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This is David Bay, Director of Old Paths Ministries.
And this is the Cutting Edge, a radio program dedicated to warning and informing God's people. We are committed to the study and exposition of the inerrant, inspired and authoritative Word of God. The views expressed belong to us, and are not necessarily shared by this station.
The moral bankruptcy of our society is well-documented. But, few people understand why we have become morally bankrupt. However, when we look at society through the Biblical eyes of God, we can easily see why we are facing the unprecedented troubles of today. This study of America through the eyes of God is what we will always try to do here; stay with us for some eye-opening truths.
We have stated on many occasions our belief that this world is on the verge of the beginning of the Great Tribulation, which the world is now calling the New World Order. If we are, indeed, this close, we need to study how the forces of this new kingdom will treat born-again Christians. And the Bible is definitely not silent on this subject. In both Old and New Testaments, God warned Christians to expect the greatest persecution in history. We shall examine three relevant Scriptures:
1. Daniel 7:25
"And he (Anti-Christ) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High...and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and dividing of time."
God is foretelling here that He will allow Anti-Christ to dominate and persecute Christians for the limited time of 3 1/2 years, or 42 months. By comparing this revelation with relevant passages in Revelation, we know that this period of persecution will occur during the last half of the Great Tribulation. (Rev 13:5) We see this same persecution theme in Revelation 13:7 as Jesus foretold, "And it was given unto him (Anti-Christ) to make war with the saints, and to overcome them..."
This persecution will be the most intense in world history, as we see from Jesus' words in Matthew 24:21-22. "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened."
Yet, this persecution and killing of Christian men and women will not be senseless; God will consider these deaths as His highest glorification possible. We see this revealed in Revelation 6:11, where Jesus reveals He has determined that a certain number of saints will have to be martyred. A more complete understanding of this account of Revelation 12:11: "And they [the Saints] have conquered him [Anti-Christ] by means of the blood of the Lamb, and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death -- holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing". Remember: all these Christian martyrs were unsaved at the time of the Rapture. What glory it must bring to God, to have untold numbers of people who were unsaved just a short time before these events unfold, now so much in love with Jesus Christ that they will gladly suffer martyrdom for Him!!
2. Daniel 11:32-35 (The context is End of the Age)
"...the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits...and some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end..." This passage literally means that this persecution shall be a test, to refine the truly saved, while simultaneously eliminating those who are insincere.
3. Revelation 20:4
"...and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands.."
Yes, Christians will be mightily persecuted and killed, much the same as the Nazis persecuted the Jews during World War II. In fact, it is probable that the Nazi Holocaust is a type of the final persecution of the Christians and the Jews during the Great Tribulation. We know that Adolf Hitler considered himself to be the Anti-Christ, as did many other occultists worldwide. It is more than interesting that several historic facts concerning Hitler seem to parallel foretold events in the Great Tribulation. For example:
Thus, the killing and persecution of the Jew by Hitler seems to be a parallel type of the final persecution of the Christian Church. Since this may be true, we should take a few moments to study the propaganda campaign which Germany waged against the Jews prior to and during the Holocaust. Such a campaign was necessary because the average German citizen needed to be conditioned to the need to kill the Jews. As we examine these historic facts, we will be comparing them to pertinent parallels occurring in America specifically or the world generally. These parallels show how close the world is to the End of the Age.
Historic Parallel #1.
The first thing we need to understand is that the propaganda campaign against the Jew began many years before Adolf Hitler gained power. Occultic literature first defined and played the themes in their specialized literature, themes which were to be brought into the open much later by Nazi propagandists. These themes showed the Jew as less than human, and as a threat to humans. For example:
Historic Parallel #2.
When Hitler came on the scene in the mid-1920's, before he gained power, he constantly portrayed the Jew as the major enemy of all Germans. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler sounded all these themes, but he added one more ingredient: he began to threaten the Jew with physical death. In his chapter entitled, "The Jew As Leader Of Social Democracy", Hitler railed against the corrupting and seducing power of the Jew in Germany, and then on page 63, he said, "Gradually I began to hate them (the Jew)..." Hitler then uttered the greatest self-fulfilling prophecy ever when he said that he would take these "seducers" and "corrupters" and stand them up against the wall to shoot them. Of course, this phrase is simply a colloquial way of saying that they would be murdered by execution. History records that this is exactly what Hitler did in his infamous Holocaust.
