WAR FOR DOMINION: THE END FROM THE BEGINNING - Vol. I
By DAN LUDDEKE
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About this ebook
Biblical prophecy is an interest to many people, Christians and non-Christians, for the purpose of discerning the times and current world events. This is a very practical purpose for prophecy as Jesus chastised the leaders for their failure to recognize the time in which they lived (Matthew 16:2-3) There is, however, ano
DAN LUDDEKE
Dan Luddeke Sr. received the gift of eternal life in 1979. Since then, he has been an avid student of the Bible, with special focus on biblical prophecy and angelology. Through the study and teaching of God's Word in the local church, Dan has gained insight to the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments. Dan received a bachelor's degree in engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1978. He has worked forty-five years in the aerospace industry as a mechanical engineer. Dan also attended Tyndale Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, studying for a master's degree in theology. Dan has served as an elder in his local church. Dan has also been on numerous mission trips with medical teams to Peru's Amazon Jungle.
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WAR FOR DOMINION - DAN LUDDEKE
War for Dominion
Copyright © 2024 by Daniel Luddeke Sr. All rights reserved.
Cover artwork by Pat Marvenko Smith, © 1982/1992 - www.revelationillustrated.com.
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Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024912005
ISBN 978-1-68486-796-7 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-68486-799-8 (Digital)
10.06.24
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Son of God who came in the flesh. My Jesus is eternal God who spoke all the creation into existence by His omnipotent Word. My Jesus upholds all the creation in existence by the same omnipotent Word He used to create it. My Jesus is abounding in love and compassion so that He gave Himself as a spotless Lamb to pay for all my sins. My Jesus is holy and righteous and just so that He will wage war against all those who oppose Him and He will decisively defeat them all. My Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me. There is nobody better than My Jesus. All praise and glory and power and eternal dominion and authority and majesty to my Jesus, the Christ. I love You, my Lord.
CONTENTS
Preface
Absolute Dominion
Ancient Nations
Dust Of The Ground
The Holy Mountain Of God
Three And A Half Years
Seven Trumpets With Three Woes
War In Heaven
The Four Winds And 144,000
Voices Of The Martyrs And Two Witnesses
Seven Bowls And The Return Of The King
The Woman And The Scarlet Beast
Idolatry
Abram And Melchizadek
Seven Empires
Appendix
PREFACE
There is one Author of the Holy Scriptures. He has worked through more than forty human beings to record the eternal Word over a period of about fifteen hundred years.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NASB)
All Scripture
includes the historical accounts and the prophetic future given in the inspired Word.
Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.
Isaiah 46:9–10 (NASB)
God gives us prophecy and He expects that we use it to discern the times, Matthew 16:3. However, the historical and prophetic parts of Scripture are also very much a part of our training in righteousness.
Every human being is affected by the historical past, and every human being has an eternal future, so this information from God has an impact on every human regardless of gender, age, race, or social status. God intends the historical and prophetic parts of His inspired Word transform us and not just inform us of the future. God’s ability to foretell the future with perfect accuracy establishes Him as the one and only true God, and it should cause us to be in awe of Him. God has a definite purpose in declaring the end from the beginning
because the beginning helps explain the end. The historical past of the war between God and Satan enables understanding of the prophetic future.
The written Scriptures are given to us from God through men moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit is also the teacher. It is only by the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit that anyone can understand what the Holy Spirit has inspired men to write. The Scriptures are foolishness to those who try to understand them by human intellect.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1 Corinthians 2:11–14 (NASB)
The phrase spiritual thoughts with spiritual words
in the Greek is spiritual with spiritual.
There are no nouns, but only the two adjectives spiritual.
The reader is left to fill in the nouns. The Holy Spirit teaches by combining Spirit-breathed Scripture with Spirit-breathed Scripture. When Scripture is combined with Scripture, it is like bringing together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. There is an illumination that starts to take place as the picture gradually becomes clearer. An author strives to make the whole body of information in his book tie together. So also, the Holy Spirit has made the whole of the inspired Word to be associative. The Teacher will lead anyone seeking to know the truth to a correct understanding by using Scripture to interpret itself. When the Holy Spirit leads to an understanding of the eternal Word, it is a logical, uncomplicated, and clear understanding with all the passages fitting together and eliminating any seeming contradictions. No one has any need to look outside the inspired Word of God to understand and interpret the Word of God. Those who are quick to look for evidences and explanation outside the Holy Word are missing the opportunity to be personally led by the Holy Spirit through the eternal truths that He moved forty to fifty men over a fifteen-hundred-year period to write. Even though there are many scriptural passages included in this book to show the biblical truths about the war for dominion, this book is an extra-biblical resource and must not be a substitute for an individual reading the Bible.
