This is very interesting and makes sense...

""Wokeness" has become so pervasive across America's institutions from schools to corporations that author Vivek Ramaswamy argues it meets the Supreme Court test for religion.

"Wokeness is a secular religion. It isn't a religion based on God. It isn't a religion that offers a path to redemption, but it is a secular religion nonetheless," Ramaswamy, author of Woke, Inc. tells CBN News.

In his new book, Ramaswamy lays out legal solutions for people who've been fired for not ascribing to this religion of wokeness.

"When you have a moral vacuum that runs that deep, that's when secular dark religions like wokeness start to fill the void as we have seen the things that used to fill that void: patriotism, faith, hard work on the decline or nearly disappearing ? that's what allows 'woke-ism' to effectively become opium for the American soul," Ramaswamy explains....

He proposes adding political speech and belief to the list of protected classes, which he says is needed to fight a form of discrimination reaching scary heights.

"In my opinion, it is certainly far more rampant than racial discrimination which we instead obsess over and we need to apply those standards evenhandedly," he says.

And now as multi-national American companies like Coke, Disney, and Nike impose this new religion ? he says foes like China are benefiting at the expense of the United States. "What they've recognized is that American wokeness ? they even have a word for it ? this is cultural weakness."

Because he says, America's greatest asset on the national stage isn't our military might, it's our moral standing.

"They get companies like Disney, or Nike, or associations like the NBA or celebrities like LeBron James to criticize the United States relentlessly about alleged social injustice but they do not say a peep in China ? in fact, many of them actually praise China and the reason they do it is because that is their condition to be allowed to enter the Chinese market."

And he says the hypocrisy is astounding.

"One of them is Disney's hypocrisy, in particular, saying they could not shoot a film in the state of Georgia if Georgia passed an anti-abortion statute ? the equivalent of a heartbeat bill a couple of years ago but last year they shoot Mulan in the Xingjiang province of China literally ground zero of the Uighur human rights crisis and not only do they stay silent ? at the end of the film they actually praise China ? they thank the Xingjiang authorities at the end of the film in the credits ? you can see it today. Those are the same authorities who are responsible for enslaving the Uighurs," he says.

Tech companies, he says, are also using the woke corporate culture to their advantage.

"What you're seeing right now especially in big tech is big government is now dispatching big tech to do through a back door what it could not directly do under the constitution ? namely to censor political speech and alleged hate speech and misinformation that it did not like to see online."

All while enjoying legal protection from liability. In his book, Ramaswamy argues ? if tech companies are acting as agents of the state, then they should be bound by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

He hopes his book will help Americans wake up and realize what's at stake."...... https://www2.cbn.com/news/us/wokene...nes-light-dangers-woke-corporate-culture

And here is more from another author.. 'Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement is Hijacking the Gospel and the Way to Stop It,' Strachan does a deep dive into critical race theory, and what he calls wokeness. He concludes: Wokeness is not just not the Gospel. Wokeness is anti-Gospel.

The reason Strachans analysis is so important is that wokeness is not a simple knot to unravel. As he explains, 'Historical sins sit heavy upon us.'

The sins of slavery and the institutionalized racism of Jim Crow and segregation are very real. In spite of the false accusation that we don?t teach honest history in the United States, I would argue there isnt an American alive today who is not keenly aware of the sins of the past and of the long difficult journey toward the Founders ideal of a nation in which all men are created equal.... Strachan unpacks just how misguided and destructive wokeness is in a 14-point critique. At its simplest, the critique can be summed up in his simple formula: In this system of wokeness, there is no grace and no love.

But as wokeness seeps into Americas churches, it is vital that Christians educate themselves and understand just how antithetical wokeness is to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Indeed, Strachan concludes that wokeness is a new religion, with no creator, libertine sexuality, all trust in the state to rule us, and salvation derived from anti-racism." Hijacking Christianity: Why 'Wokeness Is Anti-Gospel'


It seems others see it, and its not only a secular religion, but one that is being pushed by the state which is turning more 'godless' and lawless and making us grasp a false man made ideals which cannot be reached as long as sin exists. And since they do not believe in God and thus true good (and the evil which conflicts against it), they cannot find a real solution. Thats what we are seeing in this 'secular religion' which is being 'indoctrinated' in our schools, on our children, and young people, and even from the highest office.

