Are Christians killing other Christians? A start of a simple discussion.
For some students of prophecy, the facts outlined previously were not only predictable, but were a
prophesied prelude to a period in history wherein true believers will be “beheaded for the witness of
Jesus, and for the word of God, and….[for] not worship[ing] the beast, neither his image, neither…
[receiving] his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” (Rev. 20:4).
Yet, when discussing this end-times scenario, and in particular the subject of rigorous
persecution, often overlooked is the role that religious “Christians” are being shaped today to play
against the true body of Christ. Even the subtitle of this book and the concept of a coming war
between Christians could seem beyond credulity if it were not for what the inspired texts themselves
convey. Jesus predicted a time when “whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service”
(John 16:2), and in Matthew 24, He told His disciples:
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all
[groups of people] for my name’s sake.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one
another.
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. (Matthew 24:9–
12)
Elsewhere in the Bible is described this coming era of Great Tribulation, as when the
Antichrist will have power “to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (Rev. 13:7; see also
Dan. 7:21). Immediately following those verses, there is description of a second beast with “two
horns like a lamb” who speaks “like a dragon” (Rev. 13:11). Most evangelical scholars identify this
second “beast” as the leader of the end-times religious institution who will be under Satan’s control.
The phrase “like a lamb” indicates he will pretend to represent the Lamb of God and the Christian
church, while the expression “speaks like a dragon” identifies the devilish source of his authority and
power. This final, global, super-church leader will be a murderer not unlike the Antichrist, and will
cause “that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Rev. 13:15).
Thus, the book of Revelation outlines how the political figure of Antichrist derives
ultranational dominance from the world’s religious faithful through the influence of an ecclesiastical
leader (also called the False Prophet) who will not hesitate to swim in the blood of the genuine saints
of God
In the days between now and when these men of sin are identified, this reality—that latter-day
churchgoers will soon believe they are serving the kingdom of God by participating in or approving
the death of conservative Christians—is not a concept lost on all contemporary churchmen. There are
those who see things taking shape even now for a war that will eventually pit religious “Christians”
against the real members of the body of Christ. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin
Welby, stated early in 2014 that “modern Christians” will now be “‘called’ to suffer and even die for
the faith” in a new era “of martyrdom.” But a clarifying document that was not supposed to be
made public and which was authored by a senior advisor to Welby’s predecessor details how such a
time of great persecution is coming because true believers will, according to the letter, be driven
underground by liberal Christians and will become a dissident association comparable to resistance
movements during World War II. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, one of America’s most beloved Bible
teachers of the past century, taught the same and clarified that these true biblical believers would
ultimately be driven “underground” by none other than latter-day denominational churches. Another of
the twentieth century’s most perceptive writers was pastor and author A. W. Tozer (who was not
usually given to prognostication), who likewise wrote:
Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming when all the holy men
whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly Evangelicalism, one by
one. The house [institutional Christianity] will be left desolate and there will not be a man of
God, a man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them.
These Holy-Spirit-devoid church attenders will join other “religious types” to constitute
Antichrist’s apostate religious and political order (connected to “Mystery Babylon” in Revelation 17
and, as unfathomable as it may sound, will seek to formulate perhaps the most egregious rank among
the Man of Sin’s Gestapo members in their appetite for destroying latter-day, truly born-again
believers
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