OPINION: Perilous times, with many being 'deceived'
Things sure are heating up and I’m not talking about global warming.
I have little expertise in the areas of politics and economics, so what can I add to what is happening as our nation makes peace with Iran? As a logician, mathematician, philosopher, and somewhat theologian, I can say this, however. The root word here is deception. Not those who are deceiving, but those deceived.
People are falling farther and deeper into deception than those in pre-Nazi Germany. Why is that? I believe it is not because the church is failing to do its part or we are not involved enough or we just don’t care enough. I believe it is because of spiritual principalities and powers loosed in the earth as never before.
It is our son and our daughter-in-law, our elderly senior neighbor with a poster of Obama in her home, scores of people who not only elected Obama but will elect the next president if given the opportunity.
Does it strike you as a little odd that a young inexperienced community organizer with Muslim sympathies and very possibly not even born in our country could get elected in the first place, much less in the second place? Or that the Democratic Party for the most part has only one candidate for the next presidential election while there are umpteen Republican candidates disrupting any unity in that party as never before: one of the loudest being a TV billionaire helping to promote an image of a circus to the conservative side of things? Does any of this make sense?
What about in our own backyard? Things are getting pretty heated on both sides about statues of Jesus, abortion clinics, religious signs and billboards, people screaming in front of liquor stores and car washes as they drive by, at both Christians and unbelievers, of what horrible sinners they are and all the sin these people are probably committing.
Personally, I look to scripture for guidance and explanation:
—“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)
—“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
—“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3)
John Hagee’s “Four Blood Moons” and Jonathan Cahn’s “Mystery of the Shemitah” and Ron Paul’s national TV ads are all warning of major disruption this fall. This is a time of deception like never before and it is going to keep growing according to the Bible.
May I strongly suggest you get the book “When Will These Things Be: The Next Journey”? It provides a strong “deception-detection” system and you may find it very interesting as we are launched into “the next frontier.”
Olson is a resident of Kalispell.