While historic news of prophetic significance is happening in the Middle East, another type of prophetic significance is the rise of deception, only people are unaware or deceived by the rise of false prophets, apostles, signs and wonders, “Christian” unity, and political activism.
The gap between the rich and poor continues to expand. Crime, disease, immorality, family decay, political corruption, aberrant behaviour of all sorts, national and ethnic squabbles, war and rumours of war, apathy and loss of vision and lack of leadership plague people around the world. As a result many are turning to left-wing ideology like Communism; even Christians have been deceived in this false concept and are advocating for social change through the “social gospel” through “Christian” activism, this is increasingly being promoted in traditional churches as well as Charismatic and evangelical denominations. Another aspect of this political uprising is the promotion of certain political parties or movements by advocating worldly politicians and political processes in order to seize political power and achieve a just and fair world. This mindset is very prevalent in US politics and unfortunately, because many are seeing the decline of Judeo-Christians beliefs, it has united the “the church”, conservatives and the political activists, believing that the task of spiritually transforming any nation is through politicians and governments. Due to their awareness of this decline and encouraged by the “political evangelical teams and their leaders”, it has led to many Christians energetically working towards the re-election of Trump, something that is outside the remit of pastors and teachers no matter what their personal preferences.
We live in a day when the whole idea of spiritual discernment is minimized because spiritual truth is minimized. The slogan is, “Doctrine divides. Let’s set aside our doctrinal differences and come together on the areas where we agree.” Another popular mantra is, “Jesus said that they will know that we are His disciples by our love, not by our doctrine.” The implication is, “Set aside your doctrinal views and accept anyone who says that he believes in Jesus.” Tolerance, unity, and love are viewed as much more important than doctrinal truth, which often smacks of pride. Many of these false teachers also use various political activism to recruit Christians. Lou Engle, for example, is making a big push to recruit black activists into the anti-abortion ranks. “We’re looking for the new breed of black prophets to arise and forgive us our baggage,” he said at Trinity Assemblies of God, “and then lead us out of victimization and into the healing of a nation, to stop the shedding of innocent blood.”
Satan’s global plan of deception for mankind began in the Garden of Eden. Satan, through the use of a serpent, approached Eve without revealing himself to her. His approach was subtle and came with a question. It is in Genesis 3:1 that we see he questioned God’s instruction by asking, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” When Eve correctly restated God’s instruction, Satan took it a step further. Satan sought to lead Adam and Eve astray by directly contradicting what God had told them. Further, he questioned God’s motive when he said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:14-15). These lies from Satan were meant to deceive Eve, leading her to eat the forbidden fruit. The account of the serpent in the Garden of Eden illustrates the typical line of attack from Satan. He seeks to slander the holiness of God while deceiving men about their relationship to God.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.
The Apostle John, in his letter to the church shows us how to avoid spiritual deception, be discerning of people and their doctrine in John 2:18-27. When he says, “even now many antichrists have appeared,” he means that the evil spirit that will characterize the final antichrist is already working in these false teachers who have left the churches. False teachers invariably adopt Christian terminology and posture themselves as being Christians, but they are not. They usually begin within the church and at first, their teaching is orthodox. They often have attractive personalities and they build a following of people who seem to be helped by their teaching. But, eventually, they begin subtly to veer from the truth.
These false teachers, whom John labels antichrists, did not carry pitchforks and wear red suits with horns and a tail, or T-shirts saying, “Warning: I am an antichrist!” Rather, they arose in the churches. Some of them may have been elders or pastors, who for a while had taught the truth. Paul warned the Ephesian elders, “from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). Now these men were leaving the churches to form new groups, saying, “We have come into a deeper knowledge of the truth. Follow us and we’ll let you in on this secret knowledge.”
