The Storm is Here Pt. 2: The Strong Delusion of Communism

Get ready to be strengthened, encouraged, and filled with unshakable hope!

In this insightful episode, Pastor Niral Burnett delivers a clear, compassionate, and deeply loving pastoral guide through the end-times truths found in Matthew 24, Revelation 2, and 2 Thessalonians 2. With wisdom and grace, he unpacks the falling away, the rise of the man of sin, the vital role of the Restrainer—the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit—and the strong delusion sweeping our world, including the deceptive grip of communism.

Yet this is not a message of fear. Pastor Burnett tenderly calls us to fix our eyes on the Savior, not merely on the signs—inviting us into a life anchored in Jesus, the One who has already overcome the world.

You’ll walk away equipped and inspired with practical, life-changing guidance:

• Love the truth with all your heart
• Test every teaching against the unchanging Word of God
• Grow in discipleship through the transformative REDEEM method
• Pray fervently for persecuted Christians around the globe
• Stand boldly as a restraining force of light and righteousness in your generation

This is your invitation to rise up in faith, live with purpose, and hold fast until the glorious, victorious return of our King, Jesus Christ!

Don’t miss this timely, hope-filled episode. Your heart will be stirred, your faith will be strengthened, and your eyes will be lifted to the One who reigns forever.

Listen now—and be ready. ✨

Episode Transcript

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Welcome to First Love Online Church with Nyrell and O.C. Burnett.

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FLOCC is a ministry of First Love Fellowship whose mission is to win the church to Christ
through unceasing prayer, intentional discipleship, and missional living.
You can support the mission of First Love Fellowship by going to our website at wearefirstlove.com.
Okay, but here's the issue, outside of salvation itself, eschatology is the most covered and

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discussed topic in the entire Bible. The most. Okay, so I'm not sharing this because, you know,
we're trying to scare anyone. Number two is this, though, so we're not trying to inspire fear.
Oh, the study of the end times. The study of the end times. So, but number two is this. What we

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share today, I want you to keep everything you hear in the light of this one fact. God loves you.
God loves you. When you, when you read John chapter 317, it says that God did not send
his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

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So all the things that you hear about God doing in the book of Revelation, in the book of Daniel,
in the book of 2 Thessalonians, which we'll go over today, it is in the light of the idea that
you have a heavenly father who absolutely adores you, loves you so much that Romans chapter 8 tells
us that he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not

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freely with him give us all things? Like he didn't spare his own son for you. When Jesus was dying on
a cross, Isaiah chapter 53 tells us, yet it pleased the father to bruise him. Well, why would it please
God to bruise Jesus on the cross? Why would it please God and make God happy that Jesus was dying
on a cross? You know why? It's because you were on his mind. It cost this precious price, but he was

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thinking about you, and you were worth the suffering of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross.
The fight was worth it, and he won that fight. And as we go on in time, we'll see the future shows
that in the end, Jesus wins it all. So when we talk about what we're going to mention today,

(02:48):
right, the storm is here, but it doesn't end with the storm. The whole story doesn't end
with the ominous clouds and the lightning bolts. And the only one that should be afraid of the
arrival of the end of days is the devil. He's the only one that should be afraid. All right,

(03:11):
so with that in mind, I would like to turn to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24.
In verse 3, I'm going to start here, and then we're going to go on. Now, if you're taking notes,
make sure there's enough ink in your pen, because we have a lot to go over. I found the easiest

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thing to do, though, is just take a picture of the screen in front of you. Oh, another thing
is this. Do not take anything I'm saying at face value as though you're required to believe me.
That's a weird thing for a preacher to say, right? Do not take anything I say at face value
as though you're required to believe me. Everything I say must be taken in the light

(04:01):
of what the Bible actually says, the word of God. All right, so don't just believe it because I'm
saying it. Study behind me. That's just fine. I am not intimidated or worried about anyone
looking at the Bible for themselves. That's why we do 66 in 88, because at this church,
we read the Bible. And I like 66 in 88, because it's unexplained, right? You're just reading the

(04:27):
Bible for yourself. The entire Bible, 66 books in 88 days. We do that every year, by the way,
for those of you who don't, who are visiting. We read the entire Bible from January 1st to March
29th, 66 books in 88 days. That's about an hour of Bible reading per day, so that by the time we
get past March, the church has began the year having read the entire Bible. And so that's our

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extreme Bible reading plan. So Matthew 24, which if you're part of First Left Fellowship, you have
definitely read before, says this. Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples
came up to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, do you not see all these
things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown

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down. Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, his disciple came to him privately saying,
tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?
Do you see that? They're asking, when? When will these things be, and what should we be looking for?

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I think that's an honest question. I think it's a question that Christians today should begin to ask.
We see a lot of things happening in the world. Are they just random, or are they a set of planned
things that have been laid out throughout many, many, throughout millennia? Or is this just
something that we just happen to be, you know, dealing with a war in Iran? We just happen to have

(06:01):
a nation of Israel. Last week, we talked about how the fig tree is in leaf. That fig tree
represents the nation of Israel. That Israel is a sign, and this generation is the first generation
since the crucifixion of Jesus that actually sees a nation of Israel with biblical prophecy
coming to pass, because there's certain things that have to be in place for the signs of the end to

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occur. Having a nation of Israel is one of them. Jesus answered and said to them, this is verse 4,
take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will
deceive many false prophets. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see that you are not
troubled. So when we talk about biblical prophecy, it is not so that we can trouble you or scare you,

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okay? For all these things must come to pass, but he says the end is not yet. For nation will rise
against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various
places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Now, you've heard this said before. The famine,
the pestilences, the earthquakes, those are not signs of the end. Jesus said those are the beginning

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of sorrows. Then he says they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you'll be hated
by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended and will betray one another and
will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because
lawlessness will abound, the love of many will become cold. But he who endures to the end will

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be saved. Now, Christians, Christianity was never designed to be pleasing to the flesh. There is no
version of Christianity that is designed to please your own fleshly or carnal or sensual appetite.

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Christianity does not make room for that. Jesus said if anyone will come after me,
let him what? Deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So Christianity is about self-denial
and according to this verse, enduring to the end is a major part of it, which means it's an
ongoing thing till Jesus comes. OK, so he says here and this gospel of the kingdom will be

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preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.
So the sign of the end is not the earthquakes. It's not the famine. It's not the pestilences.
It's not the wars. It's not the rumors of wars. The sign of the end is that the gospel of Jesus
Christ is preached to the end of the earth and then shall the end come. All right. So now we will

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go and look at the book of Revelation chapter two. We're just doing a really quick review and I'm
going to give it a couple couple more minutes. Revelation two, four says this. He says this to
the Church of Ephesus. It says you have left your first, excuse me, your first love. Remember,

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therefore, from where you are falling and repent and do the first works or else I will come to you
quickly and remove your lampstand. The problem with Ephesus is that they were a hardworking church.
They got it done. He was probably talking to Timothy, who was the first bishop of the Church
of Ephesus under the Apostle John. And so. Right now, as we speak, we are that church,

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that church that works hard, that labors, that does not get tired, all that stuff.
But we have to remember the first works. We have to remember to be focused on our first love.
Let's keep that in mind as we go through this, OK? Because this is not an optional thing.
We have to stay focused on our first love. Focus on Christ. Don't focus on the signs.

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Don't focus on. Oh, my goodness. It's what was it was in the 40s the other night.
Right. This is May. It's in the 40s. And, you know, Jesus is coming. Why? Weird weather.
You know, no, don't focus on that. Right. Don't focus on signs in heaven. I know that
in the government is talking about now disclosing right UAP slash UFO stuff.

