Beginning with the establishment of the Universal (Catholic) Church by Simon Magus in A.D. 33, many priests, now known as popes, have led masses of trusting God-seekers into Babylonian heathenism by convincing them that they are worshiping and serving the Biblical God. This Counterfeit Church is prophesied to not merely be in existence when Christ returns, but, having forced all other religious and non-religious entities to align with her, will control the world’s masses during the 3 1/2 years leading up to the Lord’s second advent. Upon His arrival He will deal with the Wicked one, the False Prophet and the billions who have followed them. See Simon of Samaria and The Ingathering.

Unbeknownst to the religious masses, God’s curse will have been on them since Catholicism’s founding. The deception took many additional forms when the Protestants broke away from the mother “whore” and began to establish various “harlot” versions of Christianity (Rev. 17:1-5). Over the ensuing years billions of Biblically ignorant people have lived under God’s curse without knowing it. God warns His church about this phenomenon in Revelation 3:14-17. In 2 Thessalonians 2:8 such parishioners are identified by the Lord as “them that perish because they believed not the Truth”–the Word of God (Jn. 17:17). Because of their rejection of His Truth, God has sent them “strong delusion” so that they believe “a lie”–the basic cause of the curse. Man is going to believe something–either God’s Word or Satan’s Word. Nothing has changed in that regard since the Garden of Eden. Satan’s mode of operation and man’s reaction to it have remained unchanged for some 6000 years. Individuals believe and obey either God’s Word or Satan’s word. History reveals that the vast majority of mankind has chosen to believe and obey the devil.

At this point we need to clear up a possible confusion-producing situation. Concerning God’s reference to “a” lie we find an example of something being stated in the singular that refers to more than one. In other words, “a lie” refers to many lies. Other Biblical examples of singular-means-plural word usage are “God,” meaning both Members of the Godhead, “the Word,” meaning the entire Bible, “the commandment,” meaning the Ten Commandments, “the Law,” in some cases meaning the entire Bible, “man,” meaning all of mankind, “the day,” meaning the last days. A SPIRITUAL “LIE” IS ANY BELIEF THAT IS NOT SCRIPTURAL, which includes may of Institutional Christendom’s foundational doctrines and customs. See the Introduction to this website for examples.

According to the Word of God (the entire Bible), the whole of professing Christianity lives under God’s curse. BUT THERE IS HOPE FOR THOSE WHO LEARN GOD’S WORD, BELIEVE IT AND OBEY IT. Historically, very few have done so. But when someone realizes their deadly error and reverses their life’s walk (1 Jn. 2:6), everyone soon knows what he/she has chosen to do. When a defection occurs, Satan immediately goes into damage control mode in which the convert either voluntarily leaves the Institutional Church (2 Cor. 6:17), or is forced to do so. To be continued. L.J.