The Whole World Astray

“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who leads the whole world astray; he was cast out onto the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”  Revelation 12:9

 

“And the devil, who led them astray, was cast into the Lake of Fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”  Revelation 20:10

 

Let’s take a moment and consider something that is perhaps too big for most to actually contemplate in relation to the actually reality of the world that we live in.  Satan leads THE WHOLE WORLD ASTRAY.

 

Where does that lead to?  Well certainly the answer is found in the remainder of the verses in Revelation chapter 20.

 

“And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away. And there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, out of the things which were written in the books.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one, according to their works.  And Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”  Revelation 20:11-15

 

The problem here often is the fact that most individuals in all reality, despite many professing otherwise, absolutely refuse to actual believe what God says in His Words in their hearts.  They have head belief, but that belief often doesn’t change their hearts to actually wholeheartedly follow Jesus Christ.  Their hearts are still in disbelief.

 

“The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  Proverbs 1:7

 

For instance, there is only one time where God challenges His people to test Him and that is in regards to the tithe and offering:

 

“For I, Jehovah, change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.  From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of Hosts. But you say, In what way shall we return?  Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, How have we robbed You? In the tithe and the offering.  You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.  Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now with this, says Jehovah of Hosts, whether I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing until there is not enough room to store it.  And I will rebuke the devourer for you, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor shall your vine fail to bear fruit in the field, says Jehovah of Hosts.  And all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land, says Jehovah of Hosts.”  Malachi 3:6-12

 

Looking at this as an example, let’s talk about tithing.  Now I am not of the one who says that someone must tithe 10% of everything they earn, albeit that was an example that could be followed, as Abraham did so (Heb. 7:4), but rather for me it is simply a matter of what is laid on my heart.    

 

For some, truly those who are poor, perhaps they tithe with ‘good works,’ not so much in the giving of money, perhaps a little money like the poor widow (Luke 21:1-4), perhaps dedicated time to helping God in the spreading of the Gospel, whether ‘holding the rope’ or ‘holding unto the rope’?  Yet we live in a world where, without making it a whole Bible study about tithing, there are many who know to tithe, but rather might throw a couple of bucks towards supporting their pastor, of which would be godly (1 Tim. 5:18), even though he might still also be a ‘tent maker’ (Acts 18:3). 

 

Many choose not to wholeheartedly follow God in the matter of the tithe and offering.  They do not want to diminish their standard of living to ‘loan’ God money (Prov. 19:17) for the furthering of the Gospel.  Simply they do not believe God in the matter, nor are their hearts right in withholding that which He has given them.

 

In my experience, I have found that by tithing an amount that is laid on my heart, the Lord has always provided the needs for myself and my family.  Certainly one does not give out of what one does not have (2 Cor. 8:12), unlike certain apostate ministries that like to promote a ‘riches’ scheme by convincing people to send money that they simply do not have.

 

Certainly it is possible that one can get themselves in a financial situation or find themselves in a financial situation where they don’t have any extra money, yet I would ponder where exactly their hearts were in the matter prior and whether or not they strayed away from biblical precepts regarding personal finances?

 

This is simply one example of many who simply will not give, many times just simply because they do not believe that God would provide if they gave a portion of their income to tithing for God’s work.  Yet what else do people not believe?

 

Another example needs to be provided, prior to getting into the meat of the article regarding the whole world being lead astray, a very serious thing and one that should have societies as the whole pondering their ways for certainly God has declared ‘the end from the beginning’ (Isa. 46:10), so in the end they will be found guilty (Isa. 24:6; Rom. 1:20).

 

“Do not be led astray: Evil company corrupts good character.”  1st Corinthians 15:33

 

Notice here again the term ‘led astray’.  If we were to believe God’s Word, truly believe His Word, than we should believe all of the Bible, provided it is a good translation, of which many per-versions of the Bible are not trustworthy, but they twist the words to their own destruction (2 Pet. 3:16).

 

Even though I was saved at a young age of 9 years old, I grew up going to numerous different types of churches, of varying degrees of apostasy.  The Bible wasn’t taken very seriously in many of the youth events, more of a –guideline- to how one should live, what one should strive for, but never on a serious level of actually hiding the Word of God in our hearts (Psa. 119:11), in order to actual keep from turning to the left or right (Prov. 4:27).

