A word of Warning, continued
As was stated elsewhere the Adversary has quite a few arrows (lies, deceptions) in his quiver. Recall 2 Thess 2:9 in which it is stated that:
“The presence (of our Lord Jesus Christ) shall be accompanied by an in-working of Satan with all manner of mighty work(s) and sign(s) and wonder(s) of falsehood.”
Note that these mighty works (deceptions) viz. signs and lying wonders are plural.
Thus we must expect that he will employ various methods of deception focused upon God’s professed people. His primary target of course is the Lord’s consecrated people, both the elect (the feet members) and the Great Company, the “remnant” of the seed, those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev 12:17). The great preponderance of the professing church having already been deceived for the most part it remains only for him to cement their compliance and loyalty to him in the coming hour so that he might utilize them as he did in the past to persecute and destroy the last Lord’s true people.
How shall he accomplish this ends?
As was alluded to above we believe his first method will be to employ his tried and proven method of masquerading as an angel of light. It should not prove all that difficult for him to pull off some of the various deceptions mentioned above as spirit beings are naturally more powerful than are humans and besides at the time it is stated that he will have “all” power that is as much power as the LORD sees best to allow him at the time.
But one of his greatest deceptions will be to masquerade as the Lord himself. This too should not prove all that difficult as the professing church has long since been conditioned (deceived) into believing in a visual manifestation of Christ, a visible return, this despite the very words of our Lord himself who stated: “Yet a little while, and the world shall see me no more” (John 14:19). The testimony of the Scriptures being that because of his great sacrifice, “God hath highly exalted Him”—" far above angels, principalities and powers" (Phil. 2:5-11; Eph. 1:20-23) that he is now the express image of the Father’s person who dwells in inapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see and live. (Heb 1:3; 1 Tim 6:16; Exod 33:20-23)
Nevertheless the nominal spiritual house (a.k.a. the church nominal, the professing church) like their predecessors before are ever looking for visible “signs” in which to confirm their faith, and as such having been given over to the lie concerning a visible presence of our Lord from heaven, something which no doubt was fostered in the church long ago (by the Adversary) will be found gazing to the heavens in eager anticipation, and you can just bet the Adversary will provide.
As for the Lords true people we have been warned of such deception before time, If an angel comes from heaven, as Gal 1:8 warns, the Lord’s people are not to be deceived.
We will expand on this when we examine Verse 26 in our study of Matthew Chapter 24.
This method of deception will probably be the Adversaries opening salvo, but as stated materializing as an angel of light is only one arrow out of Satan’s quiver. We believe he will employ a variety of deceptions in order to deceive, some of which like the previous one he has long since cultivated into the teachings of the professed church.
Continued with next post.
As was stated elsewhere the Adversary has quite a few arrows (lies, deceptions) in his quiver. Recall 2 Thess 2:9 in which it is stated that:
“The presence (of our Lord Jesus Christ) shall be accompanied by an in-working of Satan with all manner of mighty work(s) and sign(s) and wonder(s) of falsehood.”
Note that these mighty works (deceptions) viz. signs and lying wonders are plural.
Thus we must expect that he will employ various methods of deception focused upon God’s professed people. His primary target of course is the Lord’s consecrated people, both the elect (the feet members) and the Great Company, the “remnant” of the seed, those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev 12:17). The great preponderance of the professing church having already been deceived for the most part it remains only for him to cement their compliance and loyalty to him in the coming hour so that he might utilize them as he did in the past to persecute and destroy the last Lord’s true people.
How shall he accomplish this ends?
As was alluded to above we believe his first method will be to employ his tried and proven method of masquerading as an angel of light. It should not prove all that difficult for him to pull off some of the various deceptions mentioned above as spirit beings are naturally more powerful than are humans and besides at the time it is stated that he will have “all” power that is as much power as the LORD sees best to allow him at the time.
But one of his greatest deceptions will be to masquerade as the Lord himself. This too should not prove all that difficult as the professing church has long since been conditioned (deceived) into believing in a visual manifestation of Christ, a visible return, this despite the very words of our Lord himself who stated: “Yet a little while, and the world shall see me no more” (John 14:19). The testimony of the Scriptures being that because of his great sacrifice, “God hath highly exalted Him”—" far above angels, principalities and powers" (Phil. 2:5-11; Eph. 1:20-23) that he is now the express image of the Father’s person who dwells in inapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see and live. (Heb 1:3; 1 Tim 6:16; Exod 33:20-23)
Nevertheless the nominal spiritual house (a.k.a. the church nominal, the professing church) like their predecessors before are ever looking for visible “signs” in which to confirm their faith, and as such having been given over to the lie concerning a visible presence of our Lord from heaven, something which no doubt was fostered in the church long ago (by the Adversary) will be found gazing to the heavens in eager anticipation, and you can just bet the Adversary will provide.
As for the Lords true people we have been warned of such deception before time, If an angel comes from heaven, as Gal 1:8 warns, the Lord’s people are not to be deceived.
We will expand on this when we examine Verse 26 in our study of Matthew Chapter 24.
This method of deception will probably be the Adversaries opening salvo, but as stated materializing as an angel of light is only one arrow out of Satan’s quiver. We believe he will employ a variety of deceptions in order to deceive, some of which like the previous one he has long since cultivated into the teachings of the professed church.
Continued with next post.
