This is part 9 of a series; The Selves is part 1.

Everyone assumes Revelation 12 is either in the prophetic future or in the distant past. But no one takes these words seriously and just hears what they say. So I want you to stop for a moment, go read the chapter, then continue here. Ok?

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Think of this chapter as a story I’m telling you. If I tell a story, it’s in a sequence; I did this, then that, then something else happened. So in Revelation 12 there is a continuous sequence of events, and we can connect one of those events with absolute confidence to a past event, the birth of the “man child” who was to rule all nations (Revelation 12:4-5).

I call these connections “bridges”, that allows us to connect different prophecies around the Bible together by using an event that happens in all of them – and we can bridge these events to real-world history as well.

So finding a bridge to the birth of Christ means that at least part of this chapter is now HISTORY, not prophecy! It was a prophecy when it was written 2,000 years ago… but it’s already history for us now!!

As I said, this is telling a story – and by finding a bridge to the birth of Christ, we can see that everything that happened in this chapter before this verse, happened before the birth of Christ. That means that the devil and 1/3 of the angels had already gone to Earth before then.

…but it also means that everything that happened after the man child was caught up to heaven happened… well, after the man child was caught up into heaven. Thus, the war in heaven of verses 7-9… must have happened AFTER Jesus’ resurrection!

Again, this may not be what you already thought, but in the most literal sense of just listening to the Bible, this is what it says. If you’re not going to listen to what it says, I mean, why read it??

We can make another bridge in verse 12 since in that verse the devil knows he “has a short time” before Jesus returns to judge all nations (Revelation 20:2). This tells us that all the events between Revelation 12:6 and verse 12 must have happened in the past 2,000 years!

Which means the war in heaven happened at some point in the last 2,000 years! And given its place in the narrative, the war almost certainly took place shortly after the man child was “caught up to God, and to His throne.” While the apostles yet lived.

CAUSUS BELLI

So now we have to ask the big question… what was the war about?

Try to forget what you’ve heard in church and seen on TV and just listen to what the Bible says.

Why, after Jesus’ resurrection, would there be a war in heaven?

The answer is easy. In fact, I’ve already answered it. From the beginning, the devil argued that “no one can live up to God’s expectations.” But after Jesus proved it was possible, the fight changed to a new topic: “was Jesus fully human or not?”

And here’s the best part… the reason why there was a war between angels…

Not all the angels agree about the answer!

1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.

The spirits are divided on this question; some, seeing the life of Jesus said “Wow! God was right all along, it was possible; I was wrong! I could have done better, could have tried harder, because Jesus pulled it off!”

And these angels who see the sacrifice of Christ as God does, as proof that God did not expect too much of anyone, are “spirits of God.”

Meanwhile, other, unbroken spirits said “if Jesus was fully human, it means I did badly; that I could have done better, and I won’t accept that; therefore, Jesus couldn’t have been human! There HAS to be another explanation!”

So they set themselves against Christ, arguing against His successful sacrifice. These spirits are in the camp of “anti-christ.” And they had already chosen this position in the time of John, less than 60 years after Jesus’ death!

Which is why John said that the Christians had been told this spirit “would come”, and “now it was in the world already”! Why didn’t the spirit of antichrist exist before then? Becauseuntil Jesus came in the flesh and lived a perfect life, there was no Christ to be against!

There was no sacrifice of a perfect human beast to deny until Jesus died! But once there was… well, can two angels work together if they’re not agreed? (Amos 3:3). Which is why those who were antichrist… “their place was no more found in heaven” (Revelation 12:8).

IS GOD UNREASONABLE?

So as we learned in the devil you don’t know, there is a controversy in heaven – but not of rebels and saints, pure good vs. absolute evil, angels vs. demons. It is a struggle of ideals, a battle that is, at its heart, philosophical.

It may become violent at times – although the exact nature of the war John saw in Revelation is not clear; did angels die? Lose wings? Get bruised? We simply don’t know – but regardless of how immortal beings “war”, the disagreement hinges on a single philosophical question: does God ask too much of His creation?

