And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
There was a real open war in heaven between Michael, who is Christ Himself with His loyal angels, and the dragon, who is Satan with his deceived followers. It arose because Lucifer, once highest next to Christ, sought supremacy and equality with God and rejected the authority of His law and government out of pride, envy, jealousy and self-exaltation. God bore long in forbearance to unmask the deceiver, then the loyal prevailed and Satan with all sympathizers was defeated and cast out of heaven to this earth, which became the sole theater of the struggle. That same conflict begun in heaven continues on earth, where every person must choose under which banner to stand, Christ's banner of obedience or Satan's banner of rebellion.
Combatants and Setting
Michael is Christ Himself, Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, the Word, one with the eternal Father in nature, character and purpose, associate and co-worker with God from everlasting, the Prince and Commander of heaven, heaven's Prince, the Son of God endowed with unlimited power and command. With His loyal angels He fought the dragon and prevailed, overcoming and vanquishing the rebels after a long, severe course of deception and satanic wiles carried on day by day until it could be tolerated no more. The war arose because Satan rebelled against the authority of the Son, insinuated against God's government, was ambitious to exalt himself, refused to submit to Jesus, and opposed God's law by claiming angels needed no law and should follow their own will. Every soul liable to act on Satan's side was expelled for the safety of the loyal angels, the rebels sought to remain but were defeated and driven out, and heaven was again peaceful and harmonious.
The dragon is Satan, the devil, Lucifer, son of the morning, the great rebel and apostate, the adversary, prince of darkness, Beelzebub, old serpent, deceiver, liar, prince of the powers of the air, and god of this world. He is the chief tempter who rebelled in the heavenly courts, the originator of sin, the first great apostate who led the heavenly family into disobedience and transgression of God's law, swerving from allegiance to the Lord God the only Potentate with associate rebellious angels. Having dissolved relationship with the universe and with the Son of God in particular, he became altogether selfish, ceasing to be a universal good and becoming a universal evil, stimulated with hatred against God's holy law, seeking to conform all things to his image, to efface the Divine image from the world and stamp his own hateful, apostate image on the human soul. In a secondary sense the dragon also represents pagan Rome, whose prevailing religion was paganism, as Satan's chief agent in seeking to destroy Christ at His birth by moving Herod to kill Him and in making war on Christ and His people during the first centuries of the Christian era.
There was a real, open war in heaven between two marshaled parties, God and Christ with loyal angels on one side against Satan with his followers on the other, with companies of angels marshaled under leading and commanding angels. It began by Lucifer, once the highest, most exalted angel, the covering cherub with unquestionable experience and the confidence of all, whose sin originated among holy beings through hidden jealousy, envy and evil surmising, secret work putting ideas into minds and reporting dissatisfaction as coming from others until underhanded work came to the surface. After long secret rebellion he declared he would defend his place by force, opposed God's law and the authority of Christ, heaven's commander, sought to reform God's government and search out unsearchable wisdom for exalting Jesus, and after all angels were summoned before the Father for decision the division was manifested to all as each angel chose a side. That division continues as only two parties, two banners and two leaders for all people on earth, those who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ bearing the sign of obedience spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18, and those who stand under the black banner of rebellion in transgression of God's law.
The evil angels were created sinless and equal in nature, power and glory to the holy angels as moral agents, but fell through sin, joined Satan's rebellion, and were cast out of heaven with him. A large number were deceived and sided with Satan, described as nearly half siding with him when organized into companies, and as a third part turning from the Father and the Son to join him. They were not destroyed and did not lose their powers, knowledge and intelligence, but united in an organized confederacy with different orders, intelligence and subtlety under his leadership, intent on dishonoring God, harming humanity and working against divine authority. Since then they have worked with him on this earth working unseen, where he still leads the forces of rebellion.
The verse belongs to the prophecies in Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled now as the last message of warning that all are to hear, with the dragon as instigator of the great rebellion against heaven. It was a terrible war that Jesus Himself passed through and watched unfold from the beginning of the history of sin, when sin's evil power bewitched heavenly angels until they sympathized and joined, and with that expulsion all consequences of sin stood open before His vision. Michael stands as the first great Conqueror who defeated Satan the leader in rebellion and now stands at the head of the closing work of the third angel's message, as Conqueror standing over Satan to limit his power while rebellion continues until that work closes. Satan can go no farther than He permits, being allowed power for a time to reveal the truehearted, to prove the faithful, and to develop the spurious and separate them from the pure in heart, testing the faithful and exposing rebels until in due time rebels are purged out from among the loyal and true.
Lucifer Before Rebellion
Revelation 12:7 looks back to Lucifer when he stood next to Christ as the highest of the covering cherubs, the light-bearer and son of the morning, next in honor, rank, power and responsibility. He was the most exalted, beautiful and influential of the angels, enriched with intellect, strength and glory, bearing a special bright light with noble bearing and charm. He led the heavenly choir and raised the first note of praise, loved and trusted by all because his former experience was unquestionable and he held the confidence of the host. In that exalted place he coveted the homage due alone to the Creator and the honor belonging to the Son, wanting equality with God and God's throne and authority independent of God, with prerogatives no created being could receive. His determination to take a position above Christ, when he could not obtain what he coveted, led to the war in which Michael and His angels fought against the dragon and his angels until the rebels prevailed not and their place was found no more in heaven.
He held high office with a radiant, kingly throne and asked to be made prince to govern the world then in prospect, and this was not granted him. Jesus Christ under God was appointed to rule the earthly kingdom and take the world with all its probabilities, with the law of heaven as the standard law for human intelligences in the new world. He was the covering cherub receiving the highest gifts and greatest talents that could be bestowed on a created being, a glorious being occupying a position next to Christ in the heavenly courts. Some angels urged him to abandon his purpose and defended God's wisdom in giving authority and unlimited power to His Son, but he challenged Christ's high command and power, claimed he should be equal with God, and refused to submit to Christ's authority and to the position assigned. He had personal acquaintance with God and knew His character, yet in seeking to be equal with God he brought irretrievable ruin upon himself and was cast out for disobedience.
Before rebellion heaven was in perfect happy unity, with close attachment to God and tender, impartial goodness and love for fellow beings, service as delight and will identical to God's, each angel filling the assigned place. The heavenly current flowed through the universe of God without one cloud of evil, and spotless purity was reflected everywhere as in a mirror, with God over all. Sin arose in beautiful, exalted angels in a way impossible to tell, an inexplainable transaction when Satan became an apostate and abode not in the truth. His fall began with sympathy, and the angels who sympathized with him fell also, for he swerved from his allegiance to the blessed and only Potentate, lost his connection with God and his first love, and broke the allegiance of love by perversion of freedom. Having dissolved relationship with the universe and with the Son of God in particular, he became altogether selfish, ceasing to be a universal good and becoming a universal evil, deceiving subjects who joined him until the disloyal were separated from the loyal and true and expelled from heaven by his own act compelling that separation.
Causes of Rebellion
The war in heaven was rooted in Lucifer's jealousy over Christ's first place next to God. The most beautiful angel next to Christ, he felt his beauty and exalted position entitled him to be next to God instead of second to Christ, to have a place above the only-begotten Son, to be first, pre-eminent, equal with God Himself, like the Most High and ruler of the universe. He insinuated this claim until sympathy spread among the angels and it was brought before God, and he and his party stood strong against Christ when efforts to correct the evil failed. He flattered himself that he would yet win all the angels to his side as their leader and chief commander, with his own voice of authority commanding the entire host of heaven, promising them a new and better government with freedom for all. After refusing to listen to loyal angels and denouncing them as slaves, great numbers signified their purpose to accept him, though they were warned that He who could create angels could overturn all their authority and punish terrible rebellion against a law as sacred as God Himself, and were advised to close their ears to deceptive reasonings and go to God and confess even admitting a thought of questioning His authority. The rebellion was overcome and Lucifer and his party were thrown out, cast out and shut out of heaven, losing place in the heavenly courts and becoming a rebellious party in this world ever since, never becoming saints. After coming to earth he entered eagerly into commercialism with great zeal, and those who reject the light God gives and depart from the faith follow this fallen angel even if they do not realize it, while the same warfare will be repeated on earth through those who receive not the truth and is met only by Christ, the Captain of the Lord's host in heaven, coming to save its inhabitants by meeting satanic agencies. On earth the conflict begun over supremacy continued as he led people to doubt God's word and goodness, portraying God as severe and unforgiving and drawing them into rebellion, and those who knowingly rebel and teach disobedience cannot live in God's presence because they would carry the spirit of rebellion into heaven.
That grasp at supremacy was driven by cherishing self, living for self, selfish desire, self-exaltation and self-pity, with pride, ambition, discontent, dissatisfaction and coveting a place not given. Jealous and envious of the Son of God over His appointed supremacy and equal position with the Father, Lucifer could not have Christ's place and would not obey the government of heaven. His ambition and selfish desire brought ruin and loss to heavenly beings, and the same spirit can lead people into sin and mislead believers if taught to them. He secretly spread discontent, challenged the authority of God's law, misrepresented the Son's equal position, and drew many angels to join him until war arose, yet Christ's position and authority had not changed and the conflict only made necessary a clear statement of the position He had held from the beginning. There was no justifying reason for his envy and jealousy, and people have no need to follow the principles that led to his expulsion with the angels who joined his disaffection. The war arose in the councils of heaven over the creation and government of this world then in prospect, when Lucifer the covering cherub requested to be made prince to govern it and this was not granted, while Jesus Christ under God was appointed to rule the earthly kingdom with the law of heaven as the standard law for human intelligences. Lucifer grew jealous of Christ and his jealousy worked into rebellion carrying a large number of holy angels with him, but Jesus the Son of God was not deceived by his sophistry and stood true to principle resisting every line of reasoning, evidencing that every angel might have stood as He stood. That same war continues on earth where Satan and the powers of darkness strive against God's people to deceive them and lead souls to destruction, while the heavenly host works on their behalf, so God's people must humble their hearts, be reconverted, seek the Lord, carry out principles of heaven in unity and harmony and love, help one another toward eternal life, and press for victory at every step.
