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http://www.tagnet.org/prophecymadeeasy/chapter05.htm
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SATAN'S
TEN DEADLY TRAPS
The Ten Commandments
According to SatanSatan's plan is to hold the people in darkness and disobedience until Christ finishes His work as mediator and there is no longer a sacrifice for sin. SATAN'S 10 COMMANDMENTS --Why not share Prophecy Made Easy with a friend?-- Satan hates Jesus, the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit, and every person that has ever been born. Satan is like a hunter stalking his prey. You are that prey, and he knows that the only way to get you is to get you to turn your back on God and His protective care. Many different traps are used to capture animals such as beaver and mink. Each trap is built especially for the type of animal being trapped. Satan has designed his trap to get us away from God and God's angels. He knows that he is no match for them. Since Satan hates God's Ten Commandments let's call these ten traps the ten commandments according to Satan. The Bible clearly teaches that these are his principles and desires for you and me. His ultimate objective is to bring us as much pain, sorrow, and death as possible. Page 68 These commandments, Satan's traps, carried out in our lives leave us entirely defenseless against his attacks and expose us to the ultimate in pain, sorrow, and death. If you avoid these ten traps, you will find security, peace, and ultimate happiness. 1. SATAN SAYS "You can be a Christian. Just don't invest any time building a relationship with Christ."
Satan is afraid of a person who loves Jesus Christ. He knows we can easily defeat him if we place our confidence in Jesus. He tries to discourage us into not searching God's Word and into neglecting prayer. Satan knows our connection to God is through those two avenues. He wants us to find anything else or do--anything else! "Wouldn't you rather watch a movie etc. rather then pray or study God's Word?" Satan whispers in our ear. He knows he is no match for a person who seeks to know God on a daily, hourly basis through prayer and Bible study and sharing these great truths with others. God's plan is to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not give us if we didn't ask. No one is safe for a day or an hour without prayer. We should especially ask the Lord for wisdom to understand His word. Praying regularly through out the day is vitally important. During the day when others are around and you can't pray out loud, speak the words silently - Jesus will hear and send angels in answer to your prayer. 2. SATAN SAYS "Don't bother to search the Bible. It doesn't apply today." But God's promise is "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it." Revelation 1:3, NKJV. Notice that this promise applies especially to the book of Revelation. Prophecy Made Easy will open the book of Revelation up for your understanding and enjoyment. You will receive the blessing that comes to those who "read and hear and do" the things written in the book of Revelation. Satan knows very well that anyone whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the study of the Bible will fail and ultimately die without receiving eternal life. The Bible feeds your spiritual life just as food feeds your physical life. See how strong you are physically after you go several days without eating food. We get weak when we don't eat regularly. The same thing happens when we neglect to read or hear the word of God. The greatest danger a Christian faces is not Satan, alias the Devil. Our greatest danger is not terrorism! Page 69
Our Greatest danger is not terrorism, violence, or atheism. Our greatest danger is neglect. The greatest danger we face is just ignoring God. "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Hebrews 2:3, NIV; Hebrews 2:3, KJV. More people will be eternally lost from neglecting God, from ignoring God, then from all other reasons combined! Your greatest danger will be that of neglecting to read God's word with a spiritual hunger every day. Your greatest danger will be in neglecting to pray constantly throughout each day. I challenge you to become a spiritual giant using these two avenues of strength. To avoid becoming spiritually fat and lazy, there is a third part to spiritual health. Reading God's word compares to eating food. You eat two or three times a day. A good program is read God's Word as often as you eat food. Prayer is compared to breathing fresh air. Talk with God in your thoughts all through the day, just like breathing. Exercise is important to good physical health and it is important to good spiritual health. This is the third part of the good spiritual health triangle. Tell others about the great things you are learning. Help them find good spiritual health as well. Sharing these things with others is "exercising your faith" and just as physical exercise helps make you strong sharing the Word of God will help make you spiritually strong. Those who are ultimately lost will be lost from neglecting these three sources of power. May God guide you to strong spiritual health. 3. SATAN SAYS "What you believe is unimportant. "
