Every single person in the world has the opportunity to be saved because Jesus paid the price for our sins. Since that is the case, why does the Bible tell us that the number of people who will not be saved is as the sand of the sea? (see Revelation 20).
The devil has many traps set for us in this world, but let’s look at one specific trap that will cause you to forfeit eternal life. Have you already been caught in this trap? How would you know? If so, is there any way to get out?
“Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!” Amos 5:18, first part. These are the people who are looking for Jesus to come, and the prophet says, “Woe.” “For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him! Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?” Verses 18, last part–20
“A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare [trap] of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24–26
The devil’s traps are very successful, and as we study what is soon to come upon the world, we will see that our entire Western civilization is caught in a trap, though totally unaware of it. Let me share a real-life example.
Linda* asked to speak with me about her adult daughter, with whom she had opposite political views. While Linda tried to persuade her daughter to be open to other things, her daughter had no interest in doing so. Linda didn’t want to lose her daughter over politics, so they finally agreed not to talk about it; in essence, they agreed to disagree. So, here’s the question: How is it that her daughter’s worldview is so diametrically opposed to Linda’s worldview?
The problem with this situation is this: If a civilization is going to survive, it must be able to transfer its value system—its worldview—from one generation to the next. If it cannot, it will cease to exist, and a different civilization will take its place. Linda’s experience is not an isolated occurrence; we see it happening right now in the United States.
Both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy predicted this situation during the end times. “By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy [Sunday laws] in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, 451
T. Jones wrote Two Republics. Republican governments have been rare in the history of the world. Rome began as a republic and so did the United States—Jones’ two republics. Our government is based on and operates as Rome did when it was a republic. Both republics had a senate comprised of elected senators, and as a republic, there would be no monarchy, no king. Today, we often hear one group of people refer to the United States as a democracy, while another group refers to it as a republic. Is there a difference? The Merriam-Webster dictionary indicates that the two words have been used interchangeably since the late 1700s. The founding fathers who established the original 13 colonies and wrote the Constitution of the United States—which is based on certain moral and religious principles—saw no distinctive difference in the meaning of the two words. In the 1700s, both words meant “the power to govern is held by the people rather than a monarch.”
Democracy originates from the Greek roots, meaning “rule by the people,” where the people vote directly in favor of or against decisions, policies, laws, and other matters. Regardless of whether we speak of a direct democracy or a representative democracy, they both mean “government by the people.” Republic originates from the Latin roots meaning “public good” or “public affair.” Republic, simply put, means “state” or “country.” Democracy is most frequently used to emphasize a system, while a republic is the concrete result of that system. The term democratic republic is also used to describe the United States government. A democratic republic is a system that combines elements of both a democracy and a republic. And while the government—be it a democracy, a republic, or a democratic republic—is run by elected representatives of the citizenry, the citizens themselves hold authority and power. The representatives may wield the power, but that ability is granted to them by a simple vote of the people, and can be lost at the next election.
Neither of these words is included in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, this document clearly expresses that governments—our government—should be and are established “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” It would seem that the shared meaning of these two words matters far more than their differences.
Source: merriam-webster.com/grammar/democracy-and-republic; governmentvs.com/en/what-is-democratic-republic/ model-41-0
As Americans, as long as we respect and uphold the Constitution and its principles, we will have a Protestant form of government. We move through time, passing our worldview, philosophy, and value system from one generation to the next. However, Mrs. White tells us that every principle of our Constitution will be repudiated. Why would that be? Suppose we are unable to pass the worldview, philosophy, and value system of the current generation to the next. As each generation comes and goes, the value system changes. In that case, the worldview becomes skewed, and subsequent generations will completely reject the moral and religious principles of the generations who came before them. We see it in the news, in our neighborhoods, on the job, even in our churches. The farther the generations go from the principles of their elders, the more wicked the world becomes.
It was, and is, God’s purpose that His children would pass on their values and worldview, through their children, to the next generation. “For I [the Lord] have known him [Abraham], in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” Genesis 18:19. And God tells us concerning Abraham that he “obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Genesis 26:5. Abraham was obedient to the word of God and His commandments, and he commanded his children after him, just as God designed, that they should live and learn and have the same worldview that he had.
