Monthly Archives: December 2010
Understanding How To Be Scripturally Balanced!
(Ver 1.1) Today I will discuss the importance of being scripturally balanced while simultaneously being radically sold out for God. There are many people in the world who are only partially sold out to God and they place severe limitations and constraints upon themselves and their relationship with God. Baptists are guilty of this, Methodists are guilty of this, Catholics are guilty of this, and even Pentecostals are guilty of this mistake. I do not believe there is a Christian denomination that exists that does not have people who are guilty of this sin of placing limitations upon what God wants to do in the earth today. There has been in the last 50 years the upswing and growth of churches in America that are called or labeled as being “Faith” based churches. Many denominational churches have frowned on then, looked down on the people in these other churches and have openly criticized them and given them derogatory names and labels. I have heard them called “the name it and claim it bunch”, “the blab it and grab it church” and on and on I could go. Such actions of so called Christians are usually done out of ignorance and I do not fault them for being ignorant and behaving in ungodly ways. The net result of these attacks causes more harm to themselves than it does to harm those who are called the names. I noticed that Jesus was taunted and called names even while hanging on the cross for their sins and Jesus said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Wow, what an example Jesus gave to us of unconditional forgiveness.
What I am going to do is give you a small list of some of the subjects found in the Bible and then ask you some basic questions about them and how they relate to each other. You should notice by reading this small list of subjects exactly where you are strong in your knowledge of the Bible and where you are weak in your knowledge of the Bible. But, if you think that you are strong in every area then you should make yourself God and you should not be wasting your time reading my insignificant Bible lessons.
- Spirit
- Holiness
- Purity
- Grace
- Soul
- Faith
- Love
- Hope
- Law
- Sin
- Body
- Mercy
- Repentance
- Redemption
- Atonement
- Salvation
- Judgment
- Righteousness
- Justification
- Condemnation
- Compassion
- Good
- Evil
- Wrath
- Omnipotence
- Sovereignty
Here we have a very basic set of theological subjects and words found in the Bible and they are each a separate distinct theme that can be studied individually and independently from the others. However, there are also countless other subjects found in the Bible that I did not even begin to mention. Then there are scripture dependencies, inter-relationships and cross-relationships between these subjects that exist and must also be taken into account in order to understand any of the subjects fully. Here begins the greatest downfall of why we have so many denominations in the world today. One church group learns a little bit about one subject and either totally ignores the other subjects or think they are not relevant to what they know about this one subject that they teach so strongly. By embracing only a single truth exclusively as being the complete truth, you in effect shut your minds to what else God wants to teach you. So whenever God teaches another church something new about a different subject the other churches immediately reject the new church’s teachings as being heretical because it does not fit with what they teach and believe. What people do is think they know more than they actually know and this results in them not learning anything new that God wants to teach them. Wow, what a bunch of arrogant idiots the church has been. Let’s take the Baptists who I love dearly because they love to preach the grace and salvation of God to everyone but, then they typically as a group ignore how that it takes faith to even get someone saved. So they reject the Faith churches as being heretical false teachings, like faith is not even mentioned in the Bible. I could go on and on about how one church does this to another because they are a little bit different on what they emphasized, but please forgive me if you are a Baptist so that I do not do what I just described. I know that there is plenty of good Baptist that exists in the world so I’m not teaching against being a Baptist.
So what exactly am I teaching today? Part of the message has to do with being open to new things, but then my main point is actually more important than that and it is that you should be balanced in your approach to learning and studying the Bible. God may show you something new in the Bible that no church teaches so do not restrict Him from doing this if He so chooses. This is how people put limits on what God can do in the earth today. They close their spiritual eyes and squint when they read the Bible and only allow God to say what they want to hear. If a Bible verse does not line up with what they currently believe then they usually just ignore it. What you should do when you read your Bible and you see something that does not line up with what you currently believe to be the truth, is to spend time asking God to show you the real truth and allow Him to resolve the conflict.
In my list of topics that I gave you earlier, which one is the greatest one to know? Which one is the most important spiritually speaking? Which ones should you study first? Which ones can you omit? Here are a series of highly subjective questions that if you asked 20 different people you would get 20 different answers. That is the problem we face today in the church. Everyone has a different opinion to what is important to know and they simply ignore the other subjects found in the Bible. I really do not believe that this is the way that God intended it to be. That is why I am teaching a Bible lesson on being balanced. In this lesson I want to emphasize the importance of at the least learning a little bit about everything and then continuing to grow in the knowledge of every subject using a balanced approach. In this way you do not narrow your focus to a select few subjects and get stuck in a ditch that grows deeper so that you are unable to get out of it. This is a common ploy of deception used by the enemy; he will attempt to get someone off track and stuck in a particular rut so that they can see nothing else. I run into people on the internet like this all the time.
I have had numerous people attack me as a liar and a deceiver because they see verses in the Old Testament Bible that says God is in complete control and since He is a sovereign being we have no choices to ever make to be saved. It is just a predetermined choice of God whether you are saved or not saved. These people are guilty of being radically unbalanced in their interpretation of God’s Holy Word. They see only verses that they want to see and ignore those that I gave them that conflict with their beliefs found in the New Testament. Instead of praying and asking God to show them the truth like I have done, they already have determined what the truth is and categorically reject all others. Wow, that is a dangerous attitude to take. God is not stupid, you know and He is perfectly capable of speaking to you and showing you the truth if you ask Him to. But, do not ask Him to prove that you are right about anything, only ask Him to show you the truth and then when He does, if it is not what you thought was the truth, you now have a problem that you must choose to change or remain with your wrong beliefs.
I try to remain balanced in my Bible study and my Bible lessons. I do not try to emphasize any one subject over another and I do not ignore conflicts. When I am presented a conflict like the verses that “Predestination” enthusiasts like to grasp hold of so tightly, I go and pray and ask God to help resolve the conflict. I then in faith go and study my Bible to see what I can find on the subjects and then I remain open for the Spirit of God to speak inside of me and reveal what I am reading in His Word. This is just not that difficult to do, but I doubt that very many Christians actually have learned how to do this. The Bible clearly tells us that the Spirit of Truth inside of us will be our teacher and guide. So learning to hear from God is essential to being a balanced Christian.
So that was just my introduction to becoming a Balanced Christian. I’m sorry it took me that many words to introduce a simple subject. But, I guess that I’m technically still not done. Let’s begin by defining what it means to be balanced. In ancient days, men created scales in order to measure the weight of items. This was a two sided device that you place your item on side that you want to weigh and then you place set weights on the other side until the two sides are level and thus balanced equally. This is a very simple concept but yet it speaks volumes to us when applied to a spiritual reality. Let’s review some scriptures that speak of being balanced using this scale system:
Deu 25:15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Lev 19:36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Pro 16:11 A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
Pro 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
Here in these verses found in the Law of Moses and Proverbs God commands the Children of Israel that they must be fair and just. This is called honesty in some circles but it goes way beyond that also. The term just weights are given as a definitive commandment from God. The term “balance” is also reflective in this message of being equal on two opposing sides. What unjust crooked men would do is to use false weights that favored their personal gain over the lives of those who they were doing business with. They would always cheat just a little bit at a time so that they do not get caught and are found guilty of being a liar and are killed. You can read the opposite of the approach of being well balanced and just in verses like Hosea 12:7, Amos 8:5 and Micah 6:11 where God condemns deceitful men who use false measurements and unbalanced scales to cheat people out of the truth. What we learn from these natural examples is some very strong spiritual lessons to Bible interpretation. For example, if we only study the subject of grace and ignore the subject of faith then we become unbalanced. So being scripturally balanced appears to be a priority to God based upon a few scriptures that we have read so far.
Can you see how to apply these lessons of the balance scale to spiritual things and Bible study? Here is the challenge that we are faced with today; applying the Word of God concerning natural things to our treatment of things that we do not see in the spiritual realm. Let me give you another example of how people can become unbalanced and not even realize it. You see earlier I mentioned that the Spirit of God is our teacher and guide to all truth (John 16:13). This is a verse of scripture that I have heard some people read and tell me that this is why I do not need to go to church and hear a preacher teach me anything. They think that God will teach them everything that they need to know and unfortunately for them this is not what God said He will do at all. Here is the example of taking a truth found in the Bible and exalting it to be the only truth and that is their downfall. You see you can find other Bible verse that directly contradict this information for example here is one:
1Co 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
So here we have a verse that directly contradicts with the fact that God is not a universal teacher and that He does not give everyone the same knowledge, gifts and abilities. This verse very clearly tell us that only some and probably only a few are apostles and only a few are prophets and only a few are teachers, etc. Why wouldn’t God make everyone a prophet? Why wouldn’t God make everyone a teacher? I think church services would be highly confusing if everyone got up to teach at the same time or already knew everything that was to be said. You see we are getting into an extremely complex set of questions because the Bible clearly says that God does not show favoritism or partiality towards anyone but, yet we do see that God only selects a certain number of people to be teachers in the church and this makes our life very complex. For example, God did not pick everyone in the nation of Israel to deliver Israel from the Egyptians. God selected only Moses to lead them out and this was God’s doing. Why would God select a few people to teach the Bible to the church and then tell us that the Spirit of Truth will teach us all inside of us? It would appear to be a contradiction, yet it could be just our wrong view of the Bible causing us to see it like it is not. You could take either one of these positions and think that you were following the truth by ignoring the other fact. You could only go to church and expect your pastor to teach you everything you should know or you could stay at home and expect the Spirit of God to teach you everything that you need to know. Either way you would be scripturally unbalanced and fall into deception. What we learn is that the real truth is a balance between the both of these positions and not just one side of the scale.
I’ll give you one more example of being unbalanced. Very often men want to put God into a religious box and see Him only as the All Powerful Omnipotent being who destroyed the world in Noah’s flood. Most of the time these men are focused on scriptures of judgment and power demonstrations and they ignore verses that are contrary to what they have selectively chosen to believe. This is a prime example of being scripturally unbalanced and putting all of your eggs in the God the Judge basket. You see if you actually studied the Bible in a balanced fashion you would see a God that is revealed as a much gentler, kinder, loving being. Remember when Jesus took the time to wash the feet of all of His disciples? Why would the omnipotent God bow to the level of a servant or slave and do this? I’m sure that this boggles the minds of the men who believe in only an all-powerful judge. You might look at Matthew 20:28 where Jesus tells us that He came into the world not to be ministered to, but to minister to others. This is a directly contrasted God to the one that is found in many of the Old Testament verses that exhibit His awesome power. Here we have another example of two possible extreme positions that can clearly be taken as the only truth. We can find many people who believe in the omnipotent judge who comes with wrath in His eyes and we can find many who believe only in a God who is a humble loving shepherd to His sheep. However, there must be a balance between these two positions that states He is both of these simultaneously and that He loves his children while He judges his enemies. This is an example of being scripturally balanced and not taking one position over the other. This is a great example of how you should be reading and studying your Bible every day. Come to realize that there is more than one truth in the Bible that can be found. Then come to realize that the actual truth is a balance between them all. I hope and pray that you enjoyed this lesson and have learned something that is valuable to use in your everyday life. God Bless!
Hiding the Truth in Plain Sight — Understanding God’s Methods of Hiding Information in the Bible! Pt 8
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 8 in a series of lessons on the methods that God has used to conceal information in the Bible for us to find. By studying these methods we will greatly increase our ability to understand the truth of God’s Word. So far I have covered seven different methods of hiding information without using standard modern encryption methods that make the text completely unreadable. You see the intelligence of God and the spiritual nature of God both are contributing factors to how God is able to accomplish hiding complex information using words that are clearly readable by every man. It is very much like how God created animals in our world that have the natural ability to conceal themselves using their surroundings and blending into their backgrounds. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“.
