Evil Deception

By Bruce S. Poteat

Unexpectedly, Alexander, who is only a young boy, finds himself attending his first Passover and witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus. In a strange twist of events, he uncovers Satans plan to deceive the church and the world. As the only person on earth who knows of Satans scheme, he falls under the protection of the powerful archangel, Michael. In for the journey and adventure of his life, he travels to the twenty-first century to warn the world.

Evil Deception takes you into the depths of Satans schemes throughout history, specifically his lies and deceptions that will usher in the end times. Though Satan has worked nonstop to kill the promised seed of God, since the fall of man into sin, his plan took a sinister turn on the day of the crucifixion which set the stage for the destruction of the church and the rise of the Antichrist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449795641

Bruce S. Poteat

Bruce S. Poteat is a lifelong follower of Christ, a Sunday school teacher, and a retired professional firefighter. His debut novel, Evil Deception, is the result of a series of dreams and thoughts, spiritually derived, from over 20 years ago; providing a powerful message that he was only recently prompted to deliver. Bruce and his wife, Debi, are retired and living in a small community in North Georgia.

Book preview

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

The History Begins and Satan Tries to Kill the Seed

Chapter 2

Satan Tries to Disrupt the Crucifixion

Chapter 3

Week of the Passover

Chapter 4

The High Priest Demands Death

Chapter 5

Jesus’ Body

Chapter 6

Simon of Cyrene weeks prior to the Crucifixion

Chapter 7

Satan Tempts Joseph and Nicodemus

Chapter 8

Simon Hides from the Evil One

Chapter 9

Alexander Follows Simon

Chapter 10

Joseph Bargains for Jesus’ Body

Chapter 11

Simon’s Death

Chapter 12

Alexander Is Protected

Chapter 13

The Hair Is Removed

Chapter 14

Satan Returns to the Tomb

Chapter 15

Alex’s Journey Home

Chapter 16

Battle on Earth

Chapter 17

Alexander’s Second Journey

Chapter 18

The Voice Confronts Dr. Spigelman

Chapter 19

The Professor Meets Debi from Genealogy

Chapter 20

The Professor Meets the Voice

Chapter 21

Debi calls Professor Gefen

Chapter 22

Alexander (the Voice) Is in Danger

Chapter 23

The Professor Is Haunted by Faceless Hoodies

Chapter 24

Professor Gefen Investigates

Chapter 25

The Voice Is Revealed

Chapter 26

Debi Takes the Document

Chapter 27

Lucifer Hears the Name Simon

Chapter 28

The Document Is Stolen

Chapter 29

Satan Wages War Two

Thousand Years in the Future

Chapter 30

Debi Prays

Chapter 31

The Discovery: Three Months Later

Appendix 1

The History behind the Battle

Appendix 2

The Battle—13.7 Billion Years Ago

Appendix 3

When Time Began!

Notes

This book is dedicated to my late mother, Orene Sanders Poteat, who inspired me my whole life. Mother was a lady of character and lived by faith. She passed away August 24, 2012, when her work here on earth was finished. I know Jesus is my Lord and Savior because of my personal experience with Jesus, but if for no other reason, I know because Mom told me so. I’ll see you again someday, Mom and Dad.

Further, I dedicate this book to Debi, my beautiful wife of 36 years. Debi is a survivor of stage 4 cancer and even through all her distraction she was always there to encourage me to finish this book. I love you Debi.

I also want to acknowledge a lifelong friend Pattie Smith for her constant encouragement and Riley Million, a graphic artist, for working closely with me to create the book cover. Thanks Pattie and Riley.

Preface

God warned us that, during the end times, the world would be deceived and led astray. Evil Deception uncovers how Satan will deceive the world and is based on actual events that lay the foundation for this remarkable fictional story. It depicts the lies Satan could use to cause a dramatic fall in the Christian religion, triggering the collapse of the apostate church. Satan’s work has always been to deny Christ, deny He exists, deny His works, and deny He rose from the grave. Satan will stop at nothing to crush the church and thereby destroy the souls in the church.

There is a catastrophic event coming that will cause the world that we know to cease to exist. It is not a killer asteroid or nuclear world war, but rather, the coming of the Antichrist. God has warned the world about this since the beginning of time. The Bible tells us in Matthew 24:24–25 (NKJV): "For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. We must ask ourselves, What event could cause the elect of the church to be deceived, and how would that take place?"

At the end of the story are three appendixes that put forward a possible explanation of the creation of the universe and the beginning of recorded time. I was inspired to write this to encourage people to think outside the box. God has placed a lot of undetected clues at the fingertips of the world, and we do not understand them. This book is not intended to teach theology; instead, I am hoping to inspire thought and discussion.

Introduction

Evil Deception is an inspired book that pushes the limits of human thinking. It combines true biblical events with storytelling to portray a fictional story that challenges everyone to rethink Satan’s ability to deceive. It begins with Satan’s attempts to kill the promised seed, Jesus Christ. Satan’s main goal had always been to defeat God, when he failed in Heaven; he made it his primary purpose here on earth. Satan has been consistent throughout history in his efforts to crush the church. So during the last days, he is working overtime.

The story is built around lies and deceptions that culminate on the day of the crucifixion and are now lying in wait to be unleashed. A young boy named Alexander witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, and then as he watched the brutal slaying of his father, Simon, he accidentally uncovered Satan’s plans to deceive the world during the end times. Alex is the only person on earth who knows Satan’s plans, and Satan is desperately searching for his identity. Alexander’s safety is placed into the hands of the archangel Michael. With the help of Michael, Alexander travels two thousand years into the future, to the twenty-first century, to warn the world of the pending doom.