The great subject of controversy was God's law and government. Satan rebelled against God's law and the authority of His Son because he wanted to exalt himself and would not submit to the authority of God's Son, heaven's commander, refusing submission, questioning and rejecting its authority. He claimed angels needed no law and no control and should be free to follow their own will, denounced God's statutes as a restriction of liberty, declared God fallible, charged that God had given a law man could not keep, and set his purpose to correct, amend, change, reform, abolish and subvert it so the hosts of heaven could enter a more exalted and glorious existence. The war was a real conflict between the Son of God, heaven's Prince, and His loyal angels on one side and Satan and the angels who joined his rebellion on the other, with the angels organized into companies under commanders as the conflict took shape. God permitted this rather than immediately using His power to expel Satan so each angel could choose a side, character and purposes could be made known, and His justice and judgment would be clear to the heavenly host. The Son of God and the loyal angels prevailed, and Satan with all his sympathizers was defeated and expelled, leaving heaven peaceful, harmonious and harmonious again. To the very end he kept justifying himself, openly showing contempt for the Creator's law when the announcement came that he must be expelled, and in unison he and his host laid blame wholly on Christ saying they would never have rebelled if they had not been reproved, stubborn and defiant in disloyalty while vainly seeking to overthrow God's government and claiming to be innocent victims of oppressive power. Though holding an exalted position as a glorious and powerful archangel, he became dissatisfied because he was not accorded supreme honor, questioned God's purposes and impugned His justice, and bent all his powers to allure angels from allegiance, at first meeting no favor until, urged again and again, his complaints were finally accepted by those who had been loyal and happy subjects. There was not the shadow of justification or excuse for disaffection, but envy and jealousy once cherished gained a power that paralyzed reason and destroyed honor and loyalty, and in that rebellion he showed contempt for God's authority and virtually trampled every precept of His law, becoming the grand prototype of all transgressors. To indulge unbelief, ingratitude, apostasy, defiance of God or enmity against Him is to repeat the course he pursued in heaven, for rebellion against God is directly due to satanic influence and like witchcraft exerts a bewitching, deceptive power almost impossible to break, causing victims to see everything in false light and, like the first parents, to see only the great benefits to be received by transgression.
That law could not be changed because it is a transcript of God's unchangeable character, immutable and eternal, perfect and unalterable Yea and Amen. Satan, next to Christ the most exalted being in the heavenly court, first raised the question of changing God's law and claimed it should be abolished, but God met that first suggestion with a decided No. He charged in heaven that God had given a law man could not keep and sought to change its principles and subvert heaven to his false principles, seeking some flaw to support his argument that it must be changed, but his efforts were in vain and he was not permitted to do so. Michael, who is the Prince of life, Christ, fought against the dragon and overcame the apostate, and the Lord cast Satan out with the angels that had taken sides with him. The outcome proved Satan was not right and proved God has not abolished His law, vindicating every specification of God's character expressed in His holy law. Not the smallest jot or tittle of the law was given over to Satan to manipulate, and if any change had been possible it would have been made then and there to save the rebellion in heaven. Since the law was not altered in one precept, he did not gain on earth after his fall what he could not gain in heaven before his fall, and the law remains with all its binding force upon every human being with eternal destiny decided by obedience or disobedience. Christ who proclaimed the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai will not countermand His statutes, for God is wise and unchangeable, and those who flatter themselves they can find a safer rule of life are deceived by the same delusions that led angels to join Lucifer. He struck directly against the foundation of God's government in heaven and on earth, which is God's holy law, and Jesus and all the heavenly host knew God would not change or abolish it. After rebelling he tried to save himself by wishing God to change His law, but God told him before the whole heavenly host that His law was unalterable. The death of Christ did not destroy His Father's law but magnified and honored it and enforces obedience to all its holy precepts, proving man could not be saved without Christ's death if the law could have been abolished. Satan knows every transgressor of God's law must die, so if he can cause others to violate it he is sure of them, and he therefore opposed God's unalterable law to draw others into disobedience and worked to corrupt the fourth commandment by claiming Christ's resurrection changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first, concealing God's revealed will though faithful people continued to keep all His commandments. To accept his counterfeits on earth, including a false Sabbath in place of the seventh day God specified to be kept holy, would give the exiled rebel on earth what he claimed and failed to gain in heaven. When the law was not altered to meet his request he worked upon the minds of heavenly angels by false representations and crooked ways and brought them into apostasy until he with all sympathizers was turned out and lost his high and holy position, and after his fall he worked in the same line upon Adam and Eve and seduced them from loyalty, and his work has gone on in the same line ever since, deceiving thousands of angels and drawing them to question the authority of God's law and the justice of His government.
He became dissatisfied because God had not revealed all His purposes to him, and he disregarded what God had revealed about the work assigned to him. He began with murmuring and pitying himself because something said or done did not suit him and did not, as he thought, give him due consideration. Distrust had never before entered any heart, but his coveted place he was not given and his cherished thoughts developed into suggestions of evil which spread among the angels and led to the great rebellion. His work was sowing unbelief, discord and disloyalty, entertaining disaffection and not keeping it to himself but telling others he was not treated as he should be, so others were led to murmur and complain as a root of bitterness springing up whereby many are defiled. He stirred the angels under his command to share his discontent, causing their fall and beginning the woe and misery that have afflicted humanity. Those who murmur and pity themselves for the same reasons carry on that very heavenly work and follow in his track, and he still works the same way through his evil angels confederating with men who claim to be in the faith to bring severe trials against those trying to carry forward God's work with fidelity, without partiality, hypocrisy or admiration of persons, with success proportionate to the light and knowledge of these opposers as the deep root of bitterness is communicated in confused and untruthful statements and unscrupulous principles, making them the very helpers he wants. In the face of abundant light and evidence the warnings of the Holy Spirit were disregarded through persistent deception and self-chosen sophistry, leaving no excuse for rebellion, and the same course leads away from truth now when people give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, choosing their own sophistries and letting themselves be used as voices for another's error. He continues to assure his followers that their forces will conquer.
There was no cause in God's government for disaffection, no withdrawal of divine influence, no deficiency or failure. God's decrees are vindicated because they did not cause sin, and the divine decrees will be vindicated as not accessory to sin. Sin began with Satan's own choice and gives humans no excuse to yield to sin, for if an excuse for sin could be found it would not be sin and could not be condemned. Their sin was transgression of the law, which is inexcusable and has no defence or justification, and it will be their final and eternal condemnation, so that when the question comes why they did this every tongue will be silent and the rebellious world will stand speechless before God. Christ stood without stain or spot during that rebellion because He kept all His Father's commandments, though in the form of God He did not grasp at being equal with God, in contrast to Satan who snatched at power in the heavenly courts. Warning was given in heaven in regard to his rebellion not to attempt such an enterprise, but he and his host persisted and were expelled. God bears long and permits the enemy to work out his plans that He may have the final victory, so the universe of heaven and the unfallen worlds can see the goodness of God in contrast with the character of Satan and not be taken unawares, and so the true and loyal can be gathered under one head. The eagerness on earth to obtain high positions, to rule, guide and control, repeats that heavenly rebellion. There was and is no enmity between Satan and the angels who joined him, and there is no natural enmity between fallen angels and fallen men, because both are evil, both are in apostasy and rebellion, both do the same work of transgression, and both cover transgression with robes of righteousness as angels of light. Fallen angels and fallen men join in desperate companionship against good, united as with iron bands to oppose the law of God and tear down the great moral standard that governs all intelligences in Paradise and in the many worlds God created, for Satan calculated that by inducing men as he had induced angels he would gain them as working agents and allies against heaven. The same work is carried forward on earth through his generalship to unite all diverse elements to make void the law of Jehovah, and enmity against him is exercised only through the Spirit and power of God, so only a portion of the race subdued by grace will return to loyalty while all who stand on his side will perish in their sins and receive the same wrath, root and branch, because he is the root of rebellion and transgression. Because no soul alienated from God can remain in heaven he and his sympathizers were thrust out, leaving every human being free to choose between right and wrong and by that choice deciding eternal destiny, while God's purpose is that people be Christlike with clear discerning minds able to distinguish good from evil and with all power and strength given to those who believe and trust in Him to keep character pure and untarnished for the future life. The same heavenly order requires those who bear responsibility in God's work on earth to give no cause for disaffection and to maintain principles according to heaven's order.
Deception and Divine Forbearance
Revelation 12:7 shows open war in heaven only after a long, severe course of secret envy, deception and satanic wiles carried on day by day, in which Lucifer, next to Christ and highest of the covering cherubs, loved and influential, coveted the homage due alone to the Creator and cherished envy while making it appear he sought the good of the universe. He hid his real purpose while insinuating seeds of doubt and suspicion, spreading discontent by lying, fraud, twisting God's words, misrepresentation of God, Christ and the true and loyal angels, cunning sophistry, specious reasoning, seductive theories and false science, sowing unbelief and discord, mourning to arouse sympathy, and declaring God withheld higher education that would make angels and men as gods. He worked by influence of mind on mind, putting ideas into minds and reporting them as coming from others, planting criticism of God's government and presenting those ideas to the highest order of angels as though they had originated with others, covering his tracks and gathering listeners without compromising himself until many angels listened, believed his words, and the sentiments he inculcated developed and could be dealt with. His opposition to the Son of God was so subtle that its true character was not at first apparent to the heavenly host, and only after a long period was the rebellion exposed, fought by Michael and His angels against the dragon and his angels until every soul liable to act on Satan's side was defeated, prevailed not, and expelled for the safety of the loyal angels with place found no more in heaven.
His policy was to claim support for God's government while secretly working to overthrow it, to accuse loyal angels of the wrong he sought to commit, to accuse the heavenly angels when the evil originated in himself, and to corrupt the family of God in heaven by leading angels under his influence to speak and act against loyalty to God until they lost judgment and will. He cast the cause of his defection upon God and Christ, claiming he would not have gone on doing as he did if they had not so firmly resisted his plans and reproved him, so representing his case that he drew many angels from allegiance, stirred sympathy by claiming unjust treatment in Christ's honoring, and refused to listen to warning and reproof. Through his insinuations those angels became disaffected and came to believe that the Father and the Son were their enemies and Satan was their benefactor, and the same sophistries that found acceptance in heaven and misled humanity's first parents continue to deceive people on earth.
He fought with false science and entrancing false teaching, his weapons being false assertions made to the angels and subtle scientific theories that seduced many from loyalty, and after losing his place he carried the same tempting work to Adam and Eve and still uses it today. That same war is still carried forward under the new disguise of Spiritualism, through perfect counterfeits of departed friends that comfort the living, through pretended visitants from the dead that win confidence by true cautions and foretellings and then undermine faith in the Scriptures, set aside the law of God, despise the Spirit of grace, count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, deny the divinity of Christ, and place even the Creator on a level with creatures. Having swerved from allegiance and dissolved relationship with the universe and with the Son of God in particular, he became altogether selfish and a universal evil, stimulated with hatred against God's holy law, seeking to conform all things to his image, to efface the Divine image and stamp his hateful apostate image on souls, acting upon minds with attention and will given to him since he could not employ force, and safety from his crafty deceptions comes only by relying on God's power, prayer, humility and communion with the Higher Power, not human strength.
