One of the rudimentary lessons every Christian learns is that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities...". Every believer will eventually discover that there are spiritual adversaries to true faith in God.

A principality is the dominion of a prince.

Not a King, mind you, because there is only one King of Kings. The fallen angels are the fallen princes of God. The church wrestles against the powers of these princes. Every spiritual battle we fight is against very real spiritual personalities in the heavens.

Adam and Eve met Lucifer in his own territory, and fell his prey. Men were created lower than the angels (according to Psalm 8), and as such, are helpless to overpower them alone.

Almost all the notable biblical saints required angelic assistance to accomplish their spiritual goals or overcome their adversity.

Remember if you can the angel role in these stories: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Daniel, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Peter, John, Paul and so on.

Every one of them were at some point assisted or delivered by a holy angel from God. And there are certainly countless other angelic dispatches of which we were never told.

The point in this case is that humans face dominions of unholy princes that can only be conquered by higher power and authority than humanly possible.

God has carefully structured the kingdom to include positions of responsibility to every righteous creature. Therefore, we find that He has given His angels charge over us, knowing that Satan has also given unholy angels charge against us.

The Holy Angels war against the Evil Princes.

God commissioned Gabriel and Michael the archangel to perform hand-to-hand combat with an unholy angel whom he referred to as the prince of Persia in Daniel 10.

That the prince of Persia is a very real individual is a matter of scriptural fact. He lives to this day, no doubt "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day " of God (Jude 6).

Gabriel spoke of another prince: the Prince of Greece, in Daniel 10:20.

If you follow closely, you will see that each of the world empires which are shown to rule over Israel from the days of her backsliding onward are guided by a heavenly personality, an unholy angel, a prince.

It is safe to assume that even Babylon had a prince. Persia had one. Greece had one. Rome had one.

Gabriel informed Daniel that the "the people of the prince that shall come" (Daniel 9:26) would destroy Jerusalem and the temple.

Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 70 A.D. by Romans, led by the Emperor Vespasian's son, Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus. The Romans abolished the Jewish high priesthood and Sanhedrin (Jewish national council), and diverted the tax paid by Jews for support of the Great Temple to a special account in the imperial treasury.

Daniel had prophesied the rise of the Prince of Rome.

Evil Princes control the fate of nations.

All of these ungodly princes exercised power over masses of humanity during their reigns.

The strength of the Babylonian empire was nothing less than the same demonic inspiration that had inspired the tower of Babel in Nimrod's day.

The impetus of the Medo-Persians was derived from Satanic sources approved by God, in the same way that Lucifer was granted license to test Job.

Israel's sins forced God to turn that nation over to a reprobate mind, inspired by the leagues of darkness.

Those unholy angels who form these principalities and powers are amassed from the "third part of the stars of heaven" which John declared were cast "to the earth" when "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,...was cast out into the earth" (Revelation 12:4,9).

A third of heaven's angels fell in Lucifer's rebellion. John saw 10,000 times 10,000 holy angels around the throne of God. That's a hundred million holy angels left, after at least fifty million rebellious angels lost their estate.

Lucifer himself leads the evil angels

If you remember, the angel Lucifer used deception to gain dominion over all of humanity in the Garden of Eden. Since that time there have been countless other princes who have gained access to the minds of men, both individually and collectively.

From the "evil spirit from the Lord" that troubled Saul, to an unnamed devil that encouraged Diotrephes to desire preeminence in the early church, there have been literal throngs of individuals who have fallen to these extraterrestrial powers.

Are there powers in the heavens right now who could be standing watch over the very Church of Jesus Christ, like vultures circling a canyon for their next prey? Did God in His foreknowledge even consider our plight? Does God give us any insight about who our predators might be?

An invisible prince can wreak havoc over a nation.

In Israel's case, God assigned the archangel Michael as a holy prince over Israel to do battle against the unholy princes who one by one afflicted Israel.

Secular history records the earthly events testifying of heavenly warfare; namely -- the restructuring of world empires according to the prevailing princes.

