The Satanic Cosmos

Derek Prince writes, “Today, by divine providence, the veils of convention and carnality are once again being drawn aside, and the church of Jesus Christ is being confronted by the same manifest opposition of demon power that confronted the church of the New Testament.  In these circumstances, the church must once again explore the resources of authority and power made available to her through the truth of the Scripture, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the Name and the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In the Scriptures, both holy and unholy spirit beings are designated as angels (Revelation 12:7).  Usually the unholy angels are referred to as demons, translated in the King James Version as devils.  The chief of the fallen angels is an archangel who has at least forty names given in Scripture.  Some are proper names, others are descriptive.  For example, in Revelation 12:10 he is called the accuser of the brethren.  He is called “that old Serpent” (Revelation 20:2), indicating his guile, Lucifer, Son of the Morning (Isaiah 14:12), his title when he fell.  Devil means accuser or slanderer and it is of Greek origin (Revelation 12:9).  Satan means adversary or resister and is of Hebrew origin; Apollyon means destroyer; the term Dragon speaks of his power.  He is also called Prince of devils (Matthew 9:34), Prince of this world (John 12:31), god of this world, and prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2).  Belial is implied to be his title in II Corinthians 6:15.  In II Kings 1:2, 6, & 16, he is referred to as Beelzebub, implying a prince of demons.  As Dr Chafer says, “In power, prominence and importance, Satan appears in the Bible second only to the Trinity.” 2

Second only, therefore, to knowing triune God and the value of His redeeming grace is knowing the truth about the enemy of God, who “as a roaring lion walketh about seeking who he may devour”  (I Peter 5:8).

Frances Manuel gives us this useful summation:  “We do have clear and plain teaching regarding the demons themselves.  Demons in vast numbers constitute a part of Satan’s hierarchy and fight in his army.  They are spiritual beings without bodies of their own, hence they seek embodiment; they have supernatural power and strength.  They are not omniscient, but are creatures of cunning intellect and given to deceits and wiles.  They are unclean, corrupt, and bent on destruction and ruin.  They degrade the bodies they invade and possess, whether of animals or men.  They tremble at the Word of God and have to bow to the authority of Jesus Christ whether exerted directly by Him or by those to whom He has delegated the authority to subject them.”  3

Mrs. Penn-Lewis defines the satanic forces described in Ephesians 6:12 as:  Principalities – force and dominion dealing with nations and governments; Powers- having authority and power of action in all the spheres open to them; World Rulers – governing the darkness and blindness of the world at large; Wicked Spirits in heavenly places – the forces being directed in and upon the Church of Jesus Christ in wiles, fiery darts, onslaught, and every conceivable deception about doctrine which they are capable of planning.  4

She continues:  “All `teachings’ originating from deceiving spirits weaken the authority of the Scriptures; distort the teaching in the Scriptures; add to the Scriptures the thoughts of men; or put the Scriptures entirely aside . . . The test of all thought and belief therefore is its harmony with the written Scriptures in its full body of truth, and the attitude to the cross and sin.”  5

Dr. Chafer points out that the “Demon influence, like their activity, is prompted by two motives:  both to hinder the purpose of God for humanity, and to extend the authority of Satan.  They therefore, at the command of their king, willingly cooperate in all his God-dishonoring undertakings.  This influence is exercised both to mislead the unsaved and to wage an increasing war against the believer.” (Ephesians 6:12) 6

When you were born as a human being, you became the object of extreme hatred and jealousy from the Archangel Lucifer and his hosts, for it was on human beings (not angels) that God elected to display His grace, love and mercy unexcelled.  When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, and dominion over the earth was handed to Adam, Satan sulked and raged.  The earth was to be given over, not to another angel of rank and dignity, but to a mere handful of dirt.  The indignity could not be borne.

When he saw what God was doing in placing this puny creature in charge of his former domain, the devil immediately began to design an plan to plant rebellion in the man, thus to depose him from the position of overlordship God had given men.  Satan understood that only in this way could he dispose of this upstate and at the same time express his own disdain, hatred and anger toward God.  He succeeded, but what he did not know was that, although God had no alternative plan for angels, He did, in His great grace and love, have a way by which He could save His fallible creature man from his disastrous alliance with Lucifer.

When grace was extended to the man and woman in the Garden of Eden through the provision of substitutionary blood, the promise was made that some day God would send the Savior to be the Lamb of God.  Satan was outraged.  Love and grace were beyond his ken, and he could neither receive nor understand them.  Thus commenced the fierce battle between Satan and God for the control of the human beings God put on earth in the re-creation.  The Bible narrative is a continually unfolding story of the titanic struggle that Satan has waged to prevent the coming of the Messiah according to the Word of the Lord.

