... and he shall appear as an ANGEL OF LIGHT

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Contents

Scripture References................................................................................1Strong's Concordance of the King James Bible — In the Greek New Testament.....................5Preface.............................................................................................7Let's Get Started...................................................................................9Are We Living in the End Times?.....................................................................10Revelation—To Reveal..........................................................................14Hirelings...........................................................................................14Visions.............................................................................................15Roles Satan Plays...................................................................................16Satan Covers the Mercy Seat.........................................................................17Satan in the Garden.................................................................................17Satan Tempts Christ.................................................................................18Man of Sin..........................................................................................18Antichrist..........................................................................................19False Christ........................................................................................19Satan's Desire......................................................................................20The Beast and His Mark, 666.........................................................................20A Strong Delusion...................................................................................24Satan Posing as Christ..............................................................................24A Testing...........................................................................................25Faithful and True...................................................................................26The Last Trumpet....................................................................................26The Holy Spirit Speaks through Us...................................................................28Persecution.........................................................................................29The Great Deceiver..................................................................................30The True Christ.....................................................................................31A Hiding Place......................................................................................31A Selected Generation...............................................................................32The Rapture.........................................................................................33Who Are the Elect?..................................................................................35Time of Testing Shortened...........................................................................38The Mask Is Off.....................................................................................38The Ten Virgins.....................................................................................39Come to Christ......................................................................................42The Shepherd's Voice................................................................................43Summary of Signs of the End Times...................................................................43Revealing the Antichrist............................................................................44Will We Be Here During the Tribulation?.............................................................45Will God Protect Us During the Tribulation?.........................................................45Who Are the Elect?..................................................................................46About the Author....................................................................................49Favorite Psalms That Comfort Me.....................................................................51

Chapter One

Get yourself a King James Version of the Bible and a Strong's Concordance of the Bible (not a Young's Concordance), and let's see what we can discover. In case you don't wish to invest in a Strong's Concordance, I will note the references for you, or maybe you can borrow the book from your pastor or a library.

As long as I do not take verses out of context or add to or take away from what Scripture says, I know the Holy Spirit will be with me and guide me with what I am about to share. There are those who will say this is exactly what I am doing—that I am confused and mistaken about these Scriptures—but that's all right, because it will tell me they have at least read the book, and when they see these things happening upon the earth, my hope is that they will recall what they read months or years ago, and it will all fit together and have meaning.

What I am about to share with all of you is really so simple that a fifth-grade student could understand with the proper documentation. Unfortunately, it may be too simple for some. Why? Because we must come to Christ with the mind of a child: eager to learn, nonjudgmental, and not so steeped in tradition that our spiritual eyes and ears are closed.

"What do you mean by that?" you ask. A good example would be the belief that what your great, great grandpa and sweet Aunt Mary believed a hundred years ago was good enough for them and so is still good enough for you. This is what I am talking about: your spiritual eyes and ears are closed. What they believed a hundred years ago or even twenty years ago does not pertain to you in the end times. Am I saying that we should disregard sound doctrine from the church that has been handed down to us for hundreds of years? God forbid! But Revelation is for the future. Even Daniel was told to seal up the book until the end of time; it was not for his generation. I think we can all agree that we are now living in the end times, and what we need to know now is not exactly the same as what our forefathers were taught or had to be concerned with.

Are We Living in the End Times?

Point #1: "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh" (See Luke 21:20, KJV). This quote is "end times prophecy." We will learn later what the desolation or desolator is that the Bible is talking about and how we are to react.

Note: Israel was established as a nation in 1948, and God declared this time to be a benchmark regarding his return. The Lord spoke in (Matthew 24:34) that this generation (meaning the generation at the end of time) would not pass away until all these things prophesied would be fulfilled. Most Bible scholars agree that a generation is seventy to eighty years. If you add this onto the time when Israel was declared a nation in 1948, you can see the time is near—possibly at the door.

