“This is the Time For…”

A THOUGHT-PROVOKING ARTICLE PUTTING THE CHURCH IN ITS PROPHETIC CONTEXT

NOW, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, is the time to be sane and grounded. This is not the time to be “away with the fairies”. This is not the time to be hung up on fruitless controversies. This is not the time to be sucked into sectarian activities designed to waylay and divert the inquisitive mind. This is not the time to be disinterested in real truth. This is not the time to be boosting one’s own ego. This is not the time to be touting ‘love and peace’ in this world as a solution to its problems (for the only real solution to its problems will be its destruction and the creation of the “new heaven and new earth”). This is not the time to be partaking in the satanically-induced delusion (distraction) that “global revival” is soon coming on this earth. This is not the time to be listening to women (or other usurpers) who set themselves up as preachers and teachers and try to make a name for themselves (for it will not be long before they inevitably lead you “up the garden path” with some clever-sounding baloney to appeal to your flesh). This is not the time for indulging in sentimentality and spiritual bypassing. This is not the time to be advocating a phony “oneness” and “unity” based on a worthless (and lowest) common denominator in the visible “church”. This is not the time to ignore the harder sayings of Jesus. This is not the time to be “ignorant of Satan’s schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). This is not the time to skim the surface of anything. Ever.

This is the time to be sane and grounded. This is the time to get real. That means being fully aware of the ways that the forces of darkness are operating at this time in this world. That means understanding the context of every development in this world. But first, let us delve into some history (well, Church history actually, because all history is Church history really), so we can fully understand the whole span of the spiritual battle from the Fall to the Final Trump.

From the first instant of the creation, the whole of history looked forward to the incarnation of the Christ. Immediately after the Fall, we see that the first glimmer of the coming Saviour is hinted at in God’s words in judgement to Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The term there, “the woman”, refers to Eve, and “her seed” refers in the first instance to all those who live in anticipation of the promised Saviour, leading ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ, THE Seed of all seeds (cf. Galatians 3:16,19). So, we see that there are two seeds: The one springing from the woman and the other begotten by Satan (cf. John 8:44; Matthew 13:38). And so it has been all down human history.

However, when the Christ finally came, despite all the malice of Satan’s forces throughout the Old Testament period to prevent it, then the spiritual battle really intensified. Demons were coming out of the woodwork (so to speak) harassing Him from all sides. For Satan knew this time was coming all down the ages, having had it announced to him in that saying in Genesis 3:15. So he and his demons did their best to prevent it. This verse is really the root of all the persecution of the people of God and the hatred of Christ by the satanic realm. The “woman” there cannot merely refer to Eve but is a symbol of the people of God as His woman, His bride, the apple of His eye. The bruising of Satan’s head plainly refers to the overthrow of Satan by Christ and the bruising of the Seed’s heel surely refers to the killing of Christ which, although it would seem to Satan as if he had crushed Christ’s head, it was only really a slap on the heel by comparison and, in fact, was the very means by which Satan was overthrown.

In that verse, Genesis 3:15, we see the enmity between Satan and all the progeny of Eve who would be the carriers of the chosen seed which would lead to the birth of the Christ which would take in the entire people of God of all time. Satan therefore knew that the birth of the Saviour (Satan’s Conqueror) was coming through the seed of Israel, when the Christ would come ‘in the flesh’, and he continually tried to prevent that from happening throughout history. This is precisely what is being revealed at the beginning of Revelation 12, when it says, “She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth…and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth” (Revelation, chapter 12, verses 2 & 4b). Just look how that went down in history, as Satan repeatedly attempted to prevent the promised seed (the Christ) from being born in various ways:

First, Satan set out to destroy Abel through his envoy, Cain; but God raised up Seth in his place (Genesis 4:25). Then he tried to pollute the bloodline of Seth with an unprecedented outburst of demonic evil — fallen angels copulating with human women — but God raised up Noah with his immediate family and drowned the rest of the world’s population (Genesis 6:1-2 & 8). A famine came in the land and the bloodline of the promised seed through Jacob’s offspring was threatened with starvation. But God raised up Joseph against all the odds to become the administrator of grain in Egypt and thus feed his brothers — a fact which Joseph realized when he said to his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis, chapters 37-45). Satan subsequently tried to have every male child in Israel killed at birth by the midwives; but God, through Moses, made provision to ensure that this would not succeed (Exodus 1:15-22). Later, he stirred up Queen Athaliah to murder all the royal heirs of Judah (from which ancestral line the Christ would come); but Jehosheba hid little Joash — the last royal heir in line — in the recesses of the temple for six years (2 Kings 11:1-3). Satan then stirred up Haman to destroy all the Jews; but they were miraculously delivered at the expense of their enemies (Esther 3:6; 9:1-17). In the fullness of time, as the climax to all this attempted ‘Christ-prevention’, when the ‘Messiah-moment’ had arrived and the Christ was born, Satan used his unwitting human servant Herod to issue an edict that all the male babies under two years of age in Bethlehem and its environs should be killed to try and flush out the promised Messiah; but that too was an abortive measure (Matthew 2:16-18). Finally, he attempted to destroy Christ Himself and nullify His work by inciting his earthly agents to crucify Him (Luke 4:28-30; John 11:53; Luke 23:8-12; cf. Acts 4:27-28). Let’s face it… all that Satan was ever able to do in that regard was “bruise Christ’s heel”, which is nothing compared to having one’s head whacked, which is what happened to Satan. Heels are not fatal; heads are.

