The revivalist movement taking place throughout the world at this time is not an overnight sensation. There has been for several years a strong social/religious pull coursing throughout the world, especially among young adults. Man is a spiritual creation. There is within him a need for spiritual meaning in his life. The problem is that Satan has hijacked that spiritual pull and drawn its receivers into either an anti-religion mindset or into his religious web–the world’s various religions designed by their creator to meet the spiritual need of every religiously inclined person. Read Bait and Switch. Key word–Bait where you will learn the tricks of his trade. His program began in the Garden of Eden and is in full emotion mode today. There has existed from the beginning a soft spiritual call coming from the Lord. However, Satan’s bait and switch ploy is channeling those who are answering that call away from God and to himself due to their ignorance of the Bible which forms the foundation of professing Christianity.

The modern-day, mass media-enhanced reaction to man’s natural need for spiritual guidance was greatly enhanced by the murder of Charlie Kirk, a Roman Catholic man who had gathered a huge following with his honest replies to the world’s, including the religious world’s questions concerning both social and religious issues. However, before Kirk’s tragic assassination there had been a forming a religious restlessness among young adults, especially males. There has been for several years now a growing interest in God, the Bible and church among this group. Charlie Kirk’s death opened the door for a much more public display of what had been lingering below the media’s radar for some time.

According to those who have spoken out on the movement, there has for several years been simmering among a large segment of young adults a need for both a personal and a national change of direction. Young people by the thousands, even millions globally, have for some time rejected the “woke” direction that has taken over many secular and religious institutions. What is being expressed both in actions and words is a need for eternal truths, solid traditions and, probably most important of all–a connection with the past. A major problem is that so many traditional denominations have gone the way of woke in order to satisfy their need for social and religious relevance. This creates a problem when the spiritual seekers view the church options available to them.

A number of mainline church systems have gone to Bible-rejecting extremes in order to draw the woke of the world into their midst. This is especially true in the sexual deviance arena, specifically involving queers and transes. This movement proves the power that Satan has over an ever-growing segment of the religious community. Knowing that young people are the future of their denominations, and knowing that, generally speaking, religion is losing control over their older members, many have gone wildly woke in order to appeal to the younger crowd. Many so-called “Christian” churches, in order to fit into the woke mold, are now conducting gay marriages, observing gay pride days, flying gay pride flags, etc. But that is not the extent of their dive into Satan’s world. Some are blaspheming God Himself by claiming that He is a “drag queen” or a “transman” or is “genderfluid.” Some are requiring their parishioners to address each other by their “preferred pronouns” which is extremely popular among transsexuals.

There is, however, one denomination that has not gone the woke route and refuses to walk the woke way. Not surprisingly, this is the church to which many, if not most young seekers are gravitating toward–THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The reasons are obvious. Those in the media who are tracking the movement are reporting that there is a sense of disaffection with and even contempt for triviality and banality of both the secular society and the churches that dominate the society’s religious life. They report that there is a clear yearning for something bigger and more visually appealing than what most religious systems have to offer. An ever-increasing number of these seekers are realizing that Catholicism fits the bill on every point. Catholic art and architecture stand out in stark contrast to the mundane appearance of other church systems. Then there is the issue of adaptation to whatever happens to be the current “in” thing. In this age of social and religious instability, Catholicism offers the stability of tradition.

This revolution toward a return to tradition is exactly what many young people view as the solution to both personal and national problems. But one must be cognizant of the fact that religious tradition is good if, and only if it is BASED TOTALLY ON THE TEACHINGS OF THE HOLY BIBLE. CATHOLIC TRADITION IS ALMOST WHOLLY ANTI-BIBLE AND ANTI-GOD. Foreseeing this movement away from Himself (apostasy) in the latter days, God spoke through His apostles to His true saints, commanding them to “PROVE ALL THINGS” relative to Himself (1 Thes. 5:21), which is the only way to cure the individual and national sickness that has overtaken the United States as well as other so-called Christian nations. Jesus warned about this in this series’ focal passage (Mat. 24:4-14). In another place He warns of “false apostles, deceitful workers who transform themselves into apostles of Christ” … who claim to be “ministers of righteousness,” who themselves have been deceived and unknowingly strive to deceiver others (2 Cor. 11:13-15). In Matthew 24:5, Jesus warned about those who admit that He (Jesus) is indeed the Christ, then, having gained the trust of the Biblically ignorant, “deceive many.”

In Acts 17:11 Christians in Berea were praised for their rigorous Bible study in that they “received the
Word of God with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily … to see if what the Apostle Paul was telling them was true.” In First John 4:1 the apostle instructs people to “believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

The key is to test all teachings using the Bible as the one and only standard. Why? Because the Lord warns us about an end-time religious institution that would look like a lamb but would speak like a dragon (Rev. 13:11). This prophesied lamb/dragon is the Catholic Church. This is brought out in the series concerning the coming church civil war that can be read using the key word–Soon-coming. The storm clouds of that war are gathering now as the Pope pushes for a reunion of all Protestant Churches with their “mother”–Catholicism. This has been years in the making and it will happen. Read about this “religious homecoming” using the key word–Ingathering. While considering all of these things, remember that Jesus warned that what is taking place today is only “the beginning of sorrows.” Only the Very Elect of God will be protected during the coming social and religious upheaval that will sink the whole of humanity into World War III, the Great Tribulation and the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. L.J.