ANTICHRIST IN DUO

                                        ANTICHRIST IN DUO

      A discussion on two seemingly contrasting venues, both of which are born, bred and perpetuated by the antichrist spirit, when used as a means to salvation..

                                                     What Anti-Christ Really Is

We have all heard mention of the anti-Christ, as being a wicked, one-world ruler who will dominate the world and attempt to force everyone living to worship the devil or be killed [Revelation 13:15]. And at some point in time, an attempt will be made to force everyone who is alive to accept the mark of the beast, thereby or due to already, worshipping the devil, or be unable to buy or sell [Revelation 13:16,17]. But what exactly is anti-Christ? Is antichrist only a wicked, powerful ruler who opposes God and Christ, or could it be a system, an entity, a nation or a doctrine, or some combination of all, and something else besides? > [II Thessalonians 2:3,4,10 > I Thessalonians 5:3, Genesis 3:1-7, Daniel 2:43, 3:1-12,28,29, Genesis 11:1-9, Daniel 6:4-15, 7:7,8,11,19-21,23-26, 8:10-14,23-25, 9:26,27, 11:3-45, 12:11,12, Revelation 2:2,4-6,9,14,15,20-23, 3:1,2,9,15-17, 6:6,8, 9:20,21, 11:7,10, 12:3,4,15,17, 13:1-7,11-18, 16:9-14, 17:2-6,8-14,16-18, 18:2,3,5-9, 19:19,20, 21:8 > Revelation 14:12 > (keep the following verses in mind for later) Deuteronomy 6:5, 27:10, Jeremiah 31:33, Matthew 5:17-20, Ezekiel 11:19-21, John 3:3, Revelation 22:16, Deuteronomy 12:32].

The Apostle John reveals that antichrist is anyone who denies the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ [I John 2:18-23]. The Lord also shows us through John [I John 2:27], that: it is the last time, and as far back as John's time it was; we are told that antichrist would come; that there are, and already were in John's time, many antichrists; that realizing that there are many antichrists is a sign that it is the last time; that the antichrists were, at one time, part of God's people, but that they left the faith [John 10:1-16 (v.16 is referring to the Gentiles, who were not allowed access, generally, to God's grace until a short time after Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, about 3 1/2 years); that the antichrist people were never truly of the Lord; that true believers have an unction (Greek chrisma-anointing of the Holy Spirit; I John 2:27); that John wrote this to us (the church, the believers) in order to reaffirm the truth that we know; that any who deny that Jesus is the Christ is a liar; that any who deny Jesus do not have the Father either. Let us now examine these passages more closely and in-depth.

Firstly, recall that John is writing to the church, the believers [I John 1:3, 2:1,12-14, 3:1, 5:13], to strengthen us, and to warn us about antichrists. At this point, let's discover more explicitly and exactly what the full definition of antichrist is, from Vine's Dictionary. Antichrist is from the Greek antichristos, and means against Christ, instead of Christ, or some combination of the two. Defined by Westcott [Vine, W.E., Unger, Merrill F., White Jr., William. Pg. 30. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words with Topical Index], antichrist is also "one who, assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Christ". This second part goes along with how some of the movies portray the antichrist, as a wicked, powerful ruler who tries to take the place of Christ, thereby opposing Christ. Two things here: the movies have unscriptural events concerning "the" antichrist, and; there are also many antichrists which fit this second part of the definition. As we continue, we will fully discover through scripture that both of these definitions are correct.

Last in the last time is eschatos, meaning last, utmost, extreme, and in I John 2:18 means the last hour, or, the last age preceding the second advent of Christ, and coincides with Matthew 25:1-13, which tells about the last hour before Christ returns to gather His followers. The ones who didn't get to heaven had no oil [elaion] in their lamps, oil being symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Anyone without the Holy Spirit does not belong to Christ [Romans 8:9]. The five foolish virgins [Greek parthenos represents pureness from carnality, II Corinthians 11:2, those who are righteous in Christ, *Romans 8:1-16, John 3:3, Matthew 18:3, Colossians 2:11, I Peter 1:23, Psalm 51:13, Ezekiel 11:19-21, 18:31], having been converted to Christianity and being led and taught by the Holy Ghost [Romans 8:14, Galatians 5:16, Micah 7:7, John 14:16-18, 16:7-14, I John 2:27].

