Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem .

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be torn in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.  -Zechariah 12:2, 3

On the face of it, this prophecy would seem an absurd prediction for our modern day!  Here is a city with no natural resources, no harbor, no river – no reason to have any strategic significance.  It no longer controls any trade routes or has any apparent reason for geopolitical strategic relevance.

It wouldn’t seem that important culturally: only a relatively small portion of Jewish people regard it as significant.  Even if all Jews were concerned, it still would not represent a centroid for “all the people of the earth to be gathered together against it.”

The Muslims controlled it for a thousand years and they let it crumble into rubble – until they discovered it was significant to the Jews; then, of course, it became critical to Islam.

Christians regard it for historical and Biblical reasons, but not to die for. And yet, the late lights are burning tonight in every headquarters of every capital of every nation that has international relevance, and their leaders are struggling with what to do about the issue of Jerusalem!

The Restoration of the Nation Israel

The centuries of debate concerning the destiny of the Jewish people – and disputes among Biblical scholars on the issue of the eventual restoration of the nation of Israel – should have come to a close with the restoration of the Jewish homeland in 1948.  The prophet Isaiah seems to have anticipated this event when he penned:

 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. -Isaiah 11:11, 12

“The second time?”  The first regathering was after the Babylonian Captivity.¹ The second regathering began as the 19th century drew to a close with the efforts of Theodr Herzl and others, and finally climaxed with the formal declaration on May 14, 1948, when the world listened on international radio to David Ben Gurion declaring that the name of the new Jewish homeland was “Israel.”

(The debates as to whether the Old Testament passages were to be taken seriously or not should have ended on that date.)

The subsequent struggles of this tiny state against seemingly insurmountable armed enemies have, of course, been the legends of modern times.

And the legacy of hatred continues to challenge their very right to exist.

The Peace of Jerusalem

Will there be peace in Jerusalem? Apparently not until the Prince of Peace takes over.  Jesus said that,

…Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.  - Luke 21:24

The “Times of the Gentiles” began with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and will continue until the Coming World Leader (known popularly as the “Antichrist”) makes his appearance and is dealt with. There will be a false peace, however, when this “Prince that shall come” will “enforce a covenant,” ostensibly for an anticipated period of seven years.

The “Piece” Process

As we have repeatedly pointed out, the peace process that began at Oslo virtually guarantees a war in the Middle East.  The entire charade is based on a false premise: it assumes that the Muslim ambitions can be appeased by reducing the borders of Israel, even though the Muslim leadership has repeatedly – before, during, and after the Oslo Accords – and clearly maintained that they will not rest until the very existence of Israel has been eliminated.

They are insisting on what Israel cannot yield.  The legacy of hate that they inculcate their children with continues without any pretense of abatement.

Will God Intervene?

The Bible does indicate that there will come a specific event which will herald God, once again, intervening on behalf of His people Israel: God will intervene to thwart an invasion from the far north.  Speaking to the leader of the land of Magog (which we are convinced refers to Russia),³  God says:

And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes…

Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.   - Ezekiel 38:16, 23

This passage is well known to Bible prophecy buffs, as it also seems to suggest the use of nuclear weapons.⁴   The more one knows about the technical details of this passage, and the more one knows about what is presently going on in that region, the more it would seem that this event may be on our near horizon.

But Why?

Why is God going to intervene?  Why does Israel deserve such special attention? The answer is most surprising:

And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, “These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.”

But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. . .   -Ezekiel 36:19-24

It’s not for their sakes: it’s because God’s name is on the commitment.  So it is written, so it will be done.

A Most Exciting Time

It is disturbing to realize that the God of the Universe has put His name on a particular piece of real estate.  While “the earth is the Lord’s and fulness thereof,” He has chosen to call a particular parcel of ground His Own.  It doesn’t belong to the Palestinians; it doesn’t belong to the U.N.  It doesn’t even belong to Israel, except as tenants under conditions of obedience.

When we muck around in the Middle East foreign policies, we are poking our finger in the eye of God!  It’s His Land, and we need to stand clear of His plans and programs.

And yet, the future scenario has been described, in detail, in His Word.  And we are approaching His consummation of all things.  Here is the premise that we suggest you challenge - not accept – but check out for yourself:

“We are being plunged into a period of time about which the Bible says more than it does about any other period of time in history – including the time when Jesus walked the shores of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea.”

To check out this ostensibly preposterous statement, you need to do two things:

1) Find out what the Bible says about the “end times” (not what some popular book suggests, but what the Bible really says).

2) Find out what is really going on in the geopolitical horizon.  This isn’t easy when you recognize that the mainline media prides itself in shaping an agenda rather than informing a public. (John Loeffler’s strategic review of the Middle East, The Struggle For Jerusalem, is an excellent start.)

The turbulence which may lie ahead can be an exciting adventure if you know where you personally stand in regards to it all.  It is, indeed, time to do your own homework!

*   *   *

**NOTES**

1. There are some competent scholars who regard the current regathering as the first, and regard the Isaiah passage as looking to a subsequent regathering at the Millennium; however, they are a small minority.
2. Daniel 9:27.
3. Magog was the ancestor of the Scythians, the forebears of the modern-day  Russians.  See our briefing package, The Magog Invasion , for a complete study.
4. Ezekiel 39 indicates that the leftover weapons provide all the energy needs of Israel for seven years (39:9-10); that they will wait seven months before clearing the battlefield (39:14); that they will employ professionals to clear (39:14); and that if someone encounters something that the professionals have missed, they mark the location and let the professionals deal with it (39:15).

Supplemental Notes: by Tom Horn and Chuck Missler

In recent years, astonishing technological developments have pushed the frontiers of humanity toward a far-reaching transfor­mation that promises in the very near fu­ture to redefine what it means to be human.

As a result, new modes of perception between things visible and invisible are expected to challenge the Church in ways that are unprecedented. The destiny of each individual—as well as the future of their family—will depend on the knowledge of this new paradigm and their preparedness to face it head on.

© 2012 Koinonia House Inc.

Transhumanism in the News by Tom Horn

Case Law School Receives $773,000 NIH Grant To Develop Guidelines For Genetic Enhance­ment Research

How Soon Before the Human Enhancement Revolution is Widespread?

Global Governance 2025: “At a Critical Juncture”

 Who Thinks This Is Going To Happen?

The Hybrid Age: Session 1

The Age of the Hybrids by Chuck Missler

Tampering With the Engines of Creation

 Island of Dr. Moreau?

Of Mice and Men

Genetic Athletes?

Genetic Weapon Targeting

Robot Weapons Predicted in the Bible

XM-25: Coming to a War Near You

 FDA Approves Telescopic Bionic Eye Implant

Machine Enhancements

 Limb-to-Brain Communication

Sensitive Synthetic Skin

Nanotechnology

Artificial Intelligence: Brain Scans

Interactive Television?

Army’s Mind Control Project

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs)

Computers that Learn

Layered Chips 1,000 Times Faster

Artificial Intelligence

The Coming Nightmare(s)

Convergent Technologies

“Jasons”

The Dangers: Ignoring the Metacosm

“Iron Mixed with Clay”?

Satan’s Duet: The “False Prophet”

Whose Number?

God’s Limited Boundaries? Limits to Arrogance

The Final Agenda

 Psalm 83 a prelude to Ezekiel 38 & 39? An anticipated World Leader exploiting a global crisis? Roles involving alien encounters: creatures beyond our imaginings…climaxing in the actual “Armageddon”…

Your Challenge

Your Destiny

WHAT IS TECNO SAPIENS?

“I define Techno sapiens as a new intelligent species resulting from Homo sapiens’ integration with technology. Alternatively, the term Homo Technologicus has been used by others in a similar context meaning “technological man”.” Techno sapiens are physically different from previous human groups through the use technology assisted genetic and physical modification. Techno sapiens evolution is technology driven and its genome will be different from Homo sapiens’ genome in ways never before imagined possible…The concept of the Techno sapiens as a new species is associated with the concept of transhumanism (TH). TH is a movement that espouses that humans are a transitional form of a species intent on transcending itself through developments in various disciplinary sectors, such as nanotechnology, genetics, information technology, and cognitive science, all of which converge towards making human modification possible.

Transhumanism points out that the mental, emotional and sensory capacities of humans are limited by their biological condition. Our bodies limit our ability to interact with technology. We can’t yet control cars with our thoughts or store unlimited amounts of information PartyPoker as our brains do not operate as an infallible memory systems. However, TH refuses to accept these limitations as fate. Proponents argue that we already possess the techniques and technologies, such as genetic engineering, neurosurgery, and nanotechnology, to alter our bodies.

By harnessing the convergence of technological capacity, humans can begin to re-invent their own natures into states of being that “low-tech” approaches of self-discipline, hard-work, and patience could never really make possible. The ultimate goal of TH is to eliminate aging, illnesses, and death and achieve biological or cybernetic immortality…. http://www.technosapiens.us/?p=213

Other future applications include devices that would: (1) generate and lay down new connective tissue to heal arthritic joints and torn ligaments; (2) dissolve plaque in heart and brain blood vessels; (3) manufacture and deliver certain drugs in the body, such as insulin; and (4) replace or repair damaged brain cells in people with disorders such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease.

When you combine nanotechnology with cyborg technology (interfacing living nervous tissue with electronic devices), the results are breathtaking. Researchers in Georgia are helping people stricken with a horrible disorder called the locked-in syndrome. Its sufferers appear to be in a persistent vegetative state, but are in fact completely aware of their surroundings. Via electrodes implanted near the motor regions of these patients’ brains, they have been taught to control the cursor on a computer screen by their thoughts. This means they essentially type with their thoughts, and thus can communicate with others.

It’s not hard to imagine that such tools will move beyond therapy into augmentation, or enhancement, of “normal” individuals—or what is more objectively called “bioengineering.”

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew 24:30

With so many issues and believers up in the air over the timing and terms of Messiah’s Second Coming, we present the following excerpt of Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s study on this crucial topic. A featured segment of Dr. Fruchtenbaum’s book – The Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events – this examination of the events culminating with Yeshua’s return to earth was originally presented on Ariel’s “Messianic Bible Study” radio broadcast.

INTRODUCTION

As we begin examining the conditions and prerequisites to Messiah’s Second Coming, it is crucial to remember that the Scriptures picture His return as a separate and distinct event from the Rapture. Unlike the Second Coming of Christ to the earth, the Rapture of the Church has no preconditions attached to it. We know from the Word that it will come sometime before the Tribulation, although we do not know when or how long before. And because there are no preconditions attached to it, the Rapture can come at any time.

The Second Coming of Yeshua, however, does have a major precondition attached to it. A certain condition must be met before Christ will return to establish the Kingdom. The purpose of this study is to determine what the basis of the Second Coming of Christ is. But before we can fully understand the basis of His coming, we must first understand what occurred when Jesus’ Messiahship was rejected.

I. THE REJECTION OF HIS MESSIAHSHIP

MATTHEW 12:22-45

Using the Gospel of Matthew as a base, we see that Yeshua began His ministry in chapter four. From chapter four until chapter 12, Christ is seen going around Israel proclaiming the Kingdom and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. He performs many miracles, and the purpose of each of these miracles between chapters four and 12 is to authenticate His person and His message. They are signs to force the nation of Israel to come to a decision regarding: (1) His person – that He is the Messiah; and, (2) His message – the gospel of the Kingdom. But, then, in Matthew 12, the whole purpose of His miracles and His ministry will undergo a radical change. The rejection of His Messiahship is about to occur. In Matthew 12:22-29, we read:

²²Then was brought unto him one possessed with a demon, blind and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the dumb man spake and saw. ²³And all the multitudes were amazed, and said, Can this be the son of David? ²⁴But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub the prince of the demons. ²⁵And knowing their thoughts he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: ²⁶and if Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand? ²⁷And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. ²⁸But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you. ²⁹Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

As we stated earlier, the purpose of the miracles of Jesus was to authenticate to the nation His person and His message. Within Judaism were also exorcists who exorcised demons (v. 27). But in Jewish exorcism, one had to communicate with a demon in order to find out its name, and, then, use that name to cast out the demon. But in the case here, where the demon caused the person to become dumb, Jewish exorcism was of no avail. Communication with the demon was rendered impossible. But Jewish theology taught that when the Messiah came, He would be able to cast out even that kind of demon.

Indeed, in verse 22 of the above passage, Christ was able to exorcise that kind of demon.

In verse 23, this caused the people to begin asking the question, “Can Jesus really be the Messiah?” This was one of the key purposes of this miracle, that they might see that He was indeed the Son of David. The people, however, were not willing to judge His person by themselves but were looking to their religious leaders, the Pharisees, to come up with some kind of public statement or judgment concerning Yeshua. They were looking to the Pharisees to conclude either that He was the Messiah or that He was not. But if He was not the Messiah, the Pharisees needed to offer some kind of alternative explanation as to how He was able to perform these many miracles.

In verse 24, we find that the Pharisees chose the latter course. They refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, because He did not fit the Pharisaic “mold” or idea of what Messiah was supposed to say and do. Their alternative as to how He was performing His miracles was to say that He Himself was demon-possessed by Beelzebub. This, then, becomes the basis of the rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus. This is the “leaven of the Pharisees,” the false teaching about which Yeshua would warn His disciples. They were to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, i.e., the claim that Jesus was not the Messiah but rather that He was demon-possessed. It was on these grounds that the Pharisees rejected the Messiahship of Christ.

In verses 25-29, Messiah responded to this accusation by telling them that their statement could not be true, as it would mean that Satan’s kingdom was divided against itself.

In verses 30-37, Jesus pronounced judgment on the generation of that day. Verses 30-32 read:

³⁰He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. ³¹Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³²And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.

That generation had committed the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

We must be very clear as to what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. It is the unpardonable sin which was committed by “that generation” of Israel in Jesus’ day. It involved the denial of Yeshua’s Messiahship while He was physically present on this earth on the grounds that He was demon-possessed.

This sin was unpardonable, requiring judgment. It is a sin that cannot be committed by individuals today. It was a national sin committed by the generation of Yeshua’s day; and for that generation, that sin was unpardonable. This did not mean that individual members of that generation could not be saved, for many were. It did, however, mean that nothing they could do would avert the coming destruction of Jerusalem.

Because of the rejection of His Messiahship, then, this generation of Jesus’ time had committed the unpardonable sin. Judgment was now set, and there was no way of alleviating that judgment. It was a judgment that was to be fulfilled 40 years later, in the year A.D. 70.