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And I'm not talking about like some fringe weird group out in Idaho. I'm talking about
like the government, the U.S. government is disclosing it. And these are not space aliens.
OK. And now they're starting to say, OK, wait a minute. These are not aliens from another planet.
This is like something else. So I find it interesting. We're going to talk about I
think we're going to talk about it. I don't I don't think that's too weird for this church.

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No, I mean, we've talked about Bigfoot before. So I mean, like.
So we're good. So but just remember, don't look at the signs. Can you ask my wife to bring the
baby in the other room? Yeah. But. Yeah, thank you. And actually, you can turn you can turn on

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the monitor upstairs, if you like. In a studio room. All right. I'm sorry about that. It was
just it was just I was getting concerned that the baby was going to take over my message.
So anyway, you were doing a good job. So right now, when Jesus speaks in Matthew 24, we are in

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the beginning of sorrows. That's where we are, where we're seeing all these things. But again,
don't look at the signs. Look at the Savior. That's a good one. Yeah. It kind of starts with
the same letter. You know, everything you preach should start with the same letter. Right. Don't
look at the signs. Look at the Savior. OK. So now but with the storm, obviously, as we see is here
now last week, we talked about Israel. We talked about the rising of the nation of Israel as a

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major, major sign. Today, we're going to talk about something else, the strong delusion.
Oh, boy, this is going to be fun. Right now, we're in a world of chaos.
But what's the spiritual force behind the chaos?
What's the force? What's happening? Why is the world all of a sudden in turmoil? I know that's

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really small writing, but it's Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse three. We're going to start
there. Let's look. In fact, let's turn in now. A second Thessalonians chapter two. It says,
let no one deceive you by any means for that day, that capital D.A.Y., the return of the Lord
will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of

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perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God. You see that all that means
not just Christians, everything that's called God. Or is that is worship so that he sits as God in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Let's stop really quickly. If he's sitting

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in the temple of God, showing that he is God, there has to be a temple. So we know then that
the day will not come until the man of sin has even a temple to sit in to call himself God.
You see where I'm going here? So the day is not yet here, but it's coming. Do you not remember

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when I was still with you, I told you these things and now you know what is restraining
that he may be revealed in his own time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way and then the lawless one
will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the

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brightness of his coming because Jesus is not weak. Hallelujah. The coming of the lawless one
is according to the workings of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders and with all
unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the
truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion

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that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. All right, let's break this down a little bit. First of all,
the falling away. This marks a time of full rebellion against God. Now the scripture says
the day will not come until that falling away happens first.

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So before we see Jesus open up the sky and return, we're going to see some rough times.
Now falling away.
If I'm standing on the side of a ledge and I fall away, that means then that I was on the ledge

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in the first place. Is that correct? I'm saying that because if you've not known God,
that's not the falling away he's talking about. He's talking about people in the church
who are in and now they're out. The falling away, the great exodus, the anti-revival

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where people are turning away from Jesus, where the holiness of God doesn't mean anything to them.
And we're living in that day where you can maintain the Christian language,
you can maintain the Christian culture, all that, but fall away, meaning you're not a part of this
walk with God that is a narrow road. There's something I noticed when I became a Christian.

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When I became a Christian, I realized that even though I said yes to Jesus, I accepted Jesus as
my Lord and Savior. I was a teenager and I was wanting to know more about the Bible, about the
word, but I learned something maybe a few years later that my lifestyle was not much different
from anybody else except my creed had changed. My statement of faith had changed and so I had

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to have someone teach me like, no, this is how you walk out a holy life. And I was like, I don't
enjoy this. I don't like, you mean I can't do this and I can't do that and I can't do this,
right? And I'm like, no, the way of holiness is going to move you into and usher you into
the very purpose of your life, but there is no effort that is worth accomplishing

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that doesn't require that you deny yourself. I want to run a marathon, so I'm just going to
believe, I'm just going to believe, I'm just going to believe I can run 23 miles.
I'm not going to run a marathon. Joe is laughing because he runs marathons, right?
I guess he used to or something. You told me you ran like a thousand miles or something, but

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like you're not going to believe in running anything if all I do is talk about it.
Holiness is when you're not just talking about it, you're actually engaged in the practice of
Christianity. It's when you're reading the Bible and saying, yes, I will deny myself and do that,
but why? It's because it's going to take you to where God actually wants you to be. Holiness.

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The old saints used to preach holiness is the way. It's true. All right, so
the man of sin, I'm sorry, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Now this
describes the spirit of Antichrist as mentioned in first John, which we will get to. The man of
sin is secular. Some people say he's Islamic. I don't believe that the man of sin or the Antichrist

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is Islamic. I do not believe that. Now I could be wrong. I could be wrong and it's okay if I'm
wrong, but I don't believe he's Islamic. Why? It's because this man of sin, it says opposes
and exalts himself over all that is called God. You get it? Islamists call Allah God.

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All right. Or that is worshiped so that he sits as God. Muslims will not do that.
He sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. No Muslims are not going
to do that. Now we've talked about, and when I do the announcements, we'll talk about the
nation of Nepal with respect to Christian persecution, not a Muslim nation, but we'll

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talk about that. But when we talk about other nations that are Christians in other nations
that are persecuted for the cross, you see a lot of times Muslims will come up in the topic
because they do persecute Christians. That is true, but they do that in the name of their God,
little g o d. This one here, this man of sin, he doesn't seem to follow that same pattern. Okay?

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Now, he who now restrains, it says, it says, and now you know what is restraining that he may be
revealed in his own time. This is kind of weird. Listen to this. For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work. Only he who restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Who is he
who restrains? Kind of a weird inclusion, and it's not really explained. You wonder if this,

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is it the Holy Spirit because it's capitalized or is it the church or something else? The most
likely identity is that it's the Holy Spirit actively restraining through the presence and
influence of the church. Meaning the Holy Spirit in the church is he that is restraining,
but what is he restraining? Without the influence of the church, the world goes into moral chaos.

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We indeed with the Holy Spirit's help are the restrainer. Now,
remember the Holy Spirit filled the church since the day of Pentecost, right?
Yeah. All right. So then the man of sin will, it says, then it says the man of sin will be

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revealed. It says he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way. And then the
lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy
with the brightness of his coming. All right. So that is the foundational verse that we're going
to be going over today. And like I said, if you're taking notes, it might be helpful to just take a

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picture of it here because we have a lot to cover and I'm trying to move fast because I'm not trying
to keep you here all day, but I'm going to keep you here for a lot of the day. All right. So the
falling away comes first. Falling away comes first. All right. Now, again, this is massive

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open apostasy, widespread rebellion against God and his word. And you can see the manifestations
of the falling away right now in the secularization of our culture, churches compromising
core doctrines, right? There's this thing out now called Christ-Lam. Yeah. Where they're integrating
like Christianity and Islam together. Yeah, I know. It's so weird. So entire generations turning

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from the Bible to spiritual counterfeits and materialist philosophies. Now this rebellion
clears the way for the revelation of the man of sin. It's necessary that these things happen.
I know we look out there, we go, oh, it's a shame that people are turning away from God.
No, these things are necessary. It says the falling away will come first.

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So unfortunately, you're going to be seeing this more and more. All right.
The mystery of lawlessness is at work. This directly describes the spirit of antichrist.
First John chapter four, verse three, that is already operating in the world. That's the verse
we're going to come back to later on. Not right this second. But listen, you are then the only

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pushback against the spirit of antichrist. And it has been that way since the days of the early
And it has been that way since the days of the early church. There is no other pushback
against the antichrist. Let's just turn here. First John chapter four, verse three. Let's just go there.