Referring to the antichrists, John says that they were never really of the believers spiritually, but were with them physically at one time, but went out from the believers. Does this mean that when someone leaves a congregation and goes elsewhere, that they are antichrist? Or is there a deeper meaning? Common sense reasoning here goes a long way: the church is the body, or group, of believers, worldwide [Colossians 1:18, I Corinthians 12:12-27], so there are obviously many congregations. According to Walid Shoebat, the Muslims fit the category, because they are an antichrist cult which sprang from the church, to which I fully agree. But there are others as well.

Jesus told us that there will be those who profess the name of Jesus Christ, and do many wonderful works in His name, but do not really belong to Him [Matthew 7:21-23,26,27]. The title Lord means 'one having power", master, owner, sir, depending upon the context in which it is used. Wonderful, as in wonderful works, from the Greek dunamis, in this context, means when used relatively, inherent ability, capability, ability to perform anything. Ever heard people say, "if you put your mind to it, you can do anything"? I suspect that the ministers to whom Christ is referring are those who "have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof" [II Timothy 3:5, Hosea 7:14-16], and as such do not perform miracles by the Spirit, but rather do many good works which, though not bad in themselves, mean nothing to God if not done in the right Spirit.

We can "knock ourselves out" doing one good thing after another for people which, again, we should always be ready to do good to anyone that we can [Galatians 6:10]. But at the same time, the Lord wants obedience rather than sacrifice [I Samuel 15:22]. As regenerated believers [Ezekiel 18:31, 11:19,-21], we are to do what the Holy Ghost says, and refrain from doing what He says not to do, as the Holy Ghost is as Jesus Christ Himself [John 14:16-18,26, 16:7-14, Matthew 10:16-20, Ephesians 4:30 > Exodus 23:20-22]. Works are a result of salvation, not a means to it [Ephesians 2:8-10, James 2:14-26].

The health and wealth preachers, as well as eternal salvation and grace excuses active sin preachers, certainly do many wonderful works, as it appears that the members of their flock are generally quite well off. I suspect that it is made possible by the leaders of that "church" being people pleasers (compromisers) [Galatians 1:6-10, Ezekiel 34:7,8,10, Zephaniah 3:1-5] in the communities, tickling many ears [II Timothy 4:3,4] and hatching plans to contrive a conglomerate of people who "scratch each other's backs. To sum it up in a nutshell, the land of promise, the land of milk and honey, is not a world filled with material goods and no problems [Exodus 3:8, Numbers 14:8, other such, Hebrews ch.11]. The promise is the kingdom of God, a world not seen with the naked eye, gained access to by repentance unto salvation and receiving the Holy Ghost [Psalm 105:42-45, Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4,5, John 18:36, Luke 17:20,21, Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Matthew 5:17-20, Revelation 14:12, Deuteronomy 6:5, 27:10, Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 2:15, 10:9,10, John 3:3-6].

Any one of us could end up in that category if we fail to take heed to Christ's teachings and neglect to keep our bodies in subjection to God [I Corinthians 9:27, Matthew 13:18-22, Revelation 14:12, I John 5:1,2]. There are many who claim to believe in God and Christ, and do many good things for other humans, but their lives and conversation do not reflect Christ otherwise, though they may be moral folks and upstanding members of their community. Why? Because they have not accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah, the main part of which is admitting to God and self that one is a sinner [Romans 3:23], being sorry for sins, asking God to forgive them, and then doing the utmost to forsake them [Acts 2:38]. Note that the Pharisees were an outwardly moral people and upstanding members of their communities, yet Jesus called them blind, fools, vipers and hypocrites [Matthew ch. 23].

Professing to be a believer and not attending church is not necessarily a sign that a person is wayward. Remember that Paul, and no doubt other of the apostles and disciples couldn't have attended church weekly, spending much time traveling to other places to preach and teach, yet they stayed devoted to prayer and study always. With so many churches in America veering from or neglecting true doctrine, there can be times when it is more conducive to our faith to pray and study at home [Philippians 2:12]. Work [Greek katergazomai] out your own salvation means specifically, according to Vine's, to work out, achieve, effect by toil, your salvation, "where your own salvation refers especially to freedom from strife and vainglory". Many times the people who are doing Christ's work are put upon a pedestal when, in fact, it is Christ who should be put upon the "pedestal". Doing that to people seduces the spirit of pride, which is evil, causing the unwary to become subserviant to the whims and expectations of men rather than God.

