"Their dead bodies" are a picture of the Christian institutions, churches, and schools that have resulted from the latter-rain revival. Now they are devoid of the Life of the Spirit of God. They are dead.

Some may protest, how could this happen? How could Antichrist overcome the people of the Lord? If we will open our eyes and look about us, we will begin to understand that the Lord's people already have been overcome by the world. This is true of America and of other wealthy "Christian" nations. Many of the churches are spiritually dead. They have been overcome by Sodom, by Egypt, and by Jerusalem.

Sodom represents the lust of the flesh.

Egypt represents the lust of the eyes.

Jerusalem represents the pride of life.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (I John 2:15,16)

It is not possible to overcome God's elect by means of force. The saints of the Lord are guarded by the angel of the Lord. In addition to being protected by holy angels of great strength, the saints have received from the Lord Jesus power over all the power and authority of Satan. Nothing can truly hurt them when they are abiding in Christ.

Also, God's elect cannot be overcome by persecution. The saints always have been and always will be (until Jesus returns) persecuted, tortured, and killed (Romans 8:36).

But the true saints always overcome all these.

It is not brute force that will overcome the elect of the last days, it is sin. It is not the hour of tribulation that is the danger, it is the hour of temptation.

The fleshly churches preach that God will not permit His saints to experience tribulation. This is unscriptural. All of us are appointed to tribulation. It is tribulation that creates saints, that purifies the churches. The strongest Christians of today are those in countries that persecute them.

No, it is not the hour of tribulation the saints need to fear, it is the hour of temptation. It is impossible for Satan to overcome Christians by force because the Lord Jesus possesses greater power than Satan does. But Satan is very successful in overcoming the saints by temptation and sin.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

"The hour of temptation"!

Christian teachers are maintaining that because of the tribulation soon to come, God will carry away the elect to Heaven so they cannot be harmed.

It is not tribulation that is the problem, it is temptation. It is not the hour of suffering of which we are to beware. Christians have suffered throughout the centuries and have drawn closer to God because of it. It is the hour of temptation, of the abundance of sin, that is the danger to the believers.

To be continued.