If Christ defeated the demons at Calvary, what is the urgency behind spiritual warfare?
Revelation answers this question. Each of the seven letters identifies a particular challenge which the Christians in that city must conquer.
The Ephesians have forsaken their first love (2.4-5). The Christians in Smyrna face persecution (2.10), as do those in Philadelphia (3.8-9). The church in Pergamum is tempted to indulge in idol food, sexual immorality, and heresy (2.14-15), as are the believers living in Thyatira (2.20-22). Those in Sardis are apathetic about their faith (3.2-3). The Laodiceans are arrogant yet impoverished (3.17-18).
Behind each of these adverse circumstances lurks Satan. In such situations, those who conquer are not people who bind Satan or overpower the territorial spirits. The victorious Christians are the ones who surmount the threats through faithfulness to the gospel and endurance in persecution.
Admittedly, this seems a strange meaning for 'conquer': not defeating an opponent but enduring opposition and persecution. Yet this is precisely how Jesus conquered Satan.
The Lion-Lamb conquers
Revelation portrays Christ as a model of how the church is to conquer its opponents, human or demonic: 'The one who conquers, to him I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne' (3.21, author's translation).
Jesus is the pattern, both in the reward which awaits those who conquer, and in how they are to conquer.
Revelation 4-5 describes the reward which Jesus received and the method by which he conquered. This is the reward Christ receives for his conquering: he shares the glory of God.
In chapter 5.1-6, John describes the method by which Jesus conquered. The essence of his method comes out in the contrast between how Jesus is described and how he appears. One of the elders surrounding the throne calls out to John: 'Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered!' (5.5, author's translation). Expectant, John looks up, but he sees neither a lion nor a conqueror. Instead, in dramatic contrast, he records: 'Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain' (5.6).
This is how the promised Messiah conquered: not through violence and military prowess, as many expected, but through death, as a sacrificial victim. The Lion had come, but he came as a Lamb. In this, Jesus serves as a model for the Christians of Asia Minor. He conquered through faithfulness to death; they must conquer in the same way.
The church conquers
The remainder of this vision portrays the suffering - and eventually the vindication - which awaits the church. Like Jesus, it is through suffering that the church conquers. All the same, it should be noted that he wins the decisive victory which defeats Satan. Christians merely win personal and corporate victories against the devil. As Leon Morris explains: 'Christians accordingly are not working towards victory, but from a victory already achieved.'
In 6.10, the martyrs of God appear, slain because they had worshipped and witnessed to him. They cry out in a loud voice: 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'.
It should be noted that this is the only recorded prayer in Revelation (apart from praises offered to God). It is the opposite of warfare prayer. These people call out to God because they suffered at the hands of Satan, and in recognition that Satan retains power only so long as the sovereign God deigns to permit.
Somewhat surprisingly, the answer to their prayers is postponed: 'Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow-servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed' (6.11). Just as the Lamb was slain (5.6), so must his people be (6.11). No special technique of prayer, traditional or innovative, is offered as the key to escaping persecution or defeating the demons.
On the contrary, just as the Lamb conquered through dying, so do his followers. Revelation 12 begins with Satan's attempt to destroy the Messiah; God intervenes, raising Jesus to heaven (12.4-5). Then war breaks out between Michael (with his angels) and Satan (with his demons). Satan loses, and is cast down from heaven to earth, along with his demons (12.7-9). Wagner cites Revelation 12 as 'a clear biblical account of strategic-level spiritual warfare'. But, much like Daniel 10, this is warfare in heaven between angels and demons, not between man and the ruling spirits. In this battle, the angels fight without human help or prayer. So if this is an example of Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare (SLSW), then humans are not to be involved.
Three consequences follow. First, with the accuser of the brethren finally expelled from heaven, there is no longer any impediment to the salvation of the people of God: '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' (12.10). Cast out from the presence of God, Satan is no longer able to argue for the condemnation of sinners (see Zechariah. 3.1).
Secondly, despite the defeat of Satan, the church does not experience peace. In fact, because of his defeat, the situation becomes grim: '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 12.12).
Like a cornered animal, Satan thrashes around desperately with the aim of injuring as many of his enemy as possible, before his own destruction. Christians are not called to overpower him: Christ and the angels have already done that. But they are warned not to take him for granted; he is powerful and dangerous.
Thirdly, Satan's efforts to destroy the church give it the opportunity to conquer him: 'They conquered him through the blood of the lamb and through their word of testimony. And they did not love their lives even to death' (12.11, author's translation).