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It says here. First two, let's go to verse two. By this, you know, the spirit of God,
every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is of God. And every spirit that
does not confess that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of
the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. It does not say

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it is the antichrist. It is the spirit of the antichrist. And we are the only pushback in the
world against the spirit of antichrist. This weird ominous spirit that's turning the world against
God. It is out there now, but has been since the Bible days. But listen to the next verse. It says,

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you are of God, little children, and I've overcome them because he who was in you is greater than he
who was in the world. That verse is specifically about the ability of the church to overcome the
spirit of antichrist. Greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world.
So not only are you commissioned to push back against the spirit of antichrist,

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you've also been given a higher level of authority and power over it, unless you submit to it.
And the enemy is crafty because he creeps into the church so that people can submit to it.
All right, let's keep on going. The restrainer is the church.

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And again, the only thing that restrains the antichrist is the influence of the Holy Spirit
through the church. That's why it says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Now, what does this mean?
This is 2 Thessalonians 2.7. I'm sorry. I know the 1 John scripture is up there.

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Because 1 John seems to show us that we're not just pushed back, but we're capable of pushback.
But then there's this thing about he is taken out of the way. The restrainer is taken out of the way.
What do you mean taken out of the way? Rapture. This speaks to the rapture of the church
that once the church is raptured, the influence of the church is gone, and now the antichrist

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operates unrestrained. And that's what will happen when the rapture occurs. That's why
I don't believe in a post-tribulation rapture, because what would be the need for that?
Like the church is gone, and the antichrist is gone, and the times have happened. It doesn't
make sense to me. I think it must be happening then somewhere while the tribulation is happening,

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but I'll give you my conclusion to that later. All right, let's keep on moving.
The man of sin is a secular savior.
Secular savior. Again, not Islamist. Islamists worship Allah and would never claim to be God.
The man of sin opposes and exalts himself above every object of worship. So for this to happen,

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though, there has to be a literal future temple in Jerusalem where he will sit and declare himself
divine. Someone will have the nerve to go into the temple of God and assume divinity,
like, I am God. You worship me. You see, that's kind of weird.

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His coming is according to the workings of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish. Deception, you hear that? Among those who perish.
Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.

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Now, this perfectly fits the ultimate expression of a godless savior, promising utopia
through total state control. He is the crowning achievement of this demonic spirit.
So I've been jumping all over the scripture in 2 Thessalonians for the past 10 minutes.

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Let's slow down. You know how we always say, we read the Bible too quickly.
We read the Bible too quickly. So let's slow down and do something.
I want to do a redeem study in biblical interpretation of that scripture, read, examine, determine meaning, evaluate, exalt, and make it personal.

(27:28):
I'm going to do that before we get to the point. So there's a point to everything I'm saying.
But we've got to slow down. I think in the church we become accustomed to listening to the preacher.
We're a bunch of fast-talking folks who say so many things in a certain amount of time,
because we know that the restaurants open up in the afternoon and we don't want you to be late

(27:52):
for your golden corral chicken. So the preacher just speaks as fast as he can,
and so the people get their golden corral chicken, and then they go to hell.
That went south real quick, didn't it? What I'm getting at here is that the goal of gathering as a church
is so that we can get knowledge that brings us to salvation, okay? It's not like, let's do this,

(28:16):
get it over with, and go to... No, do we do this with movies? I can't wait till this movie's over, my goodness,
because once this movie's over, I can go to the restaurant. No, what's that movie that came out?
Avengers Endgame. Remember when that came out? That movie was almost three hours long,
and everybody sat there for three hours. Then they get mad when the message is longer than 20 minutes.

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Anyway, we never have a 20-minute message. Redeemed. All right, now, redeemed.
The redeemed process,
first of all, focuses on some key observations, okay? That's review. So when we do this,
what do you notice when you're reading? First of all, you see a warning against deception, okay?

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Hold on, let me get my notes here. There we go. Warning against deception, let no one deceive you.
The day of the Lord will not come until two things happen, the falling away,
and the man of sin being revealed.
Won't happen until then. This man of sin opposes God, exalts himself. All of these things that you
see here are just general observations that when I read the scripture, I wrote down. These are all

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things that I've already said to you. Everything here, okay? That's the first step. Secondly,
examine. Examine all major structural relationships.
Now, major structural relationships are stylistic cues, which give you an idea
of what the scripture is emphasizing. So there's a few that I found here. I have a list. There's a

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whole list that you can see. I'll make sure you get it. Cause and effect. I see cause and effect
like falling away, plus revelation of the man of sin, the day of the Lord, and a rejection of the
truth, leading to strong delusion and condemnation. I see the fall of the man of sin, the day of the
Lord, and a rejection of the truth, leading to strong delusion and condemnation. I see a contrast.

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Truth versus lies. Restraint versus lawless one. Christ's coming versus lawless one. These are
contrasts, okay? I'm showing you how I actually interpret the scripture, okay? Climax, the
revelation and destruction of the lawless one by the Lord Jesus. It says he's going to come and
destroy the lawless one with the breadth of his mouth and a brightness of his coming. Gotta pay

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attention to that. That's really important. Whenever you study scripture, you have to look
for these cues, okay? Repetition, revealed and coming, believing the lie, believing the truth.
And then there's a pivot, like a sudden turn, where the restrainer is taken out of the way.
These are all things you should look at. All right. So shameless plug here. Shameless plug.

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Within the next week, I'm going to be giving this book away for free. One story, one hero,
a restorative discipleship guide to interpreting scripture through the redeem process, okay?
This is something I've been working on for some time now. Actually, ever since I was in school.
But it is now ready, and I think it's going to be... I'll post it onto OneBody, and you'll just

(31:18):
have it that way, okay? It's only about 40-something pages, very short. But it shows you how to
interpret scripture so that we don't come up with weird things, okay? All right.
So we went to R and E. Now we're at D, determine meaning. This is based on interpretive
determinants. Again, I have an entire list of those interpretive determinants, but they are

(31:40):
the key factors or lenses used to determine the original meaning of the scripture. We're looking
for original meaning. So what we're looking for is what did the scripture mean to the people
it was being written to, okay? Before we determine what it means to me today,

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I have to know what Paul was saying to the actual church of Thessalonica, Thessalonica, okay?
All right. Here's some primary text work. This is a prophetic teaching within a letter.
Paul corrects false teaching about the day of the Lord. The literary context, it follows

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encouragement in chapter one, and precedes further instructions in chapter three. Now,
there's original languages to these key words that I found. I found some key words in the
scripture. I want to know what the original word means, okay? Apostasia, meaning rebellion or
defection, right? Animus, which is the lawless one, the man of sin, right? Catecho, which is to

(32:44):
hold back or suppress. Pseudos, or lie, versus aletheia, which is truth, that's central contrast.
So now I have some words that I can kind of figure out, okay, this is the original
Greek meaning of the word. This is exactly what Paul was saying to these people in the language
that it was written. All right. What did this mean to the original readers? Well, the Thessalonian

(33:07):
church was confused and alarmed by false claims that the day of the Lord had already come.
Paul assures them that it is not, and warns them about the coming deception.
They thought that the day of the Lord had already come. That's why the scripture tells us
in 1 Thessalonians, it says that they shouldn't be troubled. Like, no, it hasn't happened,
don't worry. There has to be a falling away first, okay? Now, why is this important? It's to correct

(33:30):
false teaching, and prepare believers for future events, and urge them to love and hold to the
truth. Because people were walking around in that day, saying the Lord has already come.
And so the church of Thessalonica was like, well, what do we do? Right? What if somebody,
what if the rapture happened yesterday? Would you come to church? I wouldn't. I'd be all kind of

(33:50):
confused. I'd be having to figure out my life again. Like, the rapture happened. That's amazing.
Like, goodbye, y'all. Right? All right. Like, all the Mormons go, whoa, that's really bad.
Wow. Well, I got that one wrong.
All right. Let's keep going. The main idea behind this segment of scripture,

(34:15):
the day of the Lord will not come until the falling away occurs, and the man of sin is
revealed. He will deceive many with satanic power until the Lord Jesus destroys him at his coming.
Now, I can't wait till we, I'm going to do a course on biblical interpretation,
and it's going to include that book, because I want you all to know how to interpret scripture,
if you want to. If you don't want to, you know, just listen to me and believe everything I say.