In writing this book, effort has been made to derive an understanding of the Scriptures solely by comparing the spiritual with the spiritual without consideration of the events of our time, study of the sciences, archeology, modern technology, or other resources. God has not kept Himself concealed to those who diligently seek Him through His eternal Word. God has gone to a lot of effort to graciously give us all that is necessary so we can know Him: the inspired inerrant Word and the Author, the Holy Spirit, as our Teacher.
ABSOLUTE DOMINION
Before Jesus Christ ascended back to heaven, He told the disciples that all authority had been given over to Him, Matthew 28:18. But Jesus Christ has not yet taken up His full authority and begun to rule. Instead, there has been an ongoing process of bringing all into subjection to Jesus Christ.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
Hebrews 2:8 (NASB)
With the delay in the reign of Jesus Christ, there has been a false teaching that the mission of the church is to conquer evil in the world and make it a place submissive to the will of God. When that is accomplished, then Jesus Christ will have the right to come and reign on the earth. From the book of Revelation, it is obvious that evil is at its peak on the earth when Jesus Christ comes to establish His eternal kingdom. This false teaching about the mission of the church is a satanic lie to distract and misguide the church. God does not need to have His will established on the earth before Jesus Christ can reign on it. Jesus Christ already earned the right to reign on the earth through His death on the cross. All authority has already been given to Him.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Matthew 28:18 (NASB)
The Lamb is worthy and already qualified.
And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
Revelation 5:11–13 (NASB)
This outbreak of praise by the angelic host before the throne of God in the third heaven will take place at the beginning of the seven-year end-time period when the Lamb takes the seven-seal scroll to open it.
In reality, it is not Jesus but Satan who desperately needs to establish his will on the earth so that he can claim absolute dominion on the earth and the establishment of his kingdom. Satan is trying frantically to bring all things into subjection to himself. He must accomplish this to prove his boast that he will make himself to be like the Most High, Isaiah 14:14. Satan is seeking to reverse his sentence to the eternal lake of fire by making himself equal with God. There are numerous passages in the Word of God that tell of the power and authority that Satan exercises on the earth. But God is the highest authority in the creation because He is the most powerful. God is all powerful. There are none in existence who possess power that can even compare to the omnipotence of God. None of the angelic host and none of the human race possess power and authority except that God has given it to them. It is delusional for any created being to think they have acquired any level of authority by their own ability and self-will. Satan is the prime example of this self-delusion. In the wilderness temptation, Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms on earth if Jesus would bow down and worship him. Satan boasted that all the kingdoms had been given over to him so he could give them to whomever he pleased.
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.
Jesus answered him, It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE Lord YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’
Luke 4:5–8 (NASB)
Satan was able to show Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth in a moment of time, which is revealing of his power and ability. Satan was correct in his claim to have ownership of the kingdoms on earth. When Eve succumbed to the temptation of Satan, she subjected herself to Satan as her authority. When Adam willfully followed Eve in sin, he also subjected himself to Satan as his authority. Adam and Eve and all their assets, including the dominion that God had given them, became subjected to the authority of Satan. This is in accordance to the rules of God’s creative order. Satan used God’s rules to gain control. God could have overruled His own order and retaken control, but then God would have violated His character of being just. Satan used deception to gain ownership and control; he does not play fair. In contrast, God does play fair even though Satan lies and steals and murders to gain every advantage he can. Ultimately, God the Father was the One who handed over to Satan ownership of the kingdoms. Satan failed to mention or acknowledge this reality when he offered the kingdoms to Jesus. That is because Satan is delusional, thinking that he has outsmarted God. Satan also failed to mention or acknowledge the reality that Jesus created the peoples of the kingdoms and the world they inhabit and that Jesus upholds them all by the word of His power.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.
Psalm 24:1 (NASB)
A created being, Satan, was offering his Creator, Jesus, ownership to His own creation. All who possess power and authority have received them from God, and they must be vigilant to remember there is always a divine authority over them, lest the power and authority become their demise. Even Pontius Pilate seemed to grasp this reality, John 19:10–12. Satan stated with great confidence that all the glory of the kingdoms have been given to him and he gives them to whomever he desires. Satan was claiming that he is the one who establishes humans in places of power on the earth. He was offering Jesus the highest office of power over all the kingdoms if Jesus would worship him. It is true that throughout human history, Satan has established and empowered rulers on the earth, as he will do for the beast and the antichrist.
And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.
