Dear Friend,

When we look back into the history of our world, even before the flood of Noah, we try to imagine how life must have been, but for God to say what He did in Genesis 6:5,6, things back then must have been really bad:

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

This does sound bad.  A person could not help but think that it couldn’t get any worse.  But countless times in our own history we have seen dictators rise who could not satisfy their lust for power by ruling over one nation—they wanted to rule the whole world, and millions died.  Yet when Jesus talked about the end time and how bad it would be, a person could not help but think, Worse than Noah’s day? Worse than Hitler’s day?  And even though most believers can hardly fathom all of this, they still cannot help but think how much of what Jesus was saying then seems to be coming to pass in our generation.

Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:21-24:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

So no matter how bad we think the early world was, the end times will be worse.

Jesus gave us a warning when He said, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved (v. 22).  He was not talking about “saved” as in whether or not a person has been born again.  He was talking about the human race and our capacity to kill and destroy each other because of the sin nature.  Couple this with the ever-increasing threat of weapons of mass destruction and you have a formula for disaster. 

There are only two kinds of people on this planet:  the family of God and the family of man.  In other words, people who are born again and those who are not.  You either belong to one or the other; there is no third party.  There is only one way to become part of the family of God, and that is through Jesus, Who declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). 

In Matthew 24:22, when Jesus said, for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened, the “elect” He was referring to was you and me as members of the family of God.  But as far as the family of man is concerned, the sin nature has been around since Adam’s time, and nothing about it has changed.  Times have changed, but not the sin nature, and if you are not born again, that’s what you have, a sin nature.

When Daniel prophesied about the end time, God said to him:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Daniel 12:4

When God said, many shall run to and fro, He was talking about the incredible advances that have been made in the last century concerning travel.  Think about it, I can go anywhere in the world and be back within a week.

Not only has knowledge increased concerning travel, but technology concerning weapons has also increased.  So when Jesus said, “For the elect’s sake, unless these days should be shortened, there should be no flesh saved,” He was saying that the same type of dictators—drunk with power and who sacrificed their armies with total disregard for human life throughout history—are the same type of dictators, with the same disregard for human life, who will push the “buttons” of mass destruction.  Only this time the sin nature has developed bigger and better toys to kill with.  Daniel prophesied knowledge would increase, and it has!

Isn’t it interesting that in Matthew 24:24, Jesus warned about the false Christs that would arise?  Men claiming to be Jesus Christ?  Because of media we are becoming more and more aware of these things.

Right now there is a man living in Florida, claiming to be Jesus Christ; he drives a Mercedes and appears on talk shows.  I also know of three different times, just in my life, that men have made the same claim!  But this is nothing new.  Around 1890, it was Alexander Dowie who challenged the imposter of his day.  The imposter’s name was Jacob Schweinfurth and he claimed to be Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Wouldn’t you know, another messiah was recently discovered in New Mexico!  Supposedly he was visited by God in the year 2000 and was told he was Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 24:26,27: Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.  There is no use looking for a man living among us as the Messiah; we are not going to find him here.  When Jesus returns, we will know it.  We won’t be looking horizontally, we’ll be looking up.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:27, For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  As of yet, these self-proclaimed messiahs are a little short in the signs and wonders department.  However, they seem to have more success influencing people to follow them, as though the people were induced into some kind of hypnotic state of submission, asking no questions.

At the moment, it’s the false prophets mentioned in verse 24 who seem to be the ones leading the charge for signs and wonders.  This will change somewhat as we get closer to the end, but right now the masses have trouble believing that some man living among us on this planet is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and is Deity.  It is much easier to be deceived by a false prophet because we know the office of the prophet can be held by a mere man.  

Well thank God for the real apostles and prophets, and the real signs and wonders that are done by them.  But that does not exclude the fact that there are false prophets too, and that they will have supernatural signs and wonders following them.  Notice that Jesus did not just say “signs and wonders” when talking about the feats of the false prophets, He said, great signs and wonders (Matthew 24:24).

