In “Truth, Our Anchor in the Storm, Part 1” I shared a vision the Lord gave me six years ago. Since the entirety of this message centers around this, I want to share the vision again:

I saw the Lord standing over the nation. He emanated holiness and His brilliance was so great, it nearly blinded me. He had His Sword of Truth firmly grasped in His hand as he assessed the chaotic situation our nation was in.

Suddenly He raised the Sword and thrust it straight into the center of the country!

The surface area over the nation began to crack. It looked like a grey stucco that had been spread over the land. Large cracks splintered off into smaller cracks, and then those splintered off into even smaller cracks. It continued quickly to the very edges of the nation.

He stood there holding the Sword firmly in place at the point where He’d penetrated the nation. Suddenly there was an explosion followed by a brilliant light. It looked like lightning coming directly from the sword and it shot down into land and then out and across the surface of the nation. As the lightning coursed across the land, a storm ensued enveloping the cracked stucco. This storm was all-consuming, much like a tornado or hurricane—it raged around me. Instinctively, I rushed to the Sword to cling to it knowing it was the only way to keep me from being blown off the face of the earth with the debris. The chaos that swirled around me was so great, the only two things I could see were the Sword I was anchored to, and the storm that raged around me.

Finally, the storm dissipated, as it did, I noted the stucco, the debris, and the darkness had all disappeared. The nation was radiant and with an all-consuming light. This light had flickering flames that danced across the land. It was His glory and it moved across the nation as a living fire! The ebb and flow of revival, fueled by the Awakening, was here.

-End-

This storm is what we are experiencing today, and it will likely increase before it’s over. However, the Lord has been preparing us prophetically for this time, it is an exciting thing to see God fulfill His Word. That is not to imply that this is easy, but it is doable if we will keep our eyes on the source of Truth.

The Lord is working not to stop the chaos but rather, to clear the debris that is clogging up our nation and preventing the outpouring that has been prophesied. As believers, we cling to Him, our source of Truth.

Part of that debris involves delusions and deceptions that swirl around the Church. Last time, I shared three areas of deception or delusion that are of great concern: aliens, false religions—specifically Chrislam, and conspiracies. Remember, they have the potential to devastate both young and old, and when deception swirls around the Church, it impacts both religious and secular groups. Why? Because believe it or not, the world looks to the Church for our response during crisis. If we are not grounded and founded in the Word of God and have an active prayer life, we are at risk of being swept up in the debris of delusion. We cannot be a stabilizing force for those in the world if we are swept up in the chaos of delusion.

We also talked about the Greek word for “delusion” from:

Just a reminder, delusion here is “plano” and it means deviant behavior; a departure from what God says is true; an error (deception) which results in wandering (roaming into sin). If we are swept up in the delusions, the consequences could be a departure from what is true and a wandering into sin. A lot of what swirls around is distraction, but if those distractions take root, that’s where we descend into delusion. Still, the Bible warns us about this too in:

1 Timothy 6:20-21

We need to guard ourselves from these sorts of things.

This is happening quickly and we need to be aware, not fearful, but aware so we can guard our hearts. Since that message, we’ve seen an even greater measure of conspiracies surrounding Israel, there’s increased talk of aliens—even on MSM as they revealed four different types of aliens we should expect to see along with images of aircraft—these are demons and distractions. After the attack at the mosque in Southern California, we have an increased call for tolerance of Islam. This is what happened in France more than a decade ago amid a migrant crisis. Then, a migrant was killed quite tragically, and activists used that event to begin passing significant pieces of legislation to protect the Islamic population to the neglect of its own citizens. Today, France is fighting to get their nation back. Kim Clement prophesied this would happen back in the 80s or 90s.

Mom and I both saw Chrislam coming, that is a merging of Christian and Islam. The Pope says they are “not much different than we (Catholics) are, they are peaceful”. This will become a mainstream religion before it is over, just as the Lord said it would be. If we give into these things, we could easily wander into sin ourselves. It goes hand in hand.

