The Cosmic Conflict

by J.D. Terrell, Carlisle | Category: General | Mar 1967

There has never been a period of this world's history which has failed to produce ample evidence of the persistent, and grimly effective, operation of Satanic powers in the affairs of men. Certain world events and developments, however, give the Christian special concern; developments, for example, in interplanetary travel and, more subtly and seriously, in the current phase of the battle for men's minds in political ideologies.

Little wonder then, that as Paul began to write to the Colossians warning them about those who would make spoil of them through philosophy and vain deceit, he broke into "thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love". The conquest of the "power of darkness" he proceeds brilliantly to identify with the Person and work of the Son "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created . . . whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; ..." (Colossians 1.15-16). Here is Christ's sovereignty by creative right over all concentrations of authority and power in the universe. This includes the "worldrulers of this darkness" (Ephesians 6.12), though the origin of evil itself and the perversions of much authority and dominion which followed remain bound up in the counsels of Deity, and are inscrutable to the limited human mind. Nevertheless, the eternal pre-eminence of the Son is divinely determined, and He must reign. Paul's Spirit-led thoughts flowed on into these majestic truths, however, from an initial prayer that the Colossian saints might "walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God". Thus a consideration of the solemn revelations in Scripture on the powers of darkness should have a profound effect on our spiritual lives. Battle has been joined. We shall return later to Ephesians 6.

Surveying the Scriptures broadly on the matter of the dominions of evil and Satanic activity, we find only glimpses appearing in the early history of man and of God's earthly people Israel, after the early narratives of Eden and the Fall. True, we can detect without difficulty the sinister touch of the master of evil in such historically significant events as the attempted destruction of the male Hebrew infants in Egypt. We have the clear warnings in the law of God against any association with the practitioners of necromancy or those who dealt with familiar spirits. The tragic excursion of Saul into this field at Endor springs to mind. The singular disclosure of the book of Job concerning Satan amongst the sons of God is probably a very early reference to the remarkable standing of this great, though malignant, being. Coming to the prophecy of Daniel, we have a fleeting view of the principalities and their princes. "The prince of the kingdom of Persia" and "the prince of Greece" are set over against Michael, variously called, "one of the chief princes", "your prince" and "the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people" (Daniel 10. 13,20,21 and 12.1). This clearly links up in our thoughts with Revelation 12.7, and the conflict between Michael and his angels and the Dragon and his.

The conflict between light and darkness in the spirit realm found surely, however, a terrible climax in the earthly life, and above all in the death, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nowhere is this clearer than in connection with the Lord's miracles of the casting out of demons. The whole subject is brought into very clear focus by the Lord Himself in the passage in Luke 11, where the casting out of a dumb spirit evoked the allegation by some, "By Beelzebub the prince of the demons casteth He out demons". At this point the Lord speaks very clearly of Satan's "kingdom", a kingdom which, like any other, cannot stand if divided against itself (Luke 11. l4-22). Claiming that He operated "by the finger of God", Christ declared the coming upon His challengers of the kingdom of God. He goes on to present the picture of the strong man fully armed and guarding his own court. Along comes a stronger who overcomes him, takes his armour, and divides his spoils. As He spoke these words, were the Lord's thoughts back in those tremendous forty days which followed His baptism by John in the Jordan? Then the "strong man" recognized his desperate need to protect his court, but to no avail-he was securely bound by the stronger in the Person of the Lord Himself, who went on majestically into His ministry spoiling his empire of evil, "doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil". The Lord's clear recognition of the widespread phenomenon of demon-possession during His ministry, and His compassionate attention to the sufferers, certainly suggests a very intense Satanic activity in this sphere at this period. Nor did the Master ever under-estimate the forces opposed to Him. We recall how He patiently instructed the disciples on one occasion, "This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer and fasting" (Mark 9.29). Solemnly He declared to the jubilant seventy who returned joyful at the subjection of the demons, "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10.17-20). The power of the enemy had indeed been superseded, but their rejoicing was to centre in the heavenly record of their names. They were His and from His hand "no one shall snatch them" (John 10.28).