God could at once have hurled the arch deceiver from heaven, but in truth and justice bore long, warned him, conferred with His Son after loyal angels reported what was taking place, gave message after message calling to reform, clearly showed him his wrong course, and repeatedly offered pardon if he would repent and submit. He permitted the war with equal chance to measure strength and might with His Son and loyal angels, letting it be acted out for a time so every angel would choose his own side and be manifested to all, character and purposes made known, the usurper unmasked as accuser, deceiver, liar and murderer, the loyal saved from apostasy and eternal ruin, and the universe and unfallen worlds could see God's goodness, justice, judgment, mercy and love in contrast with Satan's character. The war was a council in heaven in which Satan's party misstated the words of Christ and put a false meaning on every truthful statement, while loyal angels warned of consequences, that He who could create angels could overturn their authority and punish audacity, and advised Satan and all affected to close ears to deceptive reasonings and confess wrong for even admitting a thought of questioning authority as sacred as God Himself. When open war broke out in earnest after long secret deception, Satan refused to listen, turned from loyal angels denouncing them as slaves, promised a new and better government with freedom for all, flattered himself he would win all angels as leader and chief commander and be equal with God commanding the entire host, and great numbers signified purpose to accept him before the Son of God and loyal angels prevailed and expelled him and his sympathizers, leaving heaven peaceful and harmonious again.
To the very end he justified himself, and when announcement came that he and sympathizers must be expelled he openly showed contempt for the Creator's law, claiming angels needed no control and should follow their own will, denouncing statutes as restriction of liberty, declaring purpose to abolish law so hosts could enter more exalted existence, while in unison laying blame wholly on Christ saying they would never have rebelled if not reproved, stubbornly portraying themselves as innocent victims of oppressive power while vainly seeking to overthrow God's government. He boldly contended his sentence was unjust, maintained there was no self-denial with God and in struggling to carry out purposes and have his own way he only imitated God's example, asking why first sons in His image should not follow their own will as God does, complaining of severity as children complain of parents restraining destructive plans, and by this deceived many holy angels. In the warfare ensuing he for a time seemed to hold advantage and triumphed in apparent victory because he could lie while God could not lie and could move in a thousand crooked deceiving ways while God must pursue the straightforward course of truth and righteousness. God would unmask the enemy and reveal true character through Christ, divinity clothed in humanity as light scattering thick darkness, whose whole earthly life of perfect submission and rigid self-denial contrasts the obedient Son with the disloyal son, who conquered in the long fast of the wilderness when offered world dominion for worship, and whose death alone perfected final triumph, opening free salvation, bearing the curse, wresting the last weapon for world kingdoms, so man might be free through Jesus Christ, exposing that transgression brought fall and no good through disobedience.
Defeat and Expulsion
The loyal side prevailed, for Michael who is Christ Himself, the Son of God and Prince and Commander of heaven, with His loyal angels fought the dragon who is Satan, Lucifer, once the highest covering cherub next to Christ, and his angels, and the rebels were defeated, thrust out, shut out and emptied out of heaven and cast to this earth, driven from God's presence with no more right or place in the heavenly courts, losing honor, supremacy and role in government, while Christ overcame and vanquished them. The war arose from Lucifer's envy and desire for the homage owed only to the Creator and for God's throne and authority independent of God, claiming prerogatives no created being could receive, and because his former experience was unquestionable and he had the confidence of all, he spread deceptive ideas among the angels through mind-to-mind influence, presenting his effort as beneficial to the universe and drawing large numbers to his side, yet Michael and his angels fought against him and his angels who were ultimately expelled, and he still leads the forces of rebellion on earth where the world stands under the black banner of rebellion in transgression of God's law. The conflict was real and open, allowing each angel to choose a side and making character and purposes known, for God permitted it rather than immediately using His power to expel Satan, so that His justice and judgment would be clear to the heavenly host, and the heavenly host acknowledged God's justice when heaven was left again peaceful and harmonious.
Expulsion was required because divine justice stands demanding holiness and purity in all who would see God and dwell there, and mercy could not leave rebellion in heaven or admit the whole race irrespective of character without destroying harmony and producing a worse condition of disaffection and rebellion than before. His presence would have kept the angels in continual danger from corrupting influence, so God removed him to protect the host and preserve the peace, happiness and harmony of heaven, with its gates never more to open to them. The same principle holds on earth, for change of place from earth to heaven does not change character, the happiness of the redeemed results from characters formed in this life after the image of Christ, and a student who incites others to disobedience must be separated from the school to save the others, just as Satan was separated from heaven, while he has abated not a particle of enmity and revenge since defeat but works by deceiving power through every human agency that will be worked by him to taint and corrupt others, convert them to his plan of disobedience and disloyalty, and prevent reforms when warnings, reproofs and corrections are sent. His wrongdoing was clearly shown, he cast the cause of his defection upon God and Christ claiming they had firmly resisted his plans and treated him unjustly in honoring Christ, he used lies and misrepresentation to find sympathizers and draw many from allegiance, and though repeatedly offered pardon if he would repent and submit he chose to justify rebellion, so his expulsion vindicated God's justice and the honor of His government.
After being shut out he realized he had lost all the purity and glory of heaven forever, and he with his followers repented, wept and implored to be taken back into favor and reinstated in his proper place or any place that might be assigned. Heaven could not take him back without placing heaven in jeopardy and marring all heaven, for sin originated with him and the seeds of rebellion with hate, envy and jealousy remained within him too great to be blotted out and must remain to receive final punishment. Denied readmission he could not enter its gates, so he waited outside to taunt the angels and provoke conflict as they came and went.
Their expulsion made this world the sole theater of the struggle between right and wrong, in which all people are involved and need recovery from sin and reconciliation with God. Having gained a portion of heaven's angels to join him against God and then overcome Adam and Eve, Satan boasted that he had gained the human race and the world as his dominion, and claimed Eden as his headquarters and throne. Expelled from heaven he determined to set up a kingdom on this earth and win man to his side, holding consultation with fallen angels to continue defiance of God and His Son, directing evil angels who do not all readily unite in the hazardous work while claiming he alone has wisdom sufficient. He retired alone to mature plans to most surely secure the fall of Adam and Eve, impressing on them that this is their last and only hope, for if they fail all prospect of regaining and controlling heaven or any part of God's creation is hopeless, and he learned that cunning and deceit must do what force cannot. He feared his purposes might be defeated, knew even success in leading Adam and Eve to disobey and transgress God's law would bring himself no good and only increase guilt, shuddered at plunging the holy happy pair into the misery and remorse he endures, wavered between firm determination and hesitation, then cast off despair and fortified himself as their leader, and his angels sought him with their decision to unite with him and share responsibility and consequences. After being cast out he turned his efforts toward ruining the human race, becoming a foe who could deceive Adam and Eve though God limited his access to them to the tree of knowledge of good and evil so they were safe when they obeyed, while Christ pledged His word that if man was overcome He would be his surety and afterward came in humanity to stand where Adam stood and endure and defeat the temptations of the author of sin.
God's angels triumphed on His side when Satan sought supremacy, and those very angels who fought and triumphed then are the same who shouted for joy over creation, witnessed the fall of man and his expulsion from Eden, and now visit the world unseen to oversee God's work, minister in every time of necessity to those carrying it forward and striving as co-workers with God, rejoice when it prospers, cooperate with visible human agencies as a relief-association, overrule earthly powers, protect God's people from the destruction Satan would bring, and work in union with the fallen redeemed race to bind up wounds sin has made and save perishing sinners. They remain most intensely interested in human salvation and in working with redeemed people to seek and save those lost in sin, and though danger may come the Lord will not let His people be defeated, for Michael leads the Lord's host as mightier than the foe.
Satan had led the heavenly choir and raised the first note of praise to God and His Son, but after presumptuous rebellion he and the angels he drew were shut out with its gates never more to open, though before their fall not a shade of discontent had marred perfect bliss and they had never thought to question Heaven's will or refuse obedience to God's law until he put it into their minds with sophistry of greater good and higher liberty. Now their happiness was gone, their countenances which had reflected the image of their Maker were gloomy and despairing, and strife, discord and bitter recrimination previously unknown in heaven were among them. No more would they unite in joyful songs of praise or bow in reverence before the Father, nor be swayed by the mild rule of Jesus with love, peace and joy returned in cheerful obedience, and Satan beholds the terrible results, shudders and fears to face the future, and bears responsibility for leading others to the same lost condition beyond redemption.
Continuation on Earth
The war that began in heaven did not end with expulsion but continues on earth for almost six thousand years, four thousand of them reaching to Christ's first coming. It grows more artful, subtle and determined as it puts on religion, increasing in power and wrath as time shortens. It is lasting enmity in which Satan with evil angels and wicked men works mind to mind to deceive, hinder obedience, accuse the brethren day and night, and instigate every injustice to wound Christ by bruising His people, while God marks oppression and will avenge. Holy angels still minister to advance God's cause, and each person must take a decided position to fight on the Lord's side, for Satan did not prevail in heaven and will not prevail. Fallen angels and fallen people have no natural opposition to one another, for both are evil and unite against the good, though divided among themselves, seeking to discredit God and hoping numbers will let them overthrow Him.
Expelled from heaven, Satan determined to set up a rival kingdom here, planted the standard of rebellion, and rallied his sympathizers to win man to carry on the warfare and accomplish on earth what he failed to do in heaven. He came to Eden with lying reports about God, telling Adam and Eve that God was withholding the higher education that would make them as gods, and tempted them into disobedience in hope of rising higher. By that transgression sin and death entered, God's image in man was defaced, and they were driven from Paradise, though loyal angels had warned them that only perfect obedience and staying together kept them safe. After overcoming them he thought he had gained full possession of this world because they had chosen him as ruler, claimed forgiveness was impossible so the fallen race were his rightful subjects, and made Eden his headquarters and throne. God answered by giving His own dear Son, one equal with Himself, as substitute and surety pledged even before man's fall, to come in humanity where Adam stood, bear the penalty, ransom and restore purity, rescue the world from Satan's grasp, and defeat the foe, so that the controversy begun in heaven would be decided on the very field Satan claimed.
Heaven and unfallen worlds witnessed the controversy and its closing scenes, including Christ's agony in Gethsemane as He bore the guilt of the world and felt His Father's presence withdrawn. Through incarnation as a helpless babe subject to weakness, completed sacrifice, resurrection, obedience to the law and bearing its penalty, Christ opposed the deceiver, exposed his schemes, broke his power, ended his hold on affection, and reveals God's love. Having overcome him in heaven, Christ met him again in the forty-day wilderness temptation and overcame, was followed from manger to cross where priests were filled with hatred until He stood before Pilate, and in human nature capable of yielding kept allegiance as a garment. The same rebel who tempts people to sin then seeks to destroy them misrepresents God's character by portraying his own cruelty as God's, makes God's law appear imperfect, unjust and impossible to obey, yet humanity has hope not by abolishing the law but through Christ's merits in obeying it. Dwelling on Satan's power magnifies him, while Christians are to magnify Jesus' power and love as the mighty Saviour who overcame and cast out the evil one.