After being outmaneuvered by God and failing with Adam and Eve, Satan took note that God had said that the Savior would come through the seed of the woman.  He soon managed to deceive Cain into becoming the first “do-it yourself ” religionist.  Once Cain entered into the bondage of false religion, it was only a short step to the murder of the one who was worshipping in Spirit and in truth.  By persuading Cain to attempt a bloodless approach to God (insuring that he would be rejected by God) and then filling his heart with murderous rage toward his brother Abel, Satan thought he had a master foolproof plan.  Cain’s bloodless approach (like many today) denied the guilt of his soul before God and the necessity of death to cover the penalty of sin (Romans 3:23).  “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4,20)

When Cain killed Abel, the obedient son was removed.  Cain, smeared by his brother’s blood, was certain to be cursed and rejected by God.  What the devil did not know was that all the while God was preparing to circumvent all this through the birth of Seth, through whom the promise would pass.

The super angel continued to invade the affairs of men and by the time of Noah, he had managed, by supernatural power, to infiltrate the human race with angelic creatures who somehow took the bodies of humans (to father monstrous hybrid offspring, half demon and half human, Genesis 6:2).  They were giants in physical and mental stature, all depraved and incredibly wicked.  Satan reasoned that because the Messiah was to be the seed of a woman, by polluting the entire race, God would be unable to fulfill His promise of a Savior.  Certainly God’s Son would not be half demon!

At last, when the entire race had been tainted by the demonic strain, except for Noah and his family, God again struck the devil a mighty blow and had Noah prepare an ark.  With one sweep, God wiped out the entire polluted human race which had been defiled beyond redemption by demonic tampering (Genesis 6:5-7).  The flood again cleared the way for God’s perfect plan of redemption. Removing the demonic taint is the only logical explanation for God’s unprecedented complete destruction of the human race.  Drastic means were necessary.

Noah proved to be the glorious exception in an earth filled with violence and he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  Through Noah’s obedience the human race was saved and the devil’s maneuvering was thwarted once again.

Satan struck next by creating incest in Noah’s family and by fomenting and stirring in the affairs of the descendants of Noah.  He steered the whole race again back into the bondage of idolatry and worship of the stars.  This culminated in the construction of the mighty ziggurat, know as the tower of Babel, a monument to man’s rebellion against God.  Again God intervened, this time breaking the unity of the people by confusing their languages, thus stopping construction of this expression of man’s disregard for God and His plan.

Satan continued to work ceaselessly to drag men and women away from the place of blessing to idolatry.  God in sovereign grace reached down into the midst of the idol worshippers and called out a man named Abram to follow Him.  Abraham, as he was later called, was led into stormy paths of faith and testings.  In spite of many human faults and failings, he enjoyed great success in the business of being God’s man.

The descendants of Abraham, chosen by God to carry out his promises, were sent into Egypt to sojourn during a famine, but like so many, they went to sojourn and stayed on and settled down, instead of returning to the land of promise.  Satan did this, as he still does, by giving material prosperity and abundance to persuade men to miss God’s perfect will.

The result was the galling slavery of Egyptian bondage which gripped them, and was to last for centuries.  Now, when they did desire to leave, they could not, being slaves.  The devil seemed to have carried the day.  However, faith was kept alive in Israel through the bones of Joseph and his prophecy that they would some day carry his bones back to the promised land (Genesis 50:25; Hebrews 11:22).  Triumph came in the call of Moses and his torturously slow preparation for the task leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and back to the land God had given them centuries before. On Mount Sinai, God gave them a perfect set of laws, but even while Moses was in communion with God on the mountain, Satan worked mightily.  This time he stirred up the licentious and lascivious desires of the people and arranged for a nude orgy of “worship” to the golden calf that had been manufactured by Aaron (Exodus 32:35).  This episode again illustrated the rebellion in their hearts.  There was a bloody judgment executed upon the disobedient as God called for absolute separation from idolatry.

After much purging and forty more years of agonizing preparation, God got His slow people ready for the victorious march into the promised land.  Always the devil sought to lead the people into idolatry and immorality in order to bring them to where God’s judgment was sure to fall upon them.

