His purpose toward mankind is murderous, and this is indicated in these further words of the Revelation:

³ “Now when the dragon saw that it was hurled down to the earth, it persecuted the woman that gave birth to the male child. . . . And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.”​—Rev. 12:13-17.

War at Har–Magedon

4, 5. (a) Against whom has the symbolic dragon Satan declared war, and for how long? (b) To what is he unsuspectedly leading political rulers of earth, and how is this operation of his pictured in Revelation 16:13-16?

⁴ Satan the symbolic dragon has declared war against God’s organization (as symbolized by “the woman”) down to the very end. Unsuspected by the political rulers of Christendom and heathendom, Satan “the great dragon” is leading them to destruction in a final war. Not a war between themselves with nuclear weapons and biochemical agencies, but a war against God, who is the Father of the heavenly Messianic kingdom from the womb of his “woman,” his organization. This is true, not only for the anti-God Communist bloc of nations, but also for the nations of religious Christendom. The rulers of distressed humanity are today following the war propaganda of Satan the symbolic dragon.

It is plainly stated that the ousted, debased “dragon” expressed his anger and wrath against God’s womanlike organization that had given birth to the heavenly Messianic kingdom. At Revelation 12:17 we read: “The dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” Since the birth of the Messianic kingdom in the heavens at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, that Jesus is the reigning Messianic King. So it is not to a newborn baby Jesus that these witness-bearers offer testimony, but it is to the reigning King Jesus the Messiah. So what then? These facts put God’s reigning King Jesus Christ and the womanlike heavenly organization that gave birth to the Kingdom on the other side of the battlefield of Har–Magedon, facing the yet-reigning “kings of the entire inhabited earth.” It is evident that the issue over which the forthcoming war is to be fought is kingdom power over the earth!