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The Angelic Conflict - Part Four
Modern Satanic Strategy
The terms "cosmic system"
or darkness manifesto refer to Satan's plan and process for
controlling the world, and his attempt, using his organization
of fallen angels, to counteract the plan of God in all respects.
Satan was unsuccessful in preventing the redemption plan of the
Messiah. To add insult to injury, the Messiah rose from the dead
and is alive! Lucifer failed miserably. He knows the evidence
against him is insurmountable and his fate is sealed. His time
is limited as he awaits the execution of his sentence. Satan
is not going to go out without a fight. He still thinks he can
prove his arguments. He still makes irrational claims that he
can be as good as God. That God is unfair and unloving. That God
is a liar and does not keep His promises.
Belligerent and delusional, Satan is still trying to justify
his rejection of the prehistoric grace offer from God. Satan continues
to re-work a system designed to counteract any future plans of
God. His world plan is carried out by a highly organized international
conspiracy of demons.
In our current day and age, Satan
has several key objectives written into his darkness manifesto.
Satanic Objective #1 To keep
unbelievers from believing in Jesus Christ.
Every
human being is born spiritually dead, hence is born as a member
of the kingdom of Satan. Satan will try to take as many humans
as possible to Hell with him. He has a strategy regarding every
person to keep that person from accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour.
Tactic -Satan uses Temptation
through Demon Institutions to control mankind
Satan is generally able to achieve his ends through demon influence
and demon temptation without resorting to direct attack or possession.
In fact, in the vast majority of cases, such influence and temptation
do not even require direct demonic involvement. The world system
which Satan has so laboriously constructed is by now so chock-full
of ready-made temptation and institutionalized satanic influence
that a sizeable, built-in momentum for perpetuating and deepening
its influence on earth has already been achieved. Satan and his
organization have successfully infiltrated many key areas of modern
society. They have been effective at inserting their cosmic doctrines
into the teachings, philosophies and policies of Government, Science,
Art, Music, Universities, Public education, Medicine, Psychology,
The News Media and Entertainment. All of these key areas of society
promote a worldview that is antagonistic to the idea of God,
Jesus, The Bible, Heaven, Hell, Good, Evil, Grace, Salvation,
Right and Wrong. Satan has invested a large amount of effort and
time in promoting his agenda through these agencies. Satan and
his demons personally wrote the book on Evolution, Mysticism,
Atheism, Relativism, Materialism, Perversion, Socialism, Anarchism
and Racism. These cosmic systems are brilliant in their design
and are unknowingly run by humans who for the most part, dont
even believe Satan exists! These carefully planned systems are
all designed to destroy any chance of Faith, distort the Truth
and keep humans from following the one true God.
Without divine intervention, one may hypothesize safely that
no further direct demonic activity would be required for the world
to continue in its degenerate direction until absolute corruption
had been achieved. Satan, of course, is not satisfied with this.
His only hope (and a false one at that) for avoiding the inexorable
approach of God's judgment lies in the complete obliteration of
faith from the earth. For this reason, continued and intensifying
demonic influence (through his world system) and temptation (individual
entrapment) can be expected as the devil makes every effort to
strengthen his grip on the world.
Tactic
-Satan tries to blind unbelievers to the Gospel. 2
Cor 4:3,4 LUKE 8:12 2 Thess 2:9,10. His attacks on the Gospel
are of utmost importance. Distortion of the grace message by substituting
a works based salvation has lead many astray. Fortunately for
humans, God the Holy Spirit will make the offer of salvation clear
to those who are truly seeking Him.
And the ones beside
the road are those are who have heard [the truth of the gospel],
then the devil comes and removes the Word from their heart, so
that they might not believe and be saved. Luke 8:12
To open their eyes, and to turn them away from the darkness
and into the light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Acts
26:18
Principle:
all those who will one day inhabit the lake of fire will have
this one thing in common; They will all have rejected God, not
the other way around.
Tactic -Satan is the inventor
of many world religions, human philosophies and false gospel messages.
