THE GREAT DELUSION--Pt.1

I would like to deviate from our study of the book of Daniel in order that I may share with you what the Lord put in my heart about the strong delusion that He will send upon us in the last days. I believe we are in the last of the last days and that God has already released this strong delusion and that it is growing rapidly among us. I also believe that this is one of the most important words I've ever been given. It is for sure one of the heaviest words of revelation knowledge I have ever proclaimed. I personally believe that its revelation knowledge for the body of Christ to be given in these last days

Jesus warns us in Matthew 24:24, "For false Christ and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." Jesus began this discourse of the signs of the end times in Matthew 24:4 by saying, "Take heed that no one deceives you." Jesus would not have warned his followers about being deceived if it wasn't possible for them to be deceived. So in verse 24 when he says that these false prophets and false Christ are going to show up with great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect, those in the book of life, then it is possible for them to be deceived; and we must remember that even the saints of God can be deceived by this delusion. I personally believe it is happening right now.

Paul speaks of this great delusion that God is going to send among us in II Thessalonians 2:1-4,and 9-12. "Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him,(this of course is speaking of the rapture of the saints)we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Please note here that the day of the Lord will not come until there is first a falling away, which is occurring right now, and the antichrist, the son of perdition, sets in the temple of God. There's no temple in Jerusalem yet so how can Jesus' return be at hand. We know from Daniel and Matthew 24 that Jesus is not going to return until after the temple has been defiled by the antichrist which does not occur until midway through the tribulation. Since there's no temple in Jerusalem at this time, even if the antichrist were here now he would be hard-pressed to take his seat in a temple that does not exist.

Then beginning with verse nine Paul states, "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who parish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie." Here we see the ones who were going to receive this delusion or deception in the last of the last days are those who do not receive the "love" of the truth. The Scriptures do not say those who didn't receive truth, it says those who did not receive the "love" of the truth. In other words, you may have heard the word of God, whether preached, or by what ever means you received it, you heard it, you accepted it, you may have even agreed with it but you did not "love" the absolute truth found in God's word. We can read the word of God or hear a message from the word of God that moves us, by conviction of the Holy Spirit, to respond to that word. We may be born again. We may begin to attend church regularly. We learn how to pray, how to have personal devotions, how to pay our tithes, we may even get to the place of teaching Sunday School, serving on church boards and committees or even preaching in the pulpit. And yet all the while, we do not love the truth. We get to where we pick and choose Scriptures or we abide by some and cast-off others indicating that we lack love for the truth. When we love the absolute truths of God's word we accept it all and we abide by it all.

The word delusion used here from the Greek means, straying from orthodoxy or straying from absolute truths; deceit; to deceive; delusion; and error. From a secular dictionary it means, to mislead the mind or judgment; to deceive; the act of deluding; led astray; a false belief; something false but taken to be true; a false, fixed belief, held in spite of evidence to the contrary. This is the delusion chosen by God. It is a religious spirit. It is a form of religion. It is a people who have developed a false, fixed belief, held in spite of evidence to the contrary. You know you've accepted the delusion or have been deceived when people attempt to correct your doctrines or your theology or your mindset or your opinions of Scripture with the Word of God, which proves what you're holding to is wrong, it's in error or false and you are still fixed in that belief no matter what they say or know matter what they show you. This happens to me constantly. When God has me go to people with nothing but the word to correct their erroneous understanding of Scripture or doctrine and I show them what the word of God says their response is, "That's just your opinion." This is a result of people receiving the deluted word of God over the years that leads to the great delusion. Decades ago God began to send this delusion among His people. It's when man began to take the absolute truth of God's word and mix it with part truth for their own understanding or their own designs and desires for the word.

The word dilute means to make weaker by mixing, such as mixing part truth with part half-truths or our own understanding, to weaken or reduce the intensity, strength, or purity of, as by introducing another element. Diluted truth is what leads to deception, or to say the great delusion.