(34:38):
All right. So then the presence and work of the church is actually stopping the Antichrist
spiritually from operating in full power. The very thing you do in Christ, when we sit up
from nine to midnight on a Tuesday night and pray, we are blocking and fighting against the

(34:59):
Antichrist spirit. When we're feeding the poor, when we're reaching out to the homeless, when we
do that every Sunday or every Wednesday, we're going out there to the shelters, or we're doing
a work of the church, hugging a man that has maggots on him, right? Like, whatever. Like,
we're pushing back against the Antichrist spirit. When we're there for each other,
when we're making sure that there's no strife and divisions within the churches,

(35:23):
we're pushing back against the Antichrist spirit. When we're forgiving people who shouldn't be
forgiven, that did us wrong, right? No, we're fighting back against the Antichrist spirit.
This is what Christians do. Love your enemies, yeah? That's what Christians do,
right? Don't hold offense. Don't hold unforgiveness. That's what Christians do,

(35:45):
right? The Ten Commandments, we look at that, we all fail them, but here they are, right?
You know, don't have any God before me. Don't worship any false images, right? What's the
third commandment? Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The fourth one is remember
the Sabbath and keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother is number five. Number six is do

(36:05):
not kill. Number seven is do not commit adultery or sexual sin. Number eight is do not steal.
Number nine is do not bear false witness. Number 10, do not covet. We see these scriptures and
we really should look at it and say, I failed all of these over and over again, but this is what
Christians do. I give my life to pursuing after the holiness of God because I received the love

(36:27):
of the truth. I'm hastening the day of his coming. I received the love of the truth and so I'm going
to make the deliberate steps necessary to walk in holiness. Why? Jesus is coming. All right.
Evaluate. These are specific, measurable, doable actions that we should take

(36:50):
in the context of the scripture we're reading today, okay? What are the implications of this
scripture? That's a major, crucial question. Deception and lawlessness are already at work.
Believers must love the truth. Stand firm and not be alarmed by false claims about the end time.
Now, this is my study. You can go to the same verse, use the redeem method, and you'll get

(37:16):
some additional things to share with you. It'll be beautiful. All right. But it says, therefore,
we must dot, dot, dot. Love the truth. This week, identify one area where you have been tempted
by deception or half-truths and replace it with daily scripture reading on that topic. See that?

(37:37):
Okay. So, you know, the progressive pastor told you that it was okay to look at pornography?
Okay. Well, open up your Bible and see what it says about making a covenant with your eyes,
perhaps. Or perhaps, you know, when David said I would not put any useless thing before my eyes,

(37:59):
he did say that in scripture, okay? Also, here's another specific measurable and doable action.
This is the measurable one. Evaluate one teaching or claim you hear this week against scripture
before accepting it. Even what I'm preaching, I'm telling you guys, don't just listen to me.
Look at the scripture. Look at the word of God. Now, listen, I'm not sitting here to tell you

(38:23):
that I'm wrong most of the time. If you're a pastor or minister, you shouldn't, every once in a while,
you might get something wrong. It should be very rare. Like, you shouldn't be getting things wrong
every week. People correcting your message. You may have to go back to school or something.

(38:44):
You may have to go back to school or something. But evaluate one teaching or claim you hear
this week against scripture before accepting it. That could be the YouTube preacher.
Well, I know pastor said this, but I heard a YouTube preacher who said something else. I'm
gonna believe the YouTube preacher. And I'm like, well, call the YouTube preacher when you're in
crisis at two o'clock in the morning. All right. Number three, stand firm. Memorize 2 Thessalonians

(39:10):
215 and recite it when facing confusion or fear about the future. Now, this is what I'm coming up
with for myself. This is my Bible study. Okay. You do your own Bible study. All right.
The second E in the redeem process is exalt Jesus by connecting your scripture always

(39:32):
to the redemptive narrative. If your interpretation of scripture
goes outside the narrative of redemption, you might be headed into heresy. The entire Bible
as one book is the redemptive story of mankind. That's the purpose of the Bible to speak of the
story of redemption. That's why you're not going to see anything about people in China.

(39:56):
That's why you're not going to hear about the people in sub-Saharan Africa or in North America
or Northern Europe, because it focuses on this one area where the story of redemption happens.
The Bible is the redemptive story of mankind. Okay. And so that redemptive story speaks to

(40:16):
perfection, fallenness. That's what the little symbols are there. Fallen is redemptive promises.
The climactic cross, new life, ongoing mission, and final victory. Let's go.
Here we go. Redemption in second Thessalonians 2, 3 to 12. Perfection, perfect order and truth

(40:37):
under God's rule. That's verse one where it speaks of our Lord and our gathering. Fallenness. Well,
that speaks to the lawless one. Verse seven. Redemptive promises. The restrainer. Verse
seven. The cross. Jesus defeats the works of Satan and will ultimately destroy the lawless one.
New life. Believers love truth and are protected by the Holy Spirit. Ongoing mission. The church

(40:59):
acts today as a restraining influence while proclaiming the gospel. Final victory. The
Lord destroyed the lawless one and established eternal truth and righteousness. Remember with
the breath of his mouth and a brightness of his coming. So you've got the redemptive narrative
all throughout this segment of scripture. When you study the Bible, always bring it back to that.

(41:21):
Bible study, by the way, that does not change you is not Bible study. You don't do Bible study so
you can win an online debate that you're facing on Facebook. Well, I'm going to prove to them that,
you know, whatever thing you believe is right. I've given up on debating people on the internet.

(41:44):
I'm like, no, I'm going to read this Bible now so it can change me.
Right. I'm going to allow my life to be the proof that this word is true.
By the way, by the way, one strong indicator of the word of God being true,
the Bible itself, because sometimes people will say, well, how do you know the Bible is true?

(42:05):
The simple answer is this. The prophecies. That's how we know. That's why it's important
that we understand eschatology. It's because it's the only book that literally predicts the future
and speaks to our day. All right. All right. Finally, make it personal.

(42:26):
This is the prayer response, concrete takeaway and final takeaway. Now, listen.
My prayer response to this scripture was Lord, keep me from deception. Help me to love the truth.
Thank you for the restrainer and for the sure hope of Christ victorious return.
Make me steadfast until that day. Amen. Sample little prayer. Right. But I have a prayer response
for my study of scripture. Next thing I have is a concrete takeaway. I'm going to evaluate the

(42:50):
teaching against scripture and memorize Second Thessalonians 215. OK, so again, don't just
listen to me study the word of God. OK, any minister that tells you to believe them infallibly
without examining the word of God is actually running a cult, not a church.

(43:10):
Believe everything I say. No, that's that's just a cult. You don't believe me. Listen,
I don't I don't have the key to your victory. I don't have the key to your life. I don't.
Are you kidding me? The word of God has it. I'm just sharing the word of God. OK, the same word
of God that you can share, by the way, the same word of God that you can study, by the way.

