Delusion

To anyone who is paying any attention at all to what's going on these days, one thing jumps out with screaming clarity:

The world just keeps getting worse and worse.

There's no nice way to say it—there's no use trying to sugarcoat it or massage it to make things seem better. With each passing day, we see society spinning increasingly out of control and plunging into greater depths of deception and depravity. Of course, biblically knowledgeable believers aren't exactly reeling in shock at this because we were warned in advance.

The apostle Paul minces no words in characterizing the way the world would become in the last days; and although the points he mentions have always been true to some extent, it's hard to deny they are intensifying in concert with the fulfillment of other end-time prophecies:

And voilà...here we are, at the doorstep of the Rapture and the ensuing Tribulation, and what do we see? Here are a few choice items that stand out in my opinion:

• We see a hedonistic, atheistic society that revels in arrogantly mocking God and His Word and mercilessly lampooning anyone who dares to express differing sentiments.

• We see an utterly apostate corporate church elevating the Qur'an to the level of God's Word, and promoting the twin heresies that we all worship the same God and that there are many equally valid ways to come to Him.

• We see the liberal left having a full-blown meltdown over the election of a conservative president who, while certainly not perfect, at least openly espouses Judeo-Christian values and strongly supports the nation of Israel.

• We see the Unites States continuing to cave in to the LGBT agenda, including the legalization of homosexual "marriage," with anyone who deigns to disagree promptly being pilloried as a homophobic bigot. Check that—make that an unchristian homophobic bigot.

Sorry, Ellen: Someone please tell Ellen DeGeneres that I have no qualms whatsoever about putting quotation marks around the word "marriage" here, because in my considered opinion this constitutes nonstandard usage. Sorry, Ellen, but God instituted marriage, not man, and He specified it as being a union between a man and a woman. Thus, it's not ours to redefine. The bottom line is that two men or two women may be "married" in the eyes of a human government, but not in the eyes of a holy God. They're just two people for whom Christ died that are living a lifestyle that is clearly condemned in Scripture as being overtly sinful, only with a meaningless scrap of paper that falsely assures them it's OK.

So what do we see? We see Isaiah 5:20 in action, that's what we see:

In other words, we see a world that is increasingly under the sway of delusion. Black is white. Up is down. Good is evil and evil is good.

Oh, and God is a mythical Magic Man in the Sky, Jesus never existed or was just a second-string prophet, the Bible is a collection of Bronze Age fairy tales, and the gospel is an absurd, politically incorrect fiction—and like I said, anyone who has the temerity to disagree is sure to be mocked and marginalized.

Speaking of delusions, there is a familiar passage of Scripture in the New Testament that states that God will cause a "strong delusion" to come upon men in the last days:

Many Bible teachers and prophecy buffs today speculate about the nature of this delusion; but with the prophetic trigger finger many seem to have these days, it seems as if every time some form of deception grabs the headlines, there are those who holler:

"There ya go...strong delusion! That's gotta be it!"

And with the sheer volume and degree of deception engulfing the world, there is certainly no shortage of things one can pin this delusion to.

For example, I've heard people teach that this delusion is the simple fact that the world today increasingly rejects the gospel, and refuses to avail themselves of the grace and mercy God expressed to man through Christ.

I've heard teachers I respect say that this delusion has to do with the Palestinian narrative, and that it's the delusion that keeps the world supporting the poor, oppressed Palestinians who are simply trying to prevent the evil Zionists from illegally occupying "their" land...

"Oh, and if you'd be so kind, could you slice Israel in half and give us a state of our own, along with the holiest place on earth for the Jews as our 'capital'? Pretty please?"

I've even heard people opine that this delusion is what is currently afflicting the liberal left, and has sent them into a blind, seething rage over the election of Donald Trump. In other words, they suspect it's actually what is known as Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS—and if the Kavanaugh hearings failed to erase any doubt in anyone's mind that TDS is a real thing, then I don't know what will.

Now, are all of these delusions? Oh, you bet they are. But here's our first $64,000 question, and it's the focus of the entire article:

Q. Are any of these the "strong delusion" of 2 Thessalonians 2:11?

In this article, I first want to take a look at this passage in 2 Thessalonians 2 and humbly offer my take on the nature of the strong delusion Paul refers to, which in my opinion is "none of the above." I believe there are clues in Scripture that point us toward the precise nature of this delusion, and I believe those clues point straight to Satan's man, the Antichrist.

In addition, I want to discuss one specific aspect of the Antichrist that I believe will be part and parcel of that strong delusion, and it concerns how the Antichrist will present himself to and be perceived by the world. I believe the way the world will be deluded into perceiving the Antichrist is intimately connected to the UFO/alien narrative that has become such a wildly popular and deeply ingrained cultural phenomenon over the last seven decades.

OK, I know what you're thinking...so let me preface this article this way:

I trust you know me well enough by now to know that I am not given to the sort of glassy-eyed tinfoil-hattery that is so prevalent in certain excitable circles in the Church today (not to mention the world).

'Nuff said. As always, I want to state up front that these conclusions are my opinion, and are necessarily speculative in nature regardless of how much sense I think they make.

Setting the stage

First, let's look at the broader passage to get our bearings:

*After the ball: Although I do believe Paul is referring to the entire seven-year Tribulation in this verse, I am inclined to believe much of what he says later in the passage refers specifically to its second half, aka the Great Tribulation. Satan's man, who will no doubt already be a rising star on the world scene, won't be revealed as the Antichrist until the abomination of desolation at the midpoint of the Tribulation. That's his coming-out party. (Note that this in no way prevents the Rapture from occurring prior to the beginning of the Tribulation proper.) The point is that the persecution of believers is uppermost in Paul's mind in this chapter, and it is after his débutante ball that the newly revealed Antichrist inaugurates his 42-month reign and promptly goes on a murderous rampage after those who reject his demands to be worshiped as if he were God.

As you may recall, a letter had been forged in Paul's name claiming that the day of Christ (and a better translation is "day of the Lord") or the Tribulation had already started, and it had been disseminated to the believers in Thessaloniki, who were in fact facing intense persecution. In this chapter, we see Paul doing his best to calm them down and assure them they were not in the Tribulation, and reviewing some doctrinal points he had taught them a few months earlier that proved they were not in the Tribulation.

In a nutshell, Paul reminds them that the Rapture must take place before the Tribulation can even begin, because at the Rapture the Holy Spirit will stand down from His current ministry of indwelling believers—a ministry that also serves to restrain Satan and his agenda here on earth. (This explains why the believers in Thessaloniki were in such a panic—they figured that if they were in the Tribulation, then either they missed the Rapture, or Paul was wrong.) The Rapture will allow the unfettered rise to power of Satan's man the Antichrist, and his ultimate full revelation at the abomination of desolation.

What Paul was patiently trying to get them to understand was that they couldn't possibly be in the Tribulation because the Rapture hadn't occurred yet, and the Rapture is what kicks things off. In other words:

"This can't be the day of the Lord because we're all still here!"

Then Paul starts going on about the Antichrist, and that brings us to our key passage in verse 11 that tells us about the strong delusion.

Why?

As I've already indicated, judging from the context of the preceding verses, it appears the strong delusion mentioned in verse 11 is sent after Satan's man has been formally revealed as the Antichrist (v. 8), which occurs at the midpoint of the Tribulation. This is when he presents himself to the world as being worthy of the worship due God, and is bent on receiving such worship.

You ain't the one: This is why the Jews will spurn the Antichrist following the abomination of desolation, after initially embracing him as their Messiah. The Jews' concept of the Messiah is that he is a mortal man, and so certainly not worthy of the worship due God. Such a notion is blasphemous to Jews, and is one reason why they think Christians are so horribly deluded in their worship of Jesus Christ. But after the Jews spurn him, the Antichrist will come after them with a murderous zeal, intent on hunting them down and slaughtering every last one of them—which is Satan's ultimate goal.

So, the Antichrist, fully empowered by Satan after the abomination of desolation, performs his lying signs and wonders, and then God sends a strong delusion upon mankind.

I believe one of the key points in determining the nature of the strong delusion of verse 11 is the question of why:

Why is God going to send this strong delusion?

If we go back and look at verses 10–12, we see that we are told the reason pretty much straight out:

"And for this cause..."

For what cause? The cause Paul just stated:

"Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

And the result?

"...they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned..."

So during the Tribulation, a large portion of mankind will still stubbornly refuse to believe the truth and be saved. Instead, they will take great pleasure in unrighteousness, and because of this God will send a strong delusion upon them so they will believe a lie and be damned.

And that leads us to the nature of the delusion. What's the Big Lie? What will God cause them to believe? Again, let's consider the reason for the delusion: Paul says it's because they refused to receive the love of the truth. OK, what's the truth? That's easy:

The truth is the fact that Jesus is the Son of God who stepped out of heaven and came to earth to die so that sinful men could live if they had faith in Him. The truth is that Jesus was crucified for the remission of sin and raised on the third day to give eternal life to those who believe in faith. The truth is the fact that trusting in Jesus' finished work of atonement is the one and only way to come to the Father and be saved and eternally reconciled to a holy God. The truth is the gospel.

The truth is Christ.

And because during the Tribulation mankind has utterly and completely rejected this truth in spite of seeing the mighty hand of God move in judgment, God deliberately influences them to believe a lie.

OK, but what's the lie?!

How poetic

We know from the Bible that God is just—His justice is perfect, and must be satisfied to the fullest. That's why Christ had to die—He had to satisfy His Father's perfect justice on our behalf. As we read the Bible, we see instances where God executes justice in some situation and it's just so...perfect. Often breathtakingly so. We see this often enough throughout Scripture that it's no stretch to say that God has an unparalleled sense of poetic justice.

For example, in Daniel chapter 6, a number of Babylonian officials who served under Daniel and who were jealous of his favored position slyly set a trap to destroy this highly honored exile from Judea. They searched for some charge to bring against Daniel, who was a righteous man who had faith in God—but came up empty. One thing they did know, however, was the fact that Daniel openly prayed to his God three times a day.

So these snakes came slithering in to speak to King Darius, and fawningly persuaded him to issue a decree that no one could pray to anyone but the king for thirty days, under the penalty of being cast alive into a den of hungry lions. But that didn't stop Daniel, oh no. And I love this: The moment Daniel learned the decree had been signed, the very first thing he did was go home and pray to the God of Israel. I mean with the windows open, for all to see, just as he always had—and the conspirators saw him as planned and promptly reported this "infraction" to the king.

The king frantically tried to intervene because he greatly favored and respected Daniel, and he was furious because he realized he had been suckered into issuing such an order. But since the nature of the decree precluded its revocation, the king had no choice but to reluctantly carry out its penalty, and he spent a sleepless night praying that Daniel's God would deliver his most beloved administrator.

And everyone knows the rest of the story.

God sent His angel to shut the mouths of the lions and Daniel spent the night among them unharmed. The following morning, the king was ecstatic when he learned that God had miraculously protected Daniel, and after releasing him he had the men who had conspired against Daniel thrown into the lions' den themselves. The lions, who never so much as touched Daniel, sank their teeth into them before they hit the deck.

So, God not only intervened to protect Daniel—a righteous man who fully trusted Him, but arranged for those who unjustly plotted against him to suffer the same horrible fate they had maliciously planned for Daniel.

Now that's poetic justice.

At the Rapture, every single person on earth who believes that Jesus is the Son of God—the biblical Messiah sent to earth by God to redeem sinful men—and has trusted in His finished work of atonement for their salvation will be removed, leaving behind billions of people the book of Revelation refers to as "those who dwell upon the earth." Yes, legions of people will repent and believe during the Tribulation, but they are those who will have to endure to the end to be saved (Matt. 24:13) and are not part of the Church.

Now, as far as God's poetic justice is concerned, I for one definitely see it coming into play here. God is basically saying:

"You stubbornly refuse to believe the truth and be saved? OK, fine. Have it your way: Believe this and be damned."

Note that it is the False Prophet who "gives life" to the image of the beast in the temple and causes it to speak, and he will be the one who requires the world to worship the Antichrist on pain of death during the Great Tribulation:

There are a number of parallels at work here. For example, this is the reverse image of the role of the Holy Spirit, who glorifies the Son and who draws men to the real Savior to give them life. Also, we know Christ was sent into the world by His Father to save mankind from their sin—their spiritual condition. The Antichrist will present himself as the world's "savior," sent to save us from the folly of our own foolish, selfish actions—our temporal condition: war, hunger, poverty, pollution, man-made climate change, intolerance, injustice, overpopulation, Obamacare, etc.

So, consider the situation:

On the one hand, you have Jesus Christ, the real
Savior who was sent to save men from their spiritual
condition and who performs true signs and wonders and
who causes those who do worship Him as God to live.

On the other hand, you have the Antichrist, the false
savior who was sent to save men from their temporal
condition and who performs lying signs and wonders and
who causes those who don't worship him as God to die.

The irony is nothing short of exquisite.

So, if God wanted to express a dose of His special brand of poetic justice, it seems pretty clear to me what He would do:

I believe He would send a strong delusion that would cause the stiff-necked people dwelling on the earth who had refused to accept the grace and mercy He expressed to them through the real Messiah and be saved to believe the lie that the Antichrist is that Messiah and to foolishly worship him and be damned.

I believe that's the fundamental lie. I think God will take the lie that the Antichrist really is the Messiah, who has been sent to "save" the world and so should be worshiped appropriately, and cause the world to swallow it hook, line, and sinker. He'll make 'em gobble it up and ask for seconds.

Talk about poetic justice...I can scarcely think of anything more poetic.

I believe this is why billions will eagerly follow him and happily take his mark and become part of his global system. I believe membership in the Antichrist's system will not only include some type of chip implant that will allow the recipient to be part of the global economic system, but I believe it will also come complete with genetic modification that will hold out the tantalizing promise of several centuries of relatively disease-free life.

No? Science fiction, you say? Don't look now, but that type of precision gene-modification technology already exists and is developing with lightning speed, and people are already pondering the dizzying possibilities:

Think of it: If people were told that if they took the mark they would not only be able to do business and make money, but also live several hundred years relatively free of disease, you think they'd go for it? Oh yeah. But just like everything else Satan offers, it's just another inferior counterfeit:

Living for several hundred years in a disease-free body is an inferior counterfeit for living for eternity in a glorified body, wouldn't you agree?

Although the Big Lie is primarily that the Antichrist is in fact the Messiah, the "savior" sent to save us from a man-made apocalypse, I believe there is another key aspect to Satan's man that is also part of this strong delusion.

The superman of sin?

You may have noticed that up to this point I've tried to be careful to say that the Antichrist would only demand the worship that rightly belongs to God. I never said he would claim to actually be God, as in the God of the Bible. And the reason is simple: I don't believe he will.

Many people read 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and assume that the Antichrist will claim to actually be God, as in the God of the Bible, partly because the wording in many translations seems to suggest as much:

That kinda makes it sound like he will claim to be the capital "G" God of Scripture, doesn't it? The God of the Bible in the form of a man, just like Jesus actually is in reality. I assumed the same thing for many years, but after more study I have come to modify my view of this passage somewhat.

Note that the Greek words translated "God" four times in this verse are all forms of theos (God or god), and this word can either refer to the living capital "G" God or someone or something else worshiped as God—in other words, a small "g" god.

While it is true that English translations typically render the word as capital "G" God and about half of the various Greek translations also capitalize the corresponding forms of theos using an uppercase theta ("Θ") in place of the lower case "θ," most commentators are in agreement that this verse is not stating that the Antichrist will come right out and claim that he is in fact God. Most are of the opinion that verse 4 is saying that the Antichrist will merely demand worship as if he were God, not that he will actually claim to be God. He will apparently present himself as someone who is worthy of the type of worship that rightfully belongs to God alone.

For example, here is what a couple of commentaries have to say about 2 Thessalonians 2:4, especially the last phrase "showing himself to be God":

Before we proceed, let's settle one thing. We have no need to speculate as to exactly who or what the Antichrist is in reality, because the Bible makes it quite clear: He is (a) a mortal man who is (b) empowered by Satan to perform miracles to deceive people. That's the long and the short of it.

(a) He's the man of sin—not the superman of sin, not the demigod of sin, not the Pleiadian of sin, ad infinitum, ad nauseam (2 Thess. 2:3).

(b) He will come with Satan's power to perform deceptive wonders (2 Thess. 2:9). He will have mighty, wondrous power, but it won't be his own power (Dan. 8:24). That power will come from another source, namely Satan.

So the question isn't who or what the Antichrist really is, because God's Word tells us. The question is what he will claim to be, and what the world will be duped into perceiving him to be as part of the strong delusion.

For more on this, let's take a trip back in time to a sleepy little town in the American Southwest.

The day the earth stood still

On July 7, 1947, W.W. Brazel, a rancher who lived in the Roswell, New Mexico area, reported to Sheriff George Wilcox that a couple of weeks earlier he and his young son had stumbled across what appeared to be some type of wreckage on a sheep ranch a few miles outside of Roswell. According to Brazel, the wreckage included pieces of rubber, wood, tinfoil, paper, and tape (no metal). The sheriff called the RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field), and they sent intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel out to have a look. Marcel jumped to the conclusion that Brazel had found the wreckage of a "flying saucer," as he chose to describe it.

Reality check: OK, let me make sure I got this straight. A highly advanced race of aliens flew scores of light years across the galaxy in a craft that was the product of technology beyond our comprehension...a craft that was made of rubber, wood, tinfoil, paper, and tape (no metal). Right. Now you know why the story required just a wee bit of embellishment.

Now, in all fairness to Major Marcel, there actually had been a bit of buzz in the Roswell area recently because a trusted local couple had reported seeing some kind of glowing disk fly over their house the previous week. So, it's safe to say that Marcel had the notion of "flying disks" in the back of his mind when he went out to investigate the mysterious wreckage.

It seems Marcel put two and two together and got the idea into his head that this wreckage might actually be that of the reported "flying disk," and said as much to his group commander, who said as much to the press officer on duty, who released a statement that said as much to the local newspaper that afternoon. The following day, on July 8, the headline in the Daily Record read:

RAAF Captures Flying Saucer
On Ranch in Roswell Region

What is not quite as well known, however, is that later the previous day, the Army had reported that the wreckage was most likely from a crashed weather balloon, and Brazel said he was embarrassed to have gotten so excited over nothing. A retraction was printed in the paper the following day, and ordinarily that almost certainly would have been the end of it.

But that was one genie that was never going back into the bottle. The story began to circulate, and it was off to the races. The UFO/alien narrative was conceived and it wasn't long before it began to take on a life of its own as a full-blown conspiracy theory, complete with alien bodies and damaged alien spacecraft being spirited off to a mysterious, top-secret Area 51 in Nevada.

Over the years, every jot and tittle of the original story—every scrap, every detail, every word of every interview with anybody who knew or had seen anything (not to mention some who knew or had seen nothing) was sliced, diced, puffed, spun, gussied up, dramatized, magnified, amplified, fancified, blow-dried, and put under a microscope until the desired narrative began to assume some semblance of plausibility. People become obsessed with the notion of aliens and were determined to find a way to make it all true.

Then the narrative was topped off with a breathtaking (and conveniently non-falsifiable) tale of a massive government cover-up to desperately hide the truth that we were in fact being visited by aliens from outer space, and the mantra of UFO devotees became encapsulated in the tagline of the popular television series The X-Files:

The truth is out there.

(Yes, the truth is out there, and the truth is the cold, hard, simple fact that there are no aliens and never were. Sorry.)

Pie tins and swamp gas: So, does this mean that many thousands of people who have seen UFOs are all crazy? Are they all lying? Is every single photo or video of a purported UFO fake? Is every single report a hoax? Just pie tins and swamp gas? No. I am convinced some (not all, but some) of the UFO evidence is real and compelling. But if there are no aliens (and there aren't), and people really are seeing something (and they are), then what exactly are people seeing? Here is my detailed response to this question, and the answer just might surprise you.

For years, devotees scoffed at the idea that the wreckage was that of a crashed weather balloon, but in fact the scoffers were right. It wasn't. Several decades later, the Air Force (which was formed in September 1947, two months after the Roswell incident) finally revealed that the wreckage had been of a highly sensitive "tracking balloon," the result of a then top-secret project that was intended to develop a special type of balloon that could be flown at extremely high altitudes over the Soviet Union to detect the detonation of nuclear devices.

Although the Soviets wouldn't conduct their first successful test of a nuclear device until August 1949, by 1947 the U.S. was well aware the Soviets were aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapons program and was determined to keep tabs on their progress. This is a big part of the reason that as soon as the dust settled from WWII, the Cold War blossomed into a hot topic.

Unfortunately, however, by the time the government got around to revealing that information, all it did was reinforce the widespread notion that the U.S. government was involved in a conspiracy to hide the truth that aliens had visited and were continuing to visit earth.

To its credit, Hollywood took notice. Prior to the incident in Roswell in July 1947, there had never been a single movie that featured the idea of aliens coming to earth. Not one. The closest any movie came was a German silent film made in 1920 called Algol: Tragedy of Power, which featured an alien who lived in the depths of a coal mine; but there is nothing about him actually coming to earth. The last movie made prior to Roswell that contained any mention of extraterrestrials at all was Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940), and in that film our man Flash ventures into space to kick butt and take names—but not a single alien comes to earth.

But after Roswell? Oh, baby. Before you could say "pass the popcorn" the screenplays were pouring in, and within three years a new movie genre was off and running. In the seven years prior to Roswell, not one movie had been made dealing with extraterrestrials. Zero. In the seven years following Roswell, there were 31, including such classics as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953), and The War of the Worlds (1953), all three of which featured aliens invading earth (as did the majority of the rest), and their popularity at the box office showed Hollywood the public was hungry for more. The bottom line is clear:

After the summer of 1947, UFOs and aliens were here to stay.

Since then, the existence of extraterrestrials has come to be assumed as a virtual scientific fact, and the idea that at least one of those advanced alien races somewhere out there has not only visited earth but continues to do so is routinely accepted by many people today. For the majority of the world, the disclosure of alien contact isn't a question of if, but when.

But what, you may be wondering, does any of this have to do with end-time prophecy or the Antichrist? Hold that thought.

Coincidentally enough, something else of significance was happening in 1947 besides somebody in the American Southwest mistakenly believing they had stumbled across the wreckage of an alien spacecraft.

For more, let's take a trip back in time to a not-so-sleepy patch of scorched earth in the Middle East.

Eretz-Israel

I'd like to think everyone reading this is aware that Israel was re-established as a nation in 1948 in a stunning fulfillment of Bible prophecy—the super sign that launched the unfolding of the end-time scenario.

I'd also like to think you're smart enough to realize that someone didn't just wake up one morning in 1948 and suddenly announce out of the blue sky:

"Hey, I've got an idea! Why don't we declare Israel as an independent nation today? Yeah, that'll work."

...and wow, nobody saw it coming! The full story of the events that led up to this monumental event are obviously beyond the scope of this article, but at the very least I want to communicate to you a general sense of what was happening around the time frame of the summer of 1947.

In the years leading up to World War II, the persecution of Jews was increasing in many European countries, and at the same time the countries of the world were closing their doors to Jewish immigration. As illegal immigration of Jews into Palestine increased, the British (who were in charge under the British Mandate) decided to close Palestine to Jewish immigration as well. Thus by the time WWII began, it was only half-jokingly observed that for Jews in Europe, the world was divided into places where they could not live and places where they could not enter.

During the Holocaust, a systematic effort was carried out to kill every Jew in Europe, resulting in the death of six million people of Jewish extraction. After the war, the British were confronted with increasing waves of illegal immigration of Jews they could scarcely contain, increasing anger from Arabs in Palestine as a result, and an increase of acts of terror carried out by Zionist insurgency groups in their effort to drive the British out.

To top it off, the U.S. Congress was highly critical of the heavy-handed British response to the bombing of the British Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv by radical Zionist insurgents in July of 1946, and as a result delayed loans to Britain that were sorely needed for the nation's post-war recovery. Thus, by the end of 1946, the situation was clear:

The Jews wanted the Brits out.
The Arabs wanted the Brits out.
The Brits wanted the Brits out.

Although Britain had formally ruled Palestine under the British Mandate since 1923, Palestine had become an exceedingly hot potato, and the British were desperately looking for someone to toss it to. The Brits wanted out of Palestine, Mandate or no Mandate.

Enter the United Nations.

The world body known as the United Nations was only 18 months old when, on April 2, 1947, Britain requested that the "question of Palestine" be handed over to the fledgling General Assembly. Like any world body worth its salt, the UN promptly formed a committee: the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). By July of that year, after traveling to Palestine and meeting with Jewish and Zionist delegations (the Arabs boycotted the whole thing), UNSCOP agreed with the proposal of the Orthodox Jewish (Haredi) party, who proposed that an independent Jewish state be established after a religious status quo agreement could be reached regarding such a future state.

UNSCOP proposed in their majority report to the UN that both independent Arab and Jewish states be created, with Jerusalem held under an International Trusteeship System. Finally, on November 29, 1947, the UN passed the now-famous Resolution 181, in which they adopted UNSCOP's majority report with a few minor modifications. At the same time, Britain formalized their already widely known intention to terminate the British Mandate, and announced to the UN they would do so no later than August 1, 1948—and a short while later they moved that date up to May 15. True to their word, the last British troops left Haifa on May 14, 1948.

So, at 4:00 p.m. that same afternoon, with the British Mandate ready to officially expire in about eight hours, David Ben-Gurion convened a meeting of the Jewish People's Council at the Tel Aviv Museum, in which he made his historic declaration:

Accordingly we, members of the People's Council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.

The super sign was fulfilled, and the curtain came up on the final act of end-time prophecy.

Putting the pieces together

OK, so what's up with the Reader's Digest history lesson?

First of all, understand that Satan cannot see the future. He is certainly not omniscient—only God can make that claim. Satan had no way of knowing for sure when the prophecy of Israel's re-establishment as a nation would be fulfilled, so he had to pay close attention and keep his hand on the throttle. He knew that when that did occur, the clock would begin ticking on his (grand but futile) efforts to wipe out Israel and thus force the cancellation of the Second Coming, and that he would have no time to waste in making preparations for his grandiose plan.

Although it could be said that events were already moving in that direction, it was around July of 1947, when UNSCOP began to take a favorable view of the idea of establishing an independent Jewish state, that you might say that the handwriting was finally on the wall. Satan could see that the British had turned Palestine over to the UN and that they were ready to bail, and that the UN would be inclined to agree with its own committee's report that was favorable to the formation of such a Jewish state.

