The Earth and the Heavens Shall Be Shaken
Have you ever been in a situation where there has been so much trouble you wish to leave and never return? There are too many bad memories associated with the time you spent there?
This is the way it is with the Lord. He has determined to put His Throne among the saved nations of the earth. He is leaving Heaven, the place of the great rebellion.
All this time Satan has had access to Heaven.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. (Job 1:6—NASB)
We know the story, how Satan raised the question of Job. Can you imagine how tired God is of hearing the voice of the Accuser?
Jesus, in vision, saw Satan falling from Heaven. The occasion was the casting out of demons by the disciples.
And the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning." (Luke 10:17,18—NASB)
However the Scripture appears to indicate Satan is not finally cast from Heaven until the end of the Church Age.
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short." (Revelation 12:7- 12—NIV)
Imagine, Satan is still accusing us before the Throne of God. Can you see now why we say God is sick and tired of the whole thing and is ready to move His Throne?
Notice, in the passage above, the tremendous joy among those who dwell in Heaven. But big trouble has now come to the earth.
Therefore God will shake the earth and the heavens. He will shake and shake and shake them violently until everything that has not been established in Jesus Christ is removed from its place.
The shaking will affect all of God's creatures. There may be disaster on all sides of you. Eleven thousand people may be slain in your immediate vicinity. But you shall emerge unscathed if your whole personality is founded in Jesus Christ, is dwelling in the secret place of the most High.
But the part of your personality that is not founded in Jesus Christ is vulnerable to the Divine shaking. The Lake of Fire has a claim on all sin whether it is in a Christian or a non-Christian.
Antichrist shall reach up to the heavens in the last days. God will permit all to be tested and shaken until every trace of rebellion has been removed, beginning, as we have said, with those who are closest to Him.
What or who is Antichrist? The spirit of Antichrist is man making himself god. We think there will be an individual, male or female, who will sum up in himself or herself the modern attitude that man is the only god there is.
The False Prophet is the attempt of people to use the things of Christ apart from carrying their personal cross. They will try to use the power of Christ according to the desires of their own soul. The False Prophet will be the main supporter of the Antichrist government of the last days.
The philosophy of government termed democracy is much too close to the idea of man being his own god for Christians to be comfortable with it. Thank God for the opportunity to worship Christ without being tortured or imprisoned; but this very liberty may be concealing a greater evil. We need to be very careful from now to the end of the age.
According to Daniel the Antichrist will reach up into the very heavens and tear down part of the host. In other words, the spirit of man making himself god will seek to enter Heaven and infect the inhabitants with rebellion. God will not prevent this. He has a greater plan that will result in an end of sin and rebellion and the entrance of everlasting righteousness.
And it grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. It even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. (Daniel 8:10,11—NASB)
Do you remember the building of the Tower of Babel?
And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:4—NASB)
"Whose top will reach into heaven"!