Wallace G. Smith | Tomorrow's World

Wallace G. Smith

How to Build a New World

Is space exploration and life on Mars the next step for mankind? Join Wallace Smith in comparing Elon Musk’s technological advances to scriptures about how to build a better world based on a genuinely solid foundation.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Mission to Mars?

Elon Musk wants to put human beings on the planet Mars. He’s not alone. NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars as well. But what if we make it? What sort of world would we turn Mars into? Actually, we already know the answer—and there’s a lot we can learn by exploring just how we know.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World where we explain “How to Build a New World.”

What Would Life on Mars REALLY Be Like?

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

And “your world”—for right now, at least—consists of only ONE world: the one we enjoy right here on good ol’ planet Earth. But many are looking to expand that list of possible worlds to include the planet Mars.

Would you like to travel to another world? Well, some very wealthy, very powerful individuals and organizations are very invested in trying to make such a possibility a reality—and possibly within your lifetime.

Multibillionaire Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, suggested in 2022 that he would land a manned mission to Mars as early as 2029 and released a video in 2023 depicting one of his planned Starship spacecraft landing on the planet and joining a thriving and growing human colony (“Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029,” NPR.org, March 17, 2022).

But Mr. Musk isn’t alone. America’s NASA is working on its own efforts to put a manned mission on the Red Planet. Through their Artemis program, NASA plans to establish humanity’s first long-term base on the Moon. And there, they plan to learn what it takes to establish a base on Mars (“How NASA is planning to get humans to Mars,” TheWeek.com, April 17, 2023).

I’ll be honest—I find these missions fascinating. From the earliest days I can remember, the idea of mankind placing colonies on another world has gripped my imagination. Yet even for a relatively close planet like Mars, the technological challenges are formidable. For one, the trip to Mars could take six to seven months, during which the European Space Agency estimates astronauts would be potentially exposed to 700 times the amount of radiation we’re normally exposed to on earth (“The radiation showstopper for Mars exploration,” The European Space Agency, ESA.int, May 31, 2019).

And surviving the long, lonely, and dangerous trip there isn’t the hardest part. Mars may be the most earth-like planet in the solar system, but it is not even close to hospitable. Even at the relatively “temperate” equator, the temperatures drop to negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 73 degrees Celsius, for our metric friends). The air on Mars is as thin as you’d find 21 miles above the surface of the earth, and 96% of it is carbon dioxide, with oxygen making up less than two-tenths of a percent.

But, for the moment, let’s set all of that aside. Let’s suppose that we made it. Let’s imagine that humanity—whether the United States, or Elon Musk followers, or anyone else—has been able land craft on Mars and build a permanent settlement. In fact, imagine that settlement 100 years in the future. Even 500 years. All technological challenges met and surpassed—a large, thriving, new outpost for humankind. That is, imagine we’ve achieved our wildest dreams, conquered the final frontier, and successfully transplanted humanity and human civilization from planet Earth to the planet Mars.

In such futuristic outposts, what should we expect to see?

And let me be clear: I don’t mean what technology should we expect to see. That could be anything—domed cities, environmental reengineering machinery, new forms of transportation. No, I mean in terms of the civilization, itself—the people—the citizens of our new interplanetary metropolises, their lives, their relationships. What should we expect to see concerning human life on this new world?

Or maybe I should ask the question differently. Is there any reason we should expect life on Mars to be fundamentally different from life here? Troubled relationships? Broken families? Government corruption? Educational confusion and nonsense? Political rancor? Crime? Theft? Murders? Rapes?

Because no matter what new and fantastic technology we might invent and deploy there, the one common element in our imagined civilization on Mars and our very real civilization here on Earth is us. Human beings.

And thousands of years of experience teach us an important lesson: We don’t know how to live together on our own world—how would we expect to know how to build a new one?

If we one day begin building new worlds on other planets, the key import we will bring with us is ourselves. And with us, we bring all the same spiritual problems we have allowed to corrupt and corrode our civilization here: Lust. Greed. Hate. Envy. Covetousness. Deceit. Pride. Malice. Arrogance. Bigotry. Cruelty. Hedonism. Selfish ambition.

No matter where we take ourselves in this universe, those terrible facets of human nature will ride alongside us as unwelcome, but inevitable, stowaways.

Why is that? Why are such self-destructive vices so inevitable in our world? Is there a way to build a truly better, new world?

Yes, there is. But understanding how to do that will first require us to answer a different question: why is our current world the way it is?

Believe it or not, the answer to that question is a simple one. And understanding that answer points us to the only way to create a new and better world.

Human Nature in Rebellion to God

Experience teaches us that wherever we go, we take our problems with us.

The key to solving that problem is to understand why our world is the way it is. And the reason why has to do with the foundation on which our world is built.

In Psalm 11:3, King David asks, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The answer is assumed to be obvious: “Nothing.” If the foundations are broken, then nothing of lasting value can be built upon them. And as we will see, the foundations on which we continue to try to build our world are utterly broken.

To understand why, we have to go back to the beginning of our civilization—the very beginning.

We see that beginning in the book of Genesis, when God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.

In Genesis 1 and verse 26, we read, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26).

Man was to be given full control over the whole world and everything in it.

That was because humanity had a very special purpose to fulfill. Continue in verse 27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Unlike all the animals, each created according to their kind, man was created after the God kind—designed to reflect his Creator and, ultimately, to become fully like his Creator. But becoming like the Creator requires more than being in His likeness and image. It requires building His own character. And building character requires choice.

So, God planted two trees in the Garden of Eden that would present man with a choice: to obey or to disobey: “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. … And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:9, 16–17).

And, if you know the story, then you know Adam chose to eat of the wrong tree. His wife, Eve, was deceived by the devil to do so, but when she gave fruit from the forbidden tree to Adam, the Apostle Paul tells us that “Adam was not deceived” (1 Timothy 2:14). He knew what he was doing, and he willingly chose to disobey God.

That single act laid the foundation for all of human history and civilization. God had given Adam and Eve, the first humans, all they could ever want—a safe, beautiful paradise, honest labor, fellowship with their Creator, and a future family to grow and nurture. They had only to obey their Creator’s loving will.