Technique 8: Telling a Story without Giving Any Details or Explanations
This next technique for concealing truth in the Bible is found extensively throughout the Old Testament. When you realize that nothing in the Bible is found there by chance or accident, you suddenly begin to understand that every story has a purpose whether you comprehend it or not. God did not put any stories in the Bible just to fill up the pages because He couldn’t think of anything else to say. In other words even if there is a strange story of a daughter having sex with her father Lot after she gets him drunk in Genesis to give him children then it is there for a reason and we just don’t normally understand what it is because we are only thinking naturally and not spiritually. All that we can do is just read the story until God reveals to us what it means. God usually does this by showing us other verses in the Bible that clear up the reasons for it being there by shedding additional spiritual light on to the natural subjects found in the story. This is a very tricky method of hiding information in the Bible in plain sight. You can find this technique on almost every page of the O.T. Genesis starts it, and then Exodus continues it. As you progress through the Bible you find it repeated in Kings and Chronicles, along with Samuel, Joshua, Ester, Ruth, Daniel and etc. These books all contain natural historical stories of real people in real places doing real things at specific times for specific reasons. God chose these stories to show us and teach us some very valuable greater spiritual truths but he never told us that directly in the story. What we understand is that out of the entire history of man on this planet, God specifically selected these specific stories as being significant for us to know and to understand. However, God never tells us why they are there nor does He explain what these people did to get mentioned in His book for eternal notoriety. That is until you see the “why” revealed in the New Testament.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Here in this verse God gives us one of the clues that I talked about in the last lesson in this series to some degree about types and shadows. What we soon realize is that there are overlapping truths being progressively revealed to us by God. Today’s subject about hidden meanings is related to the last lesson of hidden types and shadows, but today’s lesson changes it slightly to reveal a new distinction in the subject. Here in this verse in 1 Corinthians, God informs us that the things that are written in the O.T. were written as “examples” for us to learn from. God is of course speaking of natural things in natural stories that teach us about spiritual truths that have been hidden from our reading abilities until we have been given the spiritual eyes to see them and to understand them internally and not just mentally. The Greek word translated as “ensamples” here is a word that means “to stamp”. This is representative of a process that occurs when they stamp out money or coins. Using engraved templates or plates they stamp out a coin using extremely high pressure to form the words and pictures that are easily recognizable when viewed. That concept is exactly what God is saying to us in this verse about things that are written in the O.T. God is saying that those natural things that were written originate from a spiritual pattern that cannot be observed by physical senses. In other words we have never seen the engravings that make the coins that we have in our pockets but we can see the coins. We can still know and understand that they are directly related in a one for one comparison by close examination.
I am going to give you a prime example of what I am talking about. Faith is a subject that is vastly hidden in the Old Testament, but one that is widely spoken of in the N.T. The word faith only occurs 2 times in the KJV of the Bible in the O.T, yet when you read Hebrews chapter 11 and see that God says that many of the stories found in the O.T. Bible are only there because that named person had faith. Then you should begin to see what I am trying to teach you today. Nowhere in the O.T. is this stated. Therefore, this is a key method being revealed to us of one way that God has conceived to hide information in the Bible for us to find. Because the reader of the O.T. did not understand the spiritual principles and laws of faith the acts are clearly missed by the reader.
If you go and read Galatians 3:23 you can see that God says that “faith” was a hidden subject that was later to be revealed after Jesus was raised from the dead. If you did not know it, faith is a spiritual subject found in the entire Bible. Why would God have to hide a spiritual subject in the Old Testament and then reveal it later in the New Testament? That is a very good question to figure out the answer to. I believe the answer is because God had a spiritual enemy named Satan who He had to keep from knowing too much and to soon. I would highly recommend that you take a minute and go and read chapter 11 of Hebrews very closely and then come back to this lesson. What we see in this chapter is that God lists approximately 16 people from the O.T. by direct name and many others are inferred by associated indirect references. Here is my list of the direct named references of people from the O.T. with faith found in Hebrews 11:
- Abel
- Enoch
- Noah
- Abraham
- Sarah
- Isaac
- Jacob
- Joseph
- Moses
- Rahab
- Gideon
- Barak
- Sampson
- Jephthah
- David
- Samuel
You can quickly look down this list and see the names of several famous people and recognize them to be O.T. Bible stories of renowned character and great exploits. God is revealing to us here in this chapter of Hebrews why they are mentioned in the Bible at all and God says it is because of their faith. God is revealing to us that there was a determining factor to their success on the earth and that this determining factor was their “faith”. Knowing this information should actually dramatically change your perspectives when you go back and read their stories found in the O.T. When you read these O.T. Bible stories you should now begin to see how that “faith” plays a major role in what the Bible says that they accomplished. But, now you will also have to stop and get God’s definition for what faith is and then go back and reread the stories to see how they used their faith to please God to get their names written in His eternal book. Most of these stories reveal some very profound concepts of faith in action. However you would not have known this until God tells you about it in Hebrews 11. Of course if you never see what Hebrews 11 says then you would remain ignorant to the truth. Therefore, this is a direct pattern to other subjects that can be found in the Bible also. You can apply this principle to your study of any subject in the Bible to see how the O.T. stories give us examples of them each.
For instance what about the subject of spoken words? Can you find out what someone said in the O.T. and then find out what happened to them? Sure you can. What about the subject of “love” can you learn how that God says love is the fulfillment of all of the law and how these men and women in the Bible used God’s definition to get mentioned in the Bible? Sure you can! This is a great revelation hint to finding the hidden truth in the Bible. I hope you enjoyed this lesson and learned something from it. God Bless you until next time.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lesson on how God has concealed information in the Bible you can go to “Part 9“.
Understanding the Coming Anti-Christ! And the Homosexual Agenda! Part 4
(Ver 1.2) This is Part 4 in a series of lessons on understanding the coming antichrist. If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would recommend that you go and start with “Part 1”.
Gal 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Today I may lose some readers, but I am going to speak the truth and I do not care what your response is to what I have to say today. According to what Paul wrote in Galatians 4:16 he experienced what I may experience today also. Paul wrote some tough words for the church at Galatia and many of the hearers were clearly offended and could not handle the truth. I will warn you that today I will be very blunt at times and at times very direct in what I teach. The country of America has been in a rapidly progressive moral decline for the past 50 years and recent events have only come to confirm this. There is an evil spiritual agenda to erode and eventually erase the moral fiber of the established Biblical history and foundation of our country. While the United States is by far not a perfect country, the establishment of a Christian nation caused God to bless us tremendously for over the past 250 years and to cause us to grow to be the leading power of the world. Around 390 years ago, the people of Europe were tired of the religious oppression and control that was being forced upon them and so they came to America to worship God freely without persecution. The United States and its founders were highly motivated by God and the Bible and they built and designed our government using established Bible principles. While the founding fathers of the U.S. incorporated and defined the freedom of religion to be the moral background to worship the One True Living God of the Bible, they left in obvious loop holes that allow other choices to be made. Obviously this is another Bible principle being written into our constitution that is backed up by God’s Word. You see, God does not promote a Forced Salvation theology, despite what a lot of my ignorant commenters like to tell me. Man was created with freewill to choose and this was a choice to either believe in Jesus or not to believe in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. So while our country goes through these changes from the Godless leadership of our President and Congress, it saddens me tremendously while not surprising me in the least little bit. I of course am speaking of the recent government decision to allow homosexuals in our military openly. There has been an openly aggressive agenda from the spiritual realm to redefine morality and what is acceptable to God. I call this the homosexual agenda and I will discuss this agenda in conjunction to its relationship of the subject of the coming antichrist. Here are the progressive steps of the homosexual agenda that have transpired up until this point in time of the homosexual agenda:
- Pervert the human sexual orientation, identity and behavior and cause personal confusion.
- Redefine morality and sin to be an open minded concept free from the Bible’s input.
- Encourage sexual identity development using the coming our process.
- Highlight established social acceptance emphasizing diversity using the stars found in the media and television.
- Show the gay lifestyle in the movies and TV as being a viable reality.
- Nominate gay TV shows, movies and actors for awards to promote them as being great role models for our children.
- Introduce children to the gay life style early so that they can better determine their true identity.
- Shame any church or preacher that teaches against homosexuality as being a sin by calling them intolerant, biased, bigoted and hateful.
- Never show the consequences, hurt and true pain caused by the homosexual life style nor the suicides it causes.
- Overly emphasize any negative acts committed against a gay man or woman as being a hate crime of great evil against a good person and a clear violation of their civil rights to gain sympathy for the cause.
- Promote human sexuality as being a pre-ordained design pattern and not a human life choice.
- Elevate the homosexual life styles to be a legal civil right of a minority group of consensual adults.
- Hide or downplay the abusive perverted homosexual behavior of child molesters unless they are committed by a religious figure or leader.
- Never mention any serial killers as being homosexual even though they killed many young boys.
- Shift human choices off of the individual and alleviate any personal responsibility for sin.
- Redefine marriage to be between any two adults regardless of sex and ignore the Bible.
These are just a few of the observable patterns that I have personally witnessed in my life time on the earth from the homosexual agenda. They are clearly represented in the news media, on TV talk shows, in movies, magazines and now on the internet and the determined purpose is to change the thinking minds of those who are being raised in the ignorance of the truth. It is a clear technique in brain washing the people to accept the coming antichrist. They are all cleverly designed ploys of deception to cause people to buy into a lie.
I had a commenter ask me why I used a blanked out picture of the face of the President in my recent article on the “Antichrist”? Was I saying that Obama was the antichrist? No, I was not saying that at all. Obama does not fit the information given to us in the Bible about the antichrist. I do not know who the antichrist is right now. However, I have learned by studying the Bible how the antichrist will operate and what he will do to gain his power and control, to change the world and redefine the freedoms of our founding fathers. No you see when a man rises rapidly to power that has no basis to be in power, and has done so in a fashion causing so many people to buy into his smooth way of talking, it says to me BEWARE A DECEIVER! No I do not believe that Obama is the antichrist, but I do believe that he is a forerunner to the coming agenda of the antichrist and also a pattern of this man. I believe the similarities are unmistakably recognizable. I believe that this is the exact way the antichrist will come to power and that is why I used the picture and for no other reason. What I see is a man who says one thing and then does something that is the opposite. Here is a man that promotes himself as a Christian in speeches, but acts more like a godless non-believer in his decision processes. You see Jesus said you will know them by their fruit and not by their words. Anybody can say I am a Christian, but only a few will actually back up those words with appropriate corresponding actions to prove it. According to Jesus you can tell who is a Christian and who is not a Christian simply by observing the external actions of a man. Here is a man that promotes and drives abortions and the rights of women to choose, human genetic and stem cell research, homosexuality and I could go on and on. All I know is that he does not act like a Christian so you decide what he is. So, while I believe that Christians are not supposed to preach against sinners, I do believe that we should teach how not to be deceived by the words of someone who does not bear the fruit of righteousness. There is absolutely no way that our President got voted into office without the clear support of a great number of deceived Christians who voted for him. I can tell you plainly that I was not one of these. So today’s lesson is about the coming deception of the antichrist and how the slow creeping infestation of the homosexual agenda being forced upon the world fits directly into his perverted plan.
We will begin our study of the antichrist using a couple of verses found in the Book of Daniel. The book of Daniel has a lot of prophecies concerning this coming individual and these will be important to see and understand. We will read beginning in Chapter 11 and verse 36:
Dan 11:36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Daniel was God’s prophet and he speaks the words of God given to him. Daniel is speaking of the coming antichrist king and tells us more about his personality and character. We again see clear references to his ability to speak things against the “God of gods”. That is a very interesting title and an important revelation to be understood, but I won’t get it into it in this blog. The antichrist continues to magnify himself to be God and clearly is attempting to deceive the simple minded people of the earth. It is interesting to note that this verse says that Satan is doing his will and not the will of God. Too many ignorant Christian believe that God is in ultimate control of everything that happens in the world, but that is just not what the Bible says. Here is a prime example of how another’s will is done and not God’s will. The Hebrew word in this verse translated as “indignation” is a very strong word. It means to “froth” or “foam” at the mouth. In my last blog on this subject I taught you that this man will have power coming from his mouth and this verse is just further connection to his mouth and his words being a determining factor. God says that this “indignation” of his mouth will continue until someone puts an end to it and shuts him up and I believe that someone is God and His Word. The final word in this verse that I want to point out is the Hebrew word translated as “determined” and this word means “to wound”. If you do not know it God prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that the woman and her seed would bruise his head and I believe that God is giving us a direct prophetic reference to this event in this verse. The man of sin will continue to speak great boastful words against God until God bruises the head of the serpent under the feet of the church (Romans 16:20) and causes him to be wounded. However, this will not be the end of the antichrist because he will later appear to miraculously recover from this head wound as we will see in Revelation.
Dan 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
Here is the verse that I wanted to focus in on today in regard to the homosexual agenda being forced upon the world. It is very clear to me that God is telling us in this verse that the antichrist is a male who is not interested in women. What do you call a man like this, besides crazy? You call him a homosexual. This tells me that the antichrist will fully embrace the homosexual agenda and that he is actually the one that is behind it all in the first place. If you think about this you will see why he is doing it. The anti-Christ is opposed to everything that God does. If God created them male and female then the anti-Christ is for the opposite which would be male and male or female and female. Whatever Christ did or is doing, the anti-Christ will do the complete opposite. The Bible clearly informs us that Christ the Lamb of God will clearly marry a bride in Revelation 21:9. So it is very easy to assume that if Christ has a wife, the anti-Christ will have a same sex partner that will pervert what God has created. Of course the anti-Christ is technically a spiritual being in a physical body and he will use this knowledge to try to get out of the sentence of being tormented in hell for an eternity. But, this will not be successful. We can see however, that when the antichrist comes on the scene he will definitely promote and embrace the homosexual lifestyle as a normal way of life and this is what is happening in the U.S. right now.
