There are those who do not believe in the personality of Satan. They deny that Satan is a person, and say that this supposed person is just an evil principle. All the references to Satan in the Bible certainly treat him as an individual, a person, and this is true both in the temptation of Christ and also in Christ’s statements concerning him. In Ephesians 6:11 we are told to put on the whole armour of God so that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and in II Corinthians 2:11 we are instructed not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices, lest he should get an advantage of us. He is indeed wily and tricky and has many devices to snare the unwary. It would suit his purpose well, and is perhaps part of his strategy, to have people either ignore him or to deny his existence. The Scriptures do portray him as a powerful foe, but greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

The question is often asked as to why God created the devil. The answer is that God did not create the devil. God created Lucifer, son of the morning, and he was without sin when created, but when he sinned and fell he became the devil. Ezekiel 28:15 reads: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” When created he was among the most beautiful and wise of all God’s creatures. This contributed to his pride and to his resultant sin and downfall. “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by means of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee” (vs. 17). It has been said he was God’s prophet, priest, and king. As prophet he spoke for God to the universe, as priest he brought the worship of the universe to God, and as king he ruled for God. The statement “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth” (vs. 14) could well be translated “Thou art the cherub, anointed to govern.” It would appear that he was given sovereignty over the original earth. We read: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God” (vs. 13). This was not the Eden of Adam’s time, but the heavens and earth of Genesis 1:1, a veritable paradise.

In Luke 10:18 Christ said: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” He was here speaking both historically and prophetically. In tracing the trail of the serpent from the “stones of fire” (Ezekiel 28:14) to the “lake of fire” (Revelation 20:10) it is a downward path. The fall of Satan is fourfold. First, he was cast out of the third heaven into the spatial or atmospheric heavens. Next, he will be cast down to earth. Then he will be cast into the pit of the abyss for a thousand years, and finally cast into the lake of fire. The record of his original fall is found in Isaiah 14:12-15. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

We note from this Scripture that the first sin was not committed on earth but in heaven. In spite of the lofty position occupied by Lucifer, the day-star, he was not satisfied. He was filled with pride and a desire to exalt self. The worship and praise directed to God he coveted for himself, and set about to make this so. He not only wanted to be equal with God, but to excel God. Five times in the passage above he said “I will.” But God said, “You will not.” Instead of being lifted up he was cast down, with hell his eventual end. In his rebellion many of the angels sided with him, perhaps a third of the heavenly host (Revelation 12:4), and as prince of the power of the air these are still under his control. Some think these fallen angels are the demons, while Pember and others believe the latter to be the disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamite race, to which we incline. With Satan’s rebellion and fall we have the beginning of what has been termed the Conflict of the Ages. This warfare has been going on ever since, with Satan opposing God and seeking to defeat His plans and purposes. Here we might ask another question: Why has God allowed Satan to carry on his devilish work for so long? It is true, of course, that what may seem a long time to us may be only an instant to God. However, this is one of those questions to which we will not have the answer until we get to our heavenly home.

And now as to Satan’s role and activity in the end-time. There have always been wars on earth, and Satan is most often responsible for them, but in Revelation 12 we read of war in heaven. Before looking at this in detail it will help to consider II Thessalonians 2:6-8. “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” According to these verses someone must be removed before Antichrist is revealed. Much has been written and debated as to who or what is the restrainer in this passage. Some say it is the Church, while most fundamentalists think it is the Holy Spirit, whom they say will go up with the Church at the Rapture. Perhaps the confusion is due to the usage of the coined word “restrainer,” which is a misnomer. Wickedness is not being restrained. The world is ripening for judgment, the leaven is at work, but the cup of iniquity for the Gentiles has not yet come to the full. God has not yet brought an end to this day of grace because the world is not yet bad enough.

The Thessalonian believers were being persecuted and suffering to such an extent that some were teaching that the Day of the Lord had already set in. Paul writes to correct that idea. He says that day cannot come until first the Apostasy and then the Antichrist. The sin of man will culminate in the man of sin. Before that day of judgment and wrath begins, and before Antichrist is revealed, there is one who is holding on to something that is not rightfully his, and this one must first be removed. The words “withholdeth” and “letteth” are the same Greek word katecho, which more accurately means to retain rather than to restrain. It means to seize on, to hold fast, to possess. The same word is used in I Thessalonians 5:21 where we are told to “hold fast that which is good.” Many other references could also be given. Who is holding on to what? The answer is that Satan is holding fast to his entrenched position in the heavenlies “until he be taken out of the way.” This will take place following the Rapture. After the Church has gone up Satan will come down, and this brings us to the war in heaven described in Revelation 12.

