One of the hallmark signs of the last days before the return of Christ is that of deception on a global scale. The Bible says that the antichrist’s entire platform is built on deception.
“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live” (Revelation 13:14).
When asked, “What will be the sign of Thy coming?” Jesus’ reply began with the words,
“Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4).
The Apostle Paul, in his 2nd letter to Timothy, speaking specifically of the last days, warned,
“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2nd Timothy 3:13).
The prophet Isaiah, also writing of the Tribulation Period, prophesied,
“I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not” (Isaiah 66:3).
Contrariwise, Paul says of the Church of the last days,
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1st Thessalonians 5:4).
The ‘day’ to which Paul is referring is the day of the Rapture of the Church, a secret event that Jesus said would remain secret because,
“…if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through” (Luke 12:39).
Suppose that it became common knowledge that the Rapture was definitely going to take place on January 1, 2016.
Recall the ‘Millennium fever’ period just before the turn of the century. The lyrics to a popular song of the time makes my point;
“Two thousand, zero zero / party over / out of time / So tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1999.”
That pretty much sums it up. If we knew when the Lord was coming back for sure, you can bet that the day before, there’d be a whole lotta repentin’ goin’ on.
But up until then… well, human nature is what it is. Christians are only human, after all.
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42).
Assessment
In this generation, deception has taken on a new dimension. A lie isn’t a lie; it is ‘spin.’ Truth is relative — one man’s ‘truth’ is another man’s lie — it all depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is, and so forth.
“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His Name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5-6).
The Bible says that during the seven-year Tribulation Period, a political leader will emerge from the ashes of the Roman Empire, seize control of the reigns of global power, and then use that power to unleash a worldwide persecution of Christians and Jews that will result in the deaths of millions.
For most of my lifetime, the whole idea sounded preposterous. The world, at the time I entered it, had just emerged victorious from having vanquished just such a foe.
Indeed, during the Second World War, there were plenty of books sold naming Adolph Hitler as the antichrist and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as his false prophet, so closely did the Axis resemble Revelation’s picture of the unholy alliance.
But Hitler wasn’t the antichrist. He persecuted the Jews, but the Bible says that, under the real antichrist, he will persecute the Jews of Israel, who will inhabit Jerusalem.
And Hitler tried to seize control of the whole world. The Bible says that the antichrist will have it handed to him, just as Germany handed control of itself over to Hitler.
Hitler didn’t control the global propaganda machine, just the one in Germany. Still, propaganda proved its power. In a single generation, Hitler was able to transform the most cultured nation in Europe into a nation of bloodthirsty murderers.
In a single generation, German Jews went from being treasured members of the German population to subhumans deemed fit only for fertilizer.
The German propaganda machine was directly responsible for the murders of at least twelve million Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, mental patients, and others deemed unfit to live.
Next door, Josef Stalin’s propaganda machine convinced the Russian people to murder some fifty million of their own for one reason or another.
Russian propaganda was, to Western ears, laughable. But until the Berlin Wall collapsed, the average Russian believed that Russia invented everything worth having, and whatever the West had, we stole the designs from them.
The Bible says that one day, someone will seize control of the spin machine and make it his own. It says that he will deceive a willing public only too happy to hear what they want to hear, even if it is obvious deception, because they WANT to believe it.
The Apostle Paul, writing of the events leading up to the revelation of the antichrist, told the church at Thessalonica,
“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2nd Thessalonians 2:11-12).
This generation has been conditioned for the past fifty years to accept lies as truth, and to disparage truth as lies, if it tickles their ears and suits their bias.
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way. And THEN shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.”
The only thing standing in ‘that Wicked’s’ way is the Church. For now.
This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella in 2005.