Christians conquer Satan in the same way as Christ did: not through dramatic feats of power, but through faithful perseverance in suffering, even to the point of death (see also 13.10; 14.12).
Ironically, then, as Satan conquers the people of God through killing them, he is in turn conquered by them. New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham states it well: 'The martyrs are the real victors. To be faithful in witness to the true God even to the point of death is not to become a victim of the beast, but to take the field against him and win.' The only way Christians can lose is 'to switch sides or to quit'.
So the defeat of Satan does not mean the end of trouble for the church. To the contrary, it signals an escalation and intensification of opposition and persecution. But the end is in sight, and those who endure to the end shall be victorious, even if in the meantime they become victims.
Those who persist in faith through persecution and even death are not 'casualties of spiritual warfare' which can be reduced by careful implementation of powerful strategies. They are conquering heroes, and are therefore accorded the highest honours and reward: they inherit heaven (15.2, 21.7). It is by becoming victims that they are victorious. It is in being conquered that they conquer.
The final conquest
The denouement in this lengthy drama brings the final downfall and imprisonment of Satan. The beast conspires with its allies to wage war against the Lamb. But despite apparent weakness, the Lamb is actually Lord over all lords and King over all kings. He 'conquers' the beast, and his followers share in the victory (17.1-14). Judgment is then poured out on all who opposed Christ, and his martyred followers fin-ally see their vindication (18.1-21).
The divine warrior is the sole active agent in the final battle; his followers are called merely to persevere in the midst of oppression.
There is one final, massive rebellion (20.1-9). But this is quickly defeated, and the final judgment takes place. Those who opposed God are sentenced to hell, along with Satan and his demons (20.10-15).
Revelation ends with an extended portrait of the ethereal glories of heaven (21.1 - 22.6). Recalling the exhortations to the churches of Asia Minor, God promises: 'The one who conquers (NIKAO) will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my child' (21.7, author's translation).
Conclusion
There is a great deal about Revelation which is unclear to modern readers. But there can be no doubt about the present status of the war against Satan, or the means by which Christians may conquer him.
The battle divides naturally into three stages. The first occurred at the cross, and Satan was decisively and irrevocably defeated (12.1-9; cf. Ephesians 1.19-21; Colossians 2.15). As a result, he no longer stands before God to obstruct the salvation of the people of God.
The second stage continues throughout the present. It is characterised by increased desperation and heightened aggression by the powers of evil against the people of God (Rev. 12.12-17).
The third phase awaits, when Christ comes to imprison the devil and his demons in hell for eternity, and bring his people to heaven (Rev. 20.1-15).
Those who dwell in this intervening period face a foe who is simultaneously defeated and destructive. Since he has already been defeated, they need not take the offensive against him. But as he is presently launching a counter-attack, they must defend themselves.
Defence is victory
In Revelation, Christians are called to beat back Satan's assaults, not to charge out against him. Victory comes not by attacking, but by holding fast to the faith while under attack. In so doing, we, like Christ, conquer Satan.
The promise of more effective techniques for defeating the demonic horde slights the victory which Christ has already won for us. The belief that spirits can be rendered impotent in this age reflects impatience with God's timetable for binding Satan. The assertion that we can nullify the power of ruling spirits dishonours the millions of martyrs over the last 2,000 years (and still others in our own time) who have honoured God faithfully in death. The suggestion that a short burst of a special kind of prayer can make all the difference in evangelism mocks those who plead with God for respite in the face of Satanic persecution, opposition and discouragement.
SLSW often promotes itself as seeing life 'as it really is, not as it seems to be'. But with its emphasis on the power of Satan, the opposite is more the case. As George Ladd observes: 'The single intent (of Revelation 12) is to assure those who meet satanic evil on earth that it is really a defeated power, however contrary it might seem to human experience.'
Revelation agrees that life is not as it seems to be; but the discrepancy is the opposite of what SLSW suggests. Life seems to be under the sway of the evil one. But in reality this is evidence of his defeat. Leon Morris says: 'The troubles of the persecuted righteous arise not because Satan is too strong, but because he is beaten. He is doing all the harm he can while he can. But he will not be able to do this for much longer.'
This is an edited chapter from Chuck Lowe's new book Territorial Spirits and world evangelisation? published by Christian Focus/OMF, and reprinted with permission.
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