Spiritual deception is more rampant than ever. There have been various cults popping up for some time now. Most of us are aware of the Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), Church of Scientology, Christian Science, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. We recall the heinousness of the Jim Jones mass suicide in 1978 in Guyana, The David Koresh Davidians who were killed by government agents in Texas in 1993, and Heaven’s Gate suicides in California in 1997. As I shared in Watch for the Lord-Part 1, we now have a new group showing its face under the guise of revival through a new emerging church.  All of these impostors are a catalyst to the revelation of the last deceiver of all, the Antichrist.

The majority of our Christian churches are turning away from God’s Word and going the way of the world. Since the beginning of time, people have felt a void before finding that Jesus is the answer to that void. Today, they are trying to fill their emptiness with whatever feels good to them. We see such abominations as homosexuals filling the pulpits of feel-good churches and leading people astray. It is obvious that they are not preaching God’s true Word. They will answer to God for lying to their followers and telling them that it is okay that they are ‘gay’, and that they cannot help it. Yes, God does love us all, but He hates our sin, and He calls homosexuality an abomination. The sin of homosexuality is as bad now as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Everywhere we look, we can see the New Age movement and some turning to mysticism for their euphoria. They want to be spiritual, but they do not want to be part of God’s true church because they do not want to follow God’s rules. They want to make up their own rules as they go. There are plenty of deceivers coming out of the woodwork every day to help them along their way.

Another sign is the persecution of God’s church. Jesus said in Mark 13:9, 10 “But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the Gospel must first be published among all nations.”

Christians have been persecuted for centuries. For over 200 years after Jesus died there were many thousands martyred by people like Nero and Diocletian. The bloody Romans fed them to wild animals and watched them torn to pieces for their entertainment. There are Christians being persecuted around the world as I write this; Burma, Iraq, Iran, Malaysia, Algeria, to name a few. You can go read about those and more at Persecution.Com which is the Voice of the Martyrs.

It is important that those of us who are true born-again followers of Jesus realize that we will also be persecuted for our beliefs. 2 Timothy 3:12 (KJV) says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Remember also John 15:18-21 (KJV) “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me.”

We see people in our country attacked daily for taking a stand for what they believe in. The unbelievers recoil in anger when we try to share God’s truths with them. Brit Hume was excoriated terribly for his recent suggestion that Tiger Woods turn to Christ and the Christian faith in order to receive the forgiveness that he assuredly will not receive from his Hindu faith.

The lost especially do not like the truth that there is ONLY ONE WAY to God and that one way is JESUS CHRIST. They would rather be told that there are many ways to salvation and they can just pick whichever way they think fits them best. Moral relativism is very big in our society these days. It is the theory that all points of view are equally valid, and that all truth is relative to the individual. There are no absolute truths – “that may be true for you, but not for me”. This, in turn, leads to turning away from God and tolerance of sin.

The Holy Bible tells us that this persecution will get much worse in the last days.

Next – Why we need to keep our eyes on what is happening around Jerusalem

Peter advises us to be prepared – I Peter 3:15-17 – NKJV “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

Peter uses the Greek word apologia for answer in this scripture. The word may sound like apology, but do not be fooled. What do we have to apologize for when we are sharing God’s word? Absolutely nothing! The word apologia actually means to layout a verbal defense.

There are people who do have true questions. There may be just one thing that the devil has used to put up a wall in one’s mind for years. When we give them God-given answers, it is like that wall has been knocked down and they can see the truth for the first time; like a light has been turned on. But, of course, that is not always the case. With others, as soon as you give them their first answer, they fire more at you like – ‘But why…?, What about…? Are you really saying that…?’ and so on. Those people do not really want your answers. They want to get you frustrated and side-track you. We must, at all cost, be in and leaning on the Holy Spirit to stay calm and on track.

A while back I joined a social site that I thought would be a fun place to share with and befriend other moms. Being who I am, I posted a journal on my page about taking a stand for my beliefs; namely on the churches of today preaching tolerance to the sin of homosexuality. I quoted the scripture in Leviticus 18:22.

There was an immediate barrage of hateful attacks accusing me, for one thing, of forcing my religion on them. No one was forcing them to come to my journal and read my post; they made that choice. Some said that being homosexual is as natural as breathing, and that more and more people are accepting of the homosexual lifestyle. One actually stated that the Bible is outdated and should be re-written. This went on and on for hundreds of posts. I had to delete and block some lesbians that were vulgar and abusive. They could comment without using vulgarity and hate, but they chose not to. At one point, I found myself being distracted from my main topic and had to delete some of my own responses.

There were only 3 Christian moms who stood with me to combat the evilness that was present there. (I know there were more than those 3 on the site, but they had been there longer than I, and were aware of this certain group of pagans who follow Christian posts and come out of the woodwork to bash them.) The four of us quoted scripture after scripture in response to their attacks, just as Jesus did in the wilderness when Satan tempted Him. It became quite obvious that they did not want to know the truth; it convicted them. I decided not to continue to ‘cast my pearls before swine’ and moved on to other subjects. As long as my subjects were not controversial, I never heard from them.

It was a devastating eye-opener for me to learn of these mothers that are into pagan witchcraft, atheism and a new-age Christianity and they believe anything goes; “Just leave everyone alone and we all do our own thing”. It is very scary to know that they are raising a part of our future generation.

I came to the conclusion that I did not want to be a part of that community where everyone is nice as long as you do not hold anyone accountable or try to get the truth out. I still call some of the sweet-spirited moms that I met there friends, but for the most part, I keep that place in my prayers.