While Satan does not force anyone to be lost, he uses every means
to steer the unbeliever away from the truth. His ultimate weapons
in this are religion and humanism. He tries to promote the glorification
and deification of mankind while downgrading the concept of Grace
and God Himself. Gen. 3:5; Col. 2:8
There are a number of common factors, present in varying combinations,
that connect paganism, cults, the occult, and organized pseudo-religion.
First and foremost is the fact that by denying the power of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, they are fellow participants with the
devil in the process of "blinding the minds" of potential
believers (2Cor.4:4), "stealing the seed" of the gospel
out of hearts which are seeking God before they can turn to God
in Christ and thus be saved. Most Satan sponsored religions require
that you work your way to heaven. Some other derivative characteristics
one often finds in Satans substitutes for the true worship of
God through Jesus Christ include:
Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Before Christ, those
who sought Him looked forward to the promise of the cross, from
Adam and Eve and their coats of skin onward (bespeaking Christs
work through symbolic animal sacrifice). After Christ, we look
back to His saving work for us on the cross (commemorated in the
ceremony of communion). But before or after the cross, Christ
has always been the only way to God. All other religions, occult
systems, doctrines, groups, cults and the like are false paths.
To approach God, we have to do it Gods way, and His way is a
narrow way, the only true Way, His Son Jesus Christ. Only pure
and unadulterated faith in the Son brings salvation, forgiveness
of sins, and the promise of resurrection. This cannot be achieved
by good works, by self-sacrifice, or by ritual. It cannot be achieved
by membership in any organization. Salvation comes through faith
in Christ alone.
I am the way: the truth and the life. No one can come to the
Father except through me. John 14:6
Tactic Satan
uses the occult to foster direct demon possession of Unbelievers.
Demon possession is an especially virulent form of demonic
attack that must be addressed separately. In demon possession,
a fallen angel (or several) takes up residence in the body of
a morally accountable human being. Fallen angels crave the sensual
experience that only a physical body can provide, and it is safe
to say that without divine restraint, much more such possession
would occur.
As with demon afflictions of all kinds, demon possession is also
subject to the permissive will of God. Unlike demonic attack and
infliction of disease, however, demon possession also requires
the willful acquiescence of the possessed. A person has to "agree"
to demon entrance in order for it to happen. This agreement need
not be in the form of a conversation, but merely a conscious consent
to allow an unnaturally great influence of supernatural forces
into the life. Involvement in paganism, the occult and even some
aspects of more "respectable" non-Christian religions
obviously helps to advance this process and make possession a
more likely possibility. Any activity that surrenders the will
in a supernatural context (even "socially acceptable"
practices like hypnotism, Quija board use, tarot cards, etc.)
helps weaken resistance to demon entrance. The fact that spiritism
(necessarily involving possession) is strongly prohibited in the
Old Testament demonstrates the ultimate culpability of the possessed
(Lev.20:6, 27; Deut.18:10-11; Is.8:19). Demon possession, inevitably
regretted after the fact, is as much an individual responsibility
as is getting "hooked" on drugs, alcohol, or any other
destructive behavior.
Principle -
As temples of the Holy Spirit believers are exempt from demon
possession. (1Cor.3:16; 1Cor.10:22),
Since "authority over the demons" is a power (or gift)
only given to apostles and their associates, "exorcism"
is not a valid activity for believers today. In many instances,
those who claim to be Faith Healers and Exorcists today are actually
working in cooperation with the Demons in order to lend credibility
to false preachers and help grow their "ministries".
Matt
24:24,
2Thes.2:9-12 ;Matt
12: 22-29; Rev
16:14 The only weapon we possess to combat suspected cases
of demon possession is prayer, but, as our Lord told us, this
is the most powerful weapon of all (Mk.9:29). Where the power
of God is involved, anything is possible.
Satanic
Objective #2 To destroy the believer's relationship
with God.
Satan is directly involved in distracting believers from their
spiritual growth.
Satan doesn't give up when a person accepts Christ as Saviour.
He has a strategy regarding believers which is very subtle and
far-reaching. Satan knows, by reason of his limited mentality,
man would be easy to deceive, and because of his sin nature, his
predilection to sin would make the devil's work so much easier.
