And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.   Luke 21:8

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie... II Thessalonians 2:11

...thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked...  Revelation 3:17

One of the great characteristics of the end times is described in the New Testament as deception, or delusion, on a grand, perhaps unprecedented scale. The Lord Jesus warned that the deception that is coming in His Name and accompanied by great shows of power will be so convincing that even the very elect, that is, those who truly know Him, stand in danger of being carried away in the deception (Matthew 24:24).

Paul expounds on the same theme. In discussing the end time delusion that will accompany the world's acceptance of Satan himself as the savior world, he points out that when this "man of sin" arrives on the scene, he will be accompanied by great signs and wonders (II Thessalonians 2:9). When taken together with the Lord's prediction in Matthew 24, there is no reason to believe that this entrance by Satan on the world stage will be accompanied by anything less than healing, casting out of demons, and raising the dead in the name of Jesus!

Such a scenario might have seemed impossible a decade or so ago, but with the acceptance by the world of some of the current popular beliefs, it is not difficult to imagine that such total, world-wide delusion could take place. If someone had suggested 20 or 30 years ago that there was coming a day when soft porn would be served up the networks over prime time and that children would be taught in our elementary schools that homosexuality was a natural and therefore good thing, that person would have been laughed out of the room and perhaps committed to a mental institution. 

Of course, all of these things have come to pass, along with the teaching that God did not create the heavens and the earth and that abortion is a valid birth control decision resulting from a child's right to have sex before marriage. Who would have believed 25 years ago that one of the roles of the public school system would be to cart off 12 and 13 year old girls to abortion clinics WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT of the PARENTS! Unbelievable! ... but it is happening every day in America.

Remember, the world believes that Israel is an imposter in the Holy Land and is "occupying" "Palestinian" territory! The world also believes that there can be peace outside of submission to God and His authority. All of this is, of course, purely delusional. The fact of the matter is that God has given Israel to the Jews with an oath and a promise that cannot be broken. It is also true that the world will know no peace until the Prince of Peace returns and takes up His rule from David's throne in Jerusalem. Anyone who has read and believed the Bible knows these things, but the world does not know these things. As Peter says, they don't even know how the world got here because they have willingly chosen not to know (II Peter 3:1). Therefore, it should not be surprising to learn that it will be those who had NOT a love of the TRUTH who will be swept away in the great delusion that God is sending for the purpose of separating the tares from the wheat just prior to the great end-time harvest (Revelation 16:14-20).

How can one escape being swept away in the deception that is coming? According to the letter from Jesus to the end-time church, Laodicea, recorded by John in Revelation 3:14-22, that church is characterized by self-deception, believing that it is the greatest of all churches when in the Lord's view it is one of the poorest and most wretched. But in this letter we are also given some keys to avoiding such pitfalls. It is apparent, if we recognize that Laodicea is a depiction of the end-time Charismatic movement that has prided itself in having more gifts, more power, more gospel (FULL gospel, REALLY!), more ministry (five-fold, don't you know), and more health and prosperity than any of the other churches around (especially the "poor" Fundamentalist brethren whom Jesus praised "to high heaven" in His letter to the church at Philadelphia), that we should not be so desirous of a great show, and should look to our own hearts and devotion to the Lord, and to His Truth.

Cable-channel Christianity by any other name is still a show. It is great entertainment for spiritual "shut ins," but it is not the stuff the New Testament church is made of. 

As the Bride of Christ matures and begins to step forth and out of the backdrop of traditional, denominational Christianity, there will also be a movement based on great deception to try to deceive the elect and cause them to seek after and follow something other than Christ. The only real protection the Bride will have will come in the form of an intimate knowledge of her True Beloved. It is important for all believers to begin to seek the face of the Lord now, and to draw close to Him and press into Him so that they learn to recognize His voice. The day is soon coming when there will be many rival voices (Matthew 24:5) clamoring for the Bride's attention -- but she will respond to only one, the voice of her Beloved (Song of Solomon 2:8 and 5:2).

Return to top