Chapter 1 - It’s not over until it’s over
Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese soldier who fought in World War II which ended in August 1945. He did not surrender until 29 years later as he thought that the war was still going on. It had to take his former commander to travel from Japan to Lubang Island in the Philippines were Onoda was to convince him that the war had indeed ended. In the early years of his 29-year holdout, he stayed in the mountains with three other soldiers who also thought that the war had not ended and even exchanged gunfire with local cops.
Attempts were made to inform these soldiers that the war had ended but they did not believe it, they thought these messages were coming from the enemy who wanted to deceive them. Four years after the war had ended one of the soldiers: Yuichi Akatsu surrendered. In 1954 one of the 3 who was left by the name of Shoichi Shimada was shot by a search party looking for them and he died leaving 2 soldiers behind. Then in 1972 another soldier Kinshichi Kozuka was shot and killed by local police leaving Hiro Onoda alone. Major Taniguchi had to fly from Japan and meet with Onoda on 9 March 1974 and convinced him that the war was over.
Hiroo and his mates assumed that the war was going on when it was not. This story is the analogy of my sermon which I shall use not as a comparison but as a contrast to what is happening in some people’s lives. Some assume that the war is over yet it is still going on. This assumption will lead them to drop their guard because they feel they are in a safe zone when they are not. If you make this mistake and peradventure the enemy confronts you, you will become easy prey because you are defenceless and unprepared.
It’s not over until it’s over.
Spiritual warfare
I write not about a war of guns and bullets but a spiritual war whose size and effects are greater than all the wars combined that have been fought since the history of mankind. Many wars have come and gone but there is a spiritual war which is not over yet.
“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” Revelation 12:7-9
A war broke out in one of the most unlikely places, heaven that is. One of the warring parties was Michael the Archangel of God backed by his angels and the other party was the dragon. The same passage of the Bible which I quoted above goes on to clarify the identity of the dragon to be a serpent called the Devil and Satan. The dragon (Satan) did not fight this war alone but he had the support of his angels. We are not told about the kind of weapons which were used in this warfare, however, we are told of the results and the consequences. The devil and his angels were defeated and kicked out of heaven.
God the Creator made everything perfect without any fault or weakness. In His creation works, He also made angels and being a God of love He gave them free-will, the power to choose. He could have created robots which can follow instructions without making their own conscious decisions whether to follow or not to, but that would not be love. So love being the character of God, He gave angels the power to make choices. Of the Angels that were made, there was one angel called Lucifer who occupied a high position above other angels. Lucifer was created perfect (read Ezekiel 28:15) but since he had the power of choice he started to entertain thoughts of rebellion against God.
He developed pride and wanted to exalt his position so that he could be worshipped by other angels instead of worshipping God (read Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14-19). In his rebellion, he managed to convince one-third of God’s angels to join him. Revelation 12:4 tells us that the dragon (Satan) by his tail drew one-third of the stars of heaven, this is not a literal tail but its symbolic language which means lies. Isaiah 9:15 says the prophet that teaches lies is the tail. Revelation 1:20 tells us that stars are angels, so in simple language, Satan used his lies to gather the support of one-third of angels.
War transferred to this earth
This rebellion is what led to a war being fought in heaven and the subsequent relegation of Satan and his angels to earth which is now the new battlefield. Though the devil no longer occupies his former position, he still has his angelic powers. He is like a soldier who was fired from his job but he still has his fighting skills.
“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 12:12
Those in heaven should rejoice because the devil was kicked out from there and can no longer fight against them. But as he was kicked out from heaven he was thrown onto this planet (earth). Being a defeated foe, he is very angry, not only because of his defeat but also because he has a short time before he will be destroyed completely. A warning is given to us the residents of the earth because the devil has launched his war against us that we may we lose eternal life which God offers to us through Jesus Christ.
The war might have ended in heaven but it’s still going on here on earth whether on land or water (even in mid-air). The devil fell together with a third of angels and these fallen angels are also known as demons or evil spirits.
As Satan was cast to this earth, he had a mission which is comprised of three things according to John 10:10, He came to steal, kill and to destroy. The devil is here on earth not in hell as some might think. At one point He was asked by God about where he was coming from and he answered, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it” (Job 1:7). Satan is here on earth, and 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that he walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Everyone is involved in this war whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, everyone is very much involved. Even if some claim that they are just civilians who have no active part to play in this war, they must know that even in physical wars, civilians are displaced, maimed or even killed. As long as you are a civilian you are at a higher risk of being killed more than the soldiers because you don’t have weapons to defend yourself, you don’t have the training on how to survive, you cannot seek refuge anywhere because the whole earth is the battlefield. So it’s best you take up arms (I talk of spiritual matters) and fight the war.
This war is a war between good and evil. It is a war of allegiance as the devil tries to draw away people from worshipping the true God so that they can serve him instead. Satan wanted to be worshipped in heaven but his mission failed, he still wants to be worshipped by people on earth. Worship is not merely the act of praying but it involves also the issue of obedience, if you follow what God says you are worshipping Him, by the same token if you follow what the devil suggests to you, you are also worshipping him.
1 John 3:8 says “He who sins is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning”. Without even uttering a prayer to Satan, you can be aligned to him by sinning (sin is defined by 1 John 3:4 as committing lawlessness).
In our everyday lives, there is a battle going on between good and evil, even in your own thoughts sometimes there seem to be two opposing voices as you are about to commit a sin. One voice which says ‘please don’t do that’ as you are about to break God’s law and another voice saying ‘go ahead it doesn’t matter’. There is a clash of thoughts and sometimes you find yourself doing bad things which you didn’t want to do because there is an outside force which leads you to do it and deep inside you know you didn’t want to do it.
Satan used to reside in heaven, he knows the good life which exists there & it pains him to know that God has plans to take people there. This jealous causes him to fight against you so that you don’t make it to heaven but rather you join him to the lake of fire which was designed for him and his angels (Matthew 25:41). The devil was kicked out of heaven and goes around preaching bad things about God, things which are not even true at all. He blames God for every disaster and bad things so that those who are ignorant will end up thinking that God is a tyrant who rules by force, yet the Bible tells us God is love.
Why couldn’t God just destroy Satan and his angels the moment they rebelled? One can ask that question. Take note, if God had done so, it would have sent a wrong message to other angels who had not rebelled. It would have appeared as if God is cruel and unjust and forces His creation to obey Him without them exercising their free will. The remaining angels could have served God out of fear of being destroyed rather than out of love. Therefore God permitted Satan to continue in existence so that his character may be exposed and God Himself be vindicated.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
Though we exist in flesh and blood, the war that we are in is not physical but spiritual. Our weapons are not physical but are spiritual also. Our enemy is the devil and his angels. This war started in heaven but it is now here on earth. Will it end? You may wonder, let us consider how it will end in the next chapter.
