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Friday, May 25, 2018

Satan Will Be Cast Down - Part 1

I was watching Dan Goodwin, author of "The Mystery of the Jubilee," on Prophecy in the News and as part of the discussion on the concept of time, he went to Revelation 12 and Satan being cast to the Earth.

"Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child."
-Rev 12:13 (NKJV)

The traditional "pre-trib" position (held by Dan Goodwin) postulates that this is a vision of the past and not the future. It wasn't the focus of the discussion, but I think it's something we need to dig into.

They teach this as Satan being cast from heaven to the Earth (specifically to the Garden of Eden).

The immediate context of Rev 12:13 seems to point to Satan pursuing Mary and the Christ child (since he is now on the Earth). We can see this in the verse quoted above and by the reference of fleeing into the wilderness (Mary taking the Lord to Egypt, etc.).

But if we continue to look at the passage, it become clear that the woman is Israel (not Mary, although she is a picture of Israel) and it refers to her children (plural); specifically, believing Jews during the Tribulation

"And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
-Rev 12:17

This is clearly future. These are the believing Jews who have responded to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists (Rev 7) that we looked at in a previous study.

We also see the time code which belongs to the future of Israel (3.5 years, the last half of the Tribulation / Daniel's 70th week) :

"she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent"-Rev 12:14b

Daniel speaks of Israel (Daniel's people) in the hands of the Antichrist:

"Then the [holy ones] shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time."-Dan 7:25b (cp. Dan 12:7) 

"Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come..."-Dan 10:14

We know from Job that Satan (and other fallen angels) are in the heavens.

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them."
-Job 1:6; 2:1

We now look at what Paul said about the powers of evil in the age in which we live:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
-Eph 6:12

We recently looked at the "heaven places" and we saw that this is where The Body has its blessings and its hope. We do not look for an earthly inheritance as Israel does. Israel wrestled against flesh and blood in the promised land, we fight a spiritual war (there are different hopes for different people in different ages).

But in regard to the topic at hand, we see that the "rulers of darkness" are in heavenly places. They will be cast out in the coming age, and that is what we see in Rev 12:13

Satan is called “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4) and “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11) and "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph 2:2). He walks about looking for those he might devour (1 Pet 5:8). His realm currently is the earth, the sky and in heavenly places.

Satan has not yet been cast out of the heavenly places. This is a future event as I currently understand it. When Satan first rebelled, it could very well be that he was cast to an earth in chaos, but the casting down in Rev 12 is a final act, not a past act.