The same two parties that fought in heaven now remain, so every person young or old must choose whom to follow and under which banner to stand. On one side is Christ's bloodstained banner of obedience, on the other Satan's black banner of rebellion and darkness, and there are only two classes in the world. Those who keep the law of God are one with God in the war, and by keeping His Sabbath holy His people show they are His, preserve the knowledge of Him as Creator, and apply the remedy for the strife by which Satan divides the church. Taking Christ's side brings victory and character, standing under Satan's brings death, and choosing not to follow Christ places one on the side of darkness under the apostate's banner, for Christ's side is obedience and disloyalty is contention against the principles of His law.
The war continues into the last days as Satan's last work of rebellion, for he knows his usurped authority will soon forever end at the Lord's coming with power and great glory. This is his last opportunity to gain control of the world, so he makes most decided efforts to accomplish the destruction of its inhabitants, his enmity against good manifesting more and more as perils thicken about the remnant. In the great closing work the powers of evil unite in desperate struggle with deceptive plans, with ministers and physicians and lawmakers uniting in rebellion, thousands taking place on the side of satanic agencies, some in pretentious garb of righteousness having the form of godliness without power, until too late they see angels of God in warfare against all departed from the faith. That same satanic power that made war in heaven now instigates and unites with false religious persecuting powers which profess the character of a lamb and alliance to heaven while their actions reveal the heart of a dragon in warring against God's holy law and its keepers, the product of church and state uniting to crush opposition. Every soul not fully surrendered to God and kept by divine power will form alliance with Satan against heaven and join battle against the Ruler of the universe, requiring believers to be faithful sentinels against specious reasonings and betrayal of sacred trusts.
Part of that earthly war is over the law of God, for the war in heaven was over the law which Satan sought to correct, amend and supply with his own, exalting his judgment above his Creator and virtually declaring God fallible. The same work is carried on here through the pope of Rome, who claims infallibility and seeks to adjust God's law to his own ideas, virtually saying he will give better laws than Jehovah, which insults the God of heaven. Nearly all the human family prove disloyal to the higher law written by God's finger on stone, openly transgressing it, trampling the Sabbath and breaking the fourth commandment by honoring a papal institution instead of God's rest day, discarding the genuine Sabbath memorial of creation for a spurious sabbath to assert rival authority and spread opposition among all nations. Rejecting even one precept expresses contempt for the whole law and places influence on the side of transgression, as Satan leads the world blindfolded by the same sophistry that led angels to accept his theology in place of a plain Thus saith the Lord. God has given light on that apostasy to be widely circulated now as never before because it opens blind eyes, and faithful circulation holds back the Sunday-law movement while neglect lets it advance.
That same war is continued under commercialism, for after coming to earth Satan entered eagerly into it, and those who reject light and depart from the faith follow the fallen angel even unknowingly. Fallen Lucifer remains conscious of gatherings of believers and appoints agencies to bring opposing circumstances after meetings to gain victory, tempting with crafty deceptions that none can meet without Christ's power. The disloyal angels now help him conform all things to his image, infuse his nature into individuals, efface the Divine image and stamp his hateful apostate image on the soul, approaching man to gain attention and will so he can act upon minds, misrepresent God, and stimulate hatred against God's holy law, since force is denied him. They are now in this world as an opposing agency to be contended with, watching to deceive, obscure light and oppose gatherings, with undiminished intelligence. Safety is only in God's power, not human strength, in communion with the Higher Power through prayer, humbling the heart, walking in humility, holding no converse with Satan after Christ's example, and sharing the divine nature.
Through preaching the gospel and faith in the Word Satan is cast out from minds and dispossessed from hearts, losing hold so his kingdom totters. Christ as Conqueror limits his power and protects His people as mightier than the conquered foe, and believers should magnify Jesus rather than Satan. Prayer and living faith bring victory when Satan seeks to overcome those who would obey by tempting and discouraging them until they give up. Those attacked for giving decided reproof to those gone against light must cling closely to Jesus by faith, leave themselves in the Saviour's hands, not fail or be intimidated by fierce attacks, physical agony, sorrow and crushing grasp upon life, but continue the message unafraid. Human opposition is to be met as Satan behind his agents, with Jesus as fortress, the heavenly host working on behalf of God's people as they humble their hearts, seek the Lord, live heaven's principles in unity and love, press for victory at every step, and are made ready for the grand review when salvation and glory are revealed.
Doctrine Character and Warning
After the expulsion God in counsel with His Son formed the plan of creating man in Their own image to be placed on probation and tested once, and if loyal to be freed from continual temptation and exalted equal with the angels and made immortal. The angels themselves had been on probation when Satan deceived them and led them into rebellion against Christ, and when tested they failed to remain faithful and fell. This life is probation to prove fitness to live with sinless angels, for persistent rebellion against God's law forfeits place in heaven, and just before Christ comes in majesty to take vengeance a proclamation of the law goes forth so every disloyal subject may return to allegiance, leaving those who continue without excuse under the same exclusion as Satan. Taking sides with the first rebel means making the Word of God of none effect by persisting in transgression, and those who refuse to obey during probationary time cannot with safety be received into the kingdom, for they would oppose the law of government just as he did and there would be a second rebellion. Divine justice demands holiness and purity in all who would see God and dwell there, and if mercy opened the gates irrespective of character a worse disaffection than before the expulsion would result and break up heaven. Change of place does not change character, happiness in heaven results from characters formed in this life after the image of Christ, saints in heaven must first have been saints on earth, and only the thoroughly converted guided by the Bible are fit.
Heaven admits no sin and no sinner will enter the New Jerusalem, for entrance through the golden gates requires a sanctified life measuring with the life of Christ with every life tuned to praise. Holiness is the foundation of God's throne and sin is the opposite of holiness, the thing His soul hates and that crucified the Son, so even angels who stood about the throne and were loved by Him kept not their first estate of loyalty but followed their rebel leader and were cast out because He cannot endure the presence of sin. God does not work with sinners in the ministry who will not agonize to enter the strait gate, reform in life and character and overcome secret faults. Those who knowingly rebel and teach disobedience cannot live in His presence because they would carry the spirit of rebellion into heaven, and He seeks a commandment-keeping people with a right hold from above whom He can introduce without creating a second rebellion. Religious teachers who set their own words against God's words and voice the words of the great apostate instead of honestly searching the Word will come to shame and ruin and carry with them those they deceived, just as Satan carried away his followers. To admit the disobedient, the confident unsanctified selfish, robbers, adulterers and false dealers, or to foster sin, would bring warfare again, while the redeemed will never want to rebel.
There is no natural enmity between fallen angels and fallen men because both are evil, both are in apostasy and rebellion, both do the same work of transgression and cover it with robes of righteousness as angels of light. Fallen angels and fallen men join in desperate companionship against good, united as with iron bands to oppose the law of God and tear down the great moral standard that governs all intelligences in Paradise and in the many worlds created. Satan calculated that by inducing men as he had induced angels to join the rebellion he would gain working agents and allies against heaven and have a strong force to carry it on, and the same work is carried forward on earth through his generalship to unite all diverse elements to make void the law of Jehovah. Cast to earth he planted his standard and established a rival empire where all powers of evil combine to oppose God, and actuated by hatred he leaves no means untried to attract men to himself, eclipse every ray of light, efface God's likeness and stamp his own apostate image on souls. Enmity against Satan is exercised only through the Spirit and power of God, only hearts subdued by grace resist his spirit and return to loyalty, while those not subdued are guided by the same spirit that led angels astray. Selfishness, jealousy, covetousness, withholding God's own and investing entrusted talents to build up his kingdom is taking sides under his banner and worshiping him and not God, and those who break the law and try to compel fellow men to obey man-made laws are in his service and, unrepented, will perish in their sins and receive the same wrath root and branch because he is the root of rebellion.
The same deceptive spirit and rebellion is repeated whenever people strive for the highest place, seek authority, unsettle confidence in ministers, justify law against brethren, caricature God's servants, claim infallibility and loyalty while opposing truth, work secretly under trust from house to house with falsehoods, accuse the brethren, oppose the third angel's message, unite against faithful workers, bind institutions under one human control against God's will, or find sympathizers when reproved. Satan cast the cause of his defection upon God and Christ, claiming he would never have gone on doing as he did if they had not so firmly resisted his plans, and by so representing his case he found sympathizers and drew many angels from allegiance. He did not prevail and was expelled because otherwise the host would have been in continual danger, yet he has abated none of his enmity and revenge. He carries the same work to earth, deceiving wrongdoers into supposing they are unjustly dealt with when warnings, reproofs, corrections and reforms are sent, working through every human agency that will be worked to taint and corrupt others and prevent reforms. His fall began with sympathy and the angels who sympathized fell also, and still those who are wrong and work with him find people who sympathize when reproved because sympathizers fear hurting feelings. Rebellion against God's ministers places one under his banner contending against Omnipotence, for the same subtle power he used among holy beings ensnares many by sophistry now among God's people, so churches must be wide-awake lest even the elect be deceived.
Lucifer's discontent warns against disregarding revealed commands to speculate about what God has not revealed, against taking the position views are never to be given up like his refusal to harmonize with Christ, against trusting human greatness and human wisdom, against false sympathy excusing crooked character, and against Korah-like envy of appointed leaders. Next to Christ and highest of the covering cherubs, loved and influential, he coveted the homage due alone to the Creator, cherished envy and sought the service and loyalty of angels while making it appear he sought the good of the universe. He long hid his real purpose while insinuating seeds of doubt and suspicion, working by influence of mind on mind until sentiments developed and open war broke out in which Michael and His angels fought the dragon and his angels who prevailed not and whose place was found no more. Cast out he set up his kingdom in this world and continues the same mind-on-mind power, seducing human beings from allegiance and leading men to bind together in confederacies, trade unions and secret societies, with a church made up of all the disaffected in whom he has implanted selfishness, deception and intrigue. His self-exaltation, envy and emulation rooted in fallen nature must be repressed by rejoicing in others' prosperity, laboring for purity and submitting to God to resist the devil, for his deceptions can be resisted only through divine aid and personal knowledge of Christ after choosing to live for self and rejecting dependence on God.
The history of rebellion reveals the nature, fruit and results of sin and that well-being is bound up with God's government, remaining as a safeguard. Satan now seeks to mold people in his likeness while Christ gives power to resist temptations, and he seeks to justify his failure by proving humans can no more keep the law than he and his angels did, standing ready to put evil insinuations into minds and to mold and fashion them. A work of opposition begun in heaven is what evil angels now lead people to repeat. The determined warfare between good and evil, right and wrong, God and the devil that began when angels rebelled has been waged incessantly ever since and still lies before us. The same warfare must now be continued by complete subjection of self, appetites and passions, by denying every hurtful lust that harms brain and nerve energy, mortifying evil desire and unhealthful practice and purifying the soul temple from every defilement, so the body is brought into more healthful condition to fight with stronger faith and clearer perception, gain mastery over every health-enfeebling lust and not be finally overcome by warring lust.