But Adam chose otherwise. In choosing to purposefully eat from the forbidden tree, Adam told God, in effect, “Not Your will, God, but mine.” Adam rejected God’s will in favor of his own. And, really, if you and I are honest about it, we’ve made the same choice ourselves from time to time. Choosing our own will over God’s express will is sin. And the Bible assures us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

And that statement—“Not Your will, God, but mine”—is the fundamental basis of virtually every human institution we see around us today.

In government, we see lip service paid to God—in America, for instance, politicians like to say things like “God bless America,” but they don’t want to seek His blessings in their laws and policies. In the ivory towers of academia, credentialled elites tend to believe they’ve outgrown God and constantly come up with humanly devised codes of ethics and morality that result in little more than continued moral rot. Calling the entertainment industry a cesspool is an insult to cesspools. And—as shocking as this may seem—our religions, even the vast majority of so-called “Christianity,” is filled with ideas and philosophies of mere human beings and pagan superstitions—not a devotion to the word of God over human tradition.

The foundation of our collapsing society can be summed up in that single phrase: “Not Your will, God, but mine.”

Building on the Foundations of God’s Will

For millennia, man has sought to build its own world his own way—never committing to do it God’s way—not fully!

Since we can’t build a new world on a broken foundation, we have only one choice: Remove that foundation and replace it with a good one. And Jesus Christ provides that foundation!

We see it revealed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night Jesus was to be betrayed and ultimately delivered up to crucifixion.

As His disciples slept that night, Jesus pleaded before His Father in prayer. Knowing the pain and agony to come, He knelt there in the garden and asked His Father if there was any other way that Their great plan could be accomplished. Like any of us would, He did not want to be tortured to death for hours! He did not want to go through the agonizing trial and cruel, lonely, excruciating death that lay ahead!

Yet, in all His passionate pleading His focus and resolve never wavered. Even in the face of one of the cruelest executions mankind has devised, He told God in prayer, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

That is the foundation on which new worlds can be built!

Surrounded by paradise and comfort, Adam told God, “Not Your will, but mine.” Yet, facing agony, suffering, and a torturous death, Jesus told God, “Not My will, Father, but Yours.”

That, my friends, is the only foundation on which a new world of true, unending peace, joy, hope, and love can ever be built! It is the very opposite of the foundation today’s world is built on—but it will be the rock-solid foundation of tomorrow’s world!

Suffice it to say that what God intended the world to be, illustrated in the abundant and beautiful Garden of Eden, will be restored! It will be, in a very real sense, a new world—built by the returned Son of God and His glorified followers, guiding, directing, and teaching mankind for 1,000 years.

Instead of the broken, plagued world we’ve always known, mankind will experience a world of peace, joy, health, and abundance all because the new world ahead will have been built on a NEW foundation: “Not my will, God, but Yours.”

How we long for Christ to return and that day to come, as Jesus Christ taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10).

Repentance and New Life—In This World and Beyond

The only foundation on which a truly new world can ever be built is an utter and complete submission to the will of God in obedience and love. As Jesus Christ said, “Not My will, but Yours.”

And unless Elon Musk or NASA plan on building on that foundation, expect any civilizations we build on Mars to be mere reruns of the horrors we’ve created here on earth. Different planet, same humanity, and same devastating problems.

But the world Jesus Christ will establish after His return will be built on that new foundation—transforming the world and then, afterwards, the entire cosmos.

As Paul tells us in Romans 8,

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:18–21).

Indeed, eventually all of creation—the entire universe—will get to experience the liberation that comes with being ruled by the divine Family of God, which will include the glorified followers of Jesus Christ, who are eager to build on the new foundation that their Savior had laid. So, yes, even Mars may finally get its shot!

But we do not have to wait until Christ returns to begin knowing the joy of building a new world. None of us may control a whole planet right now, but we each have our own world—our own families, our own spheres of influence, our own lives—in which we can begin to build anew. We can experience, in our own worlds, now, a taste of the joy, hope, peace, and happiness that awaits the rest of the world at the Savior’s return.

All that is required is to begin building that new world in our lives now is the choice to begin building on that new foundation: “Not my will, God, but Yours.” We need only to repent. Give up our sins. Ask God for forgiveness. Give up our devotion to doing things our way, and ask God to help us begin doing things His way—the way Jesus Christ would do them. And with every step we take in doing so, we will find the blossoms of that new world growing beneath our feet, and bringing with them the aroma of the world tomorrow that Christ is bringing with Him.

Thanks so much for watching!

All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work hard to help you understand your world through the pages of your Bible.

If you’re interested in what we offer today, our free resource The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?, you can just click on the link in the description, or you can go to TWTV.org/Ahead.

And if you appreciated what you saw, we hope that you would click on that subscribe button, and if you’d like to be notified in the future when more comes out, just click on that bell.

Thanks so much!


The Chaos of a Borderless World



Immigration migrant shelter

While mass immigration tears at the fabric of Western civilization, Scripture reveals our Creator’s vision of how humanity should live upon the earth.

How Great Nations Die

Amidst debt, natural disasters, and war, one common factor sets every nation in history on a course to fail. Join Wallace Smith in this video as he shows from Bible prophecy the number one cause of collapse—immorality.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

What Causes the Death of Nations?

The world has seen many powerful nations whose wealth, influence, and reach would understandably cause any who dwelt within them to believe they would last forever—yet the path of history is strewn with their ruins. Today, two of the past century’s greatest powers—the United States and Great Britain—are on the verge of joining the failed states of the past. But, the true reason why goes generally unacknowledged.

Join us today on Tomorrow’s World as we explain how great nations die.

Economies in Turmoil

While many would, perhaps, rather not admit it, much of the modern world has been crafted over the past century by the economic, military, and cultural success the United States, Britain, and British-descended nations of the world have experienced.

As U.S. foreign-policy expert Walter Russell Mead said in his insightful 2007 book God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World,

It is unpardonably vulgar to say so, but in three hundred years of warfare, the English-speaking powers keep winning. To put this another way, either the British or the Americans or both have been on the winning side of every major war in which they have participated since the late seventeenth century. That history of victory shapes the world we live in…. The Anglo-Saxon powers did not just win wars. They changed the way the world lives, thinks, and organizes itself as much as any of the great civilizations of the past… (pp. 13–14).

It’s true. The United States, Great Britain, and the other English-speaking nations of the world have had an incredible impact on world culture and way of life, completely out of proportion to their size. The United States, in particular, has been the sole remaining “superpower” of the Cold War era—a financial juggernaut and a military power the likes of which the world has rarely seen before, if ever.

