Satan will not release the nations from his chains and he will not release the Christians. He is determined to maintain control of the earth. That is why we have such doctrines in the churches as "As long as we are in this world we have to sin" and "Christ is coming at any moment to remove us from the world."

This is precisely what Satan desires—to keep people sinning and to remove the Christians from the earth. Satan wants the earth and its peoples, particularly the bodies of peoples, for himself. It is through the bodies of people that Satan and his followers in the heavens are able to enjoy themselves in the earth.

Once the Christian people decide to take back their bodies and the earth for God and Christ, the battle will begin in earnest. Every inch of the material realm will be contested. Satan and his angels for so long have regarded the material realm as their possession they will use every resource to keep us from invading it.

The creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, for it is only through the sons of God that the creation can be released into the liberty of the Spirit of God. And the sons of God are not able to release the creation until they themselves have been released. This is the struggle we are having today, and it is going to intensify in the days ahead and attain its climax in the return of Jesus Christ and the Battle of Armageddon.

The Principle of Multiple Application

Before we turn to the Old Testament passages that describe the coming of the Lord and the Battle of Armageddon, I would like to explain a principle of biblical interpretation. I would term it "the principle of multiple application."

By this I mean many of the prophecies found in the Old Testament apply to the immediate conditions and dangers of the Israelites and their land. But as one reads the prophecy he becomes aware there is a message overriding the immediate application, a message that has to do with the Kingdom of God. It is my opinion that these secondary messages are read and understood by God's angels, both the fallen angels and those who were obedient to God.

Ever since the rebellion of the angels God has been bringing to pass a plan He made at the time. God did not immediately confine all of the wicked angels but left some of them on thrones in the air above us to test the peoples on the earth.

All of the revelation of God, as far as I know, the knowledge of God's plan, comes forth through people in the earth. Then the understanding is given not only to us on earth but also to the angels as well as the saints who live in the spirit realm. They in addition to us are profiting from the Spirit of revelation that operates in the earth. The revelation is continually unfolding, especially now as we approach the climax of the Church Age.

Let me point out a passage from the Book of Ezekiel as an example of multiple application.

Beginning in the twenty-sixth chapter, Ezekiel prophesies against the ancient city of Tyre. Tyre was a coastal city north of Mount Carmel and south of Sidon.

To be continued.