I have been contemplating this writing for some time. I have hesitated to begin this work for it is a daunting task to undertake. The subject to be addressed, and the conclusions set forth, will challenge some long held beliefs that are deeply cherished and emotionally defended by a great many people. Carl Sagan, a non-Christian scientist, science fiction writer, and host of the immensely popular PBS series titled Cosmos, spoke truth when he stated the following.
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.
Carl Sagan may well have been making a personal confession, for he was in error about a great many things, some of fundamental and wide reaching importance. Gustave Le Bon in his book The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, wrote:
Crowds have always undergone the influence of illusions. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
It is a perilous task to attempt to dispel illusions, particularly those which are widely held. The majority of people will never admit to having been deceived. Their pride will not allow them to admit they have been duped, especially if the deception they have embraced is a big one. In 1841 a Scottish man named Charles Mackay wrote a history of popular folly. His book was titled Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. One hundred-seventy years ago Mackay wrote about economic bubbles, alchemy (the attempt to transmute base elements into gold), crusades, witch-hunts, prophecies, fortune-telling, popular follies of great cities, and man's tendency to romanticize thieves and criminals, among other things. Two well known quotations from this book are as follows:
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Of all the offspring of Time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder's welcome.
Having been engaged in a public teaching ministry since 1999, I have experienced firsthand the blindness of men who refuse to acknowledge the light of truth when it is shining down upon them. The following saying is as true now as it was in the time of Christ 2,000 years ago.
John 3:19
“And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.”
Although this statement of Christ Yahshua is true of men in general, it should not be true of those who profess to be His disciples and followers. The Son of God identified Himself as “the Truth” (John 14:6). Those who follow Yahshua the Messiah are to love truth and eschew all lies and deception. It is Satan, the adversary, whose nature is marked by lies and deceit.
John 8:44
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father... Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”
Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.
I have learned from much bitter experience that there are a great many who self-identify as being Christians who do not love truth. A great many cling to their deceptions. They refuse to acknowledge truth and sound teaching when it is clearly and patiently presented to them. The apostle Paul prophesied that this would be the character of many in the church in the last days preceding the return of Christ.
II Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
The Amplified Bible expands and clarifies the last verse above in the following manner.
II Timothy 4:4
And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.
There are a great number of man-made and devil-made fictions in this present hour. Indeed, there is no greater characteristic of the last days prior to the return of Christ than the darkness that manifests itself in the mind and character of humanity.
Isaiah 60:2
For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples...
We have already looked at the testimony contained in the book of Revelation. It was declared there that Satan is the great deceiver “who deceives the whole world.” Brothers and sisters, the Bible describes the last days before the return of Christ as a time of widespread and universal deceit. This is the day you and I live in. The leaders of government cannot be believed. The media and mainstream news cannot be believed. Both government and media are populated by liars and deceivers.
In 2012 I wrote and published the book titled Dragon Flood. It has quickly become the most popular writing I have authored. The book is focused on exposing and dispelling the gross distortions of history that surround the founding of the United States, as well as revealing the policy of propaganda that is carried forth by the cooperative efforts of the government and media. The title of the book is taken from the following verses in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 12:15-16
And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.
Satan is the dragon, the winged serpent of the Bible. What is it that comes out of the mouth? Words. Being communicated through the symbolic speech of the book of Revelation is that Satan will use a flood of deception to sweep away the woman, the church of Christ. Seeing that God has seen fit to warn His sons and daughters that this will be the tactic of the adversary in the last days, should not the people of God make it a priority to exercise discernment in all things? Should they not develop their sense of discretion, testing and examining everything with the utmost care and attention? Yet we see just the opposite occurring in this hour. The church is abandoning all judgment. By doing so they are making themselves extremely vulnerable to the damning and destructive deceptions of Satan.
