Nones who believe in nothing, no gods or God, just surpassed Catholics who are estimated to be 2 Billion. Occultism and Satanism are increasing in popularity, with Satanism becoming a top religion in The UK. Most Barnes & Noble stores now have massive sections of spell books, how to start a coven, tarot cards, and etc. This shift to the Satanic is predicted in the final book of the Bible:
“Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon (Satan, Revelation 12:9) gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority. I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. They worshiped the dragon (Satan, “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” -Revelation 12:9) for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?”
Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people (The Church everywhere) and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful.
The Beast out of the Earth
Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die.He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666 (half of the manuscripts say 616).” (Revelation 13:1-18).
The world before our Lord Jesus Christ comes back to whet his sword with 200 miles of blood (Revelation 14:20 and Revelation 19:11-16, and Zachariah 14) will be predominately filled with Satanists (see Revelation 13 above), hence Jesus warning, “But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?/ Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). The Prosperity Preachers and Preterist influenced teachers would have you believe these trends of Wiccan, Occult, Witchcraft, and Satanism is just a momentary blip, like the Satanic Panic of 1980’s and 1990’s. People like Greg Laurie and Asbury Revivalists see parallels to dark times of the 1960’s and 1970’s and that around the corner is another Jesus Revolution to rock the world back to conservative Christian values. I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe that we are seeing the growth of the Satanic, demonic, and occultic that will lead to the Antichrist (Beast of the Sea, Man of Lawlessness), the Statue of Satan that speaks, and the False Prophet as mentioned in Revelation Chapter Thirteen.
Trust in Churches, Christianity in general, and most traditional
institutions is at an all time low. The scandals of sexual abuse in The Roman Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Churches, Hill Song United, and others has given the devil ample evidence to convince people that the Church is rotten and to defect to his side; ironic since he would have new converts do worse things like human sacrifices, necrophilia, and etc. Part of what has torn down the moral authority of the church is the false prosperity gospel & doctrine that says following Jesus means a good life, money, success, and the world’s favor, when Jesus said you cannot serve money and God, “No one is able to serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or he will be devoted to theone and he will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and mammon (mammon, god of money, Satan see Ezekiel 28:15)” (Matthew 6:24), Jesus said he has called us out of world and it hates us, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you,” (John 15:19) and Jesus promised we would be hated by all people, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” (Matthew 24:9). Another problem is the Church became like The Knights Templar managing so much money and money corrupts easily, church is suppose to be the ecclesia, the congregation or community of all believers everywhere, not banks with storehouses of gold and men taking a pay checks to preach. Another corrupting influence in the church is taking care of strangers. We were suppose to take care of Christian brothers and sisters in need, those we know, because plenty of people today will say they are Christian for handouts from churches.
I wish I could say if you reformed only these failings we could save the world from The Eye of Satan and his vast armies and servants, but Scripture is clear that the kingdom of darkness will conquer the world (Revelation 13:7) and that only after a time will Jesus come and destroy the antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:8) and destroy the Satanic confederacies (Revelation 19:12-16, Revelation 20:10-15). Until then expect more of the armies of Mephisto to march across media, and the many parts of our lives as the dark age begins.
You may ask, why does God allow this? How can he be just to let us, his people go through this. Firstly, “can man judge God?” (Zipporah, in The Ten Commandments 1956 quoting the Book of Job). You say why does God let this end time persecution of the antichrist happen? I ask why are we inspired by Christians being fed to lions and singing hymns in early persecutions of the church? Do we say why God? No we marvel at their faith (trust) in the Lord Jesus, and in hindsight saw how their suffering and sacrifice reached Rome. I believe the end times Satanic persecutions will have a similar or unique effect that we will look back at when Christ comes and say “oooh I see now! Now it makes sense.” But since people like some explanations, two possible reasons, theories mind you, is that God is going to permit the Antichrist rule of the world as a last persecution to bring the Jews that must make up 144,000 in Revelation 7:1-8 to believe in Jesus Christ. That the antichrist and Satan’s reign will encourage them to trust in Christ. Another is that God is going to let the world see two reigns, the reign of Satan (Revelation 13:7-12) and reign of the Son of God (Revelation 20:1-6) so that people will decide which kingdom and lord they wish to serve. These theories which Tim LeHaye shared in an End Times video are intriguing, but his books The Left Behind Series is faulty with its pre-tribulation rapture of the saints which is refuted by Scripture (Matthew 24:29-41, Revelation 13:7, Revelation 13:10, Revelation 14:12), so I would not put too much stock in his theories. Ultimately we do not know the why, Jesus knows why it must happen, but part of it I theorize is the hearts of man, “For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred,”(2 Timothy 3:2), and “Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12), that it is people who will chose Satan because they love darkness, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19). Rather than say “why God?!” I would turn you attention to man who has a capacity and history for disobedience since Eden, and chooses death daily in form of addictions, violence, and more. I say it is not why God, but why humanity, for it is humans who are increasing occultic, Satanic, and demonic doctrines, “But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons,” (1 Timothy 4:1), and “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.” (2 Timothy 4:5). Yes the dark powers of Satan and his legions are guilty too, but he has a willing partner in mankind now more than ever, and that is not God’s fault, just as it was not God’s fault Adam and Eve listened to that same Satan in the Garden of Eden (Genesis Chapter Three). You can choose the narrow road of life or the broad road of death (Matthew 7:13-14), Christ or Satan, Truth or lies. The choice is yours. Amen.
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