When the Antichrist Arrives Are We Supposed to Quit Teaching Bible?
When the Antichrist Arrives Are We Supposed to Quit Teaching Bible?
Steve, I have been really enjoying your studies. Thank you so much.
But I have a question regarding the study: Your Walk of Faith in Christ (Through the Line of Satanic Resistance)
On page 7 paragraph 4 it says: When Satan arrives to this earth, we’ll be crossing that sea of people, so to speak, and spreading the truth as we go.
This is one time I do not agree. When Satan arrives the time of teaching and seed planting is over. It is a time to be quiet and be led by Father.
Pastor Murray always said if we speak out at this time we could be delivered up too soon and forfeit our opportunity to be used by God.
Every ounce of my being knows this. I will NOT speak out at this time. We go for the head.
Scriptures say we don’t even tell the person we share our pillow with. Sorry I did not provide that citation. I have to get this email done quickly.
Anyways, I am wondering why you are stating differently? Do you not agree that there comes a time to agree with our adversary? It is concerning to me, for you and your readers.
Thanks so much Steve.
Take care,
S.
Steve’s Answer:
Hi S.,
I’m glad you’re enjoying the Bible studies. And thank you very much for your kind words.
However, I’m not sure where you got the idea that as soon as Satan arrives to this earth our time for seed-planting and teaching is over. I’d have to disagree with that. And I don’t think Pastor Murray ever taught it exactly that way.
Pastor Murray has even stated in the past that the Shepherd’s Chapel ministry will continue teaching as long as they can into Satan’s reign on this earth.
Yes, there’s a point in time that it’s wiser to be quiet and agree with one’s adversary in the byway (more on that in just a moment).
But when asked, “What will the elect be doing when Satan is here?” Pastor Murray has stated many times we’ll be “teaching” and “backing up the two witnesses.” We can hardly do that if the minute Satan arrives we all clam up.
Daniel Chapter 11: God’s Faithful Servants Teach During Satan’s Reign
Pastor Murray has also taught many times that Daniel chapter 11 reflects the fact that God’s faithful servants will still be teaching during the antichrist’s reign. As it’s written:
Dan 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
The term “do exploits,” in the Hebrew language, means to “bring forth.” In other words, we’ll still be bringing forth God’s Word.
The term “be strong” means be courageous. I’d hardly call refusing to teach God’s Word during such a critical period being “courageous.”
Instead, we’re supposed to courageously “bring forth” (God’s Word) to others around us.
Dan 11:33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.
“Many” people will be instructed by God’s faithful servants when Satan is here. But many of those we teach will still fall (i.e., totter or waver) due to Satan’s sword of deception.
But for this particular Scripture to be fulfilled, there have to be people willing and able to teach (“and they that understand among the people shall instruct many”) while Satan is here.
Dan 11:34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.
When those being instructed begin to “fall” (i.e., totter or waver) we’ll do whatever we can to help them understand the truth. But many deceived people will cling to them “with flatteries” (i.e., with smooth talk) in order to rope them in.
Dan 11:35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
Even some who understand God’s Word will begin to “fall” (i.e., totter or waver) toward the end, but Father will purge them of the dross of mis-understanding and will purify them.
It’s my belief these will be the 144,000. But it really doesn’t matter who it is. The fact that some folks who understand God’s Word will totter, or waver at that time doesn’t excuse the rest of us from teaching.
It’s our job to put the plumb line of truth before the people, so they can choose between God’s Word and Satan’s deceptive words.
Dan 11:36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
That’s in reference to Satan being physically here on this earth at that great time, when the teaching against him is taking place.
My understanding of the above verses is that at that time, the very elect (the Zadok) will be doing everything they can to help the elect (i.e., 144,000) and others understand what’s going on and what they’re supposed to be doing on the Lord’s behalf.
Another example:
If we’re all supposed to zip our lips the entire time Satan is here, how do the “ships of Chittim” (Pastor Murray always taught this as “vessels of the bruisers”) do their job of aggrieving Satan and forcing him to regroup with the Kenites? As it’s written:
Dan 11:30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.
Pastor Murray always taught this as the very elect fighting a war of words with Satan and his crew. And that the truths coming out of our mouths is what aggrieves Satan and forces him to pull back a bit regroup with “them that forsake the holy covenant” (i.e., the Kenites, or false Jews of Revelation 2:9 and 3:9).
What’s the Gospel Armor For?
Finally, what are we supposed to put on the Gospel armor for, if not to “stand against the fiery darts of Satan”?
We can’t make that faithful stand if we’re hiding in our homes, afraid to speak out. We’d actually be hiding from taking a stand on behalf of the Lord.
Eph 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
The “power of His might” represents His Word. And the “whole armour of God” represents His Word. We must put on His Word in order to take our stand against the wiles of the devil. We can hardly do that if we’re hiding in our homes keeping silent.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Satan and his entire crew will be here on this earth. We’re going to be in a spiritual wrestling match with them, at that time. A huge one. That doesn’t sound much like being quiet, to me. Neither do the next verses:
Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Again, this doesn’t sound much like being quiet, to me, when Satan is here. It sounds more like we relentlessly go against him.