But things change. The higher the climb, the farther the fall.

Let’s briefly take a look at only one indicator of the current strength of these Great Nations: Their economic status.

The wealth of the United Kingdom was once considered the envy of the world. And today, the United States is still considered by many to be the chief financial engine powering the world’s economies. But just how trustworthy is that engine?

Looking under the hood to examine more closely—or, under the bonnet, for our friends in the UK—doesn’t give cause for hope.

It’s hard to report on American national debt because it is growing so quickly that numbers quickly become outdated!

But as of right now, as I am recording this program, that debt is more than 30 trillion dollars—that’s more than 97 thousand dollars for every single living, breathing citizen of the U.S.—from the newborn to the elderly!

That means that the U.S. public debt is currently about 120 percent of its gross domestic product—the financial output of the nation (“Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product,” FRED Economic Data, FRED.stlouisfed.org, July 26, 2023).

And as noted by the non-partisan Peter G. Peterson foundation, “[w]ithin 10 years, net interest costs [Note: INTEREST COSTS] will exceed federal spending on crucial programs like Medicaid and [national] defense” (“Interest Costs on the National Debt are On Track to Reach a Record High,” Peter G. Peterson Foundation, pgpf.org, February 16, 2023).

Across the Atlantic, the UK is hardly doing better.

As reported by The Guardian in June 2023,

The UK’s total government debt pile in May reached more than 100% of annual national income for the first time since 1961 as state borrowing more than doubled, according to official figures.

In a blow to [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak’s plans to cut taxes before the general election, which is expected next year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said net debt reached £2.6tn as of the end of May, estimated at 100.1% of gross domestic product (GDP)

(“UK government debt rises above 100% of GDP for first time since 1961,” TheGuardian.com, June 21, 2023).

And the citizens, personally, are hardly doing any better than their overspending governments.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data recently reported,

Total household debt [in the U.S.] rose by $148 billion, or 0.9 percent, to $17.05 trillion in the first quarter of 2023…. Mortgage balances climbed by $121 billion and stood at $12.04 trillion at the end of March. Auto loan and student loan balances also increased to $1.56 trillion and $1.60 trillion, respectively, but credit card balances were flat at $986 billion (“Household Debt and Credit Report,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York—Center for Microeconomic Data, NewYorkFed.org, 2023).

Of course, economic troubles are only one sign of a nation’s declining health and power. We could spend the rest of our program today looking at others.

For instance, the U.S. military continues facing humiliation after humiliation after the scarring images of the nation’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and recruitment programs that seem more devoted to recruiting social justice warriors and drag queens than maintaining the top fighting force in the world.

As for the UK, The Times reported in May 2023 that Germany was preparing to spend more on national defense than Britain for the first time in modern history—the same Germany whose Gross Domestic Product is around 30 percent larger than the UK’s (“German defence spending ‘to overtake UK within years’,” TheTimes.co.uk, May 17, 2023; “Country comparison Germany vs United Kingdom,” CountryEconomy.com, 2023).

Where the Anglo powers once seemed to govern the course of the world, when the U.S. was seeking Saudi support for its actions intended to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, news agencies around the world reported that the Saudi leaders would not even take U.S. President Joe Biden’s phone call.

History is clear: No great nation—no great empire—lasts forever.

Yet the real reason they die tends to be ignored.

Moral Decline

For truly great, globe-girdling nations, one source of downfall and demise rises above them all: MORAL DECAY.

In this area, we can learn a lot from ancient Rome. The Republic of Rome and the Empire that grew out of it ruled a large portion of the world for a millennium. Its might was unparalleled in its day.

But what is left of it today?

Ruins, ruins, and more ruins.

And while many point to overexpansion, economic policy, military spending and other causes of Rome’s fall, the truth of the matter is that before the borders of Rome could be breached by the forces that would destroy it, it was already rotting within due to decadence and moral degradation.

Many historians testify to the problem, including Roman historians, themselves.

Writing only a handful of years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the ancient Roman historian Livy was well aware even then that Rome had fallen from its greatest heights, and expresses in Book I, chapter 1, of his History of Rome, his hope that each reader will consider gravely what he has recorded of his own people:

I would have every man apply his mind seriously to consider these points… what their life and what their manners were… as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies.

The renowned Roman historian Tacitus pulled few punches in addressing the moral state of his people. Writing around 115 AD, in his famous passage mentioning the crucifixion of Christ, Tacitus was no fan of Christianity, calling it a “deadly superstition,” but his description of his nation’s capital city is noteworthy.

Observing how Christianity was only temporarily slowed down when Christ was crucified, but then mysteriously sprang back to life, more dynamic than before, he writes that it “erupt[ed] again not only in Judaea, the home of this evil, but even in Rome, to which all that is dreadful or shameful in the world flows and here is celebrated

(Annals, Tacitus Cornelius, 2012).

(Of course, one day Tacitus will learn it wasn’t just the faith of Christians that sprung to life again suddenly, but their Savior, as well!)

Finally, consider Seneca, one of the most celebrated Roman philosophers and writers in Roman history, born in 4 BC and living as a contemporary of the first Christian disciples.

His criticisms of Roman morals and culture in his day were stinging, noting that simple honesty and integrity were vanishing, such that mere agreements between men were no longer sufficient, requiring lawyers and legal papers to be drawn up to require individuals to live up to their ends of the deal.

“O, what a shameful admission of the dishonesty and wickedness of the human race! More trust is placed in our sealrings than in our consciences” (Essays, Book 3).

As for the state of marriage and family in Rome at the time, Seneca writes,

“Is there any woman that blushes at divorce now that certain illustrious and noble ladies reckon their years, not by the number of consuls, but by the number of their husbands, and leave home in order to marry, and marry in order to be divorced?… Is there any shame at all for adultery, now that matters have come to pass that no woman has any use for a husband except to inflame her paramour?” (ibid.).

Seneca noted that marital fidelity had become extinct, and the lack of shame in adultery and fornication only meant that the rot of promiscuity spread further and faster. His observations match those of a near contemporary, the Roman poet Martial [MAR-shəl], who implied marriage in Rome had essentially become legalized adultery.

Such ancient accounts fit well with the observation of famed English historian Edward Gibbon, whose classic work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire paints a picture of an nation whose leaders became degenerate in character, and whose military legions brought back corrupting vices and immoral practices from the lands they conquered.

