“For by your sorcery all the nations were deceived” Revelation 18:23.
All over the world people are questioning what role Covid19 and the vaccine mandates might play in what Scripture calls “the time of the end.” The significant, rapid changes that have occurred over the past two years are nothing if not ominous. Consider just three of these:
1. We are being conditioned to accept the opinions of so-called experts as absolute, unquestionable fact. If you question these “experts” you are called a neanderthal, or something worse. Blind obedience to mandates that defy common sense and are inconsistent within themselves is being forced upon us.
2. The scope and size of civil governments have swelled to unprecedented proportions. This is true worldwide, almost without exception. Previously democratic societies have been transformed into veritable police states almost overnight. Many wonder if we are not on the verge of a totalitarian “New World Order.”
3. Isolating people from one another used to be the exception. Now it is the rule. In many cases children lost an entire year of in person school. More of this is being threatened in some parts of the country. Family members have been isolated and divided. Numerous churches were closed this past year. Some remain that way. Many thinking Christians see this as a sign of the times.
In light of the events of the past two years, many careful Bible students are wondering if the pharmaceutical industry might be implicated in earth’s final conflict. They have reached this conclusion because of a word that occurs in the original language of the NT - Greek. You’ll recognize the word when I say it, because it is so close to its English counterpart. The word is pharmakeia. It is translated into English as sorcery. This word and its cognates occur a total of five times in the New Testament. Four of these are in the book of Revelation. Three of the occurrences in chapters 9, 21, and 22 and form part of lists of sins. People who persist in these sins will be excluded from the kingdom of God. This is important to know, but it does not tell us why sorcery is a problem. The key verse is Revelation 18:23: “The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.” Here is the WHY.
Now if you came to this breakout session expecting me to roundly condemn the whole pharmaceutical industry, you will leave disappointed. This word Pharmakeia does not directly equate to today’s drug industry. It refers to the practices of those who used drugs, particularly hallucinogenic drugs, to prepare their minds to make contact with what they believed were spirits of the dead. In reality these people were opening their minds to the devil who impersonates the dead in order to deceive the living. God never, ever gave any sanction to communication with the dead, because the dead are unconscious. This is why the practice of sorcery was specified as a capital crime in ancient Israel. God declared in Exodus 22:18 - “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” But because this word is the root word of our modern English word pharmacy or pharmaceutical, many Bible readers are wondering if the vaccine mandates, encouraged by the pharmaceutical companies constitute the final test of loyalty for God’s people. I’ll give you the answer up front - Is it the final test? No, it isn’t. But it is still a big problem, and let me tell you why. It is because sorcery has always been connected to false science. Could it be that a combination of false science and sorcery is what prepares most of the world to reject the gospel and fail the final test? Based on Scripture, the answer is yes.
Now to understand the role of sorcery in the final test, we have to first back up and look at the larger context of Rev 18:23. Revelation 17 and 18 present the rise and fall of a power called “Babylon.” Babylon is portrayed as a woman, but not just any kind of woman. She is both a prostitute and a sorceress. Rev 17:2 tells us that Babylon seeks influence over the rulers of nations and over the rank and file of every nation. Rev 17:6 lets us in on the fact that Babylon is an oppressive power - Rev. 17:6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Verses 17, 18 of that same chapter show us that Babylon will actually gain power over the nations in an unholy coalition against God and His people for a time.
But in Revelation 18 the tide turns. The everlasting gospel - the glorious message of warning and hope from God comes in the form of this loud cry in vs. 4 and disrupts Babylon’s worldly dreams. Her ultimate downfall is portrayed in graphic, powerful language. The collapse of this power reduces nations to panic (vss 9,10). It brings down the economic system so completely that the value of even the most precious commodities is reduced to nothing (vss 11-19). The only ones who rejoice at the downfall of this deceptive, seductive power are the people of God, whom she persecuted. (Vs. 20). Verses 21-24 speak of the suddenness and the totality of her fall. Rev. 18:21 ¶ Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.
Rev. 18:22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore.
Rev. 18:23 The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.
