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Revelation
12:7-12 (NKJV)
And war broke out in heaven:
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the
dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor
was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great
dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and
Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the
kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for
the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God
day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and
they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice,
O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you,
having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short
time.''
A Box Office Smash!
Mel
Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, now
appears destined to become one of the most successful movies
ever made. Today, it stands at #46 of the top grossing movies
of all time at the U.S. box office. Ticket sales could reach
the $400 million mark, surpassing Spiderman, which
presently holds the #5 position. (The all-time record in U.S.
ticket sales is held by Titanic, with $600
million.)
Gibson's portrayal of the last hours of
Jesus' life, His suffering, and His crucifixion, has become an
unexpected and unprecedented cultural phenomenon. Making the
movie was not easy, however. There were many unusual
challenges during filming and production that caused Gibson to
question whether the project would ever be completed.
In an interview with Christianity Today editor, David
Neff, Mr. Gibson recalled the spiritual battles he encountered
while making the film.
Neff: "At
the July screening and in an EWTN interview, you talked about
spiritual warfare. What kinds of attacks did you experience
during the filming?"
Gibson:
"Well you know, there's technological nightmares that crop up,
complications that block certain things. And the closer you
are to a breakthrough point, the more vigorous it gets, so
that you know when the opposition is at its greatest, you're
close and that you have to keep pressing on. That happened a
number of times, and it's happened a number of times since.
Post-production has been more difficult than production.
Post-production has been brutal: crashing computers, you name
it, it's happened. It's kind of a mechanical weirdness. Whoa!
The world goes into revolt."
Neff:
"So you think there are spiritual forces resisting this
project?"
Gibson: "Oh, of course.
But that's the big picture, isn't it? The big realms are
slugging it out. We're just the meat in the sandwich. And for
some reason we're worth it. I don't know why, but we
are."
The Spiritual Battle
Continues
A.W. Tozer described the on-going
battle between God and Satan, in an article he wrote while
editor of Alliance Life magazine.
"There are
two spirits in the earth, the Spirit of God and the spirit of
Satan, and these are at eternal enmity. The ostensible cause
of religious hatred may be almost anything; the true cause is
nearly always the same: the ancient animosity which Satan,
since his inglorious fall, has ever felt toward God and His
kingdom. Satan is aflame with desire for unlimited dominion
over the human family; and whenever that evil ambition is
challenged by the Spirit of God, he invariably retaliates with
savage fury.
"The world hated Jesus without a cause. In
spite of their fantastic charges against Him, Christ's
contemporaries found nothing in either His doctrines or His
deeds to rouse in them such unreasonable anger as they
constantly displayed toward Him. They hated Him, not for
anything He said or did, but for what He was.
"It is
possible within the provisions of redemptive grace to enter
into a state of union with Christ so perfect that the world
will instinctively react toward us exactly as it did toward
Him in the days of His flesh.
"Satan will never cease
to make war on the Man-child, and the soul in which dwells the
Spirit of Christ will continue to be the target for his
attacks." (from The Warfare of the Spirit: Developing
Spiritual Maturity, a collection of Tozer's editorials,
compiled by Harry Verploegh)
Satan has sought to
discredit and destroy Jesus since the day the Christ-child was
born into this world. Now, the followers of Christ are the
chief objects of Satan's mad obsession. In my March 7 weblog
entry, "Counter-Attack: A Response to The Passion of the
Christ," I wrote:
"I've noticed a disturbing
pattern of spiritual attacks on believers over the past couple
of weeks. I'm convinced this is a counter-attack by Satan
against God's children--a calculated response to the
phenomenal success of Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of
the Christ."
There has been an escalation of the
spiritual battle and demonic attacks against the people of
God. This is Satan's answer to the all of the talk and
attention that's being given to Jesus recently (The Devil is a
very jealous creature, you know). I remind you of
these things, so you might remain on guard--quick to recognize
and resist any attacks of the enemy.
The Next
Great Awakening?
As I've observed increasing
wickedness, sinfulness, and lawlessness in the world, I've
thought one of two things would likely happen soon: either God
would say, "Enough!", and send His Son back to the earth to
shut this whole mess down--or, there would be another "Great Awakening"--a revival that
would transform America and the world, and usher hundreds of
thousands into the Kingdom of God. With all of the renewed
interest in Jesus, which has been sparked by The Passion
of the Christ, this might well be the beginning of such a
revival of righteousness, and a spiritual awakening like the
world has never known.
Now, that, my friend,
is an exciting thought!
think on these
things...
Isaiah 59:19
(NKJV)
So shall they fear the name of the Lord
from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when
the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will
lift up a standard against him.
Luke 10:18,19
(NKJV)
And He [Jesus] said to them, "I saw Satan
fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the
authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all
the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt
you."
You can read the Mel Gibson interview with David
Neff and Jane Johnson Struck here.
Copyright 2004 Randall
Gearhart
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