"Error In God's Church Will Abound As Long As Satan Is Around" By: Dr. Shuffel P. Hepburn

Error in God's church will abound as

long as Satan is around. That's our

message. The text is taken from

Revelation

13. We must never lose sight of the fact

that Satan's most dangerous hour for

spreading error is directly ahead of us.

His greatest attacks on the church of

God in Jesus Christ will happen during

the great tribulation.

In that season his true mastery of

deception will be

evident. For those alive on the earth it

will be a day like the time of the great

flood, when the Lord caused it to rain on

the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and

washed away every soul except faithful

Noah and his family. Noah and his sons

and their wives, along with male and

female species of all the animals were

protected in the ark of

God. It is difficult to nail down the

time that the flood occurred. But going

by genealogies in scripture, it was at

least

1656 years after Adam was created,

according to several sources. But the

question is what will be the ark of

safety for the people of God? Who will be

that ark of safety for the

faithful? Well Jesus Christ said, "As the

days of Noah were so also will the

coming of the Son of Man be. For as in

the days before the flood they were

eating and drinking, marrying and giving

in marriage until the day that Noah

entered the ark, and did not know until

the flood came and took them all away. So

also will the coming of the Son of Man

be. The terrors of that day will be far

worse, far more devastating and even

more

sudden than the flood.

However everyone on the earth will not

be

destroyed. The church is split three ways

on whether Christ will come before, in

the middle, or at the end of the

tribulation. Whatever the timing, as many

as six billion people may be caught off

guard. But Christ will be that eternal

ark of safety for all whose names are

written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

It is possible that the followers of all

false religions will join in with the

antichrist in that season, and become one

under his leadership as

well. Father we thank you for your word

today. Send it forth with power. We thank

you for giving a clear understanding to

your children, in the holy and the

wonderful name of Jesus Christ we pray

in Jesus name, amen. According to

Revelation 13, a beast like the red

dragon version of Satan will rise up

from the sea, having seven heads and 10

horns. He will be given a mouth to speak

great things and blasphemies against God.

He will blaspheme God's name, but will be

powerless against the true church, which

is the faithful body of believers in

Christ.

The body of Christ includes every

believer whose name is written down in

the Lamb's book of life. Some whose

bodies will still be in the grave and

others who apparently will still be

alive in Christ on earth. That is if the

church has not already been

gathered. In Revelation 13:8, the word of

God tells us, "All who dwell on the earth

will worship him, will worship the

beast. All whose names have not been

written in the book of life of the lamb

slain from the foundation of the

world." Clearly there will still be on

the earth souls whose names are written

in the book of life and these will be

the ones who will refuse to worship the

antichrist in that season.

In Revelation 13:1, the Apostle John

wrote that he stood on the sand by the

seashore and he saw a beast who is the

antichrist rising out of the

sea. This phrase rising out of the sea

means he will not come from

Israel. He will have seven heads and 10

horns. And on his horns scripture says 10

crowns. And on his head a blasphemous

name. We know that this leader will be

the epitome of evil, because his

description is eerily similar to that of

the red dragon of Revelation 12, who is

the devil. While Satan is described in

many ways, the red dragon version of him

also has seven heads and 10

horns. This red dragon is none other than

Lucifer himself who was cast out of

heaven, drawing a third of the angels

with him.

Lucifer the devil is an actor or

chameleon who can take on many

forms. While we often see him depicted as

a red demon with horns, a tail and a

pitchfork. This is in itself deceptive

because he does not appear in this form

in

scripture. In the Garden of Eden he was a

serpent. In 2 Corinthians he's described

as an angel of light. And perhaps he

appeared as a powerful king when he

tempted the Lord Jesus Christ. Although

no description is offered and he's

simply called the

tempter. In the book of Job he appears as

a dignitary in heaven attending a

meeting among the sons of God. He's also

described as a fallen angel with horns

and hooves, and he can appear as a

brother, appear as a sister, a next-door

neighbor or any other being or

object. Satan also described as the

accuser of the brethren will take on any

form in order to deceive the people on

the earth. His most fatal wounds to the

saints of God are inflicted when he

presents himself to them as a false

prophet or a false

teacher. John said one of the heads of

the beast that rose up out of the sea

had been mortally wounded and the wound

had healed, this is a

mystery. Then he said, "The entire world

were in awe of the beast and followed

him. This beast will be empowered by

Satan the dragon himself for three and a

half

years. And the people of the world will

be so amazed by him, that they will

worship him and say, "There is no one

like the beast. He will have amassed so

much power, that no nation on earth at

that time will be able to make war with

him. And this beast who will become the

antichrist will be a world leader who

will have the greatest arsenal of

nuclear weaponry, with the most effective

technology to employ and activate them.

He will be the command and chief of the

most powerful military and naval force

the world has ever

seen. And the entire world will be in awe

of

him. Presently we are rapidly moving

toward that season. The three leading

figures in the world today are the

presidents of Russia China and the

United States. Will one of these three

become this beast, no one really knows.

But as global instability increases,

nations will begin to tumble, as the

world moves toward one world order, when

this beast will rule the entire

earth. They will also worship the second

beast, who will empower the first one.