Let’s shift gears and talk about the easiest way to deceive people. How do you get a dog to eat strychnine poison? You always wrap the poison in a tasty steak before you give it to them. This is what the homosexual community has been doing in America for the last 50 years. The homosexual community saw how the civil rights movement worked to become so effective and they jumped on the same band wagon. They chose to compare their sinful lifestyle to the color of someone’s skin and call them the same things. Obviously no man chose the color of their skin in this world. We were all born here without given a choice to being a male or a female. We were all born in the world without selecting our nation of origin. We did not even get to choose our parents or our relatives; so obviously all of these factors transfer to morality, sin and other elements in life, or not! They have introduced a fabrication of the truth to say “we were born homosexual” and they deny any choices ever being made on their own part. The problem with this logic is how do you differentiate between a homosexual and a child molester type of pedophile? Why can’t the pedophile use the same argument and just say this is the way I was born? What about the murderer who just loves to kill people for fun? Can’t they be smart enough to jump on the civil rights band wagon and say this is just how I was born? I’ll bet you that homosexuals love the “Predestination Theology” so that they can attribute that this was the way that God created them to be and they cannot change so we should just all accept them exactly like they are.
In all fairness to homosexuals and other sinners in the world, most of them do what they do out of ignorance. When Saul persecuted the church and threw them into jail and caused the death of some of them, Paul later wrote that what he had done was done out of ignorance (1 Tim 1:13). In other words Paul didn’t know any better but he still sinned against God anyway. While he thought he was doing the right thing before God, he was actually a direct enemy to God. So sinners also do not understand that there are spiritual forces controlling and influencing what they do. They do not understand demon possession and how that a spirit can cause you to do something like sin. They do not understand that everything we do has consequences in this world good or bad. Since they are oblivious to spiritual things, they do not even know who or what they really are. Many say they are females trapped in a male body. Others say they are a male trapped in a female body. Heaven forbid that they are a spirit trapped in a human body? Since they do not know they are a spiritual being and not just a body they simply are controlled to follow what feels good to them and what satisfies their thoughts of perverted fantasies that are being placed in their simple minds by evil spirits. No, they choose to embrace a message that evil spirits do not exist and only what matters is what they want to do in this present world, so therefore you should be more open and tolerant to how God has created them to be. I’m sorry but I just cannot do that. While I love you, I do not love your sin and I will not receive it to be an acceptable lifestyle. If I did that today, what would I do on judgment day? There is coming a time of judgment from God when you could look at me and say, why didn’t you tell me the truth and I will be at the least able to say I tried to, why didn’t you listen and look for the truth while you could? In this way your blood will not be on my hands. If I remained silent your blood could be on my hands in the future. What do you think I should do? Am I being intolerant for speaking the truth? Or am I just shooting a warning shot across your bow to get your attention before it’s too late?
The homosexual agenda wants the world to say “I understand and it’s OK!” They think that by getting the majority of the world to agree that their lifestyle is acceptable that this will somehow affect the way God feels about them. Unfortunately for all sinners in the world God does not run a democratic system of spiritual government where the majority rules. God is the only one that makes the majority decisions and He is the only one whose opinion matters. My opinion is worthless, your opinion is worthless and your lover’s opinion is also worthless. In fact the Supreme Court’s opinion is worthless and so is the opinion of the lawmakers of our country. Just because they passed a law this weekend that further promotes a sinful lifestyle to be a normal and an acceptable civil right freedom, does not and will not ever make it right or change what God thinks about it. You can do whatever you like and ignore the Bible if that is what makes you feel justified in your life style choices. You can rip the pages out of the Bible where it says that when a man lies with another man like a woman it is an abomination to God and they both should be put to death (Lev 18:22, Lev 20:13). You can rip out the page that says when a woman dresses like a man or a man dresses like a woman that it is also an abomination to God (Deu 22:5). You can rip out the pages of Genesis 13 where God sends two angels to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for living their ungodly homosexual lifestyles. You can pretend that these two cities never existed, even when the Bible says that these cities were destroyed as an example for those who would come after who do the same (2 Peter 2:6). This verse is a clear warning to those that desire to call their lifestyles normal. These are verses that declare clearly the homosexual lifestyle to be a perversion and not the way that God created people to be. If they only knew the truth, Jesus said the truth would set them free from their bondage.
The next key step in the homosexual agenda is the universal redefinition of marriage. It is already started in many states and when the Vice President was asked about Gay marriage, he spoke on TV this morning about the country becoming an evolving community of openness. This is exactly the homosexual agenda in action, however I call it the evolving level of deception, but I’m sure they do not see it this way. Take away God’s Word and introduce a new world order for the definition of marriage and morality. By allowing men to marry men and women to marry women it further enforces their normalcy in the minds of those that practice it. The antichrist will love this work that is being accomplished for him and I’m sure he is watching anxiously for the completion of the deception. I hope that you join with me in praying for those that are deceived so that they will come to know the truth before it is too late. God Bless!
Merry Christmas 2010!
This is my message of Christmas Blessings to those that take the time to read my Bible lessons. I greatly appreciate your time that you spend studying the Bible with me. This is the season when many of us get so busy that we don’t take the time to stop and give God thanks for all that He has blessed us with. So as I take this time to say thanks to you for making an effort in learning more of God’s Word, take a moment and thank God with me for all that He has given to us this year. I believe that the sign posts on the road to life tell us that the time is very, very short for the coming of the Lord. I do not know if 2011 is the year that He will return or not, but I can tell you that we better be ready. There is a lesson that Jesus taught us in Matthew 25 when He said that “the Kingdom of heaven is like 10 virgins who went to meet the bridegroom”. Jesus said five were wise and ready and five were foolish. As the foolish virgins went for more oil, Jesus told us that the bridegroom came. We therefore, know that none of the virgins knew the exact timing of the coming, but that they were all looking for Him to come. Those five that got to go in with Him were those that had made preparations. Take the time before the New Year comes to evaluate your oil supply and refill it now. The more that we follow and do what Jesus taught, the more likely we are to be ready for His soon return. So I pray that you have a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year. I also thank you for all of your comments and emails.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
God Richly Bless You and Keep You in All of Your Ways!
The Agapegeek Blog
Understanding the Coming Anti-Christ! The Man with Power in His Mouth! Part 3
(Ver 1.0) This is now Part 3 of a series of lessons on the Coming Antichrist. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would highly recommend that you start your reading with “Part 1”. Everyone who studies the Bible wants to know about the coming antichrist. Very few Christians have never heard of this soon rising world leader, but few actually know much about him. While the Bible does not directly tell us who the antichrist is or where he comes from, I believe the Bible gives us enough clues to help identify him, what he will represent and what he will attempt to accomplish in the world. I’ll start today by saying the term “antichrist” is technically only found in the books of first and second John. However, this does not mean that other books speak about the same coming individual using different names and titles. This is a widely popular method utilized by God to conceal the truth in the Bible; call the same thing by many different names, titles, descriptions and symbols. The term “antichrist” is certainly a valid name found in the Bible so that it cannot be easily explained away by those who do not believe in this man. The word antichrist can be easily defined as a man with an opposite anointing to Jesus. Whatever Jesus did, the antichrist will do the opposite. Since Jesus was the truth, then the antichrist will be the liar. Since Jesus went around doing good healing people (Acts 10:38), the antichrist will be here to do evil, hurt and kill people. Take a look at what Jesus did on the earth and then inverse those qualities and actions and this is what the antichrist will be. So while the name or title antichrist does not appear but in two books directly found in the Bible, there are other names to look for. For example, Jesus gave us a clue of one called a “false Christ”.
Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
A false Christ is easily defined as anyone that is a deceiver who claims to be a Christ. We have seen many men in the modern era who have exalted themselves to this level and the end result has widely been the death of many of their followers by self-inflicted or forced suicides. You can see this in the lives of those who followed David Koresh in Waco and those who followed Jim Jones in Guyana. It is clear that people will be easily deceived by the right charismatic personality if they do not know or understand the Bible. To hear the words of one of these men in the early stages of their deception you would have thought they were good men; however the later end was not so good. This is a standard methodology of deception, to wrap your poison in tasty morsels of steak that are highly desirable. Any way Jesus gives us a name called a “false Christ” who will come to deceive you in the later times. Jesus who was the master of signs and wonders informs us that these false Messiahs will also be able to imitate what Jesus did on the earth. Jesus raised the dead and I would not be shocked to find that Satan can do the same thing when comes into the world. Perhaps later we will look at scriptures in Revelation that indicates that the antichrist will miraculously recover from a major head wound. It would almost sound to me that he is raised from the dead back to life from this wound that was inflicted upon him. It sounds like it could be that miraculous. What you should realize is that just because someone does something supernatural, does not make them a follower of Christ. Jesus pretty clearly says that we should not be followers of signs and wonders, only followers of Christ and the Word of God.
So today we will continue our walk through the Bible looking for more of the clues to the coming antichrist. You may recall in the first two lessons we talked about him being the “man of sin” and the “son of destruction” found in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and I taught you that I believe this helps to confirm that this will be Satan’s attempt to repeat what God did in the earth through Jesus Christ. Satan rarely has an original thought, so whatever he does is normally a perversion of something that has already been done in the past by God who has initiated creativity into the world. I call the antichrist, Satan incarnate. This is exactly what God did in the man Jesus when He became flesh and walked among us healing people and doing things that were good to all of humanity. However, the antichrist will not be here to do you any good and we will see this in several scriptures that I will give you today. I personally believe that Satan is very desperate knowing that his time is growing very short and that he is running out of options to try to save himself from the coming appointed time when he will be cast into hell. In the second lesson we begin to look at the book of Daniel and how this man is again mentioned in a very negative regard being called a different type of king that will come. I want to continue today’s lesson by giving you some more scriptures in Daniel that talks about this different king that will arise. We will begin by looking at Daniel 8:23 first:
Dan 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
A king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall come forth. Let’s start by looking at the words “fierce countenance”. The Hebrew word translated as “fierce” means to be strong, mighty, fierce, greedy and powerful. These are traits and characteristics of an evil being like Satan. The Hebrew word translated as “countenance” means the “face” and that is an interesting statement of where his power is located. You can find over 300 times in the Old Testament that this Hebrew word is directly translated as the word “face”. In this verse in Daniel the translators seemed to want to translate it as how the face looked and not the direct mention of the meaning of the word. However, on the face of every human, is an opening called the mouth and this is the external expression device for the internal spirit inside of the body. In fact if you study your Bible you will see that this is the only way that the internal human spirit can be expressed externally is by your words that come out of your mouth. So Satan when he is here as a physical man, he will demonstrate fierce power coming from his face or mouth. You should understand why this is being stated by studying the Bible about the power of spoken words. I wrote a lesson on “Understanding God’s Spiritual Power and the Power of Spirits” and it might help you to go and read that if you do not understand what I just said about your mouth having spiritual power.
Understanding “dark sentences” is a complex part of the verse to technically explain. Let’s start by understanding what “dark sentences” are. According to the Hebrew word’s definition from Strong’s, this word means a riddle, a puzzle, a hard question, a trick, a conundrum, sententious maxim, a dark sentence, a proverb. If you do not realize it or not, this is exactly how the Bible was written and describes God’s writing methodology found in the Bible. God hid a wealth of complex spiritual knowledge in some words that are very difficult to understand for even Christians and for unsaved people entirely impossible to comprehend. Satan has learned the hard way that he should not have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ on a cross, even though this event was prophesied for hundreds of years before it happened. Because he did not understand the consequences of killing God on a cross, God tricked Satan into doing it anyway. Satan has now learned that he better not do something so stupid again, but of course now it’s too late and his fate is sealed. However, I guarantee you that Satan is studying the Bible and looking for ways out more than most Christians are studying the Bible to find out the truth. To understand something means that you comprehend the meaning of what is being stated. There are many Christians who read the Bible occasionally, but few who understand what they just read. Satan, I believe is bent on understanding the Bible and it says this in this verse in Daniel that he will come forth with great understanding. This understanding would explain how it is possible for Satan to manifest in a flesh form. This understanding would also demonstrate how it will be easy to deceive the simple minded people of the world who do not understand the Bible. We have only gone through one new verse and I wrote two paragraphs of some very important information about the antichrist. I hope you are grasping these things that I just said. Let’s look at the next verse found directly after:
Dan 8:24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
Here we again see a reference to him as being a powerful type of individual. Let’s stop there and reemphasize where the power of a spiritual being resides in a physical world. You can obviously look at this verse in two different perspectives if you choose to. First there is physical power and strength we know from the Bible that spirits can give physical being greater natural strength to do amazing feats that are not normally achievable. You can see this demonstrated in the life of Sampson in the Old Testament and you can also see it in the opposite evil way when Jesus cast out evil spirits from a man in the country of Gadarenes in Mark 5:1. In this story it says that people could not even bind this demon possessed man with chains, because he was able to break them. Both of these examples are obviously supernatural examples of spiritual power being displayed on the earth. Is this the power that the antichrist will exhibit? While I do not discount that it is possible, I believe the spiritual power coming from the antichrist’s mouth will cause much greater devastation and harm. Did you notice what this verse said? It said that his power shall be mighty but not by his own power. That is a perplexing statement, isn’t it? It sounds like a riddle to me? How can a man be strong but not use his own strength? To me it only makes sense if you change from a physical perspective and see it from a spiritual perspective. The physical man’s ability will not come from his physical body is what I believe this is trying to tell us. I believe that this antichrist’s power will come from his spirit and his mouth. Again I’ll make references to Satan doing what Jesus does and Jesus is described as the man with the sword coming out of His mouth in Revelation 1:16, 2:12, 2:16 and 19:15-21. You can clearly see that Jesus’ power is said to be in His mouth as a symbolic double edged sword in these verses. So again if Satan has learned and understands the Bible and where his power is, then he will also imitate whatever Jesus will come and do also. Let’s look at another verse in Revelation about this coming antichrist:
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Hopefully you know that the tribulation period is scheduled to be a period of 7 years on the earth. This period is described as being a week of years. If you multiply 7 years by 12 (months) you get 84 months of total time. We can clearly see that for 42 of these months or half of the entire duration of the tribulation, a man will come forth with great demonstrations of power in his mouth. Here in this verse you can see that there is an indirect mention of the antichrist. If you read the context of the chapter you know that this chapter corresponds to some verses that we can find in Daniel about the beast with ten horns. What we see in this chapter is the same basic information being restated from a different perspective. So chapter 13 of Revelation is definitely related to the vision found in the book of Daniel of the beasts and the antichrist. The main reason I wanted to give you this verse is to demonstrate a couple of important things that I said about the earlier verses in Daniel. Here we have several key words being reiterated. We have “power” and we have the direct mention of a “mouth” that speaks. Wow, that is too amazing to be a coincidence. This again shows us or at the least implies that this man is an incarnate Satan who has power to speak words to cause harm and deception. The occurrence of mouth and power in the same verse is not there by chance. I also believe that because 42 months is mentioned here that the antichrist will use the first three and half years of the tribulation to rise to power with his promises of peace. Then when he comes into his full power I believe that he will use his new position of authority to try to destroy that peace.