There was a real open war in heaven between Michael, who is Christ Himself with His loyal angels, and the dragon, who is Satan with his deceived followers. It arose because Lucifer, once highest next to Christ, sought supremacy and equality with God and rejected the authority of His law and government out of pride, envy, jealousy and self-exaltation. God bore long in forbearance to unmask the deceiver, then the loyal prevailed and Satan with all sympathizers was defeated and cast out of heaven to this earth, which became the sole theater of the struggle. That same conflict begun in heaven continues on earth, where every person must choose under which banner to stand, Christ's banner of obedience or Satan's banner of rebellion.
Combatants and Setting
Michael is Christ Himself, Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, the Word, one with the eternal Father in nature, character and purpose, associate and co-worker with God from everlasting, the Prince and Commander of heaven, heaven's Prince, the Son of God endowed with unlimited power and command. With His loyal angels He fought the dragon and prevailed, overcoming and vanquishing the rebels after a long, severe course of deception and satanic wiles carried on day by day until it could be tolerated no more. The war arose because Satan rebelled against the authority of the Son, insinuated against God's government, was ambitious to exalt himself, refused to submit to Jesus, and opposed God's law by claiming angels needed no law and should follow their own will. Every soul liable to act on Satan's side was expelled for the safety of the loyal angels, the rebels sought to remain but were defeated and driven out, and heaven was again peaceful and harmonious.
The dragon is Satan, the devil, Lucifer, son of the morning, the great rebel and apostate, the adversary, prince of darkness, Beelzebub, old serpent, deceiver, liar, prince of the powers of the air, and god of this world. He is the chief tempter who rebelled in the heavenly courts, the originator of sin, the first great apostate who led the heavenly family into disobedience and transgression of God's law, swerving from allegiance to the Lord God the only Potentate with associate rebellious angels. Having dissolved relationship with the universe and with the Son of God in particular, he became altogether selfish, ceasing to be a universal good and becoming a universal evil, stimulated with hatred against God's holy law, seeking to conform all things to his image, to efface the Divine image from the world and stamp his own hateful, apostate image on the human soul. In a secondary sense the dragon also represents pagan Rome, whose prevailing religion was paganism, as Satan's chief agent in seeking to destroy Christ at His birth by moving Herod to kill Him and in making war on Christ and His people during the first centuries of the Christian era.
There was a real, open war in heaven between two marshaled parties, God and Christ with loyal angels on one side against Satan with his followers on the other, with companies of angels marshaled under leading and commanding angels. It began by Lucifer, once the highest, most exalted angel, the covering cherub with unquestionable experience and the confidence of all, whose sin originated among holy beings through hidden jealousy, envy and evil surmising, secret work putting ideas into minds and reporting dissatisfaction as coming from others until underhanded work came to the surface. After long secret rebellion he declared he would defend his place by force, opposed God's law and the authority of Christ, heaven's commander, sought to reform God's government and search out unsearchable wisdom for exalting Jesus, and after all angels were summoned before the Father for decision the division was manifested to all as each angel chose a side. That division continues as only two parties, two banners and two leaders for all people on earth, those who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ bearing the sign of obedience spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18, and those who stand under the black banner of rebellion in transgression of God's law.
The evil angels were created sinless and equal in nature, power and glory to the holy angels as moral agents, but fell through sin, joined Satan's rebellion, and were cast out of heaven with him. A large number were deceived and sided with Satan, described as nearly half siding with him when organized into companies, and as a third part turning from the Father and the Son to join him. They were not destroyed and did not lose their powers, knowledge and intelligence, but united in an organized confederacy with different orders, intelligence and subtlety under his leadership, intent on dishonoring God, harming humanity and working against divine authority. Since then they have worked with him on this earth working unseen, where he still leads the forces of rebellion.
The verse belongs to the prophecies in Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled now as the last message of warning that all are to hear, with the dragon as instigator of the great rebellion against heaven. It was a terrible war that Jesus Himself passed through and watched unfold from the beginning of the history of sin, when sin's evil power bewitched heavenly angels until they sympathized and joined, and with that expulsion all consequences of sin stood open before His vision. Michael stands as the first great Conqueror who defeated Satan the leader in rebellion and now stands at the head of the closing work of the third angel's message, as Conqueror standing over Satan to limit his power while rebellion continues until that work closes. Satan can go no farther than He permits, being allowed power for a time to reveal the truehearted, to prove the faithful, and to develop the spurious and separate them from the pure in heart, testing the faithful and exposing rebels until in due time rebels are purged out from among the loyal and true.
Lucifer Before Rebellion
Revelation 12:7 looks back to Lucifer when he stood next to Christ as the highest of the covering cherubs, the light-bearer and son of the morning, next in honor, rank, power and responsibility. He was the most exalted, beautiful and influential of the angels, enriched with intellect, strength and glory, bearing a special bright light with noble bearing and charm. He led the heavenly choir and raised the first note of praise, loved and trusted by all because his former experience was unquestionable and he held the confidence of the host. In that exalted place he coveted the homage due alone to the Creator and the honor belonging to the Son, wanting equality with God and God's throne and authority independent of God, with prerogatives no created being could receive. His determination to take a position above Christ, when he could not obtain what he coveted, led to the war in which Michael and His angels fought against the dragon and his angels until the rebels prevailed not and their place was found no more in heaven.
He held high office with a radiant, kingly throne and asked to be made prince to govern the world then in prospect, and this was not granted him. Jesus Christ under God was appointed to rule the earthly kingdom and take the world with all its probabilities, with the law of heaven as the standard law for human intelligences in the new world. He was the covering cherub receiving the highest gifts and greatest talents that could be bestowed on a created being, a glorious being occupying a position next to Christ in the heavenly courts. Some angels urged him to abandon his purpose and defended God's wisdom in giving authority and unlimited power to His Son, but he challenged Christ's high command and power, claimed he should be equal with God, and refused to submit to Christ's authority and to the position assigned. He had personal acquaintance with God and knew His character, yet in seeking to be equal with God he brought irretrievable ruin upon himself and was cast out for disobedience.
Before rebellion heaven was in perfect happy unity, with close attachment to God and tender, impartial goodness and love for fellow beings, service as delight and will identical to God's, each angel filling the assigned place. The heavenly current flowed through the universe of God without one cloud of evil, and spotless purity was reflected everywhere as in a mirror, with God over all. Sin arose in beautiful, exalted angels in a way impossible to tell, an inexplainable transaction when Satan became an apostate and abode not in the truth. His fall began with sympathy, and the angels who sympathized with him fell also, for he swerved from his allegiance to the blessed and only Potentate, lost his connection with God and his first love, and broke the allegiance of love by perversion of freedom. Having dissolved relationship with the universe and with the Son of God in particular, he became altogether selfish, ceasing to be a universal good and becoming a universal evil, deceiving subjects who joined him until the disloyal were separated from the loyal and true and expelled from heaven by his own act compelling that separation.
Causes of Rebellion
The war in heaven was rooted in Lucifer's jealousy over Christ's first place next to God. The most beautiful angel next to Christ, he felt his beauty and exalted position entitled him to be next to God instead of second to Christ, to have a place above the only-begotten Son, to be first, pre-eminent, equal with God Himself, like the Most High and ruler of the universe. He insinuated this claim until sympathy spread among the angels and it was brought before God, and he and his party stood strong against Christ when efforts to correct the evil failed. He flattered himself that he would yet win all the angels to his side as their leader and chief commander, with his own voice of authority commanding the entire host of heaven, promising them a new and better government with freedom for all. After refusing to listen to loyal angels and denouncing them as slaves, great numbers signified their purpose to accept him, though they were warned that He who could create angels could overturn all their authority and punish terrible rebellion against a law as sacred as God Himself, and were advised to close their ears to deceptive reasonings and go to God and confess even admitting a thought of questioning His authority. The rebellion was overcome and Lucifer and his party were thrown out, cast out and shut out of heaven, losing place in the heavenly courts and becoming a rebellious party in this world ever since, never becoming saints. After coming to earth he entered eagerly into commercialism with great zeal, and those who reject the light God gives and depart from the faith follow this fallen angel even if they do not realize it, while the same warfare will be repeated on earth through those who receive not the truth and is met only by Christ, the Captain of the Lord's host in heaven, coming to save its inhabitants by meeting satanic agencies. On earth the conflict begun over supremacy continued as he led people to doubt God's word and goodness, portraying God as severe and unforgiving and drawing them into rebellion, and those who knowingly rebel and teach disobedience cannot live in God's presence because they would carry the spirit of rebellion into heaven.
That grasp at supremacy was driven by cherishing self, living for self, selfish desire, self-exaltation and self-pity, with pride, ambition, discontent, dissatisfaction and coveting a place not given. Jealous and envious of the Son of God over His appointed supremacy and equal position with the Father, Lucifer could not have Christ's place and would not obey the government of heaven. His ambition and selfish desire brought ruin and loss to heavenly beings, and the same spirit can lead people into sin and mislead believers if taught to them. He secretly spread discontent, challenged the authority of God's law, misrepresented the Son's equal position, and drew many angels to join him until war arose, yet Christ's position and authority had not changed and the conflict only made necessary a clear statement of the position He had held from the beginning. There was no justifying reason for his envy and jealousy, and people have no need to follow the principles that led to his expulsion with the angels who joined his disaffection. The war arose in the councils of heaven over the creation and government of this world then in prospect, when Lucifer the covering cherub requested to be made prince to govern it and this was not granted, while Jesus Christ under God was appointed to rule the earthly kingdom with the law of heaven as the standard law for human intelligences. Lucifer grew jealous of Christ and his jealousy worked into rebellion carrying a large number of holy angels with him, but Jesus the Son of God was not deceived by his sophistry and stood true to principle resisting every line of reasoning, evidencing that every angel might have stood as He stood. That same war continues on earth where Satan and the powers of darkness strive against God's people to deceive them and lead souls to destruction, while the heavenly host works on their behalf, so God's people must humble their hearts, be reconverted, seek the Lord, carry out principles of heaven in unity and harmony and love, help one another toward eternal life, and press for victory at every step.
