Christ, the Amen, the Affirmation of God's Word, speaks to us of faithfulness in bearing a true witness of God's Person, will, ways, and eternal purpose.

Ours is an age of "critical thinking" in place of saying Amen to the Word of God, an age of treachery and covenant breaking, of bearing a false witness of God in order to gain the favor of people.

The believers are lukewarm and indifferent toward the demands of the Gospel. A poisonous fog from the swamps of Hell clouds the thinking of the Christian people as they fill their minds and hearts with the death that the world projects through television and the Internet.

God's people have little desire to be possessed by either Christ or Satan. They want to be left alone to follow their own pursuits until the Lord comes and takes them "home to Heaven." The Antichrist has overcome them with ease and prosperity.

. . . he [Antichrist] . . . by peace [prosperity] shall destroy many: . . . . (Daniel 8:25)

The current spiritual torpor in America is well suited to the purposes of Satan. He does not want excessive righteousness or excessive wickedness. Either of these will wreck his plans. Satan intends to bring forth his Antichrist from the Christian churches. Satan is making himself acceptable to Christians, who are gullible. Witness the wide acceptance of the so-called "prosperity message"!

It is difficult to overcome spiritual apathy in an age of ease and prosperity. But to those who emerge as victors from the church of Laodicea a supreme reward is offered: to sit with Christ in His throne. To sit with Christ in His throne is to participate in putting down all rebellion against the Father's will. This marvelous opportunity is offered to each believer who is filled with enough faith and determination to cast off the spiritual apathy, treachery, lies, sin, and blindness of the churches of our day and present his body a whole burnt offering to God.

The first stage is Christ. The obedience of Christ makes possible the second stage—the victorious saints. The obedience of Christ and His victorious saints makes possible the third stage—the casting down of Satan from the heavens into the earth. The casting down of Satan from the heavens into the earth makes possible the fourth stage, which is the Battle of Armageddon.

The fifth stage in putting down all rebellion is the reconciliation of God's people to God's Person, will, ways, and eternal purpose in Christ, and the rulership of the saints over the nations of saved peoples of the earth. The fifth stage is made possible by the victory of Armageddon.

The saints will take the Kingdom and will rule with a rod of iron. All resistance to Christ will be dealt with severely during the thousand-year period. Because Satan has been shut up in the bottomless pit, the nations of the saved, not being hindered by demons and wicked angels, will choose to go up to Jerusalem to learn of the Lord and His righteous ways.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)

To be continued.