The Beginning

of

The End of All Things

Part 7

#186.06

And There Was War In Heaven
(Continued)

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels..." Revelation 12:7.

Satan is usually viewed as having to do with sins of the flesh; such as drunkenness, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, rape, murder, etc. This, however, is not a true picture of this adversary. When the scriptures speak of Satan, the devil, or the serpent -- it almost always has to do with spiritual matters. Satan has to do with religion which severs the bond between God and His people. And if that bond can be severed, the adversary gains power, and as long as bond remains broken, victory over the people remains.

I realize that even in light of what the scriptures say, or don't say, such a thought is inconceivable to some; for there is a certain type of devil they have always believed to exist, and they are not quite ready to let him go. For some, it would be easier to re-channel the Mississippi River than to re-route their deep-furrowed mind-sets. It would take an earthquake on the magnitude of Missouri's 1811 New Madrid Earthquake that did change the course of the river. Perhaps, those beliefs that are so firmly set will, indeed, someday know such earthquakes.

Notwithstanding, rather than those age-old images being real, this enemy goes about as a roaring lion devouring anyone he can. This is done by clothing himself with sheep's clothing. With such a non threatening appearance, they are easily drawn into his lair. Once this is done, they are made two-fold more the children of hell than himself. Although the pretense is to bring the people closer to God, everything about the imposter steers people away from Him. This enemy is steadily deceiving them by replacing a living relationship in Christ Jesus with legalisms, rituals, programs, and unprofitable works. To put it plainly -- they are eating poison fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This crafty creature is a master at deception, and if deceit doesn't break our union with God, accusations will be the next line of attack. These two methods come from within and without. Our own religious devil will deceive or accuse us from within our own minds, and the religious devil in the world's church system will deceive and accuse us outwardly. One form of accusing is to continually preach against our sin and shortcomings. This will cause self-condemnation, and when we condemn ourselves, there will be no need for anyone else to do so; for the accuser has succeeded in one of his missions.

Accusations will always come when it is seen that we are drawing close to God; for this poses a real threat to the leaders' church structure, their power over the people, and the system's financial wealth. We will be accused of scriptural error, heresy, blasphemy, or worse. They make it clear that if we are not joined to them, we are forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, we will lose our covering, and there is no way to know the truth without their covering. We will sink deeper and deeper into Satan's pit of deception, so they say, until there will be no hope left for us. The caldron of eternal damnation will be our lamenting portion if we do not boot-step to their religious gait.

Such accusations cannot be avoided when we ascend into heaven. The serpent of our own religious minds will be there, as well as that of the world's church system. They both will step forward and accuse us continually before God. Sadly, we very often believe them. It is easy to believe we just don't quite measure up when we are faced with such damning evidence, or when there is so much more we can do to please God, or a thousand other things to cause self-condemnation.

And please note, these accusations, whether they are coming from within or without, they are not to God, but before God, as Brother Eby brought to our attention last year. You see, this liar has no intentions of convincing the Master of the universe that we are sinners. We are the targets of interest, not God. The religious systems of the world have no intentions of talking to God. They are too busy maintaining power while sitting astride the scarlet colored beast and fornicating with the kings of the earth, Revelation 17:3, 18:3. Moreover, if we can be convinced that we are guilty of sin and condemnation -- we will condemn ourselves. When that happens, we abdicate the throne and lose the war in heaven. We are then cast to the earth of human reasoning along with the rest of the third part of the stars of heaven. There are those, however, who draw so very near to God. They are free from that evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22) that comes from indoctrination, culture, and/or accusations. They do not believe those lies, and by not believing them, they will not damn themselves by them. The accusations become impotent, powerless, lies of no impact.

They are the ones who not only are caught up to God and His throne by the Spirit of Revelation, they "...are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Revelation 7:14-15. They are they of whom John spoke after the war was won: "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." Revelation 12:10.

Although most Christians are familiar with those scriptures about the accuser, they do not know that the accusations are coming from within, and outwardly by religious people. When they feel condemnation, they believe it is coming from God; but it is not. Our Father will certainly guide us with a rod if need be. He will correct us, He will chasten us; for He always chastens those He loves Hebrews 12:5-8; but He never condemns us! Jesus settled that on the cross!

