Everything is manipulated!

Centennial light bulb

Pictured above is what is known as the centennial light bulb.  This light bulb has been burning since 1901 almost continuously except for a handful of times.  It has survived two world wars, power fluctuations, and nearly 120 years of service and has only been off a few times due to human error.  It is a simple hand-blown glass with a carbon filament manufactured in the late 1890s.  So why hasn’t it blown, cracked, or ceased to work in all of those 120 years?  Perhaps a better question is why do our modern light globes malfunction so quickly?  Isn’t our technology so much better today?   The answer is that everything is manipulated!  Okay, okay I know that might be hyperbole¹ but I don’t think that I am too far off the mark.

Planned obsolescence

Apparently, this centennial light bulb is a poster child for planned obsolescence which means that everything that is made these days including the modern-day light bulbs are designed to break eventually so that a new purchase must be made.  This includes any manufactured goods including cars, washing machines, computers, and the list goes on and on.  (Comment below on what your experience is of planned obsolescence.  I’d love to hear.)  The reason I believe is that everything is manipulated and the underlying reason is money.  The love of money is the root of evil and it is almost impossible for anything in our day not to be manipulated.  We are continuously being manipulated or deceived, subject to fake news and false messages and that includes the gospel—don’t get me started on that!  How is the gospel manipulated?  False teachers have been around for 2000 years and we see that the Apostles taught against false teaching and to be aware of false teachers. To listen to my series in 2 Peter on false teaching and how to identify false teaching and false teachers start by clicking here.

Deception that has lasted 6000 years

The thing is we know that the devil is behind this because he has been manipulating mankind ever since Adam and Eve were deceived in the Garden of Eden almost 6000 years ago.  At its core, planned obsolescence is just a fancy phrase for deception and manipulation.  I believe that never before in the history of mankind have we been so deceived, so manipulated and so controlled as what we are now and it’s only going to get worse and finally reach its culmination in the final 3 ½ years of this church age.  And the chief deceiver will be on earth in the form of the Antichrist and the False Prophet to make sure that we take that final step in the wrong direction.  This false trinity’s purpose will be to deceive the world and to bring pressure to bear upon the whole of humanity to take his mark and to be his followers.  And with that, he will take with him most of the world and most Christians as well.  That is the stark reality.  That reminds me of the verse in Matthew 7:13–14:  And Jesus said to his followers, “You must enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and roomy and easy is the way that leads to destruction and many people enter through and go this way.  But small is the gate and constricted and full of difficulties is the way that leads to eternal life and only a few people find it.” (EDV) Not many will make it in the end and the primary reason in the tribulation period is that deception and manipulation will abound.  Jesus’ first words of warning to the disciples when addressing them about the end times in Matthew 24 was to watch out that no one deceives them.

Ways to stop being deceived

Today we find ourselves not very far away from those final days and we find ourselves being deceived and manipulated in every way.  The things we buy, the insurances that we take out, the medicines we swallow and advice we receive, the stock market, the banks, and sad to say the church as well.  What hope do we have in being able to survive these times?  We have to surround ourselves with trustworthy advisors, weigh everything up against the truth of the Bible, read it for ourselves, watch for the signs and pray that we may be able to escape everything that is about to occur.  Unless we do that we will surely be deceived. The final truth-tellers will be the two witnesses and the world will hate them for what they prophesy over that first 1260 days.  And then at the midpoint, at the sound of the 5th trumpet, the end times dictator will rise from the abyss and kill these two faithful men.²  These two God anointed men will tell the truth and we will have time to escape, if we listen, to the place in the wilderness described in Revelation 12. In the meantime do your own research and be ready.  If we leave it too late then we won’t have time to enact our bug-out safety plan and we will be unconvinced just like the 5 foolish virgins.