The Battle

THE BATTLE

By Rusty Thomas

How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” (Isaiah 14:12-15)

Through the blood, sweat, and tears, we have learned a few truths that will hopefully benefit you, the reader, and future generations. In this incredible journey of faith, the Lord has been gracious to not only strip away the layers of the sinful fortifications that have surrounded our own hardened and deceitful hearts, but He has also been faithful to strip away the layers of Satanic deception that is defiling our great land. This article will be devoted to rip off the mask of this Adversary and to peel away the layers that he has meticulously constructed to conceal his works of darkness.

Notice in the opening Scripture passage that Lucifer makes a five-fold boast that is accentuated by arrogant declarations concerning his self-will. Proudly, he announces, “I will do this,” and “I will do that,” without any regret, remorse, or concern for the will of his Creator. This promotion of the Devil’s will at the expense of God’s will is one of the major demarcation lines that defines the battle that is raging today between two seeds and two competing worldviews. The seed of the serpent haughtily chants, “My rights, my body, my choice, and I’m going to do what I want to do, whenever I want to do it and with whomever I want to do it, and nobody is going to tell me what to do, not even God Himself!” Meanwhile, the seed of the woman simply bows in humility before a Holy God and cries, “Not my will, but thine be done.” Clearly, these postures serve as an ex-ray into the heart of men to determine whether they are children of God or children of the Devil.

Secondly, it is important to observe the nature of Satan’s boast in Isaiah 14; for contained within this passage is a revelation that exposes the aspirations, goals, and agenda of the Evil One. For the sake of brevity, let’s focus on the last boastful “I will” that is the ultimate pursuit of this fallen angel. His desire is to be like the Most High. In light of this admission, there are a few ramifications we need to explore. We must remember that this is a creature that has been in the presence of the Almighty in eternity past. He does have a limited understanding of what the Most High is like. He has been privileged to witness the very personhood, attributes, and divine characteristics of the Triune Godhead up close and personal. It is from this basis that God’s adversary seeks to emulate and pervert the attributes of the Most High as demonic instruments of deception and destruction. Herein is the key to unlock the mystery that exposes this wolf in sheep’s clothing that comes as an Angel of Light.

To drive home this point, if I were to ask each reader of this article what God was like, one would hear an avalanche of responses. Depending on your maturity level and the soundness of your theology there would be a myriad of answers given. Such as, God is love, just, merciful, gracious, kind, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, forgiving, infinite, jealous, and so forth. Now, out of all these attributes, there is one that rises above them all. God is Holy! In other words, we do not see the angels flying to and fro declaring for all eternity that God is “loving, loving, loving,” or that God is “merciful, merciful, merciful,” or that God is “forgiving, forgiving, forgiving.” No, the mighty declaration and the very message of heaven continually announces that God is “holy, holy, holy, and the whole earth is filled with His glory.” What is interesting about this phenomenon is the angels are not following some script and are making these declarations by rote. They are in the very presence of God’s pure holiness. They can’t help themselves. They see Him and cry, “holy.” They watch Him move and utter, “holy.” They see Him gesture and it is holy.

One would pray for the day that the Church on earth would line up her message to agree and conform to the message given from heaven. Maybe then, the other true attributes of God would not be highjacked by the Evil One to mask his abominable deeds. For surely as I write this article, that is exactly what is happening in our age. The battle that is raging for the souls of men and the future of America comes down to the fact that Satan has exploited Christian virtues to promote his evil agenda. In the name of love, compassion, and mercy, he is killing, stealing, and destroying the humanity that Christ died to redeem. He has garnered for himself the fruit of the spirit as instruments to deceive, defile, and destroy. G.K. Chesterton summed up well this sorry state of affairs by declaring, “The modern world is full of old Christian virtues gone mad.” This statement reveals how man, duped by this enemy, misapplies and misappropriates the virtues of God and Christianity to mask his evil. The bottom line, according to Proverbs 12:10b, “But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

This truth is plainly made manifest through the horrific practice of abortion and the perverse promotion of the homosexual agenda. Behind the deadly influence of Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates lurks the Angel of Light. Aided by his human puppets who guise themselves in compassion for women, he is able to commit the unspeakable with impunity. These ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing rip apart the very image of God and throw away precious children like a piece of trash all the while smiling and assuring the selfish, deceived mothers that they are only there to help. Similarly, in the same cunning fashion, the homosexual juggernaut continues to roll defiling everything in its path, all in the name of love, tolerance, and compassion.

Obviously, this tact by the enemy and his human cohorts has been highly successful in the court of public opinion and also in the judicial courts in America. While appearing to gain the high moral ground and wrapping up their evil in the American flag and Christian virtue, the enemies of the cross have seemingly neutralized the Church. For the most part, the Church in America appears to be paralyzed, like a deer hypnotized by the headlights of an approaching Mac truck. One wonders what it will take to move the Church from the playground to the battleground. How long will we sit idle while good is becoming evil and evil, good? When will we take the weapons of our warfare, which are not carnal and pull down these lying strongholds of satanic deception? How long before the Church wrests back from the wicked the virtues of Christianity that must be centered in the Truth that will set the captive free, instead of allowing this enemy to pervert them with his lies to kill, steal, and destroy?

