In relation to the judgments on Babylon the Great, that are poured out after the return of the Lord Jesus, Revelation 18:23 says, "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.”

All nations are deceived and come to recognize that they have inherited lies.

In Revelation 16, in the time of the sixth vial, when speaking specifically of the final days before the return of the Lord Jesus, the prophecy focuses on unclean teachings (spirits) going out into the world. These teachings (philosophies) gather the nations to war against the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 16:13-16 reads,

A school in Sderot, Israel, with a massive concrete and steel roof, to protect the children
from missiles. (Photo: David Billington)

"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”

The dragon, beast and false prophet are symbols which depict the latter-day secular and religious powers which are descended from the Eastern and Western Roman empires. In other words the European Union, Russia the Vatican (Roman Church) and the Greek Orthodox Church. Out of the mouths of these powers have come teachings which have gone out into the world to deceive the people. The result of this great deception, will bring the nations of the world to war against the Lord Jesus Christ, they come against a Hebrew place. Combining these words with those of the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38, we can determine that this Hebrew place is in the midst of the land of Israel, an area called the mountains of Israel. The nations come against the people that have been regathered to these mountains. The nations, in their deception, come against God’s regathered Jewish people.

A missile protected school in Sderot Israel, with a bomb shelter (right) in the playground.
(Photo: David Billington)

We can see then that the lies that uphold this deception are antisemitic. They cause the nations to come against God’s regathered people.

These verses, then, in Revelation 16, have a momentous warning for us. A warning to be on our utmost guard, that we do not become deceived, as we are immersed in a world of deception, in an age of lies.

This deception is depicted as intoxicating wine in Revelation 18.

"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”

"For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:” (Proverbs 5:3) The deception of this system is smoother than oil, it comes with financial benefits and status in society. It is a smooth deception.

If all the nations are to be deceived, it is clear that our main stream media will also be deceived and is going to be a source of deception. In Revelation 16, we are being warned by the Lord Jesus not to believe the media — the mouth piece of the world governments. Not to believe what we hear. Not to be deceived. 

Another school in Sderot Israel, with massive concrete and steel sections, to create
missile protected areas.
(Photo: David Billington)

Today the mass media is the tool of governments to convince the masses of their policies. Journalism today is no longer reporting the facts of an event that transpired, but subtly shaping the narrative, to suit a particular ideology. Just over a week ago, journalist Matt Taibbi, on Newsmax TV’s, “The Record” said:

“There [are] a couple of things about that that are remarkable: Number one, scan the pages of mainstream news coverage today, and you will not see anybody covering that story. That’s the story about Michael Morell admitting his role in that, the former acting CIA Director. That’s a massive story of national consequence, and it’s just simply not in the news, much like the Twitter files reports were completely ignored. So, what kind of country are we living in now? It’s — I went to school — I’m old enough to have gone to college in the Soviet Union and nobody read the newspapers because it was all lies and there was no real news in [them]. Well, we’re starting to come to that same situation in America.”

While some people recognize this, unfortunately most do not. Even less so when it comes to Israel. The media has been biased against Israel for years, and this is exactly what we would expect from the book of Revelation and the prophets.

A Visit to Sderot, Israel.

For many years Israel has suffered terrorist missile attacks originating from Gaza. These missiles are not highly accurate, but they are deadly when fired at civilian areas. As a tool for terrorism, when fired in the general direction of Israeli towns, these missiles have  killed, maimed and terrorized Israeli men, women and children. An Israeli town near the Gaza strip, called Sderot, has suffered the most from these attacks. The people in these areas have at times felt abandoned by the Israeli government, as the threat and terrorism has not been eliminated. The Israeli government maybe committed to defending its citizens, but is criticized and condemned so much by the media and other governments, that often civilians feel they are being sacrificed to appease the critics.

Children play soccer in Sderot Israel. On the far right the concrete and steel roof of a missile protected school can be seen.
The school is pictured above. (Photo: David Billington)

Rather than eliminate the terrorists, Israel has concentrated on taking out the missiles once they are airborne, or mitigating the damage the missiles inflict. Israel has developed an amazing missile defence system to deal with these missiles. While in Israel I travelled to Sderot, to see for myself how this town lives under the threat of terrorist missiles. What I saw is never, never, reported on the media. In many ways this Israeli town looked the same as many others, with similar homes and shopping areas. It was in the early evening as I drove around, I saw playgrounds, which looked as if there were protective roofs over them. In a soccer field children were engaged in a game of soccer, just as they would be in any town. However, in behind the soccer field, I saw a school with a massive steel and concrete shelter built overtop, unlike any school I’ve seen, to protect it from missile attacks. As I approached the school yard a noticed an entrance to a bomb shelter in the playground. Another school stood nearby which also had a section of the school protected in this way. Imagine going to school in that way, rushing to a bomb shelter in the night or during school recess, growing up under that threat, with that trauma.

It is amazing, that these incredible buildings, unlike anything else in the world are never seen on the news! The media is simply not interested in us seeing this!

An Example of Media Coverage

This last Thursday there was a huge demonstration in Israel in support of the judicial overhaul that the government is proposing. Israel has a problem, because the supreme court is left wing and driven by left wing, secular ideology and has become politicized. As Israel does not have a constitution, the court does not have to operate with the constitution as a basis, therefore the courts rulings are based on secular humanist ideology. Needless to say, those supporting judicial overhaul are more religious, traditional with conservative values. Those against judicial overhaul are more on the secular left wing humanist side of the spectrum. Also, needless to say, Joe Biden is against Israeli judicial overhaul as is the European Union, etc. Make no mistake, this is a struggle for the heart and future of Israel.

CNN reported:

“Tens of thousands of right wing protesters have rallied in front of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in favour of the governments widely criticized plans for an overhaul of the judicial system. After sixteen weeks of nation wide protests against the controversial overhaul, this was the first mass turn out of public support in favour of the reforms.”

According to CNN, this was a relatively small rally, the first of its kind, following many weeks of “nation wide” protests.

The BBC reported:

"Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Jerusalem in support of controversial plans by the far-right government to reform the judiciary.”

The BBC tells us, it was a relatively small rally in support of a “far-right” government.

Searching the Canadian CBC News website, I could not find that it was reported at all. While previous protests against judicial overhaul were reported.

On the other hand, mainstream Israeli news site, Israel Ha’Yom ran the headline, “Estimated 600,000 rally in Jerusalem in support of Judicial reform.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted:

“I thank the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who came to Jerusalem tonight to support our government. Your passion and patriotism moves me deeply.”

Meanwhile in the UK, the left wing Guardian ran the headline: “Gun-toting, prayer-reciting protesters throng Jerusalem to back judicial overhaul”. While prayer reciting is a good thing from my perspective, to most, this would be a very disparaging headline. In fact, depending on how it is read, it could be seen as antisemitic. The Guardian put the number at 150,000.

Where are the facts? Did “tens of thousands” attend the rally, hundreds of thousands, or 600,000? What kind of people were they? Is Israel’s government “far right”? Were the previous protests nation wide? I was in Israel during these "nation wide" protests, travelling around the country, and saw hardly any protesters at all.

We live in an age of deception. Jesus warned us it would be this way, that the whole world would be deceived into attempting to destroy the nation of Israel. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived. Come back next week, God willing for Bible in the News at www.bibleinthenews.com. This has been David Billington with you.