Conclusion

It is difficult to understand the age in which we are now living. It is easier for us to understand what they should have done in the days of Noah, or in the days of Jesus, or in the days of Hans Nilsen Hauge.1 This agrees with what Jesus says in Matthew 23:29-30: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lied in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’”

Noah alone understood the corruption of his day, and there were not many who saw through the hypocrisy in Jesus’ days. Jesus could say, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Luke 12:1. Hardly anyone else could say this, since, on the surface, the Pharisees did appear to be righteous before men. They were the leading religious authorities of their day, and sat on the seat of Moses. Yet it was precisely during this time that the corruption was so great that their destruction was imminent.

Nearly all of God’s people agree that we are living in the end times. According to the apostle, these are perilous times, because people have a form of godliness but deny its power. They turn away from the truth and turn to fables. But who realizes that these things are actually happening in our times? And if someone lets the light shine, they demand love and cry out that we must not judge, because God is a God of love!

Who has an ear to hear all this hypocrisy that hides behind expression such as: “Under the blood,” “The finished work of Calvary is sufficient,” “Hallelujah, praise the Lord!”? And how many of those who can hear it, dare to speak out? Because if you do say something, you are accused of despising Jesus’ blood and the atonement. Thus people discover that it is best to remain silent and let the hypocrisy continue.

How many people do you suppose suffer because of all this lawlessness in the preaching of the promises without conditions, which extols the grace that is in Christ but keeps quiet about the necessity of obedience on our part? How many people do you suppose really understand how this lawlessness works to rob the blood of Jesus of its power? Read 2 Kings 17:9. “And the children of Israel hid the Lord their God with words that were not right . . .” [Norw. Trans.]. In this connection the description of the harlot in Revelation 17:1-2 is very apt: “And the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” “For by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.” Rev. 18:23.

“Drunk” is the right word for the condition of God’s people today. Both their hearing and vision are clouded. They know that something is amiss, like drunkards often do, but they are at a loss to do anything about it. They cry out for power and blessing, for signs and wonders and revival; they cry out like the prophets of Baal did. Could it be that God has fallen asleep or that He is so poor that He has to ration His power and His Spirit?

If only God’s people could wake up to the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, wake up to the fact that this is the revival they need—a revival to the obedience of faith! This is the revival that is needed so that we can be baptized by one Spirit to be the body of Christ, and realize that we are called to obedience and works, and again to obedience and works. We need a revival to realize the fact that only they love Jesus who have His commandments and keep them. Then the Father will love them, and Jesus and the Father will make their abode with them. John 14:21-25. Then unity will be the automatic result, and the power of godliness will result in victory over sin and worldliness; and with their lives they will then be a witness of the same good confession that Jesus, Timothy, and all the saints down through the ages have made.

“Sorcery” is an apt expression for the deception of our day. Sorcery claims to dispense with natural laws and produce supernatural effects through spells and magic. Preachers by the thousands are trying to “charm” their listeners into heaven, without giving them God’s laws and commandments. “Jesus kept the law for us,” they say; “He went the way for us, in our stead, so that we would not have to.” But was Jesus resurrected for us, and did He go to heaven for us so that “we would not have to”?

God’s people are so bewitched that when they read the Scriptures they read nothing of the new covenant. They do not read what they see, and they do not see what is written; but they see and read what they have heard from the harlot, and they are always looking for “a good verse” as they say.

Pray to God that He might deliver you from this sorcery, and begin to read the Scriptures as if you had never read them before. Start noticing what is actually written. Then it will dawn on you that nearly everything you read is an exhortation to obey and to do. The Scriptures, from beginning to end, speak clearly of the new covenant.

Think if there could be a revival in these end times, a revival that would stir us up to follow Jesus on the narrow way of life; for if we do not follow Him on this way, we can never walk in the steps of the One who did no sin. 1 Pet. 2:21-24. May there be a revival that stirs our hearts to die with Him, that we might live with Him, so that all this sorcery—this deception—might be exposed before Jesus comes again. Then God’s people will be endued with power from on high as they were before, and their faith will once again become real and effectual. 2 Tim. 3:8. When our sufficiency is of God we are truly sufficient unto every good work and word.

This booklet will have achieved its purpose if it contributes toward bringing about such a revival. But even if revival does not come, God’s judgment on the harlot surely will come, and the cry will be heard, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Rev. 14:8.

Just as it was said about the people in the old covenant upon whom God’s judgment fell, “But they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.” Jer. 32:23. The same judgment will be passed on the people of the new covenant when destruction from God descends on them.

For you who read this booklet, may it be like a voice from heaven, crying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.