SATAN’S TARGET IN THE BATTLE

“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.” (Revelation 12:3,4)

It is illuminating to realize that this fierce dragon is no longer content to wait for the Child to be born, but is reaching into the very sanctuary of the womb to devour children. It is also revealing to notice that this Child, who most Bible scholars believe to be Jesus, has received the full attention of the Devil himself. He doesn’t send an imp, a principality, a power, or a ruler of darkness to devour the Child, but he has reserved that dirty deed for himself. Obviously, this Child has so struck terror in the heart of the enemy that he feels compelled to deal with this Child before this Child deals with him. Thus the reason for Satan literally positioning himself before the woman to destroy her Child as soon as He is born. The ultimate reason for his fearful concern is revealed in verse five of chapter twelve in the book of Revelations, “She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.”

Herein lies the revelation of Satan’s target in the battle. Basically, there are two targets that he seeks to either neutralize or destroy. His specific target is revealed in Revelations 12:17, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This Scripture reveals that the Enemy of our Souls is not enraged or concerned about the pagan, the unbeliever, the liberal apostate church or the lukewarm, carnal Christian, but just as our Master before us, he becomes livid about those who obey the commandments of God and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Brethren, we must understand that the true child of God was picked out to be picked on. If you endeavor to love God by obeying His commandments and by holding fast to the testimony of Jesus, you might as well paint a bulls-eye on your chest, because you are the target. Why? Because you threaten the Enemy by following the One who is “Conqueror and is conquering.” The only major difference that exists today between us and those who have gone before us in the battle is that they rejoiced to be found worthy to suffer harm for the Lord’s sake. Meanwhile, whenever we suffer harm in the struggle, we murmur and complain that God must not love us anymore. Again, the Church in America must move from the playground mentality to the battleground.

The other target for Satan, in general, is the seed of man. Biblically and historically, whenever Satan rears his ugly head, children die. The reason can be found in Matthew 18:1-3. The Apostles were bickering and competing over who was to be greatest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus placed a child in their midst and used the child as an object lesson so that they might understand the mystery of the Kingdom. In essence, Jesus said lest you become like this child, you would not enter the Kingdom. In another passage, Jesus made a more startling comparison between children and the Kingdom. In Matthew 19:13-15, the Bible describes how little children were coming to Jesus to be blessed by Him. Instead of the Disciples welcoming the opportunity, they rebuked them and tried to send them away. Jesus stopped this madness and declared, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them: for such is the kingdom of heaven.”

Brethren, that statement more than any other, reveals why Satan goes after the seed of man with such fury. Jesus said children are the Kingdom of God and I’ll tell you right now that this Enemy knows the implications of that statement. Satan can coexist with the message of salvation, he can tolerate even the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with new tongues, but he can’t afford to allow the revelation of the Kingdom to grip the hearts of the seed of man. For in the revelation of the Kingdom is the toll of his demise. We must understand that Satan is like the Mafia, it’s not personal, it is just business. The Mafia can know and even like the one that is to be killed for a price. They murder, all the while assuring the victim that “It’s not personal, it’s just business!”

Satan operates under this same premise. To him, it is just good business to destroy the seed of man. One may question what is the business of Satan at this point. Typically, most Christians would answer his business is to kill, steal, and destroy. The only problem with that answer is, it doesn’t expose the underlying reasons for his lying, murderous ways. Simply stated, Satan’s business is survival! He understands what is at stake in this battle much more than the Church of Jesus Christ. His agenda is to kill or be killed. That’s why abortion is not at its core a political, social issue, but a Kingdom, Gospel issue. Satan knows what the Church, either through ignorance or denial, does not know and that is each child destroyed is one who potentially will not become a threat against Satan and his schemes. Satan fears the prospect of Psalm 127:3-5 being fulfilled. He cringes at the mere thought of families having a lot of children that will be shot from the bow of family and the Church to take him on and take him out. Children that will arise to possess the gates of their enemies.

Why do you think our culture and even the Church has adopted an anti-child bias? Why is it in our day that barrenness has become the blessing and a fruitful womb a curse in the minds of many? Why are children the least favorite “blessing” of professing Christians? Why do you think Satan has worked over-time to dupe man into accepting abortion on demand, contraceptives, day-care centers, and government-sponsored schools? He knows that if he fails through abortion, contraceptives, and homosexuality to prevent children from coming forth, he can at least separate them from father and mother in order to accomplish his dastardly schemes against the seed of man outside of the womb. Church, this is WAR! There is a real enemy! There are real casualties! We have got to awaken and quit warming ourselves by the fire of this Enemy, cast off the Spirit of the Age and the idols of the land and FIGHT IN JESUS’ NAME!