When the devil finds a likely candidate, someone hungry for God and hungry for the supernatural, do you think he approaches that person as himself?  When I say “devil,” I am talking about Satan and his hosts of fallen angels.  Satan cannot be everywhere at once; he is not omnipresent.  Satan and his cohorts are going to present themselves as angels of light.  We know this because Second Corinthians 11:14,15 says:

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

“You mean the devil can approach a believer as an angel of light, and through signs and wonders convince the believer that he is an angel from God?”

Yes he can.  With the devil, that’s only the first step of his plan.  Ultimately, he will systematically work on a likely candidate and everyone the candidate is affecting.  Especially with the prophet’s office, the devil will work until he can get the prophet to believe anything he wants him to believe, and the bigger the following, the more effective the devil becomes.

Do you think the devil accomplished the Dark Ages in one generation?  No!  Satan’s passion is driven by his hatred for God.  Because of this, he will work on every generation until there is no more born-again experience left in their theology—just religion!

However, don’t think for one moment that we are not going to have a true revival.  Some of us are receiving an outpouring of the Holy Spirit accompanied by a revival of doctrine and truth, soundness of mind and sanity. It will be a revival so powerful and sane that even the Einsteins of the world will have to say, “your God is God,” like in the book of Acts.

Until we see the true revival, though, let’s take a look at a revival of sensationalism, the kind of revival a false prophet might have.  Even though a minister might be sincere, he can still end up deceived somewhere along the way.  And it’s no wonder how this could happen, considering Satan is so good at what he does, he was able to persuade a third of the angels to follow him.  So as I said before, as we enter into these last days, Jesus told us these kinds of things would increase.  So why don’t we jerk the sheepskin off the devil and see where he gets his so-called power from.

When Moses was having his showdown with Pharaoh, Moses told him that he had been sent by the God of the Hebrews to tell him to “let My people go” (Exodus 5:1).  Let me paraphrase what happened in the course of this showdown.  Pharaoh said, “I don’t know who your God is, and I am not going to let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2).  The next time Moses and Aaron stood in Pharaoh’s court, Pharaoh demanded, “If the God of Israel is God, show me some kind of miracle.” 

So Moses turned to Aaron and said, “Take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh and his servants.”  And when Aaron did, it became a serpent.  So the Pharaoh called for his wise men and the sorcerers and these magicians did the same thing; they all cast down their rods and they became serpents.  But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods (Ex. 7:9-12).

“Now wait a minute!  You mean to tell me, through sorcery, these magicians literally turned wood into the flesh of a live serpent?”

Yes, but the power behind them was from the angels of darkness parading as angels from God.  These angels of darkness are a class of devils that supply the signs and wonders behind all false religions and idols, taking every opportunity to steal, kill and destroy.  And they are the power behind the false prophets that Jesus said would come in the last days showing great signs and wonders.

So the question is: How does the devil do these kinds of miracles, especially the kind that were in the Pharaoh’s court when he turned the wood of a rod into the flesh of a serpent?  And if God did not do this (and we know He did not) then where did the devil get the power to do something like this?  Follow me very closely as we expose the devil for who he is, just a glorified sorcerer.

First of all, Satan is a “createe,” not a creator.  There is only one Creator, and that is God.  A “createe” cannot be a creator; Satan cannot create anything.  He can only manipulate what already exists.  For instance, I can take a tree, which is made out of wood, saw the tree into boards, take the boards and make a picnic table.  I did not create the picnic table, I only manipulated matter.  I did not form the subatomic particles that formed the atoms that formed the molecules that formed the compounds that became wood.  I simply took the wood which already existed and changed its form.  This is the level I can operate on.

Now a professional who knows the what’s, the why’s, and the how’s of matter can take atoms that already exist and change their atomic structure or join them with other atoms to “create,” but even the most learned scientists cannot make something out of nothing; he must have material to work with!  And so must Satan.