Revelation 13:2 (NASB)
It is also true that Satan has control of the kingdoms on the earth.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
1 John 5:19 (NASB)
The whole world lies in the lap in the evil one because the majority of the peoples of the earth have continued to choose the evil one over their Creator. But the choices of the world in no way hinder God in being the only One who is sovereign over the nations. The power of God is manifested in that He is able to work His will among the nations even though the nations are the possession of the enemy.
Daniel answered and said, Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, And knowledge to men of understanding.
Daniel 2:20–21 (NASB)
God does not need possession of the nations to be sovereign. Since God has succeeded in continuing to work His will upon the earth, Satan has not been able to claim that he has achieved absolute dominion and that he has made all on the earth to be in subjection to him. As long as there are children of God residing on the earth, Satan will not be able to boast that he is in complete control, even though he has possession of the nations.
We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:18–21 (NASB)
The whole world lies in the lap of the evil one, but the devil cannot touch those who are born of God as far as claiming ownership of them.
And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
John 10:28–30 (NASB)
The evil one does not touch those born of God, but John does issue a warning: Little children, guard yourselves from idols
(1 John 5:21). The majority of idolatry does not involve bowing down and worshipping graven images. Idols are anything believers put before or ahead of God. They are a very important and destructive ploy for Satan in his war to establish his dominion. The worship of idols is the worship of demons, which is the worship of Satan as though he were God. This is a very dangerous thing for believers and will be addressed later in the book.
Believers must be continually on the alert that their thoughts and activities are not open doors for the devil to exploit, not to claim ownership but to bring attacks. Peter also warns believers about the opportunistic ways of the enemy.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 (NASB)
Certainly Peter had firsthand experience as Jesus told him that the devil had asked to sift Peter the night Jesus was taken into custody.
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
Luke 22:31–32 (NASB)
God uses the ploys of the enemy to His advantage to strengthen our faith. Satan can attack the children of God, but He cannot destroy them off the earth to remove them as an obstacle to his gaining total dominion. Even though the whole world lies in his power, yet he cannot remove the obstacle that God has placed and continues to sustain on the earth. God accomplishes this amazing feat even when the enemy seems to have the advantage. It is a miracle that the children of God continue to dwell on the earth; and it is proof that He is the true God, and Satan is not. At the end of the passage, 1 John 5:20, the apostle identifies Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the true God and declares that He is eternal life.
Just before His crucifixion, Jesus prophesied about the judgment that was about to come on Satan.
Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.
John 12:31–32 (NASB)
Jesus states that Satan is the ruler of this world. The evil one was the driving force behind the crucifixion of Jesus. The devil was sure that Israel’s adamant rejection of their Messiah would result in the absolute defeat of God’s plan to establish His dominion on the earth. Satan appeared to have the advantage as more and more Jews rejected the claims by Jesus that He was the promised Messiah. The lifting up of Jesus on the cross appeared to be His defeat. But Jesus prophesied that His being lifted up would be synonymous with the casting out of the ruler of this world. The death of Jesus was not His defeat but was actually the defeat of Satan. When Jesus died for the sins of the world, He gained the right to offer all who are in the kingdom of darkness entrance into the His eternal kingdom of light. Evidence is compiled against Satan every time someone in the kingdom of darkness defects to Jesus Christ by faith. God then leaves the defector on the earth for a time to be yet another obstacle to Satan gaining total dominion.
God allows Satan to devise and carry out his plans for the purpose of turning the devil’s plans to his own defeat. In Revelation 16:12–16, the dragon (Satan) and the beast and the false prophet send out lying spirits to gather all kings of the whole earth to the battle of Armageddon. But according to Zechariah 14:2, it is God who gathers the nations to war against Jerusalem. These passages in Revelation and Zechariah are prophecies of the same battle at the return of Jesus Christ. God will use the plan of the evil trinity to send out lying spirits as a lure to draw the kings of the earth and their armies into a trap. There will be other examples given later of God defeating Satan by using Satan’s own ploys against him. Every time God does this, Satan’s goal of making himself like the Most High God is shown to be nothing more than an empty boast, Isaiah 14:13. If Satan cannot establish his will and gain absolute dominion on this one small planet of the universe called earth, then certainly he can never gain dominion over the highest throne of all creation, the throne of God. Satan desperately wants it all. Gaining dominion is the only way that he can change the eternal destiny that awaits him in the lake of fire. Although Satan will pull out all the stops in the time of the great tribulation, his tactics will be the same that he has used throughout human history. Satan has learned nothing from his past failures. His final evil kingdom on earth will be the summation of the horrors of all his previous attempts to establish his earthly empire.