The subject of the antichrist and the tribulation is a vastly complex subject and I do not profess to know it all right now. I’m learning stuff new every day that I study this subject. This is the way it works. You learn what you can and you continue to build upon it until you get it all done, if that is even possible. I have found that God’s knowledge of His Word is pretty inexhaustible. Just when you think you understand everything about a single verse, God can show you something new and sometimes this new information changes everything that you thought before, but most of the time it only adds to what you know. I think for today I’ll end this lesson and continue again on it in the future. Here are some of the names of the antichrist that we have seen so far:
- Man of Sin (2 Thes 2:3)
- Son of Perdition (2 Thes 2:3)
- A King (Daniel 8:23)
- Antichrist (1 Jo 2:18)
- False Christ (Mat 24:24)
- Destroyer (Daniel 8:24)
- Deceiver (Mat 24:24, 2 Jo 1:7)
- Supernatural Miracle Worker (Mat 24:24, 2 Th 2:9)
- Blasphemer (Rev 13:5)
- Murderer (Dan 8:24)
I know some of my titles are not directly found in these verses, but are derived from a logical association of what is stated in those verses. I tried to take the verbs and adjectives given to us in these verses and change them into nouns to describe this individual, so do not criticize; just learn what they say and then use your brain like I try to do. Hopefully we will continue in this study in my next lesson, but sometimes the Lord leads me to write about other things also to try to remain in a balanced state of teaching the Bible. If you have information about the antichrist that I do not have or have not covered I would welcome your comments and Bible information. So until next time God Bless you.
If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons on the antichrist you may now go to “Part 4“.
Examples of Deception to Avoid Part 7 – Let’s all Go Protest Some Sinners!
(Ver 2.1) This is “Part 7” in a Bible study series about examples of modern cases of deception found in the church for Christians to avoid at all costs. If you would like to read the series from the beginning you may go to “Part 1” first. However, this lesson is intended to be a beneficial blessing for learning and applying in our lives by itself. I identify with Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ frequently. I hear myself saying what Paul taught very often. Thankfully I have never been thrown into prison or beaten for what I teach, although I’m sure there are people who read some of these things and would like to do that to me based upon their comments that they leave me. I hadn’t written in this series for awhile. But last night on the news more people who call themselves Christians were given headline making notoriety for their clear acts of planned non-Christian attitudes and behavior. As a result Christians were made to look like haters of humans and I’m sure this is exactly what Satan was hoping for. By the foolish acts of a few people who label themselves followers of Christ every true Christian gets a discredited reputation simply by association of the name. I have learned that not everyone who calls themselves Christians, are Christians. Anybody can call themselves a car, but that does not make us a car. Jesus said you will know them (Christians) by their fruit (Mat 7:20) and clearly these people in today’s lesson are fruitless.
So let’s discuss what these fruitless deceived people are planning to do tomorrow. They are planning to go to the funeral of a famous and renowned individual to picket and protest. In doing this they feel like they are making a statement that will further their message, whatever that is I do not know. They claim that this individual who died blasphemed God and that is why they are making this public statement. So tell me this, if this person did or did not blaspheme God what good will your picket signs make to the body of the person lying in the casket? I can’t see where it will make any difference to them now no matter what you do or say.
Of course there are those who are attending the funeral, I guess that is why you are picketing since they are the only ones that will be close enough to read your signs. What message are you sending to these people? Believe it or not, you are sending an Old Message that has been around for a long time that was done away with by Jesus Christ on the cross.
What I have observed is the fact that there are many people in the world who are living in an Old Testament Law reality and ignoring the New Testament Grace reality. This is nothing new and this spirit has been around since before Jesus came into the world. In the Old Testament, if someone was found guilty of breaking the law, many times they were taken out and stoned to death.
Lev 20:2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
This is the attitude of all these people who are picketing in the name of God tomorrow, they would love to stone all of the guilty parties. Yet when Jesus was confronted by the lawyers of His day with a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, what was His attitude and reaction? Did Jesus rush to judgment to pick up the first stone? Did Jesus pick up a sign to protest the sin? Did Jesus even ever speak a negative word against this sinner woman? You should go and read this story before you ever try to pick up a picket sign against someone else’s sins. Jesus told the accusers that “He who is without sin cast the first stone”. Jesus basically ignored the words of the religious lawyers and began to stoop down to write in the sand. I personally believe that Jesus wrote the names, dates and the sins on the ground of those who were standing around ready to cast stones. I believe that some of these men who were standing there were also guilty of having sex with this woman. So when Jesus wrote their names on the ground with the dates and times of their sinful acts, the Bible says they walked away one by one.
John 8 was a New Testament Jesus and God being clearly demonstrated to us. This was God’s reaction to a sinner while He was here on the earth in the flesh. This is a Godly example of how to treat those who are caught in sin. Whenever all of the accusers had left the scene without Jesus speaking any words to them, Jesus looked at the woman and said “Woman where are your accusers?” Then Jesus said “neither do I accuse you, go and sin no more”. This was an act of forgiveness, mercy, love and compassion on the behalf of God. These New Testament acts of God are ignored by those who desire to still stone the guilty. So by anyone holding up condemning words on a sign, are they not casting the first stone? Who died and made us greater than Jesus? In this story of the woman caught in adultery, the only sinless man in the crowd was Jesus and He was the only one that could have legitimately thrown the first stone, but He did not. Wow, that is a very important lesson to learn today.
When one protester woman was interviewed by the news, she was asked “Did God tell you to picket this funeral?” Her answer was not surprising; she said “Every fiber of her being said she was doing the right thing”. Wow, what an ignorant reply to a direct question. She obviously did not feel comfortable with telling a lie and saying God had told her to do it, so she gave an indirect unrelated answer to the question. If this woman was a spiritual lady, the fiber of her being would be different than if she was a carnal natural woman. People can do things based upon many different factors and feelings and emotions are just two reasons why people do things that they do in the world. What we need to realize is that our feelings and our emotions can both be enemies against God and doing the right things to and for people.
There are people who like to drink alcohol and get drunk and they are clearly led by their desires and feelings to do this. Then there are people who take drugs and are controlled by these substances based upon a feeling in their bodies. I will bet that every fiber of their being tells them they need more drugs, but is this the right thing for them to do? Many times doing the right things goes against how we feel. In John 3:16 it says “God so loved the WORLD that he picketed and protested until they changed into doing the right things”. Uh oh, it doesn’t say that does it? The Bible actually says that “God so loved the world that He gave”. Did God feel like giving Himself on a cross? I will guess from all of the pain that was experienced while hanging for hours on the cross this was not a feeling that would be good. The Bible says Jesus sweated drops of blood because of the impending pressure that he was under about going to die on a cross for our sins (Luk 22:44). Jesus prayed and asked His Father three times, “Father if it be possible, may this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but your will be done” (Mat 26:39). Doing the right thing should never be based upon a human feeling.
I want to wrap this lesson up with another revelation from God’s word that will cause us to think today. Did you know that most of the New Testament was written by a blasphemer of God by his own admission? How could God possibly make a minister out of a blasphemer? I’ll bet you can’t answer that question today. Do you know who I am talking about? I am talking about Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ sent unto the Gentiles. Here are the words of Paul:
1Ti 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
1Ti 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Paul previously Saul, says that what he did in his past by killing and imprisoning Christians was done in ignorance. He even claims that he was a blasphemer. Saul was a self-righteous religious zealot that felt like he was doing God’s work by committing evil acts against people that had done nothing to him. Wasn’t Saul judging these people? Didn’t Saul take it way beyond protesting to the next level of injurious persecution? Wasn’t all of these wrongs done because of what these Christians were doing and saying? Wow, isn’t this what religious protestors do today? Doesn’t this apply to how people are judging others like they never had committed any sin themselves?
Do you think that you would have picketed Paul to write 2/3 of the New Testament? Would you ask recently converted Saul to come to your town to preach? I would bet that you would not. This was the kind of opposition that Saul got trying to change to become a Christian. I mean he was a blasphemer! He killed Christians. He put them into jails. Yet some Christians want to celebrate and thank God that He killed this lady at the funeral that they are picketing. People are truly deceived that act with such outward hatred towards people that God loved so much to die for them. Here is what Paul the blasphemer told Timothy to do and it was not to go and protest against sinners:
1Ti 4:12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
As you can see God said that we should be doing something with our speech and conduct must be associated with what God’s definitions of Love, Faith and Purity. This is the example we as Christians should be portraying to others that are unsaved in the world. If you do not understand this, you should look up the definitions of these New Testament words and learn about them fast.
Because some people desire to make a difference in the world they are often motivated to do overzealous acts out of ignorance like Saul did. Rarely does it do any good, but nevertheless they must feel better because they think they did something religious for God. What we all need to do is to learn the differences presented in the New Testament from those given to us in the Old Testament. Because people only focus on the Old Testament verses they embrace a God of judgment with abundant laws and punishments like Saul did. However, the Old Testament is the New Testament hidden and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. So whenever a person focuses only on the Old Testament they are only seeing hidden truths about the real God that are revealed clearly in the New Testament. This is one of the greatest mistakes that modern churches can make. Learn the lesson of Jesus with the woman caught in the act of adultery and see what was His reaction and actions towards her. Then ask yourself would Jesus pick up a picket sign with mean judgmental words written upon it and take it to a funeral to protest against sinners? I cannot find that in the Bible, at least not in the New Testament.
So we have to make a choice to do the right thing based upon the New Covenant today and ignore every fiber of our being that screams to us to do something that Jesus would not do. Since Paul was able to change I will pray that we all will also change to know the real will of God to reach the lost. May God enlighten us to see the difference! To those real Christians out there who can see the truth, I would suggest that you also pray for those attending the funeral of this woman that died of breast cancer and then pray for the eyes of the protesters to be opened so that they will come to know the real God who is LOVE!
A PERSONAL APPLICATION
LORD, I pray that you will help me not be deceived. Lead me far away from anyone that is not proclaiming or acting according to what you said in your Word. Help me to turn from being influenced or pressured by anyone that is not being led by your Spirit and acting in real Love. Open my spiritual eyes to be able to understand your Word and discern between right and wrong, truth and lies, and good and evil. Live large in my heart and help me to be a loving light of kindness to the world so that they will desire to be like you in me. Thank LORD for your faithfulness to me in Jesus Name to help me produce your desired fruit, I pray. Amen.
Understanding How To Make Jesus Your Spiritual Legal Advocate Right Now!
(Ver 2.1) This is Part 3 in a lesson series on “Understanding the Heavenly Laws and Court System of Heaven”. I wrote this lesson a long time ago, but I have learned so much new while studying this subject that I felt that I needed to rewrite it to included more new information. I love this subject. It is one of the most important topics for a new Christian to learn after becoming saved. Knowing this should change you and motivate you to become more like God who is Holy. I hope you have read the entire series from the beginning but if not please click on “Part 1” now. When I originally wrote on this subject I was thinking of a Christian only missing out on one judgement by making Jesus their personal Legal Advocate. I knew that there was coming a great white throne judgment at the end of this age after the Great Tribulation. We can read about this judgement in Revelation 20:11. Only unsaved people will be judged during this time of judgment. Therefore, I knew that by making Jesus my Lord right now, I would not be standing before the Great White Throne of Judgment then. That was the main message of this lesson. However, since continuing to study the subject of the “Courts of Heaven” the LORD has revealed so much new information in the last few months.
