The Daily Word of Righteousness

Eight Appearances of the Victorious Saints, continued

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Revelation 13:14)

$99.99 that we have mentioned previously is an image. The idea is we are dealing with less than one hundred dollars. Ridiculous!

We are shown an exercise machine. The model has a flat, muscular stomach. Buy the machine and you will have a flat, muscular stomach. Probably not unless you are ready to go on a strenuous diet for several months accompanied by daily isometric exercises! The machine ends up in the corner collecting dust. Do you have an exercise machine in your house? Do you use it daily?

The cowboy, lean and tough, the real he-man, has a cigarette dangling from his lips. They don't show him years later in the hospital with throat cancer. Smoke a cigarette and you will be a rugged he-man. Nonsense! Smoke cigarettes and you will be a cool dude. You probably will end up being a sick dude. Smoke a cigarette and you will be cool and refreshed in the summer. Ha ha. But the image is persuasive.

The athlete is shown on the cereal box. Eat the cereal and you will be an athlete. Chew tobacco and you will be a baseball star. Wear our sport shoes and you will be the fastest man on earth.

One time they advertised a rotary engine. It sounded more like a whirling top, so smooth almost musical. Not like are regular piston engine at all. Do you own one of those? Check out what it sounds like.

Some friends drove here from Wisconsin. As they approached Las Vegas at night their little girl said, "A golden city." Las Vegas at night all lit up. It reminded me of a story a musician wrote about a gambler falling dead at the table. They came and carried him out while the game continued. The dead man's arm was swinging in time to the music being played. The musician never forgot that sight and eventually became a Christian.

Do you know our whole country is like that? The politicians speak in words of image. "The bridge to the future." In your mind's eye you see a rainbow bridge leading the way to Utopia. You see a generation of young people, brilliant because of the computer, solving all the problems of civilization, putting an end to war, to disease, to hunger, to handicaps of all kinds.

"From sea to shining sea." America enters as leader of the brave new world.

So the image makers in government would have us believe. But many of the computerized young have had little or no training in morals. Unless they turn to Christ we will be witnessing the emergence of self-seeking monsters without conscience.

Then we turn to the newspaper. It is "from sea to bloody sea." Just today's paper had enough homicides to make you sick.

America is in social turmoil. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. The immorality is causing crime to soar.

I remember when I was in public-school work the talk of some of the liberal teachers. I saw from their conversation how it could be true that people under the Antichrist regime would be saying "peace and safety" when all around them was intellectual, financial, artistic, educational, social desolation. It is because people perceive according to the image in their mind, not according to reality.

To be continued.