But Jesus Christ says "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not" die "but have eternal life." John 3:16 And "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Mark 16:16 4. SATAN SAYS "Twist the Bible meaning to say anything you want it to say. Don't study too deeply and prove your point by quoting just half of a single verse." Jesus never depended on just half of a single Bible verse to prove anything. He used the whole Bible (what we call The Old Testament) to teach His disciples. "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Luke 24:27. The prophets of old foretold the coming of Christ with pinpoint accuracy. Look at the first chapter of this book once again, if you wish to see what Christ shared with His disciples after coming out of the grave. Page 70 Paul also taught us the importance of Old Testament scripture when He wrote to Timothy and to the whole world, telling Timothy and us that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction." 2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV. The Scriptures here referred to were primarily what Christians call "The old Testament." The part of the Bible we call "The Old Testament" was "the Bible" Christ taught from and "the Bible" Timothy taught from and said was "inspired of God." Let's use the whole Bible in our search for God. The whole Bible is in agreement on the plan of salvation. It is false teachers who discredit "The Old Testament." Study the Bible in its entirety. 5. SATAN SAYS "God's ten commandment law has been done away with. It does not matter what you do, heaven is your future home." Many reject the plain, cutting truths of the Bible because they involve a cross. They neglect the word of God because it is inconvenient. They will be left to receive outrageous heresy for religious truth. "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." 2 Thessalonians 2:10. Some, unwilling to obey God’s requirements, attempt to overthrow God’s authority. They become infidels to excuse their neglect of duty. Others choose not to believe because of their pride and laziness. Too lazy to distinguish themselves by accomplishing anything worthy of honor, which requires effort and self-denial, they aim to secure a reputation for superior wisdom by criticizing the Bible. Many enjoy finding something in the Bible to confuse the minds of others. Some at first criticize and reason on the wrong side, from a mere love of controversy. They do not realize that they are, in reality, getting caught in Satan’s trap. Having openly spoken with disbelief, they feel that they must defend their position. 6. SATAN SAYS "Trust psychics, spirits, mediums and miracles."
7. SATAN SAYS "You can believe that Jesus was a good man Just don't believe He was God in human form."
8. SATAN SAYS "Don't be afraid of me, I am not a real individual."
9. SATAN SAYS "The second coming of Christ is His coming to each individual at death."
"Write the vision, and make it plain, . . . that he may run who reads it." Habakkuk 2:2, NKJV. "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (understood)." 1 Corinthians 2:14. False doctrines and ideas, without number, are found in the many churches claiming to serve Christ. The errors of popular theology have driven many people to skepticism. Read 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. With such a warning before us it is very important that we be on our guard about what doctrines we receive. 10. SATAN SAYS Jesus is coming again in a Secret Rapture. According to the dictionary, rapture means "The act of transporting or fact of being transported." The secret rapture belief is that Christ will return in secret when He comes the second time--and that those who are Christians (the dead and the living) at that time will be secretly transported out of this world before the tribulation--before the seven last plagues fall on Planet Earth. According to this theory the followers of Christ will be in heaven while life goes on down here on the earth. Page 73 The theory claims that the plagues of Revelation chapter sixteen will be poured out on the world but the Christians are safe in heaven. According to the Secret Rapture Theory, those who follow Jesus will experience no cross, no persecution. Believers in this theory say Christians will be taken out of this world before the time of crisis.
Many of God's children have been deceived by this wonderfully sounding doctrine. Believing in the secret rapture does not make a person "bad." But it does effectively stop them from preparing for the crisis ahead. Jesus says "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Jesus says His second coming will be similar to the time of Noah. Noah and his family were not taken out of the storm--they went through the storm. Matthew 24:37-39. God removes "wrinkles" from our characters through the "cross" of painful trials. When you iron your clothes and want to get out the wrinkles, what do you use--a hot iron or a cold iron? A hot iron of course. The Apostle Paul says "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Peter explains it like this "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ." Ephesians 5:25 -27; 1 Peter 4:12-13. Peter was speaking from experience. Peter, himself, did not believe Jesus when Jesus told Peter that He, Jesus, would die on a cross. Peter got converted and later Peter, himself, died on a cross. And finally, Timothy says "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Timothy 3:12.