Rev. 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”
Note verse 23 again, please, and the reason that is given there for her fall. She is said to have deceived all the nations by means of her sorcery. Now it is important to recognize that the ancient sorcerers had a certain scientific air about them. They were people who were seeking to understand how the world works, and they also sought to predict future events and trends based on their theories and practices. In many parts of the world they were also known as mathematicians, meteorologists, and astronomers, and alchemists. These were educated, smart people. They resorted to magic partly because of their limited ability to observe, but also because they either did not understand or did not accept what God had revealed about how the world works.
Science
So we should now ask this question - is secular science any less magical in its thinking today? Here are a few modern examples:
1. Let’s talk first about the “science” of origins - the so-called “Big Bang Theory.” This is the idea that everything in the universe originated because of a quantum fluctuation of a superdense particle of matter eons ago, and that the universe as we know it was the result. One question - where did the superdense particle come from? Are we to believe that it originated by itself? This is not science, it is magic.
2. Then there’s the “science” of climate change. Many people believe that man has the power to destroy the world by means of the dreaded carbon emissions. But what about all the computer modeling and doomsday predictions that have been set out there for decades? It’s a record of failure after failure. Yet the climate prognosticators continue to push new models and theories. Is this science, or is it superstition?
3. And lastly, what about the “science” surrounding Covid19? We’ve been asked to believe in asymptomatic spread. We’ve been asked to believe that a cloth surgical mask will stop a virus that is significantly smaller than pores of the mask. And, we’ve been asked to believe that a “vaccine” that doesn’t prevent infection, hospitalization, or transmission must be made mandatory even for people that are at very low risk of serious illness or death. Let’s call this what it is - it is magic; it is not science.
Throughout sacred history false science and sorcery, both rooted in the rejection of the Word of God, have stood side by side in opposition to God’s message of truth and righteousness. It was true of the magicians of Egypt who opposed Moses and Aaron when they brought God’s message of salvation to Pharaoh. It was true of the sorcerers who stood before Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon when Daniel the prophet brought God’s message of grace to him. It was even true of Jezebel, that evil Phoenician princess who became the wife of King Ahab of Israel. According to Scripture she was both a harlot and a sorceress. She stood next to Ahab and sought to counter the message of Elijah, God’s prophet. But the prophets of her god - Baal - met an inglorious end on Mt. Carmel; and she herself, years later was killed by her own servants. Her history is recorded in the Bible as a parallel to that of this end time power which seeks to oppress the people of God and nullify His message by similar means.
But friends, this mingling of false science and false religion will go to even greater lengths than it has yet to oppose God’s warning message for our generation. As it happened at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, so it will be in our own time. False miracles will be performed, signs and wonders, done by demonic power, will fascinate and deceive those who do not take their stand on the Bible and the Bible only. Babylon, that pluralistic conglomerate of religious beliefs including pseudo-Christianity will feature spiritualistic phenomena as the primary attraction. Open sorcery - the invocation of supposed spirits of the dead (which are really demons doing impersonations - read Psalm 106:28 and 1Cor 10:20) will blow people away - especially political leaders. These manifestations will encourage a future restriction on civic, social, and economic life against those who refuse to receive the mark of the beast. My friend, those who have failed to discern between God’s Word and the enemy’s voice in this present hour will have a doubly difficult time then, with even more subtlety and greater pressure. How shall we prepare for this? The only safety we have is by taking every mandate, every doctrine, every statement and sentiment and measuring all of it by God’s Word - the Bible. I’ll close with this powerful statement:
“Those who endeavor to obey all the commandments of God will be opposed and derided. They can stand only in God. In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in His word; they can honor Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government, and purposes, and act in accordance with them. None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul will come the searching test: Shall I obey God rather than men? The decisive hour is even now at hand. Are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable word? Are we prepared to stand firm in defense of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? “ GC 593.2
Friend, you, and you alone must answer these closing questions for yourself. May God help us all to answer them in a way that we will not regret later.
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Skip Dodson embraced the Advent message as a 25 year old aerospace engineering graduate student. Over the past three decades he has served as a Bible worker, a district pastor, an administrator, and as a college dean and religion chair. He is currently serving as a self-supporting missionary based in Colorado. Skip has been united in ministry for 25+ years with his wife Renee. The couple have two young adult children, both of whom are partners with them in mission.