Failing utterly to find a flaw in Jesus’ life or sacrifice, a devil whose life literally depended on proving that God cannot be obeyed, would have only one other option – to disqualify the test on the grounds that Jesus had not, in fact, had human nature!

So the great controversy is not over men’s souls, not over whether to obey God or not… but over how well it’s possible to obey God. And while at times, that argument may get so heated between angels that a fight breaks out between brethren, the battle is over how to obey God. Not WHETHER to obey God!

In Revelation 12 we see the devil and his angels at war with Michael and his angels. But note one vital fact that everyone overlooks: Jesus and the Father are not involved in this battle at all! If they were, it wouldn’t be a battle! God would just order the devil to leave, and he would obey (Job 1:6-12, Psalms 78:49).

So this was not a struggle against God, but a battle between the servants of God. A struggle for God against your brethren whom you believe are misrepresenting Him!

It’s like the Crusades; when Christians battled Muslims, which of them believed they were defying God, working to further the devil’s goals?

On the contrary, they both believed the other side was wicked and evil, but both of them believed they were doing exactly what God most wished them to do! So why did they war? Because they disagreed over HOW to obey God.

The Crusades was a war born of a difference of the interpretation of God’s words… But never over whether to obey God! Both Catholic priest and Islamic Imam fully agreed that you SHOULD obey GOD! But their followers were willing to die or kill over HOW to obey God!

John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

Jesus said that those who killed true Christians would believe they did God a favor! And so it has always been… in heaven, as on Earth! For in exactly the same way, the angels disagree over how to obey God; but not one has ever suggested that we shouldn’t obey God! Only over how well it is possible to obey Him!

SHAKING THE HEAVENS

Hebrews 12:26-27 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.

The death of Jesus sent shockwaves through the angelic kingdom. For it was the death of Jesus which gave reason for the spirit of antichrist, by giving the unrepentant spirits a Christ to be against! Because His death created an argument… and Jesus came to Earth specifically to bring a good argument!

Matthew 10:34-36 Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s foes will be those of his own household.

Jesus’ life wasn’t mean to bring peace on Earth but civil war! He said so! And likewise when Jesus returned to heaven… He took a sword there as well! To divide the households of angels into spirits of God and spirits of antichrist! To take civil war into heaven, just as He brought it to Earth!

Isaiah 34:5-7 All the stars in the sky will rot. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. The stars will fall like leaves from a grapevine, like green figs from a fig tree. When my sword is covered with blood in the heavens, it will fall on Edom and on the people I’ve claimed for destruction. The LORD’S sword is covered with blood.

The existence of Jesus’ sacrifice is meant to be divisive. It’s meant to divide those who just want an excuse to not bother trying to obey God, and those who truly want to obey God but just don’t know how – who keep failing, but keep wanting to, as Paul described in Romans 7:14-23.

Which is why to this day, if you go to any Church and tell them that Jesus truly wanted to sin, but didn’t; that He was fully human and fully like us in every way, you will be attacked with a level of ferocity that no other argument quite evokes.

So should we be surprised to find that immediately after His resurrection, the household of angels found itself divided? Found itself at war with their own brethren? That’s why the devil and his antichrist angels fought against Michael, the strongest supporter of Christ’s sacrifice (Daniel 12:1).

And whether Michael overcame him with physical violence, or whether Michael shamed him with wisdom, or whether Michael rebuked him in the name of God… or maybe God Himself finally thundered “ENOUGH!!”…

Either way, all those who rejected the sacrifice of Christ were no longer welcome in heaven, and gave their full attention to the Earth. This was great news for Michael and his angels:

Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.

…But not such good news if you lived on the Earth. For the devil is angry at us – and frustrated, because he knows he’s running out of time to prove his point! The point he is desperate to prove but which unfortunately just… isn’t… true.

