From Satan Worship to Sainthood

The Long Night Before the Restoration

John Cassinat
February 05, 2026

Satan Worship During the Great Apostasy

In Revelation 13:7, Satan made war with the saints and overcame them worldwide. When this occurred, the true church of Jesus Christ ceased to exist on earth.

This condition of universal apostasy lasted 1,260 years. (Rev 13:5)
This period is known as the Great Apostasy of the Dark Ages, when all the world worshiped Satan, as foretold by John in Revelation 13:8, saying:

“All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [Satan].”

Satan worship during the Dark Ages was not a mystic or cultic form of worship. The masses did not overtly worship Satan.

Instead, their worship took many forms, including Paganism, Islam, and Catholicism.

All religions of the Middle Ages failed—in one degree or another—to worship God in the manner He prescribed, and to that extent they worshiped Satan.

Jesus Christ taught the woman at the well in Samaria that people must worship God “in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24–26)
When they fail to do so, their false form of worship becomes akin to Satan worship.

The Darkness of the 1,260 Years

The true worship of God was absent from the earth throughout the 1,260 years of the Great Apostasy.

These were:

“Dark and dire and devilish days when Satan has dominion over his own. We see false churches, false worship, and false prophets. Iniquity abounds and evil is everywhere. There is universal apostasy; darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people; it is the evil night that must precede the dawn of the restoration.”
(Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, 563)

Renaissance and Reformation

Revelation 13:9 states:

“If any man have an ear, let him hear.”

This phrase concludes John’s discussion of the Great Apostasy and introduces the Renaissance and Reformation.

The phrase signals that:

“Something of the most intense and urgent importance is involved.”
(Joseph A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, 328–329)

The Renaissance and Reformation were critical because they laid the spiritual and political groundwork for the restoration of Christ’s true church in 1830.

Captives and Swords

Revelation 13:10 symbolically describes the Renaissance and Reformation:

“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

This verse primarily identifies Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages as the “He” that:

kept people spiritually captive for centuries, and
killed millions who fought for political and religious liberty.

The patience and faith of the saints is etched into the trail of blood left by inquisitions across many lands, which:

“Became intoxicated with the lust of barbarous cruelty in the century of the Reformation, and inflicted indescribable tortures on persons secretly accused of heresy.”
(James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 697)

The Cost of Freedom

The saints of the Reformation sacrificed their lives and livelihoods for their faith in Jesus Christ.

Given the horrors they endured, it is a remarkable understatement to say that they possessed patience and faith.

It took several centuries for the saints to finally bring an end to the Holy Roman Empire as the greatest worldly power on earth.

Nevertheless:

“The liberty that we enjoy today has come only after a hard struggle in the world. Four hundred years ago the fight for freedom was on…. It was a hard struggle and cost some of the best blood of that period.”
(Charles W. Nibley, Conference Report, October 1926, 22–23)

Learn More

For more information on the transition from Satan worship during the Great Apostasy to the rebirth of true worship during the Renaissance and Reformation, check out my podcasts from

🎧 February 1, 2026 – Listen here