Weapons of Deception
II THESSALONIANS 2:3-4
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; (at the time of the revealing of the son of man (Christ) to His earthly Bride, we also see that Lucifer is also revealing himself to his earthly bride – so both the son of man and the son of perdition are being revealed at the same time – at harvest time)
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God (Satan opposeth and places himself above the revealed word that has been opened in this hour through the ministry of the seventh angel’s message), or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
*We remember how in Isaiah 14, Satan declared that he would be like the Most High, and take God’s position of living in the hearts of men and woman – and this is the day and hour when he is achieving this great goal that he had in the back part of his mind.
MATTHEW 24:27
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
We have witnessed the coming of this light in our generation by the revealed word of the truth of the message that has been declared in this hour. It is the opening of the word that has revealed Christ to His elect of this day, bringing Christ back to earth again in word form.
LUKE 10:18
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Notice – Satan also being revealed as light shining – an impersonation of truth like what we saw with Eve in Eden.
So the second coming of Christ would be as light shining globally from east to the west, and the coming of Satan is also as light falling from heaven upon the earth globally. *The light of the truth of the message of the hour, and the lies of Satan’s false light, both being expressed on the world at the same time – both are teachings.
REVELATION 12:9
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Weapons of Deception
*We have all heard of weapons of mass destruction, and it’s a fearful thought to realize the fact that just a few men in power can chose to end the life of millions of innocent people with the relatively simple press of a button.
But we also know that there is an even greater and more subtle destructive power in the world, and that is the power of deception.
*Just look at this power of deception that is practiced in the commercial world of how they can convince the minds of the masses of people into buying things that they don’t really need.
*Do people really need to buy the latest iPhone every single time Apple brings out a new iPhone with a slightly better camera?
*Much of what we see in the world of advertising is often design with subtle elements of deception in order to encourage the people to part with their money.
Look at all the scams that people get deceived by – all these scams are all weapons that are used against innocent people and that can often destroy lives.
*The weapon of deception that Satan used on Eve destroyed her life as well as her family’s life – they lost the family farm that God had given them, old age and death set in, Fellowship with God was broken, Cain murdered Abel – you talk about a family falling apart, all because of one little lie that Eve believed.
*Lies are in fact the number one weapon of deception – Satan was the father of lies.
Under Nazi Germany’s rule in the ‘30’s and early 40’s – Joseph Goebbels was a master orator and propagandist.
He promoted the Nazis' anti-Semitic message through black and white films and reinforced an ideology of Nazi supremacy. American ambassador to Germany Mr. William E. Dodd observed that "While Hitler is a fair orator ... Goebbels is a past master,". "He ... has combined all the newspaper, radio, publications and art activities in Germany into one vast propaganda machine."
**A propaganda machine is to do with the deliberately spread of intended types of ideas or information for the purpose of furthering one's cause and to damage an opposing cause. And this is achieved by influencing the thinking of the majority of the population through the medium of publications that are able to broadcast information in the form of words, pictures, or films to large amounts of people through Newspapers and Magazines, Radio, Television, Internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
*Propagating information through pictures or words on a mass scale that lie to the people of the world and influence and change their thinking to believe in certain lies as if they are truth. This is the world that we are now living in.
REVELATION 3:17-18 – This is the message to the Laodicean church age
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; (fire symbolizes the fiery trials of life – if you want to be rich in your character, then you must first pay the price of trails) and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
**From last week we saw how that in Eden, Satan came down as if he was the one that had the greater truth of light above the truth of the message that Adam and Eve had heard from God. And it was by this “truth” of this fake and false “light” of Satan, that he used as a weapon to deceived Eve by.
*So now at harvest time in this Laodicean age, Satan comes down again as light shining and deceives the entire world by this same lie he told Eve at the beginning – that God doesn’t really mean what he says.
JOHN 18:37-38
37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
What is truth?
The saying that truth is what it is to you, and is different for different people – this is just a stupid idea that many have brought into believing.
You have to have an absolute of truth or truth cannot even exist. You have to make something your absolute, and as believers, that something must be the word of God – and so you have to come to that realization, and to know from the depth of your heart that every other word is a lie if it opposes the word of God.
JOHN 17:16-17
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
THE.GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-9 SUNDAY_ 65-0801M
61 "Making a strong delusion," as the Bible said it would, Second Thessalonians. "Now, this man of sin would come into existence, and set in the temple of God, showing himself he was God, and cause the people to go into strong delusions, to believe a lie; and, believe it, will be damned by it."