At Christ’s first advent the message was “peace on earth” and now as His second advent nears it is “war in heaven.” We read: “And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9). Many are surprised to learn that Satan has a place in the heavens. They think the devil is already in hell. The evangelist of a former day, Billy Sunday, used to kneel on the edge of the platform and carry on an imaginary conversation with the devil in hell, blaming him for all the trouble he had caused. No, the devil is not yet in hell; that will be his final end. He and his followers are at present in the spacial heavens, where he is prince of the power of the air, and he himself is forced to come periodically, as a creature, to give an account to God. In the Scripture quoted we see, in this bloodless conflict, the usurper and squatter expelled from the heavens and cast down to earth. This expulsion from heaven takes place in the middle of the seventieth week and Satan comes down filled with wrath as he knows his time is short. His time is the next three and a half years, and this is the period referred to by the Lord as the Great Tribulation. At his casting down, the song of victory is sung in heaven, but little wonder the cry goes out, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea.”

The leader of the victorious army in this heavenly conflict is Michael the archangel. Michael is the commander of the heavenly host and this is the time referred to in Daniel 12:1. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Michael is Israel’s guardian angel. Here he stands up to fight in their interest, for the time of their restoration has come and this war is the initial action.

The dawn of Israel’s restitution is at hand, but before the sun of salvation rises for them, they must pass through the darkest night. Satan, cast down and confined to earth, is filled with rage and begins to persecute “the woman which brought forth the man child.” This woman is the nation Israel, and here we have the last great Anti-Semitic movement as Satan endeavors to blot that nation from the face of the earth. He knows what most preachers do not know, that all of God’s purposes for the earth are to be worked out through Israel. He knows his time is short, his doom is sure, but still will do all within his power to defeat the plan and program of God. This will indeed be the time of Israel’s trouble, but they will be saved out of it. God will provide a way of escape. “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:14). When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He brought them into the wilderness where He sustained them for forty years. Here He again brings His people into a wilderness where He will providentially care for them for three and a half years. This will be the time when Israel, the unfaithful wife, will be restored and remarried to Jehovah, even as the prophet wrote: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her … And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi (i.e. my husband)” (Hosea 2:14,16). This flight into the wilderness is from Jerusalem and Judea and was foretold by the Lord in Matthew 24:15-21. These are the Jews in the land, most of whom have come to know Jesus as the Messiah through the testimony of the two witnesses. They are the remnant so often referred to, the embryo of the new Israel destined to govern the world. God will hide them till His indignation is past. He will say to them: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” (Isaiah 26:20).

Satan will not let them escape without doing all in his power to stop them; hence we read: “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood” (Revelation 12:15). What is this flood? Isaiah wrote: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (59:19). The flood is perhaps the armies that are yet to encompass Jerusalem, and the Lord will indeed raise up a standard against them, for we read: “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth” (Revelation 12:16). Just as the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, so it may be these pursuing armies will be swallowed up. Dr. Seiss writes: “It is the region and time of miracle when this drinking up of the river which the dragon sends against the woman occurs. It is the region and time when there is to be a renewal of wonders, `like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.’ It is the region and time of great earthquakes and disturbances in the economy of nature. And there is reason to think that it is by some great and sudden rending of the earth that these pursuing hosts are arrested in their course, if not en masse buried up in the convulsion.”

As we write, a newspaper item has just come to our attention. A Muslim cleric, speaking at a mosque in the Gaza strip, told the worshippers: “God does not expect you to liberate Palestine yourself. It will take time. But do not despair. Victory will finally be yours. The Koran says that before the Muslims can triumph, all the Jews must be gathered in Palestine. This so-called `peace’ will encourage many of them to come here now. And when they do, the Muslims around the world will finally assemble, and crush the Israeli state.” This could well be part of the predicted flood of Israel’s enemies which is to be obliterated, while the woman escapes, and then comes the ensuing worldwide persecution of Jewry.

Having been foiled in his attempt to exterminate the Jews in the land, Satan now vents his wrath on those who are scattered among all nations. While the bulk of the nation is safe and nourished, there will be others, a faithful remnant, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. These are the 144,000 and the multitudes saved through their witness. They will be the object of Satan’s attack and most will suffer martyrdom because of their refusal to take the mark of the Beast and to worship his image. However, God will reward them, for they are those who have part in the first resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20:4,6. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years…. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Much more could be written about Satan’s continued warfare against God and His people, about his stay in the bottomless pit and the reason he is released for a season, and then his final end in hell. These things will be touched upon in following chapters. Many earth-shaking events are yet to take place and Satan will continue for a while with his devilish work, but victory is assured for our God and His Christ, and we know that everything is coming out all right in the end. We know, because we have read the last chapter.

of evil men and it will be no different in the end-time. In fact, the saints will then be suffering even more. In Revelation 6:10 those who are martyred are crying out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” But though it is at the hands of ungodly men that God’s people are opposed and oppressed, we need to remember that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Behind the mere human is the real enemy, even Satan. He has always been active but will be most active during the time of Jacob’s trouble, for then it will be a last ditch effort on his part to exalt himself, to destroy the favored race, and to thwart God’s purposes for the earth. Then he will be going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Today he masquerades as an angel of light, and his ministers as ministers of righteousness.