(43:34):
You see. All right. Final takeaway in the redeem process, the day of the Lord has not yet come,
the falling away and the man of sin must appear first. Therefore, in the meantime, love the truth,
stand firm and wait confidently for Christ's return. So here we are. That's that's my whole
redeem process over the scripture. I'm still going by the way. I'm done. I know you're like,

(43:55):
oh, yeah, get to the restaurant. No, hold on before you run out the chicken.
Um, by the way, I mean, we have Indian food today that that today that was the thing today,
right? Indian food. I made something called dhal. You know, Jake probably know what it is.
Yeah, I made it. So it's the best food here. So I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding. So where do we go from here? We've got this thorough examination of Second

(44:22):
Thessalonians chapter two. The man of sin has not yet come. Where is he?
Who is he? From where will he come? That's what we're going to examine in the next few minutes.
OK. Let's start there.

(44:46):
It is my it is my biblically informed belief that communism is the fullest expression
of the mystery of lawlessness already at work in the world. I know we just took a left turn,
didn't we? No pun intended. But yeah.
It is my belief. Now, listen. I know there are other views,

(45:12):
but I'm going to teach what I actually believe. OK. Now, the fullest expression of the mystery
of lawlessness is already at work in the world. What is communism? It is a godless belief that
the fullest expression of the mystery of lawlessness is already at work in the world.
What is communism? It is a godless political and economic system that seeks, thank you so much,

(45:37):
that seeks total state control over society, denies God, exalts the state or collective
above the individual. Reduces human beings to material economic units and opposes the
lordship of Christ and the church. Now, I know it's twenty twenty six and here

(45:58):
here past an hour is up here talking about communism. I'm not crazy. OK, at least not
for this reason. I do believe that communism is the full expression of the mystery of lawlessness.
I'm going to make the case and explain to you why. All right. What does it promise?
It promises utopia, a classless society of perfect equality, justice and material abundance

(46:19):
achieved through revolution and state control. OK, revolution and state control. It really
does deliver tyranny, poverty, persecution and death. And I'm going to explain to you that
in a few minutes, OK, because in America we have an increasing amount in the West,
really not just America. In the West, we have an increasing amount of people who are sympathizing

(46:42):
with communism. OK, they're starting to embrace more of a socialist worldview. And what it does
is it puts the church in a certain weird category, a voiceless category. All right.
Let's look at the philosophical history, Renaissance and enlightenment roots,

(47:02):
enlightenment roots first. Sometime during the 14th century, a culture of human reasoning
began to establish a rational worldview as opposed to a spiritual or supernatural worldview. Now,
if you want to know more about this, read a book called Power Evangelism by John Wimberg.
He speaks of this quite a bit. He speaks of cultural blinders of secularism,

(47:24):
self-reliance, reliance and materialism, rationalism. All these things are cultural
blinders that that have become entrenched in Western culture and disconnecting believers even
from the Holy Spirit and his divine presence. Unlike the early church's expectancy of like

(47:45):
even so come Lord Jesus, no, in this type of society that we've created and it's seeped
into churches and everywhere, we have secularism, life without reverence to God,
self-reliance, overconfidence in human ability, materialism. Basically, nothing exists except what
I see. That's the opposite of we walk by faith and not by sight, right? And then rationalism,

(48:14):
only the logically provable is real. Only what we can logically, in fact, you ever hear people
say this, they'll say, well, science will prove to you that the Bible is real. I hear Christians
say that. Science proves to you that the Bible is true. And hold on, science does not have the
authority to prove that the Bible is true. Do you understand that when a person, let's say,

(48:37):
when a person dies, science ends. That's why they're on the table, the operating table, and
you see that little monitor going beep, beep, beep, right? And as long as that beep, beep is happening,
all the scientists are doing what? They're doing their work. And man, I'm telling you, they're doing
life-saving, great work, okay? But once that thing goes beep, what do they do? Time of death,

(49:01):
done, right? But something is still real. That person is still real. It's just there's something
to change about them that science cannot reach. Science does not have the authority
to circumvent what the Bible says. And for centuries, people have known this. Only in our day

(49:22):
do we say, no, only what is rational is real. Okay, I'll prove it to you, because we're a
holy ghost church. Hallelujah! You know, people say, I'm not feeling so well, could you pray for me?
So, okay, I'll pray for you, but understand that this is not rational, because I'm going to put my
hand on your forehead and talk to the sky. Meaning that the church is not even called to operate

(49:51):
out of a rational standpoint, which means then that what we're doing in the church is foolishness
among those who perish, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. All right, secular humanism and materialism
began replacing a God-centered worldview. Even among other religions, there was a widespread

(50:11):
skepticism of spiritual things, or everything that is called God, and a greater embrace to
human reasoning. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, they are the author of the Communist Manifesto
and Das Kapital. They developed dialectical materialism and the theory of class struggle.

(50:31):
These two things work together as bedrocks for communism, okay? Now, dialectical materialism
and the theory of class struggle, these are foundational ideas, okay? Now, change happens
according to this dialectical materialism. Change only happens through conflict and contradiction.

(50:53):
Revolution is necessary. Don't pray, fight!
Their view of materialism is, again, the belief that the only reality is the physical
material world. There is no God, no spirit, no afterlife, nothing, only matter in motion,
okay? Everything is matter plus conflict, and that's how you get progress. So, there's no room

(51:18):
for God or absolute truth or anything like that. Now, class struggle, that's where all history is
the history of class struggle, all right? Society is divided into two opposing classes, oppressors,
the bourgeoisie, versus the oppressed, the proletariat, and that's, it's a philosophy

(51:39):
whose foundation is offense, bitterness, anger, jealousy. He's got a bigger house than me.
Well, I hate him. We have to fight people like that. I'm tired of working this job.
Why does the CEO get all the money? Don't they see me serving tables?

(52:02):
Now, mind you, the CEO might have worked for 30 years, their fingers to the bone,
sacrificed literally their family in order to see that business happen, and, you know,
yeah, they're making a lot of money because they started the company, perhaps. I know there's
weird little deals they do, and I understand there's corruption in this world, but this
philosophy is built with the assumption that those that have, have because of corruption,

(52:28):
all right? So, violent revolution by the workers to overthrow the capitalists,
abolish private property, and create a classless and stateless communist society is the goal.
Anarchy, no leader, okay? So, religion, according to communists, is a tool to keep the poor

(52:52):
passive. Now, these are the kind of statements that you often hear in conversation when they
get a little bit deeper, but slowly but surely it's becoming a part of our culture. You ever
see the letter A with the circle around it? Okay, that's a communist movement, okay? You ever see
organizations like Black Lives Matter? Yeah, trained Marxists. They're communists. They act

(53:16):
like they're fighting for the cause of black people because we need so much help because
we're subhuman. I can't accomplish anything in life unless white people help me. Nonsense.
Nonsense. Black people can thrive and succeed in life with or without help.

(53:37):
I think it was Frederick Douglass who said, if that culture cannot survive on its own, let it die.
Let it die. Philosophical history of communism. By the way, many of the civil rights movements
that you've seen in the past hundred years, they were not real civil rights movements.

(53:57):
They were communist power grabs. I can't get into that today, but I'd love to. Vladimir Lenin,
and the Bolshevik revolution. Lenin took Marx and Engels ideas and said, well, let's do this thing.
As a result, the Bolshevik revolution occurred and Russia or the Soviet Union became the first

(54:21):
communist state. Lenin taught the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the use
of terror to achieve utopia. They literally began to fight. Now listen, do you think I'm giving this
message to come down on communism? Yes, exactly what I'm doing. Because after Lenin came Stalin,

(54:45):
Nikita Khrushchev, then there's Brezhnev, and then there's Gorbachev. After Gorbachev,
the communism began to fall apart in Russia or the Soviet Union. Then after him came several
other leaders that were not necessarily communist, but had communist tendencies.

