By False Peace Many Will Be Destroyed
We have the problem of unsaved people who want peace but only peace according to their own definition. They want peace but reject the Prince of Peace. Since they reject the Prince of Peace, it would be very easy for Satan to step in. Here's what the Bible says about false peace:
The whole problem of false peace is that it rejects God and embraces man. They may claim they're doing God a favor but they aren't. They can go ahead and say that Christians are bigots because they don't accept other religions. Right now, false Christians are accepted to be real Christians while true Christians are accepted to be false. For the world, to be "Christ-like" is to be accepting and pleasing to the world. They can say if you're going to be like Jesus everybody will love you. That's just false because Jesus was rejected by the crowd who only wanted His miracles but not His teachings. He never backed down nor did He compromise one single bit. If He did, the price of salvation would have not been paid in the first place. Also, if becoming more like Jesus means the world will love you then that makes Him a liar. It's because if you become more like Jesus, the world will hate you.
A distorted view of Jesus by post-modern standards makes it very easy for the Antichrist to rise into power as God would allow it. There's a distorted view of the Antichrist that he's just a wicked man, an obvious villain but the Bible warns about him appearing as the savior of the world. Daniel 8:25 warns that he will come to use false peace to destroy many. Here's what the Bible says about the false peace of the world:
To say that Jesus would just accept all world religions, you must be tolerant, that it's time to "heal the world" and "make it a better place" is all but part of the deception. Wanting peace is definitely a Christian's character but the problem is that the world doesn't want the peace Jesus brings. When Jesus said He didn't come to bring peace but division, it was that He was against worldly definition of peace. Peace between God and man happens during salvation but it's conflict between the redeemed man and the forces of darkness.
Nobody can say that the Pope is a man of God because he wants peace. No the Pope is a phony only brings counterfeit "peace". It should be bothersome that Pope Francis himself is appearing as a man of peace to the world. He gets attention everywhere because he doesn't preach the right Gospel. There's no reason to be jealous of the Pope's prosperity because it wouldn't save him. The Pope may have all the prestige, the Vatican may have the most attention and the most followers but that doesn't mean they're teaching the truth. It's unfortunate most people decide to go where the majority goes. But Jesus already warned about the narrow read and the wide road.
What's scary is that old time preachers have predicted a lot of what's going to happen. Here's what Arthur W. Pink wrote in "Another Gospel":
While the program feels like it's of God but it's not of God. This idea is anti-Christian. It uses Christian values but perverts them for the use of the Devil's propaganda. Instead of fighting against sin it ends up supporting some of it. Just think of how sin gets legalized at a daily basis. Nobody has God's permission to sin and Christians have that power against sin. The whole principle that it's your principles that matter is truly confusing. If they don't think God is necessary then where do they get their principles? Didn't God Himself ordain the whole Law? If so, why take the Law but never credit God for it?
Many will be destroyed by this false peace for three reasons: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Works salvation appeals to all three areas as much as Antinomianism does. For works salvation, it does good not for the glory of God but only for the satisfaction of one's flesh by working for rewards rather than seeking to do good because it's the right thing to do, it only seeks to do good to gain what they want rather than what God wants and it appeals to one's arrogance. That's why Ephesians 2:8-10 reveals that from salvation to sanctification it's all of God's work. Man has nothing to contribute at all when it comes to salvation from sin. But man in their pride would always want to have it their way and Satan knows very well how he can control people with their pride.
Jeremiah 6:14 - "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."
Jeremiah 8:11 - "For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."
Daniel 8:25 - "And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand."
The whole problem of false peace is that it rejects God and embraces man. They may claim they're doing God a favor but they aren't. They can go ahead and say that Christians are bigots because they don't accept other religions. Right now, false Christians are accepted to be real Christians while true Christians are accepted to be false. For the world, to be "Christ-like" is to be accepting and pleasing to the world. They can say if you're going to be like Jesus everybody will love you. That's just false because Jesus was rejected by the crowd who only wanted His miracles but not His teachings. He never backed down nor did He compromise one single bit. If He did, the price of salvation would have not been paid in the first place. Also, if becoming more like Jesus means the world will love you then that makes Him a liar. It's because if you become more like Jesus, the world will hate you.
