Spiritual Warfare

from Google Images

The Seventy returned from their mission rejoicing in the Lord, and their experiences far exceeded their expectations. They told Jesus that even the demons were subject to them through his name. Indeed, we are engaged in a great spiritual battle. It is the battle of the great day of God Almighty (Revelation.16:14). It is a battle of authority. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus (Luke 10:22; cf. Matthew 28:18), and he gives this authority to us (Luke 10:18-19; cf. Matthew 28:18-20;). Satan had fallen when Jesus first sent laborers out into the fields to bring in a harvest, and his authority continues to crumble at the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Satan fell, when he first began to lose ground[1] to God. Jesus and his servants fought and Satan and his servants (religious leaders and heads of state) fought (Revelation 12:7-9). Satan began losing the hearts of men at that time and continues to lose today.

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War in Heaven

from Google Images

In order for the idea to be true that demons are fallen angels, there had to have been some kind of conflict between the forces of good – God and his angels – and the forces of evil – God’s enemy and his angels. Yet, when those of us who believe or believed at one time that a ‘war in heaven’ did occur look into the word of God (the Bible), we are surprised to find that no account of such a conflict exists. I know I was surprised when I began to search the pages of God’s word to prove the teaching I had been told about Satan and his demons falling from their positions of glory in heaven. Yet, since there is no such clear record of such a thing occurring in the Bible, how did we come to believe a war between God and Satan occurred?

 

The Defeat of Satan

from Google Images

It seems that, while the Seventy were on their mission, Jesus was looking for results and saw Satan fall from heaven as quickly and as suddenly as a bolt of lightning (Luke 10:18). Some scholars try to say this points to a fall before the creation of mankind, but they have no Scriptural authority for such an understanding. It appears that Jesus was speaking of the direct result of his own ministry. Jesus had at that time delivered a severe blow to the work and might of Satan. What Jesus saw happen to Satan occurred as a consequence of Jesus sending out the Seventy on their mission as lambs among wolves (cf. Luke 10:3), because he had given them authority to trample all over the works of Satan, treating his ministers and their superstitious methods of healing with utter contempt (Luke 10:19).

 

Demonic Possession

from Google Images

One of the saddest matters that the New Testament records is that of the possession of a young child by a demon (Luke 9:37-39), who had control of the boy even from the time he had been an infant (Mark 9:21), implying his condition existed since his birth. One has to wonder how this could ever occur. While in the case of Job, God permitted Satan to torment Job’s person with sores, disease and the destruction of his family and his wealth, Satan was not permitted to control Job’s reaction to it all. In other words, Job was still free to either accept his circumstance as God allowed it, or to curse God for allowing it. Job’s freedom to choose was never in question.

 

The Devil

from Google Images

The name devil (diabolos – G1228) is defined as slanderer. The Scriptures also refer to the devil as the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). Jesus tells us that Judas Iscariot was a devil (John 6:70-71), implying that he was a false accuser or a slanderer. Jesus could have meant this to show Judas slandered his enemies, but Jesus may also be implying Judas was slandering Jesus in some manner. Perhaps when Judas was sent out to preach the Gospel (cf. Luke 9:1-2), he may have preached a messiah more to his liking (cf. John 12:34), than what Jesus told him to say. In any case, Jesus revealed in Luke 8:12 that it is the devil who removes the word of God (the ‘seed’ in the parable) from the hearts of men. This attaches a kind of omnipresence to a being other than God, unless it can be shown Jesus doesn’t mean to say an actual spirit being takes the word of God out of the hearts of men. Our modern theology seems to make the Devil, called Satan, into a kind of god who possesses God-like powers, but this is impossible. Only the Lord is God, and no one is able to oppose him.[1]

 

It’s a Matter of the Heart

from Google Images

After delivering the Parable of the Sower, Jesus revealed privately to his disciples that the seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11), which is sown in a man’s heart (Luke 8:12, 15). The hearts of some men are described in Luke 8:5-8 in varying degrees of receptiveness to the word of God, which is what makes the hearts of men useful to the Kingdom of God. In Luke’s first example, he tells us that some men’s hearts are just too hard for spiritual life (Luke 8:5, 12). The hearts of these men are trodden down, as though their hearts had no value (Matthew 7:6; cf. Hebrews 10:29) The birds eat the seed deposited there, so the word of God is never permitted to take root so that these men might consider the will of God.

 

Led Into the Wilderness

from Google Images

Both Matthew and Mark begin their record of Jesus’ ministry immediately after his forty day bout with Satan and also after John was put in prison (Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14). Luke, however, records several weeks of Jesus’ ministry before coming to events that occurred after John’s imprisonment (Luke 7:1-10; cf. John 3:22-23; 4:1, 46-53). Several Sabbaths are mentioned between Luke 4:14 (after Jesus’ temptations but before John’s imprisonment) and Luke 7:1 (the beginning of events occurring after John’s imprisonment in Luke’s Gospel). What can be said of these things?