STAND FIRM: The Epic Story of Truth (Part 2): The Promised One, Crushed Serpent and New Creation
In this series of articles, we’re looking at prophecy, the return of Jesus, the Millennial Kingdom and God’s continued plan for Israel in a different way. They aren’t separate subjects but part of the complete narrative running from Genesis to the maps in our Bibles. We’re hopping in the plane and gaining that 30,000 ft. view of Scripture — the big picture, and it is big. The story of truth told in Scripture is epic. It shows that there is so much more to Christianity than we make it, and we’re also invited into this continuing epic tale.
Our journey through this epic story of truth started at creation, seeing how God created the world as we know it. He created us. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of God. They literally walked with Him in the cool of day. They interacted and intermingled with not only the plants and animals in God’s Garden, but also celestial beings. One of those beings convinced them to disobey God, leading to them sinning. That sin separated the fellowship they had with God the Father, and they were kicked out of the garden. They, the world and even the deceiving celestial, Satan, were cursed. Yet there was a promise in the aftermath of the first humans’ rebellion. God promised that the curse would be lifted, the earth would be made new and mankind would be restored to fellowship with Him. This New Creation would come at the defeat of Satan by a Promised One that would somehow uniquely be a “seed” of the woman. In that promise, God also hinted that Satan would, in some way and somehow, have an offspring.
The original Creation and New Creation bookends the recorded Word of God and its reality will bookend this age. The foretelling of the Promised One and His defeat of Satan and its fulfillment bookends the Bible and the age, too. Sixty years after the ascension of Jesus, His disciple, John, who had been banished to a lonely island, was given a vision of how that promise written 1,500 years earlier and occurring nearly 4,000 years before would come to pass. John didn’t write anything new in the Book of Revelation, but he capped off what prophets and even Jesus who came over those thousands of years had said.
In Revelation 19-22, we read of the Promised One, the crushing of the serpent and the New Creation. In Revelation 19, we read that, as a “seed” of Satan, the Antichrist surrounds God’s people with armies from many nations, ready to remove them from the face of the earth, the heavens open and out steps the Promised One. Riding on a white horse is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, one who is Faithful and True — the Promised One. With Him is the army of Heaven made up of faithful celestial beings and those who had committed to follow Him (the saved) in perfect, eternal bodies.
We know this Promised One is Jesus. In Revelation 19, the Apostle John tells how Jesus defeats the Antichrist, the False Prophet and the armies gathered against Jerusalem. It also tells how they are thrown into the lake of fire. The final “offsprings of Satan” are crushed. The next chapter goes further and tells how the Promise One will call for an angel to bind Satan and throw him into the abyss. Later in the chapter, John reveals that Satan will eventually be thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the crushing of the serpent promised in Gen. 3:15.
Though these events have not occurred, we know we can count on them to come to pass because God will bring all things to pass as He says. We can simply take God at His word, and He has already brought the first part of the Gen. 3:15 promise to pass. The serpent, Satan, did get a shot at the Promised One. Like the prophets Isaiah and Daniel said, the Promised One came as a suffering servant that would be cut off. The crucifixion of Jesus was Satan bruising His heel.
In the following chapters in Revelation, John shares that there will be a New Creation. The earth will be made new. It will be the Garden of Eden again — an Edenic earth.
Best of all, Revelation closes by telling us that, once again, God the Father will be on earth with His Creation. Like Adam and Eve, those who had been saved would be able to walk with God in the cool of day. “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 22:3-5 NIV).
This is an epic story. You can already see how you can be in this epic narrative. We can be in that army of Heaven and on earth for this New Creation. We can someday walk with God in the cool of day.
Dive into the Epic Story yourself by reading Rev. 19-22.
— Jake is a state missionary and would love to share about the work in Northwest Arkansas and encourage your church to stand firm. (standfirmministries.com)
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Jake McCandless
Jake McCandless authors a weekly column titled, Stand Firm and Live Epic, through which he seeks to encourage the modern church to not just survive, but thrive in current times. He also addresses many end-times topics.
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