Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #25 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to read Revelation 13:14:

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

We were discussing the ability that Satan possessed after the time of his loosing during the Great Tribulation to “call down fire from heaven” on the earth in the sight of men.  Of course, he could not literally “call down fire from heaven,” but he could cause people to “fall over backwards,” and we see this particular phenomenon happening in numerous churches in the world.  People are deceived and when they go to this kind of church and the pastor applies his hand to them and they are suddenly thrown backwards to the ground, they feel it is evidence of having the Holy Spirit: “I have been slain in the spirit.  Oh, hallelujah, I am a child of God because I have the Spirit!”  That is so far from the truth; it is in keeping with how Satan works to deceive men, just like when so many people think, “I have accepted Christ, so, wonderfully, I am a child of God.”  That is a simple lie, but this is a more dramatic lie: “I have fallen backwards and, therefore, I have the Holy Spirit.”  No, you have fallen over backwards because it has been given to Satan to be able to perform this “parlor trick” to make people fall over backwards, the equivalent of “calling down fire from heaven.” 

God has allowed him this little thing in order to Satan to use it as an indicator or proof that he is God: “I am God.  I can even confirm that my churches are true churches because they can do the equivalent of ‘calling down fire from heaven’ as they fall over backwards.”  Yet, it is all a bunch of lies.  It is all deception and only proves these people are under the wrath of God.  To “fall backwards,” in the Bible, is a sign of being under the judgment of God.

When Eli was “sitting on the fence,” anxiously waiting for the ark of God to return from the battle (when the misguided Israelites wrongly carried the ark into battle in hopes it would win them the victory), the report came that the ark had been captured by the Philistines.  First, he heard that his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, had been slain and the Israelites had lost the battle and thousands of them had died and, finally, he heard that the ark of God was captured and taken by the Philistines and Eli “fell backward” and broke his neck and died.  Was there any good in falling over backwards?  No, it was judgment on the rebellious people of Israel because they had taken the ark into battle.  Everything went wrong.  They lost the battle and many were killed including Eli’s sons and the high priest of Israel (Eli) “fell backwards,” indicating that God’s anger and wrath was upon them. 

That is exactly what is happening today.  When people “fall over backwards” in their churches, it is a big sign that God’s wrath is upon that congregation and upon the churches.  The fact that Satan has been loosed is all a part of the wrath of God upon the churches.  Before Satan was loosed, he had been shut up in the bottomless pit for a figurative “thousand years,” which represented the duration of the church age, from 33 AD until May 21, 1988, the day before Pentecost.  The church age ended and Satan was loosed.  We read about this in Revelation 20:7-8:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

This is basically telling us that Satan goes into the churches and he is able to deceive the inhabitants of the churches and gathers them together as his personal army to come against the kingdom of God. 

We read further concerning this time of the Great Tribulation and Satan’s loosing, in Matthew 24:24:

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders…

The Greek word translated as “signs” in Matthew 24:24 is the same Greek word translated as “great wonders” in Revelation 13:13.  “For there shall arise false Christs,” and false Christs are false gospels because Christ and the Gospel are synonymous.  There are “false prophets” and they are those that proclaim the false gospels.  And they “shall shew great signs and wonders,” and it goes on to say in Matthew 24:24:

…insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

This is a big sign post of the time of the end when the Great Tribulation begins and judgment begins at the house of God.  That sign post is greatly in evidence in our day and it has been in evidence for some time, as the churches have run after these “signs and wonders” and these outward visible trappings.  They want to see people speak in tongues because that is proof to them.  They want to see someone do this and they want to be able to fall over backwards: “I can see it with my eyes.  I can hear the sound of the person hitting the floor.  It is an outward and visible evidence of salvation.”  This is what they believe and, yet, it has nothing to do with salvation.  God does not work that way.  He does not work through trying to prove things to people through their physical senses.  God works through His Word, the Bible, and it is by faith in the Word of God that people are saved and the Holy Spirit comes into them.  As we read in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  That is how the Holy Spirit came into an individual’s life in the day of salvation.  He does not come through “gimmicks” and outward things – these things mean nothing in regard to true salvation.  The only thing it means is that you can be sure that all involved with these things are under the wrath of God. 

Everyone associated with the performance of the churches in setting up this kind of “carnival atmosphere” are under the wrath of God.  It is the expression of the extreme anger of God against such faithless churches and congregations; they lack faith in the Word of God to such a degree that they demand “performances” and they demand a “show.”  The world has entered into the churches so greatly that the churches want to be like the world.  The “world” must see things in order to believe.  Things must be shown and made clear to them and then they will believe.  “Perform a healing or cause the lame to rise up and walk!”   Of course, nothing like that is happening today.  If anyone is involved in that, it is all trickery and complete deception by the ones performing it.  There are no healings like the ones that Christ did; there are just these shenanigans going on in the churches. 