There are those who do not believe in the personality of Satan. They deny that Satan is a person, and say that this supposed person is just an evil principle. All the references to Satan in the Bible certainly treat him as an individual, a person, and this is true both in the temptation of Christ and also in Christ’s statements concerning him. In Ephesians 6:11 we are told to put on the whole armour of God so that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and inII Corinthians 2:11 we are instructed not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices, lest he should get an advantage of us. He is indeed wily and tricky and has many devices to snare the unwary. It would suit his purpose well, and is perhaps part of his strategy, to have people either ignore him or to deny his existence. The Scriptures do portray him as a powerful foe, but greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.

The question is often asked as to why God created the devil. The answer is that God did not create the devil. God created Lucifer, son of the morning, and he was without sin when created, but when he sinned and fell he became the devil. Ezekiel 28:15 reads: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” When created he was among the most beautiful and wise of all God’s creatures. This contributed to his pride and to his resultant sin and downfall. “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by means of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee” (vs. 17). It has been said he was God’s prophet, priest, and king. As prophet he spoke for God to the universe, as priest he brought the worship of the universe to God, and as king he ruled for God. The statement “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth” (vs. 14) could well be translated “Thou art the cherub, anointed to govern.” It would appear that he was given sovereignty over the original earth. We read: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God” (vs. 13). This was not the Eden of Adam’s time, but the heavens and earth of Genesis 1:1, a veritable paradise.

In Luke 10:18 Christ said: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” He was here speaking both historically and prophetically. In tracing the trail of the serpent from the “stones of fire” (Ezekiel 28:14) to the “lake of fire” (Revelation 20:10) it is a downward path. The fall of Satan is fourfold. First, he was cast out of the third heaven into the spatial or atmospheric heavens. Next, he will be cast down to earth. Then he will be cast into the pit of the abyss for a thousand years, and finally cast into the lake of fire. The record of his original fall is found in Isaiah 14:12-15. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

We note from this Scripture that the first sin was not committed on earth but in heaven. In spite of the lofty position occupied by Lucifer, the day-star, he was not satisfied. He was filled with pride and a desire to exalt self. The worship and praise directed to God he coveted for himself, and set about to make this so. He not only wanted to be equal with God, but to excel God. Five times in the passage above he said “I will.” But God said, “You will not.” Instead of being lifted up he was cast down, with hell his eventual end. In his rebellion many of the angels sided with him, perhaps a third of the heavenly host (Revelation 12:4), and as prince of the power of the air these are still under his control. Some think these fallen angels are the demons, while Pember and others believe the latter to be the disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamite race, to which we incline. With Satan’s rebellion and fall we have the beginning of what has been termed the Conflict of the Ages. This warfare has been going on ever since, with Satan opposing God and seeking to defeat His plans and purposes. Here we might ask another question: Why has God allowed Satan to carry on his devilish work for so long? It is true, of course, that what may seem a long time to us may be only an instant to God. However, this is one of those questions to which we will not have the answer until we get to our heavenly home.

And now as to Satan’s role and activity in the end-time. There have always been wars on earth, and Satan is most often responsible for them, but in Revelation 12 we read of war in heaven. Before looking at this in detail it will help to consider II Thessalonians 2:6-8. “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” According to these verses someone must be removed before Antichrist is revealed. Much has been written and debated as to who or what is the restrainer in this passage. Some say it is the Church, while most fundamentalists think it is the Holy Spirit, whom they say will go up with the Church at the Rapture. Perhaps the confusion is due to the usage of the coined word “restrainer,” which is a misnomer. Wickedness is not being restrained. The world is ripening for judgment, the leaven is at work, but the cup of iniquity for the Gentiles has not yet come to the full. God has not yet brought an end to this day of grace because the world is not yet bad enough.

The Thessalonian believers were being persecuted and suffering to such an extent that some were teaching that the Day of the Lord had already set in. Paul writes to correct that idea. He says that day cannot come until first the Apostasy and then the Antichrist. The sin of man will culminate in the man of sin. Before that day of judgment and wrath begins, and before Antichrist is revealed, there is one who is holding on to something that is not rightfully his, and this one must first be removed. The words “withholdeth” and “letteth” are the same Greek word katecho, which more accurately means to retain rather than to restrain. It means to seize on, to hold fast, to possess. The same word is used in I Thessalonians 5:21 where we are told to “hold fast that which is good.” Many other references could also be given. Who is holding on to what? The answer is that Satan is holding fast to his entrenched position in the heavenlies “until he be taken out of the way.” This will take place following the Rapture. After the Church has gone up Satan will come down, and this brings us to the war in heaven described in Revelation 12.