WAR IN THE HEAVENLIES

“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with dragon: and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9)

From this passage of Scripture we glean that the first sin was actually committed in the heavenlies by Lucifer and not in the Garden with Adam and Eve. As a result of this revolt in heaven, Satan and his imps were confined to Planet Earth. Is it just me, or do you not find it strange that God also created and strategically placed innocent man in the same neighborhood of this sick, perverted, lying, murderer? If you can solve that dilemma, then you’re on the road of discovery to understand your destiny on earth. Either God is very cruel in subjecting man to the wiles of this fallen creature or man has lost his purpose and can’t perceive God’s plan in the midst of this battle. For years, I’ve cried out to God, “Lord, you have the power to annihilate this enemy. You can just say the Word and this reign of terror would cease to exist. Why do you allow the struggle to continue? Why all the blood, sweat, and tears century after century?”

The answer, my friend, is revealed in the very reason why Jesus Christ had to become a man to defeat this enemy and liberate mankind from his evil grip. I believe God has chosen man to be His instrument and weapon to beat back the enemy and to use man to deal once and for all with the breach in God’s Kingdom that began in the heavenlies and was manifest on Planet Earth (Jeremiah 51:20-23, Isaiah 41:14-16). For many Christians, this is a foreign idea. They think their primary purpose is to worship God on Sundays by singing Him a few songs. I hate to be the one to burst that bubble, but God has myriads of angels to sing His praise. Can we possibly believe that the whole purpose for this battle comes down to the idea that God needed a contingent choir on Planet Earth? A backup singing group, in case He wasn’t satisfied with the praise of angels? In stating these questions, I’m not trying to belittle the extreme importance in worshipping God. Worship is something that God has commanded, not for His well being, but for ours. He inhabits the praise of His people and His presence is essential as we endeavor to fight this battle through the power of the Holy Spirit (Psalms 22:3). But to view worship, just in terms of singing, is to lose sight of the meaning of worship. Worship is a lifestyle that is defined by the beauty of holiness and a life of obedience in this midst of this grave conflict. That’s why God commanded Israel to put their songs and instruments away and let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:21-24). God was chastising Israel for viewing the worship He desired as a song service, instead of a life that was dedicated to establish His justice and righteousness on Planet Earth.

Now, how many besides me, didn’t sign up for a war when you gave your life to Christ? I don’t know about you, but I signed up to get blessed! I signed up to go to heaven when I die. I signed up to be a better husband and good father, and I signed up to prosper! How come the preacher didn’t tell me that when I made peace with God, I declared war on an enemy? For it didn’t take long after tasting the goodness of God’s salvation where the blues were bluer and the greens, greener, that I was keenly made aware that something out there didn’t like me. The war was on and all of a sudden the good Word of God that tasted like honey on my lips, turned bitter in my belly, as God began to call me from the playground of American Christianity to the battleground of Biblical Christianity. There is a major difference, my friend, between the two. One can coexist and tolerate the condition of America and the other will never, ever be content until it is changed. You can decide for yourself, which is which.

THE BATTLEFRONT OF THE WAR

The war, though instigated by Satan, was ultimately declared by God (Genesis 3:15). The Lord is a man of war! God, man, and Satan has been locked in a struggle since Genesis 3:15 that will only conclude when God decides to end it. The crucial key that is vital in this cosmic conflict is for the Church to discern the battlefront in this war. For the truth of the matter is simply this, though the war remains the same, the battlefront shifts in every generation. For instance, if you were born 150 years ago, whether you liked it or not, believed in it or not, the battlefront of the war, the point of contact between heaven and hell was slavery. God used a legal issue, State Rights vs. Federal Power, to judge this nation concerning this moral issue. It cost America 600,000 lives before we finally relented and let the slaves go free. Same God, same Devil, same truth, same lie, same heaven, and same hell, but the battlefront was slavery. We had to deal with it, because God was dealing with us.

The same holds true if you were alive 225 years ago. The battlefront of the war was the longing for Americans to be free from the tyranny of England. Now, whether or not you liked that notion or believed in it, you had to deal with it, because that was the battlefront of the war. Again, same God, same Devil, same truth, same lie, same heaven, and same hell, but it is imperative for the people of God to discern the battlefront in their generation. We must not only discern the battlefront, but also run to the roar that proceeds from it. Brethren, with all the conviction I can muster, the Church today must perceive that the battlefront that is raging in America for the souls of men and for the soul of our nation is abortion, child sacrifice, the shedding of innocent blood and sexual immorality in general and the abomination of homosexuality in particular. There is no nation that has killed its own babies and allowed homosexuality to flourish that has survived to brag about it. These two sins unchecked and unchallenged will damn America to hell. The Church must arise and push back this grave evil, lest God arise with flaming fire to take vengeance against this spoiled, wicked nation. The bottom line is only the judgment of God can eradicate these abominations once they are entrenched in the culture. That’s why we must fight the battle to give God a reason to show mercy, while our nation, like a spoiled brat, is begging for his judgment. Onward Christian Soldier!

IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE,
Rusty Lee Thomas

Webmaster's note: If you think that there are others you know that would also find this article useful, please print and share it twith them.