Today, we see an ominous parallel in New Age writings. In 1976, one of the most influential leaders in the drive toward the New World Order, David Spangler, wrote a book entitled "Revelation:The Birth Of A New Age". After recounting the many joys which mankind will experience in the New World Order, Spangler then begins a chapter entitled "Two Worlds". He explains that the people now living are divided into two groups: Those who have raised their consciousness sufficiently to where they can accept the New World Order, and those who have refused to do so. Spangler suddenly states, on page 160, that this second group "..have no place in the new world". Several pages later, Spangler asks the rhetorical question, "What will happen to those who cannot attune to the new? Where will they go?"
We do not have to wait long to find out where these people who can never accept the New World Order will go. Spangler says, very euphemistically, that these people will be "withdrawn" from the world and sent to an "upstairs room" to be "retrained" in the principles of the New Age. If this does not sound like killing, Spangler leaves no room for doubt, as he states in the next paragraph that these people will stay in their "upstairs room" until they can be "released safely into physical embodiment again". Obviously, for one to be "released back into physical embodiment", they must have first been separated from their present physical embodiment! Other New Age writers have expressed similar threats, and have identified those groups who can never accept the New World Order: Jews and Fundamentalist Christians. All people from these two monotheistic religions are targeted for destruction. The parallels between Hitler's threats against the Jew and today's threats against Jew and Christian are strong.
But now back to Hitler.
Historic Parallel #3.
Once Hitler gained power, he intensified these themes a million fold, using the resources of the State in the effort. Newspapers and magazines constantly slanted the news in such a way as to discredit the Jew. Today, we see the same type of slanted news coverage against both Jew and Christian, but especially the Christian. Newspaper and magazine accounts of sexual sin by Christian clergy, both Protestant and Catholic, are constantly printed on the lead page. Sensational tabloids, such as the Enquirer, are also constantly running articles on the sexual and monetary sins of Jim and Tammy Baker, or Jimmy Swaggert. We can only shake our heads in dismay and disbelief.
Hitler's propaganda machine also made great use of the moving picture industry to paint the Jew with this same type of brush. His two most successful movies were The Jew Suss and The Eternal Jew. The Jew Suss depicts a thoroughly debauched Jew, surnamed Suss, who attempts to seize political power through black magic, blackmail, and seduction. One particularly emotional scene depicts Suss raping the major Aryan heroine in the story. Thus, all three major themes of anti-Semitism which we discussed earlier are portrayed in this movie. Many historians and propaganda experts regard this film as "the best propaganda film of the Third Reich". ("The War That Hitler Won", by Robert Herzstein, page 310).
The other propaganda film which mightily prepared the German public for the Holocaust was "The Eternal Jew". This film is so powerful that one author exclaimed it could even make an Anti-Semite out of a Jew. This film purportedly traced the wanderings of the Jewish people from the Middle East toward Europe over the previous four thousand years. Repeatedly, the Jews were shown on the screen as being rats, as possessing the same type of characteristics and carrying the same type of danger to man. German camera crews went into the Jewish ghettos in Poland which the Nazis had created for the Jews several years before. Their cameras graphically and accurately showed the squalor and filth in which the Jews were living. However, rather than telling their audiences that this type of living condition had been created by the Nazis themselves they presented these conditions as representing the secret, true living conditions of the Jew throughout history. This German propaganda film falsely contended that Jews had always lived this way, but had just effectively hidden this condition from the German audience.
This portrayal of the "Eternal Wandering Jew" as a rat was so effective that Hitler and his henchmen were able to pursue their program of genocide much more aggressively and openly. After all, if the Germans believed the Jews were not human, that they were rats, everyone knows how to deal with rats. You kill them; you kill all of them if possible; and you kill them with no remorse. To this day, Jewish people throughout the world are very sensitive about being portrayed as rats.
Historic Parallel #4.
Incredibly, Hitler claimed from the beginning of his active political career that his plan to "cleanse" the world of the despicable Jew was being carried out on behalf of German Christianity!! Hitler's words in his infamous book, Mein Kampf, ring out loud and clear, as he denounces Jewish people, Jewish culture, and Jewish "Marxism". He has just threatened to kill them all by lining them up against a wall. Then, Hitler concludes, "Hence, today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." But, why should we be surprised, because Jesus predicted, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service'. (John 16:2) We can hardly believe it, though, that Hitler's slaughter against the Jews was carried out under the cross of Jesus Christ!! The last time in history in which the Jew was killed under the banner of Jesus Christ was in the Middle Ages, when the Roman Catholic Church slaughtered many. Of course, the Roman Church also outperformed Hitler in one regard: they killed even more born-again Christians than Jews. Still, we do not want to detract one iota from the horror of the Nazi Holocaust.
