Counterfeits.

Every other day this week it would seem that there was an earthquake. If you were to absorb the news that is coming through the tv or radio or the web its talking about wars.  One country is invading another country, This country will not negotiate with that country, this country violated that countries sovereign airspace.

I started thinking about the end.
I began thinking about Evil , and how it runs its course.

To be honest, when I used to think of the end of days I figured it looks something like Detroit in riot. There would be cars burning and trash blowing around, people running down a two lane road screaming as they tried to elude a wild mob of cannibal rapists or something. Also, there would be lava spewing out of the ground that for whatever reason everyone is just ignoring.


 But...  

Isaiah 14 talks about Lucifers fall from Heaven:

“How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’



the Devil had ambitions to make himself  like the Most High..
He's a liar, a thief and deceiver.

To the knowing eye evil is a very clear cut and dry thing.
To the man who sets his ambitions on self exultation, evil looks close enough to good.

Believers,
We HAVE GOT to be more discerning.

It is not well to say that something has good therefore it IS good, because the adversary is a counterfeiter.

I was thinking about how often in our lives we are so embracing of lies because WE say in our hearts, that THIS is good.... instead of looking at what GOD says is good, and what is evil

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Think about where we're at.  The world of the adversary is one of appearances and lies
We call lusts, love. A counterfeit.
We call greed, blessings. A counterfeit.
We call truth, bondage. A counterfeit.
We call life, a choice. A counterfeit.
We worship God in the ways of the pagan, and we say it is a sin to keep His Feasts and Festivals.  A counterfeit


Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
.

Now how are we to know the way that is false, if we do not know from the scripture, what way is true?

 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. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.



So, what do we do with all that seems good?
Test it according to the scriptures that we may see if it is in fact good, or an illusion.
Because there is a way of a man that seems like wisdom, but in the end leads to destruction.