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Lyall Johnston—January 3, 2026
Greetings, everyone, and to all the saints who love God’s Law and just thrive on putting that into practice. Those deceptions are great, and all those in the True Church of God that Jesus Christ began building 2,000 years ago! We need to be warned of the dangers of Satan and just how subtle he is.
Rev. 12:9—we’ve read this so many times, but do we really understand what it is saying? Of course, it begins in v 1, this particular subject, where it talks about God’s Plan out of eternity, how God is working out His Plan here on earth.
But God also has opposition, and that’s not opposition that He cannot control. It’s an opposition from Satan the devil, and God has allowed this to happen for a very special reason, for a very special purpose! Satan is being used by God to obtain many sons and daughters for His ruling Family in the first resurrection.
That is just so important that we really need to understand that. That’s why we are battling Satan today. That’s why Satan wants to destroy the Church of God.
We just break into the subject here. You can read this from v 1, but we read this so many times:
Revelation 12:9: “And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan...”—which goes back to before the earth was created.
When Lucifer was created, then the earth, and Satan had rulership over the earth, but he rebelled against the Government of God, and he has been doing that ever since. Satan wants to destroy the very Church that Jesus Christ is building. This goes back even to the Old Testament, where God called out a family, the family of Abraham!
What was Satan trying to do all the way down the line:
with his deceptions?
with his perversions?
with his pollutions?
of the Word that God had given to ancient Israel! He polluted the people, and the same is true today! But again, we need to understand:
who Satan is
who his church is today
So we’re going to look at that from two perspectives:
from the historical point of view
from the moral point of view
of his church today, and the influence it has on the nations of this world! In fact, ALL people.
Because as it says here, the great dragon was cast out of heaven. This is a time that is in the very near future to happen.
The ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan; so he’s well labeled with three references there.
“...the Devil and Satan, who is deceiving the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him” (v 9).
Of course, when he is cast down this next time, there is no more place found for him in heaven! He is going to wreak havoc like this earth has never seen. It’s his deception; he is a deceptive being!
Who has he deceived? Well, right here, we have the words from God the Father—through Jesus Christ given to John through Jesus’ angels—saying that Satan has deceived the whole world! Not just part of the world, but the whole world.
That is so interesting. What does that include?
all religious systems
all governments
all economic systems
all educational systems
all the banking systems of this world
and the corruption that is involved in all that!
Why? Because the nations have rejected God, and they are lawless!
Satan was cast out from heaven once, but he still has access to God the Father, and he keeps going back, as it says a little bit further down in this chapter of Rev. to accuse the saints. Day-by-day he’s accusing us of having broken God’s Law.
But again, as the Scripture points out, we overcome Satan by the blood of Christ, and of course, by our testimony of Christ, knowing who Christ is, and having a personal, intimate relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ, which is made possible by the shed blood of Jesus Christ Himself.
So we go back now to Gen. 3. In fact, it’s very interesting because when did Satan begin his church? We’ll know in Rev. 2 & 3 that his church is called the Synagogue of Satan.
All churches, as we see in Rev. 2 & 3, the seven Churches in Asia Minor, and right there in one of those churches, Pergamos, shows that was where Satan’s seat was. And today, Satan still has his seat.
When did Satan plant the first seed that was going to grow in the lives of the beings that God created called ‘man’ into the church that he has today? The seed was planted there!
We know that God gave Adam and Eve the instruction that they were allowed to eat of any tree of the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil really, in one sense, represents the choice that Satan made right from the very beginning when he was in God’s Garden of Eden in heaven above. He made the choice to choose to go against the Word of God.
God had given him instruction, and we know that because we check with Adam and Eve; God instructed them what they were to do. It says that they were able to eat of every tree of the garden except this one! But Satan comes along and he deceives Eve (Gen. 3) and Satan has deceived the whole world (Rev. 12:9)
It began right there with Eve. Adam was not deceived, but he went along with his wife Eve because he was weak and he sinned. Then the nature has changed, and ever since, mankind has been walking:
outside the realm of God
outside the garden where God’s Law was kept perfectly
So, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. Today, of course, the whole of humanity is cast out of the garden! The whole of humanity, in that sense is the whole synagogue of Satan!
There are the two churches. There’s the Church of God, also called the Churches of Jesus Christ, which keep God’s Laws and Commandments.
The first two proofs to know who they are or where those Churches are is:
they are keeping the Sabbath Day, the seventh day of the week
they are NOT keeping the first day, which is the worship of the sun!
So, all those churches that are worshipping on Sunday are actually worshiping the sun-god, Satan the devil.
It began back in Gen. 3:15 with that first seed. Listen to what God had to say when they disobeyed: God said that they would, in eating that fruit which He had forbidden them, that in dying they would surely die!
Now, it’s interesting. I was reading one particular explanation of this is that in God’s eyes one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day!
Did Adam die the very day that he ate the fruit of the tree? No! But you read a little later when it talks about all those who followed from Adam, all those men—it lists them one-by-one—and it says they all died. It’s interesting that not one of them died over 1,000-years-old. A day is a thousand years in the eyes of God!
So, if we take that day as a thousand years, then that’s for sure. Adam died in that day as everyone else did. But again, again, we have all died because of that sin, because we received that fruit, or should I say the work that was planted within each individual through our mother, Eve, in that sense.
God, of course, with that sin, He already had His Plan in mind. He knew this was going to happen. He knew that mankind was going to sin. He knew that, as it says in Rev. 12:9, Satan has deceived the whole world, lock, stock, and barrel! No exceptions! No exceptions! No exceptions!
You were once deceived. I was once deceived. We see that seed a little further if we come to Gen. 6. Just let’s see what it says about our natural state before God called us; before God was merciful and led us to repentance
It’s interesting, the false church system today—which is centered in Rome, the modern Babylon—says that there is no salvation outside of the Church of Rome. We’ll have a lot more to say about that, because this is the major influence that is going to have a major influence on all nations as it is today, but greater, even upon the Churches of the living God, the true Church:
those who understand God’s Law
those that keep it
the Bible is filled with:
warnings
encouragement
urgency
God says that we’re to come out of this Babylon, mystery Babylon, the great mother of harlots, with all her perversions! Those perversions are great! God tells us about the depths of Satan! Not everyone is affected at that level, but the church, basically the Church of Rome, the Roman church—Babylon the Great—in existence today, with its headquarters in Rome, is what is also known as the Mystery of Iniquities, which are being taught by it.
The goal of the Church of Rome is to take over all nations. I’ve got a quotation on this, where the aim of the Church of Rome is not unlike that of Islam, that for infidels and for those who will not follow the teachings of the Church of Rome.
Now you can follow the Bible, but you’re a heretic if you do that because you’re not following the teachings of Babylon. You’re not following the teachings of the Church of Rome, who claim to have the authority—the one and only authority—to grant salvation. It’s a terrible blight on the face of the earth! That’s why we have to be careful, because at every turn, at every corner, we have this threat against the very Church of God.
Satan keeps attacking the Church of God. Look what he did back in the 1990s! Look how he sent his Jesuit agents into the Worldwide Church of God, and ripped it, tore it apart and devoured it. Those who were faithful members were scattered around the earth.
We had a church of about 220,000, the Church of God at that time, the Worldwide Church of God. But today, if we look at those who are Christian, who are truly Christian—I did a quick calculation on some of the major branches of those that were scattered—and it would be very difficult to come up with a figure of more than 100,000 members or saints in the Church of God today.
Now, the Catholic Church is the largest religion on the face of the earth. It has 1.4-billion members. It has 400,000 priests. It has 200,000 congregations. Those figures comes in part from Arnold Schwarzenegger in a comment. But also you can go online and you can check that. Here’s the Church of God:
What has God called His Church?
What did Jesus say about His Church, His flock?
‘Oh, My great Church! You’re going to, in this day and age, fill the earth.’ NO! That’s not what Jesus said!
Jesus said, ‘My children, little flock, persecuted from pillar to post.’ That’s what history shows. The main agent against the Church of the living God down through the last 2,000 years has been those who belong to the Babylon the Great, the mystery religion!
It never ceased. All the religions of this world, it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about Protestantism or Catholicism. In fact, the number of Protestants, the figure is somewhere about 800,000 to one million. But the Roman church, the synagogue of Satan, is the largest religious organization on the face of the earth. Next are Protestants, and then under that—if you want to do a search online—you’ll find Islam and Buddhists and all the rest of it, they come under that but that number is growing.
Of course, we know that a lot of those Islamic peoples are multiplying very, very rapidly within the people of modern Israel, primarily that is Ephraim and Manasseh, which is the United Kingdom and America, along with Australia, New Zealand, and others, as well as the northwestern nations of Europe.
So it’s very important that we do understand where the synagogue of Satan is, what it is doing, and what is the moral code of that church, because it permeates the entirety of society. Since we read in Rev. 12:9 that Satan has deceived the whole world, is God not telling us that the whole world really is the synagogue of Satan?
Where does worldliness come from, which every last human being is a part of? We all came out of this world, for those whom Christ called out of it. It was Satan’s world that we were called out of. So in that sense, God has called us out of the synagogue of Satan. Do you think Satan wants us back again?
Luke 22:31—Here was an encounter that Jesus had with His disciple Peter. This is near the end of the life of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Luke 22:31: “Then the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon...’” Here Jesus is addressing Peter.
Of course, we know that Rome—the synagogue of Satan—with all its evils, is claiming that Peter was the first pope, and because of apostolic succession, all the popes since that time.
Mind you, there was a gap of several hundred years before the first pope was installed, but we still had that false church system operating right from the time that the early church was established on Pentecost 31A.D.
Luke 22:31: “Then the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon, listen well....’”
Are you and I listening well to what Jesus is saying to us?
“...Satan has demanded to have all of you...” (v 31).
The pronoun there is plural. So, we have in A Faithful Version this translation that Simon—or you or me—says Satan has demanded, or we could say for us, ‘Satan is demanding to have all of you’ “...to sift you as wheat” (v 31).
Can we sit back and say, well, that was just Peter? Jesus said He was going to pray for Peter. He said:
Verse 32: “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail...”
Is not Jesus praying that same thing today for you and for me as we continue to search out His way of life?
Verse 32: “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail; and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.”
So, there is a responsibility that we all have to our brothers and sisters:
not tear them apart
not to be in contention
not to be forming schisms
But we are to be supporting and helping one another!
That’s a Divine responsibility that God has put on your shoulders and mine, because every saint is precious to God! God does not want to lose anyone.
But here we’ve got Satan demanding to have you and me, demanding to have all those true followers of Jesus Christ to snatch us out. He is demanding to have you and me, and I believe we can take that to apply to us personally today!
Our calling is so great! We’re going to be the sons and daughters of God! Yet, we’ve got this battle that everywhere we turn in this world, as we go about our daily lives, Satan is operating and functioning!
John 14:30—Jesus said: “...the ruler of this world... [Satan the devil] ...is coming; but he does not have a single thing in Me.
that’s our calling
that’s where God the Father and Jesus Christ want us
that’s why the shed blood of Christ.
Paul writes, talking about Satan:
1-Corinthians 4:4: “In whom the god of this age...”
Ephesians 2:2: “...according to the prince of the power of the air...”
He’s all around us, demanding to have us!
He throws all kinds of temptations before us every day. And one of the worst—or one of his best weapons, I should say—is the media!
television
online
YouTube
All those programs are his major instruments!
And there’s so much lying, and of course, with AI coming along, it’s very difficult. I’ve been doing some searching on the Church of Rome and other subjects, and there is stuff coming across there that the pope is apparently saying... But it’s completely false; it’s not right. We will have much more to say about this, but I would like to turn back to Matt. 4 and see something which we quote so many times, and yet, it’s such an important Scripture.
Matt. 4—here are the three temptations of Jesus, and they’re also the temptations that we face as the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, as the sons and daughters of God the Father.
Satan tempted Jesus to change the stones into bread
Matthew 4:4: “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”’”
That’s the entirety of the Bible, and we’re so fortunate, we’re so blessed to have the Faithful Version, which is the closest there is to the original text as they were presented by God the Father to the Hebrew people, and of course, to the Church through the Greek language.
Notice there were two other temptations of Christ. The next one was
tempting God
Satan all the time is tempting us:
to sin
to break God’s Law
to tell a little lie
What does Jesus say that we are to do?
Verse 7: “Jesus said to him, ‘Again, it is written, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”’”
So we are not to tempt the Lord our God by saying, ‘It’s okay to tell a lie. It’s okay to take a little here that belongs to somebody else, and not to mention the whole situation of covetousness, which is lust.
We will cover at a later time, particularly in relation to the Church of Rome, Babylon the Great!
the third temptation was that Jesus would cast His life down before Satan and worship him
Jesus rebuked him again when Satan wanted Him to worship him. He wanted Jesus to bow down and worship.
Does Satan want you?
Does Satan want me?
In any little way he can, for me or you to fall down and worship him! We better believe it! That’s why we need the Word of God. That’s why the Word of God is so precious, because it guides us and directs us so that we will not do that.
Verse 9: [Satan] “Said to Him, ‘All these things will I give You, if You will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve”’” (vs 9-10).
What we want to have a look at, perhaps next time, is how that there is this false church system called Babylon the Great with its headquarters in Rome, Mystery Babylon, that wants you and me to depart from the very Word of God and fall down and worship it!
If we don’t, there’s an amazing quotation from one of their chief theologians, which says, ‘IF we, whom the church considers infidels, will not bow down and worship God through the priesthood, the pope, and the very church, THEN we are infidels and they have the right—they believe from God—to turn us over to the legal authorities so that we can be exterminated!
Does that remind us of what has happened to the Church of God and the people of God down through the centuries? Well, stay tuned because we’ll have more of this next time!
Scriptural References:
Revelation 12:9
Luke 22:31-32
John 14:30
2-Corinthians 4:4
Ephesians 2:2
Matthew 4:4, 7, 9-10
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
Revelation 12:1-8
Genesis 3:15
Revelation 2 & 3
Genesis 6
LJ:bo/po
Transcribed: 1/8/26
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