We are not to set an exact time for Christ's return, but God does give us certain occurrences that will be happening close to the end of time, and we are to look up and know that his time is near. We will discuss many of these signs in the chapters to come. When we see armies surrounding Israel, ready to annihilate them—"look up, for your salvation is near" (Luke 21:28, NLT; see also Zechariah 14:1–3). I will discuss this further on, and you will understand why God allows the destruction in Zechariah 14 to occur.

Point #2: The Condition of Man. I am going to quote an article by the Associated Press concerning mixing human and animal DNA.

(Red Orbit, November 10, 2009, Study to Focus on Mixing Human and Animal DNA, taken from the Internet on Google http://www. redorbit.com/news/science/1783808/study.)

For some time researchers have been replacing animal genes with human genes or growing human organs in animals.

Meanwhile, the regulation on how much human DNA can be put into an animal is vague, and scientists are now trying to determine where the line should be drawn on experiments that use human material in animals.

"Do these constructs challenge our idea of what it is to be human?" said Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University.

"It is important that we consider these questions now so that appropriate boundaries are recognized and research is able to fulfill its potential."

If you would like to read the article in its entirety, you can Google "Mixing Human and Animal DNA. http://www.redorbit.com/news/ science/1783808/study." It seems that man is not content with being the one created by God and honoring the Creator. Rather, he wants to become a Creator himself. In the latter days, "Knowledge shall be increased" (see Daniel 12:4), and "men shall be lovers of their own selves ... more than lovers of God" (see 2 Timothy 3:2–4).

These experiments have been going on for some time now, but how much further these scientists are going to take this remains to be seen. I would imagine they are determined to do anything they can get away with. Everything starts out so innocently, such as wanting to find a cure for a particular disease or malady. Later, however, these experiments turn into something diabolical.

God does things in a natural way. Nature, if not disturbed, produces kind after kind. If you cross a donkey and a horse, you get a mule, but the mule cannot reproduce; it is sterile. Is crossing a horse with a donkey evil? No, because they are still in the same category as mammals, and there was not any involvement with laboratory experiments. But now, possibly, there will be experimental mixing of animal and human DNA in a diabolical way that will create some mutant form of animal/human—real science fiction stuff! Only it may not be so fictional after all.

I know these experiments aren't starting out diabolically, but what happens if they get out of control? Humans, without God in their lives and equipped with advanced science and experimentation such as DNA mixing, can and will go beyond certain boundaries. What's to stop them from trying to produce a superhuman race? Hitler would have loved this.

Point #3: Be watchful. If Christians would take a moment and look around, they would see a religious power becoming more numerous right here in the United States. This religious belief needs to be brought to the attention of every Christian.

Let me direct your attention to "Jesus Will Return," by Harun Yahya. This is presented in a question-and-answer format. I believe it is a real eye-opener if you will read the article in its entirety. Here is an excerpt:

Question: "What kind of relationship will there be between the Prophet Jesus and the Mahdi when both are on the earth?"

Answer: "According to the hadiths, when the Prophet Jesus returns to earth he will act together with the Mahdi, and the two will combine all their powers to bring religious moral values to prevail in the world. The Prophet Jesus will eliminate the Anti-Christ (Dajjal), the leader of the atheistic system in the world and the Mahdi will assist him in that struggle. The Prophet Jesus and the Mahdi are two brothers with great love for one another in this world and in the hereafter. They will share the same thoughts and beliefs. The Mahdi will be the spiritual leader of the Islamic world, and the Prophet Jesus that of the Christian world. Under their twin leadership the world will enjoy great peace, security and happiness. In my view, the Prophet Jesus has also returned to earth, but he too is hidden. He is obliged to conceal himself because of the terrorist and political attacks he would be exposed to. However, he too will emerge in the very near future and together with the Mahdi will embark upon his intellectual struggle." (You can visit his website, www.jesuswill return.com.)

