Revelation 12:12: Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Most scholars believe that the woe¹ announced in Revelation 12:12 coincides with the end of the war in heaven when Lucifer was cast down to this earth at the time of its physical creation.² Lucifer was cast down when the earth was physically created,³ but that is not the timing of this woe for several reasons.

First, when Lucifer was cast down the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea in Revelation 12:12 did not exist. Adam, Eve and the inhabiters of the earth and sea were still spirits in the premortal existence. Therefore, the woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea was given at, and applies to, a time long after the physical creation when Satan knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Second, Michael‒the mortal Adam‒could not be in two places at once. That is, when the war in heaven ended, Michael could not be present on Kolob to cast down Satan and his angels⁴ if he was also already living on earth as Adam with some number of his mortal descendants after the fall of Adam.⁵

Third, Revelation 12:9 states that Lucifer was cast out at the end of the war in heaven in the past tense.⁶ However, the woe pronounced in Revelation 12:12 is stated in the present tense, saying, the devil is come down unto you.⁷ The verb tense changes from the past tense in verse nine (9) to the present tense in verse twelve (12) because John's visionary flashback to the premortal existence ends in verse 11 with the end of the war in heaven.⁸ A new vision⁹ begins in verse 12 with the cautionary woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea about events that occur‒not at the time of the physical creation‒but during John's lifetime.¹⁰ This is clear from the context of the verses that follow, which have nothing to do with events at the time of the physical creation.

Fourth, the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) specifically distinguishes John's vision of the premortal existence in Revelation 12:1-11¹¹ from John's new vision of events during his lifetime in Revelation 12:13-17.¹² The JST does this by dividing verse 12 into two verses and by adding a transitional phrase¹³ that separates the two visions with two different voices,¹⁴ as follows:

KJV Revelation 12:12: Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you….

JST Revelation 12:11: Therefore, rejoice O heavens, and ye that dwell in them. JST Revelation 12:12: And after these things I heard another voice saying, Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, yea, and they who dwell upon the islands of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you….

The other voice in the new vision from the Joseph Smith Translation of Revelation 12:12 pronounced a universal woe to the inhabiters¹⁵ of "the earth ... and they who dwell upon the islands of the sea!"¹⁶ The earth metaphorically describes the world known to John as the Roman Empire.¹⁷ He surely understood that the Jewish inhabiters of the Roman Empire were the initial object of this woe, because Jesus pronounced the same woe upon the Jews in John's presence on the evening before Jesus was crucified.¹⁸ John heard the Savior predict the Abomination of Desolation that would afflict the Jews in 70 AD.¹⁹ This woe occurred because the Jews crucified the Savior and refused to repent.²⁰ The Great Apostasy also fulfilled this woe beginning in 70 AD,²¹ until it became universal in all the earth,²² including the islands of the sea.²³ This last phrase also confirms that the woe was not pronounced at the time of the earth's creation because there were no islands of the sea until the earth divided in the days of Peleg after the flood in Genesis 10:25.

Revelation 12:12 also states that the devil is come down unto you. The you refers to the Jews that lived in John's day and time. In that day, Satan is come down, which means he was brought down²⁴ to defeat²⁵ by the atonement of Jesus Christ.²⁶ No event in history could have filled Satan with greater wrath²⁷ and a greater desire for violent revenge.²⁸ The atonement assured Satan's ultimate defeat,²⁹ but until the Second Coming he retains power to destroy the souls of men.³⁰ After Christ's atonement, Satan mercilessly lashed out against the ancient church of Jesus Christ³¹ as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour as stated in 1 Peter 5:8.³²

Satan has had power to destroy the spirits and souls of mankind for billions of years since the grand council in heaven.³³ However, when Christ's atonement was complete on this last physical earth of this generation,³⁴ Satan knew then that he hath but a short time.³⁵ Relatively speaking, the amount of time between the atonement of Christ and his Second Coming is extremely short and then Satan will be stripped of all his power.³⁶ Satan knew his time was short after the atonement was complete because he retained his memory of the premortal existence.³⁷ As his time gets shorter and shorter until the Second Coming, Satan's wrath is manifestly more aggressive and more violent.³⁸ Today, Satan's great wrath increasingly rages in the hearts of mankind.³⁹ This can be seen in the sinful conditions and modern warfare in the world today that will only continue to worsen until the Second Coming.⁴⁰