The great subject of controversy was God's law and government. Satan rebelled against God's law and the authority of His Son because he wanted to exalt himself and would not submit to the authority of God's Son, heaven's commander, refusing submission, questioning and rejecting its authority. He claimed angels needed no law and no control and should be free to follow their own will, denounced God's statutes as a restriction of liberty, declared God fallible, charged that God had given a law man could not keep, and set his purpose to correct, amend, change, reform, abolish and subvert it so the hosts of heaven could enter a more exalted and glorious existence. The war was a real conflict between the Son of God, heaven's Prince, and His loyal angels on one side and Satan and the angels who joined his rebellion on the other, with the angels organized into companies under commanders as the conflict took shape. God permitted this rather than immediately using His power to expel Satan so each angel could choose a side, character and purposes could be made known, and His justice and judgment would be clear to the heavenly host. The Son of God and the loyal angels prevailed, and Satan with all his sympathizers was defeated and expelled, leaving heaven peaceful, harmonious and harmonious again. To the very end he kept justifying himself, openly showing contempt for the Creator's law when the announcement came that he must be expelled, and in unison he and his host laid blame wholly on Christ saying they would never have rebelled if they had not been reproved, stubborn and defiant in disloyalty while vainly seeking to overthrow God's government and claiming to be innocent victims of oppressive power. Though holding an exalted position as a glorious and powerful archangel, he became dissatisfied because he was not accorded supreme honor, questioned God's purposes and impugned His justice, and bent all his powers to allure angels from allegiance, at first meeting no favor until, urged again and again, his complaints were finally accepted by those who had been loyal and happy subjects. There was not the shadow of justification or excuse for disaffection, but envy and jealousy once cherished gained a power that paralyzed reason and destroyed honor and loyalty, and in that rebellion he showed contempt for God's authority and virtually trampled every precept of His law, becoming the grand prototype of all transgressors. To indulge unbelief, ingratitude, apostasy, defiance of God or enmity against Him is to repeat the course he pursued in heaven, for rebellion against God is directly due to satanic influence and like witchcraft exerts a bewitching, deceptive power almost impossible to break, causing victims to see everything in false light and, like the first parents, to see only the great benefits to be received by transgression.
That law could not be changed because it is a transcript of God's unchangeable character, immutable and eternal, perfect and unalterable Yea and Amen. Satan, next to Christ the most exalted being in the heavenly court, first raised the question of changing God's law and claimed it should be abolished, but God met that first suggestion with a decided No. He charged in heaven that God had given a law man could not keep and sought to change its principles and subvert heaven to his false principles, seeking some flaw to support his argument that it must be changed, but his efforts were in vain and he was not permitted to do so. Michael, who is the Prince of life, Christ, fought against the dragon and overcame the apostate, and the Lord cast Satan out with the angels that had taken sides with him. The outcome proved Satan was not right and proved God has not abolished His law, vindicating every specification of God's character expressed in His holy law. Not the smallest jot or tittle of the law was given over to Satan to manipulate, and if any change had been possible it would have been made then and there to save the rebellion in heaven. Since the law was not altered in one precept, he did not gain on earth after his fall what he could not gain in heaven before his fall, and the law remains with all its binding force upon every human being with eternal destiny decided by obedience or disobedience. Christ who proclaimed the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai will not countermand His statutes, for God is wise and unchangeable, and those who flatter themselves they can find a safer rule of life are deceived by the same delusions that led angels to join Lucifer. He struck directly against the foundation of God's government in heaven and on earth, which is God's holy law, and Jesus and all the heavenly host knew God would not change or abolish it. After rebelling he tried to save himself by wishing God to change His law, but God told him before the whole heavenly host that His law was unalterable. The death of Christ did not destroy His Father's law but magnified and honored it and enforces obedience to all its holy precepts, proving man could not be saved without Christ's death if the law could have been abolished. Satan knows every transgressor of God's law must die, so if he can cause others to violate it he is sure of them, and he therefore opposed God's unalterable law to draw others into disobedience and worked to corrupt the fourth commandment by claiming Christ's resurrection changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first, concealing God's revealed will though faithful people continued to keep all His commandments. To accept his counterfeits on earth, including a false Sabbath in place of the seventh day God specified to be kept holy, would give the exiled rebel on earth what he claimed and failed to gain in heaven. When the law was not altered to meet his request he worked upon the minds of heavenly angels by false representations and crooked ways and brought them into apostasy until he with all sympathizers was turned out and lost his high and holy position, and after his fall he worked in the same line upon Adam and Eve and seduced them from loyalty, and his work has gone on in the same line ever since, deceiving thousands of angels and drawing them to question the authority of God's law and the justice of His government.
He became dissatisfied because God had not revealed all His purposes to him, and he disregarded what God had revealed about the work assigned to him. He began with murmuring and pitying himself because something said or done did not suit him and did not, as he thought, give him due consideration. Distrust had never before entered any heart, but his coveted place he was not given and his cherished thoughts developed into suggestions of evil which spread among the angels and led to the great rebellion. His work was sowing unbelief, discord and disloyalty, entertaining disaffection and not keeping it to himself but telling others he was not treated as he should be, so others were led to murmur and complain as a root of bitterness springing up whereby many are defiled. He stirred the angels under his command to share his discontent, causing their fall and beginning the woe and misery that have afflicted humanity. Those who murmur and pity themselves for the same reasons carry on that very heavenly work and follow in his track, and he still works the same way through his evil angels confederating with men who claim to be in the faith to bring severe trials against those trying to carry forward God's work with fidelity, without partiality, hypocrisy or admiration of persons, with success proportionate to the light and knowledge of these opposers as the deep root of bitterness is communicated in confused and untruthful statements and unscrupulous principles, making them the very helpers he wants. In the face of abundant light and evidence the warnings of the Holy Spirit were disregarded through persistent deception and self-chosen sophistry, leaving no excuse for rebellion, and the same course leads away from truth now when people give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, choosing their own sophistries and letting themselves be used as voices for another's error. He continues to assure his followers that their forces will conquer.
There was no cause in God's government for disaffection, no withdrawal of divine influence, no deficiency or failure. God's decrees are vindicated because they did not cause sin, and the divine decrees will be vindicated as not accessory to sin. Sin began with Satan's own choice and gives humans no excuse to yield to sin, for if an excuse for sin could be found it would not be sin and could not be condemned. Their sin was transgression of the law, which is inexcusable and has no defence or justification, and it will be their final and eternal condemnation, so that when the question comes why they did this every tongue will be silent and the rebellious world will stand speechless before God. Christ stood without stain or spot during that rebellion because He kept all His Father's commandments, though in the form of God He did not grasp at being equal with God, in contrast to Satan who snatched at power in the heavenly courts. Warning was given in heaven in regard to his rebellion not to attempt such an enterprise, but he and his host persisted and were expelled. God bears long and permits the enemy to work out his plans that He may have the final victory, so the universe of heaven and the unfallen worlds can see the goodness of God in contrast with the character of Satan and not be taken unawares, and so the true and loyal can be gathered under one head. The eagerness on earth to obtain high positions, to rule, guide and control, repeats that heavenly rebellion. There was and is no enmity between Satan and the angels who joined him, and there is no natural enmity between fallen angels and fallen men, because both are evil, both are in apostasy and rebellion, both do the same work of transgression, and both cover transgression with robes of righteousness as angels of light. Fallen angels and fallen men join in desperate companionship against good, united as with iron bands to oppose the law of God and tear down the great moral standard that governs all intelligences in Paradise and in the many worlds God created, for Satan calculated that by inducing men as he had induced angels he would gain them as working agents and allies against heaven. The same work is carried forward on earth through his generalship to unite all diverse elements to make void the law of Jehovah, and enmity against him is exercised only through the Spirit and power of God, so only a portion of the race subdued by grace will return to loyalty while all who stand on his side will perish in their sins and receive the same wrath, root and branch, because he is the root of rebellion and transgression. Because no soul alienated from God can remain in heaven he and his sympathizers were thrust out, leaving every human being free to choose between right and wrong and by that choice deciding eternal destiny, while God's purpose is that people be Christlike with clear discerning minds able to distinguish good from evil and with all power and strength given to those who believe and trust in Him to keep character pure and untarnished for the future life. The same heavenly order requires those who bear responsibility in God's work on earth to give no cause for disaffection and to maintain principles according to heaven's order.
Deception and Divine Forbearance
Revelation 12:7 shows open war in heaven only after a long, severe course of secret envy, deception and satanic wiles carried on day by day, in which Lucifer, next to Christ and highest of the covering cherubs, loved and influential, coveted the homage due alone to the Creator and cherished envy while making it appear he sought the good of the universe. He hid his real purpose while insinuating seeds of doubt and suspicion, spreading discontent by lying, fraud, twisting God's words, misrepresentation of God, Christ and the true and loyal angels, cunning sophistry, specious reasoning, seductive theories and false science, sowing unbelief and discord, mourning to arouse sympathy, and declaring God withheld higher education that would make angels and men as gods. He worked by influence of mind on mind, putting ideas into minds and reporting them as coming from others, planting criticism of God's government and presenting those ideas to the highest order of angels as though they had originated with others, covering his tracks and gathering listeners without compromising himself until many angels listened, believed his words, and the sentiments he inculcated developed and could be dealt with. His opposition to the Son of God was so subtle that its true character was not at first apparent to the heavenly host, and only after a long period was the rebellion exposed, fought by Michael and His angels against the dragon and his angels until every soul liable to act on Satan's side was defeated, prevailed not, and expelled for the safety of the loyal angels with place found no more in heaven.
His policy was to claim support for God's government while secretly working to overthrow it, to accuse loyal angels of the wrong he sought to commit, to accuse the heavenly angels when the evil originated in himself, and to corrupt the family of God in heaven by leading angels under his influence to speak and act against loyalty to God until they lost judgment and will. He cast the cause of his defection upon God and Christ, claiming he would not have gone on doing as he did if they had not so firmly resisted his plans and reproved him, so representing his case that he drew many angels from allegiance, stirred sympathy by claiming unjust treatment in Christ's honoring, and refused to listen to warning and reproof. Through his insinuations those angels became disaffected and came to believe that the Father and the Son were their enemies and Satan was their benefactor, and the same sophistries that found acceptance in heaven and misled humanity's first parents continue to deceive people on earth.
He fought with false science and entrancing false teaching, his weapons being false assertions made to the angels and subtle scientific theories that seduced many from loyalty, and after losing his place he carried the same tempting work to Adam and Eve and still uses it today. That same war is still carried forward under the new disguise of Spiritualism, through perfect counterfeits of departed friends that comfort the living, through pretended visitants from the dead that win confidence by true cautions and foretellings and then undermine faith in the Scriptures, set aside the law of God, despise the Spirit of grace, count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, deny the divinity of Christ, and place even the Creator on a level with creatures. Having swerved from allegiance and dissolved relationship with the universe and with the Son of God in particular, he became altogether selfish and a universal evil, stimulated with hatred against God's holy law, seeking to conform all things to his image, to efface the Divine image and stamp his hateful apostate image on souls, acting upon minds with attention and will given to him since he could not employ force, and safety from his crafty deceptions comes only by relying on God's power, prayer, humility and communion with the Higher Power, not human strength.