(55:07):
I think after Gorbachev was Yeltsin, and then Putin after Yeltsin, and then for a little while,
a man named Dmitry Medvedev, and then Putin again, who is still now the current leader over Russia.
But communism thrived in Russia. By the way, whenever you hear a person say bougie,
what they're trying to say in lazy speak is bourgeoisie.

(55:32):
Yeah, it's been around since I was in middle school, and back then we used to study Russia a
lot. I don't know, that sounds a lot like bourgeoisie. I think they're saying it wrong,
but then it became like a part of our culture. I'm like, oh golly. So anyway, and you know,
growing up in a Brooklyn ghetto, I couldn't tell my friend, hey listen, it's not bougie.
It's actually bourgeoisie. You're pronouncing it totally wrong. You know, then I'd go home and

(55:55):
have a black eye. Anyway, all right, 20th century global spread and horror. Communism spread to
China under Mao Zedong, Cuba under Castro, Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh's communist forces,
and many other nations. Now listen, the death toll under communist regimes exceeds a hundred

(56:17):
million people. Engine of famines, gulags, purges and executions, and systematic persecution.
Wherever it took power, it persecuted the church. It closed churches. It imprisoned
and killed believers and declared war on the human spirit. I'm gonna give you a couple of quotes.

(56:41):
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world,
and a soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. Strangely enough, Karl Marx says
that religion is the opium of the people. He actually had a disease that required that you
take opium. So anyway, life is just so poetic. Communism abolishes eternal truths. It abolishes

(57:01):
all religion and all morality. Instead of constituting them on a new basis, it therefore
acts in contradiction to all past historical experience. I don't care what history says,
we're gonna rewrite history. That's communism. You know, those of you who are teachers,
now when I was a kid, oh goodness this thing, when I was a kid, they taught us about like the Soviet

(57:24):
Union, Russia, communism, all those things. They taught us about it, right? So even what I'm sharing
with you today are things that I knew since junior high school. I don't think kids today get that.
No? No. Okay. In fact, I think that what kids get in public schools now,

(57:44):
it's more sympathetic towards communism. It is. No, it absolutely is. Because the strategy had to
change. It had to change. I'll tell you how in a minute. Man makes religion. Religion does not make
man. Religion is indeed the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet
won through to himself or has already lost himself again. Karl Marx. The social principles

(58:09):
of Christianity preach the necessity of a ruling and an oppressed class. The social principles of
Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submissiveness, and humbleness.
Karl Marx. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have

(58:30):
nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Communism wants to spread.
It's not going away, but history teaches us that it needs to be more subtle in order to spread
effectively in the West. It had to. They had a PR problem, okay? You know, I think it was
Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall, right? Speaking of Germany,

(58:55):
East and West Germany. And then when a wall was torn down, it was in all the newspapers and
everything. You know, communism has fallen, and then people were so happy. I find it weird that
how Westerners weren't struggling to get into the communist nations. The communists were
struggling to get out of the nation they were in. I'm just saying. All right. I believe this is the

(59:17):
mystery of lawlessness Paul said was already at work, now fully developed into a global system
that denies God. It also exalts the state, reduces humans to material units, and opposes the lordship
of Jesus Christ, okay? We have seven more slides to go, just letting you know to give you an idea
of where we're going, all right? Today, there are five current communist states that are 100%

(59:38):
communist, okay? Just five. China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Five. Now, Cuba,
you're getting Cuban in news a lot lately, like President Trump is saying a lot about, yeah, you
know, we're gonna probably take over Cuba in just a little while, you know, whatever he says. But

(59:59):
all these vague things he's saying, I'm like, can you just make the point? But China, Cuba,
Laos, North Korea, Vietnam. And these are some of the worst violators of religious freedom that
exists in the world, okay? Remember, wherever there is communism, there is a fight against

(01:00:21):
religious freedom, because the spirit of Antichrist opposes and fights against all
that is called God. Communists also persecute Muslims, okay?
But again, that leaves communism with a huge PR problem. This is how it creeps in.

(01:00:42):
Now, again, I know this sounds very political, but it was the communist system that shut the voice
of religion and ministers and the Bible from the public discourse. That's why you're not used to
hearing this in church, because churches are afraid to say it, because they'll lose their 501c3

(01:01:06):
status if they speak to this too deeply, okay? But what happens then is that the church loses
its voice. Unless you're a communist sympathizing church, then you can say what you want.
Oh, yes, you can. That's why Hillary Clinton got to stand up in front of the church and said,

(01:01:29):
I don't feel no ways tired, right? Like, you know, you can say what you want if you're sympathizing
with this progressive leftist mindset, okay? Secular progressivism emphasizes human autonomy,
reason, and social change, detached from biblical revelation, and it normalizes materialism and

(01:01:50):
moral relativism. We've been there. We've been there for a long time. Democratic socialism
seeks expanded government roles in economy, welfare, through democratic means, and in milder
forms, it may coexist with religious liberty. In more radical expressions, it erodes property
rights, free speech, and institutional religion in the name of equity, okay? We are here in America

(01:02:14):
right now. This is solidly where we are, because we're not yet an all-out socialist country,
although it was a Time magazine cover some time ago when Obamacare had passed.
They said, we are socialists now. It's like they were getting excited. No, we're not socialists.
And there is a clash of civilizations, even within America, where I remember the big

(01:02:37):
controversial line that President Trump said back in 2018, 19, somewhere, where he simply said,
America will never be a socialist nation, and it was controversial. People were mad at him about
that, okay? Now, listen, I don't celebrate everything President Trump does, but as long
as he's fighting against this, I'm actually quite happy with that. We are almost here in the

(01:03:00):
socialist part. I believe so. Now, communism is full state ownership, okay? Official atheism,
suppression of religion. Every communist nation does this. Every. But in America, in the West,
it had to happen step by step. Now, in Europe, they are solidly in socialism right now,

(01:03:20):
and it happens step by step. Step by step, okay? Now, the antichrist system does not usually
arrive all at once. It becomes more intense step by step, okay? And that's why, for example,
the civil rights movement was indeed a socialist movement, dressed up as freedom, equity, and
fairness. It was a power grab. At the height of the rise of communism came what? The civil rights movement.

(01:03:49):
Think about it. If you study the 20th century, you'll see it. Even today, they are not marching
in the streets because they love people of color. In fact, Black Lives Matter co-founder
Patrisse Cullors described herself and fellow leaders as trained Marxists. I have the video.
I can send it to you or post it on OneBody, okay? Now, the problem being a trained Marxist is this.

(01:04:15):
Y'all, do y'all want to have anything to do with being a Nazi? Why? Why not?
Yeah, Hitler killed six million Jews. So, why is it then that so many people sympathize with communism
that killed a hundred million people? Hitler would have to do the Holocaust 17 times over

(01:04:41):
17 times over before he got to the number of people that the communists have killed
in the past hundred years. And yet, for some reason, people are under the great delusion
that somehow communism is the answer. And it is the answer for many people by way of

(01:05:04):
secular progressivism, democratic socialism, and then socialism,
and then the granddaddy of them all, communism. There is a push in our world, but the reason
there's a push for it is because it makes a way for the man of sin who opposes and exalts himself
against all that is called God. All right. Let's look at some communist things. China

(01:05:30):
under Mao Zedong, 40 to 80 million people killed.
The Soviet Union under Stalin and others, 20 to 25 million killed. Do people teach this?
Hitler killed six million Jews, and it's terrible. I'm not saying it's good.
No, it's horrible what he did. But 40 to 80 million people? 20 to 25 million people?

