Revelation

Christ vs Satan

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 17-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 185

Dictation Name: RR129J17

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Revelation 12. Christ vs Satan.

“12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

In one of his very familiar hymns, written in 1719, Isaac Watts began “Joy to the World, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king.” The theme of this hymn echoes to a measure the subject of the twelfth chapter of Revelation, which summons the heavenly hosts to rejoice, declaring: “Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.”

The twelfth chapter of Revelation very obviously echoes the nativity story, the birth of our Lord. it describes the marvelous birth of a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. These words hark back to psalm 2 and its prophecy of Christ as king of kings and Lord of Lords.

The chapter very obviously has parallels to the nativity story in that it deals with a miraculous birth, the attempt of the enemy to destroy the child, and the frustration and defeat of the enemy. The parallels are more than accidental, they are essential to the chapter.

Revelation 12 marks the beginning of the third section of the book of Revelation. In a sense it covers some of the same ground as chapters 4-11, but with a very marked difference. The conflict is now seen in this third section from the standpoint of God Himself. It is not merely the struggle between the saints and the world, between Christ as executor, and the false heirs whom He is dispossessing from the kingdom, but it is between Christ and Satan.

Revelation thus makes sure that we have a God-centered perspective on history. Without this perspective, a man’s outlook could be easily perverted. It is the temptation of men to moralize everything, and to reduce Christianity itself to moralism. To see the struggle as simply a man-centered on between good and evil, between love and hate, between good people and wicked people. All other religions in the world are moralistic. Biblical faith is hostile to moralistic religion, and this last section of Revelation makes it impossible for us to view history or our faith from the standpoint of moralistic religion.

Moralistic religions are humanistic, in that they view the world in terms of good and evil; but good and evil, seen not from the perspective of God but from the perspective of man. Now it is very easy from a humanistic perspective for all men to see themselves as basically concerned with what is good and true and holy. And indeed there is scarcely a man anywhere in the world who has not persuaded himself that he represents the forces of good and truth, and right; and those who are against him the forces of evil.

And so it is easy for men to get religion by approving of love, and approving of truth, and of all things desirable, as long as they define these things. And all men believe that that which they cherish is that which is truth and that which is good. The Bible says about man, not that he is a person who desires morality, but that: “All we like have sheep have gone astray, and there is none righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Because the Bible defines morality not in terms of man, but in terms of God, it sees the radical hostility of man to Gods moral law. But all man centered religions, instead of seeing this god-centered perspective, are humanistic. And therefore they say: “All men desire that which is good, and we must change the world so that they can gain these things which their hearts desire.”

The net outcome of this humanistic approach to morality of course is situation ethics. Situation ethics says that, in whatever situation you find yourself, you yourself determine what is good or holy or moral in the situation in terms of your needs, and the requirements of the (?) so that basically you identify morality with your own appetites, your own desires, your own lusts. And this is the net outcome of all morality and of all religion, because they are not God centered, because they are not Biblical.

Moralism is a religion of self-defeat and self-righteousness. Instead of telling men that they are sinners, it assures them that basically what they want is that which is good and holy. That the fault is not in their hearts, but in the world. And so it is that moralistic religions prosper in every age.

We see around us today moralism on every side, and we see quite prominently now-a-days, one moralistic movement, Moral Re-Armament, which identifies morality with that which men cherish and prize, and so has had no trouble over the years in lining up all religions and all manner of men on its side. Before World War 2 they had Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Admiral Tojo, the Nazi hierarchy, and quite a variety of others all in favor of morality and Moral Re-Armament. Quite naturally so. All of them were humanists, and moralism enthrones man as the moral judge, and it satisfies man with his petty self righteousness.

But here the issue of history is seen as between Christ and Satan, and men must line up in terms of Christ and Satan. And the issues for man must be determined by Christ, or all their righteousness is as filthy rags. It is either the imputed righteousness of Christ and its sanctifying power in us, or it is evil.

Revelation 12 begins by giving us a picture of a woman clothed with the sun. Clearly a cosmic figure. She is the true church of God, in every age. And she is described ins symbols denoting sovereignty under God, with images derived from scripture beginning from Josephs dream, which denote power over the nations, the sun the moon and the stars. Through the true people of God, the chosen people of the Old Covenant, Christ came into the world. And through the true people of God in this generation and every generation he continues to come to the world.

This picture then in Revelation 12 clearly reflects and echoes the historical events, the nativity of Jesus Christ. But it reflects also His continual coming, from the first to the second coming, the bringing forth of Christ, the witnessing to Christ in this world.