Condemnation comes from the holier than thou religious spirit. That is the thing which accuses and condemns us before God, but not to God. Can you imagine a devil doing everything in his power and wily ways to convince God that we are useless sinners and deserve to be condemned, as if God is considering the words of the liar who has never had a word of truth in him? John 8:44.

I have heard picturesque stories that the devil is something like the chief prosecuting attorney who is in God's great courtroom in heaven. This big, bad, conniving D.A. is trying to get everyone, especially the saints, convicted of terrible sins so he can win their souls from Jesus. Jesus, of course, is the defense attorney for every born-again believer in this farfetched story, and each time the devil accuses a saint of committing a sin, Jesus objects and reminds God, the Judge, that His blood covers that sin. The Judge agrees. The devil goes to the next one his list and shows the act of sin on an instant replay on heaven's movie screen; but again, Jesus calmly objects and says, "Not so, Your Honor. My blood covers that one too." The endless slur of accusations continue with the same result -- not guilty. Not guilty. So goes the dialog from one of the countless fairytales. Beliefs of that sort are absurdities, and those who embrace them are in dire need of New Madrid's 1811 earthquake.

Satan is not bringing charges against us to God, but his charges are being brought directly to us! Of course, charges are also brought against us from the Pharisees of the world's church system. People are continually told from the pulpit that they are sinners and deserve to burn in hell; but by remaining under their protective cover and attending church every Sunday, they may escape eternal damnation by the skin of their teeth. After awhile, they begin to believe it, and are condemned by their evil conscience if they don't keep in step with the threats. It is the same as when a child is told throughout his childhood that he is worthless, and he should have been stuffed in a burlap bag and thrown in the river at birth. It is not long before the boy believes the lie, and, likewise, those in many churches. When they are unscripturally told all their lives that they are sinners saved by grace, they believe it.

It is no mystery that Satan works through the carnal mind. He is the inspiration and power over that earthen field, an that inspiration comes from the heavens. He was not cast from there thousands of years ago, and he will remain in that high place until we cast him down. The realm of spirit is the place of power. The throne in every soul is where he takes over and sets himself up as God. He is in the holy place declaring himself to be God. And when he sits in that seat of authority, he becomes the object of worship. This is something with which our Lord was tempted, a temptation by which we have been touched as well.

For instance, the devil said to Him, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Matthew 4:9. Let us note that the devil did not tempt Jesus to cavort with high-skirted harlots of ill repute, to hang out at a local bar for a night of unrestrained drinking and revelry, nor to visit one of Jerusalem's pornographic bookstores, had there been such a thing. And it is the same with us. The devil does not tempt us in those ways. When we are tempted, it is neither by the devil nor by God. We are tempted and drawn away by our own lusts and enticed (Grk. trapped), as were are told in James 1:14 . So let us not say, "The devil made me do it." For that is not his department. We don't need help in that area. We do an excellent, bang-up job all by ourselves. There is no end to the depth of darkness to which the fallen carnal mind can descend. It can be evil to the core.

When the hour came for Jesus to leave the wilderness, He was tempted in all points as we were and are tempted; but unlike us, He did not give Himself to it Hebrews 4:15. We had all sinned and came short of the glory of God by our religious deeds of the law Romans 3:19-23. We bowed to the religious order of that world. Jesus was also tempted as He passed ⁽¹⁾ through those heavens (Heb. 4:14), the habitat of spiritual temptations. These temptations pertained to the lust of the eye (not lust for beautiful women or another man), lust of the flesh (not sexual lust or the lust for avarice living), and the pride of life (the lust for power and authority). And all He had to do to gain these things, so it seemed, was to worship the devil, that is, to submit to those spiritual temptations of His Sonship -- "If thou art the Son of God -- prove it!" Prior to this, He always did what He saw His Father do; but He is now a mature Son of God who should have authority of His own, and all He had to do was to start walking in that rightfully owned office of being God's Son. He heard clearly that He would have all those things if He only did what the lying tempter had asked of Him. "Eat of this fruit. Ye shall not surely die; for in eating you shall be as God. You can proudly cast yourself off the pinnacle and prove to the world your sonship." That, brethren, was a spiritual temptation, not of fleshly implications by any stretch of the imagination.

