by Michael G. Mickey
(8-11-09)
First, the Rapture of the Church will occur.
2nd Thessalonians 2:8-12:
And then shall that Wicked [the prophesied Antichrist] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, 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.
There are many people today who know there is a God but refuse to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. And why? Because of the pleasure they take in living an unrighteous lifestyle! These enjoy the things of the world too much to try and live a life in submission to God's will in any manner. These are also those who are in tremendous peril at this present hour when so much of prophetic interest is taking place pointing to the return of Jesus Christ!
There is no mistaking, based on the Scripture above, that those who are presently so enamored with the world they can't let go of it are going to be susceptible to believing a lie that will, undoubtedly, top all lies in the aftermath of the Rapture of the Church. To be crystal clear, the strong delusion referred to in Scripture is
targeted at the willfully rebellious - those who "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." The word 'received' is
dechomai in Greek, one definition of which is: "To take with the hand."
My friend, if you're reading this today, fully knowing that you are going to be held accountable by Almighty God and someday stand before Jesus Christ in judgment, and you are refusing to take by the hand
the free gift of salvation because you have sins in your life you love too much to do so, please let this be your wake-up call as the hour is very late!
Should you refuse Christ's free gift of salvation and the Rapture occurs, you may be just as quick to believe the lie God is going to permit to be told in the
Tribulation Period as the one you're believing now -the current lie being that you don't need to make a decision for Christ
today! Is it possible you don't know you're already being deceived? If you've never considered the possibility, who do you think it is who whispers in your ear that you can come to Christ when you're older, married, etc. and so forth if not Satan?
What's the big lie going to be?
How I wish I could answer that question! Unfortunately, none of us knows but I do know this and it concerns me greatly: Satan has invested an enormous amount of energy into convincing the masses that we may not be alone in the universe, that there may well be an advanced race of extraterrestrial beings who will appear someday holding all of the answers to mankind's problems.
To fit into the prophetic scenario as we understand it, whatever knowledge or great technological advances any purportedly extraterrestrial source could offer us would have to be transmitted to the prophesied
Antichrist and subsequently utilized by him. Why? Because he is the one who is going to proclaim himself to be god - the master of the universe - and demand that he be worshipped in that role. (See
Revelation 13) Not only that, it is the Antichrist who is going orchestrate much of what is ultimately going to result in
Armageddon, a literal meeting on the battlefield between the armies of man and the armies of heaven, a battle that the glorified Christ, shining like the sun, is going to bring to its end in an instant as we see in
Revelation 19.
Why did you write this, Mike?
Essentially, the goal of this commentary, as well as the embedding of the video below for everyone's review, is to give everyone who reads this pause to consider the
possibilities contained within.
The lost need to consider if they can afford to put off coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ any longer. What if Christ should return today? What if death is waiting just around the next curve or at the next intersection?
What if? And we, the Body of Christ, need to weigh how great an effort we should put into countering so much as the
possibility that UFOs are life forms from another planet keeping watch over lowly mankind, awaiting a moment when they can step in to save us from ourselves. After all, think how effective a
counterfeit salvation would be that requires no confession of sins or faith in Christ if it should play into end times prophecy!