Interesting title-- " How the Social Justice Movement is Hijacking the Gospel "

Wokeness =
the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination:

Coming from other Adventist forums I'm a bit concerned about some of the rhetoric I keep reading. Things like, "we as Adventists need to get off our high horse, thinking we have some kind of edge on understanding truth" and what we need is more acceptance and toleration of others beliefs, and moral standards. Especially with the lesson referring to the wall of separation broken down by Christ, in Ephesians, the message has been emphasized -- let's put aside all difference and unite on our belief in Christ.
Of course there are threads of truth woven all through the rhetoric. It's very true, as Christian brothers and sisters we should not be at each other's throats, we need to love and respect each other, no matter the color of skin or level of education. Yet the rhetoric goes far beyond these things and often sounds like Wokeness is being absorbed even into our churches to some extent.


So I ask, how is true Christianity different from "social justice" in the worldly sense? While there are some similar concepts I am convinced there is also a huge difference!
Social justice demands we must be less prejudice, (but the victim image is emphasized and given the right to be demandingly prejudice and vengeful) social justice demands we be more tolerant, more accepting and even confirming diversities, (for supposedly there is no right or wrong, just different values and life styles, yet to even suggest a diversity is wrong or sinful is NOT tolerated) and of course social justice insists we must stop thinking there is some absolute truth we are to share with others, etc. etc.


To develop a loving, kind, upright, honest, noble character is what God wants to do in us.
But is Christianity itself looking to wokeness on how to achieve this?

I don't know how many people here know it but Karl Marx was a Satanist, He wrote odes to the devil. I've been looking for the odes themselves but cannot find them any more. He didn't actually start communism. He and Friedrich Engels wrote the communist manifesto
but after Marx's death Engels said that they used the word communist to differentiate between themselves and the socialists who came before them. Everybody always called the USSR communist but it wasn't. United Soviet Socialist Republic doesn't even mention communism. It's not like Lenin. Trotsky. and Stalin were too stupid to know what political ideology the believed.

Anyway wokeness is socialism/marxism I believe this is one of the devil's final great deceptions as when I have attempted to get through to socialists they are extremely hard ti reach. It's about like trying to reach a radical Calvinist. Marx was actually a religious zealot and created a religion as a dedicated marxist who left marxism behind wrote in the 1950s. I used to have a little book he wrote and his explanation went along the lines of marxism is a form of mysticism

Wokeness is an outgrowth of Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology is basically a child of the Jesuits. The Jesuits based their ideas of liberation on the analysis Karl Marx had made of the socioeconomic and political situation of what he called "the world proletariat". For Marx, the task of the proletariat was to struggle against the capitalists and to liberate the people from their oppression.

If you really analyze the woke activities you will see the struggle is not really to bring equality and toleration into the world, but to bring down the capitalist countries and the so called "privileged white" into ruin.
Once that is done, what is left? Everyone has nothing, the masses possess nothing but the value of their labor and are forced to follow the mandates of the few who control

How much time have you spent studying marxism? I've spent quite a bit of time at it and debating socialists. Marxism was created to bring down western culture because of Marx's hatred of God and Christianity. Like I said, he was a Satanist. In Max Eastman's book, The Failures of Socialism, He has a chapter titled The Religion of Immoralism in it he documents just how weird Marx was.

Eastman was a friend of Lenin's and was invited by Lenin to travel around Russia during the Russian revolution to see what was happening. The book used to be available as a free download. Now it's only available to read from sites that charge for it.

Haven't spent a lot of time studying Marxism, just a very general idea of what he was about. His was an anti-God, anti-christian theme. And I agree there is a side of the woke movement that is blatantly anti Christian and anti-God and anti-Biblical morality.

But blatant denial of God isn't what's going to deceive the whole world in the time of the end. There will be a mighty back-lash against blatant denial of God, a back lash which we already see beginning. People are disgusted with what's going on morally, and boycotting and protesting, and working to get into government to change the downward trends.
Prophecy doesn't show the world rejecting worship, it shows the whole world deceived into a false mandatory worship.

