Deviate: to turn aside from the norm–that which is viewed as “normal.” Deviance can manifest itself in human beings mentally, physically or morally. In some cases more than one of the manifestations are found in one person. What is “normal” is relative to the society, region, family and in most cases is overlooked and ignored by those who conform to the “norm.” For example, it is “normal” in the American society to “not wear white after Labor Day.” Defying that “norm” raises no eyebrows.

However, other acts of deviance from the “norm” can be more serious. For example, Americans observe, or at least acknowledge, Sunday as “the Lord’s Day.” Even the nonreligious recognize it as “how it is” throughout the nation. I can remember when the entire nation observed “blue laws” which prohibited businesses from opening on Sunday–the first day of the week which was legally recognized as the nation’s Sabbath. The irony of this situation is that Sunday (the 1st day of the week) Sabbath keepers claim to be obeying their God Who clearly declared Saturday (the 7th day of the week) to be His Sabbath. This is the day He specifically created and in which He placed His presence. That specific day is the one He “blessed and sanctified” (Gen. 2:3) and called “My Holy Day” (Isa. 58:13). Nowhere does God grant either man or angel the authority to change His “norm” relative to His Sabbath. However, Roman Emperor Constantine changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in the fourth century. Pope Sylvester I made the same Sabbath change for the church a generation later.

When the Protestants left Catholicism they took many of her heathen beliefs and practices with them, the Sunday Sabbath being one of them. As a result, the entirety of professing Christendom rejects God’s Holy Day and embraces Satan’s holiday to this day. SUNDAY SABBATH KEEPERS DEVIATE FROM GOD’S STATED NORM, MAKING THEM SPIRITUAL DEVIANTS. Their Sabbath deviance was, and continues to be, the “norm” the nation, as well as the rest of the civilized world, recognizes as “the Lord’s Sabbath.” THE ENTIRE WORLD IS SPIRITUALLY DEVIANT RELATIVE TO GOD’S SABBATH IN THAT THE PEOPLE OPENLY AND DEFIANTLY REBEL AGAINST HIS DIRECT COMMAND. This shows the church’s and the nation’s lack of fear of God, Who commands that we fear Him (2 Cor. 7:1/ Heb. 12:28). Sin always reflects a lack of fear of God, which always has deadly effects.

A deviant is one who is anti (against) whatever the norm happens to be, whether in the mental, physical or moral realm. Christ, the God of the Old Testament, declared the 7th day of the week to be His Holy, blessed and sanctified weekly Sabbath (day of rest). Then, through Moses, He declared in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 that the 7th day of the week was to be “REMEMBERED” AND “KEPT HOLY” by those who are called by His name. One cannot “remember” what one has never known. Which begs the question: remember the Sabbath from when? when was the day of God’s chosen day made known? The answer is, Genesis 3 where He established IT, blessed IT, sanctified IT (set IT aside for holy use only) and later declared IT to be His (“MY”) one and only weekly Holy Day. In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 He COMMANDED His people to REMEMBER THE SABBETH DAY and to KEEP IT HOLY. All of the above being provable Bible Truth, why do those who call themselves the children of the One Who wrote the 7th day Sabbath command, summarily reject IT in spite of His direct command to observe IT? What power could convince billions Bible-owning church-attenders to defy the God Who wrote the sacred Book ? The answer to that question is THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST.

The prefix “anti” at the beginning of an entity means “against” or “opposed to” or “operating in opposition to” that entity. The Biblical antichrist is the spiritual entity which operates in opposition to Christ–Jesus of Nazareth–Who, in the beginning, was called the Word (Jn. 1:1-4,14). This is the same Word Who, as the God of the Old Testament, created all things (vs 14), which includes THE (HIS PERSONAL BLESSED AND SANCTIFIED) Sabbath (HOLY DAY). This means that He–Jesus/Creator of all things Who is also known as the Word, the Savior and the Messiah–declared the 7th day of the week to be THE ONE AND ONLY WEEKLY SABBETH DAY. Read The God of the Old Testament. Key word–Old.