Historic Parallel #5In the months prior to the beginning of the Holocaust, Nazi thugs began to attack Jewish synagogues, looting them and burning many of them to the ground. This effort climaxed on November 9-10, 1938, when Nazi officials used the unfortunate murder of a German official by a young Jewish boy as the excuse to begin their Holocaust. This night is called Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass. Homes, businesses, and synagogues were attacked and burned by the thousands. It was critically important that the Nazi forces began to burn Jewish places of worship just before they began the physical persecution and murder of the Jew.
With this historic information as background, you can easily see how America is on a parallel course with Nazi Germany. There is one major difference, however; whereas the Nazis targeted the Jew first and the Christian second, New Age leaders have targeted the Christian first and Jew second. Let us spend a few moments to recap this American parallel to Germany, understanding that this time the target is the Fundamentalist Christian.
Current Parallel #1.
Anti-Fundamentalist Christian writings have also occurred first in occultic writings. One of the major writers, not surprisingly, is been Alice Bailey in her book, "The Externalisation Of The Hierarchy". Bailey's guiding spirit continuously rails against the dangers posed by those "Fundamentalist Christians", while simultaneously praising more "liberal" Christian leaders. Bailey, and others writing before 1975, sounded the warning repeatedly that we Fundamentalists posed a great threat to the New World Order, but uttered no specific threat.
Current Parallel #2.
In 1975, the New Age Movement went public, with great fanfare and publicity. Immediately, books from major leaders began to flood the scene. We have already quoted David Spangler's book, "Revelation: The Birth Of The New Age", published in 1976. Spangler was one of the first New Age leaders to specifically threaten death to any person or group of persons who would not accept the New World Order.
Current Parallel #3.
Also beginning in the early-to-mid 1970's, media portrayal of Christian clergy began to dramatically change. Suddenly, clergy was portrayed on TV and in movies as somewhat stupid, but cunning, as greedy for wealth at the expense of others, and as sexual deviates. Of course, it did not help matters any when public scandals broke into the open involving high-profile Christian pastors. And the equally troubling scandals involving Roman Catholic priests have also added fuel to this fire. Remember, non-Christians paint Protestants with the same brush as Roman Catholics, so that a scandal involving Catholic priests reflects badly on Protestants in the eyes of the general public. Finally, as we stated earlier, these scandals have been sensationalized in tabloids like the Enquirer.
The latest media parallel with Nazi Germany is an extreme Anti-Christian bias in cartoons. Cartoons are very effective tools to the propagandist because points of view expressed through the medium of laughter are far more effective than in any other way. There are many such examples, but we will quote only two today:
* Funky Winkerbean, November 6, 1992. In this cartoon a black teen named Monroe Madison catches two other high school students, a blonde and a brunette, at their lockers. He identifies himself as holding the following positions, and assures these girls that he can be called upon at any time to fulfill the duties which accompany these positions:
Student Council Representative
Member of the Spirit Week Committee
Member of the Pep Club
Member of the Planning Committee for the Christmas Dance
As Monroe walks away one girl says to the other, "Monroe certainly is involved in a lot of things. I heard that in his church youth group he's on the welcoming committee for the second coming."
While this is a mild satire of our belief of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, it does provoke a feeling of derision of Christians among non-Christians, and sets the stage for more hostile cartoons later.
* Political cartoon, Editorial page, Providence Journal Bulletin, November 30, 1992. This political cartoon is anything but mild; in fact, it could have been taken directly from Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda. In this cartoon, the central figure is the G.O.P. (Republican) elephant. This elephant is being dragged backwards on its stomach by a pack of rats. These rats have looped a rope around the back leg of the elephant and are dragging him into a building identified as a Christian Mission. You can tell this is a mission typically found in an inner-city ghetto because of the sign. This sign shows the cross of Jesus Christ, with the name, "Jesus" spelled out on the cross bar, and the word "Saves" being spelled out on the bottom part of the vertical bar of the cross.
However, this ghetto mission is not your average, run-of-the-mill Christian Mission; it is a "Fundamentalist" Christian Mission. I have seen these type of Christian Missions in the ghetto areas of many of our large cities, and I have never seen one so specifically identified. The artist is clearly aiming this cartoon directly at the Christian Fundamentalists.