What the LORD has been saying to me and teaching me about this subject is very profound and essential to understand. Christians are being brought before the throne of God right now by Satan our legal adversary and accuser (Rev 12:10). In 1 Peter 4:17 God reveals that judgement begins with His House right now in the church age of Grace. Paul wrote and warned the Church in 1 Corinthians 1:11 that IF we JUDGE our self, we will not be judged. I know a lot of people say they are Christian today but don’t believe this is what the Bible says and what the Holy Spirit has been teaching His Church. What I would suggest to you if you don’t believe is that you pray and ask the LORD to reveal this to you if it is true. Then open your Bible and become a Berean type of Bible student (Acts 17:11). Ask the LORD, do I need a personal legal Advocate right now. Let’s get into the lesson and permit the Holy Spirit to speak.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPIRITUA ADVOCATE
Today is a Bible lesson on “Understanding How to Make Jesus Your Spiritual Legal Advocate” now. We will discuss what a Spiritual Legal Advocate is and what He does for us and then we will discuss why we as humans need a Spiritual Advocate. Let’s start by defining the word “advocate”. A legal advocate is always someone who holds superior knowledge on the subject of the law. In our world people have to go to school for many years of legal study, graduate and then must pass an extensive legal bar exam in order to become a licensed legal advocate. Some people call these individuals lawyers, attorneys or others call them counselors. A counselor is someone who uses their wisdom and knowledge of the law to give you “advice” or “counsel” on what you should do in the given situation that you are in before the court and judge. A lawyer is of course someone who practices the profession of defending, prosecuting, administrating or judging the laws passed by the legal bodies in power.
Today in our complex legal court systems, if you try to show up before a judge without a highly knowledgeable and skilled attorney you are in some serious legal jeopardy. Let me tell you about one man I know of. This man was chatting on the internet with a girl. He was over 21 and she said she was 16. He asked to meet her and set a location and time for the meeting. As he neared the location the Police officers arrested him. It turns out that this man had been talking with undercover Police on the internet in a sex sting. Well this man could not afford an attorney to help defend him. Even though he had not committed any crime by talking or meeting anyone, the district attorney threw the book at him and threatened him with many years of jail. This prosecutor after scaring the man then offered him a plea deal. In this deal he would not go to jail but needed to agree with counseling, become a registered sex offender and he would be on probation for a couple of years reporting to a parole officer. This was all because this man could not afford the proper legal defense. Now, I’m not saying he was right for doing what he did at all. No, we must all understand that even the intent of sin has consequences. What I am saying is that this man needed a good lawyer. Let me give you another example quickly that makes the point a little more.
In another legal matter in past years I recall a very famous court trial for the very serious offense and charge of murder. I will not name names, but I will tell you that this one trial that I am using as an example today was concerning a gruesome set of murders of two people. You may know who I am talking about as I go. This individual was charged with the crime, but he hired a “dream team” of legal counselors because he was a rich man and could afford the best that money could buy. While the prosecution seemed to present a good case, they were no match for the highly paid legal minds of the “dream team” lawyers who cleverly made the prosecution look foolish. To me the evidence presented in the trial was very compelling, but to the jury this man was found not guilty and thus got away with murder because of his lawyer’s abilities.
You see in our legal system all the lawyers have to do is to present reasonable doubt for someone committing the crime to allow the judge and the jury to acquit them. This was the approach of the “dream team” lawyers. They discredited the truth with as many doubts as they could invent. They introduced unrelated distractions that had nothing to do with the evidence presented. They manipulated the jury to believe what they wanted them to see and they won. There is a basic rule of law that the judge and the jury must judge and find for the prosecution or the defense based upon the evidence being presented. Whoever, does the best job at this is usually the victor.
I learned a lot right from these cases that the truth didn’t matter, justice didn’t matter, fairness didn’t matter and even the proof and evidence didn’t matter. No, what mattered the most was if you had a good advocate on your side to help you plead your case then you could be set free. This man accused of this horrific crime never got up to testify and never opened his mouth to defend himself one time. The only people that spoke for him were his masterful attorneys and they prevailed. You can obviously disagree with what I just said, but that would clearly be your opinion vs. mine. So let’s drop our opinions and see what God and the Bible says to us on the subject of our legal advocate.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
We can clearly learn several important things from these verses if we allow the Spirit of God to show us what they say. The primary subject of these verses is “sin” and more specifically the sin of a Christian. There are teachers in the world today that claim a Christian does not sin. There are teachers today that claim that it does not matter if a Christian sins because there are no consequences for it. There are even teachers today that claim we never have to obey these verses in 1 John 1 to ask God to forgive us for our sin. Wow, what a deception that is being given to the Church. That is exactly what Satan wants a Christian to believe.
Sin can be defined as many different things. The Greek word G266 translated as “sin” simply means “to commit an offense””. An offense simply occurs when a person commits an illegal act by disobeying the law. For today’s discussion I will define sin as committing a violation of the law of God since we are discussing legal matters in a court of heaven. There are certainly many other more complex aspects to the subject of what sin is or is not, but I will not be discussing those today. Please do not get distracted on the subject of sin from me reading just a couple of verses from 1 John on the subject. I simply can’t teach everything in one lesson, so let’s move on with today’s subject of why we as Christians need an advocate.
The Bibles tells us clearly that “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). John 1:10 says to Christians that if we say we have never sinned we make Jesus a liar and His Seed is not in us. So it is not so much “if” a Christian will sin as to say “when” a Christian sins as verses 9 and 10 imply. However, these verses are also clearly implying that the goal for a Christian should be that we should never sin. But, if we do sin, then this verse 2:1 very clearly teaches us we have a major advantage over many other unsaved people in the world. This advantage is because we have the Spirit of Jesus our righteousness living on the inside of us acting as our spiritual legal advocate, adviser and counselor to help us to change from repeating that sin.
Perhaps this will be a good time to further define the word translated as “advocate” in these verses. This Greek word is G3875 and was translated as “advocate” in 1 John 2:1 because of the legal descriptions being made in the contextual verses. This Greek word can also be translated as a “counselor” which is an equivalent name for a “trial lawyer”. It is also translated as “comforter” in the Gospel of John verses where Jesus said “I will send you another comforter (G3875)…”. The word comforter describes someone who provides “consolation” and that simply means someone that speaks or provides comfort or aide during a great time of loss or suffering. I believe all of these can be applied to a legal court case.
Is there a court in Heaven with Laws?
Jesus our righteous advocate is now seated at the right hand in the presence of the supreme judge who is God (Heb. 12:2). If we are Christians then we also learn that the Holy Spirit lives inside us (1 Cor 6:19) to further help us, and advise and counsel with us. That is a great legal advantage for Christians against our adversary the devil. In fact I would call this legal team the Ultimate and Unlimited Dream Team of Spiritual Lawyers. These verses we just read in 1 John 1:9-2:1 and others that I have not yet covered clearly state that Jesus our righteousness is said to be our personal spiritual advocate.
Conditions for Having Jesus as Your Advocate:
- if we are Christians, (1 John was written to the Church)
- if we confess our sins, (1 Jn 1:9)
- if we ask for forgiveness (Lk 11:4, 1 Jn 1:9)
- if we repent (Acts 26:20, Rev 3:19)
- if we turn and change our sinful way (Acts 26:20, Rom 11:26, 2 Cor 3:16)
Please notice that there are conditions to this legal court arrangement with your Advocate. God is Sovereign but yet we still have responsibility to ask and participate willingly in obedience.
If you are not a Christian, then you have serious legal issues when it comes to being judged by God and I would not wish to be in your shoes when this occurs. I have heard people say that will never happen, or I am not a bad person and do bad things. But, that is not true when you compare your goodness with God’s Holy Standards. In this section I want to address the fact that Law exists on the earth and that this LAW on the earth came from Heaven. Let’s examine verses that reveal where the earthly Law came from next:
Mal 4:4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Here we have scriptural evidence and proof to the fact that God gave the law to Moses and Moses wrote it down for the children of Israel. This represents a scriptural witness of the testimony of God. This is what occurs during a trial. What I am demonstrating to you is that God invented laws, courts, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and judgments. These are not man made ideas, but we can see that they originated from our creator. Our courts in America were modeled by our founding fathers after God’s courts in heaven, if you did not know that you should learn and study that fact until you accept it. These founding fathers of the USA came from England to worship God freely without government control. They read their Bibles extensively and wrote about it clearly. I don’t have time to teach this and there are many other people that have books dedicated to this subject. Go search for them and read them please. Let’s read another witness testimony:
Neh 10:29 They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;
God said to let every word be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So here we have a second witness to the fact that the Old Testament books of the Bible were dictated by God to Moses His servant and these are the statutes and judgments of God. A statute is just a written law, so this is not that complicated. A judgment is a verdict issued by the judge, either of guilt or innocence towards those that are under the law.
Ok, I can hear the questions being raised by my last paragraph. Many will ask doesn’t the Bible say the Church is under Grace and not the LAW? We can all read Romans 6:14-15 where Paul teaches us that the church is not under the law, but now is under Grace. Many people take these truths and attempt to make them the only truth and that is still a problem. For example, Jesus said “A NEW COMMANDMENT I GIVE YOU, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”. Does Romans 6 overrule the statement of JESUS? ABSOLUTELY NOT! This new law given to Christians is still in effect.
In another Bible lesson that I did on this subject of the Courts of Heaven, I taught a lesson that I learned from my family. Perhaps you read it. My natural father was judged and died at a very young age because he did not walk in love and obey this commandment. If you don’t believe me, that is not my problem because I know it is the truth. My father did not take advantage of his access to his legal advocate. He did not confess his sin, He did not repent or try to change his way. How, do I know? Because he died. He was warned by a man of God to come and see him and talk to him about this issue. My father did not go and he died 3-4 months later. My father was a Christian, a graduate of two Bible schools, a pastor of 3 different churches and yet he died a young man. If you believe that this cannot happen to you then that demonstrates Satan’s victory over your mind.
We have clearly shown from the Bible that God has an established legal system in place now on the earth by His law given through Moses. We have learned that this law came from Heaven. I wonder if it was modeled after what already existed? We can clearly see that God is the author of these laws. I believe these Words stand for eternity on the earth and in heaven based upon Luke 16:17 alone.
I can still sense resistance in the spiritual realm rejecting this teaching on the application of the law in the New Covenant. Do you remember what Paul wrote in Romans 13:10? Paul clearly teaches us that Love is the fulfillment of the law. In other words when we love our brother on the earth, we will not murder him, steal from him, commit adultery with his wife, lie to him, etc. Do you see the New Covenant direct connection to the O.T. LAW? It is right in front of your face just accept it. If we don’t love, we are breaking the LAW.
I’ll give you another example very quickly that is also very important. In Ephesians 6:2 Paul very clearly quotes one O.T. Commandment that if we honor our father and mother that this was the first law that promised us a long life on the earth. Wow, that means if we don’t do this we can die young. Paul did not teach us that this did not apply to those under grace, no in fact he taught the opposite. I hope and pray you receive this.
Are you perfect in walking in love? I know I am not yet. I am trying my best with the help of the Holy Spirit to improve in this area and I hope you are also. What I am saying is that we are all still under a new law. We don’t have to sacrifice animals anymore to atone for our sins because Jesus the Lamb of God was our sacrifice. But, we are still required in the New Covenant to confess, ask, repent and change for not walking in love. This is true whether you know it or not. You ignorance of the truth or the law is NOT a legal defense that will stand in God’s Court or on the earth.
So who is the most qualified to defend us against any charge raised against the law of love if not for the creator of the law Himself? This is just basic logic and I hope and pray that you can see it. This is why when the Bible calls Jesus my advocate, I feel very confident that I have the best legal advice possible because He is the one that wrote the law that He is defending me from.
We have seen a couple of verses that reveal many legal terms concerning judgments and statutes. Let’s examine the Bible for scriptures to see if we even need a spiritual legal advocate or not. We will focus first on the ending White Throne Judgment:
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
According to the Word of God, the Bible clearly declares a day is coming when the books will be opened before the Supreme Court Judge of the Spiritual World. This verse also clearly tells us that God keeps records in books of everything that has transpired on the earth. So everyone who thinks that they have gotten away with things on the earth will be severely disappointed to know they have actually gotten away with nothing. This verse implies the need for a good advocate and spiritual legal counselor before entering because God is going to judge people whether they want Him to or not.
This verse says that the “dead” were judged from what was recorded in these books according to their works. The dead is simply a name for people that have never accepted Jesus or they accepted Jesus and turned back to love their old ways more. A more accurate definition of “being spiritually dead” literally means a person that does not know God and does not have the further opportunity to change to get to know God. We understand this from the definition of “eternal life” given by Jesus in John 17:3 where Jesus said “This is life eternal that they might know thee the only True God and Jesus Christ who you have sent”. The antithesis of knowing is not knowing and the opposite of life eternal is death eternal.
