It is obvious to all how very quickly our world has turned into a place that we are having difficulty recognizing. I think of my parents and grandparents, who, if alive on earth at this time would not recognize this world we live in with cell phone, computers, ‘smart TV’s, and other amenities. For this “Moment”, I’m not referring to those types of conveniences…rather…the rapid and almost total collapse of our society.
Paul wrote to Timothy as recorded in I Timothy 4:1, 2, “Now the Spirit expressly (that word means explicitly) says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits (evil and demonic spirits) and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”
When in Israel we visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. The museum documents the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, preserving the memory and story of the 6 million victims, and imparting their legacy for generations to come. The Museum is a vast, sprawling complex of tree-studded walkways leading to several magnificent buildings with exhibits, archives, monuments, sculptures, and memorials. As I have walked through the museum with its vast number of quotes, actual film clips of survivors telling their personal stories, my eyes are drawn to a quote from a prisoner from one of the Nazi concentration camps. The quote reads: “The camp law is that everyone should be deceived until the end.” (Underlining mine).
My friend, our world has been deceived! Deceived by the powers of darkness! “Deceived until the end!” Deceived by the wrongful desires that everything from sexual experiences with one, two, ten, twenty, or more, other than a married partner, to feed the fleshly desire. Others have been “Deceived unto the end,” for the love of money as being what is thought to be the most important issue in life. Think not, and then consider the woman who a few years ago won 10 million in the lottery. This 35 year old is now broke and catching the bus to her part-time job, working to support her children in their rented house. Sharon (her real name) went on spending binges that squandered that total amount. Before winning, she had spent years bouncing around from shelter to shelter, and was totally unprepared for the millionaire lifestyle. After winning she took ‘friends’ on wild, all-expense paid trips to Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Florida, Las Vegas, and more. She gave $1 million to her parents, $1.75 million to her siblings, paid her friends rent, bought a high-end thousands of dollars house, and then 4 cars — a Hummer, a Mustang, a Dodge Charger and a $200,000-plus customized Cadillac Escalade.
“Deceived unto the end!” Rev.12:12 reads, “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.” As a believer we need to be constantly aware, he is out to destroy us! That is exactly why Paul reminds us of the devil’s tactics and his plans as he writes, “I don’t want Satan to outwit us. After all, we are not ignorant about Satan’s scheming.”
Paul tells us we are to see our days or times of discouragement for what they truly are. A present day weapon of the devil thrown at mankind by avenues as today’s media, charts, graphs, “exposure models,” statistics, while mankind is being dumbed down to believe you & I will never be able to be free to hug a loved one or be closer than six-feet from another person. “We have been warned!” John wrote in Rev. 12:9, “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.”
However, John reminds us of the truth…our truth…with words of I John 4:4 that all as believers “Are of God and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
And Psalm 91:5 & 6 reminds us, “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day nor of the pestilence, (the disease) that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction (disaster) that lay waste at noonday.” (Words in parenthesis mine).
Blessings, Psalm 20:7 Dale & Jeannie