Hello, I'm Chuck Smith.
And I'm Carol Matriciana.
Welcome to this edition of The Pagan Invasion.
Ancient Hebrew and Christian Holy Scripture prophesy that the end of the world will be
heralded in by the takeover of a persuasive political leader.
At that time, according to Hebrew prophets of old, the world will be controlled not only
by a one-world government, but will also have a global religion.
It seems that today's spiritual and political climate points ominously just to such a climax.
While many in the world today look longingly towards the goal of political and spiritual
unity, the Bible clearly warns that such an event cannot take place outside of the purpose
and leadership of God.
Unfortunately, man's agenda is in opposition to God's.
This has been clearly illustrated over and over again throughout history.
For example, around 2300 B.C. in the land of Shinar, the whole earth was of one language,
and men decided that they would unite, make a reputation for themselves excluding God,
and build heaven on earth.
This was in direct conflict with God's specific request, which told them to scatter throughout
the earth, be fruitful, and multiply.
Man wanted to consolidate his efforts for powerful political and spiritual gain and
imagine himself able to oppose God's edict.
That is the majority opinion today as well.
The same spirit of hierarchical arrogance and submission to anti-biblical doctrine was seen
in the person of Adolf Hitler, who falsely claimed to be a Christian.
The powerful combination of his occult paganism and political dictatorship resulted in the
horrible holocaust of thousands of Jews, Bible-believing Christians, blacks, gypsies, and others whom
he labeled as inferiors.
Hitler was an ardent evolutionist and passionately believed in Darwin's theory of the survival
of the fittest.
He saw the Germans as descendants of the only pure race, the noble Aryan spirit.
Hitler believed that he and his followers could liberate the world from the shackles
of Judeo-Christianity.
He hoped to bring in a new millennial empire on earth based on a new racial hierarchy ordained
by nature itself.
Cult leader Jim Jones ordered his followers to drink lethal cyanide before killing himself.
He as their spiritual leader manipulated their devotion and dedication by claiming his word
to be all-prevailing truth.
More recently, the sex guru of Oregon, evolutionist and Indian mystic, Roshnish, taught his minions
hatred against Jews and Christianity.
He mocked Jesus Christ while attracting thousands to his brand of occult paganism.
When you call Jesus, really you have called me.
When you call me, really you have called Jesus.
His goal was to enlighten the masses in order to evolve a new world order.
This same spirit permeates today's hopes of a mystical super race of spiritual elite
who will usher in the new age.
It will be ruled by a world leader who claims to bring peace, but will ultimately bring
destruction.
Is it possible man could ever become an endangered species?
Consider this horrifying and incredible fact.
Man now has the capability of eliminating the human species from the face of the earth.
In the world's arsenals, there are enough nuclear weapons to destroy all mankind.
The peoples of the world cannot survive a major nuclear war.
Survivors of any nuclear conflict would be the least fortunate ones.
The vital question is, what are the chances of another major world war occurring?
I'm Chuck Smith and I'm also concerned about man's survival upon this planet.
For many years I've been studying the sociological trends, the population patterns and the environmental
conditions and as man has been living so thoughtlessly as though there were no tomorrow, it is rather
frightening to realize that he might awake one of these mornings and find there is no
tomorrow.
We have carelessly wasted the natural resources that God has given unto us.
We have sewn to the wind and now the time has come when we must reap the whirlwind.
Ozone is a minor but extremely important constituent gas in the stratosphere.
Stratospheric ozone screens harmful ultraviolet radiation from the earth's surface.
It is therefore principally the potential effects of increased harmful ultraviolet radiation
such as skin cancer and biological and agricultural effects that are of concern.
With the population increasing so rapidly, two thirds of the world already suffering
from malnutrition.
The scientists that have studied this problem are quite concerned about the next 20 years
when they anticipate that the present population will have doubled.
On the average about once a year from the time of Christ we have had major famines that
have killed large numbers of people in localized areas.
This year roughly 15 million will die before they reach the age of five through causes
that are related to inadequate food.