John states simultaneously that the “antichrist is coming” and that “now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18; cf. 1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7). Although Paul prophetically anticipates the rise of a particular figure who will embody deceptive opposition to God, he admits readily that the same forces of deception and lawlessness has been in prevalent in society throughout history and today, ending when the final lawlessness is revealed and defeated by Jesus.
The Great Awakening
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8 ESV
The politics of transforming the world is therefore more complex than just the political activism of QAnon and their New Age evangelists. It is about uniting the masses from all political ideologies of the left or right, which have “Christian” promoters from both side of the camps. It is also about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), Seven Mountain Mandate and other false teachers using selective scriptures from the bible to evangelise and deceive Christians, and declaring a time of peace and a “great awakening” that will produce a great revival: “I want you to read just one of the many statements by “enlightened” Christians of today. He is replying to a question and notice that he says God’s plan is NOT the Rapture but that everyone on the planet wakes up and welcomes the 1000 years of peace that WE (not God) create!”
This is the deception of the Great Awakening, a term used by New Age gurus and now being promoted in churches, but this awakening is to prepare the masses to receive the one who promises a false peace.
New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)
The International Coalition of Apostles headed by C. Peter Wagner is the most influential purveyor of the New Apostolic Reformation, a term coined by Wagner. This organization is really an extension of the New Order of the Latter Rain whose influences and mentors include William Branham, Franklin Hall, the Hawtin brothers, and more recently Bill Hamon, Paul Cain and the Kansas City Prophets. The doctrines of the Latter Rain have influenced most of the televangelists on TV today, and so have crept deceptively into many denominations. The main heretical teachings of the New Order of The Latter Rain, as ruled in 1949 at the General Council of the Assemblies of God held in Seattle.
The NAR movement distorts Ephesians 2:20 to claim that God is raising up end times ‘super-apostles’ and prophets – equal to or greater than the original Apostles commissioned by Christ - who will lead the Church to this-worldly victory. The appeal of strong, charismatic leadership in an increasingly uncertain world, particularly to young people, should not be underestimated. While Christians disagree about whether the biblical offices of Apostle and Prophet are still current today, what is certain is that an elitist movement of self-appointed, celebrity leaders claiming divine authority is thoroughly dangerous, as well as antithetical to Scripture.8 The cult-like focus on personality in the NAR has led some believers to travel the world in order to sit under the teaching of specific people, desperate to receive some personal blessing and accepting their words unquestioningly.
The highly concentrated power of this relatively small group of men and women – now commanding global influence and millions of dollars every year, while being treated as infallible superstars - can easily be (and has been) abused, as with the well-documented examples of Paul Cain and, more recently, Todd Bentley. Both of these men fell from grace spectacularly but were quickly ‘restored’ with a conspicuous absence of deep grieving and true repentance. Excerpt from Prophecy Today
Seven Mountain Mandate
Popular within the NAR movement are teachings like the Seven Mountain Mandate (the idea that Christians are supposed to take over the ‘seven mountains’ of culture in order to transform the world) and the concept of ‘bringing heaven to earth’, reclaiming society and Creation for the Kingdom.
The idea first emerged in 1975 when Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, and Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission (YWAM), had what they describe as a miraculous revelation. Both had been given a dream by God, they declared. Its message revealed the need to dominate the Seven Mountains (or Spheres) of influence. Since, then, the theology has been pushed into political circles through media events, youth movements and campaign activities. Central to its teachings is that members must build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. And that starts with turning the United States and other countries into a Christian state. Seven Mountain Mandate is a manifesto for evangelical Christians to “conquer” what proponents see as the seven key facets of life: education, religion, family, business, government, entertainment, and media.
“So this is now called the Seven Mountain Prophecy,” says advocate David Barton. “If you’re going to establish God’s kingdom, you’ve got to have these seven mountains, and again that’s family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government.”