After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
Daniel 7:7 (NASB)
Of the four beasts that Daniel sees in his vision, this is the only one that he says is dreadful and terrifying.
Satan is desperate to gain absolute control in three areas of earthly rule. First, he needs to become the sovereign ruler of all the nations, as prophecy declares Messiah will accomplish, Isaiah 2:2–4. Second, Satan needs to become the only one worshipped on the earth, as prophecy declares that the Messiah will accomplish, Zechariah 14:9. Third, Satan needs to gain control of all earthly wealth so to as distribute it as he desires, as prophecy declares that the Messiah will accomplish, Isaiah 60:11–12. There has been a succession of satanic kingdoms on the earth through which Satan has sought to achieve these goals. There are three major prophecies in Scripture that give an overview of the evil one’s attempts to gain dominion on the earth. They are Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the great statue in Daniel 2, Daniel’s vision of the four beasts in Daniel 7 and 8, and John’s vision of the scarlet beast with the seven heads in Revelation 17. In each of the prophesied kingdoms God has been, and continues to be, at work in keeping the prize that the enemy frantically wants out of his grasp. Amazingly, God uses humans and angels to achieve this. The sovereign Lord keeps turning the clever plans of the enemy to his own defeat.
The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made; in the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made Himself known; He has executed judgment. In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared. Higgaion Selah.
Psalm 9:15–16 (NASB)
ANCIENT NATIONS
Knowing the circumstances and events that lead to the start of a war gives insight to the combatants and the progression of the war. The identity of the first combatants in the war for dominion can be found by looking back to the time of the creation. God the Son is the member of the Holy Trinity who brought all that exists into existence, and He is the One who sustains all in existence.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:1–3 (NASB)
There is nothing in existence that did not have its origin from Jesus Christ. God the Father is the planner and designer of all that has been created by Jesus Christ.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
Hebrews 1:1–3 (NASB)
God the Father made the world through His Son. The Son created all things just as the Father planned, and the Son continues to uphold all things by the word of His power. It was by the power of His word that Jesus Christ spoke all things into existence.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.
Psalm 33:6 (NASB)
Jesus Christ spoke into existence all the heavens and all their host, meaning the whole angelic realm. The angels were not formed from any material substance as was the man. The material universe was not in existence when the angels were created. In the creative sequence, the angelic host was created before the earth.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38:4–7 (NASB)
In God’s response to Job, He reveals that the angelic host already existed when the earth was created. Angels existed before the earth. The earth existed before man, as man was formed from the dust of the ground. Therefore, angels preexisted the earth and the human race. The morning stars
are the high-ranking members of the angelic host and the sons of God
are the rest of the host, see also Revelation 12:3–4. The created heavenly host sang together and shouted for joy as they watched the Lord bring all the universe into existence by the command of His voice. This creative act by the words of Jesus Christ was an ominous thing to behold. One of the morning stars watching and rejoicing was the one called Lucifer, now known as Satan.
"How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations!
Isaiah 14:12 (NASB)
The Hebrew word translated star of the morning means light bearer.
His name, Lucifer, comes from this word, meaning he had a luminescent appearance, and he was the communicator of God’s word. Lucifer was the supreme-ranking member of the heavenly host. Since he was among those who sang and shouted for joy as they witnessed the universe being spoken into existence, this only reveals what a monstrous liar Satan is with his deception about evolution.
The sequence of creation was very intentional by God. It was essential for the angelic host to see the Son of God speak this massive creation into existence and then uphold it in place by the might of His powerful word. Such a display of omnipotence would certainly keep any of the angelic host from ever thinking that they could be the equal of the Creator.
To whom then will you liken Me that I should be his equal?
says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power not one of them is missing.
Isaiah 40:25–26 (NASB)
The heavens and the earth were created as the abode for all the angelic host. Because of its size and innumerable intricacies, it was a realm they could explore forever and never know it in its entirety.
Jesus Christ created the angelic host with a system of authority in which He determined and established each one’s place and rank.
And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossian 1:15–17 (NASB)
Jesus Christ is the Creator of the visible thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. He is also the Creator of the invisible thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. The invisible rulership is the original system of authority in the universe for the angelic host. Some of that rulership became rebellious against the Creator. They are now the enemy and combatants against God in the war for dominion. They are also the same enemy against which the saints of the Lord now battle.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 (NASB)
Since there was a hierarchy of thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities, there must have been nations of the angelic host over which they ruled. The high-ranking angels were kings over these ancient nations. Lucifer was the highest-ranking member of the heavenly host. The Prophet Ezekiel reveals more about the rank and the function of this created being.
Thus says the Lord God, "You had the seal