March 4: THE REMNANT DESCRIBED (part 3)
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17 (KJV)
The concentrated war-making fury of Satan is honed upon God’s commandment-keeping people. He is no less angry with them than with the two-thirds of the angels who remained faithful to God. In the 1840s, a threefold strategy was propelled onto the world scene that would position deceived people to successfully entangle many professed Christians and lead them away from God’s truth as revealed in His word.
The rise of ancient Eastern mysticism, spiritualism, and psychic phenomena surged in the United States (and still reverberates across the world) as the result of a joke that the now infamous Fox sisters in upstate New York played on their family. Even though they later admitted to the hoax, the incredible uptick of interest in communication with the dead that resulted is now a multi-billion-dollar industry and growing. Those who believe that dead people are not dead are at risk of being manipulated and deceived. (See Acts 2:29)
In 1848, a wildly popular political document that targeted European intellectuals and industrial workers was published in London. The Communist Manifesto, summarized by the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” has an ongoing impact. A wide variety of political and business leaders quickly latched on to its godless principles. Still today, through a mafia-like strategy, socialism and trade unions continue. Its writer, philosopher Karl Marx, was born in Germany to a Christian family. He retracted the document less than six months after it was published, but it was out of his hands and into those of the devil’s minions from the day of its release.
In 1844 Charles Darwin began to share initial drafts of his theory on the origins of life with his colleagues in the scientific community. It was seized with great delight by those who rejected the biblical teaching of accountability before a Creator. The followers of this theory treated it as fact and made it the foundation upon which their studies would be built. Our adversary’s chief goal in this leg of strategy was to undermine and ultimately destroy credibility of the biblical account of Creation in the minds of God’s people. By the time it was published in 1859, the document had undergone at least seven revisions. It also heavily promoted racism, as indicated in the full title: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
No doubt, the sophistries of Satan have negatively impacted the church’s influence and greatly weakened her message. But God has always had a faithful remnant, and those not deceived will stand unmoved, even as delusions are eloquently promoted. Not only do the remnant, by grace, keep the commandments of God, but they also have the testimony of Jesus Christ. We are in the crossfire of a raging spiritual war. We are fellow servants with the glorious, unfallen angels of heaven. And we still need the reminders that the Apostle John needed when he admitted: And I fell at [the angel’s] feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10)
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1