There are also grave concerns about the social upheavals in our society.
It is not surprising that the crime which is another severe problem is increasing more
rapidly among the children and teenagers than any other age group.
All of these things that have been happening on our planet, the famines, earthquakes, the
pestilences, the world wars, the false messiahs, are events that were predicted by Jesus Christ
as signs of the end of man's futile efforts to govern himself.
From a biblical standpoint one of the reasons I believe that man has come to the end of
his time is the rebirth of the nation Israel.
It is an event that was predicted by most of the Bible prophets and by Jesus Christ
himself.
As he gave the signs of the last days he told his disciples that when the fig tree began
to bud forth that they would know that summer was nigh, even though he said my coming is
at the door.
Then Jesus said that that generation would not pass until all of these things be fulfilled.
So the rebirth of the nation Israel marked the final generation of man upon the earth
in this present order.
And God took Ezekiel into a valley that was full of dry bones and scattered.
God said to Ezekiel can these bones be made to live again?
And Ezekiel said Lord thou knowest?
And he watched as these bones came together they formed a skeleton and then flesh came
upon the skeleton and muscles.
God said and so shall I gather again my people Israel that have been scattered among the
heathen and I will bring them back into their own land and I will establish them there.
So God has kept this ancient promise to his people.
He has brought them back into their land.
He has established them there.
Findus is the western wall which to the Jew is one of the most sacred places in the world.
For just beyond this wall was Solomon's temple but yet there at one time was the holy of
holies, the place where God dwelt in the midst of his people.
This is as close as they can come to that holy place and since 1967 they have now been
able once again to come and offer their prayers here at the western wall.
It used to be called the wailing wall because they were not allowed here by the Arabs and
now that it is under Jewish control once again they can come and once more worship their
God in this sacred place.
Of all the books in the world the Bible is most dependent upon prophecy because the first
writing prophet Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 18 that there would be other prophets
like him and the only way they would be able to tell whether they were truly from the Lord
and speaking the Lord's word or not is whether the prophecies they made came true 100 percent.
I take the Bible seriously because these 66 books written by 40 authors over thousands
of years are an integrated message system that has its origin from outside our time
domain and it proves that by describing history before it happens and there are many examples
of that throughout history but today we see it happening before our very eyes.
The Bible describes the emergence of a super government, a global government emerging out
of Europe and it's happening as we speak.
The Bible describes the Republic of Russia arming a group of allies preparing to invade
Israel.
The Bible describes right on schedule Israel being reestablished as a nation, the climax
of all prophecy is the personal return to the planet earth of Jesus Christ and all the
elements that precede that are being positioned as we speak.
There's an exact scenario in the Bible as it relates to the events that would all come
together in concert just before the return of Christ.
Basically it all begins and is triggered by the Jewish people returning to their ancient
homeland and becoming a nation again.
Once this came about to be called a state in May 14th, 1948 this started a whole scenario
of political events falling together.
The prophets said that as a result of Israel being in the land that this would trigger
a conflict between four spheres of political power, of course the one and the most obvious
one they predicted would be that the Arabs would unite together because of their mutual
desire to destroy Israel and this would be the primary reason they would unite.
Well we certainly see that today and of course the latest efforts to try to bring peace to
that area show how difficult it really is and how deeply entrenched the hatred of the
Arabs and the Muslims particularly are against having any presence of Israel in the land
of Palestine.
And the Muslim agenda is of course to convert the entire world by force if necessary to
Islam.
It divides the world into that which is Islam and that which it is at war with until the
final judgment.
So we need to separate the propaganda and understand the reality that Islam is hostile
not only to Israel but to any non-Islamic movement and Islam is on the war path.
The so-called rise of fundamentalism is something very vivid on our horizon.
We see the five Soviet republics that are breaking away, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan and so forth.
Their five have three things in common, they're Islamic, they're short of hard currency like
everybody in that part of the world and they have nuclear weapons.
So for them to be drawn together they'll obviously intrigue with their Muslim brethren in Libya,
Syria, Iraq, Iran against Israel because what unites Islam is their collective hatred for
Israel and it's an objective that has to be met at all costs to dispossess Israel of the
land which Islam views as having been once its own.