But as the Redeemer's footsteps drew nearer and nearer to the final battleground, the powers of darkness intensified their pressure with relentless ferocity. Amid the flickering shadows of the olive-groves cast by the torches of betrayal, that profound pronouncement was made, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22.53). In John 12.27 is the solemn record of the Lord's earlier anticipation of this fateful hour, "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: But for this cause came I unto this hour". As the testimony of the Father responded spontaneously to the Son's call that He should glorify His name, our Lord declared that the voice had come for their sakes, and He went on to say, "Now is the judgement of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself" (John 12.31-32). Incalculable unseen forces of evil were mobilized at Calvary. But divine wisdom and eternal love conquered. Though it may seem very objective and analytical language to apply to the most sacred of all moments in the story of divine grace, it is none the less true to say that Satan utterly miscalculated that event and, fatally for him, over-reached himself in the death of Christ. Without neglecting for a moment the glorious parallel truths associated with "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God", we draw attention for a moment to Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 2.7-8, "but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery... which none of the rulers of this world knoweth: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory". It seems impossible in this profound statement not to recognize, beyond the rulers of the Jews, the "world rulers of this darkness". Returning for a moment to Paul's ministry to the Colossians, speaking of the Crosswork of Him "who is the head of all principality and power", the apostle goes on to say of the Cross, "having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2.15). To the spirit world at large, if not to men, the eternal issues of supreme authority in the universe are unmistakably clear since Calvary. Though the end is not in doubt, yet the forces of darkness are allowed considerable rein while the present-day purposes of divine grace are being expressed in the building of His Church. A fierce intensification of Satanic activity seems clearly indicated in Scripture as the bridal day approaches for the Lamb of Calvary; as the consummation of the age draws on; and as the final blazing triumph of Jesus sweeps earthly human history to a terrible and glorious climax. With characteristic deception and counterfeit prominent as ever, the sinister train of "antichrists", of which John speaks in his first epistle, moves towards a culmination (after the rapture of the Church) in the man of sin, the false prophet, and their fearful following: aware, as the Dragon himself, "that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12.12). Amongst the merchandise of these latter days of horror are "the souls of men" (Revelation 18.13).

It is against a terribly real and utterly uncompromising background of escalating Satanic activity in the spirit world, that the Christian today lives out his testimony; gives his witness to the world of men and of angels, of a victorious Saviour and Lord. Returning to Ephesians 6, we are reminded with an urgent directness that "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places". "The world-rulers of this darkness"-a phrase to strike chill into any heart not united to the conquering Son; and one to stay us all from any under-estimation of our foe and his resources. But the armour is provided in its complete sufficiency. The challenging imperative, "Take up ..." awaits an unqualified response. So furnished we may stand, nay we must, for the honour of the Captain of our salvation is at stake.

To occupy a place in the kingdom of God imposes a weighty responsibility on any man or woman, youth or maid. Over against us are ranged the concentrated battalions of sin and darkness, of the kingdom of Satan and its associated principalities and powers. Prominent in our responsibility in this situation is the urgent need of a crystal-clear gospel witness. We listen to Paul's words to the Corinthian church, "But and if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the Image of God, should not dawn upon them" (2 Corinthians 4.34). Clearly a fundamental aim of the enemy is to associate men with him eternally in his inevitable perdition. Equally clearly, one of his principal methods is the blinding of human minds and the perpetuation of the natural darkness to which they were condemned by his initial deception.

Thus the battlefield of the human heart and the human mind is today the scene of unprecedented endeavours by Satan and all the powers he controls, to snatch some salvage from the wreckage of his venomous designs. True, he has never been inactive since the dawn of time, and whole continents have been subjected to his blinding in the shape of idolatrous tyrannies. Yet today to these he has added fresh, and in some respects even more terrifying, forms of domination of whole nations; nations themselves prepared to enforce their doctrines by mind-manipulation of a kind which reveals the subtle ingenuity of the old Serpent in all its implacable hatred of God and men. At the same time the nations allegedly supremely civilized are being progressively infiltrated by cults of spiritism and demonology which betray the same hand of the god of this world. If the day is so unmistakably evil, the greater is the Christian's need of the armour of God that he may stand and hold the line in Spirit-given strength till the onward triumph of our great Commander carries all evil before it to its final destiny in the lake of fire, and establishes "a new heaven and a new earth", where undisputed righteousness reigns eternally.

J.D. Terrell, Carlisle | Mar 1967
General