Be not deceived. Becoming a people of discernment in the times in which we are alive.

The words that are quoted above concerning not being deceived are taken straight from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Olivet sermon in Matt 24 where he warns his disciples and would-be followers throughout every successive generation to be on their guard against deception.

"Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name saying "I am the Christ", and will deceive many." Matt 24 vs4

This is important for us to hear because Jesus is clearly saying that before He comes again, at the very end of this present evil age, the number one sign of the lateness of the hour and of the nearness of His coming is going to be deception and how widespread it will become.

I believe that there are many Christians who are emotionally and mentally put off any article or sermon warning against rising deception in the earth because they see the example of so many self-appointed Pharisees under the guise of self-appointed titles of "watchmen" or "prophets", or those who feel it is their calling to denounce others to exalt themselves.

Let's be honest, this goes on all the time and is pretty nauseating.

However, does that give us the license to throw out the baby with the bathwater so to speak? Does it give us the liberty to ignore by not giving careful heed to these words of Christ especially as we are moving into times that are becoming ever darker morally, and where truth lies fallen in the streets?

(When the Welsh government in its Senedd, which is its parliament, installs tampons and female monthly hygiene accessories in the men's toilets and restrooms you know madness has descended upon our culture, and it is given over to a reprobate mind)

It is important to understand the times in which we are living, indeed that is the whole purpose of this website, to help to prepare the Lord's people to be ready for His coming again.

The Apostle Paul tells us in two Thessalonians that,

"Let no one deceive you by any means for that Day (speaking of the day of the return of Christ) will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin revealed, the son of perdition.

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".2 Thessalonians 2 vs3,9-10

In other words, before the Lord comes again there will be a proliferation of deception, especially around the true nature and identity of Christ and there will be the emergence of a person called the antichrist who will seek to deceive as many people as possible, by seeking to turn them away from following Christ, to following and worshipping him instead.

When you witness the leading bishops of the Anglican church discuss how in their judgment our understanding of scripture has and is now evolving to embrace a different standard of what constitutes immorality and impurity, where men committing sexual acts with other men, or women with women, should now be "blessed", as opposed to being seen biblically as something that is under God's judgment, make no mistake this apostasy has begun.

I have just read recently a fascinating book by Eric Metaxas called "letter to the American Church".

Metaxas has written a definitive biography on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and is an authority on the rise of nazi power in Germany just prior to the second world war.

In this book titled "letter to the American Church", he draws attention to the striking parallels that existed between the Church in Germany prior to the outbreak of the second world war in Germany in the 1930,s, and the situation in the American Church of today (and I would add that of the United Kingdom also)

Perhaps the most startling revelation upon which he writes is the complicity of the German Church. In the book, he discusses how there was a part of the Church in Germany that was clearly deceived and pro the nazis, as well as a small group that saw the writing on the wall and rose up saying, "no".However, there was a far larger group in the middle, "a silent majority", that said nothing but just kept its head down.

Metaxas poses the question "What if that silent majority had sounded the alarm and been faithful like Bonhoeffer was?" (who decided to return from living in North America to Germany compelled by the call to take his stand, one that ultimately cost him his life)

This silence in the face of the rise of a totalitarian power in the misguided belief that it was for the most part a Christian's responsibility just to preach the gospel and keep their heads down and their mouths shut even whilst the Jews were being systematically restricted of all their human rights and rounded up to be eventually herded into box cars to be transported to their mass executions, was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions.

I would like to think that there were at this time in Germany many Christians and pastors who had an uneasy conscience as they thought of the fate of their fellow countrymen who were Jewish, as well as lamented the increasing persecution of the true Church, but yet they said nothing, at least not too loudly or publically, until it was too late and the darkness had descended and all freedoms had gone.

The same spirit that arose in Germany in the 1930's is rising again.

But this time it does not come in the form of rousing speeches and youth marches to stir up nationalistic fervor, or in the form of marching soldiers wearing jackboots striding in goosestep.

Rather it is coming in the form of a totalitarianism in the issue of the moral landscape being radically altered, the boundaries of right and wrong. It is manifesting in the form of silencing or attempting to silence the truth, of promoting an immoral agenda through education and arts and religion and media, and financial punishments (like Paypals recent updated user agreement threatening to impose punitive fines to all their customers using their platform who spread "misinformation" the definition of which they would solely get to decide. They subsequently recanted claiming it was an error of communication after a furious backlash on social media,and many threatening to take their custom elsewhere), or like non-woke professionals losing their jobs and in punishing those whose conscience will not let them comply with the new required etiquette. It is just as totalitarian and every bit as wicked.

In the book of Daniel, we are given a clear prophecy of this coming man of sin, the son of perdition, this coming antichrist, and what he will seek to accomplish.

"In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressions have reached their fullness, A king shall arise having fierce features, Who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty but not by his own power, he shall destroy fearfully and shall prosper and thrive, he shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people.

Through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule, and he shall exalt himself in his heart

He shall even rise against the prince of princes but he shall be broken without human hand." Daniel 8 vs23-25

A sober warning indeed.

In Germany under the Nazis, once Hitler had drafted his so-called "final solution," he came for the Church. He tore down the crosses and replaced them with swasticas, replaced bibles on the altars with copies of Mien Kampf, and installed puppet priests as ministers of the new state religion.