While the prince of Babylon prevailed, Babylon reigned.
While the prince of Persia prevailed, Persia triumphed.

When Gabriel and Michael defeated the prince of Persia, the prince of Greece came, and the world swooned to the tune of Alexander the Great.

When God's timetable called for his defeat, the prince of Rome stood up and the Roman Empire came to power.

The most awesome prince of all the ages, second in evil only to Lucifer himself, this vicious enemy of God proceeded not only to attack the only NATION that God ever called his own (Israel), but quickly identified God's newest agency in the earth (the CHURCH of Jesus Christ), and immediately escalated warfare on her.

The current prevailing prince: Rome.

The prince of Rome, though not once mentioned by name in the New Testament, proves to be the single most influential principality the Body of Christ would ever have to contend with.

Through prophetic license, the prince of Rome would rise to the occasion, and become the executive producer and director of the most solemn drama of all the ages.

The world first saw evidence of his conspiracy on the very inauguration day of Jesus' ministry. Satan met Jesus in the wilderness shortly after His baptism, to offer the principality of the Roman Empire in exchange for Jesus' worship. Satan was offering Jesus his most valuable possession (the Roman Empire), knowing that if Jesus bowed to him, Satan would then have ALL principalities and power.

However, "his time was not yet come", and it would not come until later when Jesus said to Judas Iscariot, "whatsoever thou doest, do quickly''. A mob of Judas' co-conspirators delivered the Son of Man " into the hands of evil men" -- ROMANS!

A Roman Governor, a Roman Tetrarch, and a band of Roman soldiers presided over the murder of the Savior of the World. The guilty sentence was handed down : Jesus' kingship was in conflict with Roman kingship.

At His death, Jesus tomb was staked out by a Roman watch.

Jesus' resurrection stunted the progress of the prince of Rome temporarily, but the wheels of prophecy were already in motion and nothing could stop them.

In forty years, the Roman prince would turn violently against the mobs of Jews who had been his allies at Golgotha, destroying the entire city of Jerusalem, annihilating the temple, and scattering the Jewish nation into virtual oblivion.

With that accomplished, he then proceeded to execute wrath upon God's newly installed agency: the Church.

History again confirms heaven's rule over earth. Romans crucified Peter. Romans beheaded Paul. Both were murdered in the very city of Rome.

Rome persecuted the entire early church, sending many to the lions in her sports arenas. A demonic public outrage, staged in full by the ungodly "powers that be" drove hundreds of thousands of early Christians into the dungeon catacombs.

Two hundred years of vehemence against the Church of Jesus Christ were led by none other than the Caesars, Tetrarchs, Governors, Centurions, and various authorities of the principality of Rome.

Spirit of Rome versus the Church

By the turn of the third century, the church faced a treacherous tide of doctrinal changes in the twelve congregations that were meeting in the city of Rome. This new wave consisted of the fervent apologetics of one Justin Martyr, then preaching and teaching in Rome.

Justin Martyr introduced a concept unheard of among earlier Christians, namely that Jesus Christ was "in the second place" to Father God. Second place?

Moses' doctrine, which every Jew subscribed to was "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Those Jews which converted to Christianity embraced Jesus as the one Lord come in flesh.

Thomas called Jesus "my Lord, and my God".

On the way to Damascus, when Saul cried, "Who art thou, Lord", the heavenly reply was, "I am Jesus...".

Paul later told the Colossians that Jesus was "the fullness of God bodily".

The early church declared Jesus to be the incarnation and image of the invisible God.

But with a Roman twist, Jesus became clone or copy of God, rather than God.

And the Holy Ghost was the least of three, co-equal, co-eternal persons.

Confusion was born. It was the germ form of trinitarianism.

An understudy of Justin Martyr's, Irenaeus, furthered the confusion, stating that "the Son of God became the Son of Man", introducing a previously unheard of concept of an eternal son, and contradicting the Apostles' premise that the Son was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the "fullness of time", and in fact, "made of woman" (Galatians 4:4).

Conspicuously, at the same time the church was being turned from its doctrinal belief that the Father God was in Christ, the Roman Empire stopped fighting the church and began embracing it.