You must understand, Lucifer was a cherubim, which is of the same classification as the angels who guarded the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden after the fall of man.  God prophesied this through Ezekiel saying, Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth . . . (Ezekiel 28:14).

These angels, these cherubims, who guarded the Tree of Life, were not just guarding the Tree of Life against being accessed by two, frail, weak, puny, little human beings—Adam and Eve.  No, they were guarding it against Lucifer himself as he sought to seal Adam and Eve’s doom by leading them to partake of the Tree of Life, damning them to an eternity in their fallen state with no hope of redemption.

Notice how this verse in Genesis trails off into eternity with almost unfathomable consequence:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever [and right here is where it trails off, forever]:

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 3:22-24

God had to stop Satan right here.  He had to stop him until Jesus could come and provide for us a way out of sin—by dying for us—so that one day we could eat freely from the Tree of Life.  These cherubims were guarding the Tree of Life against the same power, the same class of angel that they were part of.  And again, at one time Lucifer was a mighty cherubim!

When Jesus talked about the devil in John 8:44, He called him a liar and a murderer from the beginning.  But He was not talking about Lucifer’s beginning, He was talking about our beginning.  In Lucifer’s beginning, he was perfect in his ways, as Ezekiel 28:15 says: Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.  We don’t know how long ago it was that Lucifer fell—it could have been thousands, even millions of years.  We only know he had already fallen when our genesis took place.

It is obvious that this class of angel was created long ago, and part of their purpose is to serve our creation.  These angels were there when Jesus created the first, basic units of matter.  So Lucifer was there when Jesus made the worlds, and he was there when Jesus came after us.

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Hebrews 1:2

These cherubim angels were there when Jesus brought into existence the first particles of matter that became the basic material that make up the substance of entire worlds.  They were there when the first atoms appeared.  In other words, they understand what our creation consists of on an atomic and molecular level.

Because angels are spirits, they have some kind of spiritually-based body that our natural laws seem to have no effect on, yet at the same time, our laws seem to be subject to them.  They are impervious to gravity:  They can stand on our planet and talk to us, yet they can fly.  They can walk through walls, yet they can stand on the ground.  They can also appear as a stranger unaware to us (meaning, we might entertain them without knowing they are angels) and eat our food, then walk away and disappear. 

Even so, these angels can move matter around, appearing to do miracles like they did at the standoff in Pharaoh’s court when the sorcerers turned sticks into snakes.  Yes, I know how to manipulate matter in order to make a picnic table out of a tree that was already there, but they can rearrange the very particles that make up that tree!  This is the level on which these cherubims are able to work.

But what about the sensationalism of “gold-dusting” and jewels falling out of the sky?  It’s done by the same class of devils that was in Pharaoh’s court performing signs and wonders, only this time, posing as angels of light.  

And what do you think the devil has in mind when he takes a person created in the image of God and sends him running around the room barking like a dog or clucking like a chicken, or getting elders to run around the church roaring like lions!  The devil loves to discredit people by reducing them to acting like animals.  

Or what about the belief that the Holy Spirit shakes people violently?  Is that a portrayal of the sanity of God, or does He really act like that?  Would the infinite, all-knowing, all-wise God, who is the epitome of soundness of mind and sanity, really act this way?

First Corinthians 14:23 describes a situation about the whole church coming together speaking out loud in tongues, all at once, without an interpreter. Paul said a situation like this would be out of order and the unlearned and unbelievers who would be present in the crowd would think those in the church were mad.  If people would consider this “mad,” what would they think about a church being visited by an angel who gold-dusted the crowd, or what if they witnessed an elder or someone in leadership running around the room, barking like a dog and clucking like a chicken?  Do you suppose the Apostle Paul would have to interpret this to the sinners and the unlearned as being “decent and in order, sane acts of God?”  The answer is no!  He would not, because they are not!