Now, maybe it's just me, but I think it's extremely interesting that right about the same time that it was becoming clear that Israel would finally become a nation again for real, over on the other side of the world a U.S. military officer was jumping to the errant conclusion that some scattered debris consisting of rubber, wood, tinfoil, paper, and tape constituted "proof" that an alien spacecraft had crashed on a sheep ranch in New Mexico, thus igniting the rise of the UFO/alien narrative.

Incidentally, there is something that should be noted in relationship to the Roswell incident. In the summer of 1947, about the time Satan knew that Israel was going to become a nation again, and thus knew it was time to trigger his UFO/alien narrative, ask yourself:

Do you think Satan knew the wreckage of that top-secret tracking balloon was lying on the ground on a sheep ranch in New Mexico?

You bet he did. He knew precisely when and where that thing crashed—and he saw his opening. Understand that so-called UFOs are a demonic phenomenon, and so they appear wherever, whenever, and in whatever form Satan chooses (if you doubt what I say, take the time to read the section of one of my previous articles I linked to above). Now ask yourself:

How difficult do you think it would be for Satan (who knew the military would have no choice but to disseminate disinformation to protect a top-secret project) to arrange for a "flying disk" to be seen by just the right people in just the right location at just the right time to kick-start all the fuss in Roswell?

Are you kidding? A walk in the park...and oh my, how convenient.

Then again, maybe it's all just a bizarre coincidence.

But I don't believe that. Satan may be evil, but he's got a lot on the ball and he's got big plans. So in my mind, the $64,000 question becomes:

Q. Why would Satan plant the seeds of the UFO/alien narrative as soon as he was certain Israel was about to become a nation?

Which is precisely what I am convinced he did. I think the answer is clear—it was all part of the plan, and this is how I would summarize things:

First of all, like many others, I believe the man who will become the Antichrist will be a rising leader on the world scene who talks big talk, appears to have all the answers, and swiftly rises to power through intrigue. At some point before or during this process we will be raptured, and as a result the world will be turned upside-down and shaken as a frightened and confused population desperately seeks answers.

At some point after the Rapture, he will confirm (or strengthen or implement) a treaty between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations that will divide the land of Israel, a treaty I believe will allow the Jews to fulfill their national dream of building their highly anticipated Third Temple. This treaty will start the clock on the seven-year Tribulation, and things will begin to pick up steam.

Since he will be the one who made it possible for them to build the Third Temple, *the Antichrist will be hailed and embraced by the nation of Israel as their long-awaited Messiah.

*Note: I now have a different view of this last point.

But at the midpoint of the Tribulation, possibly after being "resurrected" from a head wound, he will become fully empowered by Satan, enter the temple and commit the abomination of desolation by erecting his image in the Holy of Holies. The False Prophet will cause the image to speak, and he will compel the world to worship the Antichrist as God on pain of death.

Following the abomination of desolation, I believe that Satan is going to present his chosen leader the Antichrist to the world as someone who is in contact with and/or being supported by an alien race, presumably a benevolent one that has come to help us, and possibly defend us from some dire threat. That will explain his powers—I believe the Antichrist will appear to be one who has been imbued with these powers by that alien race to lead our battered planet and its beleaguered population into its long-awaited New Age and the next step up in human evolution.

And will the world fall for it? Yes, they will, thanks to the strong delusion God will send upon them, which will make the world believe the biggest lie from the biggest liar in the history of the universe. For most of the world, it will seem compellingly proper and perfectly sensible that they should worship their amazing new leader as God.

And worship him they will.

So, the next time you're flipping through the channels late one night and stumble across an old movie featuring extraterrestrials, like Star Wars, E.T., Independence Day, Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Avatar, and so on, feel free to thumb your nose at it and shout "LIAR!" Why?

Because they don't call him the father of lies for nothing, that's why.

Greg Lauer — OCT '18

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