The movement was active during the of Presidency of Ronald Reagan and they called his governance ‘the God strategy’ after evangelicals were appointed as Secretary of the Interior, Surgeon General and to the Department of Education. The Seven Mountains movement experienced something of a revival in the early 2000s under Lance P. Wallnau and political activist David Barton. Their influence waned under the Bush Republican presidencies. Wallnau has declared Trump has a ‘Cyrus anointing’ upon him - a reference to the ancient Persian King Cyrus who, despite being no friend of Israel, defeated the Babylonians and set that nation free. In the modern context, the ‘anointing’ of Trump means “evangelical Christians” can also set their religion ‘free’. Wallnau boasted to fellow evangelical leader David Barton that he had ‘ninja sheep’ working with activists, politicians - and members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team. “We should be moving to the top of these mountains,” Wallnau said. “Christians are called to go into proximity to the gates of hell. That’s why they’re showing up in government. They should be showing up in journalism…”
The Seven Mountain Mandate is heavily linked to American politics, specially the Trump Administration. You may have noticed in the media that Trump is often surrounded by a praying team; media calls them the “Evangelical Team” but that is misleading because the members are actually aligned with the NAR and Seven Mountains movement, those that were not initially linked to these groups, are now also linked. This explains why so many Christians support him and why it is difficult to give constructive criticism of his Administration.
These movements and their members produced a move in 2018 called "Trump Prophecy". The Trump Prophecy (also known as The Trump Prophecy: A Voice of Hope; A Movement of Prayer) is a 2018 Christian political drama biopic based on a story by Orlando-based retired firefighter Mark Taylor that he named "The Commander-in-Chief Prophecy”. The movie brings together so called prophecies, dreams, visions, prayer chains, and so on.
QAnon and New Age
Unfortunately, these movements are now found in a platform called QAnon. Named after “Q,” or “Q Clearance Patriot”, who posts anonymously on the online bulletin board 4chan. QAnon supporters think Q is a high-ranking military official, John F. Kennedy Jr. (who, they claim, faked his own death), or even Donald Trump, working to expose a “deep state” paedophile ring with links to Hollywood, the media and the political parties, officials etc. While cults are often considered religious phenomena, they can also be political. However, Q has managed to merge Christianity, New Age and politics and as such are natural targets for QAnon. An article in The Atlantic brought renewed attention to the political cult known as QAnon. As Adrienne LaFrance writes, “To look at QAnon is to see not just a conspiracy theory but the birth of a new religion.” Since its first mention some three years ago, the theory has drawn adherents looking for a clear way to explain recent disorienting global events, using scriptures and the New Age term “The Great Awakenings”. They regularly appear on alternative media, have countless YouTube videos, Facebook pages, websites and some of the NAR “prophets” have even appeared on main stream media like Fox News, and Christian tv and publications.
Although, it was initially secular, it has now morphed into new age, conspiracy theories and now the NAR, the Seven Mountain Mandate and Christians. It is very deceptive because they often quote scriptures and the content often sound Christian but it is not and many Christians have succumbed, the use of bible to affirm their movement is completely taking scriptures out of context.
I visited their site, after receiving strange videos from Christian friends, and one of their mantras, which are many, is the "Great Awakening". It has attracted support from "Christians", "Churches", the conservatives, Republicans and Trump supporters. In their platform, Trump is like a saviour / warrior like hero who battles the deep state and it lists endless activities performed by Trump to drain the swamp, backed up by outlandish conspiracy theories. Apparently, Trump is preparing the world for the control of civic societies to be rid of corruptions and so on.
An example of the new age aspect is a video called "Plandemic" that has gone viral in which Dr Mikovits addresses numerous claims about the nefarious agenda behind the Coronavirus pandemic. The video has gone viral with over 2m views and was later removed by YouTube. What you may not know is that the interviewer, Mikki Willis and his production company, that has made this video, is part of the new age movement. Just doing basic search has revealed truly horrifying and disturbing agenda. Pastor John Haller has wonderfully debunked the science as well as exploring the new age aspect of the production company. You can watch John's Prophecy Update on Fellowship Bible Chapel's YouTube Channel (2020 05 10 - "Banned-Demic"). It is a very long video but you can fast forward to 51mins. I get that many are using this pandemic to further a political agenda but there is also a spiritual agenda that is deceptive that we cannot ignore.
