Chronicles of the End Times
Occasionally, people say, are we really in the last days? How do we know? Does it matter one way or another? We will try to answer these questions and many others in this study. But the most important question may be, how can we reach others with hope in these changing times? One part of prophecy is often emphasized over another, causing us to lose perspective and miss the blessing and beauty of prophecy in scripture. I have taken the information in this study from many authors and teachers who have their lives studying God's word. I have added some insight that the Holy Spirit taught me. With God's help, I have endeavored to keep the whole counsel of the word of God in full view to give us an accurate picture of Christ and His great love for a lost world. I pray that this will challenge you and cause you to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it has me preparing it. Let's begin!
Chronicles of the End Times
When Evil Goes Beyond Human: Understanding Spiritual Forces
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Darkness has many faces—some human, some decidedly not. What happens when evil transcends mere human capacity? When does hatred cross the line into demonic territory?
Drawing parallels between historical atrocities like the My Lai Massacre, Hitler's Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide, Certain evils simply cannot be explained away as human failings alone. "If you look at the My Lai Massacre and walk away saying that was just human beings messing up, you're out of touch with reality.”
We journey into present-day Nigeria, where three million Christians face systematic extermination by Islamic terrorists crossing unprotected borders. Through harrowing firsthand accounts of survivors describing attackers shouting "Allahu Akbar" while slaughtering entire families, the spiritual dimension of this conflict becomes unmistakable. This isn't just political or ethnic tension—it's spiritual warfare manifesting in our physical world.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn as we examine the tension between God's sovereignty and human free will. Using Biblical examples like Pharaoh and Judas. Yet this freedom comes with accountability—we remain responsible for our choices and will face judgment accordingly. This delicate balance between divine foreknowledge and human agency provides a framework for understanding both personal temptations and global evils.
Whether you're battling your own spiritual struggles or seeking to understand the darker forces at work in our world, this episode offers both wisdom and warning. As C.S. Lewis cautioned, we can err by making too much of the devil—or dangerously underestimating him. Join us in this crucial conversation, and learn how to recognize, confront, and overcome the spiritual battles we all face. The darkness is real, but so is our authority in Christ to stand against it.
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Speaker 1Host
00:21
Welcome everyone. This is Russ Scalzo. Chronicles of the End Times. Good to be with you today. Hope that you're living for Jesus and growing in the Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:32
Today we're going to talk about spiritual warfare, and I hope that you don't turn me off and say you know what. I've heard so much about spiritual warfare. I really don't need to hear that today, because I'm always learning something, and I like to share what I learn. Today we're going to listen to a couple of clips and comment on this interview with Cliffe Knechtle. He's a pastor at Grace Community Church in Connecticut. I caught this interview on Tucker Carlson. I listen to him now and then. I like Tucker. I don't always agree with everything he says, but he has some great interviews. He talks with Pastor Knechtle about spiritual warfare, and he really lays it out well in this short clip.
01:10
In this interview he references the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968. The Charlie Company on a search and destroy mission. That degenerated into a massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians, including women, children, and elderly. You can look into this yourself. It's pretty brutal. I was 20 years old at the time and I was scheduled to report to Fort Dix myself before I was classified as 4F because of severe asthma. So, I do remember when this happened.
01:45
But I would also like to add to that the slaughter on October 7th. Add to that the slaughter of millions by Hitler, the slaughter in Rwanda in 1994, and what happened in Yugoslavia, and we could go on and on. Not just wars, nations against nations, people in uniform shooting at each other. We're talking about the slaughter of innocents that if you look at it and you read the details, it'll make you sick to your stomach, and I'm sure you can add others to it, those of you who are history buffs. Before we get to that clip, I want you to listen to a report from CBN on what is going on in Nigeria. Three million Christians have either been killed or fleeing for their lives and their homes destroyed. Listen to this short clip before we go on.