That enmity referred to in Genesis 3:15 culminated in the great theatre of the spiritual battle throughout the ages being played right into our own day, which we see recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation. The three main ‘players’ there are the people of God, Satan and the Christ. And what a panoply of action is being revealed there! When we read that the dragon’s tail “swept a third of the stars from the sky, casting them to the earth” (verse 4), surely this is a reference to the original fall of angels, before the Fall of Man, with Satan in rebellion against God causing a large number of them to defect. I do not take the term, “one third”, to be a literal number but indicating that — although it was a large number, as the full number of angels is huge, hundreds of millions, myriads upon myriads (Revelation 5:11) — it was still a minority. Even though the fallen angels were thrown to the earth, so that the earth became their demonic ‘playground’, throughout the Old Testament period Satan still had occasional access to heaven, so that he could be used for various Divine purposes (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). That access was terminated with the ascension of Christ — which was anticipated by Christ when He said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18) and is also reported on in Revelation 12 when we are told about war breaking out in heaven with Michael and his angels after the ascension, after which “no longer was any place found in heaven for Satan and his angels” (Revelation 12:8).

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself there, for in Revelation 12:5 we are given what must be the most telescoped summary of the two most astonishing events in the entire history of humanity. “And [the woman] gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne”. So we have there both the incarnation of the Christ and His ascension summed up in just a few words. When it says that He “will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre”, this is a direct reference back to a prophecy about Christ in Psalm 2, which says:

“I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. You will break them with an iron sceptre; You will shatter them like pottery’” (Psalms 2:7-9).

In fact, John draws on this prophecy in two other places in his Book of Revelation. Once to the ekklesia in Thyatira (Revelation 2:27), and then in regard to the victorious return of Christ at the end of the age (Revelation 19:15). So this text in Revelation 12:5 is speaking about Christ restoring the rulership of the world (symbolised in that sceptre) from Satan to God, finally accomplished through His ascension, His being “caught up to God and to His throne”. Really, in spite of the astonishing brevity of these two verses in Revelation 12:4-5, they represent events in history upon which the restoration of the entire cosmos depends!

Then we read that “the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1,260 days”. This tells us that throughout the Age of the Ekklesia, the Ekklesia will be protected by God from the rages of Satan so that it can continue in the midst of such a hostile environment. For, as we are also told in our text, “Woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time”(verse 12). This is being addressed to the nations of the earth — which are often symbolised by the word “sea” in the Old Testament, and in the Book of Revelation too, as an angel even helpfully explains to John later, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues” (Revelation 17:15). But the Ekklesia is also affected by what happens on the earth. However, whereas the nations in general, being outside of Christ, have no protection against Satan’s rages and are thus under the power of the evil one, the Ekklesia does have protection.

As I have shown before in many articles, that term “1,260 days” (also called the 3½ years, or “time, times, and half a time”) is a symbol for this present Age of the Ekklesia — the period from the ascension of Christ until the end of the age, which will be heralded by the blast on the seventh trumpet. It was said to be the length of time for the prophetic testimony of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:3), which is a symbol of the witness of the Ekklesia throughout this present age. This protection of the Ekklesia in the wilderness of this world throughout this age plainly does not mean that none of its members will ever be persecuted or even killed. It simply means that the testimony of the Ekklesia will be preserved throughout, despite the best plans of Satan to suppress it completely, which is indeed what has happened. Then we read in Revelation 12:7-9 that

“war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels. And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him”.

What a revelation that is, as the curtain of heaven is pulled back to reveal that the ascension of Christ provoked a spiritual battle of immense proportions involving the archangel, Michael, along with the angels who had not fallen, and the ex-archangel, Satan, and his fallen angels (demons, unclean spirits). Even though the fallen angels (who had become demons) were thrown to the earth, so that the earth became their demonic ‘playground’, throughout the Old Testament period Satan still had occasional access to heaven, so that he could be used for various Divine purposes. That access was terminated with the ascension of Christ, at which point there was no longer any access whatsoever for them to heaven. When it speaks about the demonic realm being “hurled to the earth” it means that the earth and its environs would be the sole focus of Satan and his angels — the arena in which the demonic realm can exercise its powers, during which time he has been gradually deceiving the whole world into the creation of a global government under the eventual rule of the Antichrist (which we see culminating in Revelation 13 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12)— though he is currently under angelic restraint from being able to fully achieve that goal (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7), so that the Ekklesia can grow to its full capacity throughout this age.

