Do the daily reports of evil in our world make you think we’re in the end times and near the return of Jesus Christ? Pastor Phil Hotsenpiller, author of One Nation Without Law, says one of the biggest indicators that we are living in the end times is the rampant spirit of lawlessness.
“Lawlessness is more than lawbreaking. It is a spirit that began with Lucifer before the creation of man and it runs completely through our biblical narrative and history, culminating in Revelation chapter 18,” he says.
With the daily reports of terror attacks, violence and bloodshed, Hotsenpiller believes the spirit of lawlessness will only get worse. “Lawlessness will increase. Jesus told us that. He said you’re going to see evil men get worse, you’re going to see lawlessness increase, you’re going to see men be lovers of self, all of these different things coming into place and society will be unable to deal with it.”
He also believes massive terror attacks like the one in Manchester don’t happen by accident. Instead, they’re hotspots for evil spiritual activity. “I began to study the idea of territorial spirits,” he said. “I looked at the police shooting in Dallas. That shooting was one three-tenths of a mile away from where JFK was shot. Then I looked at Munich 1972, where the Israeli Olympians were captured by a Palestinian terror group and assassinated, and that was only about four-tenths of a mile from where the McDonald’s shooting took place last year. Then I looked at Manchester. In 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated the largest bomb ever in the city center in Manchester—which was three-tenths of a mile away from the Ariana Grande concert,” he said.
“So, what we see is the repetitive nature of terror acts in the same places. These territorial spirits don’t leave. They reside and they replicate their terror over and over again when times are ripe for those kinds of strikes.”
Despite all the chaos, Hotsenpiller believes there is no better time for the church to stand up.
“We have the greatest power in the world. We have the greatest assurance in the world, but somehow we fail to use it because somehow we think we have to appease everyone,” he says. “I think it’s time for us Christians to get involved in politics like they did in the American Revolution. It’s time for us to be loud and bold and strong, but loving in and kind.”