Satan has perfected the Hilganian Dialectic , a ?framework? that can be used to achieve almost any goal and to rise a world leader into a position of power in a short amount of time.
one: create a problem (as in pushing and celebrating immorality and general disgusting lowering of society).
Step two: Publicize it. Put it on every news outlet, make sure everyone knows of every disgusting thing blossoming in society. Get people all emotionally stirred up.
Step three: Finally, present the solution, and people will accept the new solution, which they probably would never have accepted earlier. The irony here is that the foe looks like the savior, when in fact the foe was the one who created the problem in the first place.

It's all about working the emotions of the masses so they will accept the final solution that will be offered. Prophecy tells us plainly that it will be FALSE WORSHIP in the name of God, supported by the churches that once served the true God.

What I see entering the church isn't straight Marxism, but the Jesuit version of their Liberation Theology which still acknowledges there is a God, they've put God into the mix, but they are following Marxist principles -- yet it will seem like the solution and be readily accepted as the solution by the masses --- and that is what is entering the churches.

If we focus too heavily on the inroads of the godless wokeness, we may with open arms welcome the "solution" , when a seemingly Christian movement of wokeness gains power to mandate and enforce moral principles.

To resist that movement, when it comes and makes laws seemingly to bring people back into a moral society, those who don't join but insist on keeping God's law, "Satan will cause them to be accused as lawbreakers, as men who are dishonoring God and bringing judgments upon the world"{DD 34.3}

Liberation theology grew out of marxism. All of these woke ideologies have a common root, marxism. Even Nazism grew out of Marx's teachings, Nationalist Socialist Party. You don't believe it? Read Mien Kampf. in it Hitler says that to be a good socialist one has to be a racist.

Those guys weren't so stupid they didn't know what ideology they followed. Marx was a blatant racist. There was a black guy that became more popular than Marx and Marx and Engels called him every name in the book. He was willing to destroy his own movement rather than have a black man at the head of it. Eastman said the Russians were the only ones brutal enough to acknowledge his racism as the Europeans and Americans covered it up. I've tried telling socialists and they get really angry and refuse to believe it as admitting he was a racist is the death knell of their movement.

This is why I say marxism is Satan's great final deception as not believing the Bible is the death knell for all who reject it. Karl Marx was a contemporary of Ellen White and the devil always has a counterfeit for every movement God brings into existence.

I beg to differ on your final conclusion, and stick to the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy scenario as to the final deception.

I do agree that Marxism, and all it's side kicks play their part in shaping the endtime society, and setting things up for extreme hardship and trouble, BUT it is NOT the last great deception. I agree Socialism and the liberation movement etc. are strongly related to Marxism. I'm appalled at what's happening in Canada as we move deeper in socialism. All that is true enough. But it's not the last endtime deception.



If we want to avoid deception, it may be wise to stick to what has been revealed. And the last deception is NOT Marxism. It is not wokeness -- the last deception WILL APPEAR TO BE A GOOD THING! Most Christians and even Adventists will be deceived by it.

Actually EGW warns the last deception is to lay aside the Testimonies and think we know what the last powers are better than what was revealed. And I strongly believe that to be true. The idea that the last deception takes the form of a Christianized though spiritualistic worship is not believed by many.

My parents lived in Europe during WWII, they were sure the time of trouble had come (and their experience was definitely a time of trouble!) They were sure Christ was coming! To his dying day my dad still lamented "why hasn't Christ come"? But Hitler's "mein kampf" was NOT the end. Yes, he was a definitely a raciest, he was evil, millions died because of him -- but it was not the end deception.

Reread the prophecies. Reread the Great Controversy. The events that bring in the final "straw" are NOT wokeness (though wokeness plays its part). The endtime events are enforced worship.

Once again, I am speaking to the entire world. You are speaking to the church. People will reject the Sabbath because they have been taught ignore the Bible and marxism is a large part of that. It's the devil's counterfiet because marxism teaches people to trust government to fix their problems rather than God and that they can save themselves ny their "good" works of paying their taxes. Marxism teaches people that paying taxes is "charity" when God teaches us that charity comes from the heart and is to be a personal relationship with those we are helping. That's what Jesus did and He is our example in all things.