Tertullian (who apparently was the first to use the word "trinity" in reference to God) and Hippolytus of Rome succeeded in changing the mode of water baptism from being performed "in the name of Jesus Christ" to use of the titles "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost", thereby abandoning the "only NAME given among men whereby we must be saved" in baptism.

Every baptism recorded in the New Testament had been performed in the name of Jesus, but now, only the titles were being used for the first time, stripping water baptism of the saving name.

Rome supplanted the true church with an imposter.

Once the church had been rendered powerless, the Roman government decided to declare it the official world religion, and set out to eliminate all conflicting points of view.

William Chalfant, in the book "Ancient Champions of Oneness" records that "in 312 A.D., Caesar himself, the Emperor Constantine, became a Catholic" and by 325 A.D., at the Council of Nicea, a canon was drafted that specifically named a notorious group of Jesus' name baptized Pentecostals based in Rome, and ordered them to be rebaptized.

Two centuries later, the Roman Catholic Church issued the Justinian Code of 529 A.D., that "declared death for two heresies in general: (1) Anti-trinitarianism, and (2) rebaptism" (outside Roman baptism).

DEATH FOR HERESY?? Is that something Jesus Christ taught? Jesus said, "The THIEF cometh not but for to STEAL, KILL and DESTROY. I am come that ye might have LIFE!". The fact that the Roman Catholic Church has murdered tens of millions of people down through the centuries should set off every alarm you have! This is NOT the Church of Jesus Christ, but a diabolical organization empowered by Satan and the Prince of Rome himself.

Without a comprehensive survey of the history of the Roman Empire, let it be said that the prince of Rome succeeded in bringing down the Jewish nation at that time, persecuting the early church, and effectively perverting the principal dogmas of the church to the extent that the "church" was no longer the Church.

As if that was not enough, the "preaching of the Gospel" was restricted to the Latin language of Rome, and the Bible itself was prevented from falling into the possession of the masses.

"The Dark Ages" were the work of the prince of Rome. He has never yet been defeated.

Prophet Daniel foresaw the Prince of Rome

Daniel described the Roman prince as the iron legs in Nebuchadnezzar's image. In world history, those legs span the past two millennia.

The end of time was seen with iron and clay feet, the clay being the religious entity of the Roman Catholic Church, as opposed to the iron political entity of the Roman empire.

Both the iron and the clay were foretold to be defeated by the Prince of princes, Jesus Christ (see Isaiah 14:24-26. and Daniel 8:25, 2:43-45) We can expect to see Rome, under its demon prince, play an increasingly significant role in both international peace negotiations, ecumenical religion, and specifically, rendezvous between the Roman Catholic Church and Israel, helping to normalize relations between the Jews and their future deceiver: antichrist.

Meanwhile, we can expect to witness or otherwise experience Roman overtures similar to the ancient ploys, namely:

1. Complementary recognition of any so-called church that fails to clearly preach the oneness of God and baptism in the name of Jesus, in an attempt to confuse seekers of truth, nullify the redemptive distinction, and intimidate those who question the difference.

2. Increasing criticism and opposition to those who do.

The true Church must be independent of the Prince of Rome.

Don't forget that any ungodly prince exists, by definition, to "steal, kill, and destroy" anything that God might want to save.

In dealing with these opponents of God and truth, we must be as wise as serpents.

No one of us can, at will, overthrow the prince of Rome. He is there in the wisdom and foreknowledge of God, to fill a prophetic purpose.

We do NOT, however, have to be oppressed by that, or any other spirit. We will frequently encounter lower princes that are subordinate to the prince of Rome.

In each case, we have full authority to invoke the name of Jesus, both defensively and offensively.

While we may not fully eradicate the Roman influence from off the earth, until the Prince of peace, Jesus Christ, brings all things in subjection unto himself, be assured that God will faithfully stand with you every time you rise up against the forces of evil in His Name.

He will underwrite and endorse our attempts to conquer new territory for truth, because Jesus Christ came into the world "that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).

---

---