Satan will wear out the saints of the last days by flooding them with lawlessness and moral filth. "And because sin shall abound, the love of the majority shall grow cold."

"Sin shall abound"!

Compare:

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. (Revelation 12:15)

Satan will seek to devour the churches by sending after the believers a flood of moral filth.

... and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. (Daniel 7:25)

The saints "will be given into his hand." By the term "saints," as stated previously, is meant those whom God has set aside to serve Him, those whom He has anointed with His Holy Spirit.

It might seem that the "saints" are the physical Jews. But it is these same "saints" who will possess the Kingdom of God (Daniel 7:22,26), and it certainly is not true that the physical Jews will execute the judgment against Satan and possess the Kingdom of God. No individual can see or possess the Kingdom of God until he or she has been born again (John 3:3-5).

As we have said, God has a special place and plan for physical Israel. It is not true that the Christian Church has replaced physical Israel in God's program. Those who are teaching "replacement theology" have in them the spirit of Antichrist and the False Prophet. God has not cast away His people whom He called under the old covenant.

The saints, the members of the Body of Christ, will be given into the hand of Antichrist "until a time and times and the dividing of time." It is felt that this expression signifies a year, plus two years, plus one-half a year: that is, three and one-half years. The three and one-half years are the last half of Daniel's seventieth week (Daniel 9:27). These may not be literal years.

We notice in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation that the Head and Body of Christ (symbolized by "two witnesses") will bear witness with unprecedented power for the first half of the "week." The Gospel of the Kingdom of God will be preached to all nations for a witness (Matthew 24:14) and then the "end" will come. The "end," of Matthew 24:14, signifies the end of the Christian witness in the earth.

The terminating of the Christian witness occurs as God permits Antichrist to overcome the "stars" who had borne the tremendous latter-rain anointing of the Spirit of God.

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. (Revelation 11:7)

Why would God permit His witnesses to be overcome?

First, so Antichrist may be free to express in the earth the total foulness of Satan.

Second, so some of those who were lifted up because of the power given to them in the latter-rain revival may be brought low in humility before God. Otherwise they might lose their souls through spiritual pride. Of all the lessons man must learn, the most important by far is that the doing of God's will in humility is the most necessary, the most important reason for man's existence.

Third, so there may be a complete purifying of the members of the Body of Christ, of the godly remnant destined to be revealed together with Christ at His appearing.

To be continued.