The Three Heavens: Angels, Demons and What Lies Ahead by John Hagee

Author:John Hagee [Hagee, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw, epub
Publisher: Worthy Publishing
Published: 2015-05-12T04:00:00+00:00

UNHOLY PURSUITS

This death-worshiping spirit did not begin with the Church of Satan and satanic rituals. The spirit of the Antichrist has raised its atrocious head throughout history through the likes of Cain, Haman, Herod, Nero, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Mao Tse-Tung, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, Saddam Hussein, Al-Assad, Khamenei of Iran, as well as leaders of the newly founded, radically extremist Islamic State.

The spirit of murder was introduced to the world through Satan’s manipulative power over Cain, which resulted in the killing of his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1–9). This murderous compulsion can be traced throughout biblical history.

Abimelech coveted the succession of his father’s throne and assured his three-year reign over Israel by murdering his seventy brothers (Judges 9).

Herod the Great was the Roman-appointed king of Judea. He was a brutal, paranoid man who killed his father-in-law, nine of his ten wives, and two of his sons. He rebelled against the laws of God to suit his own selfish ambitions and ordered the slaughter of all Israel’s male children two years and under because he considered the baby born in Bethlehem a threat to his throne (Matthew 2:16).

Thirty years later the son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, entered into Israel’s notorious history. Herod was a pathetic and lecherous ruler who openly lived with Herodias, his niece and the ex-wife of his half brother, Philip. When John the Baptist denounced Herod for this incestuous relationship (Leviticus 18:6), Herod had John imprisoned. Then, at the vindictive dictate of Herodias and her daughter (Herod’s soon-to-be mistress) Salome, Herod had John the Baptist beheaded (Matthew 14:6–11). Herod Antipas is most remembered, however, as one of the co-conspirators in the conviction and execution of Jesus Christ.

Church history records the persecution and slaughter of innocents under the vicious commands of the maniacal Nero. Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 265–340) chronicled “Nero’s plunge into unholy pursuits” in his work Church History, Book II, Chapter 25. Eusebius described the Roman despot as an “extraordinary madman” who was responsible for a countless number of murders, including his mother, brothers, and wife.

Nero’s lifestyle was marked by lavish self-indulgence and tyranny. His egocentric personality craved acceptance by the people, which drove him to blame the burning of Rome on a new religious sect known as Christians. During his wicked reign, Christians were arrested and thrown to the wild beasts or crucified. Many were also burned to death at night, serving as “lights” in Nero’s garden.

This brutal persecution immortalized Rome’s ruler as the first antichrist in the eyes of the Christian Church. It was also during Nero’s reign that the apostles Peter and Paul were executed, one being crucified upside down and the other beheaded.

Contemporary world history is not exempt from the calculated mass murder of the innocent.

Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953, is known as one of history’s most prolific killers. Stalin’s brutal rule featured so many atrocities (including manufactured famines, torture, acts of mass murder, and massacres) that the actual amount of bloodshed will likely never be known.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.