Fast forward to today, and we see masterful deceptions right on the horizon and they’ve got their eye on the prize…the Church!

Truth needs to be coming from the pulpits every week. I am watching as the divide between churches that preach the Word of God and those who don’t increases. I know God is doing this to separate Truth from deception and prepare us for revival, but it does not mean it is easy to witness.

I have a great deal of concern about podcasters and their influence. People who have not been strengthened by the Word, tend to lean on podcasters for their truth. I’m thankful for podcasters in one sense because they open their platform to people, especially during the 2024 election. Joe Rogan gave a voice to President Trump, J.D. Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, and many on Trump’s Cabinet today. I’m so thankful to him for doing this, he opened people’s eyes to truth in a way not many would. We all know Rogan was incredibly influential in the 2024 Election and I am grateful to him. However, when he started spreading what he believes to be truth about the Word of God, especially when he’s so far off on his understanding, that’s when I take issue.

Rogan believes the narrative that the entire New Testament was formed by Emperor Constantine and a Bishop at the Council of Nicaea. And to that point Joe Rogan says, “…it’s a fact and everybody knows it, the New Testament is a complete pile of horse manure” (I cleaned up the language on this quote.) I cannot expect Joe to know the truth; my concern is the narrative he’s propagating and its impact on those who don’t know the truth, or who are weak in the faith, babes in Christ if you will.

Joe Rogan isn’t just spreading a false narrative about how the Bible came together, he’s doing far worse, he is denying the foundation of the Christian Faith, from the fulfillment of the Covenant through Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the release of the Holy Spirit, all leading to the birth of the Church. This is found in the New Testament!

Think about the impact of this deception that Rogan himself believes! My heart grieves for him and his millions of followers who believe it too.

Where’d this come from?

This misconception was popularized by books and films such as the Da Vinci Code and now it is a narrative propagated by Joe Rogan and many others. If they believe the New Testament is a collection of books assembled by a political figure, not the Divinely Inspired Word of God, their influence will plant the seed of doubt in the heart of the listener who is not grounded in the Word.

What is the truth?

Constantine was the Emperor of Rome, and he ended the persecution of and even supported the Christians. His desire was to end the religious conflicts surrounding the Nature of Christ and unify the Church under one belief system. He organized the Council of Nicaea to discuss these things, but he did not make decisions, the purpose was to bring the Christian leaders together. To be clear, it was not to discuss the Bible but a belief system. Rogan is wrong about this issue.

The Canon of Scripture was circulating for centuries before an organized meeting to determine which books should and should not be included occurred. However, this was in response to the Reformation. At the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church was in chaos and in an effort to do damage control, sought to regroup, unify themselves, solidify their beliefs, their church doctrines, and their church practices under one head. Over the course of these meetings, they also determined which books would be included in the Catholic Bible.

God provoked this to further separate the Reformers from the Catholic Church, just like He’s provoking what we are seeing on the interwebs today. Christians must refrain from anchoring ourselves to half-truths, deceptive narratives, and podcasters. Our anchor must be in Truth.

The Bible consists of 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books written by over 40 authors, spanning 2000 years, and stemming across three continents. Yet, those 66 books do not contradict one another, they carry the central theme of God’s creation, the fall of man, and God’s redemptive plan all the way up to the Great White Throne Judgment. These passages reveal the fulfillment of prophesy, they confirm, the edify, they teach, and they inspire us as members of the family of God.

In the 16th Century, the Protestant Reformers came together and adopted a 66-book canon of Scripture. It’s funny, more conspiracies have made their way around the interwebs about the “secret councils that forced Protestants to leave certain books out” than truth about why they were left out. They did not create a new canon from scratch but aligned with an older tradition such as the Vulgate, while prioritizing certain criteria amid debates over authority.