We can find abundant evidence of this in the newspaper, or in
the circumstances of our own lives, every single day. Humans succumb
to greed, hatred, violence, crime, lasciviousness, envy, spite,
jealousy, and hundreds of other sins. None of us is without sin,
and Satan has become a master at exploiting our weaknesses over
the thousands of years that this struggle has continued.
According to God's permissive will and as a part of His master
plan, the whole of this world is Satan's domain. His territory,
his rules. (1 John 5:19) As Christians, we are in peril every
moment. This is our enemy's stronghold, and if God would permit
it, he would snuff out all of us in a heart beat. Fortunately
for us, God is in control of our lives as believers and only He
determines how long we remain on this planet. But Satan is at
liberty to tempt us, swindle us, cheat us, lie to us, and deceive
us. And he is very good at what he does.
Strategy ONE
- Satan has an extensive strategy to promote sin and tempt believers.
Satan has a built-in ally in each one of us: our sin nature (Jas.1:14).
He understands how it works and purposely devises ways to exploit
our predilection to Sin.(2Tim.2:26).
Tactic Satan uses Verbal Suggestion
from others
One of the best ways to tempt someone to sin is through suggestion
and encouragement from others (2Pet.2:18-19). There is something
about the human heart that leads it to eagerly embrace a suggestion
from another person that it would never adopt (or perhaps even
conceive) on its own. Peter's suggestion to the Lord that He put
out of His mind the idea that He must suffer death is an example
of the devil trying to use another human being as a lever to induce
sin (as our Lord remarked: Matt.16:23).
Tactic Satan uses Visual Suggestion
Sometimes the mere appearance of an object of temptation (or something
closely related to whatever one lusts for) is enough to start
the wheels of the sin nature rolling. In our mass-media world,
where sin-inducing images abound (consider that advertising, for
example, is almost completely directed towards stoking our natural
covetousness), it is no great matter for the devil to probe our
resistance by supplying the most tempting images at the most opportune
time. Satan understands mans natural sexual desires and has perverted
this into obsession through a wide array of media opportunities.
(Job 31:1; Ps.101:3; 1Jn.2:16).
Tactic Satan uses Subconscious
Suggestion and Thought Patterns
Subtle suggestion below the conscious level is also a weapon in
the devil's arsenal (1Chron.21:1; Matt.16:23). It is important
to note that we no more have to take any heed of sinful and evil
"ideas" that occur to us than we do the overt verbal
suggestions of others enticing us to leave the path of truth.
(Eph.2:2; 1Tim.4:1) While some seed ideas might be of demonic
origin, our sin nature is quite capable of generating a sufficient
and ongoing dialogue in many areas of mental sins. (2 Corinthians
10:4-6) Satan is the Author of all Mental attitude sins such as
bitterness, desires for revenge, pride, guilt feelings, failure
to forgive, hatred, mental adultery, and so forth. Thoughts are
the worst category of sin because they can fester and go unnoticed
by others for extended periods of time. Sin in the mind inevitably
manifests itself in more obvious overt sins like abuse, adultery,
deceit, addiction and the like.
Tactic -Satan encourages believers
to worry.
Fear is a powerful and natural emotion. Satan is an expert at
distorting this emotion in people by promoting lies and casting
doubt. Worry neutralizes the soul of the believer. Satan tries
to frighten Christians with regard to physical death. Faith in
the promises of God is the antidote to fear. 1 Peter 5:7-9, Heb
2:14,15
Tactic -Satan promotes Emotionalism.
Distorted emotions can lead to great distractions for Christians;
so Satan puts on a big campaign to control people's emotions.
While emotion is a bona fide function of the soul, whenever emotion
takes precedence over Bible truth, it leads to distraction. Those
who dabble in ecstatic experiences, public or private, are allowing
their feelings and emotions to outweigh divine viewpoint thinking.
Under circumstances of edification and spiritual growth, emotion
is a tremendous generator of happiness. But emotion is not a means
of spiritual growth and cannot be used as a criterion of spiritual
condition.
Strategy TWO
- Satan has an extensive strategy to stop Spiritual growth and
keep Believers from The Word of God.