They will worship and bow down to an

image of the first beast that will be

created by the

second. In a moment we will discuss who's

going to be the second beast called the

false prophet. But think about this, can

such a prophet arise from any country

other than

Israel? This is very

doubtful. According to Revelation 13:5,

the first beast will be given a big

mouth, which perhaps means a huge

platform. Through which he will speak

great things and blasphemies. And he will

blaspheme God publicly, and the name of

God,

and even His tabernacle. Again I repeat

Revelation

13:8, reaffirming that he will not be

successful in deceiving the saints of

God. His deception will be so strong that

only those whose names are written in

the Lamb's book of life, which is the

eternal book containing the names of all

faithful sons and daughters of God, will

be able to resist his powerful

spell. They will refuse to worship him,

but every other human alive on earth

will indeed worship this beast

wholeheartedly.

Then in Revelation 13:9 and 10, the word

says, "Anyone who leads someone into

captivity shall go into captivity, and

whoever kills someone with the sword

must be killed with the

sword." This may prophesy of a day when

justice will be served in the earth. It

will no more be a time when the wicked

go free and honest men are imprisoned.

Then the word of God goes on to use an

expression which is also found in

Revelation 14 and 12 and says, "Here is

the patience and the faith of the saints."

This tells us that God's faithful and

holy people will be required to endure

persecution patiently, while continuing

to obey His commands, and continuing to

keep their faith in Jesus Christ intact,

knowing that the day of the Lord shall

come when He will avenge them. Until

then,

it will be a time and times of great

testing for the people of the most high

God. Who will be required to endure

hardness as good soldiers, having their

patience and their faith tested

daily. The second beast is described as

arising from the earth, which signifies

that he will rise up in Israel according

to some

sources. Apparently this expression the

earth is used to refer to

Israel. He will be the prince of error

and deceit, who will be known as the

false prophet. This second beast will

look gentle and humble like a Lamb, but

will have the voice of a dragon. He will

also be the epitome of Satan and will

work in tandem with the beast. He will

perform signs and wonders, even making

fire come down from

heaven. And the Lord Christ gives us an

idea about the origin of this second

beast. In Luke 13 and 33 he says,

"Nevertheless I must walk today and

tomorrow and the day following for it

cannot be that a prophet perish outside

of Jerusalem."

It sounds as if He's saying, that no true

prophet should die anywhere other than

Jerusalem. Some have disputed this saying

that some true prophets have died

outside of Jerusalem. We cannot be sure

of what He really meant in this

statement, but what He says next gives us

a clear understanding of the role

Jerusalem has played in killing prophets

for millennia.

He cries out, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem

the

one who kills the prophets and stones

those who are sent to her. How often I

wanted to gather your children together

as a hen gathers her brood under her

wings, but you were not

willing." Because of this statement we

can certainly conclude that Jerusalem is

the world leader in killing and stoning

of prophets.

Because of these signs and wonders that

the false prophet performs, the people

will be deceived into thinking that he

is God, and will worship him. He will

cause the people to make an image of the

first beast and those who would not

worship his image would be killed. He

would also force all those on the earth,

whose names are not written in the

Lamb's book of life to receive a mark in

their right hand or in their foreheads.

And this is the mark of the beast, and no

one would be able to buy or sell unless

he has that mark, unless he has the name

of the beast or the number of his name

as their

identification. And so we

conclude, what a dreadful time this will

be in the world. It is the time when the

very elect of God would be deceived if

it was possible. Thankfully that is not

possible according to scripture. The

church of the Most High God began in a

simple uncomplicated way and it will be

simplified again, and all the focus will

be upon the Father, His Son Jesus Christ

and the Holy Spirit, who are inseparably

one and the same God. Yes my friend the

split and disjointed church as we know

it today will end. For there will be one

unified body of believers. And these will

be gathered from every nation on earth.

And from the many different Christian

denominations. And they will all be one

in Christ. And in that day the Latin

phrase e pluribus unum, meaning out of

many one, will belong only to the church

of the most high God. And truly out of

the thousands and thousands of Christian

denominations on earth today, there will

be just one denomination again. It will

be a huge united body of faithful

believers in Jesus Christ. And we look

forward with great anticipation to this

wonderful day. In the meantime we

encourage you to hold fast to God's word

in Jesus name,

amen. You've been listening to this

message and perhaps you do not know

Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We want

to give you an opportunity to make that

commitment

today. Please engage your heart and say

this prayer after

me. Father I am a

sinner. I'm sorry for all my sins.

I crave your forgiveness

Lord. I thank you for your grace and

mercy, your

forgiveness. Today I invite Jesus Christ

to come into my

heart. Dear Lord Jesus make my heart your

home. I give you the key to my

heart because I now belong to you

forever.

Please give me the Holy Spirit to lead

me into all

truth. Thank you Lord for saving my soul,

amen. Welcome friend to the body of

believers in Christ. There are many of us

here awaiting the return of the Good

Master. In the meantime we want to give

you some simple instructions.

We also encourage you to make sure that

you participate in a discipleship program

in your

church. You want to be baptized as

quickly as

possible. It is the fulfillment of all

righteousness. Begin reading the word of

God every day. Begin in the book of John

then go to Matthew, Mark and Luke,

reading

audibly as often as possible because

faith comes by hearing God's word.

Pray daily, attend at your local church,

and one glad morning the Savior will

come and receive us all unto Himself, and

we shall indeed forever be with the Lord.

God bless and keep you, in Jesus mighty

name, amen.