Originally posted by Maymunah
True! So have done any study in depth then of the city Pergamum? I had read sometime back somewhere that they were the headquarters of medicine? I still hold that Jesus is giving the reader some kind of clue as to where Satan sit's. Or what he is about,

You will have read that one of the temples of Pergamum was dedicated to Aesculapius, the god of healing. Some people pick up the point that there was a serpent in his imagery.

In my mind, the message is that Satan is partly "about" persecution.
The key point is that Satan is "the Accuser" (ch12 v10). This is partly about his rask of accusing people for their sins. But the business of persecution also involves accusation. People give information to the authorities, the authorities press charges. So persecution of Christians is vey much of the essence of Satan's nature, as seen in Revelation.
Ch12 is the story of the Atonement, the way that destroys Satan's power to bring an accusation for sin, and how his resentment of that leads him into pursuing the people of Christ aggressively and creating the Beast as an instrument of persecution.
Jesus is then set against him, in both kinds of accusation, as the "faithful witness" for his people.

good good post i agree with 99% of what OP had stated.

I would like to add isiah 58 to me that pretty much sums up who is with or against god. read the whole focus on 5 and 6


Isaiah 58
1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

my thoughts( here he is saying this what you are doing and it is wrong)

6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

my thoughts (here he is saying this is what you are suppose to be doing)

7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.

9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:

11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

my thought (notice 7-14 are all contingent on obeying what was said in 6 and conversely not doing 1-5)

Originally posted by Maymunah
Do you think Satan can still accuse mankind before God? Considering he is cast out and Jesus stands at the right hand of God?

"They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb"; Revelation ch12 v11.
I would say that he cannot accuse those who have taken refuge in the atoning death of Christ.
If their sins have been forgiven, no charge can be laid against them; "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?"- Romans 8v33.

However, not everybody has taken that refuge. The accusing power is mortally wounded, but not yet dead ("his time is short"- Revelation ch12 v12)