In verses 33-37, Messiah emphasized that there was no middle ground in the decision that had been declared regarding His Messiahship. Finally, Yeshua tells that generation of Israel that they would be condemned by their own words, saying:

³⁷For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

II. THE PREREQUISITE TO THE SECOND COMING

Having said all that, what then is the basis of the Second Coming of Christ? To discover this, it will be necessary to look at five more passages of Scripture.

A. Leviticus 26:40-42

In Leviticus 26, Moses foretold of how the Jews would be scattered all over the world as a result of disobedience to God’s revealed will. And through verse 39, worldwide dispersion is a fact, fulfilling Moses’ prediction. According to the New Testament, this was caused specifically by the rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus. Then, in Leviticus 26:40-42, Moses states:

⁴⁰And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that, because they walked contrary unto Me, ⁴¹I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; ⁴²then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

Verse 42 reveals that God has every intent to give Israel all the blessings and promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, especially as it pertains to the Promised Land. But before they can begin to enjoy these blessings and promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, during the Messianic Age, it is first necessary for them to fulfill the condition of verse 40: They must confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers. Notice this:  The word “iniquity” is singular, and it is specific. There is one specific iniquity which Israel must confess before she can begin to enjoy all of the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant.

B. Jeremiah 3:11-18

The second passage is Jeremiah 3:11-18:

¹¹And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding Israel hath showed herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah, I will not keep anger for ever. ¹³Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith Jehovah. ¹⁴Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; nether shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. ¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have for an inheritance unto your fathers.

In verses 14-18, Jeremiah begins to describe the blessing which God has in store for Israel in the Messianic Kingdom. It will be a time of tremendous blessing and restoration for the Jewish people, when the Kingdom is established by their Messiah. But all these blessings are conditioned by verse 13, which declares that they must acknowledge or confess one specific iniquity that they committed against Jehovah their God.

C. Zechariah 12:10

The third passage is in the Book of Zechariah. Zechariah chapters 12, 13 and 14 are a unit of thought that develop one theme. Chapter 13 speaks of the national cleansing of Israel from their sin. Chapter 14 describes the Second Coming of Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom. But these events – the cleansing of Israel followed by the Second Coming of Christ and the Messianic Kingdom – are all conditioned on Zechariah 12:10:

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.

Before Israel receives the cleansing of her sin and before Christ returns to establish His Kingdom, Israel must first look “unto” (not “upon” or “on” as in some translations) the One whom they have pierced and plead for His return. Once they do this, then, and only then, will they receive their cleansing and begin to enjoy the blessings of the Messianic Age.

D. Hosea 5:15

The fourth passage is in Hosea five, a chapter in which the One speaking is God Himself. In verse 15, He states:

I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly.

There are certain presuppositions behind the understanding of this verse:  One must leave a place before returning to it. In this passage, God states that He is returning to His place. God’s place is Heaven. Before God can go back to Heaven, He must first leave it. The question is, when did God leave Heaven? God left Heaven at the Incarnation in the person of Yeshua of Nazareth. Then, because of one specific offense committed against Him, Jesus returned to Heaven at the ascension from the Mount of Olives. This verse further states that He will not come back to earth until that offense which caused Him to return to Heaven is acknowledged or confessed. What is that Jewish national offense committed against the person of Christ? It is not, as many believe, the act of killing Him. The murder of Messiah was committed by Gentile, not Jewish, hands:  He was condemned and sentenced by a Gentile judge; He was crucified by Gentile soldiers. But all this is ultimately irrelevant; God’s program for mankind – Jews and Gentiles alike – required Jesus to die anyway to become the sacrifice for sin. The national offense of Israel was in the rejection of His Messiahship. And Hosea 5:15 again affirms that Yeshua will return to the earth only when this offense is acknowledged or confessed.

E. Matthew 23:37-39

The fifth passage, in Matthew 23, contains Christ’s denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leadership of that day, for leading the nation in the rejection of His Messiahship:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Speaking to the Jewish leadership, Christ reiterates His original desire to gather them if they would only accept Him (v. 37). But due to their rejection of His Messiahship, they will be scattered instead of gathered. Their house, the Jewish Temple, will be destroyed with nothing remaining (v. 38). He then declares that they will not see Him again until they say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. This is a messianic greeting, and it will signify their acceptance of the Messiahship of Jesus.

Messiah will not return until the Jews and the Jewish leaders ask Him to come back. For just as the Jewish leaders led the nation to the rejection of His Messiahship, they must someday lead the nation to the acceptance of that very same fact.

This, then, is the twofold basis of the Second Coming of Christ:  Israel must confess her national sin and then plead for Messiah to return, to mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son.

 ”For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess, 4:16-18).

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53).

The Timing Of The Rapture Is Not Known

From the Word of God and from sound reasoning–something Jesus used quite frequently–I hope to prove the reality of the pretribulation rapture.

The word “rapture” comes from Paul’s “caught up” remark in verse 17. The words “caught up” are translated from the Greek word harpazo, which means “to carry off,” “snatch up,” or “grasp hastily.” The translation from harpazo to “rapture” involved two steps: first, harpazo became the Latin word raptus; second, raptus became the English word “rapture.”

Scriptural Evidence For The Pre-Tribulation Rapture

The Unknown Hour

When we search the Scriptures and read the passages describing the Lord Jesus’ return, we find verses that tell us we won’t know the day and hour of that event. Matthew 25:13 says Jesus will return at an unknown time, while Revelation 12:6 indicates that the Jews will have to wait on the Lord 1,260 days, starting when the Antichrist stands in the Temple of God and declares himself to be God (2 Thes 2:4). This event will take place at the mid-point of the seven-year tribulation (Dan 9:27). Note that some people only see a three-and-a-half-year tribulation. In a way, they are correct because the first half of the tribulation will be relatively peaceful compared to the second half. Nonetheless, peaceful or not, there still remains a seven-year period called the tribulation. When the Jews flee into the wilderness, they know that all they have to do is wait out those 1,260 days (Mat 24:16). There is no way to apply the phrase “neither the day nor the hour” to this situation. The only way for these two viewpoints to be true is to separate the two distinct events transpiring here: 1) the rapture of the Church, which comes before the tribulation; and 2) the return of Jesus to the earth, which takes place roughly seven years later.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

In Luke 12:36, the Word states that when Christ returns, He will be returning from a wedding. In Revelation 19:7-8, we read about the marriage itself. The marriage supper takes place before the marriage. According to Jewish custom, the marriage contract, which often includes a dowry, is drawn up first. The contract parallels the act of faith we use when we trust Jesus to be our Savior. The dowry is His life, which was used to purchase us. When it’s time for the wedding, the groom goes to the bride’s house unannounced. She comes out to meet him, and then he takes her to his father’s house. This precisely correlates with the events according to the pre-trib scenario. Jesus, the Groom, comes down from heaven and calls up the Church, His Bride. After meeting in the air, He and His Bride return to His Father’s house, heaven. The marriage supper itself will take place there, while down here on earth the final events of the tribulation will be playing out. After the marriage supper of Jewish tradition, the bride and groom are presented to the world as man and wife. This corresponds to the time when Jesus returns to earth accompanied by an army “clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev 19:14).

What They Didn’t Teach You in History Class

Many groups try to discredit the pre-trib rapture by saying most of the end-time events in the Bible have already taken place. A group of people called preterists claims that the Book of Revelation was mostly fulfilled by 70 AD. If the events described in the Book of Revelation took place in the past, I’m at a loss to explain some of the current situations I see around us: the rebirth of Israel, the reunification of Europe, the number of global wars that have occurred, and the development of nuclear weapons. During history class, I must have slept through the part where the teacher talked about the time when a third of the trees were burned up, 100-pound hailstones fell from the sky, and the sea turned into blood (Rev 8:7-8, 16:21). I think several people would have to question their opposition to the pre-trib rapture doctrine if they knew that the evidence provided to them was based on the understanding that most tribulation prophecies have already occurred.

The People of the Millennium

If Christ were to come back after the tribulation, rapture all the saints, and slay all the ungodly, who would be left to populate the earth during the millennium? Only the pre-trib viewpoint can account for this post-trib problem. The Church is raptured before the tribulation, a vast number of souls are saved during this seven-year time frame, and those who make it through the tribulation go into the millennium while the unsaved are cast into hell.

The Saint U-Turn

In the pre-trib scenario, after we rise to meet the Lord in the air, we will go to heaven and abide there seven years. At the end of that period, Christ will come down to earth, defeat the Antichrist, and cleanse the temple. In a post-trib rapture, we would rise in the air to meet the Lord, then do a 180-degree U-turn and come back down to earth. Revelation 1:7 states that Christ will appear out of the clouds and come down to earth. Zechariah 14:4 says that His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. If He’s already headed our way, why would we need to be caught up to meet Him?

“Come Up Hither”

Many pre-trib writers cite Revelation 4:1, which says, “come up hither,” as a prophetic reference to the rapture of the Church, leaving Revelation chapters 1 through 3 as a description of the Church Age. After the shout to “come up hither,” the Church is not mentioned in Scripture at all. The attention of Scripture switches from the Church to the Jews living in Israel.

Armies in Fine Linen

When Jesus returns (Rev. 19:18), an army follows Him. The army’s members are riding on white horses, and they are clothed in fine linen that is white and clean. In Revelation 19:8, we are told that the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. If the saints of God are returning with Christ to wage war on the Antichrist, then it is not possible to have a post-trib rapture without us running into ourselves as we are coming and going.

The Time of Jacob’s Trouble

In several passages, the Bible refers to the tribulation as a time of trouble for the Jews. The phrase “Jacob’s trouble” pertains to the descendants of Jacob. Jeremiah 30:7 says that this time of trouble will come just before the Lord returns to save His people. The final week of Daniel’s 70th week is yet to take place. An angel told Daniel that, “70 weeks are determined unto thy people” (Dan 9:24). Scripture never mentions that the tribulation is meant to be a time of testing for Christians. However, some post-tribbers try to claim that they are the ones being tested during the tribulation. To make this so, they need to spiritualize the 144,000 Jewish believers in Revelation 7:2-8 who receive God’s protective seal. Placing the Church dispensation into the same time frame as the seven-year Jewish dispensation, as the post-tribbers do, raises one good question: Can two dispensations transpire at the same time? In the past, God has only dealt with one at a time. Having both present during the tribulation would have to be an exception.

”He” That is Taken Out of the Way

Before the Antichrist can be revealed, Paul said a certain “He” must be taken out of the way. According to 2 Thessalonians 2:7, the “He” that must be removed is widely thought to be the Holy Spirit. It has been promised that the Holy Spirit would never leave the Church, and without the working of the Holy Spirit remaining on earth, no one could be saved during the tribulation. The removal of the Church, which is indwelt by the Holy Ghost, would seem the best explanation for this dilemma. The working of the Holy Spirit could go on during the tribulation, but His influence would be diminished because of the missing Church.

War or Rapture

(Rev 19:19-21) When Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation, He will be coming for battle. For those who believe in a post-trib rapture, it would be strange to meet your Lord and Savior just as He’s rushing into battle. The idea that war and rapture could occur together is difficult to imagine, especially since they transpire at the same moment.

The Five Foolish Virgins

The wedding story that Jesus gave in Matthew 25:2-13, I believe, is a parable of the rapture of the Church. It explains how some will not be ready. Jesus clearly states that a group of people will miss out on an event, and will cry out to God to let them into the place where He resides, heaven. Although some try to put this parable in a post-trib context, it doesn’t fit very well. The ones left behind in a post-trib rapture will not need to seek the Lord because they’ll immediately be confronted by Him and His army of angels (if the post-trib rapture position were true).

God Hath Not Appointed Us to Wrath

In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul assures us that God has not appointed His people to wrath. This wrath is plainly God’s anger that will be poured out during the tribulation. Pre-trib believers interpret this as meaning that Christians will be removed from the earth. Post-trib believers tell a different story. They describe this as meaning that God will protect Christians during the tribulation and pour this wrath out on the unbelievers only. This idea runs against the statement made in Revelation 13:7, in which the Antichrist is given power to make war with the saints and to overcome them. A post-trib view would make God’s promise of protection from wrath into a lie. In years past, it was possible to think of being protected from the guns and swords of that day. Today, when any major war would involve nuclear and chemical weapons, it’s impossible to expect that same kind of protection. When Nagasaki, Japan was bombed during World War II, the bomb exploded over a Catholic church. Everyone who was in the center of the explosion died–both Christians and non-Christians. The only way to validly interpret God’s promise of protection from wrath is by viewing 1 Thessalonians 5:9 as the bodily removal of the Church from this world.

The Salt of the Earth

Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). When the believers are supernaturally removed, the earth will be plunged into spiritual darkness. When this happens, the Antichrist will then be free to control the world.

God Takes an Inventory

In Revelation 7:3, an angel descends to earth and seals the servants of God. Two bits of information about this sealing highly disclaim a post-trib viewpoint. The first item is the number of people sealed: 144,000. The second one is that all those who are sealed are from the 12 tribes of Israel. For the events in Revelation 7:3-8 to be true in a post-trib interpretation, either the Church has turned against God or God has turned against the Church. A post-tribber could write a thousand-word commentary about why the Church doesn’t need to be sealed. Instead of trying to argue about why the Church is not mentioned or sealed, a pre-trib proponent could just say, “We’re already in heaven.”

Noah and Lot as Examples

The tribulation period is compared to the times of Noah and Lot by Jesus in Luke 17:28. Most people argue over whether the time frame Jesus was talking about in that passage was pre-trib or post-trib. In doing so, they miss an important point. The two circumstances that the Noah and Lot situations have in common are the removal of the righteous and the judgment of the unbelievers. From these two accounts, we see that God prefers to remove His own when danger is involved.

We should all remember one thing: Knowing the Antichrist’s mother’s maiden name isn’t the primary goal. Knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and having your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life should be your number-one priority. The jailer asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

The Rapture:

The Second Coming: The Lord Jesus returns to earth WITH His Church to reign for 1000 years. (Colossians 3:4; Zechariah 14:5b; Jude 14, Revelation 19:14).

The Rapture: Believers are caught up with the Lord in the air, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

The Second Coming: Jesus’ feet touch the earth on Mount Olives. “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east….” (Zechariah 14:4).

The Rapture: Is an imminent, i.e. any moment event. It can happen at any time without warning (Revelation 3:3; 1 Thessalonians 5: 4-6; Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32-33).