The key parameters and rationales were as follows:
1. Correspondence to the Hebrew Canon (Jewish Scriptures)
2. Apostolicity, Antiquity, and Authorship
• Books should trace to ancient Hebrew prophets (for the Old Testament) or an apostle, someone who knew Jesus personally or was closely connected to someone who did (for the New Testament)
3. Doctrinal Consistency and “What Preaches Christ” (this is a Luther addition)
4. Reception by the Church and Historical Precedent
• The Westminster Confession (1646) explicitly stated the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonicals which were later compositions (from the intertestamental period) lacked clear Hebrew originals or prophetic authorship in the same sense. It was determined they were “not of divine inspiration” and had no authority in the church.

Controversies surround the Bible and its formation because we do have versions of the Bible such as the Catholic and Orthodox bibles which include those extra books I mentioned. Historically these took place between the Old and New Covenants. Some versions include additions to Daniel and Esther. Some Orthodox Bibles include even more, up to 81 books. This causes confusion for new believers or those who do not know the Word.

What are they? There are seven Deuterocanonical books, Catholic and many orthodox Churches believe these are inspired Scripture.

Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach/Ben Sira, Baruch, and 1–2 Maccabees. Some include more, there are some New Testament apocrypha letters, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, and the Book of Enoch, of which solid evidence exists that these were written centuries later.

Protestants refer to them as the Apocrypha, and we do not consider them canonical or inspired Scripture. Informative perhaps, but not the inspired Word of God.

Why not inspired? Because they contain messages contrary to what Christ and the messages of the Apostolic Fathers preached. They include prayers for the dead, almsgiving for sins, and other elements which do not align with the messages of Christ.

Paul put it well in Ephesians 2:8-9

Why is this sort of thing so dangerous? Because much of the population does not know the Word of God. And if they believe the testimony of Christ and the birth of Christianity in the earth is false, a seed of deception is being planted in everyone who receives what Rogan is saying as truth. The problem is that even though Christians should know better, many believe Constantine had a hand in the formation of our Holy Scriptures. When you have secular platforms such as this proclaiming this with such conviction, it will impact new believers, those who are prone to follow conspiracies, or those who simply have not learned the truth.

Truth. We must anchor ourselves to Truth!

I did a deep dive on Truth in the Word of God, and it was like packing that flour down into my mind, my heart and my soul. I would encourage you to do the same. I want to share one of the passages that touched me on my journey to help you cling to the Truth in the midst of the Storm.

The Hebrew for “shew me’ is “yada” and this binds the head and the heart with knowledge and revelation inviting a personal encounter with the living God. For what? To be shown the ways of the Lord is to be invited into the secret place where the Lord reveals deep and hidden things. This is not just a prayer of the Psalmist, it’s the cry of one who waits all the day long for the Lord to show Himself. This involves pouring over the same Scripture day after day until He opens the revelation on that passage. It is important to note here that revelation of one Scripture will not contradict another.

Truth here is “emeth.” While the English word “truth” often suggests bare factual accuracy, emeth embraces reliability, stability, integrity, and faithfulness. It is used for the very character of God, the content of His revelation, the ethical standard for His people, and the hope that guides eschatological expectation. When we cry out for the Lord to bind our heart and our head with the knowledge and revelation of His emeth, we are asking for Him to imprint Himself on our hearts and minds.

If we take out Truth, and we replace deceptive narratives with it, it changes us from within. The same holds true if we take out deception and replace it with truth.

Would you like to come to a place wherein you read a heading, see a meme, hear a podcast and instantly see the spirit of deception at work? It is possible! In 1989 I had a dream about the propaganda machine that is the media we see today. Yet, it took years before I fully understood what that meant and how it operated. I remember 15 years ago opening my internet browser to access my email and the impact some of those headlines had on me. Now when I open my browser, I just see lies plastered all over the screen. The Lord took me through this journey to help prepare me for ministry. But He will do the same for anyone who dechomai, welcomes in and receive Truth, it is our anchor in the Storm!

Blessings on your journey,
Ricci Johnson-Wilson