 

Once I graduated high school and began to be out on my own, I did several different things to earn money, one of which was working in the restaurant industry.  While not as bad back then, as it is now, certainly I was surrounded by evil communication. 

 

At one job, where I worked at a restaurant, during my dinner break, I would simply go out to my truck, eat my meal, while reading a bit of God’s Word and spending a couple of minutes in prayer, reentering the restaurant after my break in order to finish out the shift. 

 

For some time this worked well for me, certainly I knew better and we would have to go out of this world (1 Cor. 5:10) to avoid such interactions and then where would our light shine (Matt. 5:16)?  Still we would have conversations about one topic or another while working.  After awhile I began to not believe what the Word of God said and assumed that evil communication would not corrupt good manners, that I was wiser than that and would not allow sin to enter my life, even if I hung out with some of my co-workers after work, which is what started to happen.

 

While I didn’t understand the full scope of how serious to take the Bible in regards to the ways of life at that time and only in more recent years has the truth of the matter really sunk into my soul of just how serious, very serious, it is to ascertain that we wholeheartedly follow every jot and tittle (Matt. 5:18) regarding what God has said to us through His Word.

 

Carnality began to enter my life and in a relatively short period I had found myself compromised from serving my Creator while trying to strive to be holy (1 Pet. 1:16).  While I won’t get into all of the details, certainly, though I had never heard a pastor preach on the subject my whole life of going to church after church, God’s Word can be trusted that He will chastise those who turn from the narrow path (Heb. 12:8).  It might not happen overnight, but I can assure you, it is coming, if you are truly Saved and continue walking contrary to Him with your lifestyle.

 

So why not just believe the Word of God and believe what the opening verse stated that Satan is leading the whole world astray.  For certainly this is the culmination of what will happen during the Tribulation (“time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7)).  The Rapture (1 Thes. 4:16-17) will already had taken place and what will be Left Behind initially will be a whole world astray.

 

Yet what we have is a whole world that has nearly gone fully astray.  Sin entered the world through Adam and since that time all have sinned.

 

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to every person, because everyone sinned.”  Romans 5:12

 

… “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”  Romans 3:23

 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

 

Behind the scenes of our daily activities there is a war going on, a very serious war (Eph. 6:12), one where if people do not accept the free gift of Salvation (Eph. 2:8-9) by repenting towards God and by faith believing into Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21), they will ultimately be part of the ‘whole world’ that is led astray, ending up in the Lake of Fire for all of eternity. 

 

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has established a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has appointed. He has given assurance of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”  Acts 17:30-31

 

We live in a world where most say science is being thrown out in regards to a man being a man and a woman being a woman, but I would say that the Bible, God’s Truth to mankind is being thrown out (Mark 10:6). 

 

We live in a world where people worship the creation, more than the Creator, making up lies of evolution (Rom. 1), denying Him who wrought their souls in the ‘lowest parts of the earth’ (Psa. 139:15).

 

We live in a world where violence is increasing, just at the Lord Jesus Christ said would happen (Matt. 24:37).

 

We live in a world where sexual deviancy is becoming common, also as Jesus said would happen (Luke 17:28-30).

 

We live in a world where, if we are to believe God’s Word, where people call good evil and evil good (Isa. 5:20). 

 

We live in a world where the vast majority are on the broad way to destruction (Matt. 7:13). 

 

Truly we can know that nothing else needs to happen prior to the culmination of the Church age and the beginning of the Tribulation, because we who have eyes to see and ears to hear (Matt. 13:16) know that we are smack dab in the apostasy that was prophesied to happen prior (2 Thes. 2:3; 2 Pet. 3:3). 

 

Are you sure you are Saved?  Do you believe God’s Word?  Understand that the world is being led astray by Satan, do not be part of that crowd.  Seek God while He may be found.

 

“Do not be led astray, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”  Galatians 6:7 

 

“Seek Jehovah while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Jehovah, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”  Isaiah 55:6-7

 

Amen!