The Bible foretells of experiences at the end of this age when “if possible, even the elect” will be misled by the astonishing signs and wonders that will be revealed in these days (Matthew 24:24, Mark 13:22). Brothers and sisters, is not the church anticipating that “the coming of the lawless one,” the one the Bible identifies as the antichrist, is near at hand? Consider then the manner in which the Holy Spirit has told us the appearing of this lawless one will manifest.
II Thessalonians 2:9-12
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Let us look once more to the Amplified Bible to bring forth further insight from this passage.
II Thessalonians 2:9
The coming [of the lawless one, the antichrist] is through the activity and working of Satan and will be attended by great power and with all sorts of [pretended] miracles and signs and delusive marvels - [all of them] lying wonders...
When the apostle Paul wrote these words nearly 2,000 years ago, the television, the computer, and the Internet were beyond the imagination of mankind. Civilization has changed enormously as technology and industry have advanced and knowledge has increased. The words “pretended miracles and signs,” “delusive marvels,” and “lying wonders” are fitting descriptions of a great portion of the content that is broadcast through television and streamed across the Internet.
Although I believe there will be deceptive acts of miraculous proportion that Satan will carry out directly before the eyes of mankind in these last days, I am also persuaded that many of these deceptive, pretended, and delusive marvels will be fabrications that are broadcast through television and the Internet. Indeed, these media forms have already been used to perpetuate many lies, and they continue to be used in this manner to a profound extent every single day. A veritable flood of lies are coming forth from the mouth of the dragon, and those men and women who have both wittingly and unwittingly given themselves to the perpetuation of Satan’s acts.
In this writing I am going to address one of the biggest deceptions of Satan and his human servants that have been perpetrated upon the mass of mankind in the last 50 years. This lie asserts that from July of 1969 to December of 1972, the American government’s space agency (NASA) successfully conducted six manned lunar landings and then returned the men safely back to Earth. The vast majority of Americans, as well as people from across the world, believe men actually walked on the Moon more than 40 years ago, and returned safely to the Earth. They believe these things primarily because the United States government told them these events were real, and the people saw with their own eyes the images of these events as they were broadcast on television. It seemed inconceivable to many then, even as it does today, that the U.S. government would with a bold face attempt to perpetuate such an enormous lie.
Have the United States government’s elected and appointed officials ever lied? Have they ever acted deliberately to deceive the populace? Has television ever been used to make false events appear real?
Let me clarify from the start that the end goal of this writing is not to prove that the U.S. government perpetrated an immense deception and faked the Moon landings. Although I believe these things will indeed be proven beyond any reasonable doubt, the actual aim of the writing is to awaken Christians to the reality that we live in a world of illusion. This has been the case for many years, and the deception is increasing as we draw closer to the appearing of the lawless one and the subsequent return of Christ. My desire is to shock Christians into awareness of the pervasiveness of deception in this world.
Satan is described in the Bible as “the god of this world” (II Corinthians 4:4). What then would you expect to be the character of a world which lies in the power of the evil one, the deceiver who deceives the entire world? Would you not anticipate that the governments of this world, and the media under the control of men to whom Satan has given immense wealth and power, would be characterized by lies and deception?
I will present Biblical evidence of the character of this present world, and Scriptural arguments that stand against man having ever journeyed to another heavenly body beyond the Earth. I will also present evidence and arguments which a Christian can test themselves that will help them to judge this matter of whether NASA faked the Moon landings, in order to enable Christ’s disciples to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. As I set forth this evidence and arguments, I will furthermore establish principles and practices by which Christians can test all things in this hour of universal deceit.
George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, famously stated the following.
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
It should be apparent to the Christian that walking in truth and light is the exception, rather than the norm, for the disciple of Yahshua is an alien and a stranger on this Earth. We are sent forth as lights in the midst of darkness. If your candle is burning brightly, will not those who have been raised in darkness and who are unaccustomed to the light of truth react strongly to your presence? Some will hate you for shining a light and disturbing their darkness. This writing is offered for that remnant who upon seeing the light, rejoice in it, preferring even a disturbing truth for a pleasant lie.
May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days,
Joseph Herrin
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
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