Belief in the secret rapture conveniently takes away the cross-- the trials--of those who live just before Christ comes again. The devil wants people to sleep on unprepared for the "time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then." "But at that time your people--everyone whose name is found written in the book--will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." Daniel 12:1-2. Page 74 God has always taken His children through the storm, through the trial. He says "take up YOUR cross and follow me" Noah was not saved from the storm. He was saved through the storm. Daniel was not saved from the lions' den. He was saved through the lions' den. Shadrack Meshach and Abednego were not saved from the furnace of fire. They were saved through the furnace of fire. "Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace." The king was amazed as the furnace was so hot that it killed the soldiers who threw these three men in--but when he looked in to watch them die he saw four men walking unhurt through the fire. The fourth was Christ, himself, protecting His three faithful servants. Daniel 3:19-20. Christ told the story of the wise man and the foolish man. He said "everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24 -27 Notice that the two houses on two different foundations represent two types of people--two types of Christians. This parable tells us that those Christians who not only "hear" Christ's words but "put them into practice" are like a wise man. Both houses, representing all people, must go THROUGH the storm. The difference is that those who put Christ's words "into practice" go THROUGH the storm successfully. Read in Exodus about the children of Israel. God delivered them from slavery to the king of Egypt through the use of plagues. They were on their way to "the promised land." Persecution will come on all who live obedient spirit-filled lives just before Christ comes to take His people to "the promised land" God will again use "plagues" to deliver His people. Read about it in Revelation chapter sixteen. In the days of Moses, God's children were then protected from the plagues and God's children now, just before Jesus comes to take us "to the promised land" will be protected from the plagues. God did not rapture his people before the plagues fell then--and God will not rapture His people now before the plagues fall.
If I were to offer you a journey that involved trials and suffering--or a journey that was entirely free from pain or trials which would you take? Page 75 Naturally you would take the journey that is free from all trials and pain. That is the way my natural heart would rather have it. If you have been tricked by the false teaching of the "secret rapture" I can certainly understand. This false teaching, the doctrine of the secret rapture, has its own type of magic. Everyone I know would rather have a pain-free future. But the truth is that there is no one who will have a pain-free future. If the secret rapture were true, I'd be the first one to teach it because my own natural heart prefers the easiest way. Satan tricked our first parents with a miracle and with lies. He has returned to this last generation to try and trick us into joining his rebellion. It is sad that he has tricked so very many. Won't you accept God's call to "set the captives free" from erroneous thinking? God's way is the best way! When the plagues fall, only those who have chosen to follow their self-denying Saviour will be safe! It is truly the best way! Many of those who have dreamed of the security of the secret rapture will be shocked awake when it is too late! Christ tells us in Revelation about the people who are saved when he comes again and says "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" Revelation 7:14. Notice God's children go through the tribulation. The tribulation is a refining process. Today we put iron ore into an intensely hot furnace to refine it--to make steel. The product is better for having gone through the heat. God wants to refine you and your character. The character of Christ will shine out of your life if you will submit patiently to the heated trials you will pass through if you are truly a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian.
Those who believe in the secret rapture believe that Christ will come and take His children home, before the tribulation--before the seven last plagues of Revelation 16 are poured out on Planet Earth. Notice that there are seven plagues. Read about the first six plagues in Revelation 16:1-17. During the outpouring of the sixth plague Christ says He has not yet come. In Revelation chapter 16 and verse 15 Christ says "Behold I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake." Revelation 16:15. It is during the sixth plague that Christ tells us that He still hasn't come yet but is coming soon.
What about the Bible texts that say "The Lord will come like a thief" in the night? Doesn't that mean Christ will come and slip into this world and take His children home without anyone else knowing He came? The Bible says: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" Page 76 "You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness." 2 Peter 3:10-14, NKJV.
They will see Christ come. They will hear Christ come. They will feel Christ come. Thieves come unexpectedly and silently. Jesus is not emphasizing silence but He is emphasizing the unexpectedness of Christ's coming and the Christian world's lack of preparation for this great event . It is amazing that those who believe in the secret rapture use one of the "noisiest" passages in the Bible to teach the "secret" rapture theory. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 speaks of Christ coming down through the skies. "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up (raptured) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." The King James Version says Christ comes "with a shout, and with the trump (trumpet) of God." I have a very difficult time imagining my Creator "shouting" and angels blowing "the trumpet of God" in such a quiet way that it is "secret" This coming of Christ and this rapture (taking His children up out of this world) will be no secret. It will be majestic, noisy and visible to all. |
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