The verse above may have a literal fulfillment, speaking of physical prisons and metal swords.

But it is also true in other areas as well that the saints are judged according to the judgment they exercise. Do we lead other people into spiritual bondage? Then we ourselves must be put in prison. Do we kill with the sword of the Word of God? Then we will be judged by the Word of God. We are not free to dispense judgment without suffering the same judgment.

If we would survive the last days we must cry to God for Divine patience and Divine faith.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (Revelation 13:11)

The first beast, Antichrist, comes from the sea of mankind. He is free-will, free-thinking, humanistic, libertarian, democratic government. He is man governing his own destiny. He is man expressing himself apart from Divine restraint. (God laughs at this!)

There is another beast. He is the False Prophet. He is the spirit of religious seduction.

The second beast does not come from the sea of mankind but from the earth, from the adamic soul.

The second beast has "two horns like a lamb." He displays power (horns) in the name of Jesus, the name of the Lamb of God.

He speaks "as a dragon." He speaks the words of Satan.

The False Prophet comes in the name of Jesus, demonstrates a double portion of power in Jesus' name, but speaks the words of Satan.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24:5)

The Pentecostal movement was clearly of God. The prayer, the holiness, the evangelism, were indications of the Spirit of God. No believer who experienced the glory given during the first half of this century could doubt the Presence of the true God and His Christ.

The Charismatic movement does not appear to be cut from the same cloth. It never has been characterized by the travailing prayer, the cross-carrying obedience, the humility, the saintliness that was true of early Pentecost.

Perhaps because of the lack of prayer and of the preaching of stern discipleship, the Charismatic movement has opened itself to deception.

As we have pondered the roots of the wholesale deception that has fallen on fundamentalist Christians, including the Charismatics, we have come to the conclusion that part of the problem began with first-century Gnostic antinomianism. Antinomianism is the teaching that the Christian salvation does not include keeping the commandments of God. It may be true that some of the Protestant Reformers, thinking and teaching during the rise of Humanism and perhaps influenced by Humanism's stress on man becoming God, set forth a doctrine of grace somewhat similar to antinomianism.

The Protestant Reformers, for example, were powerfully used of God to call us from the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time, while reacting against Catholic doctrine, Protestant Reformers overemphasized the role of faith and grace in the Christian redemption. The doctrine of the Reformers, as we understand it, was not balanced. It did not present godly behavior as the only true sign of Divine redemption.

The Reformers were contrasting faith with indulgences and penances but this have evolved into a contrast of faith with righteous behavior.

To be continued.