The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

4. That he was the one who in Eden used the serpent to cause the fall of our first parents.--
Gen. 3:1-5; 2 Cor. 11:3.
5. That his abode when the vision we are considering had its fulfillment, was in the region
around the earth, and he was using the Pagan rulers in an endeavor to thwart God's
purposes in the selection of the Church or kingdom class.--2 Cor. 4:4; Deut. 32:16,17; 1 Cor.
10:20.
6. That he is the chief or prince of numerous fallen angels, and that these are organized
into a kingdom that is opposing God and His purposes in every conceivable manner.--
Matt. 9:34; Luke 11:15-18.
Bearing well these facts in mind we will not be surprised that he is designated by Christ,
the "prince of this world," and by St. Paul, its "god," or ruler, and that he is the great author
and propagator of all the false religions of earth, and has controlled to a considerable
extent the nations of earth through fallen angels. (Dan. 10:13.) Paganism, being at the time
of the vision's fulfillment the highest type of idolatry, is the religion through which he
succeeded to the greatest extent in blinding and deceiving humanity in their state of
condemnation and alienation from God. After the cessation of persecution which took
place under the Pagan rulers, the Roman government became what is generally termed by
historians, Christian Rome, and continued in Eastern Rome for over a thousand years, and
in the Western, for over two centuries. At the close of the latter time the Western Empire
had become divided, Papacy had come into existence, and had begun to exert a controlling
influence and rule in and from the city of Rome over the kingdoms into which the Western
Empire was divided. It was during these two centuries that a Paganized form of
Christianity gradually developed.
The war described in this vision preceded the elevation of Constantine to the throne of the
empire, and continued for a few years after. Keeping in mind these facts will enable us not
only to see the appropriateness of the use of this past conflict of heavenly beings to
symbolize the conflict of Christianity with Paganism, but also to see in the language of the
vision that Satan and his angels are the symbols of the evil Pagan rulers and priests, and
that Michael and the holy angels are the same of the many true believers on earth.
In a later vision (Rev. 20) we have a scene in which is described a time when Satan's power
will be completely restrained for a thousand years, at which time all the idolatrous
paganized forms of Christianity will be destroyed. The overthrow of the Pagan religion,
however, described in this vision we are now considering, does not bring in this much to
be desired condition, as the symbols that follow very plainly teach; one of which is that of
the flight of the woman (true Church) into the symbolic wilderness--a place of separation
from the nationalized nominal church that was instituted after Constantine's accession to
the throne. It is doubtless also true that Satan and the fallen angels literally were the
invisible instigators of the attempt of the Pagan civil and religious authorities to overthrow
the Christian religion.