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.
5 Responses
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your well thought-out article and encouragement to persevere and be prepared in our walk with the Lord. How this ‘looks’ would no doubt be interpreted differently by many. I believe you have ‘hit-on’ a vital key by mentioning the need to be ‘walking in the Spirit’. However, this in itself would also be subject to interpretation as most Christians would vouch that they are doing so already, or trying to! Food for good thought and further study/reflection! God’s continued blessings and wisdom.
One thing about the passage about always being ready that has bugged me is apart from it being about Christ’s eventual return, it doesn’t seem clear to me what the oil or “being awake” is supposed to mean. Plus when Jesus rebuked the people from being able to tell the seasons and yet not the time and despite that we’ve been saying “Jesus is coming soon” since Paul was walking around.
There’s been tons of people guessing the “when” but what I am concerned about is what’s the oil and where do we get it, and how do we know when we have enough to last us?
Hi Dan,
The fact that the 5 wise virgins had enough oil and were ready when the Lord came and the 5 foolish virgins did not have enough oil and were not ready when the Lord came seems to indicate that the oil represents our perseverance, patience and perhaps preparedness. These would all be results of walking in the Spirit. More than 200 times in the Bible the working and presence of the Spirit is represented by oil. It was up to the virgins to ensure that they were ready with enough oil and it is up to us as Christians to ensure that we are patient and are ready and walking with God until the very end. And that’s where I think manipulation and deception can possibly take us away from the path because we just haven’t done enough work on our foundations. The devil will use the old trap of money and finances to ensnare most people. One of the traps coming I think is the CBDC
Hello Steve, great article – always love reading them and studying the Bible references attached to each point. Very true we are manipulated, because our design and engineering, materials and expertise are being pushed to their maximum parameters and because of cost to produce and pressures on bottom lines. God is the only person who can create perfection. On the manipulation subject mathematics provides the necessary probability of failures of components or machines for companies to decide how much they can push the limits?
P.S. sorry for the long comment totally out of character for me – haha
So true we have had the obsolescence experience. A ‘new’ oven only to be told by a repair person 2007 was ‘old’. Similar experience with a TV. How can we have one of those lights!!!