Anyone observing any other day as HIS (CHRIST’S) WEEKLY SABBATH is opposing–working against–Him. Anyone against Christ is operating under the power of the “spirit of antichrist” which has been opposing Him and everything He stands for from the beginning. This antibible, antigod, antijesus spirit has been incredibly successful in convincing salvation seekers to follow his lead in defying the very Godhead Whose Holy Bible they claim to be the truth they claim to believe but are not required to obey. Confusing, isn’t it? That is because they believe and obey the god of confusion. The Biblical God declares that He is NOT the God of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). Billions of people refuse to believe and obey what they call His Bible which He codified (recorded), declared to be His Book (Bible) and preserved for thousands of years. So who/what do they actually follow and obey? Answer: the antichrist, whose spirits control those in Satan’s Catholic/Protestant Church System. 500 words

When the religious system of a nation obeys the demands of the antichrist, there is a problem. The problem is compounded when the nonreligious citizens of that nation also follow the lead of its religious system which operates under the influence of the antichrist because it places the entirety of the population under the influence of Christ’s enemy–the antichrist. When the vast majority of a nation’s people are controlled by the antichrist through his spirit, we find physical chaos which reflects the spiritual chaos of the nation’s religious system. Modern America is globally known as a chaotic, Lawless cesspool. As I reported earlier, one foreigner went on American television and asked: “What has happened to you, America?” He and anyone else who pays attention has found every kind of deviance against God’s norm not only taking place, but being embraced, exalted and declared “right” by those living in that One Nation Under God Who they Trust. As a result of the spiritual chaos running rampant throughout the United States, behaviors that were once labeled “deviant” are now declared “normal.”

Which brings us to the focus of this series–America’s enslavement to the antichrist. In this series we will examine Scripturally-defined spiritual deviance and how it is mentally, physically and spiritually manifested in America’s people. We will determine how this phenomenon came to be and how to reverse its effect.

Because America has traditionally set the example which the rest of the world has followed, the rest of the world has also been afflicted by the antichrist spirit. America is spiritually decaying as the church’s spiritual plague, like leaven, has spread throughout the general population. Through the Prophet Isaiah, God describes the nation of Israel in general and Judah in particular in 1:1-7. Here we find the Lord speaking to His chosen people (today’s church system–spiritual Israel) through the prophet. He reminds them that though He had taught them His ways and had sustained them throughout their history, they had rebelled against Him. He calls them “sinful people” who are weighted down with iniquity (Lawlessness) and corruption because they have forsaken Him and have reversed the course on which He had set them. He reminds them that though He had stricken them time and again (sent disease, war, famine, defeat, etc. upon them) in the past because of their sins, they had simply revolted more and more. He tells them that from the sole of the foot to the top of the head, there is no healing for them, but only sores and untreated wounds. Their land is desolate; their cities are burned with fire. Strangers have overtaken them and are devouring what they have worked for. What was once right is now wrong; wrong is now right. What they had once detested they now exalted. The shameful has become the preferred. What was once done only in secret and in darkness is now done in public and in the light. That which He calls sin they call righteousness, that what He detests, they embrace and prefer.

In verse nine God tells them that there is a very small remnant within their nation that remains true to Him. Because of this tiny group of true saints, the nation has not “become as Sodom and Gomorrah” (destroyed). In verses 10 through 15 He tells them that, because of their rejection of Him, He rejects their religious services, etc. (Amos 5:21-25). Later, as Jesus of Nazareth, He would say to the spiritual descendants of those Israelites: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ then refuse to do what I tell you to do? You do worship Me, but it is all in vain, for you reject My commandments and obey the rules of man. Though you call me your Lord, I have never known you because you did not obey My Law” (Lk. 6:46/ Mat. 15:9; 7:23). Unto such people He has sent “strong delusion” so that they would believe lies (2 Thess. 2:11). If one is determined to commit spiritual suicide, God will provide the tree, the rope and the stool. Man is not dealing with sweet baby Jesus in the manger. Rather, one is dealing with the lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Does the description of ancient Israel and Judah sound familiar? It should, for it perfectly describes the spiritual, moral and material condition of the United States of America today. In this series we will examine the once greatly blessed nation in terms of her present reality. We will learn how she sunk to her present low and how she can, individually, rise from it. Will God’s former “light to the world” listen to God’s Words, believe them and climb out of the sewer in which she now swims? That decision is hers to make. L.J.