If you watched the opening or closing ceremonies of the London Olympics, and you study prophecy, there was no way to miss the not-so-subtle occult symbols and references to Satan’s counterfeit kingdom. The blatant occult symbolism continued in the Paralympics opening ceremony.
While watching these videos, the dark foreshadowing of Satan’s counterfeit kingdom — which is still to come — was deeply imprinted within me. While reading Isaiah 14:12-24 this morning, I was again reminded of Satan's counterfeit kingdom.
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate:
“Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,
17 the man who made the world a wilderness,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?”
18 All the kings of the nations lie in state,
each in his own tomb.
19 But you are cast out of your tomb
like a rejected branch;
you are covered with the slain,
with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,
20 you will not join them in burial,
for you have destroyed your land
and killed your people.
Let the offspring of the wicked
never be mentioned again.
21 Prepare a place to slaughter his children
for the sins of their ancestors;
they are not to rise to inherit the land
and cover the earth with their cities.
22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,”
declares the Lord.
23 “I will turn her into a place for owls
and into swampland;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord Almighty.
24 The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
I have great hope, however, because I believe that the destruction of the king of Babylon is in fact a type for how Christ Jesus will ultimately overcome Satan and destroy his counterfeit kingdom.
In verse 12, the terms “morning star, son of the dawn” are used. The King James version provides one of the devil’s many names:
This is a counterfeit description of the morning star, which is a title that belongs solely to Christ Jesus. He is described as the “bright and morning star” in Revelation 22:16 (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown).
In verses 13-14, we are introduced to what bible scholars call the five “I wills” that Satan uses to describe his counterfeit kingdom:
1. I will ascend to the heavens.
2. I will raise my throne
above the stars of God.
3. I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
4. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds.
5. I will make myself like the Most High.
The King of Babylon is brought down, just as Satan will be brought down. He went down slain to the pit, just as Satan will go down in the pit (Revelation 20:3), although he had been the terror of the mighty in the land of the living (Ezekiel 32:27).
In Isaiah 14:4 (KJV), Babylon is described as the counterfeit golden city:
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
We can be confident, however, that the Lord will sweep this counterfeit kingdom with a broom of destruction (Isaiah 14:23). The only true and pure golden city is New Jerusalem! (Rev 21:18)
While Satan’s reign on earth will bring enormous suffering, I believe that the bride of Christ will be spared from the worst of it. We can also rejoice that at the end of the spiritual warfare, Satan will be defeated.
There is a great deal more in these passages from a prophetic standpoint that I need more time to delve into. But I felt compelled to post this as a warning (and it is not surprising that I encountered both symptoms of illness and computer problems that made this extremely difficult) to those who do not have eyes to see, or those who do see, but have fallen into a deep sleep that the prophet Isaiah writes about in Isaiah 29:10:
