Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Angelic Conflict. Part 20. Meet Abaddon/Apollyon, the destroyer and exterminator.
Thursday, January 5, 2006
It emphasizes the fact that these fallen angels are not vulnerable to human attack; human beings have no protection against these demonic armies unless they are behind that wall of fire.
Abaddon is word that occurs quite often in the Old Testament.
It occurs as a synonym for Sheol or Hades.
Abaddon = “place of destruction” - Hades is the place of destruction for certain fallen angels.
1PE 3:18-20 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark,
Abaddon is also the name of a demon prince.
It is perhaps his title and not his real name just like Satan and the devil.
Apollyon is very close to the Greek word for Apollo.
Apollo next to Zeus was one of the top demons.
Apollo was the demon god of light who was very much involved with the kingdom of darkness and Satan himself.
Apollo was one of the first champions of the angel of light principle from demons.
He was the champion of lucidity or intellectuality and because of that he was called the god of the sun.
Apollo was the most widely revered and influential of all the Greek gods.
His name also was Phoebus which means “bright” or “pure,” because he was connected with the sun.
Apollyon = “the exterminator.”
In the Hebrew he is called destruction, and in the Greek he is called the exterminator.
There is only one other fallen angel who probably was on an equal basis with him and that is a prince called Beelzebub.
He is Satan’s inside contact for deceitful things.
Beelzebub deals in the realm of deceit whereas Apollyon deals in the realm of the military.
Beelzebub is the prince in charge of covert warfare against the human race.
He has charge of operation fake-healer, which is Satan’s plan to give demons and Satan’s human servants credibility in the Christian community.
Satan’s human deceivers include sorcerers who perform feats of necromancy, exorcists, so-called “divine healers,” and people involved in signs from Satan, including the actual reproduction of the gift of tongues.
1CO 14:22 Tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers;
When the early church began, the gift of tongues was in a known language -
ACT 2:11 We hear them in our {own} tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.
Beelzebub is the demon in charge of the eggastromuthos demons who, when they possess the body of an unbeliever, actually reproduce the gift of tongues as it occurred on the day of Pentecost and for forty years thereafter.
Beelzebub, as the demon in charge of undercover operations, sponsors activities to give credibility to Satan’s human servants.
No one has been healed by a miracle by a person since 70 A.D.
Jesus Christ only healed to give a hearing to His message.
He did not heal everyone in the world.
Beelzebub is the head of a great demon organization which practices miracles of healing.
When Beelzebub orders demons who are causing illness out of a human body, there is instant healing of that body.
1. Physiologically-induced illness - related to the functions of the body.
2. Mentally-induced [psychosomatic] illness.
3. Demon-induced illness.
Certain forms of demon possession cause illness, so that when the victim goes to a so-called divine healer (who is working for Satan), Beelzebub orders the demons to withdraw which means there is an instant and real cure.
a. The angels of Gen 6 who were involved in the angelic attack to infiltrate the human race, who are now incarcerated underneath the ground in Tartarus.
b. The first demon assault army incarcerated in the abyss at this time, REV 9:1-12.
c. There is a second demon assault army stationed underneath the Euphrates river, REV 9:13-21.
This demon army is led by four demon general officers and this demon assault army will actually kill one-third of the people of the earth who are involved in the cosmic system.
The golden altar is analogous to the golden altar of incense which was in the Tabernacle or the Temple, and it represents the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulation saints, REV 6:9-12.
Imprecatory prayers are prayers which invoke a plea for evil to come upon someone or a curse.
PSA 58:6 “O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth”
During the Tribulation period all trumpet judgments in the book of Revelation are administered in answer to the imprecatory prayers of Tribulational saints.
This explains why Satan’s demon assault armies attack, torture, and destroy Satan’s human servants who have been carrying out his will faithfully in the cosmic system during the Tribulation period.
Just as Satan’s servants in the cosmic system tortured and killed Tribulational believers, so Satan’s servants reciprocate against the human servants of the devil in the same pattern.
The four horns of the golden altar which is before God reminds us that all answers to prayers including imprecatory prayers are all related to our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross. The voice is the voice of a cherub angel guarding the altar, REV 8:3.
They have been restrained up till now and will be until the middle of the Tribulation period and the command is to release them because the only demons permitted to operate on planet earth at the present time are disembodied spirits.
Direct physical attack from demons will not occur until the end of the Tribulation period.
Bound - pres-pass-part - deo = to bind, to put in prison, to incarcerate or to imprison - “who have been incarcerated or imprisoned.”
These demon armies have bodies, weapon systems, uniforms, patches; they are a full military organization.
They have been put in prison for violating some type of principles in the angelic conflict.
The Euphrates river is 1700 miles long. In the ancient world it was the boundary between the land of Israel, given in the Palestinian covenant, and Gentile nations.
The boundary is stated in
GEN 15:18 and JOS 1:4.
GEN 15:18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:”
JOS 1:4 “From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.”
In keeping with the concept of Hades below the surface of the earth it is assumed that their prison is underneath the Euphrates and the 1700 miles river would be long enough to provide a barracks for 200,000,000 demons with bodies.
This river originates in the mountains of Armenia where Noah’s ark is said to be located, and it flows all the way to the Persian gulf.
The first order from the elect cherub angel to the angel holding the sixth trumpet is to release the general officers, not to release the army; they will do that.
The Euphrates is one of the four rivers which flows from the Garden of Eden, hence a river of great significance.
This army group will be composed of four hard core tough armies of fallen angels. Probably one sent to the North, one to the South, one to the East, and one to the West.
There will only be one group that they cannot kill, certain demon possessed unbelievers, members of the human race, will be exempted from their attack.
That final attack will be religion, Rev 17 and 18.
There is a certain group of demons in REV 9:20-21, who are involved in idolatry, religiosity, and the phallic cult, and they will be a part of the final attack of Satan against God’s plan in the human race.
“Have been prepared” - perf-mid-part - heitomazo = they have been kept in a state of readiness.
Nothing can happen in history apart from divine consent.
ISA 45:7 “I am the Lord. The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.”
The exception are believers who have the wall of fire around them because they are living in God’s plan and unbelievers who are demon possessed.
1. While demons in the past have attacked the human race, the only visible attack occurred in the antediluvian civilization, a genetic attack, a demon invasion through sex. It involved the Nephilim, the fallen ones, and angels who are called beni ha elohim, the sons of the gods.
2. The invasion of the human body is demon possession. The invasion of the human soul and personality is demon influence.
3. There will be a direct assault on the human race by demon armies with bodies, and they will be visible after Satan is cast out of heaven during the Tribulation period.
4. Once Satan is confined to the earth and no longer has access to heaven he has no need for the majority of those human servants who serve him in the cosmic system - believers and unbelievers.
5. Satan uses this second demon assault army group to destroy his own human servant