It was the babylonish spirit of self-serving religion that killed Jesus, tried to kill Lazarus, and chased Paul all over Greece and Turkey.

This very same spirit is in the Christian leaders of today in many instances. They will be invited to assist in government social programs. And maybe in some instances they should do so. They will have to seek the Lord on each occasion.

But let me tell you that when God begins to move on His true saints the Christian leaders will rise up in satanic fury just as religious leaders always have. The religious person who has had an experience with God but has never learned to bow the knee to Christ will be filled with satanic rage when he or she perceives a true saint of the Lord being used or exalted by the Lord.

The higher in leadership the religious person is placed the more he must guard himself against the spirit of envy, for it was this spirit that crucified Christ and tried to destroy Paul.

In the days to come the Christian leaders (and perhaps leaders from other religions) will become part of the Antichrist worldwide effort to lift the curse of God from the earth. But God will raise up His witnesses who will rebuke the world because of its neglect of Jesus Christ.

Then the Spirit of Hell will fill the religious leaders and they will seek the death of all who will not worship this image of humanitarian aid and comfort they have developed.

God's justice is seen in the fact that at the end the secular realm will arise and destroy Babylon the Great, the religious empire, and its headquarters in Iraq, the site of ancient Babylon.

Let every believer pray mightily to be delivered from the man-centered spirit of our day. Those who accept the mark of self-centeredness in their actions and their thinking face a fearful future.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: (Revelation 14:9,10)

Those who gained victory over the beast, his image, his mark, and the number of his name, sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.

Here are the victorious saints of all covenants. The Law of Moses is represented. The new covenant also is represented. These are the true saints, the witnesses of God of all ages.

What do they sing?

The works of God are great and marvelous.

The ways of the King of saints are righteous and true.

Everyone should fear the Lord and glorify His name because He alone is holy.

All nations finally will come and bow in worship before God because His judgments now are made manifest in the seven final plagues. His righteous acts have been revealed.

How great God is! How righteous are His acts!

This is what the victorious saints will be singing.

Yet the most terrible judgments will be being visited on mankind.

Antichrist, the False Prophet, Satan, and mankind will be raging against God because of the suffering that has come upon people.

But the victorious saints are on the Lord's side. They know the goodness of God. They do not take the side of rebellious mankind. They do not hold up the rights of people over the rights of God.

How about you today? Where are you in this picture? Are you on the side of people or the side of God?

To be continued.