Islam teaches that it wasn't Isaac who was offered on the altar, it was Ishmael who was
offered on the altar and it wasn't Isaac to whom the promised land, the land of Palestine
was promised but it was Ishmael and therefore they have a claim to this land and the Jews
are not supposed to be there.
So we have this conflict today.
The second political sphere is predicted by Ezekiel and Daniel chapter 11 verses 40 through
45, Joel chapter 2 verses 20 to 21 where it talks about a power to the uttermost north
of Israel.
Now I believe that this is basically Russia in whatever form it takes in the future but
for centuries students of Bible prophecy have looked at this and said that once Israel
becomes a nation again in the last days Russia will be one of their arch enemies and they
will join with the Arabs in an all out attack against Israel eventually in the future.
The main issue is the Soviet Union despite all the lip service of disarmament has been
investing heavily in the most advanced weapon systems available to it, the typhoon class
submarines considered by the experts as the ultimate weapon and they had a two to one
majority and still built 30 more where they have 90 against our 30 some odd.
So why are they doing this?
Clearly they have an agenda quite independent of the rhetoric and the facade of the disarmament
that we so foolishly take at face value.
The most important thing to realize right now is the Soviet Union was never predicted
in scripture as controlling the world.
I often said something has to happen to stop them from gaining control of the world because
the Bible says they would not.
Right now they fit into the biblical pattern even more because now they are just a dangerous
regional power that could wreak havoc with the whole world.
We have to remember that even though the Soviet Union as such has broken up they still have
the most awesome military machine in the history of the world even stronger than the United
States and the real question and the real danger today is who is going to control that.
Typhoon class submarine or the tritons cost about two billion dollars each fully equipped.
In 1988 the Soviets had 63 we had 34 in other words they had about a two to one majority
over us and the capability of holding about 12,000 cities hostage 63 times say 200 each.
In 1988 they built nine more at a cost of about 18 billion dollars commitment.
In 1989 they built nine more.
In 1990 they built 12 more.
The reason I bring all this up is the economic one.
The Soviet Union's economy is in serious trouble and yet for 20, 30 billion dollars apparently
it could be turned around.
Gorbachev has committed over 50 billion dollars on typhoon class submarines why?
If he was building a cooler class attack submarines or other weapons systems they have multiple
uses offensive defensive what have you but a ballistic missile submarine is designed
for one mission a preemptive first strike.
They still have the nuclear weapons to destroy the whole western civilization in 30 minutes
in fact bring devastation upon the whole world.
They have over 30,000 thermonuclear warheads with the ability to deliver them.
Right now we do not know where their typhoon class submarines are most of them are at sea
and we have no idea where they are.
The Soviets by using double lasers of the right design can track our trident submarines
in real time from either an aircraft or a satellite.
We have no idea where the typhoons are so the first point is that our nuclear deterrent
is neutralized.
A 4 megaton warhead can ionize the whole Los Angeles basin and when I say ionize it means
you would not even be able to tell one building material from another.
Now they have some nuclear weapons in places like Kazakhstan which is a Muslim province
that have 25 megaton warheads on it.
Now the world has never seen what a 25 megaton warhead could do.
As a matter of fact some military planners wonder why would anyone ever build such a
thing.
Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39 says that it would be primarily the Russians who would lead that
last great war against the Middle East at a time when the Middle East appeared to be
at peace and so I believe we see that being set up right now.
I think also the fact that the Muslim provinces are now moving rapidly into treaties with
Iran, with Iraq, with Syria, with Turkey and that there are so many Muslims in what was
the old Soviet Union that Moscow has to come to terms with these and they have to in other
words bend to the will of what the Muslims want.
The third sphere of political power has to do with the Orient and Red China the last
remaining communist giant on earth continues to be belligerent against the West in their
desire to destroy Western civilization.
