Satan’s End-Time Strategy

The Dragon is Mad

“The dragon was furious with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.” (Rev. 12:17)

Okay, the dragon was mad at the woman. What does that mean?

First, the basics:

• The dragon = satan (Rev. 12:9)
• The woman = the church or God’s professed people (Eph. 5:25, 32)
• The remnant = the remaining Christians who keep God’s commandments and have remained faithful to Jesus.

The Remnant

Notice that the dragon doesn’t turn his anger on the woman directly, but on the remnant. Remnant means the little bit that is left over. The small end pieces.  Later in chapter 17 of Revelation we find out the church is no longer a pure woman (Rev. 17:4). She has turned into a wicked woman, turning people away from Jesus.

Oh dear! This sounds serious! The majority of the Christian church will serve Satan, but think they are worshipping God. This is really not a new practice. This happened during the time of Jesus and throughout history (John 16:2-3). The small minority of Christians that stay faithful to Jesus and his commandments are the ones Satan is really after (Rev. 12:17).

A Strategic Shift

In the first part of the book of Revelation (chapters 1-12), Satan attacks God’s people mainly through persecution and force. This has been true throughout history. Much of this part of Revelation has already been fulfilled except the end parts of the seven seals and seven trumpets. The second half of Revelation gives more details about the last-days of earth’s history. In chapter 13 there is a shift in Satan’s strategic plan. While he still uses persecution, his main end-time strategy for winning people to his side is deception.

The Trickster

The word deceive does not occur at all in chapters 4-11. But it is used many times in chapters 12-20 to describe Satan’s end-time activities. (Rev. 12:9; 13:14; 18:23; 19:20; 20:3; 20:8; 20:10)

What does deceive mean? It means to make someone believe something that is not true. If you believe with all your heart that something is true, does that make it true? No. Truth is truth whether we believe it or not. Truth does not change with our opinions.

The only way we can know if something is true is to test it against the word of God. We cannot rely on ourselves and our own ideas. And we certainly can’t rely on the sneaky dragon’s explanations.

What a trickster! Satan tries to be very sneaky. In fact we will see that he tries to make himself look just like God. This is an old trick that he’s been at ever since he sinned in Heaven (Isa. 14:12-14).

 

God’s Word is True

We do not know exactly how all prophecies will be fulfilled but Jesus said, “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.” (John 14:29; 16:4)

God gives us what we need and then asks us to trust him for the rest. I believe we are living in a time when Satan is already using deception to trick many people. Thankfully Jesus always tells us the truth in his holy word, the Bible (John 17:17; Rev. 22:6).

If you are still a kid, you have an advantage over many adults! Jesus said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3)

Children are often the first ones to accept truth from the Bible. Adults sometimes think they already know the way things are. I’ve done this myself. No matter what age we are, we must continue to study God’s word and ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and ears so we can hear what Jesus is telling us.

When we read the Bible and it says something that seems to be different than what is being taught in church. What should we believe? I tell my kids they should believe the Bible. Even when they grow up, if they find something in the Bible that is different than what I’ve taught them, they should always trust God’s word above all else. And then I’ve told them to come and tell me about their discovery. I want to be like a child and learn more and more about Jesus. His word is always true and will never let us down.

I’m excited to study more about Satan’s end-time strategy because studying God’s word and asking for the Holy Spirit to guide us will help us so we don’t fall into the dragon’s traps.