“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

There is a war on Christmas.  We see it every year at this time.  A third-grader in a large suburban public school was told that he could not put a religious message in the goodie bags he wanted to share with classmates at their “Winter Party.”  The Freedom from Religion Foundation bullied an Oklahoma school into removing all Christian themed Christmas songs from its “December Play.”  In Denver no Christian themed floats are permitted in their “holiday parade.”  In New York City no Christian Christmas symbols are allowed in their public schools.  Macy’s Department stores have done away with the greeting, “Merry Christmas.”  A preschool northwest of Vancouver, Canada refused to re-enroll a child after her atheist parents demanded that they cease from mentioning Christmas in their curriculum.  The school was forced to pay the family the equivalent of $9,000 for discrimination.

But none of this is new.  The war behind the war on Christmas has been going on since Satan’s rebellion and banishment from heaven.

“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!  But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’.”  Isaiah 14:12-14

Satan and a third of the angels were cast to the earth (Revelation 12:4), where he tempted Adam and Eve into sin, which brought death into the world.  But from that sin and the fall of mankind came the prophecy of a coming child and Satan’s ultimate defeat.

“And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”  Genesis 3:15

From the seed of the woman would come a male child, upon whom Satan would deal a damaging, but non-defeating, blow (the crucifixion).  That same man would deal a fatal blow to Satan.

From that moment on Satan went to work to prevent the Messiah from coming into the world.  His means fall into four broad categories: murder, corruption, deception, tyranny.  Perceptive eyes can see the pattern all through the Old Testament, beginning with the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, through whom Satan thought the Messiah would come.

“Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother.  And for what reason did he slay him?  Because his deeds were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”  1 John 3:12

But perceptive eyes also see God’s intervention, thwarting Satan at every turn.  The Messianic line to Christ came through Adam and Eve’s third son Seth.

Next Satan attempted to corrupt the human race in the days of Noah.  Genesis 6-9   But Noah’s family remained righteous and was spared—and the line continued through Noah’s firstborn son Shem.

At the Tower of Babel, Satan used tyranny, attempting to bring about a political/religious system, forcing all humans to swear allegiance to himself through a ruler named Nimrod.  Genesis 11   But God confused the languages, scattering the human race into tribes and nations.  The United Nations is nothing but man’s satanically inspired attempt to return to the Tower of Babel, to bring about a tyrannical one-world political/religious system, devoid of God.

In Genesis 12 we read that God selected Abraham to be the father of the nation Israel, through whom the Messiah would come.  But his wife Sarai was barren until God miraculously intervened.  The same happened with Rebecca, their son Isaac’s wife.  But again, God intervened.  When their twin sons Jacob and Esau were born, Esau attempted to kill Jacob, through whom the Messiah was to come.  Genesis 27:41

During Israel’s captivity in Egypt, Satan attempted to wipe out the entire Hebrew nation through Pharaoh’s decree that all their male children be slain at birth.  He tried again at the Red Sea, but God opened the sea for the Israelites and closed it on the Egyptians.

Saul, the first king of Israel made numerous attempts to kill his successor David, through whom the Messianic line would run.  1 Samuel 18:6-11   Upon King Ahaziah’s death, his mother Athaliah attempted to slay all Ahaziah’s male children, in order to consolidate her power as queen of Judah.  She got all but one.  Hehoshabeath, Ahaziah’s sister, hid six-month old Joash in the temple—safe from Athaliah’s murderous intent, preserving the royal line to Christ.  In the time of Queen Esther, Satan again attempted through Haman to annihilate the entire Jewish race.  But Mordecai and Queen Esther were present “for such a time as this.”

Fast forward to the New Testament.  Unable to prevent the coming of Messiah, Satan attempted to murder the Christ child through Herod the Great, who ordered that all male children in Bethlehem under two years of age be slain.  Matthew 2:7-16   Failing that, Satan tried to corrupt the Messiah through temptation.  Matthew 4, Luke 4   Failing that, he attempted, and thought he succeeded in killing the Messiah.  Matthew 27   He attempted to prevent his resurrection.  Matthew 27:62-66   When that failed, he tried to deceive the world into thinking that the resurrection of Christ did not take place.  Matthew 28:11-15   Failing that, he made war on Jesus’ followers, commanding them through the Jewish chief priests not to speak or teach about Jesus Christ.  Acts 4:18   When that failed, he resorted again to murder.  Acts 7:54-60

So it has been through the ages, up to the present time.  Satan is still trying to deceive and divert the human race from Christ through deceptions, such as the false science of evolution.  Through murder, such as abortion, euthanasia, and ethnic and religious “cleansing.”  Through corruption, such as sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, and family and gender redefinition.  Through tyranny, such as the isms of Communism, Socialism, and Nazism.

Doesn’t Satan realize through repeated failures that he will lose?  Why does he keep trying?  Because hatred makes him blind and irrational, as it does with all who follow him.   In the end Satan, his demons, and all who follow him will lose.  They will be thrown into the lake of fire.  Revelation 21:14

There is God and there is Satan.  There is truth and there is error.  There is light and there is darkness.  There is right and there is wrong.  Though the proponents of the war on Christmas will give us every reason but the true one for their vehement opposition, it is nothing but a part of the same, age-old battle between two kingdoms.