Who’s ever taken a stand for the Lord by being quiet about His Word?
Eph 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Our final weapon is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
That’s not much of a sword, however, if we never draw it out of its scabbard, so to speak, when Satan is here and his fiery darts are flying.
In other words, for a sword (i.e., God’s Word) to be effective, the person carrying that sword has to draw it from its scabbard and use it. We have to teach God’s Word to counter Satan’s deception. A sword left in its sheath is of no good to anyone.
Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Those are just some of my thoughts on the matter.
I think it will be a matter of discernment for each of us. We have a job to do when Satan is here, and that job as far as I can tell does not entail hiding or refusing to speak. But we definitely have to discern when it’s proper time to speak, and when it isn’t, just like now. We have to use discernment.
Dealing with the Adversary
I do understand that you’re speaking, basically, of the following two verses, which Pastor Murray has always taught indicate there’s a time when it’s smarter to be quiet than to talk. And I get that.
But that’s no different than today. There’s a time to talk and a time to shut up, even now. And you have to discern which is which. But let’s take a careful look at the verses to see what else we can get out of them:
Mat 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Mat 5:26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Most people skip verse 26, which clearly indicates the adversary is someone you owe money to, and who is taking you to court over it.
Back then, they had what was called “debtor’s courts,” and if you were in debt to someone and couldn’t pay the debt, the person you owed the money to could have you brought before a judge and tossed into debtor’s prison where you would have to work hard labor for pennies a day in order to pay back the money you owed.
Christ was saying if you owe someone, be agreeable (rather than disagreeable) when you’re with that person, and do what you can to cut a deal so your opponent has nothing on you.
In other words, do what you have to do in order to avoid ending up in debtor’s prison while you’re waiting to be delivered up before the councils and synagogues to fulfill your destiny which is to allow God to speak through you (Luke 21:15; Mark 13:11).
Likewise, Luke 12:58-59 teaches us the same thing:
Luk 12:58 When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
Luk 12:59 I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.
Again, my understanding of those two verses is that we’re being instructed to make sure no one can use any legalities against us in order to prematurely deliver us up for petty things, such as failure to pay a debt, or failure to pay our taxes, as examples.
We’re to get our financial houses in order, in other words. If we owe on a contract — a mortgage, for example — and we can’t pay during those five months of Satan’s reign because we’re unable to buy or sell (Rev. 13:17), we have to cut a deal with our adversary (i.e., the person trying to take you to court to sue you).
For example, rather than resist him and try to hold on to the house you owe money on, you might offer to allow him to repossess the house. That way, you don’t end up in debtor’s prison, so to speak, or imprisoned for something that has nothing to do with taking a stand for God and His Word.
In short, you might have to allow the person to take the house back, rather than fight it in court and risk being jailed for breaking the contract.
Does that make sense? It’s just saying we have to get (and keep) our financial houses in order.
When we have such critically important work to do for Father, we can’t have petty legalities weighing us down. So if we’re in some kind of a legal morass that could end up putting us in jail during the time we should be waiting to be delivered up the councils and Sanhedrin courts of Mark 13, we quickly cut a deal with our adversary (i.e., the person we owe money to) and move on.
Enter Into Thy Chambers and Shut Thy Doors
Another verse people sometimes cite in order to justify the idea that we’re to be quiet when Satan is here, is this one:
Isa 26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
But again, they generally skip the very next verse, which reveals the time-frame:
Isa 26:21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
In other words, the “indignation” we’re hiding ourselves from, inside of our homes, is Father’s wrath on His enemies. When Father’s wrath begins, we’re to go home and sit it out, and let Him deal with His enemies.
Indeed, the word “indignation in verse 20 above, means the following, according to Strong’s: “fury (especially God’s displeasure with sin.”
So again, we’re talking about the Second Advent when Christ comes to defeat and punish His enemies. We’re to go inside and let Him do His job, as our job of teaching and taking our stand against the fiery darts of Satan is over with at that point. He doesn’t need our help to carry out His judgment on His enemies.
Also, the phrase “for a little moment” in verse 20 above actually translates in the Hebrew to “a blink of the eye.”
In other words, the time-frame for this verse is the last trump, when the Lord is arriving and dishing out His wrath upon His enemies (Rev. 18, for example). It’s that time when everybody goes from their flesh bodies to their spiritual bodies “in the twinkling of an eye” (I Cor. 15:52).
We have nothing more to do at that point, until the Millennium teaching period is ushered in. So we go into our home and wait for the Lord to finish with His wrath upon His enemies.
So this has nothing to do with the five month period Satan and his crew will be here. It’s about the very short time (blink of an eye) at the very end of that five month period, when the Lord comes to mete out His wrath on His adversaries.
Don’t Trust Friends or Family Towards the End of Satan’s 5 Months
You brought up Micah 7:5-8 so let’s take a quick look at it:
Mic 7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
The three verses prior to the above verse definitely mark the time-frame as being the time of the gathering of the summer fruits, meaning the very end days when Christ is getting ready to come harvest those over-ripe grapes with that sickle (Revelation 14:18-20).
