A Deeper Dive Into the Book of Revelation - Part 20
In the 1960s and 70s, Walter Cronkite was a highly respected news reporter for the CBS Evening News. He was so highly respected that he was called “the most trusted man in America.”
Can you imagine any news reporter today being called “the most trusted person in America?”
It seems nearly impossible today to find any news source that presents an unbiased report of facts. Every story, every reporter, and every news source seems to have an agenda and a bias.
We seem to be living in an era where news reporting is dead. News has been replaced by propaganda with an agenda.
Some of the propaganda being spewed from news outlets contains so many obvious lies that you may have wondered, “How can people really believe such outrageous lies?” And yet, many, many millions of people believe these lies and accept them without questioning them.
How can people be so easily deceived? And why is this happening now on such a large scale throughout society?
The Bible answers these questions for us in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, **and with all unrighteous deception **among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”—2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (NKJV)
We are experiencing a great separation now in our society. On one side, there are people who are embracing the Truth and purging their lives and thoughts of deceptions and lies and walking in the Light. On the other side, people are embracing lies and deceptions as their philosophies of life and walking in darkness.
The reason that major media outlets have become purveyors of propaganda, spewing lies and deceptions on the population is to prepare the way for the reign of the Antichrist.
Just as John the Baptist was sent as a voice to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, false prophets are spewing lies and deceptive propaganda every day in order to prepare a people to receive and accept the counterfeit Christ who will be revealed soon.
How Deception Happens
The process of the descent into the darkness of deception is clearly described in the Bible.
First, people are presented with the Truth of Scripture, as they have been in our American society that was founded on Christian principles.
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God himself has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse.”—Romans 1:19-20 (ISV)
Then they reject the Truth of Scripture because they enjoy lifestyles of sin, and they have no intention of giving up the sin that they love more dearly than the Truth.
“They will all be condemned because they did not believe the truth and because they enjoyed doing evil.”—2 Thessalonians 2:12 (ERV)
“they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.”—2 Thessalonians 2:10 (NLT)
“And this is the basis for judgment: The light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light because their actions were evil. Everyone who practices wickedness hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his actions may not be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may become evident that his actions have God’s approval.”—John 3:19-21 (ISV)
“For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth.”—Romans 1:18 (ISV)
Bill Gothard used to say that “a man’s morality dictates his theology.”
Bill once spoke with a man who argued against the truth of God even though he was raised in a Christian home. Bill finally asked him, “is there some immoral habit that you cannot seem to break?” The man had to admit that it was true. Because he had embraced a sinful lifestyle, this man felt compelled to reject the Truth of God that convicted him that his lifestyle was wrong.
Next, when the Truth of Scripture is rejected, it is replaced by lies and deceptions.
“Therefore God sends upon them a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make them believe what is false”—2 Thessalonians 2:11 (AMPC)
**“**For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Though claiming to be wise, they became fools”—Romans 1:21-22 (ISV)
This is what the wicked King Ahab experienced. When he rebelled against God and rejected God’s Truth, God sent a “strong delusion” of lies to him through the mouths of his own advisors. Even though he was warned about these deceptions, Ahab believed these lies, and it led to his destruction. We read this in 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18.
Then Micaiah said, “Listen now to the Lord’s word: I saw the Lord enthroned with all the heavenly forces stationed beside him, at his right and at his left.
The Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab so that he attacks Ramoth-gilead and dies there?’
There were many suggestions until one particular spirit approached the Lord and said, ‘I’ll persuade him.’
‘How?’ the Lord asked.
‘I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets,’ he said.
The Lord agreed, ‘You will succeed in persuading him! Go ahead!’
**“**So now, since the Lord has placed a lying spirit in the mouths of every one of these prophets of yours, it is the Lord who has pronounced disaster against you!”—1 Kings 22:19-23 (CEB)
We cannot live without a philosophy of life. If we reject God’s truth, we do not live in a void. That void is immediately filled with deceptions and lies.
“They exchanged God’s truth for a lie”—Romans 1:25 (ISV)
The root cause of all intentional sin is believing a lie.
Jamie Lash has said that intentional sin is always the result of a false belief that there is something good for me apart from God.
This is what led to Eve committing the very first sin recorded in Genesis chapter 3. Before she could sin by eating the forbidden fruit, she had to be deceived into thinking that there was something good for her apart from what God allowed.
Many people think that after they throw off the “restrictions imposed upon them” by the Truth of Scripture, then they will be free. That is not what happens. When people reject God’s Truth and embrace lies and deceptions, they become enslaved to the immoral activities that they insisted on pursuing. These activities lead to habits and addictions that drag people down into self-destruction.
