Chronology of Spiritual Warfare

The world's assaults on God's Truth and Authority

Old Testament Period

Genesis 3: Satan's deception and human corruption  (the seed of death, disease, murder and immorality)

• They spread corruption, evil, mysticism, immorality - "did what was right in their own eyes."

• "The people will be oppressed.... The child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable.... Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord.... For they have brought evil upon themselves.... As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.  O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths."
  Says the Lord God of hosts...." Isaiah 3:5, 8-9, 12

• "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven.... Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol." Isaiah 14:12-15

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Those who yield to his temptations

• “The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts...." Mark 4:14-16

• "...even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." 2 Corinthians 4:2-4

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Stay true to God's Word

• "...all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness..." 2 Timothy 3:12-16

• "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!" James 2:19

• "...a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." 2 Timothy 2:24-26

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God's victory

• "I now send you to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins...." Acts 26:17-18

• "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." 1 John 4:4-6

• "My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net." Psalm 25:15

"Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence." Psalm 91:3

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The final battles

• "But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood.... And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts." Revelation 9:20-21

• "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,  but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
       "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, 'who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 'And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!  Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Revelation 12:7-12

• “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” Revelation 18:2-3

• "He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while." Revelation 20:2-3

• "The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they twill be tormented day and night forever and ever." Revelation 20:10

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Spiritual battles of the Apostles

Spiritual Assaults by Satan

 

Deceives people through lies, threats, deception, twisted truths and counterfeit promises:

   "For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light." 2 Corinthians  11:14

   "...the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." 2 Timothy 2:26

Charged with rebellion. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven.... Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol." Isaiah 14:12-15

Has limited access to faithful believers: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith." 1 Pet 5:8-9

 

In God's plan, even the worst evil become steps to His good:

"...the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot... to betray Him...." John 13:2

"Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin." 1 John 3:1-5

"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will dwell in them and walk among them.
       I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'
      Therefore 'Come out from among them and be separate,' says the Lord.
      'Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.'
      'I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,'"  2 Corinthians 6:14-18

"... in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good.... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
       "...all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned..." 2 Timothy 3:1-14

"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ...And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.... See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:6-17

"I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons..." 1 Timothy 4:1

"The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

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God's Ultimate Victory

“...whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John 5:3-5

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.”
     "'O  Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?'
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:51

“I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." Revelation 12:10-11

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death,  nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
      "Then  He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, “Write, for  these words are true and faithful. And He said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son." Revelation 21:4

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