A Publication of Churches Under Christ Ministry
If you miss one part of the puzzle that is being put together in these studies, you will never see and understand the whole picture.
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Jerald Finney
Copyright © December 30, 2017
The language in Ezekiel 28.1-19 goes beyond the king of Tyre to Satan, once Lucifer, inspirer and unseen ruler of all such pomp and pride as that of Tyre.[i] In Ezekiel 28, the vision is not of Satan in his own person, but of Satan fulfilling himself in and through an earthly king who arrogates to himself divine honors so that the Prince of Tyrus foreshadows the combining of all national governments with the religion of Satan (establishments which combine Satan’s tactics and goals through combinations of church (religion) and state); and the beast system which will be established in the end times (Da. 7.9; Re. 19.20).
The order of world events is:
- The continuous working of the mystery of lawlessness under divine restraint which had already begun in the apostle’s time and will continue until the last days (v. 7). Satan, the devil, goes about on this earth, “as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pe. 5.8).
- The apostasy of the professing church ( 2 Th. 1:3; 18:8; 2 Ti. 3:1-8).
- the removal of that which restrains the mystery of lawlessness (vs. 6-7). The restrainer is a person–“he,” and since a “mystery”[ii] always implies a supernatural element. this Person can be none other than the Holy Spirit in the church, to be “taken out of the way” (v. 7).
- The manifestation of the lawless one (vs. 8-10; 7:8; 9:27; Mt. 24:15; Re. 13:2-10).
- The coming of Christ in glory and the destruction of the lawless one (v. 8; 19:11-21).
- The day of Jehovah (vs. 9-12; 2:12).
See 2 Thessalonians 2:3-11[iii].
The beast will establish the final and ultimate ecclesiastical and governmental tyranny described in Daniel 7.9, 11 and Revelation 13. To the beast Satan will give the power which he offered to Christ (Mt. 4.8, 9; Re. 13.4).
All but the remnant will worship the dragon (Satan) which gave power unto and the beast; and they will worship the beast. The beast will continue forty-two months. During that time, he will speak great things and blasphemies against God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. He will be given power to make war with the saints and to overthrow them. Everyone “whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” will worship him. (Re. 13.3-9).
The false prophet in Revelation 13.11-18, antichrist, with “all the power of the first beast before him,” will cause “the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast….” He will deceive those on the earth by miracles. He will tell those on the earth to make an image to the beast. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (vs. 16-17).
Political Babylon will destroy ecclesiastical Babylon, which is apostate Christendom, headed up under the Papacy (Re. 18). Finally, “the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies” will gather “together to make war” against Christ and his army. “And the beast [will be] taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both [will be] cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Re. 19.20). Christ will cast that old serpent, Satan, “into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled” (Re. 20.2-3). Finally, after Christ’s millennial reign, Satan will be loosed for a little season to go out and deceive the nations and gather them to battle (Re. 20.3, 7-9). Fire will come “down from God out of heaven and devour them.” Satan will then be “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Re. 20.9-10).
For our purposes in this study, keep in mind that the spirit of antichrist is working within the world today, against individuals, families, churches and civil governments (nations). Never forget that Satan is the God of this world.[iv] When a church, for example, combines the things of Satan, the temporal and earthly, with the spiritual, eternal, and heavenly that church has combined the things of Satan with the things of God thereby polluting the body of Christ and starting down the road to apostasy.
Dear believers, please continue studying these lessons as they put in place all the pieces of a puzzle, a complete picture of God’s desired relationship of church and state and Satan’s counterfeit of that relationship.
Sermon series on Satan by Pastor Jason Cooley of Old Paths Baptist Church:
Satan Your Enemy – 14 Sermons
Satanic Roots of Evolution – 5 Sermons
Satanic Roots of Rock Music – 4 Sermons
Satan’s Gospel – 2 Sermons
Endnotes
[i] Other instances of God indirectly addressing Satan are seen in Ge. 3.14, 15 and Mt. 16.23.
[ii] A “mystery” in Scripture is a previously hidden truth, now divinely revealed; but in which a supernatural element still remains despite the revelation.
[iii] “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 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: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”
[iv] The Bible makes clear that Satan is the god of this present world, the prince of this world:
- John 12.31: [[Jesus said] ‘Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
- John 14.30 “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
- John 18.36: “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
- Ephesians 2.2: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
- Ephesians 4.3 goes on to say, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
- Ephesians 6.12: “For 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.”
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