“For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. They exchanged God’s truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
“For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural. In the same way, their males also abandoned their natural sexual function toward females and burned with lust toward one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received within themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion.
“Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Although they know God’s just requirement—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do these things but even applaud others who practice them.”—Romans 1:24-32 (ISV)
When an entire society rejects the Truth of God and embraces lies instead, then that society descends into the lifestyles of decadence and moral perversion that are celebrated and promoted by our own American government today.
There is a law of sin and death (Romans 8:2) just as there is a law of gravity. There is no escape from either one. If you leave a safe path and step off of a cliff, you will fall. You may be hurt in the fall. You may even experience your own destruction and death. Likewise, if you give yourself over to sin, you will begin to descend towards your own destruction and death. It is a law. It is guaranteed.
“The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:23 (ICB)
Lawlessness
“I also examined on earth: where the halls of justice were supposed to be, there was lawlessness; and where the righteous were supposed to be, there was lawlessness.”—Ecclesiastes 3:16 (ISV)
The Antichrist is known in Scripture as “the lawless one.”
“The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the power of Satan. He will use every kind of power, including miraculous signs, lying wonders, and every type of evil to deceive those who are dying, those who refused to love the truth that would save them.”—2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (ISV)
The increasing influence of the Antichrist spirit is being accompanied by increasing lawlessness in our society. In fact, if it weren’t for the Overcoming believers who are standing against the evil in our society, the lawless Antichrist spirit would take over.
“For the mystery of lawlessness [rebellion against divine authority and the coming reign of lawlessness] is already at work; [but it is restrained] only until he who now restrains it is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one [the Antichrist] will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by the appearance of His coming.”—2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 (AMP)
Jesus tells us that the last days will be marked by an increase in lawlessness.
“Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people, and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many people will grow cold.”—Matthew 24:11-12 (ISV)
When we see crime, violence, and anarchy increase in our culture, we see the influence of the lawless spirit of Antichrist.
When we see our own government officials rewarding criminal behavior and punishing crime victims, then we see that the lawless Antichrist spirit has taken hold of the highest levels of government.
When we see intense efforts by government officials to ignore—and even undermine—the law of the land; and when we see efforts to defund and disband law enforcement agencies, then we are seeing the lawless spirit of Antichrist working to take over our nation.
“And so, dear friends, since you already know these things, continuously be on your guard not to be carried away by the deception of lawless people. Otherwise, you may fall from your secure position.”—2 Peter 3:17 (ISV)
The Statue Dream of John Paul Jackson
When we see our own government officials taking the agencies that were intended to serve the citizens and using them instead to attack and oppress the citizens, then we are seeing the lawless spirit of Antichrist working through the governmental agencies of our nation.
In January, 1984, John Paul Jackson had a long and detailed dream about the Antichrist’s rise to power and the conditions in society that would lead to it. In 1984, all of these factors were not yet in place, but I believe that we are seeing symptoms of all of these conditions today.
I believe that we can see the black goo of the “mudfall” from his dream in the “woke” ideology that is so prevalent today. This “mudfall” of lies is being taught as truth now in our colleges and universities. This indoctrination is so successful that otherwise normal young people have been persuaded to support terrorists and to call for the death of Jews and the destruction of Israel. Boys are being convinced that they are girls. Capitalism is bad. Socialism is good. Climate change is the biggest threat to our survival. Abortion is an acceptable form of birth control. White people are inherently racist, and all of the evils in our society can be traced back to racist white men. These are all lies, but our children are being indoctrinated with these lies on a daily basis.
Sadly, according to John Paul’s dream, the rise of the Antichrist reign on earth can be traced back to a breakdown of the family. It all goes back to the final prophecy of the Old Testament:
“And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” —Malachi 4:6 (NKJV)
It could very well be that the curse spoken of in this verse will be fulfilled in the coming reign of the Antichrist on earth.
Please make time to download and listen to this important message from John Paul Jackson. I believe it is more relevant for us now than it was when he received it in 1984.
The Statue Dream – KVTT Radio broadcast, Dallas, Texas – January 1984:
If you have time, you can also download and listen to this dream and its interpretation shared live at a Full Gospel Businessmen’s meeting in Plano, Texas on February 18, 1984:
FGB Plano February 18, 1984 – Part 1
FGB Plano February 18, 1984 – Part 2
**Reference: **
Wikimedia Foundation. (2024, September 1). Walter Cronkite. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite
