Excerpts from my sister's book, "The End is Near."
Continued from previous post...
Continued from previous post...
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a
woman…and she was with child…Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold,
a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were
seven diadems…And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give
birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child,
who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up
to God and to His throne.
Then the woman
fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there
she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And there was war in heaven, Michael and his
angels waging war with the dragon. The
dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was
no longer a place found for them in heaven.
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called
the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the
earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority
of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down,
he who accuses them before our God day and night.””
Rev. 12:1-10
Here we
see the birth of Jesus: the birth of Christianity.
Satan tried, and failed,
to kill Jesus through king Herod when Jesus was born (see Matt. 2:13-20). Prior to Jesus’ death, Satan was the ruler of
this world within limits set by God (see Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; Matt. 4:8, 9), but
Jesus’ sacrificial death redeemed the world from Satan’s control and Jesus became
the absolute ruler of this world (see Rev. 5:9-13; Rev. 12:5). Satan did not want to give up control so a
war broke out and he and his angels were thrown out of heaven by force.
Satan is no longer allowed
to come before God in heaven and accuse us of anything. We now belong to Jesus and he represents us
before God as our redeemer, our savior, and substitutes his perfection for our
faults.