Have we ever been tempted to prove our sonship, or at least, have we wanted the opportunity to prove it with the assurance that our words would raise the dead? If so, then we too have passed through those same heavens where religion is at home. Some of us may have not bowed as low as others to that beautiful angel of the religious order. We may not have given ourselves as much to deeds of the law; but we all have sinned and came short of the glory of God at one time or another. Notwithstanding, many of us overcame and won the war. Many others, however, succumbed to the luring call of godhood, not so much as hoping to raise the dead with a single word and an arm-waving gesture. This godhood, manhood, womanhood, or independence has been the giving of oneself to the great whore of Revelation 17:1. The wanton songs of the Sirens, as it were, have been irresistible to them, and by being seduced, their understanding has been darkened. With their hearts being bent in that direction, they not only fell from heaven, they are thoroughly enjoying their captivity in Babylon.

Jesus passed through those heavens during His most vulnerable time of temptation. This was a time of His greatest weakness. He had just walked through the valley of the shadow of death. It was a time when He could truly use a little bread and a comforting word of assurance. It was a time to be ministered to. He had been in the wilderness long enough, and the hour had come to consider proving His Sonship! At the height of this crucial time, something came to Him, in His perception, in a "revelation," and it appeared as an angel of light. This "angel" exercised excellent reasoning. He was an accomplished student of the word of God! Nothing that was said appeared to be evil. Everything was surely for His good, as well as for the good of the world, especially with Him being the king over it all. Nothing seemed amiss. What harm could there be by submitting to such good, sound reasoning, and particularly when it was founded on the word of God?

There is no way of knowing all the thoughts and words Jesus heard in His mind; but we can be assured, for Him to be tempted, they had to have sounded very good, very wise, very logical, and very truthful. And I am sure they did! For was it not "the word of God" that He heard? In order to have all those higher things for which every soul lusts, all Jesus had to do was to submit to the beautiful angel of light who was quoting straight from the scriptures.

You see, when someone or something is transformed into an angel of light, it is then that they are more likely to be worshiped. This was the devil that confronted Jesus . He was not the impish wraith the church system teaches. Angels of light (actors, hypocrites) find grounds for worship in the realm of religion. This is the abode of lies, the throne for the god of the world, the place from where deceit is born and transformed into blinding light. This god appears as fire, and in doing so, he devours the souls of untold millions. This is the god that transforms himself into a shining angel of light, and known as -- the adversary (Satan), the traducer (the devil), and the fabulous serpent (the great red dragon). Moreover, as long as people listen to and give themselves to that god, they will remain blind.

There is another description given of the devil, a roaring lion, and it has to do with religion as well. Ezekiel wrote this for the record: "And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, "Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean...." Ezekiel 22:23-26. And Peter recognized the same lion -- the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Priests -- devouring souls in his day. He said to "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" 1 Peter 5:8.

Peter was not warning the people to be on guard against a devil who could drag them into the vices of the world. It was the ravening lions of Israel who were the threat. The danger was the soul-devouring Priests and Pharisees, the religious leaders. The devouring lion was the ecclesiastical order of that day which crucified Jesus. They were the princes of this world order. This was the devil who Peter said to be sober and vigilant against. He was not telling the Christians to be sober by not drinking wine, but to be sensible minded and not be dragged back into the den of the Jew's religion. In essence, he was telling them not to be fooled by the clean outer appearance of their pots; but to know, as Jesus had said before, the insides were unclean. And nothing has changed. It is an ongoing drama. As long as man puts his hand to God's holy things, scriptures such as we noted above never become outdated. They are always in season.

The devil devoured a lion's share of the new religion's converts; but it could not devour the anointed Author of it. They could not make Him walk in line as a good law-abiding Jew, so they devoured His body by hanging him on the cross. This same lion was spoken of in a prophetic song by the chief musician: "Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They ⁽²⁾gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels." Psalm 22:12-14.

The world's religious order of today is no different than it was in the days of Samaria when they were eating their own babies. The roaring lion was devouring its own then, and it is still devouring them. Samaria was type of what we see in the spirit of things today.

