Spring 2001
The Great Deception
Jack Myers

“In the beginning God ...”

It is with this statement that the Lord introduces His family to His Kingdom. The physical world was already in place and it had become Satan's dominion. Man's presence on earth began with Adam, who was made in the image and likeness of God. Thus, Adam was the manifestation of the presence of God on the earth.

This all took place in the Garden of Eden. This garden was a literal place in order for there to be a physical reality. But it was also a spiritual place. God is Spirit and wherever He is, that place becomes a spiritual condition. This is true now, and it has always been true.

The Kingdom of God, in relation to the earth, is a spiritual condition, which abides within the lives of all those who have made Jesus their personal Lord. At this present time, it is not a literal place on the earth. There is a time, which we are approaching, in which the Lord will have completed His work of preparation within man, and then the Kingdom of God on earth will become a literal place, as well as a spiritual condition. The Lord’s manifest presence will be everywhere, and everyone will be a part of the fulfillment of His plan.

There was a specific event that took place in the Garden which caused Adam to have a "falling out" with the Lord. Rather than obeying the voice of the Lord and the commandment that He had given, Adam and Eve, through deception, ate from the tree of knowledge, of which they had been forbidden to partake. The result of their doing so, is that the knowledge of sin was made known, and was manifested in Adam and in all of his descendants. Man has been eating from this wrong tree ever since.

Adam was created with the capacity to make choices. This is important, as it is with this capacity to choose, that we are tested. We must be proven to be found worthy to be called, first of all, “overcomers,” and ultimately, “the sons of God.” It is through this ability to choose, that we find ourselves able to participate in, and become a part of the Kingdom of God.

Adam's wife was the source of his initial test, as she is the weaker vessel. It was through her that Satan was able to penetrate the spirit of man, in order to make his entrance into, and become part of the life of man.

“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was found in the transgression." I Timothy 2:14.

The serpent who beguiled Eve (the woman) has been attempting to do the same ever since. In these last days - the days of the Book of Revelation, we are dealing with two specific women; “A woman clothed with sun” and another woman, of whom the Lord says,

“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits
on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with
the wine of her fornication." Rev 17:1-2 NKJV.

The first woman speaks of the true Church, the body of Christ. Jesus Christ is the head of this Church, which is clothed in the righteousness of Christ, the Son.

The other woman is apostate christianity and her daughters, who have rejected salvation through the blood of Jesus alone, and have come under the authority and control of man. This is the woman that is still being deceived. The irony in this is that she, this apostate church, has no understanding that this is the case. Satan has come into their presence as an angel of light, and this church does not know the difference.

We, who consider ourselves as being a born again, committed Christian, must ask ourselves, which church am I a part of? Could it be that I am worshiping The Lord in an apostate church and I am not aware of it? There are countless saints of God who are in this situation, and do not know it. But in this, the close of the Gentile age, the Lord by His Spirit, is speaking to the hearts of those who will hear and respond. He is saying to them,

"Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will
be a Father unto you, and you will be My sons and daughters, saith the
Lord Almighty.” II Corinthians 6:17-18.