Well how do these “revivals” start and where do they lead?  Let’s just say for the sake of teaching, there was a minister who loved God, and one day while he was ministering, an angel appearing to be from God showed up.  His mission was to get this sincere man of God to turn from the Head, which is Christ, and instead get his direction and instruction from following this angel of darkness passing himself off as an angel of light.  And through a revival of sensationalism—gold-dusting, running, barking, and chicken-clucking—the angel convinced the minister to follow him, which gave him the authority he needed to operate freely alongside of the minister, who believed these manifestations were from God.

Remember, the minister had the authority to either stop the angel and get it out of his ministry or to let him stay and operate alongside of him and lace what God was doing through the minister who loves God with what the angel of darkness was doing.

Always remember this:  The devil has an agenda.  When the minister accepted the revival of sensationalism wholeheartedly, this devil graduated his manifestation to include some physical manifestations.  Keep in mind that the sorcerers in Pharaoh’s court altered a stick, through manipulating matter, into the flesh of a snake.  To do these kinds of things, the devil has to be permitted by a human’s authority. 

Now when the minister accepts the physical manifestations of the devil’s operation, the angel of darkness will take the sensationalism to another level.  This level of deception will definitely include the root of all evil:  the love of money.  And, of course, “God” will tell the minister what exorbitant amounts of money to ask for, offering an inexhaustible table of multiplication and many-fold returns, guaranteed!  This deceptive angel will see to it.

As the devil, masquerading as an angel of light, gets ready to obtain the authority needed to take his operation to one more level (remember, the devil has an agenda), this time he will attempt to convince the minister, through persuasion, to take a good look at himself:  Who is like you?  Who in the world is God using like you?  If it is feasible, the devil will wait long enough for the biggest following possible.  The more destructive he can be, the more lives he can lead astray.  This next move is when he usually goes to the cult level.  Usually the minister becomes some kind of “special messenger from God” and becomes “the voice of God,” but there will be consequences for the deceived minister.

I can speak so strongly about this subject because I had a near brush with some angels that I would like to tell you about.  They were passing themselves off as angels of light, but turned out to be angels of darkness.  It was a close call.  But first of all, let me remind you of what Paul said in both Galatians and Colossians.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:8

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

And not holding the Head—which is Christ—from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Colossians 2:18,19

In Colossians 2:18, when Paul said let no man beguile you of your reward, he meant to not let anyone try to convince you, much the same way the serpent beguiled Eve.  So Paul was saying do not let anyone beguile you out of your reward, or convince you to begin to humble yourself underneath a teaching that would cause you to lose your reward, a teaching that included the worshipping of angels. 

I know I would never bow my knee and worship an angel, but that was not the kind of worship Paul was talking about.  He was talking about the form of worship the angels were presenting to the church.  Unfortunately, it was the wrong angels.  These angels were the kind of angels who were transforming themselves into angels of light, offering revivals of sensationalism, causing those who were receiving the revivals to get puffed up in their fleshly minds.  Paul said “vainly puffed up,” meaning they really began to think they were something special. 

If you are following a revival like this, know that according to the Word, you are following a vain, puffed-up mind that is not looking solely to the Head anymore—who is Christ—as the 19^th verse says. You are following a person who is intruding into those things that he cannot see, meaning, the minister is trying to be guided by looking into an unseen world.  Unfortunately, this look into an unseen world is by the compliments of devils parading as angels of light, when they are not of god! 

Please, if you are caught up in these things, return, as the 19^th verse says, “holding (looking) to the Head,” which is Christ, and look to the Holy Spirit (along with believers who have been taught by the sanity of the Holy Spirit), Who, as our Teacher, has come to guide us into all truth.

So back to my near miss—my brush with these angels parading as angels of light when they were not.  It started three years ago.  The upstairs rooms in our house were empty at that time, so I decided to do my fasting and praying there.  I was about a week into the seeking time when I began to hear what, at that time, sounded like an angels’ choir singing sort of off in the distance.  So I ran all over the house listening, and I could hear them everywhere!  I closed myself in a closet and could still hear them.  I even stuck my head into the attic thinking maybe someone put a radio in there.  But the sound was always the same.  So I laid my ear on the air conditioning vent coming out of the floor, thinking maybe someone was piping music throughout the duct system.  It always sounded the same.  They were everywhere!

