Psa. 106:15 π Isa. 14:13-14 π Ezek. 28:5 π Ezek. 28:16 π Mt. 4:8-9 π 1 Cor. 2:14 π Gal. 5:22-23 π Eph. 2:10 π Eph. 6:12 π Col. 2:8 π Jas. 3:15 π Rev. 13:4 π Rev. 13:7 π Rev. 13:17-18
Satan made Jesus an offer: "All the kingdoms of this world and their glory I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." ( Mt. 4:8-9 ) We also know that the end-time men will worship Satan ( Rev. 13:4; top ) and some of them will enjoy at least some part of at least one of the world's kingdoms and at least something of its glory. This seemingly enticing offer from Satan is always available to those who are blind to the light of Christ's gospel.
Paul listed four types of spiritual beings that do the work of the devil: principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness. ( Eph. 6:12 ) In human history, we have seen principalities used (most clearly seen in the governments of the Roman empire and the German Third Reich under Hitler) to attempt to systematically eradicate the people who claim allegiance to God (both Jews and Christians. In the past decades, great emphasis has been placed on globalizing the market place and giving governments extremely invasive tools whereby every citizen can be traced and controlled as the government wishes. This is only preparation for Satan's end-time government which will be granted power to make war against God's people (again both Jews and Christians) and to overcome them. ( Rev. 13:7 ) All four types of Satan's assistants will be utilized to pour out the devil's fury on those who will someday rule in the place he desires and considers to be rightly his. ( Isa. 14:13-14; top )
One of the most visible controls will be on buying and selling. The end-time government of Satan will use the already world-wide UPC code (universal pricing code - in which is embedded three sixes as place markers) and mandate that everyone receive such a mark or be unable to buy or sell anything. ( Rev. 13:17-18 ) The smart cards, scanners, "self-serve" checkouts and computer ID chips that utilize UPC capabilities are well on their way to making this a reality. Satan's forte in evil stems from his abundance in trading ( Ezek. 28:5 , 16; top ) - it is no great surprise that his chief weapons of control will involve financial and monetary matters.
But there are much more subtle controls in place as well. The educational system is in place to press children into the mold of fitting into a pigeon hole within the systems that serve this world - systems which "coincidentally" are ruled by the powers Paul wrote of. A little over a hundred years ago, 8 to 10 year olds were reading the King James Bible and Shakespeare. Now one can graduate from college without ever having once opened either one (especially the Bible!) Without a college degree, it is virtually impossible to enter into a well-paying career. Yet 10, 20 or 30 years after college, the vast majority of the knowledge and information obtained in school will never have been used even once. What is the real goal of the demonically ruled educational system?
The educational system sows deeper seeds of destruction as it pursues its antichrist philosophies and its worldly "wisdoms." (see Col. 2:8 , 1 Cor. 2:14 , Jas. 3:15 ) The "dumbing down" of America is not accidental but purposed in the schemes of the demonic to prepare this nation for Satan's end-time regime. America was founded on godly individualism - the government was to be restrained and men were, for the most part, to govern and control themselves because their strong roots in the ways of God enabled them to practice self-control (a fruit of the Spirit - Gal. 5:22-23 ). As America turned from a reliance upon God and instead relied on the government for help in time of need (seen perhaps most clearly in America's reaction to the Great Depression of the 1930s), God gave them superabundance (as is seen in the late 40s and 50s) but also gave the people "leanness of soul." (see Psa. 106:15; top ) The children of that generation (the explosive 60s) rebelled, in large part, because the "Christianity" (truly churchianity) of their parents was empty and inadequate to meet and overcome the challenges of real life. Because the "church" had devolved so far from a real and genuine harmony and fellowship with Christ by His Spirit, most "churches" were well on their way to practicing apostasy rather than faith.