The Second Coming: Follows definite predicted signs including tribulation. Occurs at the end of the Seven years of Tribulation (Dan 9:24-27; Matthew 24:29-30; 2 Thessalonian 2:3-8).

The Rapture: Happens in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye- too fast for eyes to see. (1 Corinthians 15:52).

The Second Coming: Slow coming, as he will be riding on a white horse accompanied by his raptured saints who are also riding on horsebacks (Revelation 19:11; 20:4)

The Rapture: The purpose of the Rapture is for the Lord Jesus to present the Church [redeemed believers] to Himself and to the Father (John 14:3; Ephesians 5:27; Revelation 19:6-9).

The Second Coming: The purpose of the Second Coming is to execute judgment on earth and set up His Kingdom, (Isaiah 26:21; Zechariah 14:3-4; Jude 14-15; Revelation 19:11-21; 20:4).

The Rapture: Only Christians will see Him (1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:52).

The Second Coming: Every eye will see Him, (Revelation 1:7).

The Rapture: Jesus descends with a shout, (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

The Second Coming: From his mouth comes a sharp sword (Revelation 19:15).

The Rapture: Spirits of those dead in Christ return with Jesus to receive their resurrected bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

The Second Coming: Christians return with Jesus in already resurrected bodies riding on white horses. (Revelation 19:14).

The Rapture: The Wedding of the Lamb in heaven follows the Rapture. (Revelation 19:7-8).

The Second Coming: The Wedding of the Lamb in heaven is followed by war on earth which the Lord Jesus Christ ends at his Second Coming.

The Rapture: Scarcely mentioned in the Old Testament, appearing only in Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:1-2 and in the feasts and festivals of the Lord in Leviticus 23-24. It remained a mystery until God made it clear to the Church of the New Testament through the apostle Paul. (1 Corinthians 15:51).

The Second Coming: Predicted often in the Old Testament.

The Rapture: The Lord Jesus descends from heaven in just the same way he ascended after his resurrection from the dead (Acts 1:11). We are not told that he descends riding a white horse.

The Second Coming: Jesus returns riding a white horse. (Revelation 19:11-14). Christians return with the Lord riding on their horses alongside the Lord. (Revelation 19:14).

The Rapture: Believers will not ascend to meet the Lord in the air on horsebacks. The entire event happens in a moment. (1 Corinthians 15:52).

The Second Coming: Believers return with the Lord on horsebacks (Revelation 19:14).

The Rapture: Initiates the Seven-year Tribulation period which sees the seven year reign of the Antichrist.

The Second Coming: Ends the Seven-year Tribulation period and initiates the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus who kills the Antichrist and the False Prophet and the kings of the earth that gathered against Him. (2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:17-21).

The Rapture: No mention of Satan. He is not involved in anything at the Rapture.

The Second Coming: Satan is mentioned in connection with his being bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:1-3).

The Rapture: A message of hope and comfort for all believers in Christ. A fulfilment of the blessed hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:18; Titus 2:13; 1 John 3:3).

The Second Coming: A message of war, the wrath of the Lamb and the wrath of God poured out in judgment against the nation of Israel for rejecting their Messiah and the ungodliness and unrighteousness of Gentile nations for rejecting the Saviour of the World. (Deuteronomy 32:35; Zephaniah 1:15; Malachi 4:5).

The Rapture: Brings the Church age to a close so that God could focus on Israel once again.

The Second Coming: Brings the 70^th Week prophesied by Daniel for the children of Israel (Daniel 9:24) to a close.

The Rapture: The Holy Spirit, the One who has been restraining the Antichrist from being revealed is taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).

The Second Coming: The Antichrist and his allies are taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:17-21).

The Rapture: Does not depend on anyone saying anything, neither Israel nor even the Church. It is entirely the Father’s privilege, at His discretion

The Second Coming: Will not happen until Israel as a nation looks up to the One whom they have pierced, until they cry out to Him to return. Hear what the Lord Jesus says about it himself; “See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”” (Luke 13: 34-35; Matthew 23:37-39). And don’t worry about whether today’s backslidden Israel will say it or not. For they will. When the fierceness of the battle campaigns of Armageddon presses them to extinction, then, they will cry out to Him, to their Messiah.   It’s only then that they will find out that the Messiah they have so long awaited is the same One they rejected and pierced when He first came to them.

These contrasts make it clear that the rapture of the church is quite different in character and timing from the return of the Lord to establish His kingdom on earth. These differences between the rapture and the second coming also confirm the conclusion that the rapture takes place before the Seven-year Tribulation or as most believers say, it is a pre-Tribulation rapture.

For more on the Rapture of the Church, get the book ARE YOU READY FOR THE RAPTURE?

(Ventura, CA) – Even though George Barna has been conducting national public opinion surveys for a quarter-century, surprises emerge each year from those studies. The California-based researcher traditionally ends each year by identifying some of the unexpected and most significant findings of the passing year. Barna released his list of the twelve most noteworthy results of 2006, and described a few themes that ran through this year’s surveys.

Noteworthy Outcomes

Barna selected the following dozen outcomes as the most significant findings of 2006.

# Although large majorities of the public claim to be “deeply spiritual” and say that their religious faith is “very important” in their life, only 15% of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life. As alarming as that finding was, its significance was magnified by research showing that on average pastors believe that 70% of the adults in their congregation consider their relationship with God to be their highest priority in life.

For related information, see the January 10th Barna Update click here

# Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity. Among the most common of those endeavors are using a Ouija board, reading books about witchcraft or Wicca, playing games involving sorcery or witchcraft, having a “professional” do a palm reading or having their fortune told. Conversely, during the past year fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers had received any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural.

For related information, see the January 23rd Barna Update click here

# The notion of personal holiness has slipped out of the consciousness of the vast majority of Christians. While just 21% of adults consider themselves to be holy, by their own admission large numbers have no idea what “holiness” means and only one out of every three (35%) believe that God expects people to become holy.

For related information, see the Februrary 20th Barna Update click here

# The growing movement of Christian Revolutionaries in the U.S. distinguished themselves from an already-select group of people – born again Christians – through their deeds, beliefs and self-views. Revolutionaries demonstrated substantially higher levels of community service, financial contributions, daily Bible study, personal quiet times each day, family Bible studies, daily worship experiences, engagement in spiritual mentoring, and evangelistic efforts. They also had a series of beliefs that were much more likely than those of typical born again adults to coincide with biblical teachings. Their self-perceptions were also dramatically different than that of other born again adults.

For related information, see the March 6th Barna Update click here

# Involvement in a house church is rapidly growing, although the transition is occurring with some trepidation: four out of every five house church participants maintain some connection to a conventional church as well.

For related information, see the June 19th Barna Update click here

# Evaluating spiritual maturity remains an elusive process for clergy as well as individuals. Across the nation, the only measure of spiritual health used by at least half of all pastors was the extent of volunteer activity or ministry involvement. Adults were no more consistent in their self-examination of their spirituality.

For related information, see the January 10th Barna Update click here

# Most Americans have a period of time during their teen years when they are actively engaged in a church youth group. However, Barna’s tracking of young people showed that most of them had disengaged from organized religion during their twenties.

For related information, see the September 11th Barna Update click here

# A comparison of people’s faith before and after the September 11 terrorist attack showed that five years after the momentous day, none of the 19 faith measures studied had undergone statistically significant change. Those measures covered aspects such as religious behaviours, beliefs, spiritual commitment and self-identity.

For related information, see the August 28th Barna Update click here

# Seven out of ten parents claim they are effective at developing the spiritual maturity of their children, but the Barna survey among 8-to-12-year-olds discovered that only one-third of them say a church has made “a positive difference” in their life; one-third contend that prayer is very important in their life; most of them would rather be popular than to do what is morally right. In fact, “tweeners” (those ages 8 to 12) deem their family to be vitally important in their life, but just 57% said they look forward to spending time with their family and only one out of every three say it is easy for them to talk to their parents about things that matter to them.

For related information, see the September 30th Barna Update click here

# Relatively few people – just one out of every six – believe that spiritual maturity is meant to be developed within the context of a local church or within the context of a community of faith.

For related information, see the April 18th Barna Update click here

# Five of the highest-profile Christian leaders – Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and T.D. Jakes – were unknown to a majority of the population. Most of those leaders were also unknown to most born again Christians.

For related information, see the November 27th Barna Update click here

# The faith contours of America continue to shift substantially over the course of time. The proportion of adults who are born again has risen dramatically in the past quarter century, from 31% to 45%. During the past two decades, every spiritual behaviour has fluctuated significantly, with recent upsurge in Bible reading, church attendance, and small group involvement.

For related information, see the March 27th Barna Update click here

Patterns That Were Visible

George Barna noted that there were four themes that consistently emerged from the various surveys his firm conducted throughout the year.

“First of all,” noted Barna, “Americans are very comfortable with religious faith. Most adults and even teenagers see themselves as people of faith. Toward that end, they have definite opinions about religion, they possess well-honed beliefs, and invest substantial amounts of their time, money and energy in religious activities. Faith and spirituality remain hot issues in people’s lives. The mass media, through news and feature stories, also play a role in keeping spiritual issues in the forefront of people’s minds.” Barna identified some of the most prolific news stories of the year that involved religion: the role of evangelicals in the mid-term elections, Hollywood’s pursuit of the Christian audience, scandals concerning priests and ministers, the shooting of five Amish school children and their community’s response, the internal politics of the Episcopal Church, and the controversy involving Muslims and the Pope.

“Second,” he continued, “people do not have an accurate view of themselves when it comes to spirituality. American Christians are not as devoted to their faith as they like to believe. They have positive feelings about the importance of faith, but their faith is rarely the focal point of their life or a critical factor in their decision-making. The fact that few people take the time to evaluate their spiritual journey, or to develop benchmarks or indicators of their spiritual health, facilitates a distorted view of the prominence and purity of faith in their life.”

Barna’s third theme was that if people’s faith is objectively measured against a biblical standard of how faith is to be practised, Americans are spiritually lukewarm. “Very limited effort is devoted to spiritual growth. Most Americans experience ‘accidental spiritual growth’ since there is generally no plan or process other than showing up at a church and absorbing a few ideas here and there. Even then, few people have a defined understanding of what they are hoping to become, as followers of Christ.” Barna attributed much of this to the numerous distractions common in most people’s lives.

Finally, the bestselling author of nearly 40 books contended that the most intriguing blip on the radar screen is the growth of various converging movements of deeply spiritual people who are departing from the conventional forms and communities of faith. “The Revolutionary community – which incorporates divergent but compatible groups of people who are seeking to make their faith the driving force in their life – is reshaping American faith in ways which we are just beginning to understand.” Few researchers and journalists are tracking the behavior and beliefs of those nascent segments.

The Future of American Faith (As you read this section, ask yourself, what about the future of Faith in Christ in Africa?)

When asked what he saw on the horizon regarding Americans’ faith, Barna described findings from some research currently in process related to the future of faith. He listed three general patterns he expects to gain prominence in the coming years.

Diversity. There will be new forms of spiritual leadership, different expressions of faith, and greater variety in when and where people meet together to be communities of faith. Ecumenism will expand, as the emerging generations pay less attention to doctrine and more attention to relationships and experiences. Barna predicted that there will be a broader network of micro-faith communities built around lifestyle affinities, such as gay communities of faith, marketplace professionals who gather for faith experiences, and so forth.

Bifurcation. Barna expects to see a widening gap between the intensely committed and those who are casually involved in faith matters. The difference will become strikingly evident between those who make faith the core of their life and those who simply attach a religious component on to an already mature lifestyle.

Media. Spiritual content and experiences will be increasingly related to the use of media. New technologies that will gain market share over the coming decade will significantly reshape how people experience and express their faith, and the ways in which they form communities of faith.

During the past year Barna formed a company (Good News Holdings) with a group of media professionals to approach the faith community not only with facts and figures drawn from research but also with stories and imagery conveyed through media. Asked why he took this new approach, he stated that the job of a servant of God is to be an obedient missionary. “It’s important to go where the people are whom you wish to reach with your message, and then to communicate that message through the language and symbols that they understand,” he explained. “The typical American spends roughly twenty times more hours each week engaged with media than involved with all forms of traditional religious activity. In our society there is a false barrier between those two worlds, and we’re trying to bridge the gap.”

To read more about faith and media, and how Good News Holdings is approaching this dimension, click here for a new article on “spiritainment” by George Barna. www.goodnewsholdings.com/?p=16

Research Details

The data in this report are from a series of national surveys conducted by The Barna Group during the past 14 months with random samples of various population groups. Among those sample groups were adults (age 18 and older); teenagers (ages 13 through 18); tweeners (ages 8 through 12); and Protestant church Senior Pastors. Each survey included a minimum of 600 respondents, with most of the studies incorporating more than 1000 randomly-sampled, qualified individuals.

“Born again Christians” are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”

“Evangelicals” meet the born again criteria (described above) plus   seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “evangelical.”

“Revolutionaries” were classified on the basis of meeting 11 specific criteria. They have a clear sense of the meaning and purpose of their life; describe their relationship with and faith in God as the top priority in their life; consider themselves to be “Christian”; read the Bible regularly; pray regularly; deem their faith to be very important in their life; contend that the main objective in their life is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul; describe God as the “all-knowing, all-powerful being who created the universe and still rules it today”; have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is important in their life today; believe that when they die they will go to heaven only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior; and say that their faith in Christ has “greatly transformed” their life.

The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) is a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts primary research, produces media resources pertaining to spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website www.barna.org

© The Barna Group, Ltd, 2006.

Copyright Disclaimer: All the information contained on the barna.org website is copyrighted by The Barna Group, Ltd., 1957 Eastman Ave. Ste B, Ventura, California 93003. No portion of this website (articles, graphs, charts, reviews, pictures, video clips, quotes, statistics, etc.) may be reproduced, retransmitted, disseminated, sold, distributed, published, edited, altered, changed, broadcast, circulated, or commercially exploited without the prior written permission from The Barna Group, Ltd.

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When the Lord Jesus was asked about the signs indicating the nearness of His second coming He first and foremost mentioned the widespread occurrence of spiritual deception: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many” (Matt. 24:4-5). The many people who will be deceived by many false teachers refers to the general occurrence of a changed mindset, or new paradigm, in terms of which people will perceive Christ in the end-time. That accounts for the disturbing phenomenon why the entire world will marvel and follow Satan’s false Christ (Rev. 13:3). The Amplified Bible says: “…and the whole earth went after the [Antichrist] in amazement and admiration.” That will be a united, multireligious form of worship.