Some generations ago, a great churchman in England, Doctor W. Boyd Carpenter, wrote concerning the first six verses of Revelation 12, and his words are especially telling. I quote: “There is an anguish of the church which Christ laid upon her. It is the law of her life that she must bring forth Christ to the world. It is not simply that she must encounter pain, but that she cannot work deliverance without knowing suffering. Thus the apostles felt the love of Christ constrained them. Woe it would be to them if they did not preach the gospel. Necessity was laid upon them, they spoke of themselves as travailing in birth over their children till Christ was formed in them. This then was the picture, the church fulfilling her destiny, even in pain. The work was to bring forth Christ to men, and never to be satisfied till Christ was formed in them, that is till the Spirit of Christ and the teaching of Christ, and the example of Christ were received, loved and obeyed, and men transformed to the same image even as by the Spirit of the Lord. but there was to be opposition. The enemy is on the watch to destroy the likeness of Christ, wherever it was seen.”

Revelation thus is not chronological, it does not give us a series of events that are to transpire in chronological order, instead it gives us a perspective on history. It describes the nature of the battle the things that are to come, and the outcome of that battle, without enabling us to know precisely that this thing shall transpire tomorrow. The purpose of Revelation is not to enable us to walk by sight, but to strengthen us that we might walk by faith.

The dragon is identified in this chapter very clearly as Satan. In the Old Testament he is sometimes used to represent Egypt. For example in Isaiah 51:9, and Ezekiel 29:3. He is identified with Egypt because it was out of bondage to Egypt that Israel had to come, in order to become the people of God. And so the unrelenting purpose of Satan is described as the destruction of Christ and His true church. Against this purpose, the people of God find refuge according to verse 6, in a place prepared of God. And there is war in heaven. Satan is filled with wrath, because he knows that against the backdrop of eternity his time is very short. And the war in heaven is described in verses 7-10, and the casting out of Satan is the signal of the great victory accomplished by Christ in His sacrifice on cavalry.

Satan’s claim on sinful men is broken by the sacrifice of our Lord, so that the saints are said to overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. Satan pursues the people of God, and seeks to destroy them. Having failed to destroy Christ, he seeks to destroy the people of Christ. Those who proclaim Christ to this world, who bring Him forth in every generation through the word. And so we are told the serpent cast out of his mouth waters of blood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And so we have not only the virgin birth of our Lord echoed in this chapter but the great flood. And even as God sent a flood to destroy the evil generation, and to rescue His church and the family of Noah in the Ark, a type of Christ and His church, so now Satan by a flood of delusions as the Church Fathers properly interpreted it, seeks to destroy the people of God. The delusions that come from his mouth then are every kind of false doctrine and teaching, every delusion of religion and science, whereby men try to infiltrate and destroy the true church of Christ.

But in verse 16 we see that such attempts are frustrated. The earth, that is the world apart from Christ, helps the church; because it so welcomes these delusions that the dragons flood of falsity only overwhelms his own people, and the true people of God are delivered into safety by the Lord.

And so the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of the seed which keep the commandments of Christ, and have the testimony of Jesus. The dragon is described moreover as having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head in verse three. This is significant to understand the war that he wages. In Daniels vision the seven heads were divided among the four beasts. These were the four great empires of the ancient world, while here at their source they are seen in one total concentration of evil. The foreign powers of Daniel represented the imperial powers of the Old Testament world, and their dream of a world without God, a paradise on earth in contempt of God. But here all of this is seen concentrated in the totality of its pretention in Satan, and this totality and fullness of power that is claimed by Satan and the seven heads, the ten horns, the seven crowns, is a challenge to Gods sovereignty and power.

We are told moreover that he draws the third part of the stars of heaven after him in his attempt to destroy the true people of God and their Redeemer. And as we have seen the third part represents the disinherited, the ungodly. And so the third part of the stars of heaven means all the powers of this world, the civil authorities, the religious authorities that are anti-Christ. They are united by Satan in this attempt to overwhelm and destroy the true people of God.

But in this he fails, because those who keep the commandment of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, in the face of battle and persecution and sword (preserve?). The church has an eternal security in Christ, and it is destined to triumph, because the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

And so it is Revelation echoes the joy that Isaac Watts caught in his hymn. “Joy to the world,” He wrote, “The savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness, and wonders of His love.” Therefore in this blessed season, we can with full hearts echo the words of the hymn: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king.”

Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto Thee that Christ is come, that He is our Redeemer and our King. Grant that our hearts prepare Him room, that day by day our lives be a temple unto Him. Thou knowest oh Lord, that too often our lives have been more like the (stable?); that Christ having come has entered into our hearts and made them His throne. We thank Thee our Father for this miracle, and we pray that our lives might echo with joy and thanksgiving, and that with glad hearts in this season we look unto Thee knowing that Thou art with us. Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, so that we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man may do unto me.” Our God how great Thou art, and we praise Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all with respect to this chapter? Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] A very good question, with respect to the need for a Christian Encyclopedia. There is a very great need, and a few years ago, about three or four years ago, the first volume of a Christian Encyclopedia was published, and the first volume was an excellent beginning. Unfortunately the management was not the best and it ran into financial difficulties. The second volume is ready to go to the printers but the funds are lacking.

However, the work is very promising, it was to be in at least ten volumes, and I trust it can be resumed.

What?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] It was written so that it would be useful to anyone who was intelligent and ready to learn. My children have used the first volume, and they are able to get something out of it, it is perhaps a little above them at points, but the point is it is usable. The print is large and excellent, the articles are learned without being difficult to read, it is written clearly; so that anyone who is intelligent can read it and absorb it, and yet a scholar can profit by it. No encyclopedia has come out with better print, so it is too bad that it hasn’t gotten further than the first volume. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. Encyclopedia of Christianity, and the first volume can be purchased through the Craig Press, a Presbyterian Reformed publishing company; even though they did not put it out. They would like to take it over, and continue the publication. But to help the product out Mr. Craig bought a number of copies and is selling them. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] The price, I am not sure; it is between $10 and $15 for the first volume. Encyclopedia of Christianity. I have a few articles in it. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I can’t hear… the acoustics coming forward are not too good, I think you can hear me better coming this way… the last part I didn’t get, no.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, a good point. This moralistic religion of course reduces religion to something that is a part of your personal needs, “Even as you need to drink some water, you need so much religion; so choose the religion that is to your taste, go to the church of your choice.”

Now, this is really blasphemous because we are not to go to the church of our choice, but to the church God has chosen; which is a church which is faithful to the whole counsel of God, which preaches the scripture, which teaches it without reservation. The end result of this sort of thing is to come really to the Chinese attitude, because the Chinese are the most completely humanistic people on the face of the earth, because they have been humanistic for two thousand years and it is so deeply imbedded in Chinese culture that there is no concept of an absolute truth. And when I assisted in the Chinese church in San Francisco’s China Town, one of the easiest things was to get people into the church, one of the hardest things was to keep them there. They would come very readily, and would be very active for a time, and then they would drop out. And you would meet them on the street, and tell them that they have been missed, and their attitude would be one of great appreciation: “Oh the church was wonderful, it did a great deal for me at a time when I needed what the church had to offer, but I have outgrown it. I heartily recommend it to anyone, I think it is a marvelous thing.”

In other words, the only thing that mattered was what their needs were, and just as a person may need say, vitamins or castor oil, or something at a particular time in their life; so the humanistic, the moralistic attitude is: you take what you need. You are basically the god. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, in other words, this is not: “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword” this is not a pacifistic statement. Because the Bible very clearly gives the Civil magistrate, the Civil government the right of the sword. The point of that is, those whose principle of operation is power, are going to die at the hands of a power. In other words, all power must be subject to truth, and there can be no unprincipled use of power.

Now, what was the issue at the time? The disciples of Christ were too much infected by the mood of the day in Judea which was one of a desire for an earthly kingdom for Israel. It was not faith which governed them, but their desire to be on top; to have a Jewish empire, a Jewish kingdom. So there was no principle, they were living in effect by the sword, they were living in terms of power, and those who live in terms of power are going to fall victim to power. And I think this is most appropriate to our day, because today men live not in terms of a faith of the word of God, but in terms of power. And hence they worship total power in the form of the United Nations, in other words: “Let’s concentrate all the power we can, and then we shall be safe and secure.” Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. Now, as we saw last week when we were dealing with eleven, we have the time there too, a thousand two hundred and three score days, three and a half days, forty two months, they are all basically the same thing. Because forty two months is three and a half years, a thousand two hundred and three score days is three and a half years.

Now, this means that it is half of seven, which is the symbolic number of perfection, of fullness. So what this is saying in effect is that this is only half the truth about the life of the church, this persecution, this battle, this struggle. This isn’t the whole story.

So this expression is used over and over again. When in Revelation 11 for example we are told that the outward death of the church, the time when the enemies rejoice; ‘they have killed the church’, it is finished, it is out of the way, is three and a half days. Well, in a sense it is the same thing, half of the fullness, half of seven. But as against three and a half years, three and a half days indicates that the time of the outward death of the church as against the time of the battle is not as great.