Chapter 1

The History Begins and

Satan Tries to Kill the Seed

WHEN SIN ENTERED the world, it became necessary for a written document, we call the Bible, to record events so future generations could learn from the past while receiving God’s guidance for the future. As recorded in the very first book of the Bible, God started pointing humankind toward the coming Savior, and Satan started trying to kill the promise. Satan declared war on God when he attempted to overthrow God long before Adam and Eve were created.

God created Adam and placed him over all things on earth, and Adam became the target of Satan’s vicious and deceiving attacks. Satan was successful in tempting Adam. Man came under the curse of Almighty God because of his sin in the garden. And at this point, God activated time. When the sands of time were released, the time clock of death started. God thwarted the ultimate victory of Satan and revealed a plan of redemption whereby Satan would be ultimately defeated. Satan would not go down quietly.

After Satan was successful in tempting Adam and Eve, war was declared on Satan. God spoke to Satan and said, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.¹ Satan then learned how he would be defeated. The seed of the woman was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. By using this phrase the seed of the woman, God was unmistakably declaring that the coming Redeemer, this coming seed, would have a human mother but not a human father. The reference is to the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.²

Satan’s only hope of victory lay in the prevention of this seed of the woman from being born or to destroy it after it was born. If Satan could interrupt the line of this coming promised seed and prevent His coming, he would gain the victory without even a battle.

Satan became obsessed with eliminating the births of the children in the line of the coming Redeemer. Satan’s first attempt was when Eve gave birth to her first two sons, Cain and Abel. Satan knew the seed would come from Eve, but when Eve gave birth to two sons, Satan waited to see which would be the favored. When God respected Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s, Satan moved Cain to destroy Abel, thinking this would stop the seed. The murder of Abel was to no avail, for God gave Eve yet another child, whose name was Seth.

So Satan set out on a different tactic. Satan began a campaign of fostering mankind’s sinful nature and of perverting mankind’s sexual nature. Satan causes the whole human race to become sexually corrupt, except for Noah and his family. They were the only believers left on earth. God sent a massive flood to destroy Satan’s work—only Noah and his family survived.

Abraham was promised to be a blessing to all nations through his seed, except that his wife, Sarah, was barren. Satan tempted Abraham to have a child with a servant girl in an attempt to counterfeit God’s plan, but this failed. God intervened and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah, and Rebekah was barren. God intervened and Rebekah conceived. Rebekah gave birth to Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the one through whom the Messiah would come. Esau attempted to kill Jacob. Again, Satan wanted to prevent the Messiah from being born.

Satan tried to destroy the whole nation of Israel in Egypt. Pharaoh, a type of antichrist, ordered all males to be killed.³ Again, God intervened and rose up Moses, a child found floating in the Nile River, to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. At one point in Israel’s history, Satan was successful in killing all the royal seed of the house of Judah except one. One boy was hidden in the temple for six years during this awful threat. Joash was spared.⁴

He was the only person on the earth through whom the Messiah could come. Later in history during the time of Esther, Satan used a man named Haman to make a decree to kill all Jews young and old (including women and children) in one day. God used Esther and Mordecai to spare the nation.

Satan tried to kill David many times during his life, but one incident in particular provided the opportunity for the greatest upset of all times: the story of David and Goliath:

David said to the Philistine, You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him; David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.⁵

After the seed was born, one of the most ruthless attempts of Satan was the edict of Herod to kill all the male babies two years old and younger in Bethlehem, and all the surrounding area. Revelation 12:4 says, And the dragon [Satan] stood before the woman [Israel] which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child [Jesus Christ] as soon as it was born. Herod told the wise men to report back to him when they found the baby, but they went home another way. An angel came to Mary and Joseph and told them to take the child and escape to Egypt and stay there until it was safe.

Satan continued to try and kill the seed, but God provided divine protection and even cloaked His location so the child could grow in peace. Satan tried many times during the life of Christ to defeat God’s plan either by killing the seed, tempting Christ to turn from God’s plan, or by disrupting God’s perfect timing. It is not surprising then, that Satan would seek to defeat God’s purpose in His Son, Jesus Christ, long after His death and resurrection even into the twenty-first century. Satan’s goal had been to kill the incarnate Word, Jesus, when He was a baby. When that failed, he tempted Jesus to sin during His life. He once tempted him to allow the crowds to make Him king so that he would fall short of the cross.

Satan will stop at nothing to defeat God. His lies to the world will cause the apostate church to turn from God and to Satan in the last days.

Chapter 2

Satan Tries to

Disrupt the Crucifixion

T HE REASON THE Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁶ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ⁷ During His earthly ministry, Jesus proclaimed the prince of this world will be driven out, ⁸ and He said that Satan has no hold on Him. ⁹ Jesus defeated Satan every step of the way by not succumbing to the Devil’s temptations. No temptation that was hurled at Jesus by Satan was powerful enough to entice Him away from His love for and faith in God. ¹⁰ He vanquished the Devil and took the strong man’s possessions, ¹¹ which was the world he held captive. These public defeats did not sit well with Satan, so his desires to inflict harm on what Jesus prized the most—the church—intensified.

As Jesus’ ministry approached the end, Satan knew his time to disrupt or change the course of events including his own fate was getting short.