Before Rome became a ruin on the outside, it had become a ruin within. And the death of that great nation became assured.

Family Destruction

A morally corrupt nation cannot suppose that it will last! And moral corruption causes great nations to die.

And my friends, this is vital to understand because America and Britain, and those nations which have descended from her, are in a MORAL FREEFALL!

As explained in detail in today’s free resource, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, they have turned their backs on the God who blessed them and are actively—even aggressively—turning their backs on His laws!

Let’s examine just a handful of biblical guidelines and compare them to current American and British culture to see how we measure up.

God stresses in His word the importance of family and the marriage bond between husband and wife. In Exodus 20, the fifth commandment reads,

“Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

Elsewhere in Leviticus 19:32, we read,

“You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD.”

The seventh of the Ten Commandments teaches the same principle expounded by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 13:4,

“Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”

And in passages such as Matthew 19:4–6, Jesus Christ reaffirms the definition of marriage as designed in Genesis 2: A union between one man and one woman for life.

God cares PASSIONATELY about respectful relationships between generations, and between children and parents, and about the sacred union of man and woman in marriage.

Yet in the U.S. and Britain, younger generations are casting aside the guidance and wisdom of previous generations, and the nations’ supposedly enlightened academics, leaders, and social engineers are destroying any traditional or biblical notions of sex, gender, or family structure and replacing them with novel designations and configurations of their own design.

One effect of neglecting God’s design of and laws regarding the family is, believe it or not, economic.

In a 2008 study, the Institute for American Values concluded,

“[W]e estimate that family fragmentation costs U.S. taxpayers at least $112 billion each and every year, or more than $1 trillion each decade” (The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing, 2008).

And that was their conservative estimate.

To put this in perspective, by some estimates that amount is the same as the total cost of the United States’ war in Afghanistan.

In the UK, the cost of family breakdown is estimated at more than 50 billion pounds per year, or more than 60 billion U.S. dollars.

But, of course, the real cost of broken families is not measured in dollars, but in the damage it wreaks on the people of a nation.

At the end of 2021, researcher and author Melanie Phillips wrote of this in a commentary for The Times in the UK. What she insightfully calls “the willed disintegration of the traditional nuclear family” has been devastating:

“It is the greatest cause of social inequalities, through educational underachievement, crime and juvenile psychological disorders. At its most extreme, it leads to neglected, abused and dead children. Yet this has become unsayable in the upper reaches of government and cultural life. So what we have instead are unspeakable acts of cruelty and degradation — and nauseating crocodile tears” (“Family fragmentation comes at a tragic cost,” December 20, 2021).

Let’s look another: the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet.” What would be the state of our national and private debt if so many of our citizens were not consumed with desire for the newest cars, technology, entertainment, all beyond our means—but within our credit limits. Jesus Christ teaches us in Luke 12:15, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Yet our consumer-based national economies are virtually FOUNDED on the hope that people will IGNORE this advice, resulting in the culture of permanent debt we now enjoy.

Ultimately, our debt is enslaving our nations. In fact, Bible prophecy says that the U.S. and British-descended nations will eventually be crushed by debt, as explained in today’s free offer.

We read in Deuteronomy 28, verses 43 and 44:

“The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.”

Yet the solution isn’t more creative economic policy or more government handouts. The solution is to stop sinning, turn to Jesus Christ, and start obeying God.

There are too many examples like these for us to cover all of them in one program, but in summary let me refer to a statement by educator Vincent Ruggiero, made in his book Warning: Nonsense is Destroying America:

“If we are ever to solve this country’s social problems, we must acknowledge the moral bankruptcy of our time and the culpability, not only of the parents and teachers, but most of all the media. We must take responsibility for creating an environment that nurtures morality in children and adults…. To pretend the Ten Commandments are somehow irrelevant to moral living is a violation of common sense…” (p. 152).

Will Society Turn to God? Will You?

What is really at the heart of the problem?

There’s a verse in the Psalms that haunts me on this matter. Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

While our politicians discuss what color to paint the nation’s walls, they seem to ignore the fact that the foundation, itself, is destroyed—and, unless repaired, the house is doomed to collapse. Concerning the Constitution of the United States, established shortly after the birth of the nation, Founding Father John Adams once said,

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” (“From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798,” Founders.Archive.gov).

Indeed, the freedoms inherent in any great nation rely on the moral self-restraint of its citizens.

The leaders of the U.S. and Britain SHOULD be seeking to turn their peoples to the God who created and blessed their nations—as discussed in today’s free booklet. Instead, they encourage and enable the people’s sin.

Of them, God declares in Isaiah 9:16,

“For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed.”

But you, personally, don’t have to wait for a senator, congressman, prime minister, or president to tell you to turn to the laws of God!

You don’t have to wait to begin experiencing the blessings that come from living life the way it was DESIGNED to be lived.

If you’re practicing sexual sin, indulging in lust in your body or mind, you can repent! You can ask God to forgive you, and to help you begin obeying His law! If you are letting yourself be carried away with covetousness and greed, in a real sense worshiping things and centering your life on your next purchase on Amazon, you can repent and turn away from that! You can begin obeying the tenth, first, and second commandments.

If you want a family that is strong and stable—a source of joy and comfort—God has given us laws that we can act on to help craft the sort of family we’ve always wanted to have!

And you can choose to follow those laws and build that family.

The only way to prevent great nations from dying is for the people of great nations to seek their God and Jesus Christ and turn from sin.

It isn’t too late. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says to King Solomon words that are just as true today:

“[I]f My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

If we want to make a difference, turning in a heartfelt manner to the God of heaven and seeking His way with passion, zeal, and humility, that will accomplish more than 1,000 phone calls to your senator or congressman ever will.

Thanks so much for watching! All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work very hard to help you understand your world through the pages of the Bible.

If you’re interested in what we offer today, the free study guide The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, you can go to our website at TWTV.org/Prophecy. You can get it there or you can click on the link in the description.

If you appreciated what you saw today, we hope that you will subscribe, and if you’d like to be notified when we make more, just click on that bell.

