Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Female): We often hear prophetic teaching about God's plan for end times, but did you know Satan also has a plan? Stay tuned as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses Satan's plan for the end times right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, president of CJF Ministries in San Antonio, Texas. You can reach our offices by dialing 1-800-926-5397. Gary's subject today is Satan's plan for the end times. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thanks. And welcome haverim, welcome friends, to another edition of Messianic Perspectives. It’s good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on Satan’s plan for the end times. And I think it’s true, we need to know something about Satan’s plan. We need to be aware of his wiles or his strategies.

Ephesians 6:11 says that we’re to put on the full armor of God so we can stand against the methods or the schemes or the wiles of the devil. And then there in that same passage, he outlines that armor of God that protects us from the attacks of the enemy. There’s the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the shoes of the gospel and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit. I may have left something out, but that’s the armor of God. It’s for our protection.

But in warfare, you see, there’s more than just hardware. There’s more than just armament. There’s also strategy and planning. In fact, you can hold superiority in armament and hardware, but if your plan is defective, you can lose to an inferior enemy. That’s why the Bible says we need to know something about the enemy’s strategy. In 2 Corinthians 2:11, the Apostle Paul said he was not ignorant of Satan’s devices or Satan’s methods.

And we shouldn’t be ignorant about his methods either, especially as we get closer to the time of the end. Because the Bible indicates that as we get closer to that end of the age, the devil will intensify his efforts. Revelation 12:12 talks about how during the coming tribulation, the devil will come down on the inhabitants of the earth with great wrath because he knows his time is short.

So Satan himself has a very acute sense of timing. He knows when the plan of God is scheduled to come to its crescendo, and he has plans of his own whereby he hopes to thwart and to frustrate the plan of Almighty God. And on the last program, we were talking about all the different names of Satan in the Bible. And it’s interesting how each of those names describes a different aspect of his nature and his character. So what do his names teach us?

Well, for one thing, they teach us that he presides over a whole order of fallen spiritual beings. Among them are the demons and the fallen angels. Ephesians 2:2 says Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Ephesians chapter six gives us a glimpse into the hierarchy of Satan’s kingdom. It says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

And when you look at the Greek in this passage, even the sound of these Greek words is enough to send a chill through you. In the Greek, it says we wrestle not against haima and sarxa, but against archos and exousias, against the cosmocratoras, the world rulers of this age, and watch this, and against the pneumatikas tas poneras, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.

So in much the same way that God has a hierarchy of angelic beings in heaven, there is also a hierarchy in the kingdom of darkness. Archos, exousias, cosmocratoras, and at the top of the totem pole is Satan himself. Before he was cast out of heaven, he was Lucifer, son of the morning, the anointed cherub who was guardian of the very throne of God.

So what happened? What happened way back there, whenever it was, when Satan was cast out of heaven? Well, again, it’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. It’s a process of elimination, a process of induction and deduction where you get one piece of information from one passage and another piece of information from another passage, and then you try to put it all together. So this is like detective work. It’s like we’re trying to reconstruct a crime to find out what happened.

For example, if you go over to Isaiah chapter 14, you have this tirade, this proverb against the king of Babylon. And when you get down to verse 12, he actually identifies the king of Babylon with Satan because again, remember that Satan is the spiritual ruler of this world’s kingdoms. That’s why when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew chapter 4, he offered to give Jesus all the kingdoms of this world.

Now, how could he make such an offer if the kingdoms were not his to begin with? And notice, Jesus did not dispute Satan’s ability to give him all the kingdoms of this world with all of their splendor and all of their riches. He did not say, "Satan, those kingdoms don’t belong to you." What he did say was, "Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve."

So there is a very real connection between Satan and the rulers of the kingdoms of this world. Most rulers are ungodly people. Not all, but most. They have no regard for the Lord. They are driven by greed and a lust for power and influence. They want to be in control, and this was particularly true of the king of Babylon. The kingdom of Babylon was the epitome of world power and satanic religion.

In fact, it was the ancient Tower of Babel that represented the first large-scale rebellion against God. So here in Isaiah 14, while he’s doing this tirade against the king of Babylon, all of a sudden, he’s talking about Lucifer. And so when he makes that connection between Lucifer and the king of Babylon, all of a sudden, we get this amazing glimpse into eternity past.

All of a sudden, we find ourselves looking through this window into events that happened way back at the very dawn of creation, in fact, even before Adam and Eve were created. And he says there, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" For thou hast said in thine heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north."

Verse 14, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like El Elyon. I will be like the Most High." You see, he’s telling the king of Babylon that he’s doing the same thing Satan did. His heart is puffed up with pride. He wants to be a god. In fact, he doesn’t just want to be a god; he wants to be like the Most High, El Elyon himself.

So what does this passage in Isaiah tell us? It tells us that Lucifer was cast out of heaven, and then it explains that his sin was pride, wanting to be like God, wanting to have his own throne in heaven like the Most High God. So he was cast out of heaven, almost ceremoniously, as if to make him an example for all the universe to see. And that’s when Lucifer, the anointed cherub, the son of the morning, became Ha-Satan, the adversary, the Diabolos, the devil.

He was no longer Lucifer, the son of the morning, no longer the light bearer. Now he was the prince of darkness. And do you know what? There’s an interesting passage of scripture in Luke chapter 10. This is where the Lord appoints these 70 missionaries to go into all the cities and towns of Judea. And when they come back, they are rejoicing.

They say, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. Even the demons are afraid of us when we tell them we’ve come in the name of Yeshua the Messiah." And what does Jesus say there in Luke chapter 10? He explains why his authority is greater than the devil’s authority, and he says in Luke 10:18—this is another one of those little windows, you see—in Luke 10:18, he says, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."

In other words, I was there when it happened. When Lucifer, son of the morning, was cast out of heaven, Yeshua said, Jesus said, "I was there." It was like he was saying, "Why are you guys surprised that my authority is greater than Satan’s authority? I was the one who judged him. I was there. I was the one who presided over his trial, and I was there when the sentence was carried out."

And can you imagine the misery of a creature who has known nothing but the very presence of God for as long as he has lived, and then suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, he is cast out of heaven? He goes from basking in the Shekhinah, the Shekinah presence of Almighty God, he goes from that into darkness. He goes from the highest place to the lowest place.

And again, people want to know why a being like Satan, one of the most majestic and intelligent and beautiful creatures in all of the universe, could ever make such a dumb mistake. Did he ever really think he could defeat God? Yes, he did. And I’ll explain why later in this study. But right now, we’re out of time, so we’ll have to continue on the next program. We’ll do that, and until then, this is your friend Gary Hedrick, on behalf of all of us at the Christian Jew Foundation, saying God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. We’ve been listening to Dr. Gary Hedrick talk about Satan’s plan for the end times. If you are interested in Bible prophecy, you’ll be glad to know that our special offer this week is the CD of this current series of studies on Satan’s plan for the end times by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick.

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Just drop us a line at Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292 or email us at info@cjfm.org. And as always, when you’re in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you’re listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I’m Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won’t you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Satan’s plan for the end times right here on Messianic Perspectives.