John 15:18-9 - If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
A distorted view of Jesus by post-modern standards makes it very easy for the Antichrist to rise into power as God would allow it. There's a distorted view of the Antichrist that he's just a wicked man, an obvious villain but the Bible warns about him appearing as the savior of the world. Daniel 8:25 warns that he will come to use false peace to destroy many. Here's what the Bible says about the false peace of the world:
1 Thessalonians 5:3 - For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
To say that Jesus would just accept all world religions, you must be tolerant, that it's time to "heal the world" and "make it a better place" is all but part of the deception. Wanting peace is definitely a Christian's character but the problem is that the world doesn't want the peace Jesus brings. When Jesus said He didn't come to bring peace but division, it was that He was against worldly definition of peace. Peace between God and man happens during salvation but it's conflict between the redeemed man and the forces of darkness.
Nobody can say that the Pope is a man of God because he wants peace. No the Pope is a phony only brings counterfeit "peace". It should be bothersome that Pope Francis himself is appearing as a man of peace to the world. He gets attention everywhere because he doesn't preach the right Gospel. There's no reason to be jealous of the Pope's prosperity because it wouldn't save him. The Pope may have all the prestige, the Vatican may have the most attention and the most followers but that doesn't mean they're teaching the truth. It's unfortunate most people decide to go where the majority goes. But Jesus already warned about the narrow read and the wide road.
Matthew 7:13-14 - "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
What's scary is that old time preachers have predicted a lot of what's going to happen. Here's what Arthur W. Pink wrote in "Another Gospel":
The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor even a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war—but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son—but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great "brotherhood." It does not seek to drag down the natural man—but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation, and appeals to the "best that is within us." It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat, that Christ's absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. It endeavors to occupy man so much with this world—that he has no time or inclination to think of the world to come. It propagates the principles of self-sacrifice, charity and benevolence, and teaches us to live for the good of others, and to be kind to all. It appeals strongly to the carnal mind and is popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature man is a fallen creature, alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins, and that his only hope lies in being born again.
In contradistinction to the Gospel of Christ, the gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works. It inculcates justification before God on the ground of human merits. Its sacramental phrase is "Be good and do good"; but it fails to recognize that in the flesh there dwells no good thing. It announces salvation character, which reverses the order of God's Word—character by, as the fruit of, salvation. Its various ramifications and organizations are manifold. Temperance, Reform Movements, "Christian Socialist Leagues," Ethical Culture Societies, "Peace Congresses" are all employed (perhaps unconsciously) in proclaiming this gospel of Satan—salvation by works. The pledge-card is substituted for Christ; social purity for individual regeneration, and politics and philosophy, for doctrine and godliness. The cultivation of the old man is considered more practical than the creation of a new man in Christ Jesus; while universal peace is looked for apart from the interposition and return of the Prince of Peace.
While the program feels like it's of God but it's not of God. This idea is anti-Christian. It uses Christian values but perverts them for the use of the Devil's propaganda. Instead of fighting against sin it ends up supporting some of it. Just think of how sin gets legalized at a daily basis. Nobody has God's permission to sin and Christians have that power against sin. The whole principle that it's your principles that matter is truly confusing. If they don't think God is necessary then where do they get their principles? Didn't God Himself ordain the whole Law? If so, why take the Law but never credit God for it?
Many will be destroyed by this false peace for three reasons: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Works salvation appeals to all three areas as much as Antinomianism does. For works salvation, it does good not for the glory of God but only for the satisfaction of one's flesh by working for rewards rather than seeking to do good because it's the right thing to do, it only seeks to do good to gain what they want rather than what God wants and it appeals to one's arrogance. That's why Ephesians 2:8-10 reveals that from salvation to sanctification it's all of God's work. Man has nothing to contribute at all when it comes to salvation from sin. But man in their pride would always want to have it their way and Satan knows very well how he can control people with their pride.