Speaker 3Host
02:32
In the African nation of Nigeria, millions of Christians are persecuted by Islamic terror groups. The Nigerian government is doing very little to stop the attacks. Well, now, religious freedom advocates, including one member of the US Congress, are taking action. CBNs Kelly Wright has this look at the crisis.
Speaker 4Host
02:56
On this very day, 210 persons were slaughtered in one night, in less than 24 hours. The video from the Father's Day massacre includes graphic images of people being burned alive, families attacked, and homes destroyed. In Yelewata, Nigeria, that very day it was raining. Fulani herdsmen, they invaded the community.
Speaker 3Host
03:26
Clamed so many lives. Around midnight we started having calls from Yelewata that the Fulani’s have come, and they were killing Burning.
Speaker 4Host
03:39
Friday night I was leaving my house. See my house. Yeah, I'll come here. They shoot gunfire. Later they come. They break this house. My brother is sleeping here with his children there by. They come; they kill people. They were breaking the house. Say Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar. These first-hand accounts gathered by Truth Nigeria journalists describe the ongoing atrocities in a terror campaign to eradicate Nigeria's Christians.
Speaker 1Host
04:10
I'm sure by now you pick up on that phrase. They were shouting God is the greatest, but what God are they serving? I think we all know the government in Nigeria has no restrictions on who comes across their borders, so these Islamic terrorist groups just come flooding in. Some are ISIS related and others various splintered groups from Syria. We need to know these things as Christians. Just like I said before, what I mentioned, all those other groups and all those other slaughters that have taken place, no matter where they are or who they are, is demonically inspired.
04:50
I know many of us in the church we don't like to talk about these things. We don't like to hear about these things because they're upsetting. Well, you know what? It's time for us to get upset because these people need our prayers. And not only that, but we need to come against the darkness in the name of Jesus and the authority that he's given to us. It's vital and I'm sure you can add others to it, those of you who are history buffs. Vital, and I'm sure you can add others to it, those of you who are history buffs. In this interview he's going to bring out that at some point it turns from human hate to demonic dark inspiration. And, of course, those of us who study the end times know what's coming during the tribulation period and what's going to befall this world.
Speaker 2Host
05:33
So, let's take a listen, see what you think you also alluded to the spiritual battle that we are in. Yeah, and uh, anybody has a problem with the devil, with the demonic. I would encourage them to read m Scott Peck, the great Connecticut psychiatrist book, People of the Lie, amazing book, I think he does an incredible job pointing out. If you look at the My Lai massacre and you walk away saying, oh, that was just human beings messing up, you're out of touch with reality. Bud, there is a spiritual force of evil that is at work in the My Lai Massacre, acting on people from outside and influencing their behavior. Right, and that's why Jesus cast demons out of people. It's why Paul writes in Ephesians, chapter six for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There's a spiritual battle that is raging and whether it's Paul, Jesus, or M Scott Peck, they're all saying the same thing Open your eyes and realize there's this personal force of evil called Satan.
06:35
Cs Lewis put it beautifully when he pointed out there are two mistakes you can make when you're thinking about the devil. One is to make too much of him. Oh, the devil's behind every tree. The devil always does it. Everything's a result of the devil's doing. That's to make too much of him, but the other is to make too little of him. Oh, you know who the devil is? The little dude in the red jumpsuit with a little black pitchfork and black ears. Ha ha, ha, ha ha. What a ridiculous stereotype. No, the devil is a very suave, very debonair personal force of evil who reeks of evil and destructiveness. That's scary.
Speaker 1Host
07:08
Those of us who are in the battle and have faced the darkness, whether it be attacks at night on our mind, temptations through the day. It's always there. This next portion talks more about free will, and that's always a major subject for Christians. It talks about God's sovereignty over the human race. Do we really have a choice with what we're doing? And then you have the debate of predestination versus free will. But in reality, after all the years of study and preaching, teaching over 50 years, I've come to the conclusion predestination is real only because God is sovereign over all things, and he knows what we're going to do. He knows our personality; he knows what our tendencies are.
