A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. - Proverbs 25:11

The Major Sins of Our Time
Dr. Malcolm (Chip) Hill, Jr.

Dear Friends and Companions in Ministry:

The eighth year of the new millennium is well underway, and I’ve been reflecting on the many challenges we face, not only as Americans, but also as Christians who want to make our lives count for the Lord. Much to my wife’s chagrin (just kidding), I get entertainment out of watching the Fox News Network with its many political analyses and debates about key issues shaping our world. Maybe I watch too much commentary and dispute, but I always try to interpret what I am hearing in light of the Word of God, and what it teaches about life and things to come.

Lately, while following the news, I have been struck by the total accuracy of a verse in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. Speaking prophetically about the people who are alive at the time of the end, John recorded that “they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (9:21). It is not hard to see the fulfillment of this striking verse in contemporary times, seeing that the sins listed therein are broadcast daily around the world via satellite technology. To me this is a sure indication of the times we live in. 

Most of the people committing these sins are carnal and worldly, and have little or no compunction about what they do; therefore, as the verse says, they do not repent and turn from their murders, sorceries, fornication and thefts. How is it that so many see no wrong in what they do? How is it that the conscience of a whole nation is becoming hardened to what is right and proper? I believe the answer is simple. It is because the lamplight of God’s Word has been thrown out of the major institutions of America, particularly the two that have a direct impact on the public (education and entertainment), and the collective conscience of the nation has been seared, seduced and damaged by the poisons of moral and ethical relativism. Therefore, the call for repentance goes unheard and unheeded. Today, scores of Hollywood screen writers, directors, producers and actors, as well as the majority of educators at both public school and university levels, carry out the sad and alarming reality of Isaiah 5:20, calling evil good, and good evil; putting darkness for light, and light for darkness; and putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. When the people the entertainment media parades before us are scoundrels, the impressionable among us become scoundrels like them. When the people who teach our children despise the Word of God, how can we expect our children to honor and revere it themselves?  

As we have pointed out, the four major sins of the end times will be murders, sorceries (witchcraft), sexual immorality and thefts (Revelation 9:21). Behind each one of these sins is a spiritual prince that must be resisted in prayer and spiritual warfare by Christ’s warrior bride, the Church. Paul said we are to wrestle these principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12), and not quit till Jesus comes. Let us briefly examine these four enemies of righteousness, and how their assignments are being played out today.

Murders – We all know that murder is the taking of innocent life. Turn on the television, watch a newscast, and murder is much of what you will hear about. It seems an innumerable host of murder spirits have been loosed on the world. Murder has been with us since Cain killed Abel, but it is increasing worldwide. From parents drowning, shooting or starving their children, to the rape and slaughter of vulnerable young ladies from every walk of life, the murder rate exploding! There also is the horror of gang violence in our cities and towns, terrorism on a national and international scale, abortion on demand by “professionals” donning white apparel, serial killings by brain-twisted maniacs, and genocidal armies killing for religious and political ideologies. Just name it, murder is occurring everywhere, increasing in rate and intensity!

Jesus warned that it would be this way in the years leading up to His return.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
                                                                                                Matthew 24:37

What was it like in the days of Noah? Genesis 6:11 and 13 record that the earth was “filled with violence.”  It seems that every heinous method of torture and murder ever imagined in the depraved mind of man has come to fruition in this day. Jesus must be coming soon!

Sorceries – Notice this word is found in the plural. That is because sorcery is not limited to one brand or technique, but is multifarious in its nature and manifestation.
            I break sorceries (witchcraft) down into three (3) visible manifestations: Manipulation and control; domination through drugs; and the occult.
 
1. Manipulation and control show up when one person tries to micro-manage the life of another. This can be found at any level of society. You see it when a strong, overbearing mother, father, or some other family member rules the family through one or more methods of intimidation, like temper tantrums, pouting, crying, threatening, or by conveniently getting sick in order to get special attention. If witchcraft cannot control outright, it will cleverly manipulate; either way, it will get what it wants.