God has sent a strong delusion. It's not demonic. It's not evil looking. But it is very religious in its appearance. It is a religious system built on diluted truth full of compromise. The word compromise means an adjustment usually involving a particular surrender of claims (such as absolute truth), purposes (such as fulfilling the Great Commission), or principles (such as holiness and righteousness of living), something lying between, or combining the qualities of, two different things (such as taking the middle road). With this definition of compromise in mind, this is what the strong delusion looks like. It is practiced where people surrender particular claims, such as the absolute truth of God's word. We have diluted the Word with man's understanding and man's doctrine and denominational theologies to the point where the absolute truth is no longer recognizable. We have been deceived and have accepted a diluted truth in place of absolute truth. The delusion is present where people have surrendered the purposes of God's word such as the Great Commission. In most of our churches today, and in the lives of most professing Christians, we can take the Great Commission or leave it, it doesn't matter. We're no longer concerned about making disciples, only building up our man-made churches and religious systems. The strong delusion is practiced in the lives of people and churches where biblical principles, such as holiness and righteousness of living, are no longer followed. We determine for ourselves what's right and what is wrong and no one should dare to try to tell us any different. In today's church most are left to determine their own plans of salvation. After all what preacher has the right to tell you what's right or what's wrong for you. We seem to have the mindset in the church today that if we believe it's right for us then it's right and no one, or the word of God, can tell us any different. Remember the definition of delusion? A false, fixed belief, held in spite of evidence to the contrary. People today in the church have accepted the strong delusion, sent by God, that has us walking with a double mindset. Remember that is a definition of compromise, something lying between, or combining the qualities of, two different things. In other words we take a middle of the road approach to Christianity. We try to walk the fence with one foot in the world and one in heaven. The book of James warns us about being double minded.

You may ask the question, why would God send a strong delusion that would possibly deceive even the elect? He has sent it in order to test the church to see whether we are going to live by his absolute truths, love his absolute truths, obey his absolute or are we going to accept the delusion, a diluted, compromised word of God.

I believe that First Kings chapter 22 is probably the best biblical illustration to prove that this strong delusion from God is religious. In this chapter we see where King Ahab and Jehoshaphat were contemplating going to battle against Ramoth in Gilead and Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from God as to whether God would have them to go up to this battle are not. Jehoshaphat asked if there were any prophets that they could ask a word from God as to whether or not they should go to this battle. So Ahab brought in his own personal prophets, some 400, to prophesy for Jehoshaphat. Each of these prophesied prosperity and great victory for Ahab and Jehoshaphat. They were told that they would conquer their enemies and that God was with them and that they should go up and fight this battle. Yet this did not pacify Jehoshaphat. He asked if there were any other prophets, and Ahab said that there was one remaining prophet of God whose name is Micaiah, but he never prophesied anything good for him. But Jehoshaphat insisted on sending for Micaiah. So a servant was sent to bring Micaiah to Ahab and Jehoshaphat. When the servant arrived with Micaiah,and he had told him what all the other prophets had prophesied to the king, he told Micaiah that he needed to do the same. When Micaiah came before Ahab and Jehoshaphat they asked him whether they should go to this battle or not,he answered and said what the other prophets had said. He prophesied only good things toward Ahab and Jehoshaphat. But when they had asked him,"How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?," he spoke the word from God. Micaiah says that if they go up they would surely die and of course Ahab responded by saying,"Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil?" At this point Micaiah tells Ahab and Jehoshaphat what he had seen when God came to him. The story begins in verse 19 of chapter 22.

"Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne and all the host of heaven standing by, and on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said,'Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?' So one spoke in this manner and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, 'I will persuade him.'" It's important for us to note here that this spirit mentioned in this verse is not the Holy Spirit but a fallen spirit. If you look in the book of Job you see where the sons of God were around the throne and this included Satan as a son of God. We see here that Satan and the fallen angels are constantly going before God around the throne. They're involved in a lot of the decisions as it were as to what's happening with mankind. They are also there constantly accusing the brother. We know that Satan had permission to sift Peter as well as Job. So this spirit that we see here in verse 21 is a fallen spirit, a contrary spirit that was speaking before God in this vision that Micaiah saw.

