The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 10 –1
Today, thanks to various pagan mythologies, we imagine a great battle between Angels and Demons, Truth and Lies, Light and Darkness. A great controversy where God and Satan battle for men’s souls. And to judge by the state of the world, it’s a battle Satan is winning. But that’s simply not what the Bible says.
The Bible contains the only facts we have, and all of our reasoning must start THERE, not with the traditions of men, and on few subjects is our thinking more guided by imagination and tradition than in the spirit world.
There is no horned, red, trident-carrying devil in scripture. He simply doesn’t exist. There is no frothing-at-the-mouth tyrant ruling over the tortured souls in hell in the Bible, either. Everything you’ve been taught about the spirit world was wrong.
We’ve been taught that Satan and God are bitter enemies, utterly unable to be in the same room without being at each other’s throats; and there is no question that the Devil is our enemy but not quite in the same way you’ve been told.
First, we know for a fact that the war is not over men’s souls, because God sees to it that Satan only “gets” the souls that didn’t love the truth in the first place (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12), and even that is for their own good, so He can save them in the world to come when Satan won’t be there to tempt them (1 Corinthians 5:5).
Nor is Satan trying to kill God, or conquer the throne of heaven, like everyone thinks. The primary scripture for this idea is Isaiah 14:14, and it very clearly says he said to himself “I will be like the most high”. Not above God, but as God.
Satan is brilliant, the wisest creature God ever made (Ezekiel 28:3-5, 12). So it stands to reason that any “war” he fights, he must think he has a chance of winning, right? But the devil the world believes in has absolutely no chance to win the battle they think he’s fighting. And the real devil knows that!
I mean, come on, the devil has read Revelation. He knows how this ends. Why would he still fight, knowing he has no hope? Obviously, he believes he does have hope –and no one with any sense at all would fight his own creator in a fair fight!
So let’s try for a moment to set aside everything you think you know about the devil’s war, and the war in heaven; and just listen to what it says, like everyone should have done in the first place.
THE DEVIL’S WAR
We have a record of exactly 4 meetings between the Lord or Jesus and Satan, not counting demon-possessed people. In every one of these, both parties are, if not cordial, at least civil to each other.
That means we need to rethink everything we know about their relationship, from the top to the very bottom. Satan is portrayed having a conversation with the Lord in Job 1-2. Do you see a ranting, raving devil at war with God?
To be sure, this shows a sullen, self-justifying angel to be sure; but not one at war with Jesus! Satan knows God is stronger than he is. Satan knows that God would instantly win any physical battle which is why there has never been one!
And so if they’re not in a war of weapons… what’s the fight about? Remember Job 4:12-21, which I’ve quoted many times in these lessons. Every time the devil and Jesus meet, this is the argument they have: that God is too hard to please. That God asks the impossible of his servants. That He demands perfection, which even the angels can’t live up to.
Satan failed to obey God and his entire defense is that he failed because God asked the impossible! Satan claims that no being, not even a perfect angel like himself, MUCH LESS a mere human, can ever please God!
And God is fair. And in all fairness, Satan had a point. No angel had been able to live up to God’s expectations. Therefore it was reasonable to argue that it couldn’t be done. And so in Job 1:8-11, 2:3-4 we see Jesus pointing out to Satan a point in Jesus’ favor –that Job had lived up to God’s expectations.
Satan said it wasn’t a fair test. He found fault with Job’s obedience. And again, the Lord considered that a fair point and permitted him to test his theory. Because the judge of all the Earth must do right (Genesis 18:25).
As we know, Job proved God right in the end, but clearly, Satan wasn’t convinced because almost 2,000 years later we see these same two beings having the same old argument in Matthew 4, Mark 4, and Luke 4. What was the Devil thinking here? Why say these things?
Remember, Satan is SMART. He had to think these arguments were unbeatable, that Jesus couldn’t come up with a good reason why He shouldn’t make stones into bread, worship the duly appointed “anointed angel that covereth” (Ezekiel 28:14), or jump off the temple to prove his point.
Satan truly believed that Jesus would not be able to resist these arguments, and would conclusively prove him right that even Jesus couldn’t live up to God’s demands. Obviously, He didn’t, so the devil left Him “for a while” (Luke 4:13).