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Debunking the Rapture Myth

Is the rapture in the Bible? Wallace Smith examines 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and other commonly cited verses to answer if the rapture is even real, or part of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, or mentioned in Bible prophecy.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

A Widely-Held Falsehood

A vast portion of professing “Christianity” is obsessed with a myth—a myth that clouds their understanding of the end-times, that obscures other doctrinal truths of the Bible, and that provides a false hope concerning the Great Tribulation and the days before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And yet, it is widely believed! When I travel to various cities giving public presentations concerning the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and what to expect before Christ’s return, some of the most common questions I receive are centered around this myth.

So, it’s about time we put that myth to rest.

Join me for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, where we’ll debunk the Rapture myth.

What IS the Rapture Myth?

Warm greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we work to help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

You know, if I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked about the Rapture, I’d be a wealthy person. When is it coming? Is it before the Great Tribulation, during the Tribulation, or after?

At the heart of most of these questions is a more fundamental one: Is the common belief in the Rapture actually true?

Today, we’re going to tackle that question, and we’re going to do it with irrefutable evidence from your Bible.

Now let’s begin by being as clear as we can. Before we can address what the Bible does or does not say about the “Rapture,” we first need to define what we mean by the word “Rapture”—because people use it to say many different things.

Most use the word to indicate their belief that before Jesus Christ returns to rule the world, and before the time of trouble and suffering known as the Great Tribulation, Christians all over the world will be “raptured” into thin air—taken to heaven. Those who are NOT Christians will simply see that many people have suddenly vanished without explanation. Planes will plummet as their Christian pilots disappear, non-Christian husbands or wives will despair as they wonder where their Christian spouse has disappeared to. And as the world sorts through the mass disappearance, the Great Tribulation will be unleashed on those who are “left behind”—as the book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins worded it. Then, 3 or 7 years later—depending on who’s explaining—Jesus begins His reign on earth.

This idea of the Rapture as being mysteriously and mystically whisked away from the earth is often associated with the words of the Apostle Paul, who says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17,

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

This is an important passage for those who believe in the “Rapture” because in the Latin Vulgate translation of verse 17, the word for “we shall be caught up” is rapiemur /ra-pee-Ā-moor/, from rapere / rah-PEHR-ay/. Thus, the “Rapture.”

But is Paul describing what many think of as “the Rapture” or is he talking about something else entirely?

God wants us to read His word CAREFULLY, putting the details together to get the most complete picture we can, and that takes diligence. As Paul told the evangelist Timothy,

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Similarly, the prophet Isaiah wrote the following:

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:9–10).

Let’s do that. Let’s “rightly divide the word of truth” and put the WHOLE of God’s word together to help us see the truth about the Rapture theory and to understand what to truly expect of the end times.

And since ideas differ so widely in their details concerning the Rapture and what it really means, we are going to focus on Bible passages that will help us clarify the most common elements that are central in most people’s beliefs about the Rapture. So, as the program progresses, keep in mind these three crucial questions:

Will Christians vanish around the world without explanation?

Will Christians be caught up into the air years before Jesus returns?

[And] Will Christians spend the Great Tribulation in heaven?

Remember those questions! And as we look into what the Bible says will ACTUALLY happen with true Christians at the return of Jesus Christ, you will see each of these questions answered plainly and simply in God’s word. And when you do, you will see that the popular idea of the Rapture is little more than a popular myth.

Resurrection, NOT “Rapture”

So, does the Bible teach that YEARS BEFORE Jesus returns in visible glory to rule the world, Christians around the world will VANISH and secretly be caught up into heaven right before the time of global horrors known as the Great Tribulation?

No, it doesn’t. We can begin to see this if we go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. But this time, let’s begin in verse 13.

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17).

Too many are so “enraptured” (pun intended) with seeing the “Rapture” in this passage that they skip right over those elements that prove Paul is NOT talking about their idea of a “Rapture.”

For instance, Paul says that this is the time of the RESURRECTION of those who died in Christ—those he describes as “asleep”—saying, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” He also says that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.”

This doesn’t seem like a quiet, mysterious vanishing to me—more like a triumphant event announced to the world by the returning Christ.

But my personal opinion doesn’t matter—and neither does yours. Instead of settling for opinion, let’s look into additional Bible passages that describe this event—as we read earlier, “precept upon precept… line upon line… here a little, there a little….”

For example, the Apostle describes this EXACT SAME event in another passage 1 Corinthians 15. Let’s read there starting in verse 50:

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 

Now notice: The dead are raised in incorruptible glory and the living will be transformed at that time, as well, just as we read in 1 Thessalonians. Now, is this done quietly? No! AGAIN just as we saw earlier, this happens with the sound of a mighty TRUMPET:

“…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the TRUMPET WILL SOUND, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50–53).

In fact, read that again CAREFULLY: It happens not just at ANY trumpet, but at the LAST trumpet. This implies that there is a SEQUENCE of trumpets, and the resurrection and glorification of the saints occurs at the LAST of these trumpets.

So, ask yourself: Is there any passage of Scripture that describes a series of trumpets in the end times? Because if there is, then we have located the time of this resurrection and transformation of faithful Christians!

And, in fact, YES, the Bible DOES describe a sequence of trumpets! We don’t need to guess, or theorize, or debate about it. The Bible makes it plain! And as it does, we will see the answers to our three questions beginning to take shape as well.

The Real Sequence of Events Before Christ’s Return

The book of Revelation gives us a specific sequence leading up to Jesus’ return and the commencement of the Kingdom of God. Revelation chapter 6 reveals the Seven Prophetic Seals of Revelation, which the Apostle John sees in vision, opened in sequence by Jesus Christ to reveal the end-time events ahead. The FIRST FOUR SEALS represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, symbolizing global Religious Deception, Warfare, Famine, and Disease. Verse 8 says, that “power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

The prophetic pathway continues with the FIFTH SEAL, describing a martyrdom of many true Christians. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus describes this time, saying, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This is a time so terrible that no time before nor after will ever compare.

After two and one-half years of this Tribulation, the SIXTH SEAL is opened, and the Heavenly Signs take place: a great earthquake, the sun darkened, the moon red as blood, the stars falling from the sky, and every mountain and island on earth shaken! These announce that GOD AND JESUS CHRIST are about to PERSONALLY INTERVENE in world affairs! That time is described by the prophet Isaiah as “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the YEAR of recompense for the cause of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8).

This year-long Day of the Lord begins when the SEVENTH SEAL of Revelation is opened. We read of this in Revelation 8:1–2: “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given SEVEN TRUMPETS.”