They have now sided with Muslim powers even though they don't agree with Islam and they
are giving nuclear and missile technology to some of the most radical of the Islamic
nations such as Iran, Syria, Libya and all of this is not because they agree with them
but because they see them as a useful tool to destroy Western civilization.
All of this fits into the predicted scenario.
The fourth sphere of power is the most important and that has to do with the revival of the
old Roman culture and people.
Eventually I believe out of the European economic community there will emerge ten strong nations
that will unite together and become the superpower.
Russia has a population base of three times the United States with the EFTA and EC combining
you've got all the makings of a global government.
The nation that can control the heartland of Europe can control the planet earth because
of the resources and the economics in its position.
Well it's interesting that a confederation of nations today control that very heartland.
I believe it's only a matter of time before the United States will be economically ruined
by the European economic community and since Russia is no longer a world superpower this
will make Europe the one superpower left.
This fits exactly into the prophetic scenario.
Now it's the Antichrist who will come and take over these ten nations that come out
of the European economic community and he will use that as his power base in order to
bring about a one world government.
This world leader will be the most popular man that has ever walked the planet earth.
He will be embraced by the whole world as the man of the hour.
He's going to bring an apparent peace.
He will rise as a finance man, a peacemaker, but emerges as the most powerful dictator
that the world has ever seen.
Chief and foremost among these character sketches is that he will be a dynamic, mesmerizing
public speaker.
Like this is the way he will literally sway the world and it talks about him winning the
hearts of the world, not just taking power over them, but he wins their hearts.
He convinces him that he is the one who can bring world peace and prosperity and security.
The Bible also speaks of him as having supernatural powers, doing signs and wonders.
He's going to be a very convincing act.
He's going to be the most attractive leader.
There's a tendency because of our spiritual orientation to paint him in evil colors and
that is certainly valid, but it won't be apparent to the secular world.
He is going to be the peacemaker.
He's going to solve problems that no one has been able to solve to date and as such will
be embraced by the general population.
He will be a media man's dream.
It talks about in Revelation chapter 13 that the whole world including every tribe, every
tongue, every nation will worship him, not just follow him, but worship him.
It speaks of him as being a miracle worker, a person who will appear to be a very good
man.
In fact, many characteristics of Messiah will be found in him, but I believe that as Revelation
13 describes, he will be personally indwelt by Satan.
The role of this coming world leader can only be understood if one recognizes that he is
Satan's statement.
He is energized by and the pawn of a final scheme by Satan himself and it's Satan's
attempt to counterfeit the real Messiah in an attempt to thwart God's purpose.
Revelation 13 again says that the whole world will worship the Antichrist as God.
Now, 50 years ago you would have laughed at that.
You mean to say educated westerners are going to worship a man as God?
Yeah, but they did.
The gurus came, the God men.
They worship Maharishi, they worship Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh as God.
Amazing.
Preparing us to worship this man as God.
Still have to convince Hindus as well as Muslims and so forth that he is a divine person who
has been sent to show the way to the greater meaning of all these religions.
In other words, he is apparently going to be so supernaturally indwelt and inspired
that he will convince the world that he is God himself and that all religions had a misunderstanding
of what their real value and what their real course was.
We see all kinds of movements in Islam, in Catholicism, in the classical Protestant denominations
and the New Age groping for common ground.
The popular theme is the brotherhood of man.
The popular theme is an ecumenical movement.
It's interesting that this coming world leader will apparently be successful at causing a
universal one world religion.
That sounds very appealing to the modern mind, but it is directly antithetical to the teachings
of Jesus Christ.
Now, for the first time in the history of the world, not just a few yogis and gurus
in the East, but millions of people in the Western world through yoga, through these
Eastern mystical techniques, are looking within what ought to be the temple of the true God
to discover their supposed higher self and to discover that they indeed are God.
So I would say that the religion of the Antichrist, that he will promote upon this world and it
will cause the world to worship him, is already here now through this pagan invasion and it
is preparing the world to embrace him.
All past attempts by man to build heaven on earth have collapsed in failure.
Rajneesh Puran in Oregon was no exception.