He went away to think up new ways to prove his point… and never once considered that his entire premise was wrong. Like every football fan, churchgoer, or political party, he is absolutely entrenched in his position, and no amount of proof will ever change his mind. And that is why he is a demon.
DOING GOD SERVICE
It may surprise you that there is not a single recorded fight between the devil and God or Jesus. Not one. In Revelation 12, we see the devil battling in heaven; but not, as commonly supposed, with God or Jesus.
Instead, we see him battling with Michael, another angel of roughly equal authority! We see the same thing in Daniel 10, where an unnamed prince of Persia – certainly an evil angel – prevented Gabriel from reaching Daniel. Michael came to help, and “withstood” him. But even there, the violence is only implied.
It doesn’t actually say they warred, or fought, or wrestled. The prince of Persia simply “withstood”, him. That could be interpreted a lot of different ways. Perhaps there was angelic bloodshed, or perhaps it was a loud argument full of thunder; or perhaps it was a heavenly pillow fight. It doesn’t say.
Even so, none of this implies a battle with God, but a battle between two or more archangels. A squabble born of a difference of interpretation of God’s words… not necessarily about whether or not to obey God’s clear commands.
Back in Revelation 12 the devil seeks to “consume” the baby Jesus; this is probably a reference to the temptation, specifically Luke 4:8, for if Jesus had worshipped him, He would have joined the house of the devil; and thus been “consumed” by him, just as we are consumed by Jesus at baptism.
Later, Jesus was killed; Psalms 22:16 indicates that the devils were complicit in this, although to be fair, they didn’t kill Jesus, the Romans did. At the behest of the Jews. At the behest of the chief priests. At the behest, we can infer, of certain of the angelic princes of this world (1 Corinthians 2:8).
And yet even then… could they not have believed they did God a service? John 16:2. Because they were all SERVANTS of God! Roman centurion and angelic prince alike! (Romans 13:1-4). Surely, Jesus ascribes the Pharisees (and by extension, the devils) different motives in Matthew 21:33-41, particularly verse 38.
Yet the Pharisees also believed they were doing the right thing (John 11:45-53). Likewise Paul believed he was doing the right thing by murdering Steven (1 Timothy 1:13). If Paul was able to blaspheme, persecute innocent people, and kill them in the name of doing God a service… and have no idea how evilly he was acting… why can’t the devil do the same?
After all… Jesus personally gave the devil permission to kill Him! (John 13:27).
A LIE OR A MISUNDERSTANDING?
But what was “the temptation”, really? Not a war, nor even a battle – unless you count a battle of wits. It is certainly an argument, perhaps even an attempt to deceive; but it is far from the saber-rattling heavenly antipathy the world portrays. Because that is not, and has never been, their relationship!
From the devil’s perspective, he wasn’t tempting Jesus to sin. He was merely trying to get Jesus to see things his way. But at no point did the devil openly rebel against God or Jesus! He didn’t even lie – he quoted from the OT, but crucially… misunderstood it.
Satan suggested that Jesus jump from the temple to prove his point; but Jesus pointed out that “dashing your foot against a stone” (Psalms 91:12), wasn’t the same as deliberately jumping to prove that God will catch you.
But here’s the big question… did Satan misquote it on purpose? Or did he simply not understand the difference? Remember, the angels don’t necessarily understand scripture correctly (1 Peter 1:12). Why ascribe malicious intent when the devil may have honestly thought it applied here?
Remember, the devil is the most clever of all creatures (Genesis 3:1). Why would he make a gambit with such an easy answer, if he knew there was an answer? He had to think this question was unanswerable, which means HE DIDN’T KNOW THE ANSWER JESUS GAVE!
Likewise, the devil was indeed the god of this world, he did indeed have the power to give it all to Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). Was he deliberately trying to deceive Jesus into worshipping him? Or did he truly think himself more qualified to teach God’s will to Jesus than anyone else? Like pretty much every priest in history?
The anointed cherub that covers, Lucifer the light-bringer, was meant to teach people about God. But in his misguided and selfish zeal to lead humans “toward God” for their own good, the devil “forgot” that his role was to teach people how to worship God, not teach them to worship God through himself.