Therefore, this Judgement taking place in Revelation 20 is not about saved Christians that have already given their lives to the Advocate. Also the works mentioned here are of course either positive or negative things said or done in the body. Maybe you think differently and believe that you can get by on this Judgment Day by your own merits and good things that you have accomplished in your life on the earth. I’m sure you have never lied, or stolen anything in all of your days on the earth. I’m sure you have never spoken an evil word about your family or your neighbor. You have been a perfect example of a man or a woman that we could all look up to. This would a very self-righteous attitude that I think many believe. But, Judgment Day will come when these books are opened, then we will all see exactly what was said or done and it will be read for everybody whose names were not found in the Book of Life. Their works will then be revealed completely on this day. I think many will be very surprised on when the verdicts are read.
Act 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
To be justified is a Greek word that means to be found innocent. This is clearly a term for a positive judicial verdict from a judge or a jury. To be justified by my faith in Jesus is what this is verse is speaking of. We can read this in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 for they all say that the just shall live by faith. Again we see in these verses that those who are justified and found innocent are those that live by the faith of God and what was accomplished by Him in Jesus Christ.
Being found Innocent is the directly opposed positive position for the negative verdict of being found guilty. Whenever we are found innocent there is no punishment phase of the trial necessary. An innocent man or woman gets to walk out of the front door of the court house like everyone else. However, a guilty man or woman is not so blessed or fortunate. Ok, let’s shift our focus to living as a Christian in the world today. Are we ever judged? Many teach that we are not, but that is not what the Bible says:
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
This verse is written to Christians about Christians. The key point to this verse will be for Christians to not be “condemned” with the world. By stating it this way God warns us that we still can be condemned with the world. The term “condemned” means to be found guilty, which represents a judgment against us containing a sentenced punishment for a crime. This verse compares two radically different types of people; 1) those unsaved people of the world that will be condemned versus 2) Christians who have the potential to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil to not be condemned. This verse clearly teaches us that Christians can still be judged and corrected by the Judge in heaven. Notice that this judging is implied to be happening right now in this life before we go to heaven. That agrees completely with the verse in Revelation 12:10 that I mentioned earlier. I hope you know this verse. It is so very important that I want to give it again:
Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Please memorize this verse. It is a future prophecy that has not yet happened. When it does occur at the midpoint of the tribulation Satan will be cast out of heaven and loud voice will proclaim salvation for those in the kingdom of God (the Church). But, notice the end of the verse says the “accuser” (legal opponent in court) of Christian Brothers and Sisters will end. It also says that it has been going on both day and night up until this point in time. That is critical to learn. That means these accusations and judgments are being handed out for someone today, believe it or not.
Therefore, when Christians are judged we can accept the chastening (correction) and confess, ask, repent and turn our course back to holiness or we can still suffer the consequences of our sin and this may result in our early death. Satan has many ways to gain access into your life. I can’t name them all. We are all in need of prayer to ask our Advocate to help show us what is allowing Satan this entrance. Pray and ask Him. See what He says and then agree and repent quickly.
I can still sense the opposition to this type of teaching in my spirit. There is so much of the Bible that we do not know that we resist whatever is not pleasant to our itchy ears. We want an easy life of salvation with no issues or problems. We don’t want to be warned. We don’t want to admit guilt or responsibility. We don’t want to be corrected and told we are wrong and that we must change our ways. I would strongly suggest that everyone go and read the letters written to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 over and over. Jesus is speaking to the church and warning them to change, make corrections, repent or else He can blot their names out of the book of life and they can be condemned with the world like we just read in 1 Corinthians 11:32.
Please look up the Greek words in 1 Corinthians 11:32. The word translated as “judged” can mean “someone is suing you in a court of law”. Wow, I did not know this 10 years ago. The Lord has been teaching the body of Christ this and it is eye opening. There are more legal terms in the Bible than you can possibly imagine. They are found from Genesis to Revelation. This verse in 1 Corinthians teaches us that we can be judged in court as a Christian and a correction can be sentenced. This occurs if we fail to judge our self and make corrections. If we are hard hearted and refuse correction we may be devoured by our legal adversary (1 Peter 5:8). I hope you are reading all of these lessons in the series because they are so critical to know before Jesus returns.
CONCLUSION
We can clearly see the need for a spiritual advocate named Jesus Christ by placing our faith in Him now we will miss the Great White Throne Judgment that will occur after the Great Tribulation. But, we learn in the Bible that there are other trials happening before the tribulation. These are court cases occurring for Christians because Satan our adversary brings us up before God’s court to accuse us day and night. God must be fair and just. God must hear the case if he has legal grounds he must render a verdict.
In every trial the one that is being charged it is always demanded for the accused to plead their guilt or innocence of the accusations being read before them as the trial begins. I believe very seriously that this is the way judgments are being given out by God even today. How can we plead our case now in this life? We find part of the answer in 1 John 1:9 where the Holy Spirit said to the church “If we confess our sins (meaning to agree), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. We find another part of the answer in Revelation 12:11:
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
You may not understand that it is totally dependent upon your faith confession is what Jesus has accomplished for us now that will determine how we will be judged, but this is exactly how the Bible declares. Verse 10 was speaking of Christians and this verse is no different. We must “plead the Blood of Jesus” in every court case we are in. After a charge is brought for the Supreme Judge and you are asked how you plead, answer “I plead the Blood of Jesus”. According to this statement God also says we will overcome our adversary with His blood and our spoken testimony. What does that mean?
The Greek word G3141 translated as “testimony” literally means “evidence given in a court of law”. Can you see the direct connection to a heavenly courtroom? Why would a Christian need a testimony in God’s Court in addition to the Blood of Jesus? Many believe the Blood of Jesus is all sufficient and all powerful so that we need nothing else. Those that believe this truth alone are easily swayed into an extreme teaching of “Universal Salvation” that claims God saves everyone, including Satan. But, that is not what the Bible teaches us.
No, we are required to speak as a witness in our own defense. But, I believe that this is done now on the earth and not when we get to heaven. What you say now determines where you will be after you die physically.
Heb 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession (confession, testimony).
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession (confession) of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Why are Christians told to hold fast our professions now? Why must we have a profession in the first place? Then what is it that we should be professing right now? A profession by the Greek definition of this word is a verbal confession. This word also comes from a Greek root word that means to “promise” or “covenant”. That begins to make more sense to me. When a husband and wife get married, they repeat marriage vows where they promise to be faithful to each other. This is really what these verses are saying to us. In our marriage covenant to Jesus Christ, we exchange words of promise to covenant together with our God to be faithful to Him. So our confession by definition is the spoken words that come out of our mouths in this world to covenant with Him. These are the words that we are told to hold fast to. In God’s court system in heaven it only matters what you say here in this world and you will not be allowed to speak and say something different up there after you die. I hope you understand this, for it is very important.
The Bible and Jesus said something that is highly relevant to any judgment trial that will take place. Jesus said in Matthew 12:37, by your words you are justified and by your words you are condemned. This is a very clear admission of our own innocence or quilt being a statement that comes from our own mouth today. Did you know this? Did you know that God said you will be judged and either convicted or found innocent based upon your own words? Did you know that Jesus said that what you say right now is what determines your guilt or innocence in His Court in Heaven? This is what God said and not what I said so either learn to accept it now or be judged by it. This is why it is important to learn to control what we say now and then to do what God said in this verse in Hebrews to hold fast to our good profession or confession of Christ as our Lord. I will wrap this lesson up by telling you what Jesus will say on your behalf in court now or on the final Judgment Day if you are a Christian right now.
Mat 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Here is a statement that confirms what I have been teaching you from the mouth of God Himself. This verse clearly says that if you confess Jesus before other men on the earth today, right now, He will confess you before God His Father in heaven. So again it matters what you say today to what He will say in heaven. Get it? Here is another verse that declares this only using different words and descriptive terms:
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Here we can again see that it matters what we say in the world. God tells us that if we believe in Jesus being raised from the dead and we then “confess” Him to be our Lord, that we would then be saved. To be saved is the opposite of being condemned or sentenced to death. These are simple legal terms and profound Bible truths. To many ignorant critics who believe that God controls everything including our final outcome in eternity, you are just deceived into believing what Satan wants you to believe. By people not doing what Jesus and the Bible say to do, people seal their fate to a Godless eternity. Jesus will not be there to defend you if you do not accept Him as your defender here in this life right now. Learn the legal lessons given to us in the Bible and accept Him as your advocate today, you will be extremely happy that you did later, I promise.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels
God Bless, you all and please share these lessons with all of your friends and relatives. If you would like to continue reading about God’s Heavenly Legal and Court System please .
Understanding the Coming Anti-Christ! The Different King! Part 2
(Ver 1.1) This is Part 2 of a series of lessons on Understanding the coming Anti-Christ revealed to us in the Bible. If you read the first lesson, you no doubt heard a few new things that were difficult to accept because they were mostly new concepts for many. I have read some other teacher’s material and I am not alone in what I taught you in lesson 1. In this first lesson I showed you several verses found in 2 Thessalonians that heavily indicates that the coming antichrist will be Satan incarnate. If you have never thought about that before, then you probably drew back from those statements. Does Satan have the power and ability to do what God does? Does Satan have the knowledge to do what God does? Can Satan learn from watching God and repeat or at the minimum mimic and mock God’s works and words with his own similar signs and wonders? These of course are difficult questions to answer. If Satan is capable of doing what God does, this would mean Satan when he was created was made to be like God in every aspect and feature. We can only assume that Satan was made on a lower level or scale than God, but nonetheless still made to resemble the Most High God. If you have not read from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go and start you reading in this series with “Part 1”.
We learned in the first lesson that the coming antichrist is called the “man of sin” or the “man of lawlessness”. We also saw that he is directly called the “son of perdition” or the “son of destruction”. All of these names are terms that can be directly associated with Satan. So today I will explore this subject of the antichrist from a different angle, giving you some new Bible verses about this coming man of sin. I want to look at some verses found in the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel is a heavily symbolic book of information that contains both historical and future prophetic information. The book of Daniel also ends with God telling the prophet to seal up the words that were written until the time of the end so that they can be revealed. Since we are now living in the time of the end, I believe God has started revealing the meanings of this book to His people on the earth. I mean what do we need to know this information in heaven for? There will be no Satan, no enemy, no spiritual battles in heaven. So this information will be virtually worthless when we all get there. So we must be smart enough to allow God to show us what these verses mean now.
Dan 7:19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
The book of Daniel paints a very bleak picture concerning a coming world kingdom. Many in the world have been calling for this kingdom for decades not realizing what they are doing. The term “A New World Order” has been a popular phrase that will help introduce this new satanic kingdom to the masses. I’m not going to teach the entire book of Daniel today, there is just too much information to even try to do that. I am only focused in on the coming one beast of the antichrist found in this book. I will tell you briefly that Daniel in chapter 7 gives us a vision of four world kingdoms. Three have already been raised up and have fallen in the past, but one is still left to come. Here in this verse of Daniel 7:19, it says that this fourth coming kingdom will be different than the others that came before it. So if you want to know how this kingdom is different you are going to have to do an in-depth study of the other three to see how they were. I will not elaborate on all of the differences in that level of detail in this lesson. I will however, address two factors that makes the coming kingdom different than any other previous kingdoms and these are my main points today. You see while Daniel describes this beast and these kingdoms he gives us some valuable clues to what to look for. In every previous world kingdom there has always been a limited scope of the definition of the inhabited world. In other words, the main part of the world back in Daniel’s day was only parts of Europe, Asia and northern Africa. No previous world ruler actually ruled the entire world, it was just geographically impossible for an army with so few soldiers to accomplish a true world kingdom. So every world kingdom of that day never ruled North or South Americas or Australia and a few other places in the world. So one of the key features of the coming new World Empire of the antichrist that will come is that it will have to rule as much of the inhabited world as possible and this is a very large area. I believe that this will be one key difference of the coming empire from the past kingdoms, but not the only difference.
Dan 7:20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
It is of course difficult for people to see what the Bible says if they have never studied it. Verses like these and those found in the book of Revelation are extremely challenging to understand. You can simply tell this by the number of idiot interpretations we can find on the internet for the exact same Bible information. I can remember 40 years ago hearing preachers teach of the coming 10 nation alliance and they saw this as being 10 European nations that were going to form the European Union to create a new world super power. Now that the EU has way more than 10 members, I do not know how they explain what they taught 40 years ago. These were just crazy private interpretations of the Word of God that caused confusion and they are still being taught today in many church circles. I learned from these preachers and teachers that you do not name names that are not found in the Bible. Whenever you do this you get it wrong ten times out of ten attempts consistently. What we can see is that the 10 horns represent 10 new Kings and you can read this in Revelation 17:12. These kingdoms did not exist in the time of the writings of the book of Revelation and it implies that they will be new Kings and Kingdoms of only a very short duration in time. Therefore to speculate who they are is pure conjecture and mindless rumors, so I will not participate in spreading these lies. There is also always a reference to an eleventh coming King that will arise and I believe this man to be the actual antichrist. Here in Daniel 7:20 it says this horn will have eyes and a mouth that speaks great things and will be stronger than the other ten kings.