In the last stages of the self-proclaimed God man's political and spiritual empire,
he had built up a well-supplied paramilitary force.
It not only reflected his own personal paranoia, but that of his elite inner core too.
Rajneesh's misuse of sexual promiscuity for enlightenment resulted in a sweeping epidemic
of venereal diseases and dysentery leading to the death of a number of his followers.
What we saw in Rajneesh's commune was literally a microcosm of the biblical description of
the coming world tribulation.
A mad spiritually possessed authority, overseeing paranoia, gross immorality, plagues, murder,
fear, crime and narcissism to the extreme, all prophesied as last day manifestations
under a cruel one world dictator.
In Europe, one sees an interesting formation of ten nations federating together to form
the European community, which is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
It is incredible to realize that the building that I am sitting in front of has the potential
of fulfilling a prophecy that was made over 2500 years ago.
This prophecy is recorded in the book of Daniel.
The final world governing empire will be a federation of European nations that are related
to the Roman empire, but they will be joined together in a democratic union.
In the European community, we find the potential for the final world governing empire.
A leader is going to arise to rule over the European community that will almost hypnotize
people.
People speak of peace, and the world that is searching for survival will hail him as
their messiah.
However, the scriptures warn us that he is a false messiah, for he is called the antichrist
by the word of God.
The most contested piece of real estate is a 40 acre site, roughly 300 meters by 500
meters on the east side of Jerusalem called the Temple Mount.
All three major monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, all revere Abraham and
all have an equity, an interest, a perceived interest in the Temple Mount.
The Temple Mount was regained by Israel as a result of the Six Day War, but 10 days later
Moshe Dayan gave the administration of it to the Moslem High Council.
And it is the site, of course, of the original Solomonic and Herod's temples, and it is the
targeted site of the rebuilding of the third temple that Israel is getting ready to undertake.
So the potential conflict between Islam, which regards the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa
Mosque, the two prominent structures of the Temple Mount today, as two of the most revered
sites in the Moslem world, Israel, of course, will be building their temple there.
How do I know?
Because the Bible says so.
Jesus says so in Matthew 24, 15, Paul says so in 2 Thessalonians 2, 4, and John says
so in Revelation 11, 1 and 2, just to name three examples.
We know the temple is going to be rebuilt.
It has its destiny to be desecrated by this coming world leader.
Ultimately, the Bible prophecy says that there must be a third temple.
This is something the Jews will build on its old site because they feel that it's necessary
to have a full restored worship of Judaism.
They must have a temple and they must have animal sacrifice.
They've already built the implements for that.
I mean, that is an incredible task in itself.
Given a window of opportunity to rebuild, I personally expect the temple to rise very
quickly.
Even in Solomon's day, the temple was fabricated offsite and brought there in pieces because
they wanted the sound of no tools heard on the Temple Mount.
And with modern architectural practice of tilt-ups and so forth, I suspect that modern
technology would come to the rescue and the temple could emerge in surprisingly rapid
order given the political window for it to happen.
According to the Scriptures, there will ultimately one day finally come a true peace between
the Arabs and the Jews.
That won't come, however, until Jesus Christ Himself returns at the height of Armageddon
to rescue Israel from all her enemies round about.
Then will we have a highway from Egypt to Assyria.
Then will there finally be peace.
But before that happens, the Scriptures tell us a false messiah is coming, the one that
the Bible calls the Antichrist, and he will try to impersonate this peace.
He will form a false peace between the Israelis, the Jews, and the Arabs, and make it seem
that the world is coming together as one.
Much of that drama will take place right here on the Temple Mount.
Somehow, the Antichrist is going to get the Jew and the Arab, Isaac and Ishmael, Esau
and Jacob to live side by side, together, in peace.
Maybe what will happen, some people believe, is that right here at the Dome of the Rock,
right beside it, a Jewish temple will be rebuilt.
What a perfect symbol of the unity that the Antichrist has brought between these two combatants,
and what a symbol to the whole world of how through compromise and unity we can build
a New World Order.
The apocalyptic literature of the Bible tells us that there is a man of sin that is coming
who is going to seat himself in the temple of God.
