Because this ministry is directed to professing Christendom, I am continually writing to church parishioners on a personal, intimate level where decisions being made have both present and future life- and-death significance. This series is extremely personal and important, especially now at the end of the age when Satan’s efforts to deceive the Lord’s remnant is having its designed effect like never before. Everything I write or speak is directed to the generation of church people that will witness the return of the Messiah, WHETHER THE PEOPLE ARE READY OR NOT. Sadly, the vast majority (the “many”–Mat. 7:13,14; 22:14) will not be ready for His arrival, though they believe that they are now ready. My goal is to help as many as possible to be ready, which will require a total reversal of spiritual lifestyle–“walk.”

If numbers are any indication of success, I am a total failure. Of the thousands of local people who have read or heard my messages, only a “few” (five) have confessed to believe God’s Word. The “many” have chosen to believe Satan’s messengers who preach his various denominational versions of God’s Word. This does not bother me because Jesus warned that this would be the case in Matthew 7:13,14; 22:14; 7:21-23 as well as in other places in the Holy Scripture. My hope is that those in other places who read my website will check out the references provided and believe them. I do not want anyone to believe me. Believe God’s Word for therein lies His Truth. I am merely the speaker of that Truth.

Rejection of His Truths is not a new phenomenon within the Catholic/Protestant Religious System. Within 20 years of the church’s founding in 31 A.D. the Apostle Paul was warning the churches of Galatia that they were hearing and believing a “perverted” version of God’s Gospel (1:6-9). The Galatians were not alone in their heresy. Paul said to and about the church located in Corinth that if someone presented “another Jesus” to them, they would embrace him (2 Cor. 11:4). Obviously, these churches were hearing and believing messages that differed greatly from the Gospel that Jesus preached and commanded His apostles to preach until His return. They were hearing from, believing, obeying and serving the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) who had (has) “deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). “The whole world” has to include the various competing, conflicting, contradicting “churches” found among the 2.4 billion church members on earth during this the final (Laodicean) era of church history which Jesus describes in Revelation 3:14-20. If you have not read that passage, I suggest that you do so for it perfectly describes the end-time church in existence today. This is the generation that will see the return of Jesus Christ. We must be ready. Professing Christendom is not ready. Only God’s remnant of true saints are ready.

So powerful and so persuasive is the devil that Jesus warned His disciples (then and now) that “many” would be deceived by him (Satan) in the “last days” of this age. The “last days” began on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. with the coming of the Holy Spirit to those in the upper room in Jerusalem. This is proved by Peter’s statement in which he described what was happening: “THIS IS THAT which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (2:28) who spoke and wrote about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s true saints in the “last days.” That day (Acts 2:1-20) marked the BEGINNING of the end-time (latter days) of the world as we know it. At the end of the “latter days” point Jesus will return to earth where He will establish His Father’s kingdom. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom.

The focal verse in this series is Matthew 24:4. The Lord’s disciples had asked Him when the end of the world would take place. He did not answer them directly, but instead issued a warning to those who would be living in the last days of this world. Instead, He warned them (us) about false prophets who would try to deceive us with false, denominationally-designed Gospels. He was speaking to the “many” church people living today who would be deceived by Satan. It is the “many” who are the willing victims of Satan’s false prophets who preach his false “truths.”

One of the most deadly deceptions concerns the belief that one can become so pure that he CANNOT BE DECEIVED. Those who believe this “truth” automatically assume the authority to determine the type of religion that makes them immune to Satan’s attacks.

I strongly disagree with the belief that any man, including Jesus of Nazareth while on earth, is beyond being deceived by Satan. Man, including Jesus, is created “a little lower than the angels” of God, A THIRD OF WHOM WERE DECEIVED BY LUCIFER INTO GOING TO WAR WITH THEIR CREATOR. If Jesus of Nazareth–a human being–was capable of being deceived, surely the rest of us are subject to such persuasion. Recall that Satan tried to deceive Him into taking the easy way out relative to possessing the people of the world. Satan offered Him the kingdoms (people) of the world if He would bow down and worship him, thereby saving Himself from the ordeal of the cross. Satan noted that he owned the world because it had been given to him. Which was true then and is true today. He had won the world by defeating Adam, to whom God had given the world (Gen. 1:26-28). Read Jesus of Nazareth: God, Man or God-man and The God of the Old Testament. Key words–God-man and Old respectively.

If Jesus could not be deceived, why did Satan try to deceive Him? The words that have led so many astray relative to being immune from deception are found in Matthew 24:24 where we find the words “it were” relative to being deceived–“… if it were possible ….” Note that those two words are in itallics, meaning that they were not in the original manuscript, but were added by translators turned interpreters. The words “it were” mean that it is not possible. Removing them renders the statement correct by stating that, if possible, even God’s Very Elect are not beyond Satan’s influence. Hopefully, the Very Elect will withstand the temptation and stay true to God. Jesus said that few people would do so.

The irony found in this situation is that the vast majority of those who believe that they cannot be deceived ARE TOTALLY DECEIVED IN THAT THEY BELIEVE SATAN’S SABBATH LIE CONCERNING COMMANDMENT #4. According to James 2:10, they are all guilty of breaking the entire Ten Commandment Law of God, thereby making them “workers of iniquity” (Gk.–Lawlessness) who will face a wrathful Jesus Christ on the day of Judgment (Jn. 8:31; 14:15,23; 15:10; 1 Jn. 2:5/ Mat. 19:17). At that time they will hear Him say: “I never knew you; depart from Me you workers of iniquity (Lawlessness).” Notice that these will be super-religious church people who, “knowing” that they were not deceived, will remind the Lord of all the wonderful things they had done in His name. It is to those deceived souls that this ministry is dedicated. Read The 7th Day Sabbath: The Sign of God’s Ownership. Key word–Ownership.

In the Matthew 24 discourse between Jesus and His disciples, the inquisitors asked Him for THE SIGN of His return and the end of the world. In the series about the signs that identify the end of the age (key word–Signs), I explain that THE SIGN which set the stage for the other signs that would follow came with Christ’s first words: “TAKE HEED THAT NO MAN DECEIVE YOU.” Jesus knew that if church people did not identify the first sign (false religion) and reactly correctly, knowing all of the other signs would have no relevance, regardless of how religious the people might be.

This is exactly what happened to the church Jesus founded on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. With the exception of His “remnant” of true believers who have been found in each of the seven church ages as described in Revelation chapters 2:1– 3:22, all other believers have failed to heed Christ’s Words relative to religious deception. The modern-day church is the end-product of billions of people failing to believe and obey Christ’s message. They have not taken heed because they have been deceived into believing that all one needs to do in in order to be immune to deception is to “believe in Jesus,” “take Him as your Savior” and be sure to “repent” following each inevitable sin. The product of that deception is called “the church.” L.J.