Basic HTML Version
The Crowning Act of Deception, December 6
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man
deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ; and shall deceive many.
Matthew 24:4, 5
.
As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself
will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the
Saviour’s advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great
deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of
the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of
dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given
by John in the Revelation.... The shout of triumph rings out upon the air,
“Christ has come! Christ has come!” The people prostrate themselves
in adoration before him.... In gentle, compassionate tones he presents
some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered;
he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of
Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands
all to hallow the day which he has blessed....
Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures, and
who have received the love of the truth, will be shielded from the
powerful delusion that takes the world captive.
The Saviour has warned His people... , and has clearly foretold
the manner of His second coming. “There shall arise false Christs....
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go
not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 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.”
Matthew 24:24-27
. This
coming, there is no possibility of counterfeiting. It will be universally
known—witnessed by the whole world....
Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His Word
that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in
such a crisis, cling to the Bible, and the Bible only?
[347]
361