My Introduction to the Strong Delusion

By J.J. Prophet

As a youth, I was frequently plagued with terrible nightmares, and my worst episode I recall vividly, was a nightmare that didn’t end when I awoke. My bedroom was swarming with terrifying phantoms that evoked supernatural fear into the depths of my soul. Paralysis gripped my body, and I was so horrified, that even when I tried to scream for help, all that came out of my mouth was a whisper. After that, my only response was to shut my eyes, and hope they were gone when I opened them. Unfortunately these creatures continued to infest my bedroom for several hours, and didn’t depart until the first light of dawn.

Whatever Satan had planned for me with that dreadful night of terror, it probably didn’t work out the way he hoped. Even though I was only five years old, I knew enough about the Bible from my great grandmother to start paying more attention in church when I visited her on Sundays.

Flashing forward about a decade, about the time I felt I was sufficiently out of the woods concerning my fear of demons, my stepfather considered it his mission to return me to the fear I thought I left behind. One of his favorite hobbies was to taunt me about the horrors of End Times tribulation discussed in the Bible. He stated with cold indifference, that those who accepted the Mark of the Beast will be damned to burn in the flames of hell for all eternity, (Revelation 19:20). Then he would giggle and wait for me to take the bait. And I would.

“I won’t take that %&@*! mark. Nothing will make me take it!”

“You can’t say that. What makes you think you will even know who the Antichrist is? If you ever saw him, you’d want to worship him. If you heard him speak, your jaw would drop to the floor. The whole world will be in love with him. He’ll be awesome, the most incredible person you ever heard. You won’t be able to find a single thing wrong with anything he says, because he’ll make too much sense. By the time he arrives, everything will be setup so perfectly for him that it will be near impossible to not believe him. Those who do not accept him, will appear to be the most completely ignorant, backward, illogical, outright stupidest idiots on the face of the planet!”

“I don’t care, and I do not see how that’s even possible,” I would argue. “It’ll be too obvious that he’s the Antichrist, because he’ll try to make people take that damn mark! People aren’t that stupid!”

“No, it will not be obvious to most people, because by the time the mark comes, people will be conditioned to accept it. You’re actually buying into it right now, whether you like it or not, and you did not even know it. How’s that for obvious?”

He then explained to me that every Universal Product Code (UPC), which is the bar code now labeled on every product bought and sold, contains a hidden, perfectly spaced “666.” When did this happen, anyway? Was the UPC even used in the 1960’s? This UPC thing came to be in my lifetime. I never noticed it until my stepfather pointed it out to me.

“Is it merely coincidence that this label of 666 now happens to be printed on all products that are bought and sold?” he taunted me, brandishing a conspiracy book that had its UPC decoded on the back of the book. “This is the Mark of the Beast! You’re contributing this this mark, every time you buy something with this mark!”

Revelation 13:16-18 [Bold emphasis and bracketed comments added]

And he [the second beast] caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six [666].

My stepfather loved this tidbit about the UPC, because what could I do about it? I was already buying into the system, the Mark of the Beast, with every purchase I made. (By the way, a simple search on the Internet for “UPC” and “666” will provide plenty of information on this, from advocates of this conspiracy, as well as debunkers).

Back in the early 1980’s, credit and bank cards weren’t widely used like they are now. Most folks used cash or wrote checks rather than bank cards. I remember when people did not trust ATMs, and now people trust ATMs more than people.

Even though my stepfather was teasing me, he did accurately predict that before long, people would be using plastic cards more than paper money. I didn’t believe him. He said eventually most money transactions would be electronic, with everything tied into computers, and that the Mark of the Beast was going to involve computers somehow. They would implant computer chips into people, and that would be part of a benefit to society. There could be a million uses for computer chip implants, things we couldn’t even imagine at that time, and anyone who did not have that chip would be like a dinosaur.

“I still won’t take the mark.”

“I’m sure you’d take it before getting tortured to death.” At this he would cackle, and his teasing rhetoric would intensify with macabre details of paranoia about the inescapable horrors that lie ahead. “If they want to give you the mark, they’ll do it. They’ll burn it into you with lasers without you even knowing it. You’ll just walk into a grocery store, buy a bag of chips, and by the time you walk out, you’ll be marked.”

