The War Between Good and Evil

THE WAR BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. (Revelation 12:1)

The “woman” is the Church, the Lamb’s Wife. She is clothed with the Sun, which is Christ. She has the moon under her feet, signifying that eventually the Church will govern the physical creation, the authority given to “man” in the beginning. The crown of twelve stars represents the outstanding men and women of Church history.

But she is “pregnant.” What does this mean? Pregnant with whom? She is pregnant with those she is bringing forth who shall, through the authority and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, put an end to evil.

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.” (Daniel 9:24)

“To put an end to sin.” Perhaps most of us Christians have a difficult time picturing that an end to sin ever shall come. But it shall, because God has declared it so.

The two thousand years of the Christian Era have been occupied with calling out and building up the Church, the Woman clothed with Christ. Now it is time for putting an end to sin, to all evil. How will God do this? God will put an end to sin at the hand of Christ, Head and Body.

The Church is in travail today to bring forth the Body of Christ.

The Christian Church has throughout the centuries been divided into various organizations. This is because religion operates according to the will of the flesh of man. But in each truly Christian religious organization, including the Catholic Church and all her Protestant daughters, have been members of the Bride of the Lamb, as is true to the present hour. It is these, the members of the Bride of the Lamb, the true Church, who are entering a travail to bring forth those who are members of the Body of Christ.

Isaiah prophesied that these births would take place.

Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the LORD repaying his enemies all they deserve. “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. (Isaiah 66:6-9)

The “uproar” is coming from Jerusalem and from the Temple. This is referring to a commotion in Mount Zion, in the Church of the Firstborn. It is the sound of the Lord “repaying” His enemies all they deserve. Thank God for that! We have suffered. Now it is time for Satan and his crowd to suffer. They deserve to suffer because of the harm they have done to God’s creation.

Before the Church travailed, Jesus Christ was born. Christ is the beginning of God’s attack against the forces of evil. Jesus Christ is God’s Warrior. He is the Lord—strong and mighty in battle. “The Lord of Armies” is His name.

We of the Christian churches have a peculiar idea about the Christian plan of redemption. We speak about the saints dying and going to Heaven to lay about in their mansions. This is absolute nonsense. It is true rather that the saints have been created in order to work with the Commander in Chief at the task of putting to an end the rebellion against God.

We may sing about “Christian soldiers,” but I am not certain the words of the hymn mean very much to us.

Today a nation is being born. It consists of believers hidden away in the babylonish organizations who are in travail to bring forth Christ, God’s Conqueror. There is a commotion, an uproar in the spirit world. This is the hour that Satan and His demons have feared since ages past. It is time for the Son of God to torture them.

“What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” (Matthew 8:29)

It is the time for the Lord to repay His enemies all they deserve.

It was not time when the Son of God walked the shores of Galilee. But it is time now! The Servant of the Lord, who is to bring justice to the nations, includes not only the Lord Jesus but also His brothers, the members of His Body.

There have been, over the previous centuries, “mighty men of valor”—Christian men and women who have accomplished much in the Kingdom of God. But the confrontations between good and evil; God and Satan; Christ and Antichrist; the Holy Spirit and the False Prophet, have not occurred as yet. This is because the Church has not been seasoned enough to bring forth the warriors of the last days.

I am afraid some will interpret my words to be referring to the great end-time revival in which people of faith will do exploits. I am not speaking about revival. The revival of the last days is a double portion of the Spirit of God coming upon God’s faithful believers who will bear witness of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. This double-portion revival is described in Revelation chapter 11 as “two witnesses.”

I am not speaking here about a revival of witnessing power. I am proclaiming the total overcoming of all sources of evil, of putting an end to all sin. I am referring to total war against all unclean spirits, of driving them from the heavens and the physical creation into the eternal prisons.

This is the time of torture announced by the devils.

The eternal warfare has commenced. Those who are listening to the Spirit of God are beginning to participate in the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish Day of Atonement. They are naming their sins one by one, as the Spirit of God directs, confessing them to God, and by the help of Christ, denouncing their sins, renouncing them, and turning away from them with all their might. With His help they never shall practice them again. They shall put them to death once and for all.

