Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: Paul J. Davey
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains

		08-06-01-B.CC02-908 /

History’s Dictators Provide Lucifer with Perfect Personality Profile for the Beast Dictator; Believer’s Protected by Doctrine; Patrick Henry’s “Clanking Chains”

(8)	His plan includes the use of a very dynamic and charismatic personality who will use Satan-infused power in the attempt to gain control of the world’s political and religious establishments.
(9)	The mystery for those of us in the Church Age is the identity of this Beast-Dictator.  His name and whereabouts are unknown until the Tribulation.
(10)	However, since the Tribulation is only seven years long, he will be alive and well and stealthily gaining political power and influence during the latter years of the Church Age.
(11)	Lucifer’s selection of this man will be the culmination of two-thousand years of trial and error to find the perfect personality to pull off his prodigious plan.
(12)	Demon-possessed figures throughout history have provided him with vital information about the personality profile required to pull off a global dictatorship.
(13)	There are two major profiles that have been analyzed during his experimentations: (1) the obvious tyrant, and (2) the insidious deceiver.
(14)	In this first group history is dotted with examples, such as Pharaoh Amenhotep II, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar from Old Testament times; Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Commodus from the Roman Empire; Attila the Hun; Genghis Khan of the Mongol hoards; King Louis XIV and XV of France, and George III of England.
(15)	In the twentieth century there has been the advent of Russian dictators from Vladimir Lenin to Mikhail Gorbachev; Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy; Mao Tse-tung of China, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Idi Amin of Uganda, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Fidel Castro of Cuba, and Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
(16)	Insidious deceivers are difficult to identify but they prowl around wherever there is money, power, and politics.  Each projects a likeable persona that has the aura of an everyman but which hides his feelings of superiority.  He is able to sell nefarious ideas by articulate and eloquent speeches that appeal to the wants and desires of the masses.
(17)	The Tribulation’s Beast-Dictator is selected because he amalgamates all the characteristics that Satan has identified over the centuries as necessary to accomplish his mission of global government.
(18)	Church Age believers are provided with a wall of fire protecting them from the attacks of these demonic but alluring personalities.
(19)	Doctrine in the soul enables the believer to identify the lie, isolate it, and reject it.  This passage speaks of “wonder miracles of the lie.”  These include suggestions that government can do things for you that you can’t do for yourself.
(20)	Unbelievers and believers without an organized understanding of biblical truth are neutralized by fear of dying.  Fear motivates a person to sell his freedom for a few more years of life under the dictates of a tyrant.  It was this prospect that caused Patrick Henry’s revulsion from the impending attack on the Colonies by the troops of King George III:
Lacky, Robert, Jr.  The Proceedings of the Virginia Convention.  (Richmond: St. John’s Church, 1927), 13: 
It is now too late to retire from the contest.  There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery!  Our chains are forged, their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!  The war is inevitable—and let it come!  I repeat it, sir, let it come!
It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.  Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace—but there is no peace.  The war is actually begun.  The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!  Our brethren are already in the field!  Why stand we here idle?  What is it that gentlemen wish?  What would they have?  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! 
(21)	When our founding patriots heard the clanking of King George’s chains, they considered it better to face death in defense of freedom rather than to live in slavery.
(22)	The enabling attitude is to remember that demonic motivations from the Dark Side are neutralized by the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus Christ controls history and the Holy Spirit uses the battalion of mature believers to restrain the emissaries of Satan while unseen guarding angels take care of details transpiring in the Invisible War.
(23)	Satan constantly tries to utilize his genius mentality to delude and entangle the believer, but he cannot succeed as long as the believer remains in status quo spirituality.
(24)	Rebound places the believer inside the divine power system, knowledge of doctrine prolongs his residency, and the Holy Spirit gives him the enabling power to execute the plan of God.
(25)	With this wall of fire and system of power, no believer should worry about being captured by the duplicitous influence Lucifer imposes on an unsuspecting and unprepared world.
(26)	The last two verses of the chapter emphasize the problem faced by the reversionists being discussed in Romans 1.  The problem in both passages is that they have not “received a love of the truth”:
2 Thessalonians 2:11 -		And for this reason God shall send them the influence of delusion and error so that they might believe the lie,
v. 12 -	in order that they might be judged because they have not believed the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness [ pleasure creates powerful behavior-shaping incentives resulting in wheel-tracks of wickedness ].

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