In order to seat himself in the temple of God, there has to be a temple.
As you can see, on the Temple Mount, there is no temple.
There is only the Dome of the Rock, or the Mosque of Omar.
Neither of these fulfill the biblical injunction of a temple.
The one thing they're waiting for is the kind of political climate in order to rebuild
the temple, and I believe that will soon come.
It may be that the Antichrist himself will be the one who will negotiate a peace which
will allow them to build their temple alongside of the Dome of the Rock.
Armageddon is the final war before the millennial reign of Christ.
It's when the Antichrist determines to effect what Hitler called the final solution to
the Jewish problem.
The prophetic scenario describes this time of trouble, the likes of which the world has
never seen to that day or ever would see again, what Jeremiah calls the time of Jacob's trouble,
the great tribulation, the day of Jehovah.
All these terms speak of a three and a half year period, yet future, in which all nations,
including America, will turn against Israel.
Zechariah chapter 12, Joel, you have it again, God says, I'm going to gather all the armies
of the world against Israel, I'm going to bring them into the valley of Jehoshaphat,
where I will plead with them and I will judge them, and God is going to judge, he's going
to punish the nations of this world, and it will also be the time of Jacob's trouble,
where Israel will be dealt with and punished by God for her rejection of the Messiah, and
will be at the point of destruction, I believe it will be a nuclear holocaust, a nuclear
exchange will have begun, because in Matthew 24, I think around verse 22, Jesus says, except
those days be shortened, no flesh would survive.
You don't wipe out all flesh with bows and arrows and swords and spears, not even with
conventional weapons, but you can with nuclear weapons and with some of the other weapons
that we have of modern warfare today, horrible weapons that could turn this world into a
sterile bit of dust drifting through space, so Jesus says that he will have to intervene
at that point to stop the destruction, to rescue Israel, and to establish his kingdom.
I'm standing right here on the Tel of Megiddo, Armageddon.
This is the place where the Bible tells us that the world is going to come to an end.
The Jezreel Valley right behind all the nations of the world are going to gather together
as one.
They're going to make great war with one another, and there God will begin to pour out his judgment
upon this world.
It's all going to happen right here.
It is not just a place where men gather together to make war with each other.
The scriptures tell us that as this battle moves towards Jerusalem, and as the Lord himself
appears in the skies to defend Jerusalem, the nations of the world, who have gathered
here with all of the weaponry we saw in the Persian Gulf War, will then turn those weapons
on the returning king himself.
There will be no atheist in that day.
There will be no agnostic.
The Lord will be there for all to see in the skies.
Yet man will not bow in repentance.
The rebellious heart will turn against God himself and try to destroy him.
Of course, man will not succeed.
As we survey what's going on on the horizon in every segment of our world, whether it's
Russia arming its Islamic friends to attack Israel, whether it's the emergence of a world
super government in Europe, as the Bible talks about, or whether it's the regathering of
the Jews in Israel, the rebuilding of the temple, every one of these details, it's not
as if it's any one thing.
It's the orchestration of all major themes the Bible talks about leads to a world climax
in our lifetime.
The question is, what do you do about it?
It's interesting to watch.
It's breathtaking to realize that we have a message from outside time laying it all
down before it happens.
But why?
It's the response.
It all sets the stage for the return of Jesus Christ.
And what it really means, it's time to get serious about the Bible, to examine, not take
anyone else's word for it.
Find out what the Bible says about Russia.
Find out what the Bible says about Europe.
Find out what the Bible says about Israel, Jerusalem, the temple, and most of all, find
out what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
What claims did he make?
Who is he really?
It turns out that your eternal destiny hangs on your position in Christ.
There's no question about what the whole prophetic scenario is coming together right before our
eyes.
But I feel that that should help people see that number one, the Bible is true because
we can see that what it predicted is actually in fact coming true just as it has in history.
But I think it also should first of all make us stop and think, do we really know Jesus
Christ as our Savior and Lord?
The important issue is your position in Christ because we're leading to a climax in human
history in which he is the central actor.
