Tag Archives: deception

Rise of the Beast

Posted on by

People the world over will be amazed and marvel as a powerful empire centered in Europe emerges suddenly to dominate the world for a brief period. It’s called the “Beast” in the Bible. It will in turn do the bidding of a powerful system of religion rooted in idolatrous worship, deceiving mankind, and called “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” In this message is discussed some of the background of this system as revealed in the Bible and in the pages of history.

“Rise of the Beast” COGMessenger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Image from Martin Luther’s 1534 translation of the Bible. This work (the image) is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer. In public domain in the U.S.; published before 1927.

Does God Want People to be Deceived?

Posted on by

Question: I have read the article, “Are ‘Many’ or ‘Few’ Called in this Age?”. One part has me confused. It is Matthew 13:15: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (KJV).

I realize they could have seen but their hearts were dull, callous, insensible, their ears hard of hearing, and their eyes closed so they couldn’t see. That part I do understand. The part I don’t understand is the last part: “…lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them.” Doesn’t that mean that their ears and eyes could be opened, which would lead them to understand with their heart?

If they were converted, would that mean that they repented and applied God’s law and obeyed Him, and He would heal them? If it isn’t referring to that, then I don’t understand what he was referring to. It sounds like He didn’t want them to understand or change. Would that mean that at times God doesn’t want someone to understand?

I don’t understand. I hope you can explain it for me. Thanks so much. Continue reading →