We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

In our last three posts we were taking a look at an article entitled “War in Heaven” written by Michael Bradley in which he envisions a war to take place in heaven sometime in the future supposedly during the great tribulation. In his discourse he imagines that there are three heavens, the first heaven being the earth, the second being the “air” or atmosphere presently inhabited by Satan and the rest of the fallen angels, and the third being the dwelling place of the Almighty and of our Lord Jesus Christ. This of course is only conjecture on his part and not supported by the scriptures except by means of “wrestling the scriptures” as was mentioned by the Apostle Peter in 2 Pet 3:16. The failure which has led to his erroneous conclusions was in not consulting the whole testimony of the Word of the Lord on this particular subject, had this been done one would have noted the Apostle Peters reference in Second Peter Chapter Three in regards to the three actual heavens and what they represent as we attempted to show in our previous post.

We will not delve into the rest of his discourse as it is based on pure speculation and a very poor interpretation of Revelation Chapter 12, our intent here was merely to show that there are several erroneous views as purporting a supposed “war in heaven”.

Let us be as explicit as we can be on this matter, there is no war, no rebellion, nor dissent in heaven. There never has been nor will there ever be. God’s will has ALWAYS been done in heaven now and forever, even as we pray that in “due time” it will be done here on earth as well.

The “war in heaven” mentioned in Chapter 12 of Revelation is not in reference to any war in the heavens in which God resides, in fact it has nothing to do with the physical heavens at all, but to the symbolic or ecclesiastical heavens, the religious heavens here on earth. This war mentioned in Verse 7 was descriptive of an ongoing conflict between two contending elements of society wrangling (warring) for supremacy of these heavens at the time. Papacy (the Antichrist) and its supporters stood on one side and Pagan Rome (the Dragon) and its supporters on the other. History shows us who the eventual victor of this war was.

The scriptures collaborate this ongoing conflict and attest to its eventual outcome.

The first mention of this is found in Daniel Chapter 7 when in describing his vision of the fourth beast with ten horns, (the dragon or Roman empire) he notes the following:

“I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up (rising to power and influence) among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words… He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time (3 ½ times or 1260 days, years).” Dan 7:8, 24, 25

The struggle of the false church with civil Rome is the “war” mentioned in Rev 12:7-8, and it occurred in the years preceding 539 A.D., before the woman, the true church, fled into the wilderness for 1260 years. (Verses 6, 14)

Antichrist had already assumed the name “Michael” (meaning: “Who as God”). Indeed, the mystery of iniquity had already been conceived in Paul’s day … and was brought forth in Constantine’s day. (Rev 12:5)

Turning to 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 we read:

VERSE 3 “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day (the second advent of our Lord) will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin (the Papacy, the Antichrist) is revealed, the son of perdition.”

Note: the man of sin is an organization with a person (the pope) as the head and the corresponding component parts of the Antichrist system (the Papacy) as the body. The man of sin is the Antichrist, the Papacy, a religious system, with Satan as its head.

The “man of sin” is called the “son of perdition” because the system is going into everlasting destruction, never to rise again. Stated another way, under the symbol of the beast, the system will be cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 19:20).

Or as we read in Dan 7:11:

“I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.”

Continued with next post.