QAnon is a sort of faith movement — one that has found a lot of traction with evangelical groups. In fact, a pastor of a megachurch used his sermon time to show a QAnon video just a few weeks ago. The footage shows that Rock Urban Church in Grandville, Michigan used its July 5th service to play a nearly ten-minute video full of conspiratorial political propaganda which suggested to congregants that COVID-19 is part of an anti-Trump plot from Democratic elites, George Floyd’s killing was arranged to hurt President Donald Trump and other conspiracy theories.
Many Christians have joined the Q movement because—whether they understand Bible prophecy or not—they instinctively oppose the Deep State and its bad actors. Surprisingly, a large segment of the New Age community also resists the New World Order. As a result, Christians—knowingly or not—are in league with New Agers. Another interesting aspect of this is that many of these New Agers can also be called New Gnostics. The Bible gives us wise advice in 2 Corinthians 6:14:
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
They are using the term, the "Great Awakening", to define the exposure of corruption, the one world system of religion, politics and religion, which are legitimate concerns, that is also factual and prophetic. The bible warns Christians the condition of the world in the last days but we are to watch, pray and expect certain signs before the return of Jesus. However, we are not to align ourselves with the world. The Great Awakening is the New Age term used by previous gurus and is linked to very dark characters. Another one of their mantras is “Q is coming” because they looking for someone to take over the world, whether its Trump or not.
The Q movement masks a dark agenda of New Age, NAR and the Seven Mountains Mandate teachings:
In response to part of a QAnon related meme called, “Take the Oath”, which went viral after Q Drop Number 4510 on June 24th, from the official qmap.pub site which reads, “Take the oath. Mission forward,” under the heading of “Digital Soldiers Take the Oath and Serve Your Country.” Now on the surface, this would seem to be a very good thing, right, that we as Christians should want to be a part of and support?
However, when you look deeper into this, what you’ll find is that it is Antichrist in the sense that it’s in place of Christ. Antichrist does not just mean, “against Christ”. It actually also means, “in the place of Christ”. If you’ll kindly hear me out, I would like to explain how I get there.
What follows are what’s known as “Q Drops” from the official Q website at the aforementioned qmap.pub that to me are very telling. I want to draw your attention to the actual Q Drops, then I want to quote from Scripture in relation to that specific Q Drop. I hope to demonstrate and illustrate how these posts very subtly are designed to lead people away from Jesus instead of leading people to Jesus. JD Farag: QAnon – The Great Awakening & The Great Deception
People are in despair over the Coronavirus and the political upheavals that has overshadowed many countries with demonstrations, the rise of lawlessness and the state of economy resulting in loss of jobs and home, uncertainties about the future, has left people spiritually hungry and searching for some meaning. The bible states that the in the end-times there will be “distress and anguish among nations, in perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea and the waves” and that people will be “fainting from fear and expectation of the [dreadful] things coming on the world”.
Christians are vulnerable too, if they are not getting sound teachings from their churches or not praying or reading the Word. These are highly dangerous, perilous and deceptive times that we are living in and we must put on the full armour of the Lord (Ephesians 6) so that we may stand against the wiles of the devil. You need to read and study the Word regularly, so that through it, you will be able to discern the spirits instead of relying on or being influenced by dreams, visions and “Christian” TV. Surround yourself with people who hold the bible as their source for all truth rather than people who constantly speak about their latest dreams, visions and prophecies. The Holy Spirit is your Teacher and Jesus promised that He (the Holy Spirit) will guide you into all truth. Jesus is the Truth; the Way and Life and that truth can only be found in God’s Word.
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God. 2 Peter 1:18-21
“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you. Acts 20:28-31
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