Not "if you walk through the fire" but "when you walk through the fire." "Don't be surprised at your fiery testings," Peter advises us.

The doctrine of "escape by rapture" has produced a multitude of believers who are at ease in Zion. They are at ease in Zion because they are under the impression that their faith will never be tested severely. They are to be treated differently from all the saints of Scripture and of history because they have made a profession of Christ. Yet today in some countries the believers are being tortured and slain for the Gospel.

Great tribulation soon is to fall on the nations of the earth. Every Christian who prepares himself today by prayer and dedication to Christ, and prepares his loved ones as far as possible, will be strengthened and guided by the Spirit of God. He or she will escape being harmed spiritually (and sometimes physically) by the things that are to come to pass.

But the Christian who continues to live as a worldling, trusting that he or she will be carried off to Heaven in the day of trouble, trusting that he will be treated differently from the saints of past and present history, will certainly be deceived by Antichrist.

We will leave it to the reader to decide which of the two doctrines is proceeding from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The current emphasis on the use of "faith" to acquire material gain is a fourth misunderstanding. This teaching brings the believer into the lap of Antichrist.

The "faith message" is part of the contemporary "success" approach to the Gospel. In our day the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been changed from a discipleship that leads to patient suffering, and sometimes martyrdom, into a program for success—success in our vocation, success in our marriage, success in our education, success in building a church, success in all that we do. What an abomination! What a false prophet!

This is exactly what Satan desires: a "saint" who is living an unrighteous, unholy, disobedient life; who fears Satan but not God; who believes that God would never expose him to suffering, torture or martyrdom for the Gospel's sake; and who has his heart and attention centered on material gain and the blessing of his adamic nature in the present age.

By these four lies Antichrist has overcome many Christians in the several nations of the world. Satan must, as Balaam counseled Balak, tempt the Lord's people and lead them into sin. Satan understands that a holy people who are anointed by the Spirit of God always shall destroy his works.

Antichrist must deceive the saints away from God, away from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, before he can ascend to his seat in the Temple of God. Therefore he is waging a war of seduction and deception against the saints. He cannot overcome the saints by a superior power and so he is overcoming them with their own lusts and self-love. Our enemy is exceedingly cunning.

To be continued.