The ultimate form of deception will be reached with the appearing of the Christ (the Antichrist) who will pretend to be the universal Christ of all religions. He will be empowered by Satan to perform great signs and wonders (2 Thess. 2:7-10; Rev. 13:2) and will also introduce a false peace and unity on earth (1 Thess. 5:3; Rev. 13:3). Halfway through his reign of seven years he will enter the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and in utter arrogance declare himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:4).

There are clearly different forms and stages of deception by which Satan attempts to draw people away from believing in, worshipping and following the true God of the Bible. Once they have rejected the truth they become spiritually so blinded that the ability to discern good from evil rapidly decreases to a dangerously low level. Such people entertain distorted and completely unbiblical views on Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the gospel. Among them are also former believers in Christ. Paul says:

“I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you put up with it well” (2 Cor. 11:2-4).

Much more than only perverting the image of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit with a view to depriving people of a biblical basis of faith, spiritual deception is now specifically aimed at deconstructing the biblical image and attributes of Jesus Christ to make Him conformable to the image of the Antichrist. This other Jesus will arise from the kingdom of darkness but present himself as the true Jesus who has come to save, bless and empower humanity. Preparations are in an advanced stage to receive him as the global messiah of all faiths. The mounting evidence on the nature and extent of this movement is very compelling, as indicated below:

Another Jesus

There are various independent initiatives, driven by the same spirit of error, to distort the biblical image of Jesus. The following initiatives clearly set the scene:

Liberal interpretation of Scripture. Liberal, humanistic-inclined theologians do not respect the root meaning of God’s Word – particularly those sections which describe God’s supernatural intervention in the affairs of humanity – and decide for themselves which other meaning(s) to attach to these scriptures. Many of them take literal concepts such as heaven, hell, the devil, the Antichrist, Israel, the millennial reign of Christ, as well as the end-time judgements of God, and offer explanations which differ radically from those which the Bible gives. Their agnostic mindset eventually leads them to question and attack the very foundations of the doctrine of salvation by denying clearly stated biblical concepts on the virgin birth of Christ, the spiritual significance of His atoning death, as well as His bodily resurrection. The starting-point for this serious delusion is the denial of the virgin birth of Christ. If He was not miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit He could not be the only begotten Son of God who was destined to be the Saviour of mankind and the King who will rule the world in righteousness from the throne of David (cf. Matt. 1:20-21; Luke 1:26-35; Acts 15:16-17). Consequently, these theologians and their followers end up with another Jesus who is satanically-inspired and humanly conceived. This counterfeit Christ is endued with various unbiblical attributes and presented as one of many divine figures in the deceived family of world religions. To them, He is not the unique Son of God who defies the sinful conventions of human existence and denounces non-Christian religions as false institutions aimed at worshipping the Father of Lies (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20; 2 Cor. 6:14-18). These misguided people are paving the way for the coming of the Antichrist (1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3).

The Jesus Seminar. On the extreme end of this rapidly expanding movement aimed at rejecting the Jesus of the Bible by utterly perverting His divine image is the US based Jesus Seminar which was established in 1985. They discredit more than 80% of the testimony of Jesus in the four Gospels as historically inaccurate. This is evident from their publication, The Five Gospels, to which the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas was added. In their efforts to portray the historical Jesus they strip the true, biblical Jesus of all His divine characteristics and render Him a mortal man who was no more than a human prophet. They do not hesitate to make grossly blasphemous statements about Jesus. During his visit to theological faculties at two universities in Pretoria, South Africa, John Dominic Crossan of the Jesus Seminar called the crucifixion of Jesus an act of transcendental child abuse and said that we should hate a God who surrendered His Son to such a cruel death. He also postulated that Jesus was never buried and did not rise from the dead. Another member of the Jesus Seminar, Prof. Marcus Borg, said during his visit to SA that there was never a full tomb, let alone an empty one, and added: “I think it is quite possible that his body was eaten by dogs.”

These ideas were eagerly accepted by prominent South African theologians who are members of the New Reformation. One of them, Prof. Andries van Aarde, wrote a book, Fatherless in Galilee, in which he describes Mary as a prostitute and Jesus as an illegitimate child who was begat by a Roman soldier. Being ‘fatherless’ in Galilee allegedly induced Him to fantasize about a heavenly Father. Despite its heretical premise this book was well received by fellow theologians. Those members of the Jesus Seminar and the New Reformation who do somehow agree that Jesus was a divine incarnation are quick to indicate that He was not the only incarnation of God. Religious leaders such as Buddha are also described as incarnations of the divine. The time for the revelation of the false Christ must surely be at hand.

Resurgence of the Gnostic Gospels. In keeping with the modern trend to relegate Jesus to the level of a mortal man and human prophet there is a new interest in the Gnostic Gospels. Since the time of the early Christian church theological development was strongly influenced by philosophy. Initially, it was the heathen Greek philosophy of Plato that had the greatest impact on religious thinking. Since the first century, Gnosticism developed concurrently with evangelical beliefs on the deity and incarnation of the Lord Jesus. This philosophy was derived from the concept “gnosis” (knowledge of spiritual mysteries) and teaches that knowledge, rather than faith, is the key to salvation. This philosophy enjoyed great support until the sixth century and during that time perverted the truth of various theological concepts. It was developed with the purpose of making the Christian religion more acceptable to Greek-speaking intelligentsia, but in the process the biblical concept of God was fundamentally changed. The Gnostic love for knowledge was shaped by the mystic beliefs of Plato, as well as his concept of God as the “Absolute,” which is not compatible with the biblical concept of the Holy Trinity. After these views were mixed with Christian concepts it was argued that there is a singular Creator-God, the Father, and that He created Jesus as a lower order God, or even as an angel. That was a vicious attack against the deity and incarnation of the Lord Jesus. Profs. Walvoord & Zuck (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 1983:677) say: “Both Christ’s deity and humanity were challenged by this early Gnostic-like heresy. Those heretics diminished Christ to an angel whose ‘body’ was only apparent, not real.” But Paul defended the deity of the Lord Jesus, as well as His complete incarnation: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). He was fully God and fully man.

The large public acclaim enjoyed by false, apocryphal Gospels such as The Gospel of Judas, and other unauthentic accounts on the life of Jesus are indicative of this time of great deception prior to the dawning of the new dispensation of the Antichrist’s reign on earth. Just before Easter 2006, the National Geographic Society announced that they discovered the lost Gospel of Judas which contradicts the canonical gospels about Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. There were even claims in the press that this was the greatest discovery of the century and that it would result in a re-evaluation of Christians’ beliefs as we know it. The front-page headline of USA Today read, “Long-lost gospel of Judas casts ‘traitor’ in new light.” The Gospel of Judas presents Judas in a positive light as the only disciple who truly understood Jesus and who betrayed Him only because he was asked to do so. Jesus allegedly wanted to be released from the constraints imposed upon Him by His human body. The Gnostic Jesus described in the Gospel of Judas is not almighty God or the Creator of the world; He did not die for man’s sin, and did not rise bodily from the dead. It is no Gospel at all.

The Davinci Code. One of the modern platforms used to raise public awareness for the false Gnostic Gospels is Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, as well as a film with the same title. This book is based upon evidence derived from the Gnostic Gospels, which is presented as a true account of Jesus and His works. Many questions are raised concerning the deity of Christ and the trustworthiness of the canonical Gospels. Jesus is described as a mortal man who was married to Mary Magdalene, and these assertions cast doubt on the authenticity of the New Testament. The world has been looking for convincing proof that the Bible is not the Word of God. Scientists and researchers have been searching for credible reasons to reject the claims of Scripture. The public is hungry for such information. If the Bible is not the Word of God people are free to choose their lifestyles and behaviours without fear of punishment in this life or the next.

The Da Vinci Code has been on nationwide bestseller lists for extended periods since it was first published in 2003, including 87 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. As one reads this novel one finds that Brown blurs the lines between history and fiction, thereby suggesting that Christianity is based on a lie. What is the proof? A Gnostic Gospel and Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper where he contends that the person sitting next to Jesus was a woman, namely Mary Magdalene. The central claim that Brown’s novel makes about the Christian faith is that almost everything we learned about Jesus is false, thereby reinforcing the claims of heretics and apostates. In May 2006, a film with the same title was released. In the first four days it grossed $224 million at box offices world-wide.

The novel opens with the murder of an elderly curator at the Louvre, the world famous museum in Paris. The curator was harbouring a secret that, if revealed, would destroy the very foundations of Christianity. In his dying moments the curator left a series of numeric and cryptographic clues that would decode the fatal secret. The investigation of the murder produced clues that lead to the Holy Grail. As it turns out, the Grail isn’t the cup that Christ drank out of at the Last Supper, but Mary Magdalene, the true Grail who held the blood of Jesus in her womb while bearing His children. Furthermore, it is claimed that Mary’s reputation as a prostitute was fabricated by church leaders to undercut her influence, and that of women in general, in the early church. The real story was kept by a secret society called The Priory of Sion, to which many famous Europeans, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, belonged.

The Da Vinci Code is one of a series of blasphemous Hollywood films aimed at destroying the biblical image of Jesus. The ball was set rolling by films in which Jesus is portrayed as sinner, e.g. Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus of Montreal and The Last Temptation of Christ. By these films the scene has been set of the revelation of “the man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3) who will soon make his appearance in the name of the true Jesus.

The New Age Christ. The highest ranking deities in the New Age Movement are (1) the universal god of all faiths, (2) the cosmic Christ, and (3) Lucifer. In his book Reflections on the Christ the head of Planetary Citizens, David Spangler, included a chapter titled: Lucifer, Christ and God. In it, an important role in the development of a Christ consciousness in humans is assigned to Lucifer: “When man entered upon the pathway of self, he entered into a great creative adventure… There he can say, ‘I have fully and absolutely accepted the responsibility of who and what I am. In so doing I am free…’ The being that helps man to reach this point is Lucifer. That is his role. He is the angel of man’s evolution. He is the angel of man’s inner light. Lucifer is the spirit of light in the microcosmic world. God is the spirit of light in the macrocosm, and Christ is the bridge between the two that spells freedom in manifestation… Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into a new age, which is the age of man’s wholeness, each of us is brought to the point of a Luciferic initiation, the doorway through which the individual must pass if he is to come fully into the presence of his light and wholeness.” Through the spirit of the cosmic Christ of the kingdom of darkness (the Antichrist), people are introduced to the false light and peace of Lucifer, who is the father of lies. Full luciferic revelations are at present still confined to the inner circles of the New Age Movement, as members must pass through various stages of spiritual illumination before the real identity of the movement’s leader is revealed to them. Ordinary members of the movement are not aware that they actually open themselves up to Lucifer when they strive to attain spiritual illumination through the Christ consciousness.

The coming interfaith Christ will be the highest incarnation of the god of this world and be enthusiastically accepted by the deceived masses as the common Messiah of all faiths. Nominal Christians and orthodox Jews won’t have any problem when, after his revelation as the cosmic Christ, he also reaches out to the other religions to gather them under his banner. Muslims expect the prophet Jesus, who is not God, to appear soon and act in unison with the Imam Mahdi, who is a descendant of Muhammad. Hindus await a Jesus who, according to them, will be and end-time incarnation of Vishnu and Krishna. Buddhists equate the coming Christ with the fifth Buddha. According to the New Age Movement, Lucifer will work in the hearts of people to accept the universal Christ, while motivating them to become christs (or little gods) themselves.

Another spirit

Satan’s spirit of error (cf. 1 John 4:6) is actively working in the world to blind people’s minds to the truths of the gospel, while guiding them on how to have mystical experiences and empowering them to perform signs and wonders with occult powers. The many demons which Satan has at his disposal are evil spirits who are sent out to deceive people, thereby advancing the interests of the kingdom of darkness. The following actions of these spirits are very evident in the time in which we live:

Strange phenomena. The New Age Movement and its associated false religions is at present focusing attention on the discovery and use of the miracle-working psychic powers of healing, as well as the promotion of various supernatural manifestations. Even at many Christian meetings strange phenomena are now common, e.g. falling (or slaying) in the spirit. Other phenomena, such as laughing in the spirit, prophesying in the spirit and dancing in the spirit, which result from this experience, are also attributed to the Holy Spirit. Many believers blindly accept these phenomena without testing the spirits, despite the danger of spurious satanic imitation in such manifestations. Most of the Word of Faith preachers create strong expectations of powerful manifestations of the Holy Spirit. However, there is no scriptural basis for the signs that allegedly occur at their meetings. There is also the phenomenon of gold-dust falling on the hands, arms or hair of those at the meetings, while some claimed that fillings in their teeth turned into gold! Another modern fad in this movement is the so-called “New Wine” meetings where people experience typical symptoms of drunkenness. This is accompanied by falling, dancing and laughing in the spirit, also pogo stick jumping and making a wide range of animal noises, such as barking like a dog, crowing like a rooster and roaring like a lion! Are not the claims that such highly dubious phenomena and extraordinary behaviour are attributable to the activity of the Holy Spirit quite blasphemous, grossly insulting to Him and detrimental to the Christian witness to the world? It is not difficult to see how ideally this suits Satan’s purpose to discredit the Christian faith and deceive as many as he can. The express purpose of deceiving spirits is to destroy the faith of believers and to mislead, confuse, corrupt, overshadow and control them with the power of deception.

A new spirituality. The deceiving spirit of Satan imitates the Holy Spirit and instils a new kind of spirituality in people. It is a spirit of self-exaltation, pride and arrogance which makes you very important and powerful in your own eyes because of the gifts you have received, the recognition you enjoy, the strong influence you have over people, and also because of your material wealth. The presence, power and gifts of this spirit become the dominating reality in your life, while Jesus is subtly moved to the background. This spirit instils nice and relaxed feelings in you so that you forget all your problems and sins. He does not convict of sin, always condones it, and has no problems to live with lies, deceit, distorted versions of the truth, and moral laxity. He gives people the false hope that they are saved and will go to heaven. He uses so-called ‘prophets’ as human mediators to convey messages to you about what God wants you to do. He also majors on extra-biblical revelations from God through dreams and visions. He removes guilt complexes on his own authority, without specific reference to the cross, and surrounds you with light and joy. You are ever dependent upon him. He guides you through a process of inner healing to a spiritual reprogramming of your life in which the scars of the past, and even from before your birth, are put right by self-healing, positive confession, hypnotic regression and the breaking of generation curses.