The ensuing decades, helped along by the schemes and strategies of well-funded, self-serving "philanthropists" who paid well to insure that their demonically originated programs and institutions would remain in place long after they were gone (dead) has produced aimless, drifting generations who no longer seem to know the difference - or the dangers - between individualism (where the means of production and distribution belongs to the individual who produces or owns it) and socialism (where the means of production and distribution belong to the society). Though for centuries a man's home was his castle (his own personal, virtually inviolable possession), now he must obtain government permission before he can even build his home. His home is subject to invasive and often unnecessary rules and regulations and should his "castle" be on what someone else deems a valuable site (especially but not limited to "historical" value) then all his inalienable rights (given to him by his Creator) are forfeit and his neighbors suddenly have the "right" to spy on him, slander him and find him guilty (without trial, of course) of violating the laws they have concocted on the fluctuating basis of their own collective value system.
The difference between individualism and socialism is not mere semantics - the situation is made worse because the financial power wielders, in a fine display of hypocritical individualism, first decide that mankind does not possess the ability to rule itself (which is always true apart from Christ - even and especially so among the power wielders!) and then, second, institute socialism (whereby the government controls the usage of one's possessions) among "the common herd" while they themselves have their own private compounds, mansions and exalted privileges that exempt them from the very rules they say is for the "good" of society. If a lone individual tried to deprive us of our possessions, we would rightly defend ourselves with force and violence. But because these "social engineers" use laws and philosophy and words, we are supposed to quietly acquiesce and participate and never once are we to dare to think, let alone denounce, their whole strategy and actions as demonic in their source.
Meanwhile, on an individual scale, the financial system works hard to get young college students, who are unwise in many things, to get deeply in debt even before graduating college. After college, homeowners find out quickly (but too often too late) why the term "bank slave" has come into popular usage - the word "mortgage" traces its etymological roots to "death grip." Unless you enter into a bank's "death grip," you are most often unable to own your own home and must pay rent - thereby making someone else rich - and meeting such "responsibilities" requires many, many hours of the sacrifice of one's family life.
All this manipulation and strangulation on the individual scale pales in comparison to the international banking industry's death grip on nations. War is the best thing that ever happens to this industry (as they quite often finance both sides of a conflict which they have either manufactured, manipulated or exaggerated) and those who think wars are really about what the leaders and the media say they are about are naïve indeed.
The health care system - tied in as it is to the financial system, especially the insurance industry and government subsidy - is also designed to ensnare those trapped in its nets. Without insurance, the individual cannot afford to visit a doctor when he needs to. Yet, if it weren't for the insurance industry (which enjoys some of the greatest profit margins of all corporations) and government subsidizing, health care costs would be much more in reach of the common individual. This financial meat grinder is made worse by the inhumane bureaucracy which attends the health care professions. Many a caring health care practitioner has abandoned his profession because he simply cares (a godly trait at its roots) while the system he is attached to does not. What is the real agenda here?
As we have already touched upon, the government and legal systems are no longer designed to restrain government and enable men to govern themselves. Instead, more laws are passed each year than can be read - or obeyed - by the average man. Whenever any government official so chooses, he is sure to be able to find any number of legal violations committed by the person he wishes to control - just as he, with the aid of government-paid lawyers, can find any number of legal loopholes to evade his own violations and yet retain his lucrative career.
Governmental slip-ups and over-sights are the norm and often seem to favor criminal activities while they handicap or punish honest citizens. The government now demands careful planning from individuals so as to preserve the environment, historicity or some other thing that someone somewhere has decided has some intrinsic value that must be claimed for the "good" of the society at large - though just when this society will ever get to experience, view or sometimes even know about this "good" remains an ill-defined thing. While the various government entities demand this careful planning, they themselves produce some of the most wasteful, ineffective, poorly-planned errors ever made! And all the while, the things of questionable value are given greater worth and importance than are the very lives of the honest citizens whom the laws are supposed to serve and protect. What's really behind all this hypocrisy?