After becoming a Believer in The Lord Jesus Christ, every Christian
has a responsibility to make Bible Study, Prayer, Giving and Service
their daily priority in life. To counteract this, The Devil and
his propaganda army will do everything in their power to keep
us from fulfilling our duties. His primary and most effective
strategy is to promote Apathy toward Bible learning and
Ignorance of the Word.
Tactic -Satan distracts by trying
to keep believers from attending Church and Bible Studies,
Heb. 10:25. He promotes THE LIE I am too busy to Study the
Bible. He tempts the believer with an improper emphasis on details
of life such as money, success, social life, pleasure, loved ones,
health, sex, materialistic things, or status symbols. The mature
believer knows that his happiness is not derived from these things,
so he is not a slave to them. The novice Christian, however, may
try to gain happiness from such things, and this will distract
him from the Word of God and participation in worship.
Tactic -Satan attempts to change
the focus of the believer.
Instead of Occupation with Christ, Satan wants the Christian to
be occupied with
SELF, (Col. 3:1; 1 Cor. 1:10,11; Gen. 3:4,5; Mt. 26:31-35)
THINGS, (Heb. 13:5,6; 1 Cor. 1:10,11),
PEOPLE, (Jer. 17:5; 1 Kings 19:10; Jer. 17:4).
Tactic - Satan sponsors false
teachings and heresies within the Christian community.
The devil, has been patiently working his way into our Christian
community. You can find Satanic sponsored false teachings on Christian
TV and Radio. Christian best sellers are often loaded with false
teaching. Many seminaries and Bible colleges have become extremely
liberal in their theology and crank out liberal pastors by the
thousands every year. Every Sunday, in pulpits across this country,
Shepherds brainwash their trusting flocks with false doctrines
and heresies. Satan works feverously behind the scenes to exploit
the latest fad in Christian teaching if it will take people further
away from the Truth. The Devil and is his army of marketing demons
are hard at work. Gradually, luring unsuspecting believers into
his web with the oldest trick in the book; using truth to conceal
the lie. Rarely are false teachers completely false. They
wrap their heresies in with the truth.
False teachers will continue to operate throughout Satan's rule
on earth. 1 John 4:1
1 TIM. 4:1 1 COR. 10:19-21 2
COR. 11:3, 13-15 2 CHRON. 21:1
Tactic
- Satan sponsors fighting and division within the Christian community.
If Satan can't entice practicing Christians away from
solid Bible teaching churches, then he will insinuate himself
into their congregation by sponsoring more traditional distractions.
Gossip, self-righteousness, pettiness, power plays and legalism
are all ways that Satan works inside the walls of the church.
Tactic -Satan seeks to frustrate
the will of God for the believer.
There are three categories of the will of God which Satan tries
to interdict.
-
The operational will of God (what God wants us to do); James
4:7,8; Gal. 5:7.
-
The mental, or intellectual, will of God (what God wants
us to think): 1 Tim. 4:1.
-
The geographical will of God (where God wants us to be):,
1 Thess. 2:18.
The Bible talks about the Armor of God as enabling the believer
to "stand against the wiles of the devil". This armor
is protection for us while we live in kosmos diabolikos,
and the weapons of our warfare are stronger than Satan as we take
our stand in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Protection against the Schemes of Satan: Eph.
6:10-18; James
4:7; 1
Pet. 5:8-9; Ps.
1:1-3; Ps.
119:9-11; 2
Cor. 10:3-6; 1st
John 5:19
Counter measure #1 - Become disciplined
in your Bible study habits. You will gradually develop an insatiable
desire for Gods truth.
Counter measure #2 - Understand
sin and your own sin nature. Resist at all cost the temptation
to Sin.
At the heart of all direct temptation from the devil lurks the
lie. Deception is the true key to effective temptation. For, if
we knew the truth, feared God as we should, and appreciated the
consequences of succumbing to temptation, we would appreciate
how counterproductive, how devastating to our faith and to our
lives every defeat at the hands of the devil truly is. In short,
we would never do it. Satan (through his demonic servants) makes
a point of masking the truth in all his efforts at temptation.