At Christ’s first advent the message was “peace on earth” and now as His second advent nears it is “war in heaven.” We read: “And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9). Many are surprised to learn that Satan has a place in the heavens. They think the devil is already in hell. The evangelist of a former day, Billy Sunday, used to kneel on the edge of the platform and carry on an imaginary conversation with the devil in hell, blaming him for all the trouble he had caused. No, the devil is not yet in hell; that will be his final end. He and his followers are at present in the spacial heavens, where he is prince of the power of the air, and he himself is forced to come periodically, as a creature, to give an account to God. In the Scripture quoted we see, in this bloodless conflict, the usurper and squatter expelled from the heavens and cast down to earth. This expulsion from heaven takes place in the middle of the seventieth week and Satan comes down filled with wrath as he knows his time is short. His time is the next three and a half years, and this is the period referred to by the Lord as the Great Tribulation. At his casting down, the song of victory is sung in heaven, but little wonder the cry goes out, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea.”

The leader of the victorious army in this heavenly conflict is Michael the archangel. Michael is the commander of the heavenly host and this is the time referred to in Daniel 12:1. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Michael is Israel’s guardian angel. Here he stands up to fight in their interest, for the time of their restoration has come and this war is the initial action.

The dawn of Israel’s restitution is at hand, but before the sun of salvation rises for them, they must pass through the darkest night. Satan, cast down and confined to earth, is filled with rage and begins to persecute “the woman which brought forth the man child.” This woman is the nation Israel, and here we have the last great Anti-Semitic movement as Satan endeavors to blot that nation from the face of the earth. He knows what most preachers do not know, that all of God’s purposes for the earth are to be worked out through Israel. He knows his time is short, his doom is sure, but still will do all within his power to defeat the plan and program of God. This will indeed be the time of Israel’s trouble, but they will be saved out of it. God will provide a way of escape. “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:14). When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He brought them into the wilderness where He sustained them for forty years. Here He again brings His people into a wilderness where He will providentially care for them for three and a half years. This will be the time when Israel, the unfaithful wife, will be restored and remarried to Jehovah, even as the prophet wrote: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her … And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi (i.e. my husband)” (Hosea 2:14,16). This flight into the wilderness is from Jerusalem and Judea and was foretold by the Lord in Matthew 24:15-21. These are the Jews in the land, most of whom have come to know Jesus as the Messiah through the testimony of the two witnesses. They are the remnant so often referred to, the embryo of the new Israel destined to govern the world. God will hide them till His indignation is past. He will say to them: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast” (Isaiah 26:20).

Satan will not let them escape without doing all in his power to stop them; hence we read: “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood” (Revelation 12:15). What is this flood? Isaiah wrote: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (59:19). The flood is perhaps the armies that are yet to encompass Jerusalem, and the Lord will indeed raise up a standard against them, for we read: “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth” (Revelation 12:16). Just as the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, so it may be these pursuing armies will be swallowed up. Dr. Seiss writes: “It is the region and time of miracle when this drinking up of the river which the dragon sends against the woman occurs. It is the region and time when there is to be a renewal of wonders, `like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.’ It is the region and time of great earthquakes and disturbances in the economy of nature. And there is reason to think that it is by some great and sudden rending of the earth that these pursuing hosts are arrested in their course, if not en masse buried up in the convulsion.”

As we write, a newspaper item has just come to our attention. A Muslim cleric, speaking at a mosque in the Gaza strip, told the worshippers: “God does not expect you to liberate Palestine yourself. It will take time. But do not despair. Victory will finally be yours. The Koran says that before the Muslims can triumph, all the Jews must be gathered in Palestine. This so-called `peace’ will encourage many of them to come here now. And when they do, the Muslims around the world will finally assemble, and crush the Israeli state.” This could well be part of the predicted flood of Israel’s enemies which is to be obliterated, while the woman escapes, and then comes the ensuing worldwide persecution of Jewry.

Having been foiled in his attempt to exterminate the Jews in the land, Satan now vents his wrath on those who are scattered among all nations. While the bulk of the nation is safe and nourished, there will be others, a faithful remnant, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. These are the 144,000 and the multitudes saved through their witness. They will be the object of Satan’s attack and most will suffer martyrdom because of their refusal to take the mark of the Beast and to worship his image. However, God will reward them, for they are those who have part in the first resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20:4,6. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years…. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Much more could be written about Satan’s continued warfare against God and His people, about his stay in the bottomless pit and the reason he is released for a season, and then his final end in hell. These things will be touched upon in following chapters. Many earth-shaking events are yet to take place and Satan will continue for a while with his devilish work, but victory is assured for our God and His Christ, and we know that everything is coming out all right in the end. We know, because we have read the last chapter.