Thursday 11 August 2011

The Fall of Satan



A common misinterpretation of the fall of Satan described in Rev 12, is that it refers exclusively to the primordial fall of Satan - the moment when he originally fell from grace. Yet, while the Apocalypse certainly seems to echo the primordial fall of Satan, the text undoubtedly forwards this imagery as chiefly pertaining to an eschatological event. While Satan originally fell from grace at some point in the distant past, we find that he was still permitted access to the Heavenly throne room to act in the almost legalistic adversarial role as the accuser of humanity (a sort of  "lawyer of the opposition").  We can find evidence of this reality in both the Book of Job, where Satan comes and goes at whim from the heavenly court to accuse Job, and also in Rev 12:10 - where we are told that Satan stands before God and accuses the Christian brethren "day and night".  So while he had fallen from grace, Satan was still granted access to the heavenly throne room until a point in the end-time, when we are told that he would no longer be tolerated and would be cast from heaven by the archangel Michael:


Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Rev 12:7-10)


As Revelation scholar D.E. Aune points out:


The myth of the heavenly battle between Michael and Satan resulting in the defeat and expulsion of Satan and his angels from heaven is narrated as an eschatological event in 12:9, but as an exclusively primordial or protological event in early Jewish and Islamic literature, a motif based on Isa 14:12-15. It is of course possible that the tradition of Satan’s presence before the heavenly throne of God as an adversary of the righteous on earth led to a reinterpretation of the tradition of his primordial expulsion from heaven, resulting in a tale of his eschatological expulsion.


Once we acknowledge that the "war in heaven" and casting of Satan from heaven is an event that occurs only at the end-time, we can begin to understand what this event actually refers to.  Many prophecies of this event foretold it to occur by the turn of the millennium - including the Church approved version of the secrets of La Salette, the prophecy of Pope Leo XIII, Fr Gobbi, and many others besides.  In Unveiling the Apocalypse, I show how each of these prophecies were in fact correct, and that the casting of Satan to earth described in the Book of Revelation did occur at this exact date as foretold, and how it was announced by a number of astronomical signs described in the Bible.  Not only this, but when we examine the Apocalypse in greater detail, we can ascertain that these events were timed to coincide with the fulfilment of the prophecy of the mark of the Beast.  In future posts, I will be detailing how these events are all interconnected, and how they seem to be closely related to the ongoing apparitions of Our Lady in Egypt - the most widely witnessed Marian apparitions in history, which I argue is inextricably bound to the prophecy of the Woman adorned with the Sun in Rev 12.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree, too many look over the word prophesy in the first chapter of Revelations which means (to come) or future event. I am so thankful that God has opened this truth to me and I have now confirmation as some feel that this has already happened and if this was so there would be no need for a new Heaven and a New Earth.