(Incidentally, throughout the Old Testament, Israel was called Samaria when the people were in rebellion and worshiping idols. Therefore, the church of this age can very well be called Samaria, and especially since there are so many similarities between the old and the new.)

As it was in those days, as the result of a famine of hearing the word of the Lord, the diet of the world's church system has deteriorated to ⁽³⁾ asses' heads, doves' dung, and babies 2 Kings 6:28-29. Some are so starved for flesh that they resort to almost anything: "...Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him..." 2 Kings 6:29.

Jesus said, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" John 6:54 (NIV). But rather than eating His flesh, the religious devils eat their newborn converts. They strangle the life from the innocents before they can grow up and mature as a son of God. The lives of those born in today's Samaria are snatched from the breast and snuffed out before it hardly begins. It doesn't take long before they lose their identity in Christ, and all that can be seen of them is another infused Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, etc.. The lions devour their souls, swallowing them, and nothing remains but the image of the host that has eaten them, depending, of course, on the religious organization of the lion.

Can there be anything more desperate or deplorable than a person cannibalizing their baby to save their own miserable existence? Yet it is seen in abundance in today's Samaria. The same lioness of history rises once again to eat. With the voracious appetite and dark condition of that spirit, no true light is perceived at all in her lair; and without the flesh and blood of Jesus to sustain the beast, it fulfills the words of scripture by progressively eating not only her babies -- but more:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses....ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." Matthew 23:14-15 . "For ye suffer, if a man brings you into bondage, if a man devour you..." 2 Cor. 11:20. "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." (Gal. 5:15).

The prophets, priests, elders and other leaders of the religious systems of this age are called various things in the Bible to depict their nature. To name a few, the bulls of Bashan, a roaring lion, a serpent, vipers, a great red dragon, and also the tail. "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." Revelation 12:4. Whether a roaring lion, a red dragon, or its tail -- it is the same religious spirit that will attempt to devour the saints of God. The only difference is that the lion devours those before they mature and ascend to God and His throne. There is no warfare when the lion devours. It just devours the souls by pulling them into religious captivity, while the dragon goes to war when the Sons of God invade the heavens.

You may have an idea of what the devil is; but I can tell you there is more to it than what Samaria has taught. However, if your devil is not connected to religion, I fear you still do not understand the scriptures in the matter. To be reminded, the father of the Pharisees, as Jesus told them, was the devil, and I don't think He was suggesting they were born from some diabolical conception with their mothers. Their desires, thoughts, attitudes, and works were of the devil. Those were the things where that seed was conceived.

The devil walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, came in the form of men. Both, the devil as a lion and the dragon, seek to devour, for they are one and the same. They are religious liars. Isaiah 9:15 tells us that the prophets who teach lies are the tail. Therefore, the lying prophets (preachers, teachers, etc) are drawing stars from the heavens, while the entire system of religion devours them.

Something so repulsive, however, may not look so bad when thine eye is evil, for thy body also is full of darkness, as Jesus said to the Pharisees; but "The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light." Luke11:34. In Christ there is but one eye, one mind. In Christ there is no darkness. In Christ there is nothing but illumination. In Christ there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. Simply put -- in the single eye of Christ there is Light, Life and Liberty! In Him there is no darkness, no death, no hunger, no humiliation -- and especially, no diet of asses' heads, doves' dung, and babies! Praise God for the banqueting table of our Lord Jesus Christ! With that single eye we have pure communion! We eat of His rich, indissoluble life of the ages!

Brethren, the word of deliverance has been proclaimed to those held captive in Samaria, and the gate-keepers have denied it and mocked those who prophesied it. However, we can be assured, when the Lepers of Samaria (the Sons of God), stand at her gates with the riches of the Kingdom in their hands -- there will be deliverance. Every false apostle, prophet, preacher, pastor, and teacher will be trampled by the great exodus. The watchmen who walk the imprisoning walls of that city shall see the riches of the Kingdom -- but they will not partake of it! So says the word of prophecy!

Elwin R. Roach

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1. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." Hebrews 4:14. (passed into: Grk. diechomai, to traverse. [combination of dia (through) and erchomai (to go) i.e. go through ].

2. gaped (Heb. patsah; to rend, to tear)

3. "Diet of Asses' Heads, Doves' Dung, and Babies" free upon request.