“Satan, the real master of the New Age, delights in mysterious code words, symbols and numbers.” -- Texe Marrs, author of Dark Secrets of the New Age.
Headline just tonight for a video posted by a YouTuber who is a King James Bible-believing Christian: “RIP USA INC—A Masonic CORPSEoration—That’s All Folks!”
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After the Apostle Paul warns Timothy in II Timothy 3:1,
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come,” he details
the depths of the moral declension:
[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy,
[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God.
In these last days of Paul’s life—this is the last book he
wrote—he’s telling Timothy what to expect in the days ahead.
“In the prophetic program, the last days had very specific
signs. There were signs in the sun, the moon, the earth, etc. that they could
literally see and point to. J.C. O’Hair once said, ‘There are no signs of the
times today because these are the not the times of the signs,’ ” says Richard
Jordan.
“So when Paul talks about the characteristics of the last
days of the dispensation of grace, he gives you these generalized moral kind of
things where man is the measure of everything and when you have that,
degeneration is naturally going to take place.
“When you come to verse 5 you notice that, in spite of all
of the excess of human depravity, men have ‘a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof: from such turn away.'
“Man is naturally religious; he just can’t ‘get over it’ and
that’s why Romans 1, after he’s ‘changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts,
and creeping things’ . . . he simply takes God and reduces Him to
something he can control and you have to understand there’s a WORSHIP. There’s
a desire to worship and control things.
“So what they have is an external religious form of
godliness. Even the Antichrist uses the Baal worship system in the Scripture to
rise to power. Human depravity isn’t going to leave out religion and it will
have a zeal for what it’s committed to with a religious fervor and the ferocity
of religious commitment.”
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“Because the world has a course to it, influenced by ‘the prince the power of the air,’ the ‘father of lies,’ here’s what the world system’s going to be full of. It’s going to be full of lie after lie after lie after lie and that’s just how it is,” says Columbus, Ohio preacher David Reid.
“You watch what happens on the earth and you have,
unfortunately, millions and millions of people who follow the course of the
world and the reason why is, how hard is it to swim against the current of the
river? That’s why Paul says in Galatians 16, ‘Be not weary of well-doing.’
“It’s a wearisome thing to swim up against the river. What
Satan’s done is he’s designed this world to flow in a certain direction
with a strong current, and that direction is the direction of ‘the Lie.’ That
direction is directly contrary to what God would have us to do.
“And so our life is going to be weary because we’re always
headed in the opposite direction. I’ve said this before, but it’s like walking
up the down escalator. It’s fun to do that when you’re six or seven years old
and you go to the department store and you’re trying to get all the way to the
top.
“That’s what life’s like, though, and that’s why people look
at saved people as if we’re weirdos. The world is going a certain direction and
as long as you’re going against it, you’re going to suffer opposition and
persecution."
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When Paul warns Timothy that "perilous times shall
come," the term "perilous" is the idea of dangerous. Talking
about his life, Paul writes in II Corinthians 11:26, "In journeyings
often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren."
“All of those conditions are dangerous conditions that can
kill you, can overwhelm you; they're horrendous and can overpower you,”
explains Jordan.
“In Romans 8, Paul uses the term in an interesting way.
Verse 35 says, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?’
“Perilous times can have to do with you just being taken out
and slaughtered. They’re dangerous times.
“When he describes them in II Timothy 3, the nature of the
age under grace—it’s not going to be getting better.
“I remember in the ’80s, right after I’d come up from
Alabama to Chicago, preaching a message at North Shore Church and I quoted a
verse in Ecclesiastes. Afterward, I had three people come up to me and ask,
‘Where is that verse?’ I thought everybody knew the verse but I came to find
out people don’t read the Book of Ecclesiastes.
“Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, ‘Because sentence against
an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men
is fully set in them to do evil.’
“Isn’t that what Peter said about the dispensation of grace?
II Peter 3 says, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.’
“Man doesn’t say, ‘Wow, I’m glad I missed the wrath! Thank
you for not destroying me!’ He says, ‘Oh, He doesn’t see. I’ll go out and do
some more.’
“Isaiah 26:10 says, [10] Let favour be shewed to the
wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he
deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
“You know what the longsuffering of God demonstrates? The
complete depravity of humanity. And the longer the dispensation of
grace goes on, the longer you’re going to see a more and more mature depravity
overtake mankind.
"De-evolution, not evolution, is man’s pattern. That’s
why that image in Daniel 2 starts at the head and winds up at the feet. Man
doesn’t go from the dust to glory; he goes from glory to the dust.
“Occasionally they’ll be a little burst forth of life and
light as the Reformation was when it finally anchored itself in England . . .
“You know, until that last person gets into the Body of
Christ, that day of grace keeps going and then it will be over. Now that’s
God’s timing. I have no idea to tell you when He’s going to do it; when He
activates it. That’s up to Him.
“What we do is just be faithful and consider every day to be the last day. When you look at the world around you, instead of saying, ‘Oh, woe is me, how terrible it all is,’ just say, ‘Well, it’s exactly the way God said it was going to be. Thank God for the testimony.’ "
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“Here’s what the fellowship of his sufferings means. If you live godly, if you walk with Christ, then as you walk in that direction, people are going to throw rocks at you. They’re going to and what happens is the Lord says during His earthly ministry, ‘Count the cost,' " says Reid.
“Here’s what we can decide, frankly. We can decide, ‘Look, I know if I walk the right way, I’m going to face opposition and obstacles and problems. And you know what? I might just choose I’m not going to do it.’
“That’s a possible choice, but that’s giving up the opportunity to walk with the Lord, which is going to give joy through the bad times. It’s going to make your life meaningful, and choosing NOT to do it, because there’s going to be some obnoxious people along the way who throw rocks at you, it’s the wrong choice. What you’re doing is giving up that joy just because we’re going to face a little bit of problems.
“Paul says in Philippians 3:11-12, [11] If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
[12] Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
“There’s not a reference to the catching up because Paul already knew he would attain to that. Here’s what he’s saying there and just embrace this because this is just fascinating. What he’s saying there is, ‘There’s nothing in this life that prevents me from walking exactly as I will in the next life.’
“Let me put it this way. Is there any reason that you have to sin? I realize we still have the old nature. Do we have to sin? We choose to sin. Romans 6:4 says ‘Even so we also SHOULD walk in newness of life.’ It doesn’t say we WILL, but it says we SHOULD which means we CAN.
“What Paul’s really saying in Philippians 3 is, ‘Because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me, because my flesh has been circumcised and the old man has been crucified, I now have the ability to walk in newness of life. I can walk exactly like I should in the next life.’
“What he’s saying is, ‘Don’t give me the excuse that you CAN’T because you CAN!’ "