Commentary: How Was it Accomplished So Easily? (Part Five)
Lying
#1193c
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 11-Jan-14; 11 minutes
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transcript:
Overall, the major tool affecting the massive changes in the American culture has been lying—lies that people believed largely without checking on their truthfulness and accepted because they had no way of checking. This proclivity for lying is common worldwide and is inspired by Satan. It was the same basic method by which he deceived other angelic beings. He convinced one third of them to depart from serving and glorifying God in the offices that God created for them to fulfill as ministering spirits to mankind. I, of course, realize that lying was not the only means used, but from the very beginning of mankind's creation, Satan has used this as a primary means to his ends right down to this day and age. And again, Scripture confirms that besides angels, he has deceived the entire world.
Within the last two weeks, an interesting example of lying came from the corporate world. The corporate world lies as a matter of doing business, and most of their lies are not what I would call blatant whoppers, but rather are the shaving of the truth variety. Still, they lie to advance an agenda, and very often their agenda is to increase the profit margin.
General Mills, the world's largest maker of breakfast cereals, recently announced through their advertising agency—and in a rather grandiose manner—that Cheerios was going to undergo a significant change. Now, what was the change? They are no longer going to be produced using GMO-grown oats. They claimed to have listened and responded to the appeals of the public. Cheerios will now consist only of 100% GMO-free oats. So, good health is on the way if you will just eat Cheerios.
Two days later, the Health Ranger responded on his website to point out a hypocrisy: No GM grown oats exist on the market because producing a GMO oat seed has not yet been achieved! Cheerios have always been free of GMO oats. See, just shave [the truth] a little bit. The Health Ranger's column said that Cheerios does have less than a 1% amount of a corn product in it, and that probably does contain GMO-grown corn, and that corn will be removed.
What's the lesson? Just make sure that you practice a little bit of pessimism. Let the buyer beware.
Lying is not confined to the United States. That became very evident to many of us these past two weeks, when the Pope once again went way overboard with lies so blatantly deliberate, it is incredible, and yet he, like President Obama, is going to get away with what he said. This is an almost extreme example of getting away with lying because of whom he is, because he is respected so highly, because so few people in the entire world actually know what the Bible says, and because so very few are truly going to make an effort to check up on him.
He said God is evolving and changing, despite the fact that God Himself says He changes not, and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He said the Bible was a beautiful book, but some of its passages are outdated, despite the fact that the Bible says God's word lives forever.
He said Adam and Eve are merely fables and that Satan is merely a metaphor symbolic of evil.
He said that everybody is worshiping the same God regardless of one's religious affiliation.
He said this despite the vast differences in the teachings from group to group.
He said all religions are true, despite the fact that the Bible says that Satan has deceived the entire world.
He said that God is not a Judge, He is a friend, and hell is merely a metaphor for the isolated soul.
He said the doctrine of hell is incompatible with the infinite love of God, and that we must recognize that religious truth evolves and changes; that truth is not absolute or set in stone.
The man has turned into a humanistic Unitarian. Now, there are two major reasons related to each other as to why the timing of what he said may be critically important to us. The first one is that he is a Jesuit—I believe, the very first Jesuit ever elected as Pope, and if you know some basics regard regarding the Jesuits, this may be a signal of something very important. Jesuits are trained—I mean it: trained—to be militant. They are historically known as the Pope's commandos. That is all that I will say regarding them at this time.
There is yet another reason why he may get away with the whoppers that he told. Again, timing may be part of the equation. I'm going to read from Revelation 13:11-14:
Revelation 13:11-14 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. [Dragons are very threatening.] And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth—by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
Now a second quote:
II Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
II Thessalonians 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
Those signs and lying wonders, coupled with the horrific events going on in the world politically, economically, culturally and in nature within the same timeframe, are going to greatly magnify the impact of what this one deceiving the people with mere words is saying.
Then, quoting Jesus in the Olivet Prophecy,
Matthew 24:23-24 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."
The elect are you and me. Can we be deceived? Believe me, Satan is going to try, and maybe it has begun.
I quote these verses because I want to make sure that you are aware that deceit, lying, and delusions are going to be especially numerous and acutely misleading in more illusory ways as we go deeper in this time because God is withdrawing His hedge of protection and allowing Satan to unleash more of his power, including his power of deception. We are truly going to have to be really on our spiritual toes, evaluating the truthfulness of all we see and hear, because the emphasis at the time of the end is more than ever on an intensified deceit specifically aimed at the called of God. Satan doesn't have to deceive anybody else; they are already deceived. It's going to be aimed right at us.
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