Finally, we see where a SEQUENCE OF TRUMPETS appears in end-time events—exactly what Paul’s description told us to expect! AFTER the end-time rides of the Four Horsemen, the Great Tribulation, and the Heavenly Signs, we come to the series of Trumpets indicated by the Apostle Paul!

And those first six trumpet blasts are devastating. One-third of earth’s vegetation is burned up; one-third of the seas become blood; one-third of ships and marine life are destroyed; one-third of the planet’s waters become bitter; and one-third of the sun, moon, and stars cease to shine. Then, in the most destructive military exchange in history, one-third of mankind is obliterated.

Joel 2 calls the Day of the Lord “great and very terrible” (v. 2) for a reason! It represents God’s wrath unleashed on unrepentant mankind! Yet, these terrors are only the first SIX of Seven Trumpets! The Seventh, Last Trumpet is described in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

Paul says that at THIS TRUMPET—the SEVENTH, declaring the authority of the Kingdom of God over the world—the Resurrection occurs, when faithful Christians, past and present, are gathered, glorified with immortality, and brought to meet Christ to become His Bride and to participate in the vanquishing of His enemies and the inauguration of the reign of God’s Kingdom!

All of this PROVES that this no secret “vanishing!” In fact, Jesus Christ personally described this moment to His disciples to make the PUBLIC nature of this event very clear. Read it yourself, starting in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH will mourn, and THEY WILL SEE the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29–31).

My friends, these passages are inseparable. Their descriptions of the end-time events are consistent and in perfect sequence: The Great Tribulation, the Heavenly Signs, the Seven Trumpets, the revealing of Christ to the world at the Last Trumpet, and the resurrection, gathering, and glorifying of true Christians as the Kingdom of God commences its glorious reign.

And where will that reign begin? Not in heaven! Rather, as Revelation 5 [v. 10] says, those glorified Christians will have been made kings and priests to [their] God; and [they] shall reign on the earth.

No one will vanish into thin air as unsaved loved ones wonder where they went. All eyes will see, and all ears will hear. The Rapture is simply a misunderstanding that conceals the magnificent truth of Scripture.

Still, that might leave some worried. Does this mean that every Christian must go through the Tribulation?

No, it doesn’t, though some will, while others are protected—though NOT by a “Rapture.”

God’s Saints Protected on Earth During the Great Tribulation

We asked:

  1. Will Christians vanish around the world mysteriously and without explanation?

We saw in the pages of the Bible that, no, they will not. Christians will join Christ at the first resurrection at the same time when ALL the tribes of the earth will see Jesus returning.

  1. Will Christians be caught up into the air years before Jesus returns to rule?

Again, no they won’t. The resurrection of true Christians occurs at the very Last Trumpet when Christ is inaugurated as Ruler of the world, only days before Satan is bound for 1,000 years, as described in Revelation 20.

Finally,

  1. Will Christians spend the years of the Great Tribulation in heaven?

Again, no! They rise to meet Christ at the commencement of His reign, AFTER the Tribulation. Indeed, from that moment on, they will reign alongside Him, ruling ON THIS EARTH, with Him, for 1,000 years.

At the same time, some Christians WILL be protected during the Tribulation—but they will be protected HERE ON EARTH. While God reserves many details to Himself, He does make this plain in a number of passages. For instance, in Revelation 12, we read of the Church in the end times, symbolized by a woman, persecuted by Satan the Devil, symbolized by a dragon-like serpent. Starting in verse 14, we read, “But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.” The “time, times, and half a time” here is the two-and-one-half years of the Great Tribulation before the Heavenly Signs, followed by the year-long Day of the Lord we read about earlier.

This passage makes plain, too, that while a portion of the Church is protected, she is NOT protected in heaven. Note that the passage says she is protected in “the wilderness”—a word which is never used by God to describe heaven in the Bible, but which He does use to describe locations here on earth.

If we’re going to let God interpret His own word, then we have to agree that Christians are going to be protected during the Great Tribulation, but that protection is NOT going to be in Heaven as many Rapture fans would have us believe. It will be right here, somewhere on planet earth.

But notice, too, not all Christians are protected. As we read in verse 17, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Yes, some Christians, “the rest of her offspring,” must endure the trials of the Great Tribulation and the anger of Satan.

The distinction—one group protected and one sent into the Tribulation—is reflected in Christ’s comments to the two prophetic End-Time Churches of Revelation 3. The zealous Christians of Philadelphia are told by Jesus that He will “keep [them]from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” [v. 10], while the lukewarm Christians of Laodicea are told that they must “buy… gold [from God] refined in the fire [of persecution]” [v. 18] and that they need His “chasten[ing]” [v. 19].

Those Laodicean Christians who must go through the Tribulation are described as those unable to see their need to repent and to change—too self-satisfied in what they already believe they know, and too willing to compromise in their actions.

There is a reason that Jesus Christ says to all of us concerning the times to come, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted WORTHY TO ESCAPE all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yes, there will be protection during the climactic, earth-shattering events of the end times—not in a Rapture off to heaven, but right here, somewhere on earth—for zealous, faithful Christians who are unwilling to compromise on the truth God has shown them.

Thank you so much for watching. All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work very hard to help you understand your world through the pages of the Bible.

And if you’d like today’s free DVD talking about heaven, hell, the resurrections, the rapture, everything, just click on that link in the description.

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Seven Signs of the End-Time Antichrist

Will you recognize the Antichrist of Bible prophecy? In this video, Wallace Smith explains seven identifying factors from scriptures. Learn what the Antichrist will teach, where, and how—so you can avoid being deceived.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

The Antichrist—Already Here in Today’s World

Perhaps no figure looms larger in our prophesied future than the ANTICHRIST. Your Bible is clear that he IS coming, and that a level of destruction, persecution, and death arrive with him—such as the world has never seen before or will ever see again. And there is cause to believe that he is alive TODAY—certainly, his tools of deception are ALREADY in place and ALREADY impact the lives of most who consider themselves “Christian” today.

Will you be among the few to recognize him when he steps onto the world stage? Most won’t—but you can.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, as we reveal Seven Signs of the End-Time Antichrist!

Relevant Prophecies About the Antichrist and His Impact

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World—where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

Consider this list of famous—or infamous—men: Ronald Reagan, King Juan Carlos (of Spain), Saddam Hussein, King Charles III, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, and Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum.

What do they have in common? Well, each, at one time or another, has been accused of being the Antichrist—that dark and mysterious figure foretold by Bible prophecy.

Some of these men are dead. Some are still alive. NONE of them fit the Bible’s description. Today, we will reveal SEVEN SIGNS of the END-TIME ANTICHRIST, as detailed by Bible prophecy, that will enable anyone to identify who the final Antichrist is.

Now, in our world of high-tech wonders and modern comforts, talk of an “antichrist” might seem archaic—“doom and gloom” preaching in an age that has moved beyond scriptures and prophecies.

But the opposite is true. Time hasn’t left prophecy behind—rather time has finally CAUGHT UP to prophecy, and only now do the times in which we live fit the circumstances describing the end-time stage onto which the Antichrist will enter.

For instance, Matthew 24 and verse 22 says that in those prophesied days, it would be possible that “no flesh would be saved” from mankind’s destructive capacity. That has only really been true since we entered the era of weapons of mass destruction, capable of eradicating humanity. And Daniel 12:4 describes the end-times of prophecy as an era when many “run to and fro” and “knowledge shall increase”—ancient words that describe our modern world, in which global travel is commonplace and we are beginning to suffer from a daily deluge of information.

No, the prophecies of the Antichrist are not dusty old writings, irrelevant for our modern age. They were WRITTEN for our modern age—inspired by the God who declares the end from the beginning! [Isaiah 46:10] And His warnings about the final Antichrist are VITAL. Because his rise is profoundly connected to more death, destruction, and human suffering than humanity has ever before experienced—a period called in the pages of Scripture, the Great Tribulation.

During the lives of most of you watching this today, the Antichrist WILL rise to power and deceive the VAST MAJORITY OF HUMANITY—subtly and seductively swaying men and women around the world to willingly accept a false and demonic COUNTERFEIT of Christianity! In fact, that version of Christianity is ALREADY present on the earth, possessing great influence. Many of you watching, right now, are already under its sway, making you all the more vulnerable to this future tyrant.

Imagine the full complement of modern warfare—the almost limitless destructive capacity of mankind—available at the beck and call of a man under the direct influence of Satan the Devil, devoted to destroying true Christianity—and true Christians—from the face of the earth, ensuring that it is replaced with a religion that SOUNDS like true Christianity, and uses the NAME of Jesus Christ, but which represents the very opposite of the Christianity of Jesus Christ.

That individual IS coming. Whether or not you will be able to recognize the Antichrist WILL BE a matter of life and death. And prophecy is plain: Most WILL NOT recognize him.

But you CAN recognize him with the SEVEN SIGNS that we will reveal on the remainder of today’s program.

These Seven Signs Identify Him

And this first sign is one most get wrong.

  1. According to God’s word, the Antichrist is NOT a military or political leader. Rather, the Antichrist will lead a RELIGION, a great FALSE CHURCH.

This mistake arises because many confuse the Antichrist with the Beast of Revelation, which IS a military, political, and economic powerhouse that WILL dominate the world. However, while they are connected, the Antichrist and the Beast are two distinct beings. Turn to Revelation chapter 17. Here the Apostle John records a vision, shown to Him by Jesus Christ and the angels under His command:

And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:1–5).

There is MUCH that is worth noting in this passage, but I want to focus on one particular point. The Beast here with seven heads and ten horns, ridden by a prostitute, is the end-time military-economic juggernaut called the Beast of Revelation. But what of the woman?

Normally a rider mounts a beast to control it and influence its movements—and this beast is being ridden, or guided, by a prostitute.

If you’ve watched Tomorrow’s World for long, you know that we allow the Bible to interpret its own symbols, and women in the Bible are frequently used to picture different faiths and religious organizations.

But rather than the chaste virgin that God uses to symbolize His church in passages such as 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Revelation 19:7–8, the church that is riding this powerful Beast is described as a wealthy prostitute.

Fornication, adultery, and harlotry are often used by God to symbolize the corrupting influence of RELIGIOUS COMPROMISE with pagan practices and pagan worship, as in Jeremiah 3 and Ezekiel 16.

The religious system of the ANTICHRIST is the Harlot riding this Beast! It is not the SAME as the Beast. In fact, later in Revelation 17:16, we see that the Beast will eventually TURN on the woman to destroy her. No, the Harlot RIDES the Beast—manipulating it, influencing it, guiding it for her purposes.

This is why the Apostle John, in 1 John 4:1–3 speaks of the Antichrist in the context of false prophets—because he will be the ULTIMATE false prophet!—not a military or political ruler, but a RELIGIOUS FIGURE who will control the most powerful church on earth. In turn, he and that church will influence the military-economic powerhouse known as the End Time Beast Power of Revelation.

What more can we understand about the religious system led by this Antichrist?

That brings us to today’s second sign of the Antichrist:

  1. The Antichrist will appear CHRIST-LIKE and come IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!

In his powerful Olivet Prophecy given on the Mount of Olives in the area of Jerusalem and recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, Jesus Christ warned His disciples that many would come practicing religious deception, and come in HIS OWN NAME—that is, the NAME of JESUS CHRIST! And they did! John reveals the spread of that deceptive, counterfeit Christianity even in the first century, saying in 1 John 2 and verse 18, “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.”

Yes, many antichrists had come by the time John wrote those words, and the deceptive, counterfeit Christianity they wove, falsely under the name of Jesus Christ, persists and dominates world religions today!

Many fail to recognize that the word “antichrist” represents more than a person. It represents a system of belief that APPEARS Christian, but is actually a COUNTERFEIT to true Christianity. Paul writes in the Bible of those who preached “another Jesus” and brought a “different gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4). This system has been in place since the time of the Apostles, and in John’s own day, many representing that system, “many antichrists,” were already preaching.

The final, end-time Antichrist will be the culmination of this deception—a great False Prophet representing this false Christianity who will APPEAR very Christian on the outside. Turn to Revelation 13 with me, where we see the Antichrist described in prophetic symbolism.

Beginning in v. 11, we read of a different beast rising from the earth—not the seven-headed Beast of Revelation: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).

Scripture consistently uses the Lamb as a symbol for Christ but a Dragon as a symbol for the devil! So this False Prophet to come, this final Antichrist, will LOOK like the Lamb, Jesus Christ! He may seem kind, compassionate—he may seem to teach from the Bible! Yet prophecy says he will be speaking the words of the DRAGON, the DEVIL! The Christianity he teaches will be a subtle, twisted version of Christianity—NOT the Christianity of Jesus Christ, even though it will claim His name!