Indeed, the verses prior to the above verse state that “the good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men” etc.
So yes, the time-frame is when Satan is here on this earth and has basically already deceived the whole world (with the exception of the elect, of course). In other words, this too is speaking of a time-frame toward the very end of his five-month reign where he’s consolidated his hold over the world.
At that time, we can’t depend upon anyone in the flesh to help us. Only the Lord. For the most part, people will be undependable because confusion will reign.
Let’s continue in these verses just a moment and see how they might relate to other Scripture we’re familiar with:
Mic 7:6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
This is a companion verse to Mark 13:12-13. In other words, we can now narrow the time-frame of these verses down to that time when Satan is getting ready to use our own families against us, to deliver us up, thinking they’re doing us a favor.
Mic 7:7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
At that time we put our full trust and dependence on God, and not on any man or woman. We’ll be delivered up. And afterwards, God will rescue us. We don’t need to trust in any flesh person, because it’s all in God’s hands at that point.
Mic 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
The prophet is saying to the enemy at that time, “It might look to you like I’ve been defeated, but don’t count on it. I’m waiting on the Lord at this point, and He’ll take care of me.”
Mic 7:9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
The above verse is why I think these passages are prophetically about the 144,000 Israelites who don’t come out of deception until the very end of Satan’s reign. They’re the “Levites” of Ezekiel 44:10-14 which “went astray away from Me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.”
The individual in the verse above admits to having sinned against the Lord (i.e., prophetic of being fooled by the antichrist for a short time). But he’s since repented and is now waiting on the Lord to accept his repentance and deliver a favorable verdict (the Hebrew in that verse supports this idea).
I believe this also refers, prophetically, to the people described in Daniel 11:35 who will “totter” during Satan’s flood of deception, i.e., “And some of them of understanding shall fall [i.e., totter] , to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.”
Because of the confusion that reigns so heavily at that time, they mess up a little bit in their understanding. But upon repentance Father cleanses them and brings them into His light at the very end of Satan’s reign, just before the Lord’s arrival (Revelation 14:3-5).
Mic 7:10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
Of course, this “she that is my enemy” refers prophetically to the scarlet whore of Revelation 17:4 who sits upon the “scarlet coloured beast” (i.e., the false global religious system).
It’s the false religious system that, when we’re being delivered up, asks us “Where is the Lord thy God now?”
But she’ll be covered in shame for selling out the Lord and for persecuting those who refused to follow suit. And like Jezebel of old, she’ll be trampled in the streets at the time of God’s wrath upon His enemies.
Not Much to Justify Keeping One’s Mouth Shut
So again, in my opinion, there’s not much to justify the idea that the entire time Satan is here on this earth in his role as the false Christ, we all keep our mouths shut and that our time of teaching and seed planting is over when Satan sets foot on this earth.
If we never make our stand for the Lord known at that time, how would the enemy know to deliver us up?
But there is indeed a time toward the end of Satan’s reign in which we have to be very careful who we talk to…what we say… and especially who we trust. The deception will be at its height at that time. For the most part, no one will be trustworthy, particularly family members who don’t have eyes to see and ears to hear the truth.
And our own families will become our enemies. We can’t depend upon them for help at that time. We can only depend upon the Lord for help at that point.
And all of this will take place very close to the time at which He’s arriving to set things right and take out His wrath upon His enemies.
The Two Olive Trees and Two Candlesticks
Finally, we know for a fact from Revelation 11:7 that the two witnesses are on this earth during Satan’s reign, for the expressed purpose of testifying to the truth of God’s Word:
Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
The teaching will be going full force the entire time the two witnesses are here, during Satan’s reign. But again, look at the very next verse:
Rev 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
The two olive trees are the two witnesses (Zechariah 4:11-14), which of course are Elijah and Moses.
But there are also “two candlesticks” that stand with these two olive trees, allowing the golden oil of God’s wisdom to flow through them to the world.
Those “two candlesticks” are the two faithful churches of Revelation 2:9 and 3:9. Those two faithful churches back-up God’s two witnesses during the time of Satan’s reign.
Next verse:
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Our Father is a consuming fire, and it’s His Word of truth coming from the mouths of the two faithful witnesses and the two faithful churches that burns and sears the enemy, spiritually speaking.
Considering all of the evidence above, I can’t see where there’s any Scriptural support for the idea that our teaching and seed planting is completely over with when Satan arrives to this earth.
I think that’s precisely when things are going to get very interesting, and we’ll be called on to make a firm stand for the Lord, putting our trust solely in Him that His Word will unfold exactly as it’s written.
And then, just as the noose is closing in around our necks, so to speak, we’ll be rescued by the Lord at His Second Advent (Mark 13:13 and Mark 13:26-27).
Regards in Christ,
Steve Barwick
Sign up here to receive notifications of Steve’s News & Current Events Commentaries, as well as notifications when new in-depth Bible studies are posted. You’ll also receive a free copy of Steve’ in-depth Bible study, The Four Parts of God’s Plan, when you sign up.