That's the same thing he did to Eve. Give her... Never--never told her the Word wasn't right, but give her a strong delusion, that she believed a lie.
The first time the word “deception” appears in the message is in 1960 and is only mentioned once, and then it is only mentioned once again in 1963 in the message “How can I overcome”.
Then then next time that this word “deception” appears is in 1965, but in 1965 Brother Branham mentions it in 21 different places.
SATAN'S.EDEN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-20 SUNDAY_ 65-0829
61 God's Eden was established in righteousness. Satan's Eden is established in sin, because Satan is sin. God is righteousness, and God's kingdom was established in righteousness, and peace, and Life. And Satan's establishment is in sin, and, religious sin.
62 Notice how he deceived, his deception, as he said he would. He promised to do this. Did anybody know that? Let us turn to Isaiah, if you want some of these Scriptures. If you... I ought to quote more of them, I guess. Let's turn to Isaiah the 14th chapter, just a moment, and just see what Satan said here, just a moment. In Isaiah 14, we'll read it, and watch what this fellow done. Isaiah 14, begin with the 12th verse.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars (that's sons), stars of God: and I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation,... the side of the north:
And I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; and I will be like the most High.
63 Now compare that over here with our other Scriptures over in Thessalonians, a while ago, how he said, "He sits in the temple of God, exalting himself above all that's called God, so that he as God is worshiped as God upon the earth."
64 There is the god of this world that I preached to you about last Sunday. Here he is today in deceit, that treacherous hour, that tremendous time that we're living. It's the most glorious time of all the ages, because we are facing the great Millennium again; we're facing the Eden again. But right at this age, all the deceit and every tactic that he's ever used and been able to deceive with, he's gathered it all together and reinforced hisself; and come down like God, and has put hisself in place of God; religious, and can quote the Scripture and can tell you Scripture, just as Satan did to Eve in the garden of Eden. But leave out one spot of It, is all he has to do, make that gap, where the poison doctrine of the devil can pour through, like the thinking man's Filter we was talking about the other night.
THE.GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-9 SUNDAY_ 65-0801M
56 The two spirits. One of them, God's Holy Spirit; the other one, the devil's spirit, working in deception. The people of the earth are now making their choice.
The Holy Spirit is here calling out a Bride for Christ. He is doing it by vindicating His Word of promise to Her, for this age, showing that It is Christ.
* In these last days, Satan is able to take up his abode in the heart of people (of where God was design to live) because people are laying in the presence of Lucifer’s darkness of this age. It is Satan uniting with his earthly bride.
**So, this is the advance level that Satan is achieving in his subjects for this day by the maturity of all the deception and lies and the sin of this evil age.
****The people of the earth are becoming mature in their relationship with sin and unbelief by laying in the presence of all the fake news and Hollywood and the opinions of man and the revealing of Lucifer to his subjects. It is just one big propaganda machine of Satan of how he is deceiving the whole world.
HOW.CAN.I.OVERCOME_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-12 SUNDAY_ 63-0825M
45 Back there in early ages, a Christian could, for his profession of in a church, of belonging to Christ, could be beheaded for it. He could be killed, and put out of his misery, and go to meet God, quickly.
But now the enemy has come in, in the name of the church, and it's so deceiving. This is the great age of deception. When, Christ said so, "The two spirits would be so close in the last days till it would deceive the very Elected if it was possible." See? See? See? Remember, Christ spoke of an elected people for the last day. See? "It would deceive the very Elected if it were possible." So close!
THE.GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-9 SUNDAY_ 65-0801M
54 And the world seems to be in the most evil age that ever was. Never in any age did women ever act like that, never but just before the destruction of the antediluvian world. And Jesus referred to it. We'll get to that after a while.
55 Has God lost control, or is He just permitting another agency to control? I wonder. The true answer to this question is, to my opinion, there is two opposing spirits in the world today, at work. Now, there can't be no more than two, two heads. And One of them is the Holy Spirit at work; the other one is the spirit of the devil, and, in this last days, in deception.
Now I'm going to base my thoughts right on here for the rest of the text, the rest of the... our Message.
56 The two spirits. One of them, God's Holy Spirit; the other one, the devil's spirit, working in deception. The people of the earth are now making their choice.
*There are two ways to keep truth from people.