We need to gather with other believers [Hebrews 10:22-25, 3:12-19 > Exodus 23:20-22], but it doesn't have to be in church [Matthew 18:20]. During various times of the persecution of Christians by the old Roman Empire's government, believers had to meet secretly and, sadly, days like that may be coming to America. There are many churches now which teach that there is no longer a need for the Holy Spirit and it's workings, relying only upon knowledge, which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit [I Corinthians 1:10-13,17-29,]. There have always been corrupt people in some of the congregations [Jude 4, III John 9,10], and there are more now than then, howbeit not always manifested as overtly as in the days of the original church and apostles. What the denial of the Holy Spirit does is to create an institution instead of a true church, seducing a corporate spirit rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to reign and take precedence.

Someone who has been truly converted [refer to * above and I Peter 1:11] can know the truth from error [I John 4:6], even if lacking the pertinent scriptural knowledge, having the unction [Greek chrisma], or anointing, of the Holy Spirit, or Ghost, which is what actually teaches us, regardless of what humans are teaching us [I John 2:27], because even if someone is teaching us the truth, we don't truly know it until the Holy Ghost Itself teaches that to us. Without the Holy Spirit possessing us, we can only attain to human or otherwise earthly knowledge and cleverness [Luke 16:1-13], which is generally knowledge gained through experience and study, which is fine in it's place. But we need the knowledge and wisdom that only the Holy Ghost can teach [ However, there is also a spirit, which is of satan, which enables human wisdom far exceeding what is gained through experience [Ezekiel 28:1-19, Isaiah 58:1-14, 59:1-15 > Isaiah 59:1, Daniel 7:8,20,21,25, 8:11,12,23-25, 11:16,20-28,31-39,45, I Timothy 4:1-3, 5:11-13,15, 6:9,10,(17,18), II Timothy 3:1-8,13, Hosea 7:14-16, Deuteronomy 18:9-13].

Verses 22 and 23 of I John 2 coincide. Denying that Jesus is the Christ is a lie, of the antichrist, which is also denying God Himself. Some say that they have God, yet deny believing in Jesus as Savior. This is partly faith without works [James 2:14], because the main work of God is to believe on Jesus Christ [John 6:29, Mark 9:7, John 14:15], obeying His voice in all things [John 10:2-5, 14:11-18,26, 16:7-13, Psalm 25:5, Luke 1:69,76,79]. For that reason, we are bound, or obligated, to obey the Holy Ghost, follow Christ's teachings, and obey the commandments of God. Let's delve more in-depth into each of these precepts.

In Hebrews 10:26-39, we are told that if we tread upon Jesus, which is counting His bled shed as unholy, and thereby doing despite to the Spirit of Grace, the Holy Spirit. That is worse than despising the moral commandments [verse 28], which is also worthy of death. Of course we cannot physically tread upon Jesus. Tread [Greek katapateo] means to turn away from Him, to engage in wilful sin, sin being [Greek hamartia and hamartema] a missing of the mark, produced by an inward element [James 4:5], producing an act [Matthew 12:34]. Sin is also an act of disobedience to Divine Law [I John 3:4, Romans 7:12].

To ignore or wilfully disobey God's commandments is to say that one is wiser and more authoritative than God, which is what Adam and Eve did [Genesis 2:15-17], Eve being tempted to by satan directly, and Adam being tempted to do so by Eve a bit later. In their hearts, they essentially said that they wanted to be as wise as God Himself, and to do so, they had to attempt to place themselves in God's place, which is what satan did way before, resulting in being cast out of God's presence [Isaiah 14:12-14, Luke 10:18, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Genesis 3:14,15], and received a permanent curse. This is what we do if we willfully sin, thinking that we can still enjoy God's blessings [Jeremiah 2:13, I Corinthians 10:5-14,20-33, James 1:8, I Chronicles 12:33, Hosea 2:7, Jeremiah 14:10-16]. Mentioned in the passage from Jeremiah are also the preachers and teachers who teach false doctrines.

Doing despite [Greek enubrizo] is treating the Holy Spirit insultingly, which also means considering oneself superior, which is also what Lucifer did. This coincides directly with Mark 3:22-29, talking about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and all of Christ's work. Grieving the Holy Spirit [Ephesians 4:30] is causing distress, pain or grief to It which, done enough times or vehemently once, can be blaspheming Him. If we disobey Him, it is grieving Him.

Christ came to redeem us from the curse of the law [Galatians 3:13], to deliver us from our sins [Matthew 1:21], and to save us from the wrath to come [I Thessalonians 1:10], not to give us a license to sin. His death, burial and resurrection enables us to abide in God's commandments [Matthew 5:17-20, Romans 2:12-15], not to allow us to ignore them [Revelation 14:12]. Even though many teach that Christ abolished the Mosetical law, that is false doctrine. He didn't actually even abolish the sacrificial part of the law: rather, He fulfilled it, putting an end to anymore need of people making blood sacrifices of animals to God. That part of the law was transferred to Him, who became the final blood sacrifice for sins [Hebrews 9:25,26,28, 10:10,12, 13:12], fulfilling the whole law.

God's people have been commanded from the beginnings of the work of grace to take heed to the Holy Spirit [Exodus 23:20-25, I Thessalonians 5:19-22]. The Spirit of God will not bid or tell us [Acts 13:2-4, 21:11] to do anything against God's commandments [John 16:13]. God at first gave moral commandments to His people, expecting them to abide by them [Exodus 19:5, 20:1-17 (and several hundred more, all "subdivisions of the ten)]. Of course they couldn't in full, because all humans are born with a sinful nature [Romans 5:12], so God foretold by the prophets that He would convert them, and any others who will, and put His laws into their hearts, so that they, and we, would be able to obey the moral commandments [Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:25-29, John 3:3,5, Ezekiel 11:19-21, I Peter 1:23, Matthew 18:3 > Romans 6:1-7].

Due to misunderstanding correct definitions of words and not comprehending contexts, thus doctrines, the spirit of antichrist has influenced people to regard the act of grace as an okay to do anything one does naturally, and not have to worry about it, repent of it. When people use verses that talk of the law being done away with, they fail to take the entire context into consideration and also do not realize that the law is actually comprised of three parts: the moral commandments; the sacrificial part, and; the ceremonial or ritualistic part. The moral commandments still stand, because they have to do with the thoughts of the heart, which is illustrated in our actions, being actions toward God, other people and ourselves. As the late Pastor David Wilkerson put it, America has turned Jesus into a kind of 'good ole' boy' messiah, as in, don't worry about anything you do, it'll be okay, which kind of Messiah He isn't. That mentality is from the antichrist spirit.

The antichrist spirit portrays Christ as a kind of sensual, happy go lucky party type of person, just going along with the flow and that no matter what anyone does, conveying the message that "it'll be okay". It is not okay for us to be that way, and America is not okay. It is very much the hold of 'every foul spirit, the cage of every unclean and hateful bird and the habitation of devils [Revelation 18:2,3]. In no other nation in the world is every false religion practiced and tolerated, while Bible-based fundamentals are thrown to the ground [Daniel 8:12], and much of that comes from the church. Whether or not the United States is the very spiritual Babylon spoken of in the book of Revelation may be up to some debate, but it certainly fits most of it's descriptions.

Antichrist, which is of the devil, seeks to undermine the fulfilling of Christ's mission in our hearts [Romans 6:17 from Ezekiel 11:19,20] and in our actions [Romans 6:19, 2:5-11]. The devil has instituted a spirit of confusion and deception [I Corinthians 14:33, II John 7-11, I Timothy 4:1, Isaiah 14:9]. While most churches teach and preach against homosexuality and other perversions, which they should, many look the other way when it comes to heterosexual relationships outside of marriage. While they teach not to steal, they somehow think it;s okay to secretly prohibit people from bettering themselves, since it's not outright theft. Lying outright is a sin to them, but withholding information from people which would enable them to avoid problems seems to be acceptable. That is a half truth and is a lie [I John 2:21, Proverbs 3:27]. The church condemns idols of Buddha or the black Muslim stone, which they should, but sports on Sunday and cutting the preacher off on the hour so they can go home and do anything but church related activities is the norm. Most devout Muslims can recite the Quran by heart, but most purported Christian believers can't even tell you what being saved, or converted, is. The list goes on and on. Matthew chapter 23 describes much of the American church quite well, and this nation would more aptly be called the United States of Antichrist.

It's no wonder that a professed Muslim and an accomplished liar is now sitting in the seat of the president, many church people helping vote him in. The church, and much of America, is looking for the same sign that the Pharisees and much of Israel were expecting when Christ came to earth and began His ministry: an earthly, utopian type of kingdom. Due to that there will be many who will accept the false messiah and gladly take the mark of the beast, dooming their souls forever.

The spirit of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel is preeminent in America, and most are falling for it hook, line and sinker. It is the New World order, One World Order, whatever they happen to be calling it at any given time, and satan is implementing it through people. Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, and others, have started it, and now Barack Obama is going full force to make it a standard, thus destroying America's sovereignty. It may not seem like it will affect the individual, but with it also comes the destroying of every individual's sovereignty, meaning all rights of the individual are gone, and everything that anybody does is for the state, the government. Anything viewed as unproductive towards the efficiency and betterment of the whole is done away with, and the true Gospel is most especially viewed in that light by the leaders of the New World Order movement. When people put God second to ANYTHING, it is one step closer to the spirit of Nimrod, a one world order of the earthly variety, people putting themselves in the place of God, believing that they can achieve ANYTHING they desire without His help: antichrist 100% [Genesis 11:1-9, Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 31:10-14, 28:1-19, from Genesis 2:17, 3:1-9].

Since Christ came to redeem and save us from our sins, and enable us to obey God's commandments, then part of Christ's teaching was for us to obey them, evident also from verses already cited [Matthew 1:21, II Samuel 22:28, Psalm 20:5-7, Proverbs 20:22, Jeremiah 15:20, Ezekiel 34:22, 36:29, Psalm 19:14, Isaiah 49:6-8,22,26, Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:32, 6:5-15, 27:10 > Romans 6:11-18]. Thus, disobeying them and committing sins, either of commission or omission, is going against Christ and doing something other than what He, the Father and the Holy Spirit, want us to do, thus, instead of Christ as well, antichrist. The devil rebelled against God and is pure evil. Evil is everything that God is not, sin and all other unrighteousness and wickedness. So blatant, willful sin is antichrist, and will result in being cast away [Hebrews 10:26-29]. By the same token, every individual is accountable to God for what they do or fail to do, no matter who tries to make someone do something which is contrary to the Word of God, no matter if it is an employer, a spouse, a friend, a parent or the government [Romans 14:12, Ezekiel 14:14,16,18, II Chronicles 6:29,30, Psalm 7:16, Isaiah 9:20, Galatians 6:5,7, Romans 2:6, 14:12, Ephesians 6:1-10, Micah 7:9].

There is also another main antichrist, which we will go over in a bit. Concerning using excuses to sin certain sins, I have been in that trap of thinking, well, we're going to sin somewhere no matter what, so what difference does it make? Or, because of this situation or that situation, it's okay to do this or to do that. Or the real classic: I don't do these other sins, so maybe it's okay if I do that one. It is the wrong answer and is a death trap for the soul and the body [II Corinthians 5:10, Romans 2:6-15].

Concerning being forgiven, a brother in the Lord and I were recently talking about willful sin. He commented that a few times of sinning and being forgiven, yes, but 400 times? He doesn't think so. He is both right and wrong. Christ told Peter that he should forgive his brother who trespassed against him not 7 times, but 7 times seventy [Matthew 18:21,22]. Does that mean we can not forgive someone after 490 times? No, the moral of that saying is, always. Does God exact things from us that He Himself will not do? No! However, there is a point at which the Lord will completely withdraw the Holy Ghost from us, possibly forever. There are two types (maybe more) of willful sin: sinning in rebellion to God, and; sinning due to rationalizing. If we rationalize, or in other words make reasonable sounding excuses, then we have a deeper rooted problem than we realize, and need to go to God in prayer in complete honesty, asking Him to show us what is wrong, maybe even a close brother or sister in the Lord [Psalm 19:12-14, then verses 7-11, 90:8, 51:1-13]. (Note that there are times when the Lord may leave us for a time, to try us, prove us, see what is in our heart [II Chronicles 32:31, from verses 21-31, see also John 6:66-68]).

When or if we sin due to rationalizing, we are, firstly, doing the same thing that Eve did in the Garden of Eden, which is outright doing what the Lord said not to do, due to either being tempted by the devil, or going along with the desires of the flesh. We are also, in our quest to be wise, making ourselves to be wiser than God, in essence saying that even though He said not to do this or that, we are wiser than He is, that we know better than He does, so we rebel against His Word, and do what we want, or desire, to do [Genesis 3:1-6, Romans 13:14, Galatians 5:16, Micah 7:7]. So since, under the New Testament age, Christ came to save us from our sins, not in our sins, when we transgress the commandments of God, we are sinning against Christ, who came also to enable us to obey the commandments [Romans 6:22,23, I Corinthians 15:34, I John 3:4].

In order to understand the fulness of what antichrist is, we need to also understand more fully what Christ represents. Christ is from the Greek christos, and means "anointed", of which there are several meanings. In the Old Testament the word means Messiah, and was applied to priests who were anointed with holy oil, especially the high priest, who were types of Christ and a shadow of what was yet to be, as was the physical tabernacle [Hebrews 9:1-10, 11:17-19, I Corinthians 10:2, II Corinthians 3:7, II Kings 13:5, Hehemiah 9:27 > Isaiah 43:11]. Messiah means anointed, and in the Bible means the expected king and deliverer of the Jews, as saviour, or savior, [Greek soter] means a deliverer, from physical oppression as well as Jesus the Savior of the world, from spiritual oppression, primarily [Judges 3:9-11]. Secondarily it means a professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause. Moses was a messiah in the second definition and a type of Christ, because he, or more perfectly God by Moses, delivered the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage.

The prophets are called 'hoi christoi Theou', the anointed of God, and a king of Israel was sometimes called at times 'christos tou Kuriou', the anointed of the Lord. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ became the one and only High Priest of the believer [Hebrews 3:1]. While others have been a type of Christ, Jesus is THE Christ [Hebrews 9:11-15,24-28].

So to reiterate, Jesus Christ came to reveal who and how God is [Matthew 11:27], save us from our sins [Matthew 1:21], enable us to be obedient to God [John 12:26, Mark 8:34-38, II Corinthians 5:21, Mayyhew 19:17-21], and to save us from the wrath that is coming upon this world and is already here, illustrated daily in the news [Romans 5:9, Zephaniah 1:14-18, Luke 21:25-28]. So anything that is either in opposition to these things, or instead of these things, is antichrist.

There are those who once followed Jesus and His teachings, but turned their back on Him [I John 2:19], denying that He is the Christ. This group could include, and does, some who have never been converted, but John is writing to the church, primarily about a part of the church, and perhaps secondarily the unsaved. There are many in the organized church who have turned their backs on Christ, denying that he is the Christ, but still attend services regularly and even engage in many church activities. There are also entire church congregations that have become antichrist, though still preaching and teaching the same lessons from the Bible [Ezekiel 13:1-23], even entire denominations.

The unconverted to whom this pertains are those who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit [Proverbs 1:24-33] to repent of their sins, but have hardened their heart and refused Christ as Savior [Psalm 95:8, Hebrews 4:7,16, 3:12, Proverbs 28:14, 29:1]. There are preachers who say that anyone who is not converted is of the devil, but in reality, unconverted people who have not been convicted of their sins by the Holy Ghost are simply of the world, earthly, and though heaven is not their destination in an unconverted state, many are in a "valley" of decision, whereas those who have rejected Christ specifically belong to the antichrist realm [John 3:3, 8:23,34, I Corinthians 15:48, Joel 3:14, Joshua 24:15, Ephesians 2:1-3].

Another part of antichrist is rooted in a false delusion, which delusion was originally of satan himself. Isaiah seen a vision of the devil of when he tried to usurp God's authority and put himself in God's place [Isaiah 14:12-14], and apparently possessed a man who thought to do the same thing, while in a high government position on earth [Ezekiel 28:1-19]. What did the devil, and this ruler, think in their hearts and minds? They thought that they were all powerful, and as perfect as God Almighty. The devil is 100% against God, Christ and the Holy Ghost. He wants people to either oppose the Godhead directly, or indirectly by serving something, anything, instead of Christ and God, blaspheming the Holy Ghost [I John 3:8, John 10:10].

So how does the pride the devil has tie in with another aspect of antichrist as pertaining to people, specifically? Pride is power directed against God [Leviticus 26:19]. Here in Leviticus God is telling His people that if they do not obey His statutes and commandments, then He will send plagues upon them, coinciding also with Deuteronomy chapter 28, and if, after being afflicted with certain plagues they still refuse to repent, then He will break the pride of their power. People living in sin, rebellion against God, who refuse to repent, are filled with pride. yet there is another type of pride as well, and another refusal to repent.

The Jews in Jesus' time were generally a moral and ethical people, but many of them were also very proud. They were proud because they were the offspring of Abraham, as are the Arab Muslims, by the way [John 8:31-59, Genesis 16:1-4,10,11,15, 25:11-18, I Chronicles 1:28-31, II Chronicles 19:11], all a very proud people. Those Jews, especially the Pharisees, were very proud because they strove to keep the law of Moses, which included the sacrificial parts, the ceremonies, rituals and cleanliness part, and the moral part. Yet they blasphemed Jesus Christ, calling what was inside Him a demon, which is blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, and picked up stones to throw at him, probably intending to stone Him to death, thus really twisting the law of Moses [Leviticus 20:27, 24:16], by considering Jesus possessed by a demon, not recognizing that He had the Holy Ghost inside Him.

A certain rich ruler obeyed the commandments of Moses, yet lacked what was required to gain eternal life [Luke 18:17-30]. We need to be willing to let go of earthly things, including our accomplishments and possessions if need be [Philippians 3:3-9, Hebrews 10:34], using them to help others, and consider our efforts and works futile as far as earning salvation [Ephesians 2:8,9]. We are justified by faith in Christ Jesus, not at all by works [Romans 3:20,23,24,27,28]. There is not a person on earth who deserves to go to heaven [Psalm 14:2,3, Revelation 5:2-5]. It is all about being saved by grace through faith, rather than trying to establish our own righteousness [Romans 10:2-4,9,10].

The law of Moses, that is, the moral commandments, serve a twofold purpose: they are meant to be abided by, thereby making us moral and ethical, acceptable to God [Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Luke 18:18-20], and; to reveal our sins to us [Romans 5:20, 7:7,12, 3:20 > Romans 6:1,2, Isaiah 5:20,21,23-25, Haggai 2:11-14, Micah 3:1-4]. The "catch-22" here is, no one can always obey the commandments by their own power [Zechariah 4:6], meaning that everyone has sinned [Romans 3:23, Ecclesiastes 7:20], and needs a way to get back in tune with the Almighty [I John 2:1-7 > II Corinthians 5:21, I John 4:10]. Therefore, accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour occurs when two things happen: when God has the Holy Spirit to convict our heart of sins [Proverbs 1:23-33 > John 16:13], and; when we become aware of our sinfulness and ask the Lord to forgive us [Acts 2:37]. Our mind may not comprehend this at first, but our heart does, and through prayer, study and hearing the Word of God our minds will learn.

When we refuse to acknowledge that we are sinful, pride is taking the place of humility before God, and we are committing the same sin that Lucifer did in Isaiah 14:12-14]. Anything that we do or say is works, or deeds, by which we can never be justified before God, though we need to obey the commandments as well [Romans 2:13, 3:20,24,28, Galatians 2:16]. So saying, if we strive to obey the commandments, and think or believe that it is by those deeds by which we are justified before God, or saved, then we are using the law, works, with which to obtain righteousness instead of Christ, which is antichrist.

American society is filled with all kinds of Christian oriented precepts, and more and more we are urged to be moral and ethical people, but Christ is never mentioned, making it all a matter of works only, sometimes explained in logical terms, but without Jesus Christ. When those things are used and thought to be everything we need, it is the antichrist spirit.

   04/05/2015