Galatians 5:20 lists witchcraft as a work of the flesh, which always seeks to coerce other people into doing its will. Sorcery will distort the truth, lie outright, or conveniently withhold information in order to shape another’s opinions to satisfy its own selfish desires. When witchcraft becomes strong, a demon attaches to it and the problem rises to a much higher level, becoming a stronghold. In such cases, the witchcraft demon gets a strong hold on the “witch” and needs to be exorcised. New mindsets and habits of humility also need to be established in his or her life.

Manipulative sorcery also uses another lethal method for gaining control over people. It does so by using the secular news media. As I’ve stated, witchcraft’s nature is to manipulate and/or control lives, and when pushing opinions and formulas that are in line with Satan’s agenda, a nation’s news organizations become a major instrument in its hands. In the diabolical hands of media sorcerers, biblical standards are scorned, family values are trashed, and moral and ethical purity are cast down on the stones of relativism, which says anything goes.  

 2. Another form of sorcery is mind manipulation through drugs. From the verse in Revelation 9:21, the Greek word farmakon, translated “sorceries,” is also translated “drugs.” In Galatians 5:20, the Greek word—farmakeia, translated “sorcery,” also relates directly to the selling and taking of drugs. From these two Greek words we derive the modern word “pharmacy.” This connection is very interesting in light of what we see happening today. Turn on the TV for an evening, and you’ll be inundated with advertisements promoting drugs that will make all your problems go away. I once only labeled farmakeia as the brand of sorcery being practiced by those who deal in illegal drugs, but my understanding has been enlarged to include certain medical professionals who hand out mind-influencing prescription drugs as though it was candy. Prescription medicine is big business in America, and there are some drug companies that spend more money on advertising than they do on research. If one listens to all the commercials on TV that push drug therapy, he is bound to start taking something. That is why I hit the mute button on my remote whenever one of these commercials comes on. I refuse to let the spirit of witchcraft manipulate me into taking something I don’t want or need. There is one particular commercial that talks about RLS, or Restless Leg Syndrome. I think most of those drug companies have RMS, or Restless Mouth Syndrome! Through their subtle sales pitches, they place fear in people, talking them into embracing mental and/or physical sicknesses that many don’t really have. Psychosomatic manipulation works wonders when the spirit of sorcery is behind it, and the dividends for the drug companies are very rewarding! 
Today, if a person is only a little depressed, he is labeled “bi-polar,” and given an anti-depressant drug like Prozac or Cymbalta. And God forbid, if a child is just a little more energetic than his classmates, he is quickly labeled ADD and given Ritalin, which often causes severe depression. I guess doctors and parents would rather have a subdued and depressed child than a super-energetic and happy one. Studies have proven that more exercise and “energy-burning activities” would be a better remedy than sorceries synthetic poisoning!

When I was a kid, you never heard of other kids being on drugs like Ritalin. Like myself, they were spending their hours after school playing ball down at the park, or working hard on the family farm.  

Once a psychotropic, antipsychotic, or psychoactive drug therapy begins, it becomes a very difficult habit to shake, and the patient becomes increasingly dependent on his drug for the ability to function. I believe that the drugging of America has become a powerful tool in the hands of the spirit of witchcraft, because by using certain drugs, the spirit can more easily influence, manipulate and dominate a greater percentage of the population. When drug therapy is absolutely necessary, use it. But if an alternative method for treating an ailment can be found, by all means take that path to recovery.

3. Sorcery also manifests through the occult. This form of witchcraft is very virulent, and is seen in the many “mystic” beliefs and practices that fill the spiritual landscape of our nation. Fortune telling, necromancy, god and goddess worship, nature worship, spell casting, witchcraft literature, etc. make up the gamut of this medium of witchcraft/sorcery in the world today. God condemns it soundly throughout the Word, yet a rebellious citizenry continues to enter into it. (See  Isaiah 30:1; Deuteronomy 18:9-12; Isaiah 8:19; Leviticus 19:26, 31; Isaiah 47:8-15.) 

Sexual Immorality  - Years ago, in my first book, Kingdom Commandos (1986), I predicted that pornography would become Satan’s ace-in-the-hole for keeping men from becoming the spiritual warriors they are called to be in these last days. How could I know then that the world’s computer wizards would soon create a medium of data transportation called “The Information Super-Highway,” and make it possible for countless pornographic websites to be downloaded with the click of a button in the privacy of one’s home or office? No longer do men have to have physical contact with a woman to commit fornication, but they can keep it clean and totally secret. Sinning privately before a computer screen is more a matter of the heart than of the body, which in the long run, is the worst and most damaging manifestation of sin. A man addicted to Internet porn can keep his secret habit alive for years, thereby digging himself into a deeper recess of iniquity. The man who has physical contact with a woman he shouldn’t be with is more likely to get caught, and thereby be forced to deal with his sin before the eyes of other people. In some ways he has a better chance of getting free than the man who can sin in absolute privacy.

Concerning the porn queens, the seductive sirens who lace thousands of web pages in sex-crazed America, the Word of the Lord warns His men: “Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths; for she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men” (Proverbs 7:25-26). Notice the verse says that the wounded “were” strong men. This indicates that no man is immune to the temptations of an adulteress woman, no matter how old he is in God, or how great his spiritual exploits have been. When tempted to turn into her gate (at the computer terminal), flee from her as though fleeing from a plague! Run to your secret place of prayer and cry out to God! If that doesn’t work, set aside specific time periods for focused fasting. Fasting breaks yokes of bondage like nothing else we can do.

Thefts – Stolen property, stolen information, stolen innocence, stolen friendship, stolen health, stolen influence, stolen lives. Stealing is a hallmark sin of the end times. The culprits are anyone who wants something they don’t own, and who take it from those who legitimately own it. From the common, low-life street criminal, to the big government bureaucrat taking more in taxes than is right; from a child stealing a friend’s new toy, to a young man taking a young girl’s virginity; from the credit card bandit amassing merchandise at another’s expense, to the murderer taking another human life—theft abounds all around us. Jesus must be coming soon!

Summary

By now you have probably thought of all sorts of people who are guilty of one or more of these end time sins. But beloved, what about you?  When is the last time you murdered someone in your heart (?), or delved into some form of witchcraft (?), or committed sexual sin (?), or took something that wasn’t yours? It is often easier for us to point the finger at someone else than it is to point it at ourselves.  God deliver us from that natural human tendency.

The problem with these four end time sins is not simply that people will commit them (that is bad enough), but that they will not repent and turn from them. This does not speak to people who recognize and quarrel with their sin until it is driven from their lives, but it does address people who refuse to recognize and deal with their sin. Speaking of people like this, John says,  “if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Such people are in grave danger of drifting away from the Lord (Hebrews 2:1). However, people who recognize and wrestle with their sin show that they have a repentant heart, even though their struggle may be a “long war” as was the struggle between the house of Saul (the old man), and the house of David (the new man). (See 2 Samuel 3:1.)  Not every battle with sin is won quickly; therefore, we mustn’t lose heart and surrender to a lifestyle of sin when we falter along the way. Simply get up, run to God, and confess your sin to the One who is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Thank God we have an Advocate with the Father who represents us whenever we plead His blood over our transgressions!

I recently was blessed to receive a vision concerning God’s wonderful mercy and forgiveness of my sin. In the vision, I saw a sincere but struggling Christian, plodding through life with an earnest desire to please God in everything he did. However, he had a few besetting sins that regularly tripped him up, sins he had probably carried with him from his life before Christ. Each time the brother stumbled and fell, he would hurry to his feet and quickly turn to face the two who were following closely behind him. Whenever he did this, Goodness and Mercy were there to embrace him. By confession of his sin, and by verbally expressing a determination to stop the sin, the brother would be encouraged, and made stronger than he was before. At times, Goodness would encourage him to fast, to pray, and to fortify his heart with the Word of God. At other times he was encouraged to confide in a trustworthy brother who could help him deal with the besetting sin. Eventually he prevailed, the besetting sins were driven from his life, and he was freed to walk in greater levels of holiness and power with God and man.