There is a delusion among many people that the world will soon be completely secular, and religion will be a thing of the past. The plan is to simply erase God from every aspect of life and then they think man will be free to do as he pleases without any condemnation or opposition. But they are in for a great disappointment because men simply cannot, and will not, continue to live as if there is no God and nothing greater than himself. Life is too full of pain and sorrow and hardship and grief for man to bear it all by himself, so he will seek some way to offload his burdens, and find help with his problems. He will seek God's help, but normally he does that without being reconciled to God by dealing with his sin, and God will not answer his prayer, and so he turns to idols. Secularism is only an interval between abandoning God and embracing the worship of devils. Secularism leads directly back to paganism.

How does the human race change its collective mind altogether? It happens very slowly as those who are called by God's name compromise little by little and give up ground to the devil. Evil gains control of the microphone and then it isn't long before the moral and intellectual changes begin to manifest themselves in the collapse of that civilization . It has happened in this country and our world in my lifetime. The danger to your soul and the souls of your children and grandchildren is that you will not be diligent to guard your heart, your mind, and your spirit in such an environment, and you will be sucked into the deception of this self-made religion, and this self-determined righteousness that is so prevalent in this pagan world now.

This modern generation that is wise in its own eyes would never admit it, but their views and ways of thinking are strikingly similar to the ancient pagans. Their eyes are on the skies as they look for their "gods" to come anytime now. They are not looking for Jesus, but for aliens from outer space. All humans of all ages that have rejected God and clung to their evil ways have done exactly the same thing. The "gods" they believed in were simply super-humans, or super-heros, who lived in the heavens somewhere. They did not concern themselves much with Creation and where everything began, but their "gods" and their religion was self-serving and about making their lives safer, more pleasurable, and successful in their endeavors. That should sound familiar as you look around at this modern world.

Man has invented machines to do most of his work for him, especially over the past 200 years. But now we have crossed a threshold where man is turning over his thinking to machines. First radio, then television, then the computers, smartphones, the Internet, social media have done to mankind what all the kings and conquerors of all the ages could not do, and that is to bring all of humanity under one authority and one entity. Now AI has been rolled out and is evolving into the dream of pagans through all the ages. It is the collective mind of all humanity, but it is already showing many signs of not being under the control of its designers. No wonder Jesus warned repeatedly about the last days, "Watch!" The great falling away is in full swing and the great deception is at hand.

What does paganism look like? It looks exactly like the marriage of religion, patriotism, and worldliness that we are seeing in our culture right now. Paganism is the worship of nature, the worship of animals, the empowerment of the feminine over the masculine, the removal of all moral absolutes, the extinguishing of all hope, and the eventual collapse of the civilization. It looks like darkness, because that is what it is, and it is taking over our world very quickly. If you do not understand, start watching.

Religion without holiness is the first step to paganism. ALL religions outside of true Bible-believing Christianity reject the moral law of God. When people turn their back on God and his church the issue is always practical righteousness, holiness, reverence, and separation from this ungodly world. Paganism is based upon the belief that nothing is absolute - nothing is absolutely wrong, nothing is absolutely right, and nothing is absolutely forbidden. You can have religion without holiness, but you cannot have God. You can call yourself a Christian, but if you live like the world you are deceiving yourself. There are only two choices and there will only be two groups standing before God at the judgment. Which one will you be in?

The descent into darkness described in the first chapter of Romans is primarily a description of mankind as a whole, or individual countries or cultures, because the slide into paganism happens corporately. Nations or peoples do it together, and that is a major reason that it has such power when it gains control. It starts with a knowledge of God. Man did not start out as pagan, he started out fellowshipping with God in the Garden of Eden. Then when Noah got off the ark, everyone who was alive on the earth was very familiar with God and his ways. Something happened since then, and this message is about the slide into paganism, and the fact that we are witnessing it in this generation.

The issue that drives everything on earth is the battle between good and evil. To fail to understand that there really only two sides engaged in this spiritual battle always leads to being deceived by the evil. The battle waged by evil is to confuse, compromise, mix the two up together, and eventually change places so that good is called evil, and evil is called good. All gods except Almighty God are devils, not just imaginations of men. All gods except the God who created all things are unholy, unclean, murderous, and destroyers. The Bible tells us clearly that they are all devils. So it is either love and serve God in truth, or you are submitting yourself to the devil.

There are really only two forms of religion in this world: the worship of the true and only God, or paganism. There is faith in Almighty God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that is therein, who has revealed himself to man through the written Word of God, and his only begotten Son, who came to earth and died for the sins of mankind and rose from the dead, and also by the Creation that we all can observe. The only other option for man is superstition based upon fear and the unknown. Satan is the master of that system, and it includes all other religions and philosophies of life. Not believing in any God or gods is not an option. Every man will be influenced by spiritual powers, and if he is not submitted to Almighty God he will be guided by evil spiritual beings, whether he is aware of it or not.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my savior. He is the theme of my life and my everything. When all is said and done, God is all there is. David gave God the honor, the glory, the credit for everything he ever accomplished, and every blessing he ever enjoyed. When we learn to live with God as the biggest thing in our life, our soul, our mind, and our heart, we will know what victory is like.