“Then I’ll burn it off!”

“You won’t be able to, it’ll be fused into your DNA. If you burn or scrape your skin, it will just grow back with the mark.” While he sewed his seeds of paranoia, parting from scripture and descending into a Steven King version of Revelation, I knew what he was getting at with that mark. He wanted to hear me say I would lob off my hand, or pluck out my eye, (Mark 9:45-47).

Sometimes I would lose sleep after those conversations. My stepfather always had something to talk about like that. The Antichrist was coming, and torture was inevitable. Did I have what it would take to endure such a time as that? And how would the Antichrist pull this off?

While the sleepless nights faded, the questions about this coming strong delusion remained, echoing in the ether of my mind. The Bible speaks of a grand deception coming in the future, identified as a strong delusion, (2 Thessalonians 2:11), that will be so powerful, if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect, (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22).

Matthew 24:24

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

It wasn’t until I fully accepted Christ many years later, that my desire to know more about this insanity the Bible speaks of, materialized in the forefront of my consciousness.

What deception could possibly have the ability to appeal to a global audience? What deception could draw upon every facet of human wisdom, harmonizing with all the sciences; biology, chemistry, medicine, mathematics, computer science, physics, psychology, history, archeology; all of the greatest advances of modern civilization, and simultaneously, also appeal to the spiritual dimensions of society?

I see the reality of extraterrestrial life, clearly an unexpected tangent at this time, presenting the global population with such a powerful paradigm shift, that it would affect all spheres of civilization if it suddenly became undeniably true. Ancient astronaut theorists have been pointing out evidence of extraterrestrial contact in ancient times for over five decades now, such that most people have heard of their ‘alien gods’ theories by now. Little do most of these ancient astronaut theorists realize, however, is that they are feeding directly into the strong delusion.

My perspective is, it may very well be true that angels both faithful and fallen, have what appear to be obvious associations with highly advanced technology. I say this based on my knowledge of the Bible and other extra-biblical literature.

Concerning the faithful angels associated with what may be technology, consider the mysterious clouds mentioned throughout scripture, such as the clouds of heaven, (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 11:12), the clouds of glory present during Moses’ meetings with God on mount Sinai, the tent of meeting, and with Jesus at the mount of transfiguration, (Exodus 16:10, 24:16, 40:34-35; Numbers 16:42; 1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chronicles 5:14; Isaiah 4:5; Ezekiel 1:28, 10:4; Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 21:27), and the cloud to which Jesus entered when departing the Earth, (Acts 1:9).

Then there were the angelic visitations of Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 1, 10), where the angels were associated with what appear to be some type of advanced technological mode of transportation referred to as wheels within wheels, (Ezekiel 1, 2), and of the angelic flying Chariots of Fire in God’s angelic army, (2 Kings 6:17), also named the Chariot of Israel in a specific encounter with the prophet Elijah, (2 Kings 2:11-12). Before Elijah was taken away to heaven, Elijah might have even been routinely abducted by angelic beings as indicated in 1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16.

As for the fallen angels, I need not go any further than Genesis 6. The sons of God, aka Watchers, (Enoch 7), decided to abandon their angelic ways, and mated with human women, siring a hybrid race of half-human, half-angel entities that nearly destroyed the world. God intervened with the flood of Noah just to put an end to their violent, destructive rampage.

Most Christians who research UFO/alien phenomenon, primarily see all extraterrestrials as demonic entities, and ignore the many scriptures were God’s faithful angels have clear associations with technology. Because of this tendency in the Christian community, I believe the deception that is headed our way, will be even more powerful, because it will contain much more truth to it than most Christians realize. There really is extraterrestrial life in the cosmos; Nehemiah 9:6 declares as much. The sooner Christians grapple with this reality and discern from the scriptures how to reconcile it and remain true to the core tenets of the Christian faith, without being sidetracked by tangents such as technology, the more prepared they’ll be to face the strong delusion that’s coming.

Nehemiah 9:6 [bold emphasis and bracketed comments added]

“You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven [outer space], the heaven of heavens [the third heaven, probably a glorified planet], with all their host [life forms], the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven [angelic beings among the stars, and possibly other life forms] worships you…”

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