We have underestimated the enemy. We have not realized that he is too cunning for us. We have not called continually and desperately on the Lord of Armies.

The Holy Spirit in us is greater than Antichrist and always enables us to overcome the lies of Antichrist. But we have walked in the flesh and not in the Spirit until Antichrist has been able to overcome the testimony.

Jesus warned us carefully that if we belong to Him the world will hate us. We are not of the world, therefore the world hates us. Satan is the god of the present age and his hatred toward us is prevalent in the world.

Throughout past centuries the hatred of Satan has been expressed in the torture and slaying of the saints. But these persecutions have succeeded only in purifying the Body of Christ.

In the last days Satan will continue to persecute the Jews, a race he hates with savage fury because it has been chosen by the Lord.

But Satan's strategy for the destruction of the Christians is of a different kind. He will attempt to destroy the Church through prosperity. This is a master stroke. It is succeeding quite well. People who would pray and seek God in a time of persecution are willing, when they are not being threatened, to neglect Christ in order to acquire material wealth.

Satan's intention is to "love" the Church into the Lake of Fire. Antichrist will subsidize the Christian churches. The believers do not understand the utter importance of total separation from the world. If the world "accepts Christ," this is as it should be (they think). Why shouldn't the governments be friendly toward the churches of Christ?

After all, isn't Israel supposed to be the "head" and not the "tail"?

Israel indeed is destined to be the head and not the tail. But not in material wealth in the present age. Our kingdom is not of this world. When the Lord appears, Israel will be exalted as the center of government of all nations.

To be continued.