First is to maintain its secrecy by not letting the secret be told, and second is to confuse the truth with a bunch of associated lies.
*In World War 2, Winston Churchill made his now famous statement:
"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
REVELATION 13:1
1 ¶ And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns (the seven heads are the seven hills on which city of Rome sits, while the ten horns are dictators), and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Revelation 13 is America, and this beast represents the power of the Catholic Church rising up out of the sea which is from among the multitudes of people. The very people that fled Catholicism, that same spirit that they escaped from is now rising up amongst them again.
REVELATION 17:15
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
America is Ahab, and the Catholic church is Jezebel – and they are in a marriage covenant together – and there is also an Elijah ministry that is on the scene, and so there has to come another Mount Carmel showdown also where all the prophets of Baal are destroyed.
REVELATION 13:7-14
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them (If your enemy ever seems to have power over you, it is because God has allowed it for a season and for a purpose): and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
11 ¶ And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (This beast power that is rising up out of the earth (land) is the nation of America)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. (America would begin to propagate the same doctrine among the denominational churches of a hierarchy of man over man as the Catholic Church system does. We can also see how that Hollywood has changed the morals of the people of the world through its propaganda machine)
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, (1945 – Two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. No one can deny that fire came down from heaven on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They had to detonated these two bombs at around 1500 feet before they reached the ground so that the fire blast would come down from the sky and cause the maximum amount of destruction)
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 (The miracle wasn’t so much the bomb itself, the miracle was the technology behind the atomic bomb. Miracles attract the attention of the people, and that is what technology does, it attracts the attention of the people because it seems miraculous); 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. That is Satan’s third pull message – is to unite the people of the world with this image. An image is something that you visualize, like an ideology of an idea.
*This is what Naziism was, it was an ideology that was a doctrine that captivated the minds of the people that deceived them, and it caused their nation to be responsible for the death of six million Jews.
Satan’s first pull – Hollywood (Stage performance). Like the sign in the hand.
Satan’s second pull - the miracle of technology – Television, like the visions of the prophet that can see into other people’s past and future lives. You can’t deny the attraction of this technology upon the masses, and notice how that this second pull makes the way for Satan’s third pull of revealing himself to the people to become worship by the people as God.
**So both of these first two pulls have attracted the attention of the world for the purpose of Satan’s third pull of the revealing of himself to the people in order to unite with His earthly bride. And he is doing that by the mystery of his lies and fake news being ministered to the people.
*So the fact is that the real truth of the message that God has sent in this hour is now being attended by a bodyguard of Satan’s lies – and God has allowed it to be such so that only the true bride of Christ can recognize the truth of this hour.
GOD'S.POWER.TO.TRANSFORM_ PHOENIX.AZ V-16 N-5 SATURDAY_ 65-0911
94 Man is rotten. The whole human race is corrupted. Everything is like it was in the antediluvian time. It's completely upset, turned around, different from the straight row that God planted them in. Sin, through science and deception, has twisted the whole human race.
There are many different ways and lies and weapons of deception, and there are different realms of deception and different weapons of deception within those realms.
*There is deception in the worldly realm of morals. Look at that realm of the morality – Hollywood has used the weapons of movie stars and beautiful woman; they are all weapons of deception within that realm.
*And then there is deception in the scientific realm of what we have been taught in our schools for many years that was actually false – look at Darwinism of all his ideas of evolution by natural selection that has been taught in the schools for many years, come to find out that that was all wrong. That false teaching was a weapon of deception.
*And then there is deception in the religious realm – look at all the religious denominations propagation all their religious confusion in the world today so that no one knows what is truth anymore.
All these are Weapons of Deception.
SATAN'S.EDEN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-20 SUNDAY_ 65-0829
27 That deceitfulness of the church of today! See, "the son of perdition," the devil. "The son of perdition," the devil. Then, people worshiping Satan in this day, thinking they're worshiping God. But they're worshiping him through a creed, a man-made denominations and creeds that's brought the people right down to the greatest deception that the world has ever knowed of. No matter how much the Word of God promised for this day, is preached and vindicated, they still won't believe It. They won't believe It.
THE.GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-9 SUNDAY_ 65-0801M
96 Now, we know that Satan's gospel is a gospel of science and progress. He preached it in Eden; not God; Satan did, the science of progress. Science and progress is Satan's gospel. Look where he's led us to today, with it. See?