Unless Christians are totally asleep or in a coma, I do not see how they can miss what is beginning to happen: a one-world religion and government are about to be set up! I always wondered how the whole world would worship an Antichrist (instead of Christ) while there are so many divisive religious beliefs. I can now understand how it is possibly coming together.

Hopefully, you can understand my urgency in writing this book on the end times and why we must study and be aware of events going on about us so that we will not be lured into a slumberous state of mind. Let us become students of God's Word, filled with excitement and curiosity! Read up on current events pertaining to signs of the end times—(e.g., how men will feel indifferent toward God—see 2 Timothy 3:4), political unrest, a new world order involving an Antichrist (see 2 Thessalonians 2:4), severe poverty, starvation, plagues, and many diseases that will wipe out a large population of mankind (see Matthew 24:7), and changes in the weather (see Luke 21:11, 25). There isn't anything that will occur that God hasn't already warned us about in his Word, the Bible.

My main goal in writing this book is to focus on revealing the meaning of Antichrist. Who is he? Will we be here on earth during the tribulation? Will God provide for and protect us during the tribulation? And lastly, what is meant by "the elect"?

Revelation—To Reveal

Many ministers will not go into the book of Revelation to preach the word because they believe it does not pertain to us today. It is for the ones "left behind." We will talk more about this later.

The books of Daniel and Revelation are an overlay of one another, and they reveal "end-time prophecy."

The title Revelation is related to the verb reveal. Revelation speaks of Babylon—the great whore. The word Babylon is the source of our word babble, meaning "confusion." There are so many confused lines of teaching among the churches today, it is a wonder any Christian can discern what is truth. The parishioners sit week after week, year after year, nodding their heads and believing every word of what their pastor is preaching in their particular denomination—never really checking him (the pastor) out in the Word of God.

Hirelings

Maybe he is a "hireling." The Bible speaks about hirelings (see John 10:12–13): "but he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep."

You have a right to check out what your pastor is telling you in the Word of God without feeling like a heretic. Are we to cause problems in the church? No! If your pastor is not preaching God's Word, just excuse yourself and find a pastor who does.

Visions

Be careful about visions; anyone can have a "jalapeño nightmare."

Visions reporting how another person has been touched by God and gives revelation of future events are exciting ways in which we like to learn about truth. They proclaim to have been anointed by God and possibly are, but if their message does not align with the Word of God, precept upon precept, then I might question their authority.

People would rather read a good story, with a few scriptures thrown in here and there to show their credibility, than get their Bible out and study the Word of God. We have all become lazy and hung up on sensationalism!

We have to be so careful in what we read, because it seems that people's experience becomes gospel, whether it is checked out in God's Word or not, and we know that God's Word is the ultimate authority.

Many denominations have a milquetoast doctrine about the Word of God with little or no solid teaching. I believe that ministers are afraid to teach about hell, Satan, and end-times prophecy because it is too frightening and confusing for the congregation. Christians in the western hemisphere are materialistic and flabby (weak and lacking force), and most church denominations believe we won't be on the earth anyway; they believe we will be "snatched away." This concept is dangerous and will lead many astray! I will talk about this more later.

Many Christians, in the world of christendom, are anxiously awaiting the return of Jesus Christ who has promised to return for his church. Christians sing praises, read books, and talk continuously of his imminent return, knowing that his return could happen at any moment—or so they think. This is the "any minute" doctrine. Paul speaks of this, and I will cover this point a little further on.

I'm concerned there is not enough time to waste trying to convince people who have firmly made up their minds that their faith will not be tested in any way in the "end times." if you fall into this category and stand fully convicted on how Christ will return, then this book is not for you. But if you have an open mind about going through Scripture and getting into the meat of the Word instead of a diet of milk then I have something to share with you.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from ... and he shall appear as an ANGEL OF LIGHTby Mary E. Preston Copyright © 2012 by Mary E. Preston. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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