The Antichrist and His Laws and Teachings

One of the tools the end-time Antichrist will use to deceive even the skeptical and bring them into his twisted version of Christianity is our next sign:

  1. He will eventually work “miracles” and supernatural “wonders.”

Staying in Revelation 13, let’s continue to read, beginning in verse 13: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast…” (Revelation 13:13–14).

This individual will have the ability to call fire from heaven, much like the prophet Elijah did in the Old Testament. How amazing will that be! In 2 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul describes this coming false prophet, mentioning in chapter 2 verse 9: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

But the key to resisting the appeal of supernatural signs, intended to deceive, is to compare the “miracle worker’s” teachings to God’s truth. Remember, the Antichrist LOOKS like Jesus Christ, but SPEAKS like the SUBTLE DRAGON, Satan the Devil.

That brings us to the fourth sign:

  1. He will DENY that Christ continues to come in the flesh.

This is a VITAL point, but a subtle one—easy to miss. We dive into detail on this crucial sign in our free booklet, but let me summarize.

This doctrine of the Antichrist is described in 2 John 7: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

Now, many think John just means that antichrists teach Jesus didn’t really come in the flesh 2,000 years ago. And, yes, John condemns such falsehoods.

But read carefully: John says that the deceivers do not teach Christ as coming in the flesh.” That is a present tense verb—continuing to come in the flesh.

Dr. Charles B. Williams, whose translation of the New Testament is praised for its attention to the detail of the Greek verbs in the original New Testament text, translates this passage as saying that the antichrist does not confess that Christ continues to come in the flesh.

But what does that mean?

It means that the Antichrist does not teach that Jesus Christ CONTINUES to live in Christians TODAY, reliving the life He lived 2,000 years ago, helping them to grow in obedience and godly character.

The Apostle Paul explained this in a beautiful passage. Let’s read it in the King James Version, Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

This is why Paul says in Romans 5:10 that we are reconciled by His death, but SAVED BY HIS LIFE. As opposed to Christ doing it all at His crucifixion as many false preachers teach, Christ lives His life in the converted Christian daily, helping him or her grow and conquer sin NOW, in THIS life! The Antichrist will deny this fundamental but often ignored teaching, and this connects directly to our fifth sign:

  1. The Antichrist will REJECT God’s law.

Remember: we read in 2 Thessalonians 2 that Paul called the final Antichrist “lawless.” But God isn’t concerned here with HUMAN laws. The Antichrist will oppose the laws of GOD.

In fact, he will REPLACE GOD’S LAWS as REVEALED in the BIBLE with religious laws rooted in HUMAN TRADITION and PAGAN SUPERSTITION.

Daniel chapter 7 describes this effort of the Antichrist. We see this end-time false prophet described in detail in verse 25: “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:25).

He will “CHANGE TIMES AND LAW”—he will replace the times of worship as God designed them with a counterfeit set of worship days, and he will replace the laws of God with a different set of laws—laws that will feel Christian, but will NOT be rooted in the laws of God, revealed in the Bible.

The Antichrist will promote MAN-MADE church laws, creeds, confessions, and traditions and will claim the authority to OVERRULE the clear commandments and laws of God revealed in Scripture! Church calendars with man-made holidays will OVERRULE the holy days and festivals of God, found in your Bible! This coming “lawless one”—the Antichrist—will claim authority that no one but God Almighty has, attempting to change the very law of God... And, frankly, many of you watching today are ALREADY affected by this.

Who Can Escape the Antichrist’s Persecution?

However, the Antichrist will not be content with simply converting the world to false teachings. He will also want to deal with the few who dare to believe the true teachings of the Bible that contradict His false doctrine. That leads to our sixth, tragic sign:

  1. The Antichrist will PERSECUTE true Christians.

We saw this mentioned in Daniel 7:25, where we read that the Antichrist “shall persecute the saints of the Most High”—true followers of God and those who keep his laws and his commandments, not the man-made doctrines, holy days, and teachings of the Antichrist.

Jesus Christ warned of this time when He told His disciples in John 16:2 that a time will come when those who kill true Christians will think they are doing God a service!

Think back to the images you have seen of concentration camps and the horrors of World War II, in which millions of Jews were herded to their deaths. Now imagine such machinery turned onto a new minority, those Christians Jesus calls His “little flock,” who actually believe in the Ten Commandments of God and in the need to obey them.

Revelation 12 describes the anger true Christians’ obedience engenders in Satan the Devil and how he will respond: “[T]he dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

How does the Antichrist accomplish this persecution? That power is connected to our final sign:

  1. The Antichrist will point the world to a revived “Roman Empire”— a political/military powerhouse of strength and might such as the world has never seen before.

Remember—the woman RIDES THE BEAST! Revelation 13 tells of how the False Prophet will influence the people of the world to support the coming Beast of Revelation, and how the Antichrist will influence the might of this Beast Power—an end-time, revived “Roman Empire” that will outshine even the power and might of the United States today. He will direct the might of the Beast AGAINST those who refuse to cast aside the laws of God and the true worship of Jesus Christ, and who refuse to accept the FALSE Christianity the Antichrist offers. The result will be a MODERN-DAY INQUISITION on a horrific scale, never before seen in human history.

This unholy alliance of false church and tyrannical state will DOMINATE THE WORLD in the end-times just ahead of us.

Even with their powers combined, this most powerful of religious, political, economic, and military entities will still be NO MATCH for the returning Jesus Christ! He will return in their days to glorify His faithful followers and to establish the Kingdom of God, forever!

So, what do we DO about these things? Remember: The “Antichrist system” that this final Antichrist will sell to the whole world exists TODAY, and most are already deceived by it! We do not need to wait until this religious despot appears on the scene—we can act NOW to reject his system and his Counterfeit Christianity. As Jesus admonishes all of us in Luke 21 and verse 36, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yes, Jesus does promise protection for those who are not ashamed to reject the false Christianity around them and who are willing to embrace the fullness of His teachings and life—allowing Him to live His life of obedience to God’s commandments in their lives today.

We hope you will heed His admonition and avoid the deceptions of the coming end-time Antichrist and his religious system at work in the world today.

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