As the G.O.P. elephant is being dragged backwards into this mission by the pack of rats, he is shown as saying to himself, "Jeez, what on earth is happening to me?" The word, "Jeez" is a commonly used form of the blasphemy, Jesus Christ, spoken in anger. The G.O.P. elephant has just sworn by Jesus Christ in his anger about being dragged into the mission and is demanding to know why.
The answer to that question is provided by a tiny character with a long nose which can be seen in the lower right-hand . This character is obviously the commentator . He is depicted as saying, very rudely , "You're being saved, Sir, like it or not". This commentary commits several grievous errors against the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
No one is ever saved by rats.
But, of course, we know this is not the point the author of this cartoon is attempting to convey. He is simply equating born-again, Fundamentalist Christians as the lowly, feared, and despicable rat. This type of caricature is clearly copied straight out of Nazi propaganda files. As we have stated many times, history is repeating itself, as the kingdom of Anti-Christ will bear much resemblance to Hitler's Holocaust. This cartoon is just one of the more blatant examples.
3. Just as the Nazis attempted to depict that the natural environment of the hated Jews was in the filthy ghetto, this cartoon clearly places this mission in an inner city ghetto. Most Americans think of a ghetto as being such a filthy, rotten place, with subhuman living conditions. Clearly, rats are non-humans living in subhuman conditions. Therefore, by implication, Fundamentalist Christians are being depicted here as being subhuman, or nonhuman .
We realize that this is only one cartoon, and a persecution on the scale of that which is depicted in Scripture in the Great Tribulation will not begin on the strength of just one anti-Christian political cartoon. We certainly do not want to give the impression that we are overreacting here. However, we do feel this is just one more sign of the times, and a clear sign that the Anti-Christian campaign may just be starting. We must be on our guard and in much prayer. In fact, if any of you read any antifundamentalist Christian articles or see any political cartoons, please clip them out and send them to the address given at the end of this program. Be sure to write the name of the newspaper or magazine and the date, so we may use it as a resource.
Now, you may ask, what is the purpose of this cartoon? As we reported several weeks ago, this 1992 Presidential Campaign between Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George Bush was unique in the history of American politics. Clinton had clearly cultivated the support of such anti-Christian groups as the National Organization For Women, the ACLU, gay and lesbian groups, and the various pro-abortion organizations. George Bush, on the other hand, had decided to court the support of the Fundamentalist Christians. Therefore, when Bush lost the election, many political commentators, such as William Buckley, immediately began to say that it was the fault of the Christian Fundamentalist Right. Such commentators pictured the Republican Party as being at the mercy of the Christian Fundamentalists. This diatribe could conceivably form the nucleus of a campaign against Fundamentalist Christians, in accord with the writings of the New Age Movement. And do not take solace in the fiction that Bill Clinton is a good ole' Southern Baptist born-again Christian. He is nothing of the sort, as we showed last week.
When this long-prophesied movement against true born-again Christians actually begins, it will be lead by many liberal "Christian" leaders, just as occurred during the time of Hitler. This brings us to the final current parallels between today and Hitler's Germany.
Current Parallel #4While the New Age Movement is planning to eliminate all those who cannot ever accept its precepts, they are doing so in the name of Jesus Christ, much as Hitler did!! Their writings abound with Scriptural references, all of which are taken out of context; however, the fact does remain that they derive much of the authority for their Plan from Scripture and from their fictitious one-dimensional, all-loving Jesus Christ.
Current Parallel #5
American Christian churches are being burned. This phenomenon was captured by the January, 1992, issue of "Prophecy In The News", lead page article entitled, "Christian Bashing Is On The Rise". In the past year, over 50 Christian churches in Florida have been burned, and three churches were burned in one weekend in Oklahoma City. This article talked about a "mind-set of hate" which exists in America today against Christians. But, the final element in this parallel with Nazi Germany comes from an unexpected source. Former Illuminist Satanist, Doc Marquis, of S.A.L.T. Ministries, told me that Satanists had planned for many years to begin to burn Christian Churches to the ground as the world drew close to the actual implementation of the New World Order.
Daily news continually shows how quickly this world's leadership is moving everyone toward the New World Order. As we have repeatedly stated, the only preparation is spiritual. If you are not a born-again believer, you have every right to be frightened; but if you are truly born-again, you have every right to be excited, because you are going home, to eternal glory with Jesus Christ!!
Praise God in the highest! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!!
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