This new spirituality is contemplative. People are taught to switch over to their ‘right-brain’ through meditation, walking labyrinths and practising mystical techniques such as yoga. They empty their minds by the using of mantras (the repetition of a single word or short phrase) which helps them descend to the deeper levels of their subconscious mind where they experience an altered state of consciousness. In this spiritual state some people meet spirit guides who teach or inform them, while others even hear voices speaking to them. There are also those who receive supernatural gifts such as prophesying, healing, tongues, astral travel, clairvoyance, and the performing of miracles.

This spirit also tells you that you are a king already, who has dominion on earth, and can claim and demand anything you like. You do not have to suffer poverty, disease or any other afflictions, and you can change anything through positive confession. You are in command of your life. He motivates people to organise transformation rallies as a means to usher in the kingdom of God on earth. He also makes his victims believe they can pull down demonic strongholds in any society by making use of strategic spiritual warfare. Any notable success is evading them as Satan will only be incarcerated when Christ comes (Rev. 20:1-3). In this dispensation, only individuals can be set free from the power of Satan – not entire cities or countries!

Berit Kjos posted a very helpful chart in which she indicates the transition from evangelical beliefs to the new spirituality: www.crossroad.to/charts/new-spirituality.htm From this chart it is evident that a spiritually blinded humanity explores mystical powers in its quest to become divine, united and in full control of its own destiny. People end up discovering a mystical christ in their own hearts (the god within) who guides them into gaining a position of dominion on earth.

The Secret. Modern times are characterised by a strong resurgence of the secrets of ancient mysteries. In her book, The Secret, Rhonda Byrne says that when Christianity started spreading the forbidden forces behind magical arts went underground. They were hidden in secret societies and occult orders until the late 20^th century when interest in the mystical powers of the past was revived by the biblically illiterate members of postmodern society. This new thought enables people to do miracles. The author says that if you begin to understand the hidden, untapped powers that are within you, this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life, including you financial interests, your relationships and your health. In her article, A New Mask for an Ancient Secret, Berit Kjos (Feb. 2007) says: “Now as [in ancient times] those dark Luciferian teachings have become shining lights to post-Christian cultures inspired by ‘false apostles and deceitful workers’ – servants of Satan, the evil one who masquerades as an angel of light. After all, The Secret offers gullible seekers everything under the sun: There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, The Secret can give you whatever you want. The law of attraction is the law of creation… You create your life through your thoughts. With this powerful knowledge, you can completely change every circumstance and event in your entire life…”

In his article The Secret Seduction (June 2007) Dave Hunt says: “The latest occult scam to capture the imagination of the West is called The Secret. The book by that name, a top New York Times bestseller, has quickly sold more than 6 million copies and the DVD over 2 million copies… The numerous misrepresentations [in the book] begin with the title itself. The Secret is not a secret at all, but recycled Hinduism, shamanism, and New Age folly. One of many huge lies is its claim: ‘You create your own reality with your mind.’ This was the serpent’s false promise to Eve – the promise of godhood (Gen. 3:5). Embracing that delusion cost Eve and her descendants Eden’s paradise – and would have barred mankind from heaven had not Christ died for the sins of the world. In the 6,000 years since Eden, the serpent’s promise has not been fulfilled in even one person’s life.”

The spiritual message of this book clearly implies that God is obsolete and that real spiritual empowerment is not to be found in the Bible but in The Secret. The popularity of this book throughout the world is staggering. This is indicative of the widespread interest in occult ideologies and practices which elevate fallen man to a position where he becomes the master of his own destiny. When he is his own god, everything is permissible, including any imaginable sin. In this frame of mind people will be willing followers of “the man of sin… whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, 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, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:3-12).

A Course in Miracles. In keeping with the rising interest in magical, occult powers that are often marketed in a ‘Christian’ package to deceive more people in Western societies, a course in miracles is offered on internet websites, in books and by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. On her daily radio program Oprah will offer a year-long course on the New Age Christ from the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset – a New Age worldview that includes the beliefs that there is no sin, no evil, no devil and that Jesus did not die to pay the penalty for your sins. It is emphasized in the course that in Jesus we are not under the law, so everything is lawful. A perverted kind of forgiveness is propagated, which is the world’s way of promoting unity and healing apart from the cross. Oprah told her television audience that Williamson’s book, A Course in Miracles, was one of her favorite books, and that she had already bought a thousand copies and would be handing them out to everyone in her studio audience. Oprah’s endorsement skyrocketed Williamson’s book to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. A Course in Miracles was originally dictated to channeller Helen Schucman in 1977 by her spirit guide who claimed to be Jesus.

The Miracle Times (www.themiracletimes.com) say on their website: “A course in miracles is a message to you from… the whole resurrected mind of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is an experiential guide to help bring about the illumination of your mind and body through the practical application of love, healing and forgiveness.” They define inspiration as follows: “Inspiration means: a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation. What is your qualification? You are the Holy Son of God Himself! You need only remember who you are. It is your purpose to inspire.” The real author of A Course in Miracles is described as “Master Jesus, who is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit… He became completely identified with the Christ, the Son of God.” People are influenced to see themselves as sinless: “See then the light that is all about you… You are as perfect as God created you.” Through positive thinking, forgiveness, love and positive confession people are to creatively change their lives by miracles.

The Moses Code. The global campaign of deception which is driven by Satan’s spirit of error, popularised by the media and promoted by celebrities, is taken one step further with the publishing of James Twyman’s book, The Moses Code. This book, as well as the film based upon it, elevates fallen mankind to the position occupied by Lucifer when he openly deified himself in heaven. He said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). The author offers people a secret code which will dramatically change their lives from indigence and mediocrity to prosperity, royalty and abundance. That will happen when they can say to themselves, “I AM.” This code was revealed to Moses at the burning bush in the wilderness and enabled him to perform unprecedented miracles.

The book is promoted as follows by the publishers: “Twyman describes the most powerful manifestation technique ever known to humanity, hidden or ignored for almost 3,500 years. And yet, this powerful tool was responsible for some of the most amazing and famous miracles in the history of the world. Why, then, has the Code been held in such secrecy when it changed the world the few times it was applied? Is it possible that this technology is so powerful that our ancient forefathers decided that humanity wasn’t ready to wield such a mighty sword? When properly applied the Moses Code gives you everything you need to easily attract your Heart’s Desire. When used by large groups of people the Code also has the power to initiate a world based upon the laws of compassion and peace. In the first chapter you will learn what the Moses Code is and why it is so important today. In chapters two and three you will learn the beginning techniques for applying the Code in your life, and in the world. In short, chapters two and three will give you the necessary tools for changing your life and the lives of those around you.”

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1: “You’ve likely heard the story before, all about Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, an astounding accomplishment that began with him standing before a burning bush listening to the voice of God. But have we ever really heard the deeper message being communicated, not only to Moses but to each one of us? Is it possible that there is a code hidden somewhere in this story, a secret that gives us the power to attract everything we desire into our lives? Could this secret be the most powerful gift God has ever given the world? What are some of the things you most want to receive? Abundance, your soul mate, the perfect house, or your dream car? Did Moses receive from God the secret of how to achieve all your dreams, easily and automatically, attracting into your life everything you have ever desired? If so, is it possible for you to use this same secret today and for the rest of your life, achieving what the rest of the world would call miraculous?”

It is further explained that God called Moses from the bush and he responded by saying, “Here I am.” He was standing on holy ground when he said, “Here I AM.” The author then continues: “It’s almost as if God smiles at him and says: ‘Ah, well said, Moses. Indeed, Here I AM. This ground is holy because it is the spot where you have known yourself to be who you are.’ You may be thinking: ‘Wait a minute! Are you saying that God was pleased because Moses seemed to recognize himself as one with his Creator?’ The answer is YES!!! For thousands of years we have been sold a lie, and this lie has led to the suppression and dismissal of The Moses Code all through the world. We have been told that we are weak and vulnerable, unable to do more than eke out a meagre existence on earth. If we’re lucky we’ll be able to accumulate a relative degree of comfort, maybe a few houses and a big bank account, but none of that ever really satisfies us. We are here but to live then die, hopefully with a few moments of joy in-between. We have imagined ourselves to be in a prison that we can never escape, and we have convinced ourselves that the prison yard is our real home. What if the door to that prison cell was never locked? What if the world we live in is nothing more than a projection of our thoughts about ourselves, and that God has never shared that vision at all? If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and fully present in every moment and form, is it possible that God would rejoice when we realize the TRUTH? … Hold on before you answer. Your response will determine your entire experience of life, and how willing you are to accept everything God intends for you. Your answer will determine how open you are to receiving miracles and ultimately crack the Moses Code.” The author further says that God told Moses He would lead the Hebrews out of the bondage of Egypt into the Promised Land where they would live in abundance. He says that the same promise applies to us, also in a material sense.

In their e-newsletter of March 4, 2008, Lighthouse Trails say: “The Moses Code – taking the next step toward a world-wide awakening: On April 5th, The Moses Code film will be released in a unique synchronized worldwide opening, just a few weeks after this week’s release of the book with the same title. The book and film will most likely become best sellers with expected promotion by Oprah Winfrey and others of influence. The book/film is following the release of last year’s The Secret, which has remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for over 59 weeks. The Secret, also a book/film, was highly promoted by Oprah and carries a similar-type message. In essence, both projects focus on humanity being divine and having the ability to alter our personal lives and ultimately alter the world in which we live through hidden mysteries that the projects supposedly reveal.”

The Moses Code represents self-deification and prosperity in its most extreme form. But it goes beyond this and also offers this secret code as the solution to all the world’s problems of division, hostility and suffering. The assurance is given that if thousands of people gather at the same time, assume their position as gods and co-creators, and focus their positive thoughts on problem areas such as the Middle East, everything will change for the better.

Another gospel

The arrogant and unrestrained proclaiming of another Jesus under the instigation of another spirit has become a world-wide phenomenon. Preachers, politicians and celebrities with very large constituencies are joining hands to celebrate the divine nature of humanity, raise the level of people’s consciousness, promote global unity and peace, and ensure prosperity and good health to all. The following are popular themes for preaching:

Ecumenism. It is generally believed that religious globalism holds the key to the revelation of God’s kingdom on earth and a future of unity, prosperity and peace to divided humanity. Within this approach the fragmentation of Christianity into many denominations (referred to as vintage Christianity) should be countered by establishing mega-churches without strict and very explicit creeds, and without standing strong on the inerrancy of the Bible. Mega-churches should merge into post-denominational city churches that function under the guidance of prophets and apostles. Regional, national and international ties should then be forged among the various local branches of the church. Collective actions such as transformation rallies or meditation meetings are believed to wield the spiritual power needed to overcome evil and change the destiny of societies. This is New Age philosophy. They believe that when a critical mass (a representative group of people who believe they are divine) comes together to meditate, the scale will swing away from evil and divisiveness, draw humanity into this oneness, and heal the world.

The uniting of the Christian church is only an interim objective which paves the way towards multireligious ecumenical ties – an alliance of world religions in which the members of all faiths join hands on the premise that they worship the same God. It stands to reason that if they believe they worship the same God, they are also awaiting the same, universal Christ to finally unite them. When he has come, no insubordination will be tolerated and all people will be obliged to worship him (cf. Rev. 13:3-4,8,15).

Ecumenically-minded preachers of deceived mega-churches are preparing the way for the coming universal Christ of the New Age Movement. The vagueness of their creeds, the ignorance of their members, and the strong impact of postmodern thinking allows them to present another Jesus who, in many respects, differs from the biblical Jesus. Without much resistance they unwittingly make Jesus conformable to the New Age Jesus, simply by denying His uniqueness, the redemptive significance of His cross, and His insistence on repentance. They only emphasise His mission to bless and unite all people, to inspire them to realise their full potential so as to prosper in everything they do, and to empower them to establish and extend the kingdom of God on earth.

However, where there are still significant numbers of evangelical Christians, like in the US and South Africa, ecumenically-minded theologians first engage in a relentless campaign to slander and discredit the biblical Jesus by reducing Him to a historical Jesus who was just one of many human prophets. After that, their spiritually uprooted and disillusioned followers will be introduced to the cosmic Jesus of the emerging New World Order, thereby drawing them into the multireligious structures of the ecumenical movement.

Dominionism. The message proclaimed by the emerging church is that they are called upon to take control over the world, thereby physically establishing the kingdom of God to the good of all people. A wealth of concise and well written articles have been produced on this subject by the Discernment Research Group: see http://herescope.blogspot.com See also Sarah Leslie’s excellent article, Dominionism and the rise of Christian imperialism on www.discernment-ministries.org/

Herescope offers interesting excerpts from an article by C. Peter Wagner, in which he says: “We need to take a new look at one of our most quoted Bible verses: ‘The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:10). In the past, most of us thought that Jesus was saying ‘to seek and to save those who were lost.’ Consequently, we applied it to saving souls. But now we realize that we should have taken Jesus’ statement at face value, namely ‘that which was lost.’ What is it then, that was lost and that Jesus came to seek and to save? The answer is in the first chapter of Genesis. God’s original design was that Adam and Eve should have dominion over all of God’s creation (see Gen. 1:28). But they disobeyed God, they lost their authority, Satan usurped it and he became the god of this age. Satan’s kingdom encompassed all of the human kingdoms of the earth (see Luke 4:5-6). Why did Jesus come? He came with His kingdom, namely the kingdom of God, to invade the kingdom of Satan for the purpose of taking back dominion of God’s creation which was lost in the Garden of Eden. The Holy Spirit is now speaking to the churches and saying that God’s people must do what it takes to transform society, segment by segment, until God’s kingdom is seen on earth as it is in heaven” (C. Peter Wagner, Transform Society! Global Prayer News, Vol. 6, No. 3, Jul-Sep 2005).

Herescope also reviews an article by Rick Joyner, The true soldiers of the cross are mobilizing, in which he says that coercive measures will be used to usher in the kingdom of God before increased liberty will be allowed: “At first it may seem like totalitarianism as the Lord will destroy the antichrist spirit now dominating the world… and will shatter many nations like pottery.” In support of this vision, various dominionists have devised a strategy of defeating the so-called giants of unbelief, poverty, disease, illiteracy and self-centred leadership. The forces of marketplace transformation are the main method which dominionists intend using to overcome the negative factors which deprive societies of the prosperity and abundance of the kingdom.

