The church in Laodicea is characterized by the worship of mammon, of money. The devil of covetousness, mammon, is the only pagan god of whom Jesus spoke, saying, "No man can serve both God and mammon." Few other gods of ancient times or of today were of sufficient danger or significance to warrant the Lord's speaking of them to His disciples.

Throughout the Scriptures there are instances of the ruin brought about by covetousness. The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira are an example to us of the Lord's attitude toward covetousness in His Church. The love of money is the root of all evil.

Yet, what do we hear being preached in some of the Christian churches? "God desires that his people be rich in the things of the world."

Multiplied thousands of Charismatic believers are believing the gospel of material wealth and can see nothing wrong with it. Antichrist is a master deceiver. The believers are looking for Antichrist to rise up out of the sea in the form of a prehistoric monster. At the same time they are rejoicing as he preaches from the pulpits of their churches.

The Laodicean believers will be accepted and helped by the Antichrist government. It will be their point of view that Antichrist, while he may not be a born-again Christian, at least recognizes the value of the Christian religion and is tolerant of it. In fact, Antichrist may claim to be born again in Christ! Antichrist will be so persuasive that the Christians, who are sheep, who love peace and riches, will believe he is a worthy individual, a competent administrator who is able to reconcile various religions and ideologies and bring peace to the world.

We think it will be later on, when Antichrist has the world under his control, that he will begin to claim to be God. By then it will be so painful to resist him that the Christians will fall into line with his economic program—especially if he continues to allow them to meet in their buildings and continue with their activities in the realm of human welfare.

One may say, Antichrist never will be able to deceive the Christian churches. The truth is, Antichrist already is overcoming the saints. He has entered Christian doctrine until the churches are filled with spiritual babies who represent no threat to the rule of Satan over the earth.

Today the civil governments in so-called Christian nations are giving legal stature to homosexuality and abortion and are moving in the direction of preventing parents from disciplining their children. Are not the governments making themselves gods? Are the Christian people able to do anything to stop this trend? Rather, the Christian people often occupy themselves in their buildings with the mysteries of their religion.

When the Christians do step into the moral arena, such as in the education of their children in Christian schools or in the protesting of moral abominations, they begin to feel the iron fist of their "Christian" government. They are harassed by governmental agencies or sued by their outraged fellow citizens. We are not far from the reign of Antichrist.

To be continued.