So finally I went into the bedroom where my wife, Rosalie, was sitting at the computer.  I asked her, “Can you hear that choir singing?  Sounds like angels?”

She looked at me and said, “No, do you?”

I said, “Yes.”

She asked, “What are they singing?”

I could hear every word and every note.  I can understand now how heavy metal or rock singers sometimes claim to have sold their soul to the devil.  Now I know they can literally hear and write the music they sing.  I could hear every word, every note that these angels following me around were singing.  I told Rosalie the words of the old Gospel song they sang that night:

Can you hear the trumpet sounding?

Can you hear the thunder roll . . .

On and on.  Rosalie looked at me and said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t tell anyone,” as if people would think I had lost my mind if I mentioned it!

The singing angels stayed with me that whole time of fasting, and they sang in the background both day and night.  It faded away when I broke my fast.  When it was over, I told the people in my church.  I thought to myself, How about that.  I felt kind of special, but then again, I did not know what to think.  Then the gold-dusting began in the church.  I had already made my stand against that manifestation before the choir showed up, and I stuck with my decision and would not acknowledge the dusting.  And it stopped.

After a year had passed since that fasting time, the angelic choir made their return performance.  A friend of ours had rented a house in a nearby town, then had to move away.  We paid rent for an extra two months on the house after she left so I could have a place to have some more seeking time.

The fourth night in, these same angels started again.  They seemed more impatient this time, almost as though they had already wasted a lot of time on me.  I did the same thing:  I listened everywhere in the house.  I could even hear them in the backyard.  They got louder and louder and it drove everything else out of my mind.  I felt like a fog had settled down over me. 

About this time, Rosalie needed me and I had to go home to help—and I could not find my way home!  Once I got home and stepped into our backyard, I heard the angels singing so loudly I thought the boys were blasting their music out of the garage.  I headed for the garage to tell them, “Just because you are playing Gospel music doesn’t mean you can blast our neighbors out of their houses,” but when I got to the garage, no one was there!

Well, by the time I got back to the rental house, the angels were louder than ever.  So when I prayed, I heard God say way down on the inside of me, “You have a right to try the spirits.”  I thought to myself, How am I going to do that?  Then I thought, I know what I’ll do; I’ll request a song.  So I requested the oldest song I knew, “Let’s All Gather at the River.”  To my amazement, the angels sang it!  Then I thought, Now what?  They take requests?

Suddenly I got an idea.  I said out loud, “I want you to sing ‘Ring of Fire’ by Johnny Cash!”

It got quiet for what seemed like the longest time, as if the angels were in some kind of counsel meeting or conference.  Maybe they were wondering whether this would be the special move on their behalf that would convince me I was “special.”  Whatever the reason, they decided to go with it and suddenly the music started with an incredible bass voice as these words rolled out:

The taste of love is sweet when two hearts like ours meet . . .

I said, “That’s it.  Get out!” 

And the angels did.  They wasted a lot of time on me.  By then I was supposed to have been steeped in a revival of sensationalism having brought everyone with me—our preachers, our people, everyone.

Thank God, no!  We are entering into revival alright—a revival of doctrine and truth, soundness of mind and sanity, miracles, signs, and wonders that are carried to the front rooms of media and to children’s hospitals.

Thank God for the foundational, revelation gift of praying in tongues!

These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

1 John 2:26,27

Please understand, these verses were not doing away with the teachers in the Body of Christ.  Teachers are God-ordained.  But what do we do when deception is coming from behind the pulpit?  Thank God for the Holy Spirit, our unfailing Teacher, in Whom there is no deceit, and for the invaluable gift of praying the mind of Christ every time we decide to pray in tongues.  This is our ultimate inoculation against deception and preparation for the days to come.

                                                                                  Dave Roberson