Rethinking Revelation Chapter 13 (Part 4)

A few years ago Dr. Billy Graham, in a spirit of love and concern, said according to his research a large percentage of Christians in America are living defeated spiritual lives.

The majority of Christians admit they do not understand the root cause of the breakdown in our country’s moral values nor are they aware of how the enemy has conducted such a successful campaign to corrupt our society’s values. Sadly, this lack of understanding has caused millions of Christians to be hurt by Satan’s insidious tactics and a countless number of Christian families to be torn apart.

Before I share what Scriptures reveal to be the identity of this “beast” in Revelation 13 I need to follow a biblical principle of interpretation the Apostle Paul followed. On the road to Damascus Paul had a revolutionary encounter with the Lord that revealed Jesus was the Messiah. From that moment, and for the rest of his life, Paul was totally dependent upon the Lord. However, those who heard him preach did not have the same dramatic revolutionary encounter that Paul experienced on the Damascus road. Their belief came as he explained the good news of the Gospel and how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies foretold about the Messiah.

I don’t expect you to have a revolutionary encounter like my brother and I had with the Lord. Therefore, following the example of the Apostle Paul, it is my responsibility to explain the prophetic verses that back-up and support what my brother and I say was revealed to be the identity of this “beast.” Please note, I don’t want you to think I am trying to say the experience my brother and I had was equal to that of Paul’s. However, Paul’s experience gives us a Scriptural principle that we can learn from and apply.

One of the first things the Lord began to teach Barbara and me after my revolutionary encounter with the Lord in 1971 was, “KNOW YOUR ENEMY!” This was intriguing to me because in just about every human endeavor, be it military, sports, business—you name it—we try to understand our competition or in warfare, our enemy. In order to be successful it is important to know and understand our competitor’s methods and tactics. It seems we apply this principle in about everything we do, except our spiritual life.

Not knowing how Satan operates has contributed to the reason why good born-again Christians have suffered a major spiritual defeat in their lives. It’s also why countless Christian families have been hurt by Satan’s insidious tactics during these times of his intense spiritual warfare.
Let me give you a few insights about this spiritual enemy that Jesus says, “Was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Throughout history, Satan has tried to frustrate, destroy and counterfeit God’s purposes on earth. His attacks against God started with the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, causing them to disobey God, and he has never stopped. He caused lawlessness and wickedness to become so terrible in the days of Noah that God had no choice but to cleanse the earth by a flood. Satan’s success in developing the spirit of rebellion and permissiveness in the Jewish people would often cause them to turn against the ways of God. One of the saddest stories in the Bible is how they totally missed the incarnation when God became man and visited planet earth through the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible states that Jesus came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

Satan’s warfare against God’s people continued after the church began. History records that in the first 300 years of the church, his attacks against Christians working primarily through the Roman government were so harsh, an estimated three million Christians were persecuted by every cruel act of torture imaginable.

Similar attacks continued up through the Dark and Middle ages. Then after Martin Luther posted his “95 theses” on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517, the Reformation began and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was once again openly being preached. Soon thereafter, however, the Reformation Wars began and history records that in the 1500s several million Christians were brutally massacred for their faith in Jesus Christ. That was just 500 years ago. You probably remember studying in high school about some of these terrible historical events that occurred during the Reformation Wars. On August 24, 1557, 70,000 Christians were killed in one day in what is known as the “St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.” In fact, it was the persecution of Christians by the church in England that brought the Pilgrims and a massive exodus of Puritans to America in the early 1600s.

Over the last 2000 years (during the church age) nearly 70 million Christians have been killed. Forty-five million of those killed have been since the year 1900. This is in addition to the millions who have been persecuted by being put in jail or by some other means. I tell you these things because they reveal the truth about our spiritual enemy and the extremes to which he will go to attack God and His people.

Another method Satan uses, which may be worse than persecution, is DECEPTION. Deception is much more difficult to discern than persecution. DECEPTION BREEDS COMPROMISE! COMPROMISE LEADS TO DISOBEDIENCE! DISOBEDIENCE LEADS TO SPIRITUAL DEFEAT. THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN DETERMINE THE USE OF DECEPTION IN YOUR LIFE IS TO EXAMINE THE FRUIT THAT YOUR DECISION WILL PRODUCE COMPARED TO SCRIPTURE, THE WORD OF GOD. THIS IS THE TEST WE MUST USE TO TEST THE SPIRITS.
When you or I produce fruit from a decision or a choice that is contrary to what is taught in the Word of God, regardless if we don’t see anything wrong, there is every possibility the enemy is deceiving us. The first attack Satan made on the human race is recorded in Genesis chapter 3. What caused Eve, then Adam to disobey is recorded in Genesis 3:13. It says, “Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” This act of disobedience came through deception. Their decision brought about a major spiritual defeat.

In my next BLOG, I will explore other examples in Scripture where Satan used deception and caused someone to disobey and fall. . . Join us here next week!

Be sure to visit the FREE DOWNLOADS page to find several other books and booklets written by Bob Fraley. The FREE DOWNLOADS page contains complete .pdf files that you may read and download absolutely FREE! Go to: http://www.bobfraleychristianlifeoutreach.com and click on the “FREE DOWNLOADS” button!