“ ‘This is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. … You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.’ ” Deuteronomy 6:1, 2, 5–9
A few hundred years before the coming of Christ, it became fashionable for young Jewish men to travel to Alexandria, Egypt, to obtain a higher education. This higher education was based on Greek philosophy. What is philosophy? “The love of wisdom.” “A systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language.” Over time, philosophy became an advanced study of speculative subjects like logic and ethics. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy).
The average person today has no idea of the significant influence Greek philosophy has had on our entire civilization in the United States. Two examples can be found in the sports and entertainment industries. The Bible talks about the races which became, over time, our present-day Olympics (1 Corinthians 9:24, 25). The Greeks also built the first theaters and conducted plays—dramas, comedies, and tragedies. Today, we see this influence on Broadway and off-Broadway, in movie theaters, and on television, and the internet.
As the Jewish youth studied philosophy, they began to interpret the Bible differently. You see, the thing about philosophy is that it doesn’t matter if something is or isn’t. Philosophy enables the student to show that something can have many different meanings. So, by the time Christ came to this world, we find the establishment of the Sadducees who didn’t believe in angels or demons, heaven or hell, or the resurrection. They valued debate and philosophical discussion. And it was their adherence to philosophy that, in some measure, was influential in the Jewish nation’s rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. A very clever trap, set by the devil, that cost the Jewish nation, after they crucified Christ, the privilege of being God’s chosen and favored people. And the devil is laying this same trap for you and me.
“The Lord presented before Israel the results of holding communion with evil spirits, in the abominations of the Canaanites: they were without natural affection, idolaters, adulterers, murderers, and abominable by every corrupt thought and revolting practice. Men do not know their own hearts; for ‘the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’ Jeremiah 17:9. But God understands the tendencies of the depraved nature of man. Then, as now, Satan was watching to bring about conditions favorable to rebellion, that the people of Israel might make themselves as abhorrent to God as were the Canaanites. The adversary of souls is ever on the alert to open channels for the unrestrained flow of evil in us; for he desires that we may be ruined, and be condemned before God.
“Satan was determined to keep his hold on the land of Canaan, and when it was made the habitation of the children of Israel, and the law of God was made the law of the land, he hated Israel with a cruel and malignant hatred and plotted their destruction. Through the agency of evil spirits strange gods were introduced; and because of transgression, the chosen people were finally scattered from the land of promise. This history Satan is striving to repeat in our day.”
“God is leading His people out from the abominations of the world, that they may keep His law; and because of this, the rage of ‘the accuser of our brethren’ knows no bounds. ‘The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’ Revelation 12:10, 12.
“The anti-typical land of promise [heaven] is just before us, and Satan is determined to destroy the people of God and cut them off from their inheritance.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 688, 689
You and I don’t know how bad we are, but God does. God knows man’s natural heart and He has both the desire and the power to complete the transformation necessary in the heart of man to restore him once again into His own image.
Evil spirits are taking over our world, and almost no one recognizes it. Satan laid the trap for man then, and he is working to do it again now; with very successful results. He is determined to cut you off from the eternal inheritance that Jesus bought for you with His life.
What is the Trap and How Does It Work?
The Spirit of Prophecy is very clear that we must have a true understanding of the true science of education.
“ ‘Now, as never before, we need to understand the true science of education. If we fail to understand this, we shall never have a place in the kingdom of God.’ ” The Christian Educator, August 1, 1897
Studies in Christian Education, written by E. A. Sutherland, a pioneer and Adventist educator, compiles quotations from the Spirit of Prophecy regarding the true science of education.
“A brief survey of the history of the Protestant denominations shows that their spiritual downfall in 1844 was the result of their failure ‘to understand the true science of education.’ Their failure to understand and to practice the Christian education unfitted them to proclaim to the world the message of Christ’s second coming. … The Protestant denomination could not give the third angel’s message, a reform movement, which is a warning against the beast and his image, because they were still clinging to those doctrines and those principles of education which themselves form the beast and his image. It is important that … Seventh-day Adventists study seriously the causes of the spiritual decline of these churches in 1844, lest we repeat their history, and be cast aside by the Spirit of God, and thus lose our place in the kingdom. …” Op. cit. 5, 6
“It was the desire for liberty of conscience that inspired the Pilgrims to brave the perils of the long journey across the sea, to endure the hardships and dangers of the wilderness, and with God’s blessing to lay, on the shores of America, the foundation of a mighty nation. … “The Bible was held as the foundation of faith, the source of wisdom, and the charter of liberty. Its principles were diligently taught in the home, in the school, and in the church, and its fruits were manifest in thrift, intelligence, purity and temperance. … It was demonstrated that the principles of the Bible are the surest safeguards to national greatness.” The Great Controversy, 292, 296
What you spend your time studying is what you will really believe. If you spend two hours a week studying the Bible, but ten hours studying Greek philosophy, which will you look to as the source of wisdom?