The political system is no longer about electing well-qualified public servants who will serve the interests of the people - it's about forcing the people to choose between two (or less) candidates whom the unseen powers behind the scenes have selected for us. The governmental machine is now so bloated with politicians (who can, at least theoretically, be voted out of office) and "expert" technicians and staff (who can only be removed if his boss, another "expert" technician, doesn't like him) that all this only vaguely resembles the democracy described in the original constitution of this country.
In addition to these mechanisms of control which will one day close in upon the true followers of Christ and God, there are some grand-scale entertainments that entice and divert the attention of those who might otherwise find something important to do (like the good works which God foreordained for His people to routinely perform - Eph. 2:10; top ). Sports (in many ways the new opiate of the masses!) offers any number of games to be viewed (preferably in a high-priced arena seat but at least watched in the comfort of one's home in front of one's expensive TV set) but which will be forgotten within minutes by all (except perhaps the actual participants, the die-hard fans and the announcers and record keepers whose employment hinges on their knowledge of statistics and game strategies). Movies (preferably viewed in a high-priced theater seat but again at least viewed on TV) offer an escape from one's own real life. TV, with its virtually endless collection of near-mindless programs and its insane litany of noise, alternates between lulling you into a spiritual stupor and spurring you on to buy the latest, "greatest" gadgets (without which you will be perceived as backward, stupid or just plain ugly). Are we all so blind that we cannot grasp the bigger picture here?
The real agenda is control whereby the real followers of Christ and God - all of them - will stand out in stark contrast. Satan, the world and the demonic have constructed a global net built on an individual carrot-and-stick approach. The individual is lured into a reasonably comfortable lifestyle (via his job and economic situation in life) and kept passively distracted (in the pursuit of his own pleasures). If this fails to keep him controlled, the systems stand ready to penalize and punish him back into line. Only those whose values stand in stark contrast to the world's values will live differently. Only those who truly rely on and interact with the real Christ will have the ability to withstand this net's cumulative weight and onslaught and remain faithful, even at the cost of one's own life, to God and Christ.
Yet this is what we must do. When quietly living our lives in peaceful service to Christ becomes illegal (and it will, if it is not already), we will be routinely faced with the need to render unto Caesar the things that truly belong to Caesar while we render first unto God the things that truly belong to God. We will be called upon to lay down our lives to demonstrate that the unseen kingdom of Christ and God (which knows nothing of control by others but is built on liberty to do that which is truly good and right in God's eyes) is of far greater worth than attaining even to the highest of positions in Satan's kingdom (in which there is only room for a very select, highly competitive, cut-throat few at the top). Our lives will be yet another confirmation that Satan's kingdom - even if it weren't in conflict with Christ's kingdom - because it is built on hate, envy and self-serving pride, is completely inadequate to bring about real and beneficial order (as Christ's kingdom, built on love, truth, beauty and genuine goodness, does). Whereas the promise made by world leaders will be for order, peace and security, the reality they deliver will be something far different. It will be bloodshed, death, chaos and confusion on the grandest, global scale yet.
With all this growing darkness, why should we care about our fellow human beings? When so many of them will be seeking to take our lives and property from us, why should we even care about them? In a word, because God does. He sacrificed His Son into the hands of demonically-driven men who expressed the devil's hatred very well indeed - just as He will do the same with us. It is the nature of God to love the unlovable - that's how we got in! If that same selfless love is not being expressed in my life, I have great reason to believe myself to be just another victim of the devil's deceptions and I may yet find myself a willing participant in his kingdom rather than in Christ's.
And if this emulating God alone is not sufficient cause for us to care about even the enemies of God and of His people - that is, if our desire to be like God as He enables us to be more like Him is not sufficient to cause us to love all mankind, even those who insist on making themselves our enemies - then no other motivating factor will be adequate to overcome the carnage and waste of human life that is about to befall this planet.
Let he who has ears hear.
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