And so if you happen to be a person who believes Jesus was fully human, and especially if you happen to do a decent job of making God happy, he’s gonna be mad at you and try to trip you up – as he did with Job. So…

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

But not because he believes himself to be evil, doing evil for evil’s sake. But rather because he’s trying to show God, through your failure, that God expects the impossible of us. And every time you rule your selfish heart, every time you make your spirit forgive a wrong that was done to you, every time your soul puts the golden rule first… you prove God right, that it was possible all along.

TRY THE SPIRITS

So to find out if an angel, a Church, or a person is truly a follower of the Christ of the Bible, simply ask them “Did Jesus have human nature?” How people or angelic spirits answer this simple question is how we can tell “the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6).

Not for some arbitrary reason, but for the deeply fundamental reason that any angel who admits Jesus was fully human and a perfect sacrifice admits responsibility for his own failures. That’s the whole point!

The best part is that, even though they well know this verse, and know we will use it to test them, no demondares to say Jesus came in the flesh not even as a lie, not even to deceive, lest “every idle word” be used against them “in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). For nothing is so damning as being judged out of your own mouth (Luke 19:22).

Any spirit who confesses that Jesus was the Christ, that Jesus came in the flesh, admits that Jesus did what he himself failed to do, yet crucially… could have done. Such a person or spirit would have to cast himself upon the mercy of God and hope for the best – and that’s not something “wicked servants” are keen to do, since they lack faith in God’s goodness! (Luke 19:20-21).

So in a vain effort to save their lives, they must cling to this desperate belief that Jesus wasn’t really like them, and that His sacrifice didn’t count, because that belief is the only thing separating them from the judgment of God. And yet the only way to save their life in that judgment… is to lose it.

Mark 8:35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.

And what is that good news? I’ve been telling you for a half-dozen episodes. God can be pleased… and Jesus, having successfully done so, will show you the Way, the Truth, and the Life, so that like Him, and with His help, you can be perfect in His sight.

But the antichrist spirits will despise that because your obedience, even your attempt to achieve the stature of the measure of Christ, judges all those too lazy to try; makes everyone who gave up look bad. And oddly enough… those people don’t like it when you make them look bad!

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

A horse who obeys a whip isn’t the same as a horse who would obey a whisper or a touch. For all of us, our reward in the kingdom of God will be inversely proportional to the amount of force and proof required to convince you that you are wrong.

Said differently, the harder you make it for God to train you, the more effort he has to expend to break your spirit and give your soul a backbone… the lower you’ll rank in eternity. Because the less He can trust you. And the same goes for angels.

God proved to those angels who would listen, simply by saying so, that He wasn’t asking that much.

Abel proved, to those who listened, that a man is capable – at least later in his life – of pleasing God. So did David, Noah, Abraham, and many others. But every man had made at least some mistakes.

Jesus proved decisively, to any impartial jury, that God never asked more than we could do.

But if that still isn’t enough, God will provide one final proof for the most ironclad case imaginable:

Us.

Firstborn sons of God whose foundation was in the dust, and yet who outshone those whose foundation was light (Daniel 12:3). Beings of whom no one can say “oh, they cheated!” Beings who had less to work with than any angel, beings who had a harder time resisting sin than any one of them ever did.

Our success is His. Our salvation will prove to the most thickheaded and argumentative angel, that God was right all along. Every Christian who actually does good enough is another proof that God is right. And like with Job, that will give the Lord a talking point;

A way to turn the devil’s own argument back on him… if “those who dwell in houses of clay,” those whose “lives are short as a moth,” should manage to please God… how much more possible was it for those who are made of light? (Job 4:19).

How much easier should it have been for an immortal being who did not live their lives in fear of death to rule their heart? (verse 17, Hebrews 2:15). If those of us made out of DIRT could please God, why couldn’t someone made of LIGHT?

This argument would be conclusive. Yet, even then, some probably still won’t believe. Some will choose death over humiliation. And for them there’s a lake of fire – and no one in all eternity will ever doubt that God had any other choice than to use it.

Continue to Part 10: Wicked Incompetence