But it is possible for someone to “fall over backwards” because God says that is the “sign” that He has allowed Satan to do, so maybe it is possible for someone to speak in a tongue and for Satan or an evil spirit to bring that forth through an individual.  I do not know, but if there is anything supernatural going on, it is not of God.  There is no way that is possible and none of these things are coming forth from God.  They are coming from Satan.

In 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, God tells us of the “man of sin,” another name for Satan.  It says in 2Thessalonians 2:3:

Let no man deceive you by any means…

Notice, again, this word “deceive” appears.  We are living in a time when there is just tremendous deception.  God was speaking the truth when He said that “every brother will utterly supplant.”  We cannot trust anyone and I do not want you to trust me.  I do not expect you to trust me.  Of course, some people want me to say that every time I speak because Mr. Camping said it so often.  I mean that all the time, whether I say it every time or not.  The phrase, “Do not trust me. Trust the Bible,” is not a quote from Scripture and it does not need to be said every time a study is presented.  We do not use the same Scripture every time a study is presented.  But we do believe, wholeheartedly, that no man should be trusted, no matter how faithful they might appear – not even Mr. Camping. 

God permitted Mr. Camping to be an example of that.  After his illness (stroke) in the final days of his life, he said that the churches were right and no man can know the day or the hour.  He did not present any proof for that and he did not do a Bible study to show how that was arrived at and he did not answer the many Scriptures that contradict that idea.  He just said, “No man knows the day or hour.”  Do we trust that?  I do not trust that.  “But Mr. Camping said it.”   I do not care who said it.  I do not trust that because I do not trust anything anybody says; I have never trusted the “man” Mr. Camping, but what I trusted was that when Mr. Camping, in times past, would make a statement, he would do an in depth Bible study to prove the things he said.  After proving them (from the Bible) then I would trust what was said: 1) The Bible does not teach “Hell” as a place, but it teaches annihilation; 2) Christ did not pay for sins at the cross, but from the foundation of the world; 3) The church age is over.  Yes, that is true; 4) May 21, 2011 is and was Judgment Day, and so forth, because Scripture supported it.  But when someone makes a statement and offers no Scriptural support, are you going to just trust what he said just because it was said by Mr. Camping, Robert (Daniels) or me?   We do not trust men. 

EBible Fellowship does not trust a single soul living today and by that I mean that we will not follow after what any man says without Bible support for the thing being said – that goes for me, too.  We have to have the Bible’s support and teaching of the things being said and everyone ought to be checking it out, as a Berean, to see if it is so.  I am not going to “announce” it every time, but that is a standing principle for EBible Fellowship.  Check it out; do not listen to me, but trust the Bible only.  That is really how it has always been, but especially in this evil day and awful time where the churches are “gone.”  They are just “gone,” and in complete rebellion.  They have no truth whatsoever.  Then you look at those outside the churches and you still find error from individuals and other groups and ministries.  We cannot trust anyone but we trust the Bible and God warned about this.  Again, it says in 2Thessalonians 2:3:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

There must come a “falling away first” before the Son of man comes and before the day of Christ.  That apostasy has definitely arrived and we are now long beyond that point.  Then it goes on to say in regard to “that man of sin,” in 2Thessalonians 2:4:

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Then skip down to 2Thessalonians 2:8-12:

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even he whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

What a sorrowful thing this is, as God speaks of the churches of the world and “Christendom” at the time of the end when the “man of sin” takes his seat in the temple.  This has already been done and the time is a time of “all deceivableness,” and all manner of deception.  Satan operated as the “father of lies” in the churches and he was permitted to go there and 100% of the churches were given over to him for their destruction, because that was the manner in which God determined to judge the churches.  Not only that, but God was also operating to “send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”  People would believe these things.  They would believe these lies and they would think (wholeheartedly), “I am saved because I accepted Christ.  I am saved because I was baptized.  I am saved because I spoke in tongues and fell backwards.”  But it is nothing but “strong delusion.” 

The word “delusion” is a word that is often translated as “error.”  God will send them strong “error” that they should believe a lie.  They are going to hold onto the lies as “gospel.”  They are going to hold onto the things that Satan has fed them – the “signs and wonders,” the miracles that they think they see and all these things.  They will believe it and trust it and they are going to be quite content in them.  What a horrible thing!  What an awful thing it is to strongly believe a lie and to trust in these things. 

What a terrible thing it is for people that were in the world and came out of the world (they thought), only to come into something worse within the churches.  It was something far worse because at least when they were in the world, they were not consciously doing worship to Satan.  Of course, all unsaved people do worship the beast, but the churches were designed specifically for the worship of God.  But by going after these things and thinking it is of God, they are doing service to the Devil and they are worshipping the image of the beast.  It is just an ugly and awful time that we live in and what a terrible time to be going to a church and to bring their families to this church that has been given over to Satan and to the beast.