It is interesting that the apostle Paul, as well as speaking about our struggle not being “against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the demonic powers, against the cosmic forces of darkness, and against the spiritual dominion of evil in the heavenly realms”(Ephesians 6:12), also speaks of Satan as “the ruler of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), an apparent reference to some kind of other-dimensional etheric envelope about this earth, which makes sense as demons are invisible unless they choose to manifest in actual visible forms. As ordinary angels are able to manifest like this — as we see when the writer to the Hebrews says we can entertain angels in human form without even being aware of it (Hebrews 12:2) — it would follow that evil angels can also. Believe me, demonic manifestations are happening with increasing intensity these days. Not the nonsense which so many in so-called Deliverance Ministry practise but in many areas of life in which evil is advanced, morality degenerates, and the installation of a global government becomes ever closer. The ubiquitous appearance of UFOs and “ETs” is all part of this. You will see more and more evidence of such manifestations as the end draws near. They are not from other planets or galaxies but are the unclean spirits, demonic discarnate entities which have been cast down to earth and who are creating mayhem and influencing many humans in positions of control.

So, that war in heaven having taken place and the subsequent defeat of the forces of darkness resulting in those forces being cast down to the earth (and remember this took place a mere couple of thousand years ago — a speck of time), what do you think that those forces have been doing during those two millennia? Just because Satan was “cast out” (John 12:31) as a result of the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ, that does not mean that he has been completely ineffective in his evil machinations. Far from it! For we read that Satan “was enraged at the woman (symbol of God’s people), and went to make war with the rest of her children (that includes us!), who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12: 17). And so he has throughout this age, though we have ample protection when needed.

Satan and his demonic forces have so far been under Divine restraint from being able to deceive the nations into an all-out global antichristian empire. [If you want to read more about this vital Divine restraint of the forces of darkness throughout this age, please read the ninth chapter of my commentary on the Book of Revelation. You can download it freely from this link: https://diakrisis-project.com/2022/06/10/the-essential-apocalypse-making-sense-of-the-book-of-revelation-is-ready-for-download/ . I do urge you to read this as it will equip you to handle the terrible times which are coming on this earth]. Because of that Divine restraint, Satan has been forced to use sleight of hand, chicanery and deception to gradually work towards what will look like exercising total control over this planet. This process of “sleight of hand, chicanery and deception” is what we call the occult and it is the means by which Satan has amassed control over this planet (nations and visible ‘church’) during this age. When the Divine restraint is released (which may be a process over time and already underway), Satan will have free rein to control this world openly and wholly through his pseudo-christ, the Antichrist (Revelation 20:7-8). But this will simply be a precursor to his being toppled and “thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown” where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

We are now living in a time (the first time in history) when global government is being seriously touted and is actually feasible. Never before have communications, surveillance and control, weaponry, technology and medical intrusion been so developed as to enable the kind of cruel world of control and psychopathy envisaged in Revelation 13, Matthew 24:9-12 & 21-24, and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 — a world totally immersed in apostasy, degeneracy and satanic globalism, with the longing for some christlike “saviour” to come and sort it all out. Well, we all know who that will be.

This is why I say that now, more than ever before, is the time to be sane and grounded — to be wide awake to what is really happening in this world — not to be causing division and delusion through getting lost in all the silly pseudo-Christian bandwagons, or to be obsessed with petty ‘conspiracies’, or to be utterly immersed “professionally” in endless lesser doctrinal wrangles, but to be focused on truth and authenticity in a way that honours the Bible prophecies which speak to this era.

The Ekklesia today needs leaders rather than liars and pied pipers (which now outnumber the leaders). The Ekklesia today needs biblically-authorised teachers rather than usurpers (which now outnumber the genuine teachers). The Ekklesia today needs a true understanding of the sovereignty of God rather than the soft-sellers of a pseudo-gospel which claims to be an insipid ‘offer’ rather than a mighty command (those soft-sellers now outnumber those who proclaim the sovereignty of God). The Ekklesia today needs seriously deep disciples rather than the skimmers and superficial skaters (who now outnumber the deep disciples). The Ekklesia today needs those who uphold the perseverance of the saints rather than those who say that genuine disciples of Christ can lose their salvation (a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the believers of which now outnumber those who uphold saintly perseverance). The Ekklesia today needs those who deny themselves and who are eagerly willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their Master and Lord rather than imagine they will be “raptured” away from persecution (who now outnumber those who are willing to lay down their lives in the coming time of tribulation).

In short, the Ekklesia needs real believing disciples who prefer truth to falsehood, martyrdom to compromise, obedience to rebellion against God, counterculture to conformity to the satanic world system, a hair shirt to a fancy robe.

Now, more than ever before, is the time to be sane and grounded. I hope that you will join me in that sanity and groundedness, for this is not the time to be lost in wilful ignorance and vulnerability to satanic influence. As the world builds up to the great denouement of all history — the climax of human evil and rebellion — never before has it been so important to stabilize oneself in the true teachings of Scripture and the steadfast march of the true Ekklesia, the bearer of prophecy and Divinely-appointed destiny.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]