The scripture reveals to us that Michael and his angels will prevail against Satan and his angels and that they will finally be cast out of heaven. Someone will say, but I thought that Jesus said that He already saw Satan cast out of heaven like lightning (Luke 10:18). Scripture reveals to us that there is more than one heaven, for the apostle Paul mentioned that on one occasion that the Lord had taken him up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2). And so the incident that our Lord referred to was the incident when Satan had entered into the heaven where God’s throne is and tried to overthrow Him and it was from that heaven that Satan was cast out like lightning. The angels that fall under Satan’s control have always dwelt in a heavenly realm which is located just above the earth, for the scripture teaches us that Satan’s angels are “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). When Satan was cast out of the heaven where God’s throne is, he was cast to the heavenly realm where he and his angels currently reside. And so, we see that when Michael and his angels prevail against Satan, that Satan and his angels will be cast out of their heavenly realm to the earth. We need to understand the impact that this event will have on the earth, for ever since God created Satan and his angels they have always dwelt in their heavenly realm, and now the reality of their impending eternal judgement will strike home, and they will desperately want to destroy any who are part of God’s kingdom. We see in this passage, that the first people that Satan will try to destroy are the children of Israel. But he will be unsuccessful in that attempt, because as we have already discussed in an earlier section, those saints will flee to the wilderness. And then we see that Satan will go after the rest of the Lord’s saints dwelling on the earth at that time. Obviously, Satan will do all of this through the persons of the Anti-Christ and the false prophet, for in the very next chapter in the book of Revelation, we see the description of both the Anti-Christ and the false prophet being made manifest in the earth (Revelation chapter 13). And so, we see that the event of Satan and his angels being cast to the earth will be the catalyst for the Anti-Christ and the false prophet being made manifest in the earth. That is why the scripture tells us that Satan knows that he has a short time, for he knows that God will only allow the Anti-Christ to rule for forty-two months.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments