Soldier in viral video: ISIS is a distraction from Satan, Jesus coming soon

by Gregory Tomlin, |
Army Sgt. Marcus Rogers in a Facebook photo. Rogers is featured in a new video on YouTube in which he says the Islamic State is a "temper tantrum" thrown by Satan to distract the people of God from the sharing the message of Jesus Christ. | Marcus Rogers/Facebook

SEOUL (Christian Examiner) – A U.S. Army sergeant stationed in South Korea is making waves on social media with an impromptu video sermon on the attacks carried out by the Islamic State in Paris.

Sgt. Marcus Rogers posted the video after the attacks Nov. 14, and in it he claims it can no longer be denied that the world in general, and the United States specifically, is at war.

"We are at war. Whether you want to admit it; whether you want to see it; whether you want to believe it or not, we are at war," Rogers says in the video, first posted by Western Journalism.

The war the world sees being carried out in the Middle East and Paris, however, is primarily spiritual, the sergeant said as he strolled back and forth behind a shipping container, preaching to the camera in a black workout shirt.

"You want to know the truth about the attacks in Paris? ISIS and all these other things that are going on in the world, it's just the enemy's pawns and his temper tantrum. Why is he throwing a temper tantrum? Because he knows his time is short. He knows that he is fighting a losing battle."

Rogers said sometimes he imagines Satan fuming about the fact that no matter what he does, he will lose in the end when Christ returns.

"You look at ISIS. Who do they hate? They hate Christians – they are going around putting Christians in cages, setting them on fire, cutting their heads off," Rogers said. "The enemy hates us. ... He is jealous because we have the light and the fire of God inside of us, so he is trying to come against us with fear. He's trying to come against us with division. That's why you've got ISIS and Black Lives Matter and racism and all this mess that's going on in the world, all that causes division and fear."

Rogers said Satan is using those "allowing themselves to be used by him to carry out his anger and his vengeance on the earth. He's roaming the earth like a lion seeking whom he can devour, and every day, every time these things happen and people die without Jesus, that's probably the only sense of comfort he has, but it's still not good enough. He's never satisfied."

"The closer he knows that Jesus Yahweh is coming back, the more he wants to act up, the more people he wants to take out," Rogers said.

That is why the sergeant says he has a message for Christians: stop worrying about the distractions and get to the business of winning the war for souls. If they don't, he said, they will also become a pawn of the enemy.

"Even the Christians, some of them are getting caught up in that agenda. Some of them don't even see what is happening. You're just being a pawn of the enemy. He's trying to cause a distraction because he knows his time is short. He knows he's fighting a losing battle. The Bible says, 'When you see these things happening look to the sky because your redemption draweth nigh.'"

Christians not being obedient to God in sharing the Gospel in these perilous days, he said, are failing God and promoting the same division Satan is using to distract the world from the message of God's love in Christ.

"You can caught up in these side agendas but that's not going to benefit anybody. What is it going to matter when they stand before God and they've died without Jesus? That's why as Christians I say, 'Come out from among the world and be ye separate,' the Bible says. Stop looking at skin color and start looking at souls. We shouldn't have a black church, we shouldn't have a white church; there should be no division, because the Spirit of God doesn't discriminate."

Rogers, who has already posted dozens of videos in which he preaches about the church's role in proclaiming the Gospel, said people may not want to hear what he has to say but he is telling them what he believes because he loves them and because Jesus is going to return soon.

"Wake up," Rogers said. "He's about to crack the sky any day. And I hope that you're ready."