08:00
The scripture says that our heart is evil. Who can trust it? So, if we follow God's word and we guard our hearts, then we'll be a lot safer. But what about Judas? Did he really have a choice? It was prophesied that he'd do that, but my feeling has always been well, god knew Judas. Judas was already stealing, judas was already conniving, so he was primed to listen to the devil's voice. It could have been one of the other 12, but it wasn't, because God knew those as well. It can be mind-blowing, and I'm not saying we can grasp it or understand it in its fullness until we get to the other side. But I do know this God knows all things and he is just, and he is fair, and His level of intellect and insight is beyond what we can comprehend. And that's where trust comes into play. God's glory is that he is good. Let's listen to this next clip.
Speaker 2Host
08:54
That's an issue that a lot of people raise. How can there be free will and God be sovereign and all-powerful? What's going on here? Who's pulling the levers?
09:03
Often, a passage out of Exodus that's brought up is the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. So, did Pharaoh really have a choice in the matter? Six times before we read in Exodus the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. So, did Pharaoh really have a choice in the matter? Six times before we read in Exodus the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. We read Pharaoh hardened his heart. Yes, no, that's right. So, I think we got to be careful with this one. Yes, god is all powerful, but I agree with CS Lewis that God chose to partially limit his power by giving us a free will If I haul back, slap you in the face, and his power by giving us a free will If I haul back, slap you in the face and then say oh Tucker, god made me do it. You know, I'm a con artist, I'm a hypocrite, I'm a liar. God gave me a hand. He gave me the hand to respect you, to love you, but because he gave me a free will, I can roll this hand into a fist and send it crashing into your handsome face. And if I blame God. I'm a con artist, 'm a liar. So, I would argue that, yes, god is all powerful, but God has chosen to partially limit his power by giving us free will. Why didn't God have Hitler's mother have a miscarriage? I don't know seems to me would have saved a lot of lives, but God has chosen to limit his power by giving us a free will. Now the day of judgment is coming, when God will hold me responsible for the way I exercised my free will, so I'm not just free to go out and do whatever and never be held responsible. I am responsible for what I do, and God will guarantee that justice ultimately triumphs, for there will be a day of judgment.
Speaker 1Host
10:21
Okay. So, the question is if there is a day of judgment, is it fair? If you believe everything is predestined, then it's not fair. Well, by our standards. But if you are in my camp which says, yes, we have a free will, but because God is who he is and he moves in and out of time, then just because he knows how it's going to go and he predicts it in advance if you're a betting person you would say that's completely unfair. But he is the Almighty, his knowledge is limitless. So, in fact, I believe there is an answer within all that. Is it definitive? No, like I said before, we'll see him as he is when he comes, and we shall be like him in the sense that he will give us knowledge we've never had glorified body that never tires, that has supernatural abilities to cruise through God's creation. What an amazing thing to be a son or daughter of God. So, there is a judgment coming and it will be fair, it will be righteous, because God has already given us the door, Jesus Christ, and he begs us over and over again in our lives, in this day of great communication and almost endless ability to look things up and to read about them, to hear people and podcast. The word is going out there everywhere, so I hope you've been blessed by this. I really love when I can get my brain churning, learn new things, think about things from God's perspective. I'd like to end with this about things from God's perspective. I'd like to end with this Just recently, there was someone that my family knew that did away with his life.
12:07
He committed suicide, and I just want to say that we don't always hit the mark I certainly don't, but let's pray that we can take advantage of every situation we're in. Like I said, we're not going to get it every time, but if we're on our knees and we're praying and we're asking God for openings, we never know who we're going to influence. And it doesn't mean we have to talk with them for a half hour. We don't have to expound on the Word of God. We just have to be who Jesus wants us to be. Sometimes, a few words of love and encouragement in the name of Jesus can make all the difference. God bless. Thank you so much for supporting the show. If you haven't done so yet please do. This is Russ Scalzo for Chronicles of the End Times. Keep looking up. The King is coming.
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