The deceived church tries to do now what only Christ can do at His second coming. Their heavy reliance on human resources and methods renders their efforts unbiblical and dispensationally out of place. Instead of preaching salvation to lost sinners they endeavour to restore paradise conditions on earth during this dispensation, thereby pre-empting the coming of Christ as King to reveal His kingdom on earth. The counterfeit kingdom of dominionists differs substantially from the true kingdom of Christ, and actually paves the way for a false king, the Antichrist, who will arise from the ranks of fallen humanity before Christ comes.

Positive thinking. This ideology, which is also promoted by liberal theologians, represents a clever mix of humanitarian and biblical objectives. It appeals to governments, businessmen, churches and communities at large, whether secular or religiously oriented, to uplift society, eradicate poverty, treat the sick, educate the illiterate, and promote peace and reconciliation among all factions of society. This approach was refined and used very successfully by Norman Vincent Peale (The Power of Positive Thinking), Robert Schuller (Self-Esteem: The New Reformation) and Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life). The ideology of positive thinking, by its very nature, excludes all negative thoughts, e.g. sin, judgement, deception, false prophets, false religions, the Antichrist, the false prophet, Satan, suffering, tribulation, etc. It refrains from giving offence to anybody – not even to the sinner in his natural (sinful) state. All people must be made to feel welcome just as they are, and to accept Christianity for the sake of the advantages and blessings that are in store for them. No warnings are issued to any people on the basis of God’s impending judgments upon the wicked.

Positive thinking is contrary to the gospel message and leads to the perversion of the gospel in churches where it is taught. That is the reason why Rick Warren does not dwell on God’s judgements upon sin, which include the crucifixion of Christ. His poor doctrinal foundation also renders him ecumenical in his outreaches to pastors of various denominations, not even excluding the Mormons. A Jesus without the cross is not the true Jesus, however much people might think that he preaches the biblical Jesus. Furthermore, Warren’s approach leads him to support transformation initiatives towards changing the world through joint efforts to establish God’s kingdom. No warnings are given on the coming Antichrist and the great tribulation. What will his supporters do when the cosmic Christ appears on the scene as a peacemaker? Won’t they think he is the true Christ?

A marriage between religion and politics. There is a very conspicuous movement in the world to ally religion and politics. This was common practice in the ancient world empires, where the emperors deified themselves and were not satisfied only with political allegiance but also demanded religious worship. The Antichrist will do the same. (Rev. 13:4,7,15). Modern political leaders increasingly mobilise their followers by means of a religious ideology to help change and improve the word. They either collaborate with religious leaders in the ecumenical movement or they pose as religious leaders themselves. This is all part of kingdom theology, in which political, business and religious leaders work closely together.

Rick Warren says that stability in any nation is dependent upon a strong and healthy government, a strong and healthy business sector, and strong and healthy churches. He likened it with a three-legged stool. With a view to promoting this view he travels to various countries to address government leaders, business leaders and church leaders to make them aware of their responsibility to work together in realising the objectives of stable, prosperous, and purpose driven nations. According to dominionists, that is the way in which the kingdom of God will be ushered in. Little do they realise that the next world empire will be that of the cosmic Christ. He will have a three-legged throne – as political leader, universal messiah, and head of the global economy.

In this other gospel which is preached by leaders of the emerging church, promoted by political leaders, supported by global business, and popularised by celebrities, there is no reference whatsoever to the coming of the true Jesus for His bridal congregation, the subsequent revelation of the Antichrist and the judgements of God upon a self-centred, sinful, materialistic and utterly wicked world. “When they say, Peace and safety! then sudden destruction comes upon them” (1 Thess. 5:3).

The unlocking of occult powers

The paradigm shift towards the emerging new world order of the cosmic Christ has been underway for quite a number of years. Although it has been implemented as unobtrusive as possible, the changes are far-reaching and constitute a radical break from the truth of God’s Word to the alternative spirituality of the ‘angel of light.’ It is only in an advanced stage of change that people are actively exposed to the hidden sources of power which are offered to them. Special formulas, codes, or actions are needed to unlock these powers and use them for whatever purpose they are offered. In her article, Mysticism and Global Mind Change (Sept. 2007), Berit Kjos says: “Do you wonder why yoga, labyrinths and other meditational practices have suddenly emerged in churches across America? Or why ‘Christians’ now use the old occult formulas (a combination of concentration, meditation, visualization and mental projection) practiced by sorcerers, alchemists and ‘enlightened’ yogis to invoke the presence of ‘God’? This East-West synthesis didn’t happen by chance. For several decades, influential church leaders have been promoting a new way of thinking, an end to ‘separatism,’ and an inclusive oneness that would fulfil their vision of an earthly kingdom of God.”

A specific code, key-word, mantra, ritual initiation, mindset, symbol, belief system, or action is needed to invoke the occult powers or spirits which Lucifer offers in a disguised form to his unsuspecting victims. In The Da Vinci Code, a series of numeric and cryptographic clues were given to decode the secret. The breaking of the code in Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper represents a major deviation from the truth of God’s Word. It introduces a false teaching that Jesus was not divine but an ordinary, mortal man who had a wife and children. The implications of these assumptions are that Jesus is not God, the Bible is not true, the rejected Gnostic gospels reflect a more credible account of Jesus’ life, and somewhere among his unknown descendants a person may emerge in the end-time to claim the office of the Christ.

The Secret is also based upon the idea that hidden powers can be unlocked to fulfil all your dreams and needs. A new thought pattern enables people to do miracles as they create their own reality with their mind. Visualisation becomes a method of focussing the mind on an occult source of energy, thereby attracting and activating it.

The Moses Code is presented as a powerful method of declaring yourself to be God, thereby tapping creative powers in the universe to realise your dreams and changing your circumstances for the good. In saying, “I AM…” and adding to it whatever divine attribute you wish, e.g. “I AM the way and the truth,” you will share in Lucifer’s rebellious deed of self-exaltation and deification. The condition for promoting yourself to the level of co-creator is to despise and disobey God’s clear commandments to you, thereby becoming your own god. If you are prepared to do that, Lucifer will immediately empower you to become his co-worker and also allow you to enjoy certain short-lived benefits in his kingdom. The serpent achieved great success with this lie, which was first used to deceive our first parents in the Garden of Eden. He said to Eve that if she ignored God’s commandments she would not die, as God said, but that she would, instead, “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). She never became a god, only a deceived rebel who turned against the true God at her own peril. If it wasn’t for God’s grace to restore repentant sinners she would have died in her sins.

The Antichrist’s rise to power

The coming Antichrist will follow exactly the same course while rising to a position of absolute power as a self-declared God. He will oppose and exalt himself “above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:4). When he openly states that he is the great I AM, Satan will strongly empower him do even more signs and wonders. He will be the lawless one, who breaks and despises all the laws of God, while acting “according to the working of Satan, will all power, signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9). The devil will give him “his power, his throne and great authority” (Rev. 13:2). His co-ruler, the false prophet, will wield the same powers: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men” (Rev. 13:13).

The Antichrist, who will call himself the Christ or God, will deceive the whole world to worship him in order to share in his great power. He will also use a code which will give people access to his dark powers. No one will be able to buy or sell, “except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man: His number is 666” (Rev. 13:17-18). The numeric symbol of the beast and the mark of his name will be used to physically mark all his followers. They will have to sign an oath of allegiance to him whereby they commit themselves to worshipping him and his image, to utterly reject the God of heaven, and to also denounce the true Christ who will still, during that time, be worshipped by a minority of people.

Be warned that the use of hidden codes to access supernatural powers will make you an enemy of God because you will arrogantly call yourself God or the Son of God, thereby exalting yourself to His position, and thus sharing in the rebellion of Lucifer. Eternal condemnation awaits people who do that: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” (Rev. 14:9-11 KJV).

We are on the threshold of the revelation of the Antichrist. The large-scale deceiving of millions of people during recent years has prepared the spiritual climate for the appearance of the self-deified, universal Christ. It is obvious that secrets which are unlocked by codes are playing a major role in the satanic brainwashing of the masses: The Da Vinci Code popularised the lie that Jesus is not God. The Moses Code proclaims the lie that human beings can equate themselves with God and use their power to do astounding miracles. Through the coded number of the coming universal Christ the lie will be embraced that he is the God of humanity, and that he is the one who gives his followers the powers to be prosperous and to do miracles.

According to the Bible, the judgements of God rest upon the Antichrist and his deceived followers. These judgements will be poured out upon them during the great tribulation and also during the second coming of Christ (Rev. 6 to 19). The Lord Jesus will deliver His true disciples from the coming wrath of God, and expects of them to prepare themselves for this appointment: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

As the end of the church dispensation draws nearer with every passing day, increased tension is building up between the old Christian dispensation which is systematically phased out, and the antichristian new world order which is in a process of replacing it. The tension arises from bigger pressure for the termination of the old order’s principles, thought patterns and traditions, to make way for the paradigms and practices of the emerging new order.

It is impossible to correctly discern world events without taking into account their deeper spiritual motivation. Since creation and the Fall there were two spiritual kingdoms that competed with one another for control over humanity – they are the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. This struggle intensified in the church dispensation after the first coming of Christ.

All people who are born again belong to the unseen kingdom of Christ which is not of this world (John 3:3; 18:36). The Lord Jesus “delivered [them] from this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4). Paul says that by His grace God “has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). The minds and hearts of all unsaved people are blinded by the god of this world (Satan) to ensure that they would not easily understand and accept the gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). These spiritually blind people are his henchmen who are used to deceive many other people to keep them away from the kingdom of Christ. Both these kingdoms are now preparing to reveal themselves with a view to exercising sole control on earth.

Only a small minority of evangelical Christians act as advocates of the ‘old’ Biblical style of living which is rapidly disappearing in emerging postmodern societies. These witnesses for Christ are becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that they are sojourners and pilgrims in a changing world which, to a large extent, lies under the sway of the wicked one (1 Pet. 2:11; 1 John 5:19). The final transition will occur when the Lord catches away the evangelical believers who are the light of the world, thus allowing the Antichrist to be revealed and to implement the kingdom of darkness with all its vile characteristics.

Intensified deception

We are living in a time of intensified deception in preparation for the imminent revelation of Satan’s kingdom under the leadership of the Antichrist. The main objectives with spiritual deception throughout the ages were the opposing of the Triune God, the spiritual derailing of true believers, the total blinding of Satan’s followers and the end-time revelation of the Antichrist as the man of sin. An international culture of sin will be established under his leadership:

“Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come except the apostasy comes first – that is, unless the [predicted] great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come – and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, who is the son of doom, who opposes and exalts himself so proudly and insolently against and over all that is called God or that is worshipped, [even to his actually] taking his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God… For the mystery of lawlessness – that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority – is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until he who restrains is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one (the Antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming. The coming [of the lawless one, the Antichrist] is through the activity and working of Satan, and will be attended by great powers… and lying wonders – and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they did not welcome the Truth but refused to love it that they might be saved. Therefore God sends upon them… a strong delusion to make them believe what is false, in order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe the Truth, but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:3-12 The Amplified Bible).

The big falling away of the last days will lead to the revelation and international acceptance of the Antichrist as world leader and world messiah. He will actively promote sin and lawlessness. After his leadership has been firmly established he will act in extreme arrogance by declaring himself to be God. When Christ returns he will encounter this deceiver on earth and immediately destroy him, his followers and his government.

The fact that the Antichrist will appear on earth and rise to a position of authority shortly before the second coming of Christ, clearly indicates that the kingdoms of God and Satan will be visibly revealed on earth in close succession. First, the heavenly Bridegroom will take away His bridal congregation, after which the man of sin will be revealed without any resistance. Seven years later he will be destroyed during the public appearing of Jesus Christ on earth.

Satan’s kingdom follows a highly deceptive strategy to ensure that the transition from the church dispensation to the dispensation of the Antichrist’s government will be as smooth and acceptable as possible. It is the major objective of Satan and the Antichrist to ultimately be worshipped as God. For this reason the Antichrist will be revealed in such a way that people will initially think he is the true Christ. That will ensure great public support to him in the traditional Christian world.

A strong interfaith and multireligious movement will first have to be established on earth since the Antichrist also intends to be accepted as universal messiah of all faiths. An important preparation for this is the proclaiming of the God of the Bible as the God of all faiths. People should belief that Yahweh, Allah and Brahma are the same God. After this idea has been accepted it will be easy to present an interfaith Messiah to the world.

Satan has already penetrated most of the big denominations and their theological seminaries with this false theology. They now believe the lie that God is the God of all faiths. Much progress has also been made to deprive Jesus of His uniqueness and divine attributes so that the Antichrist can reveal himself in the name of Christ as the universal Messiah of all faiths.

Satan and his accomplices have succeeded in estranging the Christian world and its churches so far from the Bible as the divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God that he can easily deceive them into believing virtually anything. Many of them are so deluded that they do not even believe in the existence of the devil or the Antichrist. This, together with the discrediting of the Person and attributes of Christ, will cause deceived people to accept the Antichrist as “the Christ.”

Satan’s agents have cleverly disguised themselves: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15). The Lord Jesus has warned us against them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many” (Matt. 24:4-5).

The deception will continue until the rapture has occurred and the false messiah has been revealed without resistance. He will almost immediately enjoy worldwide support and soon join all faiths into his alliance of world religions.

The first resurrection and catching away of the saints

The Lord Jesus will make the first move in the implementation of His prophetic programme for the last seven years before His second coming by taking His bride to heaven (John 14:2-3). At the moment when the trumpet of God sounds, all the deceased believers will rise from their graves, receive glorified bodies and be caught up together with the living saints to meet the Lord in the air:

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Paul describes the same event as follows to the Corinthians: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

On this occasion only the righteous dead will be raised from their graves: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6). The unsaved dead will remain in their graves until after the millennium when the final judgement will take place (Rev. 20:5,11-15).

The rapture is also, within the framework of the final generation of this dispensation, described as an escape from the coming tribulation period of seven years: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

The children of God are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), and as such the light of a dark world and the salt of a corrupt earth (Matt. 5:13-14). The hour of spiritual darkness can only take effect after they have been removed from the world. Then, the Antichrist can be revealed without opposition and all the sinners who were not worthy to escape the tribulation can be punished by God. As in the days of Noah and Lot, believers have to be removed from the disaster area of divine judgements before the wrath of God can be poured out upon an evil generation (Luke 17:26-36).