Then continuing with verse 22, "The Lord said to him, 'In what way?' So he said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And the Lord said, 'You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.'" It is here in this verse that we see the lesson to be learned about the delusion. When this contrary spirit said that he would go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets, speaking of Ahab's prophets, he is saying here that he will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of those who are speaking for God. It's important also to see here that Ahab had his trust in his 400 prophets more than he had his trust in God. He had surrounded himself with prophets, who supposedly were to be prophets of God, who always told him good things, the things he wanted to hear. And so this contrary spirit is saying here that with God's permission, he would go and put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets of God. In so doing, they would persuade Ahab to go up to Ramoth Gilead and fight the battle where he would be killed. It's in this verse that we see the groundwork laid for the strong delusion.

In order to test the hearts of his people, God has sent a lying spirit into the mouth of some of his prophets and preachers, those who have accepted the diluted, compromised word of God. Just as Ahab had put his trust in his prophets more than in God so it is today, people trust the ministers of the Word to do their reading and studying of the Word for them instead of trusting God to open the Word to themselves. The church today, for the most part, surrounds itself with ministers and prophets who tell the people what they want to hear. All of this being done in the name of the Lord and those proclaiming the Word believing that they're hearing from God while all the long it's a lying spirit sent by God. It is God himself who has given permission to the contrary spirits to try his church.

Verse 23 says, "Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours and the Lord has declared disaster against you." God had prophesied,through Elijah, that Ahab would perish and now to fulfill that prophecy he must persuade Ahab to go into this battle. God is using the delusion of a diluted and compromised Word that looks very real, sounds very real, appears to be right from heaven, in order to test the hearts of his people. He wants to see if we can recognize the delusion. He wants to see if we have studied to show ourselves approved.

We will conclude our look at this strong delusion next week.

END-TIME STUDY--Pt.15

Let me start by saying I am truly sorry for not updating this blog site but we have had extensive computer problems, and we're just now getting back online and are just now reprogramming our computer. Hopefully we will not have any other interruptions in our study in the near future.

Now to continue our Bible study. Two years after Daniel received his vision of chapter 7 he receives another vision found in Chapter 8. He is now some 67 years of age when he receives this vision of a ram and a goat. Daniel here is receiving more detail and confirmation of the things that he received in his vision recorded in chapter 7 of his writings. In his vision he finds himself at Shushan in the Palace. Shushan was in Persia some 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf (modern day Iran). Shushan or Susa is set in between two rivers, the Shapur and the Ulai. Both of these rivers join the Euphrates River just below the confluence with the Tigris River which then flows into the Persian Gulf.

In his vision Daniel sees a ram with two high horns standing by the river. One of its horns was higher than the other meaning that one was more predominant than the other. This ram represents a kingdom that we have already seen, the Medo-Persian Empire. Like the lopsided bear with three ribs in its mouth of chapter 7, this ram with the lopsided horns represents the silver chest and arms of Nebuchadnezzar's statue. This empire was mighty and conquered all the lands about them. They prevailed until a greater empire emerged, the goat of verse five.

The goat was the the national symbol of the Grecian (Macedonian) people. They were known as the goat people for some 200 years. This goat appears to not touch the ground, as though it were flying much like the leopard of chapter 7 with four wings. Both of these animals represented the bronze belly and thighs of Nebuchadnezzar's statue, the Grecian Empire. This goat had a notable horn between his eyes meaning one great leader, which was Alexander the Great. Alexander's conquest of the Medo- Persian Empire introduced the known world to the Greek language which would be the predominant language for centuries.