Rethinking Revelation Chapter 13 (Part 2)

    This is a continuation of an introduction about Bob Fraley, if you are just joining this BLOG, please be sure to read the previous BLOG for continuity…

The second most important part of my life following my relationship with the Lord is the family. I won’t go into detail in this BLOG about our family since our testimony is fully covered in my book, The Blessings of Obedience. (Read the end of this BLOG to see how you can get a free download of the book in its entirety).

This brings me to the last two areas, of how I spend my time. Since 1973, I have been a part of developing two successful manufacturing companies that produce high tech extruded aluminum alloys for the aerospace industry. In the first company, I was a minor stockholder. Then in 1997 I founded my own manufacturing company making the same product. Since I come from a highly technical background it may help you understand the depth of my approach and how thorough I am in exploring the meaning of the Greek text when I research the Scriptures.

My hobbies and recreation are usually associated with sports. In my youth, I was a fairly good athlete. I enjoy watching a basketball or football game. I play golf, usually with one or more of our boys. All three of our boys excelled in athletics, each receiving the school’s top athletic award their senior year in high school. One was an All-American in college. They probably received more of their athletic ability from my wife. She was a natural, excelling in any sport she tried as well as being the school’s drum majorette and a cheer leader. We are not fans of most of the television programs or the modern-day movies. For relaxation, we will watch an old-time classic movie in the evening.   

I now return to the question I asked at the beginning of this writing (previous BLOG). It was; “Did you know prophetic scriptures warn that we are living in the most difficult times ever for Americans to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ?” 

Nations are often a reflection of the collective thoughts of their people. Today, I fear too many Americans no longer believe it was God who made us a great nation. As a result, many Americans have dismissed the standards of Christianity as more or less irrelevant for moderns. A secular mindset sets aside spiritual contributions as being mostly meaningless. It is almost as though there is an unstated national effort to distance ourselves from our Christian past. It seems many place the new emphasis on tolerance and multiculturalism that considers Christianity to be outdated, embarrassing, and even offensive.

As a result, in recent decades many of the long-standing standards and guidelines the majority of our people lived by have changed. These include the way we raise our families, run our public schools and government, and set our moral standards for the social order. All this has resulted in numerous societal adjustments that would have once been unthinkable. Our government has passed legislation allowing ungodly standards that would never have been tolerated by earlier generations. The most obvious example is a law that has allowed the killing of more than 50 million innocent babies through abortion-on-demand. Another example is outlawing open prayer in our public schools, yet it is okay for schools to distribute birth control items, which of course promotes sexual immorality. 

Moral standards unthinkable 30-40 years ago have now become commonplace in our society and even flaunted in our media as the status quo. Our ‘new’ moral code has developed an attitude that says; “If you can get away with it, then it is all right.”

It’s not surprising that my research about our country’s ‘new’ moral code shows that during a recent thirty-year period:

• Crime increased by 500%.
•  Illegitimate births by 400%.
• Three times the number of children live in single-parent homes.
• The teenage suicide rate tripled.
• Incest and child molestation have become a national epidemic and police estimate that just 25% of such instances are reported.

In recent years enough teachers and students have been gunned down to make a weapons check commonplace in schools. The entertainment industry discovered it could display violence and sexually explicit scenes with minimal public resistance.

Since World War II, the most fundamental means of preserving order, which is a commitment to the family, has taken hit after hit. The divorce rate has skyrocketed even among regular churchgoers. Addiction to pornography has reached epidemic levels among both Christians and non-Christians, and many are falling into sexual sin. Greed and unethical conduct have tainted such professions as doctors, lawyers, politicians, educators, lawyers, corporate executives, ministers, athletes and others that historically represented the “pillars of our society.”

Large areas of our great cities, once the principal evidence of a mighty industrial nation, have turned into a stalking ground for crime. Violence, sexual permissiveness and drug dealing have now reached epidemic levels. America has the largest prison population in the world with an incarceration rate that is more than seven-times most other countries. Our country, which had such a strong Christian foundation and where so much Christian teaching has taken place, has experienced an overwhelming increase in lawlessness, rebelliousness, selfishness, and permissiveness. Since World War II, the percentage of young Americans with biblically-based values has dropped from 65 to 4 percent. 

In the history of mankind there has never been a society whose moral values have deteriorated so drastically in such a short period of time as Americans have during the past 50-60 years, and this trend shows no sign of stopping. The standards in our country have deteriorated more this past generation than in all the previous years combined since our forefathers founded America.

In my next blog, I will explore the question, “WHY?” Why have the standards in our country deteriorated more this past generation than in all the previous years combined??? 

Join us here next week!

Visit the FREE DOWNLOADS page on our website to find several other books and booklets written by Bob Fraley. The FREE DOWNLOADS page contains complete .pdf files that you may read and download absolutely FREE! Go to: http://www.bobfraleychristianlifeoutreach.com and click on the “FREE DOWNLOADS” button!