As Dr. Chafer observes, “Evidently demons have always been active in the world from the dawn of human history; but as the occasion may arise, they become more active at one time than at another.  When the Son of God came to earth, took a human body and was manifested in the flesh, the very Creator and God against Whom the demons had originally rebelled, there was a violent and powerful upsurge of demonic manifestations and power over all the world.  It was almost as if the unseen world, in torment and resentment at the presence of the Godman, went into fresh spasms of rebellion and fury.”  When the coming of the promised Messiah was near, there was a mighty Satanic upheaval.  The hosts of hell were rearing up to hinder this manifestation of the living Son of God on earth.  Even before He was born, Satan was stirred to oppose the Savior.  When Mary received the angelic visitation informing her of the miraculous conception of the Son of God in her womb, the adversary moved to attempt to convince Joseph to put her away, breaking the engagement and leaving Jesus to be born under the serious handicap of an illegitimate birth.  God intervened supernaturally, checking the enemy and eliminating all Joseph’s doubts about his bride to be.  Obediently, Joseph cloaked the Son of God with His name, thus protecting the mother and child from the stigma of a child born out of wedlock.

When the time for Jesus’ birth drew near, Satan struck again, moving Caesar to order a census (which was never completed).  Mary had to make a cross-country trip on the back of a donkey at a critical time in the pregnancy, but again God intervened to protect His Son, and Mary made the trip safely.

The enemy next arranged that every inn and room in the village be filled, leaving no room for the weary couple.  A stable was the only shelter available.  It was not the clean, beautiful place of the Christmas pageants, but a vile place, reeking of manure and urine, swarming with flies and maggots, loaded with disease germs.  In the unsanitary, filthy stable the Son of God was born.  From the natural and human standpoint, both mother and child should have died of childbed fever and infection, but again the Father overruled and protected them.

Satan never gives up.  About two years later, wise men arrived from the East, looking for a great King who had been born earlier.  Ordinarily you look for a prince to be born in the palace of a king; accordingly, they inquired of King Herod.  He was interested, especially when Satan whispered to him that this prince was a threat to his own throne.  Herod gave careful but hypocritical instructions to the Eastern visitors, pretending that he, too, wanted to worship the child king.  God moved and warned them in a dream not to report back to Herod after they visited and worshipped a “young child in a house” (not a new born babe in a manger) (Matthew 2:11, 16).

Herod’s fury knew no bounds when he discovered how he had been tricked.  Again, prompted by Satan, the King issued a decree condemning all babies two years and younger to be butchered.  In this way he felt confident he would rid himself of the new Prince.  God moved promptly, warning Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt, which he did, escaping the trap set by the devil.

There were continuous attacks on Jesus during this days of ministry.  Slurs were hurled at his parentage:  “Where is thy father?” (John 8:19).  Attempts to trip him with catch questions and efforts to kill him were among the methods employed by the enemy.  All were successfully eluded by the Son of God.

When Jesus came to the end, the super attempt to forestall God’s plan was tried.  Satan sought to kill him physically in the garden, wringing from the Savior the anguished pleas for life to make it to the cross (Matthew 26:38,39).  To imagine that Jesus attempted to escape the cross at that zero hour, pleading with His Father to be spared from the awful anguish of the cross, seems to be totally out of keeping with Jesus’ character and mission in life.  His prayers, thrice uttered, were answered and the enemy was not permitted to kill him in the garden, but strength was given to make it all the way to Calvary.

On the cross He hung in agony and blood.  A supreme display for all time of the cruelty and harshness of the satanic forces, sin revealed in all its ugliness.  It was also a magnificent advertisement to all the ages showing God’s unfathomable love for the sinful creatures who stood under His righteous judgment.  For an accurate description of the sufferings on the cross, written hundreds of years before crucifixion was invented, read Psalm 22.  His death is detailed there as a result of a broken (ruptured) heart.

At the tomb, it seemed that Satan had finally triumphed but Praise God!  Early on the first day of the week, all was changed completely, for time and eternity.  The Son of God came out of that tomb, the keys of hell and death dangling at His belt (Revelation 1:18).  This was total victory!

Battling the Hosts of Hell – by Win Worley © 1976

The following is an excerpt from “The Satanic Cosmos-Satan’s Kingdom Exposed, Booklet #18″ by Pastor Win Worley. Copyright © 1983 by Win Worley, Revised 1993. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including storage and retrieval system, without securing permission in writing from the publisher, WRW Publications, PO BOX 9309, Highland, IN 46322.

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If you’d like to obtain your own copy of not only this, but other materials authored by Win Worley, please contact WRW Publications at www.wrwpublications.com

Tags: Booklet #18, Cosmos

By Admin in Demonic Operation on October 13, 2011