(01:05:52):
All right. Cambodia, the killing fields, remember that? Pol Pot, two million people.
Pol Pot, two million people. North Korean, ongoing, three plus million people.
Vietnam, two plus million people, and that's post-1975 and during the war.
Other places, Eastern Europe, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, several million more. We're

(01:06:16):
talking hundreds of millions of people killed by communist regimes. Now, listen to this.
You know, people say sometimes more people have been killed in war because of religion than any
other reason. That's a lie. That's a lie. Communist atheists are responsible for the most wartime

(01:06:38):
killing of any political movement or ideology in recorded history, and there is no close second.
No, the Catholic Church did not kill more people than anyone. No, it was not the Inquisition
that killed more people than anyone. No, those that did the most killing on planet Earth and
continue to do so are communists. They're the ones that have your brothers and sisters in Christ

(01:07:05):
and in change in China and North Korea. They're the ones that have your brothers and sisters in
China. They're the ones that have your brothers and sisters in change in South America that is
more socialist and in Cuba. This is the ideology, the godless ideology. Now, the Nazis would have
to again do all the killings and atrocities of the Holocaust over and over again. Holocaust and

(01:07:30):
World War II, which a particular representative said World War XI because they had the two
written in Roman numerals and she thought it said 11. I watch the news too much.
But really, no decent person has anything to do with communism or Nazis in our day.
But why is there so much sympathy with the communists? Strong delusion. By the way,

(01:07:53):
the source that I'm getting this from is the Black Book of Communism, so you can take a look at that,
and it's a well-studied book. You should read it if you're really interested in proving me wrong.
You can do so, and you'll find the facts, and then I'll let you figure out what to do from there.
Anyway, hundreds of millions. It's in the hundreds of millions that communists have killed.

(01:08:18):
Again, in total, the Nazis would have to do all the killings and atrocities of the Holocaust
and World War II. Now, that's not just Hitler and the Holocaust. That's like all of World War II
would have to happen four times over to reach the amount of violent death
committed by the communists, okay? I kind of just said all this in the last slide, but there it is.

(01:08:40):
Friends, we have four more slides to go, but this is the issue. The coming of the lawless one is
according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous
deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth, okay?
The lawless one works unrestrained among those who perish. The reason why is because they do

(01:09:02):
not receive the love of the truth. They reject the gospel willfully. This is the problem. So you
mean all this killing, all this bloodshed, like what's the pushback? Your holiness. You're walking
in the love of God, receiving the love of the truth, shining as a light in the world. That was
always the strategy of Jesus. The strongest. Do you understand that the fastest growing churches in the

(01:09:27):
world are in communist and Islamic nations? That's where they are. Everything happening
in Iran right now? Yeah, remember we were praying, Lord, let the underground church in Iran rise up,
and they did just a few months ago, and they were slaughtered.

(01:09:51):
30,000 people at least, and they're still rising up to this day,
and I as a pastor can't sit here in front of you and talk about four steps to prosperity,
five ways to use the Bible to get a new house. I can't sit here and do that while they're dying.

(01:10:12):
We have to be informed of what's happening in this world. Fastest growing church. Why? They're
growing and expanding. They're receiving the love of the truth, and the bloodshed of Christians
is not stopping the church from growing. No. See, because they reject the gospel and do not
receive the love of the truth, it says, and for this reason, God will send them strong delusion.

(01:10:36):
What does that mean? God sends them strong delusion. It means he's giving them exactly
what they want. They don't want the truth, so you know it here. Take everything you want.
You've got it. You've got it, and why does God give them everything they want,
all of the strong delusion? It says it at the very end. It says they had pleasure

(01:10:57):
in unrighteousness, the very end there, the very end.
See, their sin makes them willful participants in the antichrist system.
Meaning if you're in church and you take pleasure in unrighteousness,
that antichrist system to come is going to swallow you up. You will be deceived. You will be.

(01:11:25):
I think it was Michelle who told me last week, she said, she gave this quote that said that what
they say in persecuted areas that are communist, that in a communist nation where two or more
where two or more are gathered together in my name, one is a spy.
One is a spy. That's how it looks, because even in the church, people will be deceived.

(01:11:51):
Children will turn their parents in, which happens in North Korea and throughout the Arab world.
Oh, my sister became a Christian, therefore we have to kill her. Honor killing. Oh, it happens.
In communist regimes like North Korea, they'll report to the government when they find a Bible
in Auntie Sue's house. I don't know her name is Sue, but you know, whatever her name is, right?

(01:12:13):
They'll report them to the government. The sin makes them willful participants in the antichrist
system. In sin, you are positioned perfectly to be duped by satanic power, signs, lying wonders,
just what the scripture says here, and unrighteous deception. Unrighteous deception.

(01:12:38):
Here's where I'm going to land.
It is my belief that the antichrist system and the antichrist himself will come through the
communist system of government that has progressed for well over a century. For biblical reasons,
which can be found in the book of Daniel, I believe that in the first three and a half years
of the tribulation, there will be peace in the world due to the suppression of religion by

(01:13:03):
communist slash progressive leftism, perhaps with the support of religious moral therapeutic deists.
Then the persecuted church will be taken out of the way by way of the rapture of the church.
I do believe in a mid-tribulation rapture. That's my opinion. Again, I'm saying my opinion.

(01:13:25):
What you're reading up here is what? That's my opinion, okay? So I'm not requiring you
to believe that. I'm just sharing with you what I believe based on informed Bible study,
not just knee-jerk scripture quoting and social media engagement, okay? Now,

(01:13:52):
let's get to some hope.
Now we're landing. This is the second to last slide.
The blessed and certain hope is this in the scripture. Jesus wins instantly.
He doesn't fight. Jesus doesn't have to fight. In fact, Romans 16, 19, what does it say?

(01:14:12):
Be excellent at what is good, be innocent of evil, and the God of peace shall soon crush Satan
underneath your feet, your feet. Maybe there'll come a day where I'll be standing there.
I'll be like, no, what's that under your foot? I see a tail wagging.
Oh, that's the devil.

(01:14:36):
So no matter how far the falling away goes or how thick the delusion becomes,
victory belongs to Christ. We are in a season where the falling away is happening.
The spirit of Antichrist is indeed preparing the way. But listen, return to your first love.
Love the truth with all your heart. Stand as the restraining church. Now, what do I mean by that?

(01:14:58):
There's someone here today, right, who lost her job as a teacher, right, because of a stand for
the gospel. Because this communistic ideal exists throughout our culture. Don't talk about God.
I think it was at, uh, was it Macy's or somewhere where, like, you can't really freely preach the

(01:15:21):
gospel at work, but they'll have a Muslim prayer room. That was Macy's? They'll have a Muslim prayer
room on premises. Why? It's because there is an agenda to shut the mouth of Christians in
particular. The Antichrist hates Jesus, hates Christians, hates you, and uses the word of God

(01:15:44):
hates you, and uses this communistic system in order to accomplish his purposes. And listen,
it does not have to be called communism, but the culture behind it is what is ruling the day
right now. That's why if you're black, you get someone like Black Lives Matter,

(01:16:05):
they teach you to be offended automatically.
Automatically offended at face value. So you, they'll train an entire race of people
to be racist and then say black people can't be racist. I watched the news too much.

