Do not be surprised...
When multitudes of Christians take the mark of the beast. When pastors, friends and loved ones, who may or may not in fact be born again, take the mark and try to persuade you to do the same---telling you whatever they may to justify their actions and to persuade you: "For the sake of your children! What sort of parent would allow their children to go hungry! Is that what God would want? Do you think He is a monster, that it would be His will for His children to suffer, and innocent children, to not be able to eat or to lose their home, because their parents---who are responsible to provide for and protect them---refuse to take a mark? Didn't Jesus say that He would never leave us or forsake us, and that nothing can separate us from His love?"
Beware. People who will tell you these things are deceived themselves, and even being used of the devil, unbeknownst to them, to try to convince you to do what will be your undoing. You will save neither yourselves nor your children by taking the mark, and you will perish spiritually. Do not be deceived. Remember Eve.
And do not be surprised if church buildings all over the world, from the smallest to the greatest, are razed or set on fire, by order or encouragement of the government of the antichrist---as though God has turned His back on His people. The truth of it is that He hated what was being done in them, and they were an abomination to Him and an insult to His name; and by the hands of wicked men, He ordained that they should be destroyed and set on fire, as a testimony to the whole world that they did not honor Him and that He was not pleased with what was being done in them in His name: All the abominations that you now see in the churches, and the apostasy, in perverting the gospel and departing from and twisting the teachings of the faith, and making them whatever people want them to be to serve their own ends and to allow them to carry out the evil and unholy desires of their flesh and of their minds.
And on top of all of these abominations, which you now see, there will be yet another---the greatest of them all---when the people of God forsake Him and take the mark of the beast to save their lives on earth, and to avoid persecution, and when they bow down with the nations to worship the image of the antichrist: The abomination that makes desolate. And so shall they be left when they do it. The very thing that God declares in His word will happen to anyone who does this abomination, will happen to them also---though they quote every verse in the Bible to justify their faithlessness and rebellion, as they do now for other things.
So bear in mind, if and when the church buildings are destroyed, that it was the hand of your God that did it, through the hands of evil men, and His own mouth that gave the command---just as it was in the days of those who were before us, who we have as an example in the Scriptures, but fail to understand that we are following in their footsteps. It will not be because Satan has triumphed, that they will be torn down or set on fire, but because of the evil of God's people that they will be torn down, by God's own will. And it will be a testimony to the whole world, and to you, that this is so---that you may be ashamed of your rebellious ways and of your flagrant sins, and self-deception, and of the abominations that you used these houses for, and the sins you kept fresh in them, while calling on the name of the Lord and praising Him, to His dishonor and displeasure.
And do not be deceived by the many Christians---true or professing---who will take the mark and try to persuade you to do the same, telling you that no harm will come to you. They will be deceived. Believe the words of your God, and not the words of men over God's, as you have made a habit of doing.
We have good reason to believe that the very same thing that happened to the sanctuaries of Israel whenever they rebelled against the LORD will happen to us also, for the same reason. So no one should be surprised if it does. God is consistent in His ways.
And if and when the people of this world rejoice and mock at the destruction of them, saying that it is because the God of the Christians is not God and because Christians are not the people of God that the churches are razed and God does not prevent it or take vengeance on those who destroy them, remember that it is because God was displeased with the churches that He commanded that they be destroyed, and not because He has no power to prevent it. He never wanted them. He always wanted the hearts and lives of His people---but He got buildings instead, and sacrifice instead of obedience. And all manner of evil was being committed in the churches in His name.
The nations may exult over the destruction of the churches, but they will be foolish in doing so; for if the judgment of God begins at His household and sanctuary, and He does not spare His own people who rebel against Him, what will He do to those who have never known Him and have not obeyed the gospel? The cup of His wrath will come around to them also.