It's true that faith in the Bible as the Word of God, is dropping. Even those who still believe in the infallible Word of God, have pushed the Sabbath into the realms of shadows as no longer applicable to Christians. The devil has done his best to hide the Bible truths from the masses. However, he is also very capable of using and misinterpreting the Bible, thus making it appear he is "an angel of light".
I agree a huge effort is being exerted by Satan to totally obscure the sources of truth, for indeed, without knowledge of truth, the people perish.
Marxism certainly is one of the devils tools to help swing about his deceptive powers.

But there are some things that don't fit into your equation.

For one thing, just because marxist ideas seem to be in the ascendency now, there are other forces (also from spiritualistic sources) that are also making powerful influential impact on the world.


Questions --
You say I'm speaking for the church, while you speak for the world but.....

Is the world not involved in the prophesied end time events?

What about Revelation 18:
" I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. " -- The message of truth will make an impact on the whole world.

Do you believe that the three angel's message, and the fourth angel's message is just for "the church"?
Or is it for the world?

How about the prophecies of Babylon? Babylon is the last great deceptive power is it not?
Is that just for the church, or for the world?
Is Babylon's identity Marxism? (While Babylon has appropriated numerous Marxist principles, Babylon has a different identity according to prophecy -- Babylon actually still uses the Bible.)

What is the identity of the image to the beast? Isn't this all part of the last attempt to deceive the whole world and bring worship to the "sun king" who is none other than satan? Does it involve just the church, or the whole world?
Does it involve just a small group or every person in the whole world?

Won't the whole world be given a chance to make the decision?

"The whole world is to be tested, and obedience to the law of God is to be the test." {4MR 75.2}



There will be a back lash to all this wokeness -- (just as there was a back lash from the French Revolution and it's total rejection of Christianity and the Bible, people are repulsed by the horror, and after Bible Societies and Christianity reaching new heights). Just because church attendance has greatly fallen does not mean certain belief systems are out of thought and mind of the people in the lands where Christianity has a strong history and can awaken.


Also the devil is just as capable to use the Bible when it serves his purpose as he is in destroying people's trust in it.


I have a hard time believing all these prophecies are is just about the church, not the whole world.
Marxism is an evil that has been undermining God's truth, as well as societies well being and personal freedom in general, it is deceptive, but it's not the last deception or test.

I've never said it is the final test. The Sabbath is the final test. You mentioned the French revolution and it was one of the means of under mining faith in the Bible. There is a booklet written by a guy by the name of N. N. Whiting in the APL. He traces out the spiritual results of the French revolution. What grew out of it is rationalism. It undermines faith by negating inspiration, belief in miracles, and more. I think it would be a good book for you to download and read, or read from the EG White website. It is one of the greatest reasons for the rejection of the loud cry message. The people who believe in that stuff today say things like Jesus was a wandering Jewish comic who was murdered and his body eaten by dogs..They have their own version of the NT called the 20th Century version and it teaches marxist philosophy not Christianity.

I don't disagree with you, I just like to point out that satan plays both sides.
He will appear pretending to be Jesus, and it will look like the real thing, not a wandering comic.
But yes, those who bought into the lies he spread from his other side and its attack on the Bible, will not know their bibles, so they will believe their senses.

Not to promote any of their works, but it is an eye opener to at least be aware of what evil spirits are communicating to their subjects (like Alice Bailey) to prepare the world for the "coming masters".

Of course our only hope and strength is to keep our eyes on the REAL Jesus, and study His Word.
We are in a battle, and we want to be among the chosen, called and faithful who are on the side of the Lamb. (See Rev. 17:14) That should be our primary focus.

That should be, in my eyes, our only focus.as we don't have time to spread our attention around. We need to be considered to be fanatics at this stage in history.

I was just with a dear sister and brother that are facing mortality in the strongest terms, and I was able to tell them that we have almost nothing left to go through, as we are like the days of Noah and passing that of Sodom and Gomorrah. We shall see Satan appearing as a angel of light right before us in a short time, months IMHO if not days, then its the end of all this and Christ will come. Not much more to go through, but it will be too terrible for some of us and in mercy we will be put to sleep as we cannot bear this time such as never was.