The rapture will be the formal end of the church dispensation, after which God’s plan with Israel will be further fulfilled. Israel, as God’s special witnesses in their own land, was phased out during the first generation after the crucifixion of Christ and their scattering among the nations. During that time, the church was phased in as the special witnesses of Christ among the nations. Now, in the last generation before the second coming of Christ, Israel is restored to their land in preparation for their spiritual restoration as God’s special witnesses, while the church should prepare to be phased out by way of the rapture.

The 70th year-week of Daniel

The coming tribulation period of seven years, starting after the rapture, can only be correctly understood if it is considered within the framework of Israel’s year-weeks. In Daniel 9:24-27, Israel’s divine history from the end of the Babylonian captivity until the dawning of the Messiah’s reign is discussed within the context of 70 year-weeks. During this time, two messiahs will fulfil a prominent role – the true Messiah and the false messiah:

“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks [that is, after 7 plus 62 weeks] Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate” (Dan. 9:24-27).

The 70 year-weeks are associated with the following events:

• At the beginning of the 70 year-weeks, in 445 B.C., King Artaxerxes ordered the Jews in exile to return to their land and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Neh. 2:1-9).

•  The initial restoration of the city and sanctuary would be completed after 7 year-weeks.

•  During the subsequent 62 year-weeks, Jerusalem was further extended and inhabited during troublesome times.

•  At the end of 69 (7+62) year-weeks, in April 32 A.D., the Messiah was rejected and crucified in Jerusalem.

• Because Israel has rejected the Messiah, God’s divine plan for them has been temporarily suspended while the gospel was preached to the Gentiles in the entire world. During this time, Israel was dispersed among all nations (Luke 21:24).

• The end-time restoration of Israel in their land started in 1948, and the declaration of Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel followed in 1980.

• The scene is now set for the 70th year-week of Daniel, when the false messiah will conclude a covenant with Israel and the nations.

•  In the middle of the 70th year-week, the Antichrist will order the immediate termination of sacrifices in the rebuilt temple and declare himself to be God in the Most Holy. He will also set up an image of himself and force all people to worship it. Because of this, Israel will revoke their covenant with him and be forced to hastily flee for survival from Jerusalem.

•  At the end of the 70th year-week, the true Messiah will come, destroy the false messiah and his forces, and save the remnant in Israel – physically and spiritually. After this, the millennial reign of the Messiah will be instituted and everlasting righteousness will prevail in Israel, as envisaged in Daniel 9:24. All Israelis will serve the Lord wholeheartedly and be His special witnesses on earth (cf. Jer. 31:33-34; Zech. 8:23).

The seventy year-weeks do not refer to seasonal or lunar years but to 490 prophetic years of 360 days each (cf. Rev. 11:2-3, 12:6 and 13:5 in which the two halves of the week are indicated as 42 months and also as 1260 days, which means that every month has 30 days). Prophetic years cut across seasonal and lunar years and are used to arrive at three exact dates. The first one is the crucifixion of the Messiah after 69 year-weeks, the second one the profaning of the temple by the Antichrist in the middle of the 70th week when he will declare himself to be God, and the third one at the end of the 70th year-week when Christ will return to destroy the Antichrist and his wicked empire.

No exact indication is given on how long the gap between the 69th and 70th year-weeks will be; consequently, we cannot make a mathematical calculation of the date for the rapture. The moment when the 70th year-week commences with a covenant between the Antichrist and Israel, there will be a clear basis for the scheduling of end-time events within the framework of one year-week. At the end of that period the whole Israel will be saved and everlasting righteousness will prevail in Christ’s kingdom.

Exactly 69 year-weeks (483 prophetic years) have expired since King Artaxerxes gave the Jews permission to rebuild Jerusalem on 1 Nisan 445 B.C. (Neh. 2:1-9), until the crucifixion of the Messiah on 14 Nisan 32 A.D. Prof. J.M. Schepers of the Rand Afrikaans University indicated in an article (The date of Jesus’ crucifixion prophesied centuries earlier, 1984) that 483 prophetic years of 360 days each add up to 173 880 days. When that number is divided by 365¼ it equals 476,06 seasonal years on our Gregorian calendar. On this calendar, the 69 year-weeks elapsed between 23rd March 445 B.C. and Friday, 11th April 32 A.D. – the day on which Jesus was crucified. All that remains after this date in Israel’s divine history before the dawning of the Messiah’s millennial rule is seven years – the 70th year-week of Daniel which will be introduced the day when Israel concludes a covenant with the false messiah.

The rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah caused a break of unspecified length in Israel’s divine history. Messiah was “cut off” (Dan. 9:26; cf. Isa. 53:8), which means that Israel, through their unbelief, deprived themselves the opportunity of entering Messianic times. The suspension of the further progression of Israel’s divine history was the direct result of the rejection of the Messiah. Jesus told the Jews that their house (Jerusalem) would be left to them desolate because they would not accept their Messiah and King (Matt. 23:37-38). Because of that, He would leave them until they accept Him at a future time as their promised Messiah: “For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matt. 23:39).

In the meantime Israel would be scattered among the nations. Jesus said, “[You will be] led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). That clearly implies that Israel as a people will, in the last days, be restored in the land which God gave to their fathers: “This says the Lord God: Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land” (Ezek. 37:21).

At the beginning of the 70th year-week of Daniel, which will immediately precede the second coming of the Messiah, Israel will conclude a covenant with the false messiah. Jesus warned them against this decision: “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive” (John 5:43). It is obvious that the interruption in the 70 year-weeks followed upon the rejection of the Messiah, and it will continue until the day when the restored Israel will conclude a covenant with the Antichrist. Then, the count-down of the final year-week before the coming of the Messiah will begin.

The deceiving of orthodox Jews

Orthodox reforms in Israel are committed to the continued rejection of Jesus Christ as the Jewish Messiah, and will obviously suit the false messiah plan of action. He will pose as Israel’s Messiah-King, and allow the rebuilding of the temple as well as the reintroduction of animal sacrifices. By reviving these sacrifices, orthodox Jews will patently reject the once for all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

An important step towards rebuilding the temple was the reestablishment of Israel’s Sanhedrin council. The group consists of 71 prominent rabbis and considers itself as the highest ruling religious authority in the land of Israel. The Sanhedrin reformed on the 13th of October, 2004, for the first time in over 1600 years, but they do not enjoy official recognition in the land. They announced in 2005 that one of the tasks they are employed in is locating the exact site on which Herod’s Temple (the Second Temple) once stood. This will allow final planning for the rebuilding of the Temple.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, one of the prominent members of the Sanhedrin, said that the rebuilding of the temple would be of great significance in strengthening the cultural and religious identity of the Jewish people. He denounces the government’s policy to withdraw from parts of Jewish land, thereby relinquishing Israel’s dream of full restoration. The Sanhedrin seeks ways to strengthen the roots of Jewish religion by uniting Israel around the Torah and the temple service. To them, this is the only way forward.

The Sanhedrin have also set themselves the task of choosing the modern state of Israel’s first king, for they are entirely opposed to Israel’s present democratic government. Earlier in the years they also sent a letter to every nation on earth, warning that the world is nearing a catastrophe, and that the only way to bring peace on earth is through the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin believes that through the rebuilding of the Temple, the Jewish people can bring the presence of God back into this world. They often quote Isaiah 2:1-4 to substantiate this claim.

Beginning of the last year-week

An important dispensational change will be introduced by the revelation of the Antichrist shortly after the rapture. In order to successfully implement this transition from the point of view of the kingdom of darkness, a preparatory stage of widespread spiritual deception is needed. The interfaith philosophy (religious globalism) should be firmly established, to the extent that all religions on earth will accept the self-proclaimed world messiah who will suddenly appear on the scene – each regarding him as the fulfillment of their own messianic expectation:

At that stage, nominal Christians will, in consequence of the postmodern deconstruction of the image, person, divine attributes and atoning death of Jesus Christ, be so deceived that they will regard Him as a mere prophet who is on an equal level with the messiahs of other religions. He will be viewed as a member of a spiritual hierarchy from which the leaders of all religions emerged, and thus as one of the many forerunners for the coming of the cosmic Christ of all faiths. When the false Christ of all faiths (the Antichrist) is revealed, he will be accepted and worshipped as the Christ (Matt. 24:4-5). They will truly think that he is Jesus Christ who returned in a slightly different image.

Jews will fully accept the coming Christ (Messiah in Hebrew) because he will be Jewish in origin, conclude a covenant with them and give them the right to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. That will be a fatal mistake, but they will definitely accept the false messiah because of their strong desire to rebuild the temple (Dan. 9:27; John 5:43). Due to the strong influence of multireligious thinking in the world it will not unsettle them when their “Messiah” also concludes a covenant with Islam and other faiths.

Islam expects the return of Jesus Christ, son of Mary, who is mentioned 97 times in the Qur’an. They don’t regard him as God or the son of God, but as a slave of Allah and a forerunner to his brother, Prophet Mohammed. According to them, he will elevate Islam to the position of sole world religion and kill all those who refuse to accept the dominance of Islam. He will act in collaboration with the Imam Mahdi of Islam and rule the world for seven years before it will be judged.

Hindus will accept the coming Christ as an incarnation of Krishna who, in his turn, was an incarnation of their god Vishnu. They will also refer to him as the Kalki Avatar – the White Horse Avatar. He will achieve the final victory over evil in the world and also destroy the apocalyptic snake. The expectation or all religions will be fulfilled in him, as he will be a world messiah to all of them to drive away the darkness of all suffering and evil. Under his rule there will be peace and unity on earth.

Buddhists expect the appearing of the fifth Buddha, who will be known as the Maitreya Buddha. There are also other tittles assigned to Maitreya Buddha in the Buddhist eschatology, of which the Christ is one of the most important. The leader of a Buddhist organisation in England, Benjamin Crème, wrote a book titled The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom. In this book he says that there will soon be a world messiah in whom the expectations of all religions will be fulfilled. He will be the Maitreya Buddha to the Buddhists, Krishna to the Hindus, Jesus or the Imam Mahdi to the Muslims, the Messiah to the Jews and Jesus Christ to the Christians.

In view of these facts it is evident that the whole world will be spiritually united behind the same leader, and follow him in awe (Op. 13:3). Satan will empower him to do great miracles (2 Thess. 2:8-10; Rev. 13:2). His appearance will be as an angel of light (cf. 2 Cor. 11:14-15) and also as the rider on a white horse, symbolising peace (Rev. 6:2). He will appear in the Middle East during a threatening world war. He and his co-ruler, the false prophet, will claim credit for the victory after God has destroyed the enemy forces on the mountains of Israel (cf. Ezek. 39:2-6; Rev. 13:11-13).

The world messiah will recognise and praise the followers of all religions and unify them under his name. Freedom of religion will be promised to all of them, on condition that they recognise him as their common messiah. All deceived people will gladly comply with this condition as, to them, it will be the most noble expression of globalism and peaceful coexistence in the world. Israel will be highly pleased with their new-found Messiah as he will seemingly have saved them from a war of annihilation which Russia, Iran and other Muslim countries will have waged against them (Ezek. 38–39). The Jews will hurriedly rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and reinstitute the Old Testament sacrificial service. In doing so they will reconfirm their national rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus as well as His sacrifice on the cross. That will perfectly suit the Antichrist. Israel will not see the coming Christ as the second coming of Jesus Christ of Nazareth but as the first coming of the true Messiah. This will be a serious misjudgement and pave the way to the conclusion of a covenant with the kingdom of Satan.

Israel’s salvation during the tribulation

The true church as the temple of the Holy Spirit will be gone when the Antichrist is revealed – then there will be nobody who can warn Israel and the nations against the takeover and domination by the Antichrist. Early in the tribulation period, shortly after the revelation of the Antichrist, God will begin with the spiritual restoration of Israel by pouring out His Spirit upon a representative group of 144 000 Jews from all twelve the tribes of Israel (Rev. 7:1-8). That will be the first group of Jews that will be saved within a national (Israeli) context after the church dispensation.

This revival will be the beginning of the spiritual awakening of Israel – a process that will only be concluded seven years later at the coming of the true Messiah. The salvation of the entire remnant will be the fulfillment of the following prophecy: “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; and they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zech. 12:10).

Before the final salvation of Israel has occurred, the majority of them will have died during the great tribulation (the second half of the seven years), after which the remnant will be severely tested: “And it shall come to pass in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die; but one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, This is My people; and each one will say, The Lord is my God” (Zech. 13:8-9).

The 144 000 Jews who will be saved shortly after the beginning of the tribulation period by receiving Jesus Christ as the true Messiah, will immediately express themselves in opposition to the mainstream of modern thinking. That will lead to a serious confrontation with the false messiah (the Antichrist) and also put them in conflict with the vast majority of Jews who have concluded a covenant with this impostor. That will lead to the persecution of the Messianic Jews and those who are saved under their ministry, as they will all reject the Antichrist.

During the first half of the tribulation, God will raise up two special witnesses who will be mightily used by Him to proclaim the truth and refute the enemies of the Lord (Rev. 11:3-12). These two witnesses will act in the spirit and power of Elijah (cf. Luke 1:17). Their message and work will have a world-wide impact. The Antichrist and his followers will be furious about their actions as these men of God will reveal all the evil of the false messiah and his regime. During that time, sin and lawlessness will assume extreme proportions everywhere in the world – also in Israel. Jerusalem will spiritually be called Sodom and Egypt (Rev. 11:8). The gay movement will, as in Sodom of old, enjoy great support while idolatry, as in ancient Egypt, will be strongly revived by worshipping the image of the Antichrist. These developments will be the inevitable consequences of the rejection of Christ and His atoning death for our sins.

When the Antichrist rises to the summit of his power in the middle of the tribulation period, he will fight against the two witnesses and kill them. But their ministry will then be concluded, and the Lord will raise them from the dead after 3½ days, when they will ascend to heaven.

Persecution during the tribulation

Since there will be relative peace and unity on earth during the first 3½ years of the Antichrist’s government, this time will mainly be characterised by spiritual intimidation and deception – force will not be commonly used. But in the middle of the tribulation period the most severe physical persecution of all time will begin. That will happen after the Antichrist has declared himself to be God in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus warned Israel against this turn of events because He had the foreknowledge that orthodox Jews would only then discover that they have followed and worshipped a false messiah. They will repeal their covenant with him, after which they will hastily have to flee to the mountains as the Antichrist will act in great fury against them. But the Lord will intervene to prevent the Antichrist from killing all Jews:

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those with nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, never ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved” (Matt. 24:15-22).