He Prepared a Place
“The Puritans had joined themselves together by a solemn covenant as the Lord’s free people, ‘to walk together in all His ways made known or to be made known to them.’ Here was the true spirit of reform, the vital principle of Protestantism. (Ibid., 291.)” Op. cit., 7, 8
Why did the Pilgrims Flee to This Country?
“The order of Jesuits found its special mission in combatting the Reformation. As the most effective means of arresting the progress of Protestantism, it aimed at controlling education. ‘It developed an immense educational activity’ in Protestant countries, ‘and earned for its schools a great reputation. … More than any other agency it stayed the progress of the Reformation and it even succeeded in winning back territory already conquered by Protestantism. … It worked chiefly through its schools, of which it established and controlled large numbers. … Every member of the order became a competent and practical teacher.’ (A History of Education, 167–169).” Op. cit., 15
The Protestant Reformation was halted, and the Roman Catholic Church won back more than half of its advance throughout Europe. Protestantism appeared to be dying. But the Lord prepared the New World and sent the Pilgrims, who believed the Bible was the source of all wisdom, the charter of liberty, and the only foundation of religion (sola scriptura), to establish a nation based on Republicanism, Protestantism, and the principles of the Bible.
Only as Good as Your Memory
How did the Jesuits teach? “ ‘The memory was cultivated as a means of keeping down free activity of thought and clearness of judgment.’ (The Philosophy of Education, Karl Rosenkranz, 270, 271).’ ” Op. cit. 16
“For ages education has had to do chiefly with the memory. …
“The education that consists in the training of the memory, tending to dis[1]courage independent thought, has a moral bearing which is too little appreciated. As the student sacrifices the power to reason and judge for himself, he becomes incapable of discriminating between truth and error, and falls an easy prey to deception. He is easily led to follow tradition and custom.” Education, 230
Do you see the problem? Primarily memorizing things makes a person an easy prey to deception. Easily led to follow tradition and custom, he cannot discern between good and evil, allowing others to control him. This is the Jesuit system of education.
“ ‘In the place of self-government, “their [the Jesuits’] method of discipline was a system of mutual distrust, espionage and informing. Implicit obedience relieved the pupils from all responsibility as to the moral justification of their deeds.” ’ (The Philosophy of Education, Karl Rosenkranz, 270, 271)…
“ ‘Originality and independence of mind, love of truth for its own sake, the power of reflecting, and of forming correct judgments, were not merely neglected, they were suppressed in the Jesuits’ system.’ (A History of Education, 171–173).” Op. cit., 16
“ ‘How was it that the church of Rome, having lost a large part of Eu[1]rope, not only ceased to lose, but actually regained nearly half of what she had lost? This is certainly a most curious and important question.’ ” Op. cit., 18
What is Happening Today?
“She [the church of Rome] is determined to conquer and bring back humiliated, broken down, and completely subjugated, the Protestant denominations. She has everywhere, through her Jesuit teachers, editors, and public officials, men at work to fashion public sentiment, to capture the important and controlling positions of government and most of all, to obtain control through her teachers of the minds of Protestant children and youth. She values that eternal principle, and makes use of it. …
“The secret of the rejection of the Protestant denominations in 1844 is contained in the educational history just given. … while they clung to the forms of Protestantism, their educational system continually instilled into the student the life of the Papacy. This produced a form of Protestantism imbued with the Papal spirit. This spells Babylon.