Dan 7:21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
As you can see the antichrist king will be opposed to God, Christ, the Bible and Christians everywhere. He will be strong enough to pursue and persecute them heavily this verse says. The antichrist knows that his time is very short left on the earth so he is doing whatever he thinks he can to either extend his time on the earth or to delay the coming end as long as he can. Let’s skip down to verse 23:
Dan 7:23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
We can again see that this coming fourth world Kingdom will attempt to control and destroy the whole earth. We can clearly see that the term “whole earth” is used to emphasize one of the ways how this kingdom will be different than those that came before it. It also clearly states that this beast will be bent upon the spread of destruction and mayhem. We can definitely see the hand of Satan personally at work in this kingdom. These are just more scriptures that tell me that the coming antichrist will be Satan incarnate and this is what also makes this kingdom so different than all previous world kingdoms. While Satan might have influenced and backed the previous world rulers of the past, he was never here to rule physically himself until this coming kingdom. So I strongly believe that you can see how this coming kingdom will be so radically different than all of those that came before.
Dan 7:24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
Here we have another verse that informs us that the 10 horns are symbolically representative of 10 kings on the earth. I believe that these ten are all naturally deceived men, the descendants of Adam who are here already but maybe not yet in power. However, this verse then clearly tells us of another king who will arise that will be much different than the ten others. This king will take three world rulers out or down in rapid succession. I still believe that this new eleventh king is Satan incarnate who will remove 3 kings from power on the earth. This will leave a total of 7 kings left with the eighth being the antichrist. If the eleventh king is Satan incarnate it would help to explain why he is so different than all of the others mentioned and why he does what he is said to do.
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Here is more difficult information, but yet it is also confirming information for what we read in 2 Thessalonians in lesson 1 on the coming antichrist. You can pretty clearly see that this man will be the one who speaks vehemently against everything that is Holy or that is God. This verse also gives us Satan’s reasons and motivations for everything that he is attempting to do. This verse says that Satan is motivated by two primary factors, first he is seeking to change the times set by God and second he wants to eliminate the law of God. These are two very critical pieces of information to what is inspiring Satan’s great and fierce anger toward both God and mankind on the earth. Satan hates everything and everyone, but Satan especially hates the Jews. Why does Satan hate the Jews so much? What do the Jews possess today that makes him hate them so much? Why does Satan want to kill all of the Jews on the planet earth? If you do not understand it is because of the Law of Moses, then you do not clearly understand what God has done and has accomplished with Jesus Christ coming to the planet in the flesh. God had to do something to put Satan under the law in order to convict him of his sins. You cannot convict anyone that is not under the law of the physical or spiritual nation where they are. You do understand this, don’t you? One country in our world can make it illegal for you to wear blue clothes, but unless you go to that country wearing blue clothes, you cannot be convicted of that crime even if you are wearing blue clothes right now. This is called legal jurisdiction or authority. Satan came to the earth which had been given to Adam and he became the god of this world, the Bible says. Adam had legal jurisdiction for what happened in the world. But, there were no laws so Satan was a free spiritual being able to do whatever he wanted practically until God showed up. So God gave Israel the law for several reasons, but one of them was to get Satan under this law.
The only way to eliminate the law of God is to eliminate those who are bound to it. The natural nation of Israel is still bound by God’s O.T. laws. So Satan is still highly motivated to kill them all so that he can hope to take himself out from under this law of God. This is why Satan tried to kill every Jew with Adolf Hitler and this is why every Muslim nation in the world hates the natural nation of Israel and wants to drive them all into the sea today. As soon as a nation like Iran gets nuclear weapons, Israel is in deep trouble, because I believe that they will not hesitate to use them against Israel. Let’s back up in the book of Daniel and look at another vision being related to us about the coming antichrist’s kingdom.
Dan 2:32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
It is extremely interesting to study this picture puzzle being presented to us in the Bible. God gives a dream vision to the king of Babylon and Daniel writes it down for us to read. This is a vision of the same beasts that we looked at in Daniel 7 briefly but from a new and different perspective. This image is of one human body type of a male, but made up of five different parts and materials. You can read that the first part is said to be made of gold and this represents the makeup of the head. I believe that this is a representative type of Satan’s original greatness. If you recall in the Bible, Christ is also called the Head of the Body in Ephesian 5, but this body is the church and the body in Daniel 2 is a composite of the beasts. I believe that this is not a coincidence comparison between Jesus and the King of Babylon or Satan. This to me confirms that the coming antichrist will be another attempt of Satan to exalt himself to the same level of Christ. The Bible tells us that the head is representative of the Babylonian King Nebucadnezzar. I personally believe that this king is a symbolic type of a coming Satan figure. There are actually 5 kingdoms described to us in this dream and they are listed below in this table:
| Kingdom | Description |
| Gold (Head) | Babylonian Empire(Daniel 2:37-38) |
| Silver (Arms & Shoulders) | Medo-Persian Empire |
| Bronze (Torso) | Greek Empire |
| Iron (Legs) | Roman Empire |
| Iron and clay (Feet) | Antichrist’s Empire |
We can observe two things very quickly from this list of world kingdoms. First, is the fact that they go from oldest head kingdom to most modern the futuristic feet kingdom. I believe that metal is a symbolic representation of a spiritual power or force in this vision. Metal has value and strength associated with it. It is also interesting to note that the list of metals given goes from most valuable to least valuable in terms of monetary value and significance. Meaning the last kingdom will be the least valuable from all of the others that came before it. It actually reveals to us that Satan’s spiritual power has diminished from God’s perspective. Metals of course are a highly used symbolic agent in the Bible and can represent many things. Metals are tried by fire and are what remains from a smelting process which causes purification the Bible tells us. These of course could apply to Satan’s world also. Gold is of course outrageously priced in our current world economy and it is the most valuable metal given to us in the list. The value of silver is of course the next most valuable metal in the list of five items given to us. Bronze would be the next most valuable and then followed by iron which builds a lot of our cars and buildings that we use today. The final kingdom which is described by the feet is said to be a new mixture that has never existed before and again this points us to the fact that this one will be Satan incarnate. While these other kingdoms were backed by Satan, Satan was not here physically to rule in them. What is clay? Where does clay come from? Was Adam’s body formed from the dust of the earth? Clay, dirt, dust are all synonymous terms for what our bodies are made of. So we can clearly see that the coming feet Kingdom will be a combination of the previous spiritual metal works that backed the Roman Empire, but this time it will be mixed with human flesh. I believe that this is a clear prophetic picture of the incarnate Satan from a picture diagram and the hidden puzzle given to us in a vision and dream from God.
Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
A potter is the symbolic name for the creator of symbolic clay vessels. This verse is pretty clear when it calls us the people of the earth these clay vessels that have been created by the potter, God. It is very clear to me what God is saying to us now by seeing verses like this one in the Bible. God is calling the last kingdom of the iron and clay feet a combined unification of the evil spiritual with the evil natural flesh. This is exactly what God did in the reverse when He came to the earth in the form of Jesus Christ. We can very clearly see the symbolic representations being given to us in these Old Testament prophecies found in Daniel concerning the last earthly kingdom. The coming of this kingdom is not that far off from being established in the earth, so if you think it is not near you have already been deceived. I have heard from several deceived commenters on the internet about things that I have written about and they claim many things like, all of the kingdoms in Daniel two and seven have already occurred and they have fallen already. When Jesus was here he toppled the last kingdom so there are no others to come. So many people have been deceived into believing so many crazy things that it is virtually impossible to help everyone. I hope and pray that you have not fallen into any of these deceptions. Satan’s coming world kingdom is very close at hand and he wants to cause you to have doubts that it is even possible for him to manifest in the flesh to present himself as a man that looks like one us. This attitude of deception is exactly what caused the natural nation of Israel to miss the coming of their real Messiah, so do not let it be your downfall in believing that Satan is your coming Messiah when he shows up in person.
Satan when he shows up (is revealed) in the world will look like one of us, talk like one of us and even act like one of us to gain power and the control of the masses of nations. You may wonder how it will be possible that one man can do so much, but you only have to look at our world and you will see how fragile a place we live in today. The world’s economies are on the verge of bankruptcy and collapse. The U.S. borrows money from communist countries to survive. So when a man comes along who offers solutions on the surface to every world crisis, it will be very appealing to those who need answers fast. Perhaps we will discuss the mark of the beast and how Satan will use this tool to gain control of the population of the world in the next lesson on the coming antichrist. Also, in my next lesson on this man of sin I will give you verses that show us that he will possess supernatural powers to deceive and do lying miracles. So God Bless you until next time!
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on Understanding the Coming Antichrist, please go to “Part 3“.
Understanding the Coming Anti-Christ! The Man of Sin! Part 1
(Ver 1.1) This is Part 1 of a series of lessons on Understanding the Coming Anti-Christ revealed to us in the Bible. This will probably be a very different lesson than most things that you have heard about this coming individual, but I will give you Bible verses for everything that I say so that you can go and look them up and study them all for yourself. I will warn you that I will say some things that you may have never heard before, but that does not make them wrong, it just makes them something new to learn. Some of the things that I will write about today, I believe that God spoke into my spirit and revealed them to me. I then spent the time looking into the Bible to see if they were actually true. I have always found that whatever the Spirit of God says to me, the Bible will agree with, for these two are one and they always are in agreement. So, if you have an open mind and a heart that wants to learn from the Bible, then I would say continue reading, otherwise you will not offend me if you go read somebody else’s blog today. Today’s Bible lesson about the anti-Christ is not a theological doctrine or even a dominant Christian teaching that your salvation hinges upon. Therefore, if you do not agree with everything that I say today, it’s literally OK, it really is not that important. I do not believe that anything I say today will affect your salvation even in a minor way so it is not that critical to believe in. However, this knowledge found in the Bible must have been important for someone to know otherwise God would not have recorded it for us to find. Here is one of my foundational verses:
1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
According to God we are living in age of the “last time”. This is a time period designated by God of predetermined duration with a designed set ending. In other words God keeps a calendar of set events and has appointed the appropriate time for some things to occur. This would be like if I set up a birthday party for a friend and invited some people to show up at a specific place, day and time. This is what God has done on the earth for the coming of Christ. The only difference is that the Bible says only God know the exact day and hour of this event. God has established a set party in heaven and invited everyone to come by sending out a Book of invitations without giving us the set time. God simply says be ready for it, for it is coming. So we must all be ready to go when this time arrives. However, there will be many who reject this magnanimous offer and will be very sorry that they did. In this verse in 1 John God describes a coming individual called the “antichrist”. This word is comprised of two Greek words, one being “Christ” or the “anointed” and the other meaning the “opposite”. In other words God is saying that this coming individual will be the opposite of the Real or True Christ who was Jesus. This antichrist will be a person who is diametrically opposed to everythting the Real Christ represents! So in reading and studying the Bible you need to discover all you can about the Real Christ and then you will be able to better understand the negative qualities of this coming false-Christ. Every postive qualitie of Jesus Christ has a direct antithesis of revealed antichrist truth. Hopefully if you are already a Christian you already know the real Christ intimately so I will not spend much time talking about the real man Christ Jesus in this lesson but I will give you some valuable clues to the coming fake. It is also noteworthy that even in John’s day back when he wrote this letter to the church, he informed us that there were already some antichrists in the world. However, these false Christ’s were certainly different than the coming antichrist being spoken of in this verse. Being like the coming antichrist is by far different than being the named antichrist. I hope you understand that. We will see why I say that as we continue on through the Bible.
Almost every major religion in the world today is looking for a coming “messiah” or “savior”. You can find this in Judaism, Islam and even Buddhism. Therefore, when the antichrist comes there are already countless numbers of people in the world who will buy into the deception being presented with eager hearts! Satan has set this up on purpose to deceive people when this False Christ suddenly appears on the earth. What I will do is start by giving you some basics about what the Bible says about this coming individual:
1Jn 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
We can clearly see that this antichrist will come to deny that God has sent His son into the world. He will deny that God is a Father. He will deny that God had a Son! He will deny that there is a way of salvation. This clearly means that he will deny the Bible, Jesus and every Christian claim for Him being the way to salvation. Why is it so important for the antichrist not to admit what God has already done through His son Jesus? For one thing it seals your fate in not being saved and then he thinks that it helps him not to be thrown into hell for what he has done. Satan is in denial of the works of Christ in the earth because what He accomplished was so detrimental to his long term kingdom plans establishing himself to be god.