Daniel said the following about the actions of the Antichrist in the middle of the week of seven years: “In the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate” (Dan. 9:27). “And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation… Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished” (Dan. 11:31,36). “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [of Israel], even to that time. And in that time your people shall be delivered” (Dan. 12:1).

The Lord Jesus referred to this display of power by the Antichrist in the middle of the tribulation period, when he will defile the sanctuary with an abominable idol. That will be the big sign to Israel to flee in a hurry from Jerusalem and surrounding Jewish territories, as all available forces will be used to pursue and obliterate them.

An intensified struggle between the kingdoms of God and Satan, as described in Revelation 12:6-17, will be the major cause for the beginning of the 3½ years of great tribulation during the reign of the Antichrist. The devil will be cast out from heaven, where he still has access to the throne of God to accuse Christians after he has successfully tempted and seduced them – he is the accuser of our brethren. Revelation 12:6-17 describes events which take place in the middle of the tribulation period, between the 3½ years of false peace and the 3½ years of great tribulation. The first five verses of this chapter supply background information on earlier events, since the coming war between God and Satan will be the culmination of a struggle which started when Lucifer and a third of the angels were cast down from heaven because they revolted against God and wanted to rule in His place. The following big crisis in this battle was when Satan worked through Herod and used him in an effort to kill Jesus shortly after His birth. In the coming tribulation, another effort will be made to kill Jesus in order to rule in His place. It will all start with a war which will be waged in heavenly places:

“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to death. Therefore rejoice o heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Rev. 12:7-12).

From this moment onwards the devil will pour out great wrath upon those on earth. He will force people to worship himself and the Antichrist, and to blaspheme the God of heaven. A military dictatorship will be instituted to act swiftly and merciless by killing all people who refuse to worship the Antichrist and his spiritual father, Lucifer (Rev. 13:4,15). The Antichrist will be greatly empowered by Satan to fulfil his new role: “And the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority” (Rev. 13:2).

This new turn of events will induce the Antichrist to declare himself as God in the temple in Jerusalem. Paul says he is “the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:3-4). He will also set up an image of himself in the Holy of Holies and issue a decree which will force all people to worship the image. Those who refuse to do so will summarily be executed (Rev. 13:15).

The Jews will refuse to accept and worship the false messiah in his new capacity as self-proclaimed God, and revoke their seven-year treaty with him. This will result in a Jewish genocide being declared by the Antichrist, forcing all Jewish to quickly flee for survival from Jerusalem – probably to Petra south of the Dead Sea. They will have to pray that their flight would not occur in winter, that there would not be pregnant women or those who are nursing babies, as such circumstances would delay their flight and give the Antichrist and his forces opportunity to catch up with them and kill them. They will also have to pray that their flight would not take place on the Sabbath, when orthodox Jews are only allowed to walk less than two kilometres. That will be a critical time for survival.

True Christians everywhere in the world – those who will be saved after the rapture – will refuse to worship the Antichrist as God. That will subject them to intensive persecution and summarily execution. The fact that they will overcome the beast by the blood of the Lamb does not mean that they will physically prevail over him, but that he will not be able to force them into worshipping him. They will not love their lives to the death, which means that they should be prepared to die as martyrs rather than worshipping the Antichrist. “It was granted him to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (Rev. 13:7).

In the middle of the tribulation period the Antichrist will use the false prophet to enforce his number system upon all people, without which they will not be able to buy or sell (Rev. 13:16-18). The right to receive this number will be subject to signing an oath of allegiance in which the recipient agrees to worship the Antichrist and his image. This will be a blasphemous act against God and His Son, Jesus Christ, by which their authority will be rejected. People who do that will sell their souls to the devil and later share his eternal condemnation in the lake of fire:

“If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends for ever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name” (Rev. 14:9-11).

The Antichrist will forcefully establish the kingdom of God on earth, and mercilessly proceed to obliterate everything and everybody who is associated with the kingdom of God. The destruction of Jews and Christians will be high on his agenda. But these acts will only be a means to a an end as he will deploy all possible forces to fight against the true Christ and His heavenly army when He sets foot on the  Mount of Olives in Jerusalem at the end of Daniel’s 70th year-week (Zech. 14:4-5). According to Biblical prophecies, the Antichrist will know that Christ will return at the end of that year-week to destroy Stan’s world empire and establish His own kingdom in its place.

The Antichrist will do everything possible to prevent this take-over by Christ, and that will be the most important motivation to muster international military forces in the Middle East. Special demons will be assigned to instigate the kings and government leaders of the world to protect their new world order against a triumphant take-over by Christ. John says:

“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty… And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon” (Rev. 16:13-16).

In the ensuing confrontation great calamity will befall the evil forces who will be foolish enough to challenge the One who has all power in heaven and on earth:

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He himself will rule them with a rod of iron… Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven: Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh” (Rev. 19:11-21).

The divine judgements that will befall the powers that will be deployed in Israel and also in and around Jerusalem to fight against the true Messiah are also described by Zechariah: “And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbour, and raise his hand against his neighbour’s hand” (Zech. 14:12-13).

That will be the end of the Antichrist and all his deceived followers. The everlasting lake of fire is awaiting them, from which there will be no escape.

The present situation

In view of the final objective of Satan and the Antichrist to wage war against Christ, by which they will try to perpetuate their evil regime, we should be able to understand the nature of spiritual deception as it is unfolding right now in the world. Under the guidance of a Satanic spirit of deception there is an international campaign to discredit the Lord Jesus by denying His deity, His divine attributes, the meaning of His atoning death on the cross, His resurrection, ascension and second coming. Lies and brainwashing of this nature will simplify matters for the Antichrist to appear as a counterfeit Jesus and to continue deceiving the world.

The end-time deceivers also deny the existence of a devil and hell, as well as the idea of a personal Antichrist. In consequence, there is no expectation of an Antichrist or a great tribulation, and therefore also no literal battle of Armageddon. They are paving the way for the Antichrist to reveal himself as the Christ of all faiths and to unite the world under his banner of a new world order, thereby promising peace, prosperity and harmony to all people on earth.

People who don’t interpret biblical prophecies literally, and who do not unconditionally believe in the virgin birth, deity, crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, will remain behind at the rapture and become victims of the coming false Christ’s deception. Another characteristic of such people is that they do not have a clear testimony of salvation – they believe that they were saved through predestination, infant baptism, church membership and a good life. In this way they render proof that they don’t really understand the gospel of the cross, and have not yet accepted it by faith. They easily entertain doubts on their spiritual life and also on the Bible as the inspired Word of God, all because they do not have the testimony of the Holy Spirit that they have been born again (cf. Rom. 8:16).

Such people will regard the lies of the Antichrist as truth. Because of persistent exposure to the spirit of deceit they will later fully endorse the lies of Satan (2 Thess. 2:7-12). They will be among the big mass of people who will follow the beast in amazement (Rev. 13:3-4). They will also receive his number, without fully realising that an oath of allegiance to the Antichrist will commit them to worshipping him as God. That will seal their future fate in the lake of fire (Rev. 14:9-11).

Confess the true Christ

In this time of intensified attacks on the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, evangelical believers should clearly confess their faith in Him. In the light of the statement: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10), we conclude this article with a biblical testimony of who Jesus Christ really is. The future of all people on earth depends on their relationship with Jesus Christ – they are either for Him or against Him. Those who do not confess the great truths about Him are in a real danger of following another Jesus (2 Cor. 11:3-4) and bringing upon themselves the judgements of the true Jesus. During this time of great falling away from the truths of God’s Word it is important that we should convincingly confess the uniqueness, deity and glory of our Lord:

I believe that Jesus Christ was, as a human being, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:20), and is therefore both Son of God and Son of Man. The angel Gabriel told Mary that the Son who was to be born would be great and called the Son of the Highest (Luke 1:32). With His birth in the house of David He only temporarily put off His heavenly glory (Phil. 2:7), but did not relinquish his essential deity (Col. 2:9). After His ascension He was highly exalted and given a name which is above every name (Phil. 2:9-11). At His second coming He will come in power and majesty as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).

I believe that Jesus Christ is God. Every tongue will confess that He is Lord (Phil. 2:11). John said that He is “the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Paul said that He is “our great God and Saviour” (Titus 2:13), while Thomas exclaimed in amazement: “My Lord and my God1” (John 20:28). He is truly Emmanuel – God with us.

I believe that the Lord Jesus has an eternal self-existence as God. It was only during His incarnation that He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7-8). As God He exists from all eternity, and could therefore say, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). He is the eternal I AM (Ex. 3:14) who said to the Jews, “If you do not believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24; Modern King James Version).He emptied Himself

I believe that Jesus Christ is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He Himself said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). John said, “For there are three who bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7). I believe that Jesus is the Word [Logos] who is both God and man. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1,14).

I believe that the Lord Jesus, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the Creator of the world (Heb. 1:2). “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). Paul said, “He is the image of the invisible God… For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth… And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:15-17).

I believe the Lord Jesus is also the recreator who quickens and regenerates lost sinners who receive Him as their Saviour. We are alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:11). At His coming He will give imperishable resurrection bodies to all believers (1 Cor. 15:22; Phil. 3:20-21). After the final judgement He will create new heavens and a new earth, and could therefore say, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

I believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was a ransom for the sins of all humanity, i.e. all tribes, tongues, peoples and nations on earth, and that it offers us the only way of reconciliation to God (John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:19; Eph. 1:7). “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). I also believe that after Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave He ascended to heaven where He intercedes for us and also prepares for us a place in His Father’s house (John 14:2-3; Heb. 7:25).

I believe the Lord Jesus will come again and take us away to grant us entry into the eternal glory of His kingdom which He has prepared for us. At the marriage supper of the Lamb we will again, through Holy Communion, remember His death on the cross to atone for our sins. If we follow Christ now on the way of the cross by denying ourselves and daily taking up our cross in a hostile world, we will one day reign with Him as joint heirs of His kingdom (Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12). Then, the fight of faith will be over and Christ’s faithful witnesses will share in His triumphant revelation (Col. 3:4).

Should we fail to know and confess the Lord Jesus in this way, we run the risk of rendering Him one of many messiahs of human origin, to deny His deity, belittle the meaning of His crucifixion, and eventually accepting a false Christ in His place (John 5:43). The deity and unique position of the Lord Jesus are denied in the emerging new world order in which all religions are regarded to be equal. Christ is viewed as equal to Buddha, Krishna and the messiahs of other religions, and that paves the way for the Antichrist to come in the name of Christ and present himself as the cosmic Christ of all religions.

If we wish to remain true to Jesus Christ we will have to resist the contemporary spirit of compromise which is strongly at work all over the word. The Lord promised to remove those who resist the spirit of the Antichrist while contending for the truth (Luke 21:36; 2 Thess. 2:6-8).

Many people have received the power of delusion to believe Satan’s lies, because they have rejected the knowledge of truth. In so doing they have given the god of this world (Satan) the opportunity to blind their minds “lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:4). After Jesus Christ has taken away the true church, the unbelieving world will enthusiastically follow the universal messiah of all faiths, and also accede to his request to receive his number and to worship him as God (2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. 13:3-4). By then, Satan’s multireligious new world order will have been fully revealed.

While the spirit of error will be freely working in the world after the rapture, true believers in heaven will behold the glory of the Lord and sing His praises, because “He comes to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe” (2 Thess. 1:10). Maranatha!

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Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

Dear brothers and sisters, Salam

In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am continuously seeking grace and mercy to you, that you remember me and those who are bearing efforts for his name in your prayers. Your loyalty to God is the cause of my strength and encouragement.

For I know well that you will be rewarded; as it’s stated: blessed is the one who has faith, for what has been said to him by God, will be carried out. As we believe, heaven and earth will fade but his word will still remain.

Dear beloved ones, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of a few verses, although you might know them, So that in everything, you give more effort than the past, both to prove your election, and for the sake of Gospel that is to be preached to the entire world as well.

I know that not all of us are granted to keep this word, but to those who are granted this power and this revelation, I announce the same as Jude, earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

We are passing by special and sensitive days.They are days that for an alert and awake believer can be days of spiritual growth and progress. Because for him, more than any other time there is the possibility to compare his faith with the word of God, have God’s promises in mind, and survey his faith.

Therefore he (the true believer) does not need to wonder for the fiery trial that has been set on for him as though it were something unusual, but it pleases him to participate in Christ’s suffering. Because the believer knows he will rejoice in his glory.

Dears, the “ judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Therefore those who are enduring burdens by the will of God, commit their souls to the faithful Creator. Promises that he has given us, are unique and precious. As we’ve heard he has said: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you”

How can it be possible for a believer to understand these words?

Not only when he is focusing on Jesus Christ with adapting his life according to the life Jesus lived when he was on earth? As it is said ” O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”

Have we not read and heard: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Many attempt to flee from their spiritual tests, and they have to face those same tests in a more difficult manner, because no one will be victorious by escaping from them, but with patience and humility he will be able to overcome all the tests, and gain victory.

Therefore in the place of Christ’s followers, we must not feel desperate, but we have to pray to God in supplication with more passion to help us with any assistance we may need.

According to what Paul has said: In every temptation, God himself will make a way for us to tolerate it.

O beloved ones, difficulties do not weaken mankind, but they reveal the true human nature.

It will be good for us to occasionally face persecutions and abnormalities, since these abnormalities will persuade us to search our hearts, and to survey ourselves. So as a result, we conclude that troubles are difficult, but usually good and useful to build us.

Dear brothers and sisters, we must be more careful than any other time. Because in these days, the hearts and thoughts of many are revealed, so that the faith is tested. May your treasure be where there is no moth and rust.

I would like to remind you of some verses that we nearly discuss everyday, (Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.) but as long as our human will has priority over God’s will, his will will not be done.

As we have learned from him in Gethsemane, he surrendered his will to the father, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

What we are bearing today, is a difficult but not unbearable situation, because neither he has tested us more than our faith and our endurance, nor does he do as such. And as we have known from before, we must beware not to fail, but to advance in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, And consider these bumps and prisons as opportunities to testify to his name. He said: If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

As a small servant, necessarily in prison to carry out what I must do, I say with faith in the word of God that he will come soon.”However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Discipline yourself with faith in the word of God. Retain your souls with patience. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly.

May you are granted grace and blessings increasingly in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.

Yusef Nadarkhani
Lakan Prison in Rasht
2/June/2010