This is the beginning of the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. Once the true members of the Body of Christ have pressed through to total victory over sin, not over the temptation to sin but over the committing of the sin, Jesus will return. He will give them new bodies and catch them up to Himself in the air.

Then Christ, Head and Body, will descend and drive Satan and his armies from the earth. Christ and His saints will govern the nations with a rod of iron, judging sin wherever it appears. Before the new Jerusalem descends from Heaven through the new sky to be installed for eternity upon the new earth, the Day of Atonement, of Reconciliation to God, shall have been completed.

During the reign of Christ and His saints on the new earth, sin will be possible but never permitted. All those who refuse correction will be sent to their new home in the Lake of Fire, to become as evil as Satan. Those who obey God while living on the new earth will gradually become fully in the image of Christ.

Some who are reading my words may worry, “Will I be able to participate in this grand victory?” Be comforted by the following promise. It is for you:

“Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. (Isaiah 66:9)

What, then, should you do? The fact that you want to be a part of the final war between good and evil tells me that the Spirit of God is moving in you. You must ask Jesus to give you total victory over looking to the present world spirit for survival, security, and pleasure. The world spirit is not your friend. Do not be deceived. It is of Antichrist. Fulfill your proper duties in the world, but do not be involved in it any more than is necessary. However, do not neglect the needs of your family. It will not please God if you do so. Remember, you are not of the world. Christ has called you out of the world to be an integral part of Himself.

Do not yield to the promptings of your sinful nature. You have all sorts of unclean compulsions dwelling in the members of your body as well as in your spirit. The Holy Spirit will point them all out to you, one at a time, and help you put them to death. There is to be no compromise with evil spirits. Denounce them as the vile creatures that they are, and do not give in to their reasonings. They shall deceive you if you are not careful. They have enjoyed your “friendship,” and are not going to be pleased when you turn against them.

Do not waste time “rebuking the devil.” He loves the attention. Rather, resist the devil and he shall flee from you.

Our worst enemy is our self-will and self-love, the desire to live our own life as we see fit. Part of our responsibility during the operation of the Day of Atonement is to submit to the various crosses and prisons that God deems necessary to crucify our self-motivations.

Our goal at this point is to learn to live by the Life of the Lord Jesus: to think as He is thinking; to speak as He is speaking; to act as He is acting. We must live by the Life of Jesus just as He lives by the Life of the Father. Nothing less than this is acceptable if we desire to be a member of the Body of Christ.

Paul stated that it was no longer He who is living but Christ who is living in him (Galatians 2:20). That was true of Paul two thousand years ago and is true for him today. It must be precisely so with us. We must resolve for eternity to live by the Life of the Lord.

Seven of our immediate objectives are as follows. They cannot be accomplished by our striving, only by the power of God as we ask Him to bring them to pass in us:

To be completely free in body, soul, and spirit from all the works of Satan.
To be changed into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the image of God.
To receive a redeemed body when Jesus appears.
To be filled with all the fullness of God.
To be an integral part of God through Christ.
To see Him as He is when He returns.
To enter into the “rest of God,” that is, to live by His Life.

If we will do our part, God will make us an instrument that will cause good to triumph over the evil in God’s creation. We will be part of God’s firstfruits who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion:

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. (Revelation 14:4)

Those who descend with Christ, when He appears for the purpose of bringing the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement into all the earth, are the firstfruits of mankind offered to God and the Lamb. The remainder of the Church, of the Royal Priesthood, will either be on the earth or in the Heavenly new Jerusalem until the conclusion of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

Then the glorified Church, God’s eternal Israel, the heavenly Jerusalem, will descend to the earth. The saints, some of whom will be an army of judges, plus the jasper wall that surrounds the new Jerusalem, shall ensure that sin never again will enter the Presence of God.

(“The War Between Good and Evil”, 3652-1, proofed 20210926)