Was this an intentional, conscious lie? Or had he simply reinterpreted God’s will over time? Like every other preacher in history. Remember, the Pope is not a wicked person, trying to corrupt mankind. That may be the result of his actions, but it is certainly not his intent. He simply believes that the best way to teach people to obey God is to get them to obey him.
And if the people never become mature enough to worship God directly, that just means they should continue worshipping him indefinitely. Which is what literally every church and church leader in history has thought in their hearts.
So the devil wasn’t necessarily trying to get Jesus to sin. Indeed, none of the things the devil suggested Jesus do would have been sins; jumping isn’t a sin; converting stones to bread isn’t a sin; obeying the devil might have been, but as has been said – the devil was the god of this world. And as such, was worthy of Jesus’ respect (Jude 1:8-10) – and of ours as well.
So the devil wasn’t trying to get Jesus to sin; rather, he was trying to get Him to see the truth as the devil understood it. Because it has ever been his role to “open the eyes of the blind” (Genesis 3:5). And he believed Jesus blind (Isaiah 42:19).
But each of these things, while not sins of themselves, were still the wrong thing to do for the reason the devil was asking him to do them. Which Jesus was able to prove by showing where the devil had, himself, missed the point – proving that it was in fact the devil who was blind.
A WHITE LIAR
Clearly, the devil is a liar (John 8:44). In fact, the Greek word diabolos means “slander, accuse”, from the Greek words meaning “to throw across”. As in to throw an accusation back at the other party, as in “Oh yeah? Well you sinned too/first/more!”
So yes, the devil is a liar, and the inventor of the concept. But most of the lies we tell, we don’t even realize we’re telling! We lie because our heart is afraid, or our spirit needs to be right no matter what… often our soul is not even consulted in the lie!
Even when we do consciously lie, they are always justified in our own eyes. Lies are always told in service of a larger purpose; take the midwives in Exodus 1:15-21; they lied to protect the children. Did they not feel justified in doing so?
God even blessed them because their heart was in the right place, even though there were better ways to handle the problem (Daniel 3:16-18 for instance). Did the midwives see this as a sin? I doubt it, I probably wouldn’t have at the time.
So the devil’s mischaracterizations of truth are not necessarily conscious lies either, and are most certainly “clean in his own sight”, even if not in God’s (Job 15:15). Another example of this in Genesis 3:1-5.
Most people assume the devil lied when he said “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”. But that wasn’t a lie! That part was true, God himself confirmed it in Genesis 3:22. The part that was wrong was “thou shalt not surely die” (“you have an immortal soul!”).
And yet… was that really a lie –in the sense that Satan intentionally tried to harm them? After all, Satan had done it and it seemed to work for him –he wasn’t dead yet! So maybe Satan actually believed this to be true… in which case it was still absolutely wrong and deadly… but not a lie, not technically.
Whether deliberately (a lie) or unintentionally (a misunderstanding), Satan used the word of God to make his point and most of what he quoted was right! But that 10% that was wrong changed the meaning of everything else! Which is why he was called a FALSE MESSENGER!
The world has spent thousands of years characterizing these encounters as acrimonious battles full of evil intent; and while the devil was certainly not doing what God would have wanted him to do… the devil’s ways were fully justified in his own eyes, just like Saul’s, and there was no act of rebellion here!
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
I’m not trying to make excuses for the devil. Surely, he does that well enough on his own (see the meaning of his name, above). And to be sure, God has said many things about him being our enemy (1 Peter 5:8). He most certainly is not on our side but he believes he is!
He has always portrayed himself as the savior of mankind, which is why Paul called him a “another Jesus” (savior) (2 Corinthians 11:4). And he doesn’t portray himself this way to deceive us… he portrays himself this way because this is how he sees himself!
The frothing at the mouth devil rabidly hunting human souls isn’t an accurate characterization of our enemy; and if you’re on the lookout for a devil who hates God, you won’t recognize a devil who believes he’s “doing God’s will even better than God told him to do”. One who actually BELIEVES he is an angel of light! (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
Satan believes God too harsh; too unmerciful; he believes that God has forgotten the meaning of Love, and that he himself understands the concept in a way no inhuman God could grasp. And it was this concept of “love” that he would have taught Jesus, had He agreed to join his house. The same one the pretend Jesus of all his churches talk about to this day!