1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Again we see another verse that says the coming antichrist will deny Jesus came in the flesh. Jesus Christ was God incarnate meaning the God who took upon Himself the human nature of created flesh so that He could die and pay the price for our sins with His shed blood. Do you realize why Satan is denying God came in the flesh as a man? He is in effect saying this was a stupid and foolish act of God and it was not even possible for God to do something so crazy. He is placing doubts in the minds of people so that they will not believe in the truth. By discrediting one thing found in the Bible Satan in effect is attempting to discredit every other truth in the Bible. Pretty soon you will see some more reasons why I believe Satan will do this. In this verse it is important to note that spirit beings are behind this teaching and that it does not come from men on the earth. However, these spirit beings deceive men into teaching these things and these were the antichrists that were present back when the Bible was written.
2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
We again have a third witness that says the antichrist will deny that Christ has come in the flesh. Therefore, this must be a pretty important revelation to understand. It is also very important to note that any antichrist is also called a deceiver. Deception is a complex lesson that I have written on before. Not all deception is a sin, but most of it is if it is intended for evil to cause harm or hurt to someone else. It is fairly clear that this is Satan’s motivation, he wants to cause as much havoc and destruction as possible. It appears to me that Satan has decided that if he is going down, he is going to take as many as he can with him. Satan does this by using deception and lies that are intentionally designed to trick and cause you to fall.
The coming antichrist:
- Is a Liar with Evil Intent and Motives
- Will Deny Christ Has Come in the Flesh
- Will Deceive many to believe his Lies
- Is always a spirit being behind the message
Wow, so far no great controversial information, which is just amazing for me isn’t it? I guess it is about to change and here are the new things that I warned you about that we need to learn. I can remember a while back I was thinking on the Word of God and the Spirit of God spoke to me and told me that Satan would come to the earth in the same way that God came to the earth. So I thought about this and started to ask some more questions and began to search my Bible for the answers. You see what is Satan’s greatest weakness in the earth today? If you did not realize it, Satan is a spirit being and it is illegal for a spirit being to be here in a natural world to tempt you. The Bible says there has no temptation overtaken you except which is common (natural) to man (1 Cor 10:13). What this verse means is it is illegal for Satan to tempt or test you supernaturally. Therefore, Satan is forced to uses people in the world to overcome this limitation. Have you ever thought of this before, why doesn’t Satan just kill you if he wants you dead so bad? Did you know he can’t kill you, unless he talks you into killing yourself? Satan can enter into the body of a man on the earth and cause them to say and do great evil to others, but Satan’s hands are tied because he cannot do it himself. We can clearly see this in anyone who has committed mass murder of the human race, like an Adolf Hitler. You can clearly see that a man has potential to do great harm to many others. You can also see this in the Gospels when Satan entered into Judas and caused him to betray Christ to the leaders of the Jews (Luke 22:3). So from Adam until now Satan has always entered into people and used these people to hurt and deceive other people. So how does Satan overcome this severe limitation? How did God overcome this limitation? God became flesh and walked among us (John 1:14). Is it possible for Satan to do the same? Before you answer that question you better read the rest of this lesson and see what else I teach you today.
Let’s examine a familiar parable that Jesus taught us. I have talked about this before, but God woke me up last night and related this lesson to the antichrist. I’m talking about the parable of the wheat and the tares, do you remember this parable and it’s interpretations from studying about seeds? God had a garden and planted good seeds of wheat. While God was away from the garden, Jesus said an enemy came and sowed tares in the same field. God said let them grow together until harvest time and I will send the angels to reap my crop of wheat and then to burn the tares of the enemy. In this parable the wheat represents righteous saved people, the tares represents wicked lost people. This is not a highly complex parable to understand; but let’s think about something new today from what we have been discussing. Using this parable as a reference, God Himself became a grain of wheat when He took on the flesh of a man. This is the amazing fact that the coming antichrist will vehemently deny. God becoming a man, why is it so important for Satan to deny this ever happened? You really need to see how important that question is. Here again is the very difficult question that I o presented you with a few sentences ago and that is “If it is possible for God to be born into the world as a natural symbolic grain of wheat, can Satan do the same as a symbolic tare?” Wow, you should really think about that before you answer. I had one reader say that Satan has no creative power or any supernatural ability and they obviously ignored a lot of what the Bible says about Satan in order to make that statement. How did God get Mary pregnant? The Bible says God spoke words to her and said you will conceive after the Spirit comes upon you. Is Satan a spirit? Does Satan also speak words? Wow, your religious minds are probably spinning right about now and that is probably not very good. Nevertheless I am convinced from the Bible and what the Spirit of God said to me that it teaches us that the coming antichrist will be Satan incarnate the opposite or antithesis of God incarnate. Satan the antichrist will be the personification of hate and evil while God in Jesus was the personification of love and good. What I will do is show you some Bible verses now that while they do not spell it out completely there is enough information to derive some logical conclusions to support what God told me. Here is the first verse that I want to examine carefully:
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
There are many ignorant people in the world that can’t read or can’t see what this verse says, I guess? If you look at the context God is clearly talking about the coming of Jesus and the gathering together of the church in verse 1. Then in verse 2 you can see God’s comforting words to us (the church) not to be troubled or worried about the coming “Day of Christ” that it is soon approaching or eminently at hand. Of course when this was written it was much further away than it is today. Nevertheless, in verse 3 God says that this “Day of Christ” will not come except 2 things happen first. The first thing is said to be a “falling away” and I will not comment on that event in this blog. The next thing that will occur is the revealing of the “man of sin”. To me it is very clear that this is the coming antichrist. However, the Greek word translated as “man” in this verse means “man faced” or a literal “human being”. This is the definition for me and this is also you today in the world. However, this verse says that this is someone who will be revealed. The word “revealed” here means “to take off the covers”. In other words this word means to make seen something that was hidden. What was hidden that will be seen in the coming time of tribulation? This is so critical that you think about this carefully before you answer that question. God is clearly informing us that this time will be uniquely different than the times before. Let me help you by asking you another question, has anyone ever seen Satan in the physical realm? Could this be what is revealed that was previously hidden? I believe that it could very well be that.
To reveal something clearly means to uncover that which was kept secret and hidden so that it can now be literally and plainly seen. That is what we are talking about here, right? Doesn’t this describe what God did when He came into the earth in the form of the man Jesus who was born of the natural woman named Mary? Jesus, who was the eternal hidden God, became the visible incarnate God so that we could witness Him in person and so that He could give His life for us. God took off the hidden spiritual covers from Himself and revealed to us the Savior Messiah in the flesh. This is why I believe that these verses are saying that Satan who was the hidden spiritual enemy of God will also be uncovered so that people on the earth can see him visibly for the first time. However, this man will not be here to save you; this man will be here to kill you. This verse says very clearly that the “man of sin” will be revealed to us. What is sin and where did it come from? Did God create sin? That is of course a deep theological question that I cannot get into today. But, according to the Bible, sin originated from Satan if you do not know that you should go and read it in your Bible (Ezekiel 28:15). So according to the Bible, Satan was the originator of the first sin in the Bible and is the one that I believe will be called the “man of sin” in the near future. This is a human title for clearly a spiritual being, which I will refer to as Satan incarnate. The next set of key words to examine in this verse is the man is called “the son of perdition”. The word “son” is simple enough because it simply means one (a child) born from a father and a mother’s conception. Jesus clearly called Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man. So Jesus clearly exemplified the demonstrated and established definition of the union of a spirit being and a natural being. Therefore, God establishes this fact as being a viable reality and not a fantasy proposition of your imagination. However, this verse is not speaking of the Son of God, here; the term “perdition” means “destruction”. Who is responsible for destruction in the world? If you associate John 10:10 with this verse and see what Jesus said about Satan you can see who this description fits. In John 10:10 Jesus said “The thief (Satan) comes not but to kill, steal and to destroy”. So Satan is responsible for the destruction on the earth. So we now can see that the revealed man of sin can be related to being the son of the spiritual being Satan, the destroyer. The Bible is complicate like that; you have to dig to find the hidden truths that are in it. Sometimes it is obvious and other times like today it is more difficult to see, especially at first.
From this one verse we can conclude several new things about the antichrist and these are:
- The antichrist is a physical man
- The antichrist is a natural son from a woman
- The antichrist comes from Satan
- The antichrist is Satan incarnate
- Every man always has a spirit within him and he will be Satan
Continuing to read in this chapter of the 2 Thessalonians we learn some more information and some further confirmation of what I have just said:
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Here God starts to tell us what this antichrist will begin to do in the earth. He is said to be directly opposed to the real God, the Bible, the church and everything that they represent. He will exalt himself as being greater than all of these. You see if you use your brain and think you will know that this is only possible if Satan is here in the flesh. Otherwise he cannot fulfill this specific prophecy. The next statement says ‘he as God sits in the temple of God”. I have heard many preachers try to teach that Israel will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and reestablish the sacrifice before Christ’s return. I could not disagree with them more than to say; can’t you see what the Bible says? Where is the temple of God today? Because many men think naturally they focus on the wrong things and they look at what God did in the past is what they expect or want God to do over in the future. However, God is not this way and rarely repeats Himself. What we can see from the O.T. is the fact that what God did in the natural realm was a pattern for what He was going to do in the spirit realm. The Bible says very clearly that God does dwell in the buildings made by the hands of men (Acts 17:24). So even if Israel did build a new temple in the city of Jerusalem, God would not be there to dwell in it. Do you get it? So the question needs to be changed from where is temple of God to who is the temple of God. The Bible says “Now we are the temple of God” (1 Cor 3:16). Uh oh? This definition changes everything, doesn’t it? The human body is now the spiritual temple of God today. That is ME! That is YOU! If you are a Christian then you are now the temple of God. This is the temple made without the hands of men. So this verse in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 fits with the revelation that Satan is an incarnate man of sin. If the antichrist is Satan incarnate, then this man will have a body which was originally designed by God to be the temple of God, but this man will have the spirit of Satan in him and will proclaim himself to be God in this human temple. Wow, I hope that you understand what I just said. What we see is Satan’s attempts to duplicate what God has done so that he can be like the Most High God. This verse makes no sense if this is not speaking of an incarnate Satan. Satan cannot manifest himself spiritually in the earth and proclaim himself to be God unless he becomes a man like God became a man. Only as a physical man can Satan look like one of us and set himself up to deceive so many people in the world. When people see the antichrist on TV walking, speaking and acting like the one with all of the answers to the world’s problems, many will fall for his deception because the world will be in chaos and they will all be looking for the quick and easy answers to their problems.
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
God said that this man will be revealed at the right time. I believe the right time is very close at hand, since God told me to write this Bible lesson to tell the world he is coming soon. To be revealed or uncovered requires that he be physically born and grow to be a man just like Jesus did for 30 years before He did anything spectacular. So no doubt the antichrist is already in the earth somewhere right now waiting for the opportunity to seize control. That of course was my opinion, but I believe it is certainly self-evident that the time is very short.
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
This whole chapter does not say anything good for the people who are left in the world during this time of deception of this antichrist. God gives a strong warning in these verses for people to learn now before it is too late. As you can see in this verse, it is not a great translation; the translators added two words at the beginning and these really only cause confusion. If you take the words out, it says “who comes after the work of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders”. In other words, this is further confirmation that this man is Satan incarnate. This man will have smooth words that will deceive the minds of the simple. This man will have the ability to do signs and lying wonders. Kind of sounds like Jesus doesn’t it, except these will be the opposite of what Jesus did. When Jesus walked the face of the earth, He did many positive signs and wonders by healing the sick and raising the dead (Acts 10:38). This is not what Satan will be doing. Satan’s signs and wonders are intentionally designed to deceive people and cause them to buy into his ways of deception. He will come doing many miraculous, spectacular and amazing feats that only a powerful spiritual being can accomplish. It is also interesting to note that Jesus only did miracles after He was 30 years old. I believe that this is a pattern of what Satan will mimic also. Satan has to appear as a man with some level of authority and experience. No one will follow after a teenager to be easily deceived. If Jesus would have started ministering at the age of 12, very few would have followed him, if any. But as man of 30, He got the attention of enough to start a church that would grow.
Christ vs. antichrist, this was the lesson for today. God vs. Satan, one good and one is evil. One became a grain of wheat and the other a tare. While Satan has been effective at deceiving people in the world using humans, when Satan shows up in the flesh, he will be no match for the simple minded people left on the earth. They will buy into the lies in droves not knowing what they are doing nor knowing who they are doing it with. You should go back and read the entire chapter of 2 Thessalonians and see if you can see what God is saying about this coming “man of sin” also called the “son of destruction”. Maybe you can help someone with this information and save them from this future deception. I believe it is worth a try. So I hope you enjoyed this Bible study on the antichrist and have learned something. Remember that the antichrist is a man like you and me who will wield great power to deceive many. He will be opposed to everything that Christ stood for. He will deny that Christ ever came in the flesh so that he can deny that he is Satan in the flesh. After all if he is just a miracle working man, it will be much easier to deceive the people. Perhaps in my next lesson on this subject I will give you some more perspectives on this individual from other parts of the Bible. God Bless you in your attempts to learn the truth!
If you would like to continue reading in this series please go to “Part 2” now.
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