JESUS’ PROPHECY OF DECEPTION IN AMERICA (PART 1)

In the days of Noah, God warned of a coming catastrophe. God warned Lot before He destroyed wicked Sodom. I believe God has also warned the people of America in our day. His warnings have come through various Christian leaders who have made clear that our nation is racing toward a day of judgment. However, one of God’s most significant warnings concerning spiritual deception in these last days came from His Son Jesus.

Jesus warned, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-30).

Notice that there is something missing in this passage! Jesus doesn’t mention the many evils that marked those earlier days, which is what we usually hear about. Nor does He say anything about gross sins in our day. In fact, not one of the items He mentions is a sin. They are the everyday things people do in life: drink, eat, marry, buy, sell, plant and build. It is important to recognize this in order to properly understand the meaning of His prophecy.

The Old Testament states that in the days of Noah and Lot, lawlessness and permissiveness were rampant. It is given as a basic reason God destroyed both places. Yet when comparing our day to those, Jesus doesn’t make a single comment about this. His comparison is with the buying, selling, eating, drinking, marrying, planting and building. He only mentions these everyday affairs of life! WHY?

The answer takes us to the core of the spiritual deception now taking place in our country. It helps explain why our society’s moral values have deteriorated so quickly. Everyone knows about the sins of our land; we hear about them every day. Jesus did not have to mention them. David Wilkerson, Pastor of Times Square Church in New York City stated, “I was listening to a special radio program in a large eastern city, where the people on the street were being interviewed about the moral condition of America. The question was asked, ‘Do you believe America has lost its moral integrity?’ Almost all who were interviewed said basically the same thing. ‘America is going to hell in a hand basket!’ ‘We no longer care if scoundrels run our country, as long as we prosper.’ ‘Anything goes now; we are in the last days of our society—we are modern Rome going into collapse!’ ‘Morality and purity have been sold out to pleasure and prosperity.’ ‘Sodom had no porno, no Internet sex, no abortion, no filthy television polluting that society, so how can America expect to go on without being held accountable?’”

In this warning from God’s Son that compares our day to the days of Noah and Lot, I see the Lord pouring out His love to the majority of the people rather than chastising the minority who are involved in wickedness. We are the Lord’s main concern in this warning. We are those who go about doing the things most people do in the normal way of living—the buying, selling, building, marrying, and so forth.

Why are we Jesus’ main concern in His warning, rather than those who are involved in gross sins? I believe it is because He could foresee our over-commitment to everyday affairs. What we are doing is not a sin in and of itself. The problem is the commitment of our hearts to these self-serving matters over and above a commitment to live by godly standards. Our over-extended routines have become more important to us than seeking to understand and obey God’s will.

This is what happened to my brother, taking him out of God’s will for his life. You and I are the ones who can help prevent our society falling apart at the seams. We are the people who can make a difference. But Jesus knew that people in our day would become so wrapped up in their everyday lives that we would ignore the warning signs.

Our country is on the brink of a great chastening from the hand of God. America has been blessed far beyond most nations throughout history. The Bible says God will hold us accountable for the deterioration of our moral standards. Luke 12:48b reads, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” The Scriptures teach that God disciplines those He has blessed if they become careless in their way of living. It is His way of correcting those He loves. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” (Hebrews 12:6-7).

Just as in Noah’s day, people now are doing little to prepare themselves—to build their spiritual arks. What Jesus warned us about was a deception that produces self-centered, self-serving Christians. This condition caused the Lord more concern than the many sins the minority were involved in. He was more troubled about the heart attitude of the majority. The focus of the heart was a problem in Noah’s day, and it is a problem in our day as well. That is why Jesus lists the things that are everyday time-killers, even though not one of them is a sin as such.

We have become so preoccupied that our hearts have grown cold. The worldly media has deceived us and weakened our ability to discern right from wrong regarding our commitments.

Our preoccupation with these basic elements has caused us to lose our discernment in regard to interpreting the signs of the times. Jesus warned that even Christians would be deceived. “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. So be on guard; I have told you everything ahead of time” (Mark 13:22-23; see also Matthew 24:24).

Permissiveness and lawlessness had deteriorated to the point of being out of control in the days of Noah and Lot. But Jesus says there was a greater concern—the heart attitude of the people who put their priorities above God’s. This caused them to not pay attention to His desires. What they were doing was not sinful in the traditional sense of the word, but the commitment of their hearts was to self-serving rather than to walking according to the standards of God and His will for their lives. This, tragically, prevented them from seeing the signs of the times.

The truth of this prophecy is tough to discuss as I do not want to discount God’s blessings. However, the spirit of the good life has created a commitment to our everyday affairs over and above our commitment to seek His will and it has captured the hearts of all too many Americans. As my brother shared in his testimony, the Lord gave him a vision of a beast over our country, overcoming Christians almost at will, through the deceptive elements of materialism and pleasure.

God chose to put these words from Jesus about Noah’s day in the Bible to warn us about our day. It was important to Him that we be wise to the kind of warfare the enemy would throw at Christians in these end-times. Too many of God’s people have fallen for this deception and become victims of his attacks. The Scriptures certainly caution us about these matters—we have just failed to heed the warnings.

Watch for Part 2 of “Jesus’ Prophecy of Deception in America” on October 25^th, 2010.