The Crowning Act of Deception, December 6

The Return of Our Lord

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. Matthew 24:4, 5.FLB 346.1

As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation.... The shout of triumph rings out upon the air, “Christ has come! Christ has come!” The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him.... In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed....FLB 346.2

Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures, and who have received the love of the truth, will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive.^{14The Great Controversy, 624, 625.}FLB 346.3

The Saviour has warned His people ..., and has clearly foretold the manner of His second coming. “There shall arise false Christs.... Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:24-27. This coming, there is no possibility of counterfeiting. It will be universally known—witnessed by the whole world....FLB 346.4

Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His Word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible, and the Bible only? ^{15The Great Controversy, 625.}FLB 346.5