Those who resisted were summarily rounded up and taken to concentration camps or simply "disappeared"

In my own country of Great Britain, it is astonishing how many leaders were truly deceived by Hitler at the beginning, as was much of the Church in Germany.

A group of Anglican clergymen expressed a boundless admiration "for the moral and ethical" side of the nazi program, "its clear stand for religion and Christianity and its ethical principles."

What? Talk about the blind leading the blind.

John Simon who was his Majesty's foreign secretary from 1931-1935 described Hitler when he emerged upon the scene as, "An Austrian Joan of Arc with a mustache."

This is from one of the most senior diplomats in the country who knew human nature and had experienced and interacted with human nature on an international stage.

Thomas Jones who had been variously in and out of Whitehall for many years wrote this in his diary,

"All sorts of people who have met Hitler are convinced that he is a factor for peace. He doesn't seek war but friendship"

Even someone with the political clout of Lloyd George said that he regarded him as the greatest living German.

Early in Hitler's rise to influence on the world stage Lloyd George wrote, "I only wish we had a man of his supreme quality at the head of affairs in our country today."

How could he be so deceived? How could they all have been so taken in.?

I recently found a picture taken from the Sept 12th, 1934 edition of the British satirical magazine called "Punch" which has a hideous picture of Churchill's face, lampooning him as "A prophet of doom."

That was the popular perception and yet Churchill was one of the very few individuals in the early to mid-1930's who sounded the alarm.

"Take heed that you be not deceived", said our Lord Jesus Christ and it is always by their fruits, not their words that a person's character should be discerned.

The coming man of lawlessness will not arise as a warmonger but as a man of peace.

He will come as a solution-finder, a problem solver, and as an architect for global peace.

He will promote liberality and tolerance but only for a while until the mask falls off and behind it is the tyrant of tyrants, the warmonger of warmongers.

The battle which we face today is a battle for freedom vs bondage, for freedom as opposed to tyranny.

It affects our young people, it affects our children, and it affects the unborn in the womb.

It affects our liberty to preach the glorious gospel, to meet and to pray, to preach without censorship or persecution. It is the fight for the liberty to live in our nations as those who can practice our religion unmolested, can think our thoughts and speak our words without fear.

It is the very battle for the ground of truth itself, the moral foundations upon which our civilizations were founded, the re-establishing of the ancient boundary lines that God has forever set and will arise to defend in our times.

Two and a half thousand years ago the prophet Daniel foresaw the coming man of lawlessness as one who through his cleverness, (supernaturally demonically inspired), would cause deception to succeed for an hour in human history. We need to be awake and alert, and sober-minded to these things, beloved. We need to not pretend that our duty as Christians is just to preach the gospel to get people saved, meanwhile closing our eyes to the reality of what is going on around us, and refusing to speak up and to speak out.

So how should we live as those who are called to be Christ's bride, a people called out of darkness into His marvelous light?

We should live soberly, which means that we should be alert and awakened to the hour of history we have stepped into, not spiritually asleep or dull in spirit to hear God's voice.

We should certainly not be afraid. The word of God says that He has not given to us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

And "greater is He that is in us", as believers, than he that is in the world. The victory is assured in the victorious One.

We do not respond with fear because we are motivated by love, God's love, and supremely with a love for Him, and out of that love with a love for the truth itself.

In the passage in 2 Thessalonians which I earlier quoted from we are told that in a time when deception will be rampant upon the earth, there will be a calling and a requirement to receive and to treasure a love for the truth.

This is obviously something more and something greater than merely an academic assent to certain propositions.

It speaks of those who are described in the book of Revelation, standing as faithful witnesses to Christ, and that "they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives unto death."

That means that they loved the truth more than their own safety, they loved truth over their human weakness and fears.

Only the power of the love of Christ possessing a human heart and empowering a human soul can give to them this selflessness, can infuse them with this kind of love.

The clarity of conviction and the courage necessary for us to truly be the overcomers that we are called to be, as Christ's body in this world, will not be with some kind of spiritual bravado neither with our own human zeal or strength.

It will be given to those whose hearts are ablaze with the love of God, with the supernatural love of Christ.

It will be manifested in a company who are fiery-hearted lovers of God and followers of the Lamb

wherever He may lead them, for we implicitly trust in Him as our good Shepherd to lead and guide us safely in His good pastures and to lay before us His great banqueting table even in the presence of our deadliest foes.

This invitation is to all, to those who have ears to hear and an eye to see.

It is a call of God going forth now across the earth to those who have bowed their knee because they have first bowed their heart to the worthy Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Have you done that my friend? There is no other refuge and no other true place of shelter outside of Christ in this world or the one which is to come.

Jesus said that "whoever comes to me I will never cast away".

You may say "But you do not know what I have done?"

I don't care what you have done.

God who knows and sees everything still forgives you and will receive you and wash you from every stain and sin if you will turn to Him with a true heart in repentance and call upon His name.

Do it today if you have never done so before, for today is the day of salvation, and now the time of God's favor is at hand.

God can make you a brand new creature in a moment of time.

For those of us who have come to Christ and discovered Him to be a treasure above every other thing, let us each and every one of us arise in this moment of history and begin to shine because the light of God's glorious presence will surely break forth upon us as we take our stand for Him, trusting not in ourselves but in Him who loved us and washed us from our sins with His precious blood and will be with us in this battle until the end.