What is the focus or purpose of Satan’s end-time deceptions? And is there any particular truth that these end-time deceptions are intended to prevent people from embracing?

Of course, all of Satan’s deceptions are designed to prevent people from coming to salvation in Jesus Christ, but is there anything different about his end-time deceptions?

Would his end-time deceptions be particularly designed to counter God’s end-time message of mercy?

God has been revealing truth to win people to salvation from the moment Adam sinned, but truth is unfolding—and we are told God has a special end-time message to prepare people for the coming of Christ. Would Satan’s end-time deceptions be specifically designed to counter God’s final message of mercy to the world?

In Come and Reason’s The Final Message of Mercy to the World: The Three Angels free magazine, we describe God’s end-time message in great detail. A short summary is that the final message from God is a final presentation of the eternal gospel, the good news about God that has been true throughout all eternity—the truth that has been obstructed by Satan’s lies, the truth that God is Creator, that His laws are the design protocols upon which life is built to operate, and that God’s law does not function like human law, which is made up of imposed rules with inflicted punishments. Thus, the final message is a call for people to reject the imperial dictator view of God and His law, returning to the worship of the Creator by leaving the fallen penal/legal systems of religion behind. In so doing, they are transformed to become like Jesus in character, for we become like the one we worship and admire, and thereby glorify God by revealing in both word and deed the truth of His methods of truth, love, and liberty in how they govern themselves and treat others.

This final message of mercy does include a stark warning for any who reject the truth about God and, instead, prefer to worship the worldly, believing it is righteous to impose laws, coerce consciences, inflict punishments, and restrict liberties as long as it is for a “just” cause; in doing so, they will become like that false god and mark themselves as beastly in character by practicing the methods of the beast. For such people, God will set them free to reap what they have chosen—separation from Him who is the source of life, health, and happiness. And being separated from God, there is now no restraining and redeeming power left; therefore, the wicked reap what they have sown into themselves and suffer torment of mind and anguish of heart as sin runs rampant through their souls. God lets them go. But in His infinite love, wanting all to be spared such a horrible fate, God sends this end-time message of mercy with His final offer of healing and deliverance from sin.

Satan’s end-time deception is designed to counter God’s end-time message of mercy; it is designed to convince people to choose this world, the methods of fallen Babylon, the practices of Satan, the principles of evil, all the while believing they are doing what is right. Jesus said:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV84).

How can Satan trick people who think they are following Jesus into actually following him?

By replacing the truth about God’s character, methods, and law with Satan’s type of law, character, and methods of governing. With the truth of God’s design law replaced with imposed law, all doctrines are then disconnected from the truth about God and are instead connected to the false law and character of a penal/legal rule-enforcer that supports Satan’s false religion, principles, and methods.

This is the subtle trick, for the truth that saves is not a list of specific doctrines—it is the truth about God.

If we have the wrong god but the right doctrines, we are lost!

If we have the right God but do not have all doctrines correct, we are saved!

Therefore, Satan advances his cause by getting people to focus on:

• Doctrinal truth while embracing functional lies.
• Being right about facts while embracing the wrong methods.
• Right beliefs while applying the wrong principles.
• Right religion while harboring selfish attitudes.
• The right fundamental beliefs and creeds while developing a satanic character.
• Advancing the so-called right doctrinal beliefs and religious observations through the methods of this world, imposed law with imposed penalties and coercive pressure as a means of pursuing justice.

Satan experienced great success with the Jewish nation two thousand years ago when he was able to deceive them into rejecting the Messiah whom they had been waiting for their entire existence to receive. How?

Satan didn’t achieve this rejection of Christ by getting Israel to reject the Bible, or God as Creator, or the Sabbath day, or the sanctuary message, or tithing, or the dietary message. It wasn’t the list of fundamental beliefs that they got wrong; it was the foundational truth of God’s character, His methods, His principles, and His design laws that they exchanged for the imposed laws and coercive methods of this world.

They had set all of God’s directions into the human-law setting and came to view God as authoritarian, dictatorial, punishing, unforgiving, and severe, a being who inflicts punishment and who requires appeasement. They viewed the use of law and punishment as the way to achieve “justice,” so they used external power and force to coerce people, even killing the innocent to advance their cause.

Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:49, 50 NIV84).

In other words, Caiaphas argued that it would be a good thing to murder an innocent person to save the nation. He was saying, “We have a people to protect; we can’t let this man go free if we want to save our institutions and thereby advance God’s cause and save lives.”

We have seen this same ungodly, evil method in operation over the past two years, seducing people into using coercion to advance a cause that they view as just. They argue, “We must save lives! We are in an emergency; therefore, it is right and good to use imposed laws to intimidate, fine, restrict liberties, and arrest; to use propaganda to destroy reputations and careers; to restrict freedom of speech to prevent the truth from exposing those destructive methods.” According to them, it is better to hurt a few employees than to lose their government funding: “We have a health message to advance; we have institutions to protect. It is better for a few to be inconvenienced and their liberties violated than for our organization to lose its institutions, for we have a special message to take to the world.”

Do we see what has happened over the past two years as part of Satan’s end-time deception to lure people into embracing evil methods and incorporating those practices into their characters?