Verse eight tells us that the great horn was broken and four notable horns arose in its place. At age thirty-three Alexander the Great died of a great fever while at the zenith of his empire and pride. His brother Philip Aridaeous and his two sons, Alexander Aegus and Hercules, ruled the Macedonian Empire until they were murdered fifteen years later. Thus the great horn, the Macedonian empire, was broken and cut-off.

Out of the Macedonian empire came four notable ones, or to say, four kingdoms. One to the west, one to the north, one to the east and one to the south, the open "four winds of heaven." The Western Kingdom ruled by Cassandra. The Northern Kingdom was ruled by Lysimachus and known as the Macedonian Kingdom. The Eastern Kingdom was the old Persian Kingdom, Syria and Babylon ruled by Selucus. The Southern Kingdom, Egypt, was ruled by Ptolemy. What Daniel just saw was the next 200 years of mankind.

Daniel's vision now fast forwards in verse nine to the end of the age. Here in this verse we see the "little horn," that was revealed to us in Daniel 7:8, which is none other than the Antichrist rising up from the area of the old Roman empire. This "little horn" will come from one of the four kingdoms or great horns as recorded in verse eight. We are told here that this "little horn" grew southward, eastward and towards Israel the "glorious land." Although the Scriptures do not indicate that this "little horn" or Antichrist would be born in the North or West, it is from here that he began his reign as a world leader. This would include all of Europe.

Just what will be the thing that will cause such countries as Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Germany, Russia, France, as well as other European countries, to unite? Religion! Namely the Muslim religion. A religion that has a great hatred for Israel. A people who desire to control the oil rich middle east.

I will elaborate more on the Muslim religion later in this study when we look at the world religion of the tribulation period. Suffice i tto say the Muslim religion is the fastest growing religion in the world and as they grow their influence on world peace and politics is growing as well. With their disregard for life, the world leaders fear them, thus they give in to their demands. Who better to spearhead an all-out push to rid the world of Jews and Christians alike than a people sworn to eradicate these infidels from the earth. The rise of the Muslim faith is a sure sign that the end time events are unfolding before our eyes. Don't be surprised if the Antichrist is a Jew who converted to Islam. His appearing is very, very near.

Because so many do not fully understand the description of the Antichrist found in Scripture they tend to erroneously label certain people as the Antichrist. People like Nero Caesar, whose numerical name was calculated 666, and because he would not allow anyone to buy or sale without first pledging allegiance to Rome, many thought him to be the Antichrist. Then in 202 A.D. Hippalytus Romanus believed the Antichrist would come from the Jewish tribe of Daniel. This led to the Crusades to kill Jews, thus eliminating the seed of the Antichrist.

In 1099 A.D. Muslims and Jews killed one another in Jerusalem believing that the Antichrist would arise from Jerusalem. In the 1600s the belief in the Antichrist caused Christians to break away from the Catholic Church claiming that the Pope was the Antichrist. Also in the 1600s the Puritans, who came to the New World to evangelize the Indians, soon found themselves starving and began to raid the Indians food supply. When the Indians began to fight back savagely the Puritans thought them to be demon possessed, and thus agents of the Antichrist. This caused the Puritans to determine that the Indians had to be eliminated.

During the Revolutionary War the American clergy thought that King George III was the Antichrist, thus Americans must fight for their freedom from England and the rule of the Antichrist. In the early 1900s many believed Mussolini was the Antichrist. Then Hitler was thought to be the Antichrist because of his smooth use of words to persuade the masses to follow him in annihilating the Jews.

In the 1980s some pointed to Ronald Reagan as the Antichrist because each of his names had six letters in them, 666. All through the ages many have been declared the Antichrist, including Barack Obama. Were any of these correct? No! We must understand all the Scriptures pertaining to the Antichrist so that we, as believers, may be able to factually identify him so that we may warn others.

We, as believers, should welcome the appearing of the Antichrist because that will signal that the return of Jesus is near. (Luke 21:28)