God could at once have hurled the arch deceiver from heaven, but in truth and justice bore long, warned him, conferred with His Son after loyal angels reported what was taking place, gave message after message calling to reform, clearly showed him his wrong course, and repeatedly offered pardon if he would repent and submit. He permitted the war with equal chance to measure strength and might with His Son and loyal angels, letting it be acted out for a time so every angel would choose his own side and be manifested to all, character and purposes made known, the usurper unmasked as accuser, deceiver, liar and murderer, the loyal saved from apostasy and eternal ruin, and the universe and unfallen worlds could see God's goodness, justice, judgment, mercy and love in contrast with Satan's character. The war was a council in heaven in which Satan's party misstated the words of Christ and put a false meaning on every truthful statement, while loyal angels warned of consequences, that He who could create angels could overturn their authority and punish audacity, and advised Satan and all affected to close ears to deceptive reasonings and confess wrong for even admitting a thought of questioning authority as sacred as God Himself. When open war broke out in earnest after long secret deception, Satan refused to listen, turned from loyal angels denouncing them as slaves, promised a new and better government with freedom for all, flattered himself he would win all angels as leader and chief commander and be equal with God commanding the entire host, and great numbers signified purpose to accept him before the Son of God and loyal angels prevailed and expelled him and his sympathizers, leaving heaven peaceful and harmonious again.
To the very end he justified himself, and when announcement came that he and sympathizers must be expelled he openly showed contempt for the Creator's law, claiming angels needed no control and should follow their own will, denouncing statutes as restriction of liberty, declaring purpose to abolish law so hosts could enter more exalted existence, while in unison laying blame wholly on Christ saying they would never have rebelled if not reproved, stubbornly portraying themselves as innocent victims of oppressive power while vainly seeking to overthrow God's government. He boldly contended his sentence was unjust, maintained there was no self-denial with God and in struggling to carry out purposes and have his own way he only imitated God's example, asking why first sons in His image should not follow their own will as God does, complaining of severity as children complain of parents restraining destructive plans, and by this deceived many holy angels. In the warfare ensuing he for a time seemed to hold advantage and triumphed in apparent victory because he could lie while God could not lie and could move in a thousand crooked deceiving ways while God must pursue the straightforward course of truth and righteousness. God would unmask the enemy and reveal true character through Christ, divinity clothed in humanity as light scattering thick darkness, whose whole earthly life of perfect submission and rigid self-denial contrasts the obedient Son with the disloyal son, who conquered in the long fast of the wilderness when offered world dominion for worship, and whose death alone perfected final triumph, opening free salvation, bearing the curse, wresting the last weapon for world kingdoms, so man might be free through Jesus Christ, exposing that transgression brought fall and no good through disobedience.
Defeat and Expulsion
The loyal side prevailed, for Michael who is Christ Himself, the Son of God and Prince and Commander of heaven, with His loyal angels fought the dragon who is Satan, Lucifer, once the highest covering cherub next to Christ, and his angels, and the rebels were defeated, thrust out, shut out and emptied out of heaven and cast to this earth, driven from God's presence with no more right or place in the heavenly courts, losing honor, supremacy and role in government, while Christ overcame and vanquished them. The war arose from Lucifer's envy and desire for the homage owed only to the Creator and for God's throne and authority independent of God, claiming prerogatives no created being could receive, and because his former experience was unquestionable and he had the confidence of all, he spread deceptive ideas among the angels through mind-to-mind influence, presenting his effort as beneficial to the universe and drawing large numbers to his side, yet Michael and his angels fought against him and his angels who were ultimately expelled, and he still leads the forces of rebellion on earth where the world stands under the black banner of rebellion in transgression of God's law. The conflict was real and open, allowing each angel to choose a side and making character and purposes known, for God permitted it rather than immediately using His power to expel Satan, so that His justice and judgment would be clear to the heavenly host, and the heavenly host acknowledged God's justice when heaven was left again peaceful and harmonious.
Expulsion was required because divine justice stands demanding holiness and purity in all who would see God and dwell there, and mercy could not leave rebellion in heaven or admit the whole race irrespective of character without destroying harmony and producing a worse condition of disaffection and rebellion than before. His presence would have kept the angels in continual danger from corrupting influence, so God removed him to protect the host and preserve the peace, happiness and harmony of heaven, with its gates never more to open to them. The same principle holds on earth, for change of place from earth to heaven does not change character, the happiness of the redeemed results from characters formed in this life after the image of Christ, and a student who incites others to disobedience must be separated from the school to save the others, just as Satan was separated from heaven, while he has abated not a particle of enmity and revenge since defeat but works by deceiving power through every human agency that will be worked by him to taint and corrupt others, convert them to his plan of disobedience and disloyalty, and prevent reforms when warnings, reproofs and corrections are sent. His wrongdoing was clearly shown, he cast the cause of his defection upon God and Christ claiming they had firmly resisted his plans and treated him unjustly in honoring Christ, he used lies and misrepresentation to find sympathizers and draw many from allegiance, and though repeatedly offered pardon if he would repent and submit he chose to justify rebellion, so his expulsion vindicated God's justice and the honor of His government.
After being shut out he realized he had lost all the purity and glory of heaven forever, and he with his followers repented, wept and implored to be taken back into favor and reinstated in his proper place or any place that might be assigned. Heaven could not take him back without placing heaven in jeopardy and marring all heaven, for sin originated with him and the seeds of rebellion with hate, envy and jealousy remained within him too great to be blotted out and must remain to receive final punishment. Denied readmission he could not enter its gates, so he waited outside to taunt the angels and provoke conflict as they came and went.
Their expulsion made this world the sole theater of the struggle between right and wrong, in which all people are involved and need recovery from sin and reconciliation with God. Having gained a portion of heaven's angels to join him against God and then overcome Adam and Eve, Satan boasted that he had gained the human race and the world as his dominion, and claimed Eden as his headquarters and throne. Expelled from heaven he determined to set up a kingdom on this earth and win man to his side, holding consultation with fallen angels to continue defiance of God and His Son, directing evil angels who do not all readily unite in the hazardous work while claiming he alone has wisdom sufficient. He retired alone to mature plans to most surely secure the fall of Adam and Eve, impressing on them that this is their last and only hope, for if they fail all prospect of regaining and controlling heaven or any part of God's creation is hopeless, and he learned that cunning and deceit must do what force cannot. He feared his purposes might be defeated, knew even success in leading Adam and Eve to disobey and transgress God's law would bring himself no good and only increase guilt, shuddered at plunging the holy happy pair into the misery and remorse he endures, wavered between firm determination and hesitation, then cast off despair and fortified himself as their leader, and his angels sought him with their decision to unite with him and share responsibility and consequences. After being cast out he turned his efforts toward ruining the human race, becoming a foe who could deceive Adam and Eve though God limited his access to them to the tree of knowledge of good and evil so they were safe when they obeyed, while Christ pledged His word that if man was overcome He would be his surety and afterward came in humanity to stand where Adam stood and endure and defeat the temptations of the author of sin.
God's angels triumphed on His side when Satan sought supremacy, and those very angels who fought and triumphed then are the same who shouted for joy over creation, witnessed the fall of man and his expulsion from Eden, and now visit the world unseen to oversee God's work, minister in every time of necessity to those carrying it forward and striving as co-workers with God, rejoice when it prospers, cooperate with visible human agencies as a relief-association, overrule earthly powers, protect God's people from the destruction Satan would bring, and work in union with the fallen redeemed race to bind up wounds sin has made and save perishing sinners. They remain most intensely interested in human salvation and in working with redeemed people to seek and save those lost in sin, and though danger may come the Lord will not let His people be defeated, for Michael leads the Lord's host as mightier than the foe.
Satan had led the heavenly choir and raised the first note of praise to God and His Son, but after presumptuous rebellion he and the angels he drew were shut out with its gates never more to open, though before their fall not a shade of discontent had marred perfect bliss and they had never thought to question Heaven's will or refuse obedience to God's law until he put it into their minds with sophistry of greater good and higher liberty. Now their happiness was gone, their countenances which had reflected the image of their Maker were gloomy and despairing, and strife, discord and bitter recrimination previously unknown in heaven were among them. No more would they unite in joyful songs of praise or bow in reverence before the Father, nor be swayed by the mild rule of Jesus with love, peace and joy returned in cheerful obedience, and Satan beholds the terrible results, shudders and fears to face the future, and bears responsibility for leading others to the same lost condition beyond redemption.
Continuation on Earth
The war that began in heaven did not end with expulsion but continues on earth for almost six thousand years, four thousand of them reaching to Christ's first coming. It grows more artful, subtle and determined as it puts on religion, increasing in power and wrath as time shortens. It is lasting enmity in which Satan with evil angels and wicked men works mind to mind to deceive, hinder obedience, accuse the brethren day and night, and instigate every injustice to wound Christ by bruising His people, while God marks oppression and will avenge. Holy angels still minister to advance God's cause, and each person must take a decided position to fight on the Lord's side, for Satan did not prevail in heaven and will not prevail. Fallen angels and fallen people have no natural opposition to one another, for both are evil and unite against the good, though divided among themselves, seeking to discredit God and hoping numbers will let them overthrow Him.
Expelled from heaven, Satan determined to set up a rival kingdom here, planted the standard of rebellion, and rallied his sympathizers to win man to carry on the warfare and accomplish on earth what he failed to do in heaven. He came to Eden with lying reports about God, telling Adam and Eve that God was withholding the higher education that would make them as gods, and tempted them into disobedience in hope of rising higher. By that transgression sin and death entered, God's image in man was defaced, and they were driven from Paradise, though loyal angels had warned them that only perfect obedience and staying together kept them safe. After overcoming them he thought he had gained full possession of this world because they had chosen him as ruler, claimed forgiveness was impossible so the fallen race were his rightful subjects, and made Eden his headquarters and throne. God answered by giving His own dear Son, one equal with Himself, as substitute and surety pledged even before man's fall, to come in humanity where Adam stood, bear the penalty, ransom and restore purity, rescue the world from Satan's grasp, and defeat the foe, so that the controversy begun in heaven would be decided on the very field Satan claimed.
Heaven and unfallen worlds witnessed the controversy and its closing scenes, including Christ's agony in Gethsemane as He bore the guilt of the world and felt His Father's presence withdrawn. Through incarnation as a helpless babe subject to weakness, completed sacrifice, resurrection, obedience to the law and bearing its penalty, Christ opposed the deceiver, exposed his schemes, broke his power, ended his hold on affection, and reveals God's love. Having overcome him in heaven, Christ met him again in the forty-day wilderness temptation and overcame, was followed from manger to cross where priests were filled with hatred until He stood before Pilate, and in human nature capable of yielding kept allegiance as a garment. The same rebel who tempts people to sin then seeks to destroy them misrepresents God's character by portraying his own cruelty as God's, makes God's law appear imperfect, unjust and impossible to obey, yet humanity has hope not by abolishing the law but through Christ's merits in obeying it. Dwelling on Satan's power magnifies him, while Christians are to magnify Jesus' power and love as the mighty Saviour who overcame and cast out the evil one.