Not this coming world leader that's going to deceive the world, but Christ himself.
How do you find out about it?
From the Bible, taking it seriously, doing your homework.
He took our place and bore the judgment for every sin that we'll ever commit.
And because of that, he purchased a pardon with our name on it.
But we must claim that pardon by faith.
We must receive it by faith in order for it to be valid.
And it's something that must happen by a deliberate choice at a point of time.
And I believe that is what is most important for people today, especially in the light
of what we see happening.
The time is soon coming when Christians we see today may suddenly vanish in what the
Bible calls the rapture.
And this will leave the world left to the antichrist to rule and to deceive.
But I believe right now is the important time to just say thank you Jesus Christ for dying
for my sins.
I accept the gift of pardon that you purchased for me.
That changes a person's eternal destiny right there.
He receives a spiritual birth that gives him the ability to desire and want to follow the
things God wants him to do from that point on.
When Russia attacks Israel, the prophecies of Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be fulfilled where
God declared that he would bring Magog, the land of Russia, against this little nation,
Israel.
In the last days the Bible declares that Russia will come with a tremendous army, joined by
the forces from Eastern Europe, the Balkan states, Ethiopia, Libya, and the Arab states.
As we look around we now understand what Jesus meant when he said, except those days be shortened,
no flesh will remain upon the earth.
We see the necessity for these days to be shortened because of the super weapons that
man has developed that threaten to destroy this planet.
Almost 2000 years ago God stepped out of eternity into time and walked with man whom he created.
As he left the earth he promised that he would return again to establish a kingdom of love,
understanding, and peace.
His coming again is essential for man's survival.
When his followers asked him for the signs of his return, he told them the signs to watch
for, the chief of them being the rebirth of the nation Israel.
Against incredible odds, the nation Israel was born again May 14, 1948.
Can we really survive all that threatens our earth today?
And of course the Bible has the answer, there is a hope.
And that hope is found in the promises of Jesus Christ.
He has promised that if we live and believe in him, we will never die.
That hope of eternal life through Christ.
And to me, living in this world today, that is the only thing that sustains me.
You remember the psalmist declared, the Lord is my refuge and my strength.
I will not fear though the mountains be removed and cast into the midst of the sea.
And if you know Jesus Christ as your refuge and as your strength, your future is assured.
It is amazing how the world is so ready to receive this antichrist or man of sin.
The Jews today are looking for their messiah to help them rebuild the temple.
The scripture seems to indicate that when the antichrist comes, he will make a covenant
with the nation of Israel, no doubt including the rebuilding of the temple.
Today men are thinking of themselves as God.
The antichrist will stand in the temple of God and declare that he is God and demand
to be worshiped as God.
And so throughout the world as people are looking for the God man, or a man with supernatural
powers to manifest the powers of God among them, they will be ready to embrace this man
who speaks peace, who seems to have divine kind of solutions, and who is able to bring
the world together in a one world religion.
Only we as Christians need to reaffirm our faith in the word of God and in Jesus Christ,
and we need to be looking not for the antichrist, but for the glorious appearing of our great
God and Savior Jesus Christ.
If you do not have the love of the truth in your heart, the scripture indicates that you
will be ready to receive the strong delusion that the antichrist will bring upon the world.
Within all of us, there is a God-shaped vacuum.
Throughout the ages, man has attempted to fill that void with the things of the world.
But it is only through a relationship with our Creator that we can be truly satisfied.
His holy scriptures reveal the way in which we can be reconciled to God, and that is through
the provisions of His Son, Jesus Christ.
I'm Chuck Smith.
And I'm Carol Matricciana.
Join us again for another edition of The Pagan Invasion.
The Pagan Invasion is an explosive new 13-part video series providing a thorough behind the
scenes examination of today's New Age movement and neo-pagan revival.
Each superbly produced volume features rare footage from around the world along with expert
analysis by noted Christian leaders and authors.
For more information, contact your local Christian bookstore or call 1-800-828-2290.
California residents call 1-800-633-0869.