Our time is limited, there are a couple things I would like to share with you. One is from The Dying Letter which is an investment counseling report; this is dated December the 1st 1967. And this I think is particularly interesting, coming from a report that has by and large until lately been concerned just with giving recommendations concerning stocks and bonds to buy. But now they are a little bit frightened by what is going on, and so they write and I quote:

“The shock waves of England devaluation continues. If the US likes inflation, you have got to like it too. But if inflation is really over, then this generations way of life is gone with the wind.” That is, he says if we are going to go into purely paper money, paper gold, fiat money instead of devaluation raising the price of Gold. “This could mean a reevaluation of stock prices on a scale not seen for decades. Let those implications sink in. Perhaps the dollar will not be devalued after all. If this dreadful day is staved off long enough, then all the gold mines in this world will go bankrupt, since their selling price is fixed and their costs rise inexorably during inflation. Thus we feel that 10% of your portfolio in gold is enough to cover you in case of inflation, but we would not want you to have any more than that, in case we run into a fiat currency, where prices will increase by at least 10% per day, repeat, day. So we are in a race against time. Is it any wonder the stock market itself is so uncertain? To add to the confusion, L.B.J. takes (Robert Strange and Maximera?) upstairs into the world banks, which figures.”

Now, it is interesting that they see it as a choice increasingly, between devaluation which is a declaration of partial bankruptcy, and a purely paper currency which is quick death. A very interesting commentary from a service which has just recently begun to recognize what is happening.

Last week I read a little bit in a lighter vein, and it was suggested that for the benefit of those who didn’t hear something I read about a year and a half ago, I repeat it. And this is one of Fred Allen’s letters. Now, Fred Allen was quite a comedian, but I don’t think anything he did on radio equaled this very indignant letter he wrote to the state of New York Insurance department about a problem he had encountered. And it is dated June 18, 1932, and incidentally this letter remained hidden until his papers after his death were brought to light and his various letters published.

The letter to the State of New York Insurance Department, June 18, 1932. “Dear Sir. The soullessness of corporation is something to stun you. I am myself a victim, and instead of being a man of wealth and honor in the community, I am now a relic of humanity; just from the hands of a surgeon who made an honest effort to restore me to the form in which I grew to manhood estate.

Let me review my case. I carried accident insurance policy in the _____ Indemnity Company. By terms of which, the company agreed to pay me $25 a week, during which such time as I was prevented from working because of an accident. I went around last Sunday morning to a new house that is being built for me. I climbed the stairs, or rather the ladder which is where the stairs will be when the house is finished, and on the top floor I found a pile of bricks which were not needed there.

Feeling industrious, I decided to remove the bricks. In the elevator shaft there was a rope and a pulley, and on one end of the rope was a barrel. I pulled the barrel up to the top after walking down the ladder, and then fastened the rope firmly at the bottom of the shaft. Then I climbed the ladder again and filled the barrel with bricks. Down the ladder I climbed again, five floors mind you, and untied the rope to let the bell down. The bell was heavier than I was, and before I had time to study over the proposition I was going up the shaft with my speed increasing at every floor. I thought of letting go of the rope, but before I had decided to do so I was so high that it seemed more dangerous to let go than to hold on. So I held on.

Half way up the elevator shaft I met the barrel of bricks coming down. The encounter was brief and spirited. I got the worst of it, but continued on my way towards the roof, that is, most of me went on. But much of my epidermis clung to the barrel and returned to earth.

Then I struck the roof at the same time the barrel struck the cellar. The shock knocked the breath out of me, and the bottom out of the barrel. Then I was heavier than the empty barrel, and I fell down while the barrel went up.

We met in the middle of our journey, and the barrel uppercut me, pounded my solar plexus, barked my shins, bruised my body and skinned my face. When we became untangled I resumed my downward journey and the barrel went higher.

I was soon at the bottom. I stopped so suddenly that I lost my presence of mind, and let go of the rope.

This released the barrel which was at the top of the elevator shaft, and it fell five floors and landed squarely on top of me; and it landed hard, too.

Now here is where the heartlessness of the ______ Indemnity Company comes in. I have sustained five accidents in two minutes. One on my way up the shaft when I met the barrel; the second when I met the roof, the third when I was descending and I met the empty barrel, the fourth when I struck the floor, and the fifth when the barrel struck me! But the insurance man says that it was one accident, not five, and instead of receiving payment for injuries at the rate of five times $25, I’ve only gotten one $25 payment. I therefore enclose my policy and ask you to cancel the payments, I have made up my mind that henceforth I am not to be skinned by either barrel or any insurance company. Yours sincerely and regretfully, Fred Allen’s.”

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I think so, we will have it mimeographed--- yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Very interesting to know. His letters are interesting reading, but none of them in which he tries to be deliberately funny are as good as this. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well this letter gets funnier every time I read it. And with that we stand adjourned.