Over the past two years, as the world applied the methods of force, coercion, restriction of liberty, as families allowed fear to dominate, what has been the result? Have we reaped more love? Have people become more like Jesus in character? Has the fellowship of family and friends grown closer? During this crisis, have we pressed together supporting each other, recognizing the individuality of others, and leaving them free to decide for themselves what is best in their life?

Or have millions, billions, been duped into believing this is “life and death” and that those who won’t do what the government says are enemies, are fools, are evil, are trying to kill the “good” people—and that they should be punished?

Do we recognize this as part of Satan’s end-time deception, his way of implanting his methods into hearts and minds, of getting people to believe it is actually right to treat others like this, as long as it is to “save lives”? Will we recognize this same evil when it is applied to “saving the planet” or some other supposed greater good?

How does Satan deceive? By focusing on some doctrinal truth or righteous goal that is then advanced with his evil methods. The issue over the past two years, from a great controversy perspective, was not primarily about a physical disease or specific medical treatment but about the methods employed in how we treat others! While most people are not scientists and did not have access to the specific scientific data, every single person with reasoning abilities was capable of seeing and discerning the methods being employed:

• Restrictions on liberties, on travel, assembly, worship, speech, employment.
• Coercion—closure of businesses, terminating from jobs, arrests, fines, loss of licenses.
• Accusation and vilification.
• Propaganda.
• Outright falsehoods (Remember the multiple times we were told that the “vaccine” would make us safe and that if enough people took it, we would achieve “herd immunity.” This was known to be a lie from the beginning, yet it was repeatedly told.)

These methods are not from God. They are from God’s enemy, and any reasoning person can see this and know it.

Why did so many collude?

• Because they were afraid, and …
• Fear leads to selfishness and the willingness to take matters into our own hands and use self-protective methods to make ourselves feel safe, including methods that violate others’ freedoms.
• Because they believed the lies they were told.
• Because they have accepted the idea that justice is achieved through imposed law and imposed punishments.
• Because they didn’t trust God with the results of choosing to live out His methods and falsely concluded that they needed to use these beastly methods to keep themselves safe—and their organization funded and in good standing with the government.

“Come Out of Her”

I am not saying any of this to change any government or any governmental policy in the world. I am saying this to change the hearts and minds of those who have not already been hardened into the methods of the beastly system, the methods of coercion and control. I am saying this to fulfill our end-time mission of calling people out of Babylon.

Leaving Babylon is about leaving systems and methods of the beast behind, not merely changing doctrines or religious rituals or days of worship but leaving behind the methods of the beast in how we treat others. The people of God are the people of truth, which they present in love while leaving others free. The people of God’s enemy may have some truth that they embrace and advance, but they will advance it with Satan’s methods—with propaganda, with coercion, force, and restrictions of liberty. And these beastly people will be convinced they are doing what is right, that they are being just and fair, because they are doing it for a “just” cause—as the Jewish leaders did to Jesus.

Let me say this very clearly: The saved will not be a group of people who know all things; the saved will not be a group of people who interpret every text of Scripture in the same way; the saved will not be a group of people free from every misunderstanding or false idea; no, the saved will be those who:

• Know God and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent (John 17:3).
• Have God’s law of love, truth, and liberty written upon their hearts as the primary motive to action (Hebrews 8:10).
• Love the truth and are willing to grow in the truth as soon as they can comprehend it (John 8:32; 1 Corinthians 13:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:10).
• Love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength (Matthew 22:37).
• Love others more than themselves and will give their lives for others (Matthew 22:38; Revelation 12:11).
• Refuse to use the methods of coercion upon another person’s conscience (Romans 14:5; Ephesians 4:15).
• Practice the methods of God in governance of self (Galatians 5:23).
• Trust God with how things turn out (Romans 1:17).

Thus, when it came to a specific medical treatment over the past two years, there were/are people of God on both sides of the treatment question—because it wasn’t about a specific medical treatment; it was about how one advances what they believe to be the truth. The people of God who truly believed a certain medical treatment was the right thing presented their evidence and gave their plea for others to get it, but they then left others free to decide for themselves. But those who were/are beastly used/use coercive tactics upon others to force others to do what they wanted/want them to do.

Jesus said that when it comes to separating the saved from the lost, the differentiating factor would not be in having the right doctrinal beliefs—a day of worship, faithful tithing, method of baptism—but in how we treat others (Matthew 25:31–46). Why?

Because the methods we choose to apply to ourselves in how we treat others determines what law gets written upon our hearts and minds! The methods we practice form our characters. Are we practicing God’s methods of truth, love, and liberty in how we treat others, or are we practicing Satan’s methods of fear, self-preservation, self-deception, and justification of using coercion and force upon others?

This application of coercive methods under the guise of doing good—to protect, to save lives—for a “just” cause is one of Satan’s most powerful end-time deceptions and is a much greater threat to salvation than merely being wrong about some doctrine.

I implore you to think, be alert, watch what is happening as we approach the end-time.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and … we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure (1 John 3:2, 3 NIV84).

If we want to be like Him, if we want to be pure as He is pure, then we must look beyond specific doctrinal beliefs and be certain that we are practicing only the methods and principles of God in how we live and how we treat others.