22 Deception is a far more serious problem than the churches recognize.
Fundamentalist Christians fret themselves over the adultery, fornication, drunkenness, stealing, and murder of the present age. But they themselves engage in gossiping and backbiting continually. Then they arise in fury and denounce speaking in tongues as of the devil—a practice having more scriptural support than does personal evangelism.
Truly, Divine wisdom is justified by her children. Truly, all these facts will be brought into the light at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
The pattern of Church history suggests strongly that the murderers of the two witnesses, the saints bearing the end-time witness, will be the leaders of the Christian churches.
Why will they murder God’s prophets? Because of envy. The works of the Lord’s elect will be gloriously filled with righteousness and power because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
If church-attendee's have become so incensed over "tongues," what will they do when they behold the power of the saints of the last days?
The works of the dead churches will be threadbare and barren, void of God’s blessing, being filled with deceit, slander, evil speaking, lust, self-seeking, jealousy, rage, and every other satanic manifestation.
Religious men, as is true of Satan, desire to share in the power and Glory of the Lord Jesus. Like Satan, they desire to obtain power and Divine Glory in the manner that they choose, and then to manage such power and glory when they obtain it. They desire to be "like God" apart from union with God. This is Antichrist.
The fervent religious individual may gain power and glory through the Christian religion, but he exposes himself to the danger of becoming filled with religious pride and envy, as happened to the leaders of Israel. When the believer chooses to gain power and glory, even spiritual power and glory, apart from sharing in the suffering of the cross, he enters deception.
Much Christian work is performed apart from the cross. The worker, perhaps without realizing it, is seeking his own glory. If this is not true, why do Christian missionary groups compete against one another? If Jesus is in them and guiding them, why do they fight one another? Is this too harsh an indictment or is this what both the Scriptures and Church history teach us?
For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. (Philippians 2:21) If the Holy Spirit in Paul claims that the preachers of Christ of the first century were seeking their own power and glory, our indictment is not too strong.
Can we receive the truth that Antichrist works in the Christian churches? Is it a fact of history that well into the twentieth century the Catholic believers, with whom we are having fellowship today in the Charismatic movement, were torturing and murdering their fellow Protestant saints in South America?
If Protestant believers are evil, as the Catholics maintained, why then did the Catholic priesthood and laity suddenly turn around, in response to a papal decree, and fellowship with the Evangelicals in Colombia?
Church history reveals that Christ and His anointed are murdered in "Jerusalem," in the city of God. Which prophet has not been slain there?
Why is this? It is because we seek to be like God apart from entering union with God. King Self is on the throne of our heart. King Self always is envious of Jesus’ right to rule, and will murder Jesus at every opportunity.
Why are so many believers living in such terrible deception? It is because they do not love the truth. They desire to believe they can enjoy the pleasures of the world and still be Christians. They are not willing to love not their lives to the point of death. They are not willing to deny themselves for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s. They are clinging to their "right" to do as they please. They are self-cantered and self-willed. They are potential antichrists and false prophets.
Will the mass of fundamentalist believers ever be delivered from the deception into which they have been led by a self-seeking ministry? Probably not, unless Christ in His mercy sends much tribulation on us.
The spirit of religious ambition is the murderer of Christ. The Pharisees murdered Christ because of envy. The religious leaders and people will murder the Lord’s anointed remnant because of envy.
"Jerusalem" is the "city" in which the Lord was crucified, and where the Lord’s elect will be persecuted and slain. Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem. Taken together they are "Babylon"—the gathering together of the peoples of the earth in the name of religion to build a tower that will reach to the heaven. It is the satanic, religious desire to ascend to God, but it is in order to kill God so man can reign, and Satan in him, without hindrance.
And they of the people and kindred's and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. (Revelation 11:9)
One may wonder at the unwillingness of the peoples of the earth to bury the two witnesses.
Satan has learned, over the past several thousand years of dealing with God’s people, that the best way to overcome them is to be kind to them. Whenever Satan has tortured and killed the saints, has "buried" them, the Church of Christ has become strong and radiant in glory. Its numbers have multiplied.
The only good that comes to Satan from the torture and murder of the saints is the satisfaction and fulfilment of the demons of murder. But the Kingdom of God is strengthened and purified by the persecution.
Therefore Satan’s strategy for the end-time is to overcome the saints with material prosperity and programs of welfare and concern for people. There are many believers whom Satan cannot overcome by adultery or drunkenness, but he conquers them readily by blessing the work of their hands so their prayer life becomes casual.
The Christians in some nations are finding themselves in a friendly world full of sunshine, good friends, plenty of food, educational opportunities, being surrounded by institutions concerned for their physical welfare.
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