“Certain divine ideas of reform in civil government were received from God by some men in this country during the days of the wounding of the Papacy. These men dared teach and practice these truths. They fostered true principles of civil government to such an extent that the third angel’s message could be delivered under its shelter. But the Papal system of education, as operated by Protestant churches, was a constant menace to this civil reform, because the churches would not break away from the medieval classical course with the granting of degrees and honors—without which it is difficult for aristocracy and imperialism in either church or state to thrive. … The civil reformers repudiated all crowns, titles, and honors that would have perpetuated European aristocracy and imperialism. The churches, because they still clung to the Papal educational system, became responsible, not only for the spirit of the Papacy within themselves, but also for the return of imperialism now so plainly manifesting itself in our government, and especially noticeable in such tendencies toward centralization as the trusts, monopolies and unions.” Op. cit., 20, 22, 23
How Will You Relate to This?
“Assimilation is a law of human nature.” The Upward Look, 123
What does that mean? Assimilate means to “absorb or integrate into a wider society or culture.” What you take in becomes part of your worldview, your value system, and your character.
In the world today, it is necessary to train and develop skills so a person can earn a living. But in the process of learning these needed skills, almost unconsciously, people are learning a lot of something else. What are they learning? According to the law of assimilation, the person takes in the value system, worldview, and philosophy of their teacher, classmates, boss, coworkers, and others with whom they associate, changing their philosophy, standards, and values. The teachers who teach today were taught yesterday by other teachers, who were trained by others, and so on.
In the 19th century, Charles Darwin wrote The Origin of the Species. The devil has used this book to deceive a large number of mankind into believing that there is no God, and that there was no creation. Almost the entire educational world teaches the theory of evolution. How did Charles Darwin come up with the theory of evolution?
“After taking part in the witchcraft ceremonies, not only was his [Charles Darwin’s] mind affected but his body also. “It is not commonly known that Charles Darwin, while a naturalist aboard the Beagle, was initiated into witchcraft in South America by nationals. During horseback travels into the interior, he took part in their ceremonies and, as a result something happened to him. Upon his return to England, although his health was strangely weakened, he spent the rest of his life working on theories to destroy faith in the Creator.” The Evolution Cruncher, Vance Ferrell, 25, 26
What happens to you when you start taking part in witchcraft ceremonies? Evil spirits take control of your mind. You believe you came up with the idea, but it came from evil spirits, and these evil theories are taught in universities all over the world, destroying faith in the Bible. If evolution is true, then the Bible is a fiction. But as Christians, we know that the Bible is the truth, thus making the theory of evolution and other topics of study generated by evil spirits fiction.
“In the study of language and literature from what fountains are the youth taught to drink?—From the wells of paganism; from springs fed by the corruptions of ancient heathendom. They are bidden to study authors, of whom, without dispute, it is declared that they have no regard for the principles of morality. …
“Besides these there is a multitude of fiction writers.” Education, 226, 227
Take, for example, the Harry Potter books. People think that the books are fiction and good entertainment. However, everything that enters the mind is education, and evil spirits teach a great deal of the education provided in the world today.
In the book Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick (Richard Abanes), it says, “Any time the dark side of the supernatural world is presented as harmless or even imaginary there is the danger that children will become curious and find too late that witchcraft is neither harmless nor imaginary. In a culture with an obvious trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology, parents need to consider the effect that these ideas may have on young and impressionable minds.”
The civilization of our forefathers—belief in the principles of the U.S. Constitution—is being destroyed, and a civilization based on Greek philosophy, the errors of Egypt, and the Canaanites is developing.
How Do I Get Out?
If the Holy Spirit has revealed to you that you are caught in this trap, is there a way out? Praise God, my friend, there is. We must reject the world’s philosophies and immerse ourselves in the study of God’s word. Many who have received their education, including masters or doctorate degrees, through the false educational system of the world, still maintain a primitive faith in the word of God. How did they keep this faith? The answer is always the same. They recognize that there was something wrong with what they were being taught, and they would spend two or more hours a day praying and studying the Bible.
“Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts.” Psalm 119:97–100
Friends, if you think more like a Greek philosopher than like a Bible-believing Christian, take out the book and study it from cover to cover. Study the life of Jesus and ask the Lord to impress these words of truth on your mind that you may escape the devil’s trap. *not her real name
Pastor John J. Grosboll is the Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be reached by email at historic@stepstolife.org or by telephone at 316-788-5559.