This is obvious from the first case study in human experience,
Adam and Eve, where the fall of our first parents into sin would
never have occurred had not Satan deceived them into a false appraisal
of the situation. The devil may deceive us by suggesting that
some sin isn't sin at all, that some sin is necessary, or he may
simply present us with an offer that is "too good to pass
up", but even in this last case, we have been deceived as
to the hollowness of the prize before us and the painful consequences
certain to follow from turning away from God. (Gen.3:14; Jn.8:44;
2Cor.2:11;
2Cor
11:3-4; 2Cor11:14-15;
Eph.6:11; 2Thes.2:9-12;
Rev.12:9;
19:20; 20:3 & 10)
Satanic Objective #3 To
bring in his own millennium through internationalism and a centralized
world government.
Satan still has aspirations of becoming a great and successful
world leader. He would love to take credit for establishing a
utopian world government. His attempts to establish a counterfeit
kingdom will continue to the very end. This explains much of the
suffering in the world today. In the future, God is going to remove
this, but right now this is Satan's kingdom and Satan cannot handle
his own kingdom. The result is poverty, disease, war, death, etc..
Tactic -Satan would love to have
a unified world government.
As the ruler of this world, Satan has a strategy regarding
the nations. In basic terms, Satan's desire is to neutralize the
Divinely ordained Institutions and Laws set forth by God in scripture.
God has ordained certain laws for the survival and freedom of
the human race during the course of human history. Anarchy exists
when segments of nations ignore these laws. The laws of divine
establishment provide the freedom for mankind to fulfill the divine
plan of God and are directed toward both believer and unbeliever.
Divine establishments include things like Freedom, Volition, Marriage,
Family, and Government. Principals set up by God for the protection,
orderly function, survival, and perpetuation of the human race
during this period of the angelic conflict.
The tower of Babel was an early attempt at unifying the people
of the world. Satan reasons, it would be much easier to control
the people and indoctrinate the masses under a centralized system
of government with no communication barriers. God supports having
separate nations for just this reason. It allows for rebel countries
like the USA to carry the torch of God. In every century, there
are one or more Nations who take the lead in spreading the Gospel
and protecting the Word of God. Nationalism and democracy make
it difficult for Satan to get all of mankind onboard with his
Cosmic agenda. Therefore, Satan is anti-nationalistic and pro-United
Nations, pro-World Council of Churches, pro-Communist, etc.. REV.
12:9; 20:3,8
Tactic -Satan promotes good
Satan is curiously in favor of good deeds, compassion and
humanitarian efforts. He knows that most humans are not only naturally
selfish but have inherent need to do good. Satan recognizes this
natural desire in Man and supports it as long as God does not
get the credit. If people can get satisfaction without involving
God, then Satan sees that as a useful and effective distraction.
Remember, Satan sponsors Utopianism.
Man is plunging headlong into the myth that scientific, technological,
social, cultural and human progress is the ultimate good in
the world. This is merely helping the devil to build the new tower
of Babel. Faith in technology (instead of faith in God), hope
in political solutions (instead of Gods solutions), and love
for human cultural accomplishments (instead of for God and the
sacrifice of His Son) are common variations on the devils theme
of working to make heaven on earth.
Tactic Satan seeks to
control key individuals in history
In order to promote his millennium, Satan needs to have extensive
influence and control of certain human leaders. Satan focuses
on key decision makers and power brokers to advance his policies.
(2
Kings 21:1-9) One way or another, in some or all of their
policies, every institution and organization in our world is playing
into Satan's hand. Very rare is the exception. There was a time
when this was not true, but no longer. For America, the future
is uncertain and dark, for we have become a casualty in this raging
war that we cannot see, except for its manifestations into our
society.
Arrogance, selfishness,
greed, hyper-sensitivity, self-righteousness, hatred, road rage,
pettiness, senseless litigation, pampering criminals, criminal
rights, rampant crime, relativism, government meddling, political
correctness, promiscuity, drug addition, alcoholism, pornography,
dirty business, welfare gone berserk, child abuse and molestation,
spousal abuse, a 50% divorce rate and climbing, adultery, violence,
racism, obsession with entertainment, garbage in the media, more
and more laws that control our lives and list goes on
and on
..
