Deception and the End-Times - Doug Riggs

1 Deception and the End-Times Douglas Riggs , 1996 I have been the pastor of a small assembly called Morning Star Testimony Church for 13 years. Our fellowship came into being as a result of praying Paul's prayers, which he prayed for the corporate Body of Christ in his epistles: Eph. 1:16-19 w/3:16-19 w/Phil. 1:9-11 w/Col 1:9-12; 4:12 w/I Thes. 3:13 w/Thes. 1:10-12; along with his personal desire for attaining the goal of Phil. 3:7-17 w/Eph. 4:13. The formation of our church was also the result of the in-depth verse- by -verse teaching from the book of Ephesians which occurred over a period of three years.

2 Along with the ministry of teaching of the Word of God, I began counseling believers with various problems and strongholds. This eventually led to the discovery of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the background of some of the people. Many of these reported being born into families who were multigenerational Satanists. Through these idolatrous practices, attendant familial abuse and resultant demonization, I entered the realm of spiritual warfare surrounding Multiple Personality Disorder in the context of Satanic Ritual Abuse. (See my articles The Brokenhearted and Pulverized Saints.)

3 Having worked in this area for almost five years, I have learned many things concerning the ways Satan is deceiving the world - especially Christians - in his plan to establish a New World Order under the leadership of the two beasts of Revelation 13, namely the antichrist and the false prophet. I have been working with Christians who have been programmed to carry out different objectives in bringing in the New World Order! I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the founder of the charismatic movement, Oral Roberts, has his headquarters for his worldwide "ministry.

4 " He believes that the Church is to be unified through signs, wonders, and miracles. I am working with Christians who have reported being ritually abused and programmed at his university for the purpose of infiltrating the Church with these demonically empowered "gifts of healing and ministry" in order to deceive believers and divide the Church. We should not as Christians be surprised by such activity of Satan within the Church because the Word of God has warned us that such events would occur, especially in the last days of the Church Age, leading to the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

5 We will look at several passages of Scripture that describe and warn Christians of the deceptive activity of Satan within the Church. I Timothy 4: 1- "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Paul, by the Holy Spirit, states that some believers will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. When he uses the term "the faith" he is referring to the whole body of New Testament doctrine or truth as the objective Word of God (I Tim.)

6 1:19 w/4:6 w/6:10,21 w/II Tim. 2:15 and Jude 3 w/Acts 2:42). It is extremely important to notice what is before us in this passage. There is a direct contrast between the objective Word of God, "the faith", and "deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." THE faith, being the objective Word of God, is in contrast to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, which originate from subjective, demonically-influenced experiences. Many hungry believers are being led astray by seeking subjective experiences instead of what the objective Word of God has set forth as God's goal for the Church.

7 This goal is the corporate fulfillment of Jesus' prayer in John 17. In verses 21 and 23, Jesus prays that the whole Body of Christ would become experientially one with the Father and the Son, a unity based on the same love for the Church which the Father has for His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! In II Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul, writing to the believers at Corinth, is trying to protect those naive, headstrong believers from being deceived. Those seeking to deceive the Corinthian church are described as "super apostles" in verse 5, who were seeking to subvert and undermine Paul's apostolic authority.

8 Paul further describes these so-called 'apostles' (official messengers of Christ) in verse 13 as "false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ ! In verse 15 he further states they even disguised themselves as ministers of righteousness. Paul states in verse 14 that this activity of treacherous Deception by those pseudo-apostles should be of no surprise to the discerning believer because even "satan disguises himself as an angel of light!" NOT an angel of darkness, but an angel of light. Satan knows the Bible better than many Christians and approaches them through his servants of righteousness on a spiritual level, using all the right phrases and spiritual jargon in order to deceive!

9 (See verse 4). Paul uses the term disguise three times in verses 13-15, describing the religious activity of both Satan and his servants. The Greek word is the present active indicative of metaschematizo. This compound word consists of the preposition meta which denotes change or alteration, plus the word derived from schema. According to G. Braumann in The Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 1, pg 708ff: schema denotes "outward appearance, form or shape." Braumann further states that the word in classical Greek literally means "appearance as opposed to reality.

10 " He then states that the term metaschematizo indicates that process by which an object or person is thoroughly transformed and changed. Therefore, these deceivers of Corinth were Satanically-transformed "apostles" masquerading as servants of Christ for the purpose of deceiving Christians! These deceivers were in the Church, preaching another Jesus and a different gospel! (verse 4) In II Timothy 3:1, Paul, by the Holy Spirit, states "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come." The Holy Spirit warns the Church that in the last days difficult times will come.