As Apostles Peter and Paul have told us, we must choose between God and Satan. The vast majority of professing Christendom has unwittingly chosen the latter. As a result, he has slowly, stealthily increased his mastery over them. In response to the church majority’s rebellion against Him, God is pouring out His wrath in ever-increasing doses on those countries in which the church is found in large numbers. As a result, church people find themselves living in times that try both soul and spirit. The irony of this situation is that two billion Bible-toting, Scripture-quoting, cross-wearing church members, being Bible illiterates and determined to know only what their respective cults put forth as “the word of God,” are unaware that a war is taking place inside them. An extremely few know what is happening and are standing against Satan and his army comprised of social, religious and governmental forces.

Those who know the true God are not surprised by what is taking place, for while walking the earth as Jesus of Nazareth the Lord declared that in the end times, when life and death will hang in the balance, “few” of those who call themselves by His name will “find” His strait gate and walk His narrow way to eternal life. “Many,” He said, would enter Satan’s wide gate and walk his broad way to destruction (Mat. 7:13,14;10:16-22). To see how successful Satan has been, check any phone book and look under “Churches.” How can this be? What prompts the masses of church people to choose Satan over the God they proclaim has redeemed them? To the billions of church goats, social acceptance plays a powerful part in this most important of choices. The result is that the vast majority of supposedly “saved” people value the respectability that comes from membership in the established church system (Catholicism/ Protestantism) and do whatever is necessary to avoid the rejection that comes from allegiance to the Messiah and His Father. As a result, the true saints/sheep who stand with them are extremely few in number and are prophesied to grow even smaller as the society, the religious establishment and the prevailing government apply ever more pressure on them to deny their Lord.

The Lord warned true believers that the apostasy we are witnessing would come to pass in the last days, which began on the Day of Pentecost A.D 31. Today only a few faithful souls are willing to stand against the devil’s rapidly growing army. This army is prophesied to grow larger and more powerful as the world’s religions are absorbed by the Catholic/Protestant church system to form a one-world religious body that will direct the activities of the coming world-ruling (First) Beast Government (Rev. 13-20). According to the Holy Scriptures, the Second Beast–the False Prophet–will lead the whore church that will “ride” (direct) the First Beast’s actions. The whore (Rev. 17:1) is called Mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots (Rev. 17:5). The harlots (Protestant churches) are the whore’s (Catholic church’s) spiritual daughters who, having left their spiritual mother in protest in the past, will return to her and, along with all other religions, will form the most powerful religious force ever seen on earth. Together with the First Beast Government, they will orchestrate the Great Tribulation. See The Mark Of The Beast and The Ingathering. To be continued. L.J.