The same two parties that fought in heaven now remain, so every person young or old must choose whom to follow and under which banner to stand. On one side is Christ's bloodstained banner of obedience, on the other Satan's black banner of rebellion and darkness, and there are only two classes in the world. Those who keep the law of God are one with God in the war, and by keeping His Sabbath holy His people show they are His, preserve the knowledge of Him as Creator, and apply the remedy for the strife by which Satan divides the church. Taking Christ's side brings victory and character, standing under Satan's brings death, and choosing not to follow Christ places one on the side of darkness under the apostate's banner, for Christ's side is obedience and disloyalty is contention against the principles of His law.
The war continues into the last days as Satan's last work of rebellion, for he knows his usurped authority will soon forever end at the Lord's coming with power and great glory. This is his last opportunity to gain control of the world, so he makes most decided efforts to accomplish the destruction of its inhabitants, his enmity against good manifesting more and more as perils thicken about the remnant. In the great closing work the powers of evil unite in desperate struggle with deceptive plans, with ministers and physicians and lawmakers uniting in rebellion, thousands taking place on the side of satanic agencies, some in pretentious garb of righteousness having the form of godliness without power, until too late they see angels of God in warfare against all departed from the faith. That same satanic power that made war in heaven now instigates and unites with false religious persecuting powers which profess the character of a lamb and alliance to heaven while their actions reveal the heart of a dragon in warring against God's holy law and its keepers, the product of church and state uniting to crush opposition. Every soul not fully surrendered to God and kept by divine power will form alliance with Satan against heaven and join battle against the Ruler of the universe, requiring believers to be faithful sentinels against specious reasonings and betrayal of sacred trusts.
Part of that earthly war is over the law of God, for the war in heaven was over the law which Satan sought to correct, amend and supply with his own, exalting his judgment above his Creator and virtually declaring God fallible. The same work is carried on here through the pope of Rome, who claims infallibility and seeks to adjust God's law to his own ideas, virtually saying he will give better laws than Jehovah, which insults the God of heaven. Nearly all the human family prove disloyal to the higher law written by God's finger on stone, openly transgressing it, trampling the Sabbath and breaking the fourth commandment by honoring a papal institution instead of God's rest day, discarding the genuine Sabbath memorial of creation for a spurious sabbath to assert rival authority and spread opposition among all nations. Rejecting even one precept expresses contempt for the whole law and places influence on the side of transgression, as Satan leads the world blindfolded by the same sophistry that led angels to accept his theology in place of a plain Thus saith the Lord. God has given light on that apostasy to be widely circulated now as never before because it opens blind eyes, and faithful circulation holds back the Sunday-law movement while neglect lets it advance.
That same war is continued under commercialism, for after coming to earth Satan entered eagerly into it, and those who reject light and depart from the faith follow the fallen angel even unknowingly. Fallen Lucifer remains conscious of gatherings of believers and appoints agencies to bring opposing circumstances after meetings to gain victory, tempting with crafty deceptions that none can meet without Christ's power. The disloyal angels now help him conform all things to his image, infuse his nature into individuals, efface the Divine image and stamp his hateful apostate image on the soul, approaching man to gain attention and will so he can act upon minds, misrepresent God, and stimulate hatred against God's holy law, since force is denied him. They are now in this world as an opposing agency to be contended with, watching to deceive, obscure light and oppose gatherings, with undiminished intelligence. Safety is only in God's power, not human strength, in communion with the Higher Power through prayer, humbling the heart, walking in humility, holding no converse with Satan after Christ's example, and sharing the divine nature.
Through preaching the gospel and faith in the Word Satan is cast out from minds and dispossessed from hearts, losing hold so his kingdom totters. Christ as Conqueror limits his power and protects His people as mightier than the conquered foe, and believers should magnify Jesus rather than Satan. Prayer and living faith bring victory when Satan seeks to overcome those who would obey by tempting and discouraging them until they give up. Those attacked for giving decided reproof to those gone against light must cling closely to Jesus by faith, leave themselves in the Saviour's hands, not fail or be intimidated by fierce attacks, physical agony, sorrow and crushing grasp upon life, but continue the message unafraid. Human opposition is to be met as Satan behind his agents, with Jesus as fortress, the heavenly host working on behalf of God's people as they humble their hearts, seek the Lord, live heaven's principles in unity and love, press for victory at every step, and are made ready for the grand review when salvation and glory are revealed.
Doctrine Character and Warning
After the expulsion God in counsel with His Son formed the plan of creating man in Their own image to be placed on probation and tested once, and if loyal to be freed from continual temptation and exalted equal with the angels and made immortal. The angels themselves had been on probation when Satan deceived them and led them into rebellion against Christ, and when tested they failed to remain faithful and fell. This life is probation to prove fitness to live with sinless angels, for persistent rebellion against God's law forfeits place in heaven, and just before Christ comes in majesty to take vengeance a proclamation of the law goes forth so every disloyal subject may return to allegiance, leaving those who continue without excuse under the same exclusion as Satan. Taking sides with the first rebel means making the Word of God of none effect by persisting in transgression, and those who refuse to obey during probationary time cannot with safety be received into the kingdom, for they would oppose the law of government just as he did and there would be a second rebellion. Divine justice demands holiness and purity in all who would see God and dwell there, and if mercy opened the gates irrespective of character a worse disaffection than before the expulsion would result and break up heaven. Change of place does not change character, happiness in heaven results from characters formed in this life after the image of Christ, saints in heaven must first have been saints on earth, and only the thoroughly converted guided by the Bible are fit.
Heaven admits no sin and no sinner will enter the New Jerusalem, for entrance through the golden gates requires a sanctified life measuring with the life of Christ with every life tuned to praise. Holiness is the foundation of God's throne and sin is the opposite of holiness, the thing His soul hates and that crucified the Son, so even angels who stood about the throne and were loved by Him kept not their first estate of loyalty but followed their rebel leader and were cast out because He cannot endure the presence of sin. God does not work with sinners in the ministry who will not agonize to enter the strait gate, reform in life and character and overcome secret faults. Those who knowingly rebel and teach disobedience cannot live in His presence because they would carry the spirit of rebellion into heaven, and He seeks a commandment-keeping people with a right hold from above whom He can introduce without creating a second rebellion. Religious teachers who set their own words against God's words and voice the words of the great apostate instead of honestly searching the Word will come to shame and ruin and carry with them those they deceived, just as Satan carried away his followers. To admit the disobedient, the confident unsanctified selfish, robbers, adulterers and false dealers, or to foster sin, would bring warfare again, while the redeemed will never want to rebel.
There is no natural enmity between fallen angels and fallen men because both are evil, both are in apostasy and rebellion, both do the same work of transgression and cover it with robes of righteousness as angels of light. Fallen angels and fallen men join in desperate companionship against good, united as with iron bands to oppose the law of God and tear down the great moral standard that governs all intelligences in Paradise and in the many worlds created. Satan calculated that by inducing men as he had induced angels to join the rebellion he would gain working agents and allies against heaven and have a strong force to carry it on, and the same work is carried forward on earth through his generalship to unite all diverse elements to make void the law of Jehovah. Cast to earth he planted his standard and established a rival empire where all powers of evil combine to oppose God, and actuated by hatred he leaves no means untried to attract men to himself, eclipse every ray of light, efface God's likeness and stamp his own apostate image on souls. Enmity against Satan is exercised only through the Spirit and power of God, only hearts subdued by grace resist his spirit and return to loyalty, while those not subdued are guided by the same spirit that led angels astray. Selfishness, jealousy, covetousness, withholding God's own and investing entrusted talents to build up his kingdom is taking sides under his banner and worshiping him and not God, and those who break the law and try to compel fellow men to obey man-made laws are in his service and, unrepented, will perish in their sins and receive the same wrath root and branch because he is the root of rebellion.
The same deceptive spirit and rebellion is repeated whenever people strive for the highest place, seek authority, unsettle confidence in ministers, justify law against brethren, caricature God's servants, claim infallibility and loyalty while opposing truth, work secretly under trust from house to house with falsehoods, accuse the brethren, oppose the third angel's message, unite against faithful workers, bind institutions under one human control against God's will, or find sympathizers when reproved. Satan cast the cause of his defection upon God and Christ, claiming he would never have gone on doing as he did if they had not so firmly resisted his plans, and by so representing his case he found sympathizers and drew many angels from allegiance. He did not prevail and was expelled because otherwise the host would have been in continual danger, yet he has abated none of his enmity and revenge. He carries the same work to earth, deceiving wrongdoers into supposing they are unjustly dealt with when warnings, reproofs, corrections and reforms are sent, working through every human agency that will be worked to taint and corrupt others and prevent reforms. His fall began with sympathy and the angels who sympathized fell also, and still those who are wrong and work with him find people who sympathize when reproved because sympathizers fear hurting feelings. Rebellion against God's ministers places one under his banner contending against Omnipotence, for the same subtle power he used among holy beings ensnares many by sophistry now among God's people, so churches must be wide-awake lest even the elect be deceived.
Lucifer's discontent warns against disregarding revealed commands to speculate about what God has not revealed, against taking the position views are never to be given up like his refusal to harmonize with Christ, against trusting human greatness and human wisdom, against false sympathy excusing crooked character, and against Korah-like envy of appointed leaders. Next to Christ and highest of the covering cherubs, loved and influential, he coveted the homage due alone to the Creator, cherished envy and sought the service and loyalty of angels while making it appear he sought the good of the universe. He long hid his real purpose while insinuating seeds of doubt and suspicion, working by influence of mind on mind until sentiments developed and open war broke out in which Michael and His angels fought the dragon and his angels who prevailed not and whose place was found no more. Cast out he set up his kingdom in this world and continues the same mind-on-mind power, seducing human beings from allegiance and leading men to bind together in confederacies, trade unions and secret societies, with a church made up of all the disaffected in whom he has implanted selfishness, deception and intrigue. His self-exaltation, envy and emulation rooted in fallen nature must be repressed by rejoicing in others' prosperity, laboring for purity and submitting to God to resist the devil, for his deceptions can be resisted only through divine aid and personal knowledge of Christ after choosing to live for self and rejecting dependence on God.
The history of rebellion reveals the nature, fruit and results of sin and that well-being is bound up with God's government, remaining as a safeguard. Satan now seeks to mold people in his likeness while Christ gives power to resist temptations, and he seeks to justify his failure by proving humans can no more keep the law than he and his angels did, standing ready to put evil insinuations into minds and to mold and fashion them. A work of opposition begun in heaven is what evil angels now lead people to repeat. The determined warfare between good and evil, right and wrong, God and the devil that began when angels rebelled has been waged incessantly ever since and still lies before us. The same warfare must now be continued by complete subjection of self, appetites and passions, by denying every hurtful lust that harms brain and nerve energy, mortifying evil desire and unhealthful practice and purifying the soul temple from every defilement, so the body is brought into more healthful condition to fight with stronger faith and clearer perception, gain mastery over every health-enfeebling lust and not be finally overcome by warring lust.