But is this a truly malicious war, one that can only end in the death of one or the other? Go back to the story of Job one more time, and ask yourself… why would Jesus try and make an ethical, philosophical point to a mortal enemy?
Why try to prove to Satan that man CAN obey God, if there was no reasoning with the devil? This isn’t the battle of Good versus Evil that we’ve been taught to believe. Because the devil isn’t who the world thinks he is.
There is a controversy in heaven, yes –but not of rebels and saints, angels vs. demons. It is a struggle of ideals, a battle that is, at its heart, philosophical. And the war, whatever form it may take, hinges on a single philosophical question: does God ask too much of His creation?
The devil does not believe himself to be evil. Rather, he believes himself more righteous than God (Isaiah 65:1-5). Obeying God’s commands better than God himself even understands! And if that seems hard to imagine, just remember: your own heart believes the same thing. Your own spirit believes the same thing. And unless you repent, you shall likewise perish (Luke 13:3).
So the angels, the more righteous and the less righteous, are deceived by their own fractions just as we are. And 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 (Revelation 12), the battle is over how to obey God. Not WHETHER to obey God!
ANTICHRIST
God demanded Satan obey His laws perfectly, and Satan didn’t. Satan said, “Those laws are impossible! No one can please you!” He wanted to obey God his way, doing “his best”, and that wasn’t good enough (Romans 10:3).
Yet Satan made a good point; God couldn’t conclusively prove, by showing someone who had succeeded, that He could be pleased. Hence, He didn’t feel fully justified in punishing the devil for failing to do so. So He made man, to prove the point again.
Right away, Adam was deceived which seemed to put a strong point in the devil’s favor. So the Word had to give up His Godhood and obey God Himself. Jesus lived as a man to prove that God never asked too much of any angel or any man. And when He had convincingly proved God right, and the devil wrong, Jesus said, “now the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:11). Because now there was proof!
In the time of Job, Satan’s questions were fair. They may not have come from sincere heart, but the objections were reasonable. At this point though, there is only one argument left: was Jesus’ proof valid, or did He cheat?
If Jesus was indeed a fully human man, and if Jesus did indeed live without ever sinning, and if Jesus did indeed die in the literal sense, then the devil has no leg to stand on –the only option is to say “you were right, I was wrong, it was possible”.
But after millennia of bitter debate, that’s a pill that a prideful being might find impossible to choke down. So the devil has done the only thing he can do; the last straw he has to cling to: that Jesus wasn’t truly a man at all.
Denying that Jesus was truly a man is a last, desperate gambit to avoid losing –but it’s the only argument the devil has left. And that’s, finally, how you can tell a demon from an angel: just ask them “was Jesus fully human or not?” (1 John 4:1-3).
CAUSUS BELLI
Let’s go back to that “war in heaven” one more time in Revelation 12. Everyone thinks they know what this means, but has anyone ever really stopped and listened to it? Forget where you think this fits in the plan –in the distant past, or in the near future. Just hear it.
Remember Lesson 3-1, on making bridges between events in different scriptures. If you read Revelation 12, the one event we are absolutely sure we know about is the birth of the “man child” who was to rule all nations in Revelation 12:4,5
That means –if we listen to the Bible –that everything that happened before this bridge,Revelation 12:1-3, happened before the birth of Christ. That means that the devil and 1/3 of the angels had already gone to Earth before then.
It also means that everything that happened after the man child was caught up to heaven happened after… well, the man child was caught up into heaven. Thus, the war in heaven of Revelation 12:7-9… must have happened AFTER Jesus’ resurrection!
Again, this is not what you already thought. I myself have used theses verses differently, and they may indeed apply on multiple levels; but in the most literal sense of just listening to the Bible, this is what they say.
What’s more, the events in the rest of the chapter (Revelation 12:12 for instance) obviously happen before the return of Christ (Revelation 20:2). That tells us this war in heaven happened at some point in the 2,000 years after Christ’s resurrection and before His return.
Given the other events that happened after the war in this chapter, this war clearly happened relatively early in this period. So now we have to ask the big question… what were they fighting about, and why?