(01:16:26):
What I'm getting at here is I wish, I wish that they, that if they come to the knowledge of the
truth, their entire, their entire worldview turns upside down and the agenda of the Antichrist spirit
goes away. Jesus said in Matthew 25 that many would be offended. That's where we are. That's

(01:16:47):
where we are. I know people that are very wealthy. I don't go home angry because I'm not wealthy like
they are. You understand? I'm good. I'm 52 years old. Give or take another 40 years or so.
I'm going to have a mansion. Streets are going to be paved with gold.

(01:17:12):
I'm going to lack nothing. You understand? I make congratulations on your Maserati,
but you know, I'm going to be following Jesus to return to the earth on a white horse and a robe
that's a dazzling robe. Like, come on. I don't know what's faster, a Jesus horse or a Maserati,
but I'm just saying, I bet it can fly because it's, you know, I'd hate to get a horse like,

(01:17:36):
wait, these things, these things can't fly. Goodness. Okay. Let me stop. Like horses can't fly.
Okay. God doesn't make mistakes. So clearly they can hover or something. I don't know.
Return to your first love. Love the truth of all your heart. Stand as the restraining church.

(01:18:01):
Don't just automatically bow down to the agendas of this world that are trying to suppress the
gospel. Teach your children and look for and hasten the day of God. All right. If you are
not actively pushing back against the antichrist spirit, be careful because you may be submitting

(01:18:22):
to it next week, next week, the red green alliance of the progressive left and Islam.
We're going to talk about Islam and what this weird marriage is all about

(01:18:47):
because Islam preaches exactly what they're against. Weird, right? I mean, they preach,
yeah, they preach what they're against. So if first love fellowship, if I decide, okay, guys,
starting next week, all women, you're going to have to congregate in my office when we have service
and you're going to have to cover up your entire head and wherever your eyes are showing, you

(01:19:11):
better wear sunglasses. And if you don't obey what I say, there will be beatings. See, y'all
be like, the devil is alive. Either you won't see me or you'll see me and I'll be up in your face,
right? Like that, that's probably what y'all, some of y'all would be, you know,
ready to burn the house down. But right. But that's, that's like leftists say something

(01:19:32):
completely different. So why are they working together? They have a common enemy, common enemy.
We're going to talk about Islam and what its place is in biblical eschatology.
It's going to be fun. Father, in Jesus name, I thank you, Lord,
for your word. Thank you that your word is true. I ask in Jesus name, Lord, that you continue to

(01:19:53):
give us ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church. I pray father God that,
that today, Lord, that you give us a revelation of the knowledge of Calvary.
I ask in your name, Lord God, that those who know you Lord will become even stronger and those who
don't know you will come to repentance. Your word says it's not your will that any should perish,

(01:20:15):
but that all should come to repentance. And so I pray father that you do just that in Jesus name.
If there's anybody here who has never actually publicly acknowledged Jesus Christ,
today's your opportunity. Today's your opportunity. And all it takes is that we pray together
as a church and you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. If you're watching online,

(01:20:38):
same thing. Listen, now is the day of salvation. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away. First of all, it's repentance. Express your need for a savior.
Repent of your sin. Turn from the wickedness of your own ways and embrace the cross. Jesus died

(01:20:59):
on the cross to take away your sin. He shed his blood on Calvary's cross that you might have
redemption and freedom so that the very anti-Christ world that is leading you on like a raging river
would lose all of its power over you because of Jesus. All you have to do is repent and call upon
the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Amen. I ask father in Jesus name that you bless your

(01:21:26):
church, bless this fellowship in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I'm sorry. Yeah. One more thing
offering. And I would like to also remind us to pray for the nation. This week we're praying for
the nation of Nepal and India. Okay. Nepal. The reason why we're having Indian food today

(01:21:47):
is because we're praying for Nepal and India. And this is a simple reminder. Okay. Remember to pray
for our brothers and sisters there in Nepal that, you know, they're trying to really go back to
their original religious roots. And because they're trying to go back to their religious roots of
Hinduism, the church comes under persecution from Hindus. They would try to tell you, no,

(01:22:10):
Hinduism is very peaceful. Well, apparently not because they're, they're, they're getting
persecution in Nepal right now. The same thing is happening actually in India where churches and
Christians are being persecuted, especially churches that spread the gospel. Okay. They'll
let you be a Christian if you just keep your mouth shut. But if you start spreading the gospel and
talking about God and Jesus, that becomes a problem to them. So let's remember, um, as you

(01:22:35):
eat my amazing doll, um, that, you know, there is a region in the world that we have to continually
pray for. And let's remember to do that on Tuesday when we gather together to, to pray for the nation
of Nepal and India, we pray for the persecuted church. Amen. All right. Finally offering, um,
you know, those of you that are online, you know, the, the, the link is on your screen in order to,

(01:23:01):
to give, but here you can give also, we have the, the thing. Oh, there is the treasure chest. Um,
right there this summer, we have a lot of things going on and we also have a major outreach
happening in May the 16th and two weeks. My goodness. Um, where our first love fellowship,
beloved church will be doing public baptisms in the parking lot of victory church. So we're

(01:23:24):
working with a couple of churches and ministries to do that. And well, we have to get a baptism.
Um, so I already have it picked out and we're going to get it this week, but if you give us
about $450, yeah, it's the same one we had before, but it punctured. So we need another one because,
oh, we'll have to baptize really quickly. Um, so, so we want to get the baptismal pull and

(01:23:48):
several other things that we, we are doing right now. We have restorative discipleship three coming
up. Um, we have another wise woman's conference coming up also. And the churches in Maryland and
Georgia also have events and they need support. So, oh my goodness. And how could I forget that?
So we have a summer program for kids going, um, we have our place. We're needing $4,000 to,

(01:24:14):
to get that done exactly $4,000 or maybe a little bit more than that to get it done.
And we're, we're raising money to do that. I'd like to get that part done by next week,
the $4,000. And I believe it can be done. Um,
Oh, so we need 3000. So we have that. And then a schoolhouse that's coming up this fall.

(01:24:37):
See with all this stuff that we talked about today,
what we realized is that a whole generation of kids need to be rescued then
a whole generation. There are kids who can't even read. I'm talking about kids. I was looking at
something where a graduating class of kids were told just to read a sentence on a piece of paper
and most of them could not read the sentence. Okay. So, but they do know what being a transgender is,

(01:25:02):
but they don't know what gender they are or they'll say they're, there's all kinds of words
matched. It's tiring. When I was a kid, it was just like you were a girl or a guy. Um,
but they know all the social stuff. Right. And we don't realize that they're being puppeted as
useful idiots. They need young people that are violent, angry, and offended in order to

(01:25:27):
push forward their agenda. And it's happening right before our eyes. I am not crazy. I see it
happening. All right. So anyway, the schoolhouse is our means of rescuing some rescuing some. Okay.
So when you give, give generously, give wonderfully. And, um, God loves it says in the
scripture, a cheerful giver. Amen. Oh, Oh, we are first love.com. We are first love.com. All right.

(01:25:57):
I don't usually do offerings. So that's why my wife is like, but, um, yeah, we are first love.com.
Okay. I'm going to pray. You're ready. You're ready. Don't forget to give after I pray like
give to father in Jesus name. I pray that you bless this gathering. I ask in your name,
Lord God, that you cause us to hear exactly what you want it to hear. And remember a God who loves

(01:26:21):
a God who adores his children. I pray father God that our fellowship Lord God exemplifies the love
that you have for us, that we might show it towards each other in Jesus name. Bless the food.
Thank you so much for listening. Your generous support enables us to continue to fulfill our

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mission to win the church to Christ through unceasing prayer, intentional discipleship,
and missional living. You can offer additional financial support by going to our website at
wearefirstlove.com. Until we meet again, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his
face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and
give you peace in the name of Jesus, the son of God, our savior. Always remember your first love.