The Satanic "Millennium" is in full swing and the Devil
is doing a fine job of proving his inferiority as a leader and
god.
Soon, Satan will face his "millennium climax", known
as the Period of Great Tribulation, which will only come after
the rapture of the church. The Satanic millennium can only be
fully put into place when there are no believers on planet earth.
This 'millennium' will be the most chaotic, disastrous, and miserable
7 years in world history. It is the tribulation of the book of
revelation.
Satanic Objective #4 To
prevent God's millennium from arriving.
Tactic Satan desperately
wants to prevent prophetic events from happening
Most of the yet to be fulfilled promises of God will be realized
during the tribulation and the establishment of Christs earthly
kingdom. According to the scriptures, in the future there will
be a literal thousand year period when Satan will be incarcerated
as Jesus rules the planet. Once again, Satan will be unsuccessful
in stopping the inevitable prophecies of God and God will once
again prove his veracity in keeping His every promise.
Romans 15:4; Matthew 16:27-28, Isaiah 2:2-4, 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18, Hebrews 9:2, Revelation 16:12-21, Isaiah 60:17-22
Tactic Satan wants to
keep Christ from Ruling in Jerusalem
Jesus Christ will be the world ruler during the Divine Millennium,
and His rulership will be fantastic. Satan reasons that if he
can slow down the prophecies, he can somehow avoid the inevitable,
ultimate defeat at the foot of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.
Tactic Satan wants to
avoid incarceration
At the end of The Tribulation, Satan and his demons will be
locked up for 1000 years. The tribulation will be a violent time
as Satan sees the writing on the wall. He will be belligerent
and hostile as his freedoms come to an end.
Tactic Satan still seeks to
eliminate the Jews
The Jews are God's chosen people, and they are going to be
Christ's subjects in the Divine Millennium. Therefore, Satan is
constantly plotting against the Jews in his attempt to exterminate
them as a race of people.
In his plans and programs, Satan will ultimately
and certainly fail. God's Millennium Kingdom will happen, just
as it is outlined in scripture. Jesus Christ will be the ultimate
and final victor in the spiritual war know as the "angelic
conflict".
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done
During His first advent, Christ bore witness that His Kingdom
would not take literal possession of the world until the appointed
time (Matt.25:34; 26:29; Jn.18:36; Acts 1:3-8; Dan.7:22). Until
He comes again, the nations of the world are often heavily influenced
by the devil and in his nominal control. But in spite of the devil's
considerable influence, we must not forget that history is ultimately
in the hands of the Lord. All that Satan does, he does only through
God's permissive will and, in the end, he cannot hinder the inexorable
progress of the plan of God in even the most minute way. The Lord
God Almighty is the One who is truly in charge of all that happens
in history; He is the real ruler of the nations (Ex.19:5-6;
Ps.9:7-8;
Is.40:23):
In summary, the knowledge
that we are living out our lives on what amounts to a spiritual
battlefield here on this vain earth should not be depressing,
but liberating. Knowing this truth "sets us free" in
great measure (Jn.8:32; Gal.5:1), because in this way we come
to see clearly that all the pointless things of life, things after
which the world runs with such gusto, things that in the end do
not satisfy, are not the things that are really important. We
come to see the world as it really is, looking with the eyes of
faith to the things that are not seen (2Cor.4:18), the things
that are eternal. And we have confidence that our personal victory
over whatever part of the devil's world we now occupy will find
its ultimate complement and fulfillment in Christ's complete victory
over Satan and his cosmos when He returns.
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians
4:18
To be continued in The Angelic Conflict - Part Five
Compiled and Condensed from the writings of
several authors and pastors including J Hampton Keathley , Robert
Mclaughlin, Robert Dean, Robert D. Luginbill, Gene Cunningham,
Ric Web, R.B. Theime, Charles Ryrie and Lewis Sperrry Chafer.
Click
here for a more in depth study 
@ Ichthys Ministries
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