As I’ve said before, this wasn’t a battle between good and evil, between God and Satan. This was a battle between Michael the Archangel and Lucifer, the anointed cherub that covers.
If this was a result of the devil’s first sin, then why is it so late in Revelation 12? The devil was already the devil at the time of Adam. He was already the dragon in Revelation 12:1, long before the “woman” brought forth the man child. So why, only after Jesus’ resurrection, would there be a war in heaven?
Furthermore, if God was indeed kicking the devil out of heaven, why not just say “get out”? Why send Michael to kick him out? Satan obviously obeyed God (Job 1 and 2 again), so why not use that obedience to kick him out of heaven?
And if God had sent Michael to cast the devil out, why didn’t it work… like it clearly worked in Jude 1:9? The devil didn’t fight back in Jude 1:9, not after Michael told God to rebuke him. So why was he fighting here? And what were they fighting about?
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!
NOT EVERY SPIRIT…
Read 1 John 4:1-3 again, really closely this time. The spirits are divided on this question; some, seeing the life of Jesus said “if Jesus was a human, I was wrong and that is unacceptable; 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!
But other spirits said “you know what… I was wrong. I could have done better, from the beginning. I’m sorry”. And these angels who see the sacrifice of Christ as God does, are “spirits of God”. And 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. He 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 (Luke 19:20-21).
The best part is that, even though they well know this verse, and know we will use it to test them, no demon dares 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).
They must cling to this argument, this desperate hope 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. God won’t judge them until He has absolutely flawless proof. And Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t enough!
Yes, Jesus’ sacrifice was completely worthy in every sense. But His soul was from heaven (John 3:13). It made no difference, but it kinda-sorta-coulda made a difference and God wants there to be no doubt, for all eternity, that He is right.
He needs one more proof, so that He may be justified when He speaks, and be clear when He judges (Psalms 51:4).
And that proof is you.
PROOF POSITIVE
Remember I told you long ago that your reward will be inversely proportional to the amount of force and proof required to convince you that you are wrong? Well, it’s true for the angels too.
The angels who obeyed God from the beginning are far more trustworthy than those who realized only after the flood what sin cost. They, in turn, are better than those who waited to see Jesus’ perfect life to repent. Even today, a demon might finally realize that Jesus was right and repent.
But those who wait until even the most ridiculous hope of their argument has fallen to repent… surely, their stubbornness, their refusal to see the signs all along the way, is a sign of a deeply flawed heart and spirit, and a weak soul with no ability to manage them.
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: 144,000 holy spirits.
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. Not twelve proofs, but twelve times twelve thousand proofs.
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? ( Job 4:17, 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.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The death of Jesus sent shockwaves through the angelic kingdom. Literally: Hebrews 12:27. Now we expect that to be future, but Paul doesn’t explicitly say that –only that it was in the future when Haggai wrote it (Haggai 2:6-7). The second verse there was fulfilled by Christ, although probably not completely.
So if we bridge that to the 5th and 6th seals in Revelation 6:9-13, we expect this to be future, too –and it probably is. But this already happened once, in Matthew 27:45, 50-54. If this is true on every level, then the death of Jesus corresponds to the shaking of heaven and the casting of some of the stars to the ground.
Why? Because His death created an argument… and Jesus came to bring a good argument! Matthew 10:34-36. And based on what Haggai said, Jesus came to bring a sword to heaven as well! (Isaiah 34:5). Thus, Jesus’ life wasn’t mean to bring peace in heaven but a war!
To this day, if you go to any Church and tell them that Jesus truly wanted to sin, that He was fully human and fully like us in every way, you will 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? Over what? Over the same things the humans were arguing about: Over whether we believe and follow Jesus! (Matthew 10:37-41).
Any angel who followed his father-figure –the higher ranking angels –instead of Jesus wasn’t worthy of Him. Anyone who followed his mother-figure –the rest of the herd of angels –instead of Jesus wasn’t worthy of His sacrifice.
But He that received Jesus received God; he that was willing to fight and die in defense of Jesus’ sacrifice would gain his life; and like us, the angels found that their foes were those of their own household! 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 (Proverbs 22:10). But woe unto us (Revelation 12:12).
This happened something under 2,000 years ago. Just before the creation of the Catholic Church.