The World King Antichrist Of Satan’s Empire Will Be Revealed: A Close Look At 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

The World King Antichrist Of Satan’s Empire Will Be Revealed: A Close Look At 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

        The Bible teaches that there will be an Antichrist (1 John 2:18, 1 john 4:3, 2 John 1:7) who will be the king of the world, and will proclaim that he is god and become an object of worship worldwide. This is said to be done by Satan’s work, who has been preparing him throughout history in order for his inauguration. Satan’s Empire is here on earth right now as he is the prince of the power of the air and ruler of the atmospheric domain (Ephesians 2:2) that is beneath heaven. That would be our world on earth. He was cast down from heaven when he rebelled (Revelation 12:9). He is the Father of Lies and a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He is the god of this world and age (2 Corinthians 4:4). So therefore Satan is trying to set up a worldwide satanic order for his own worship and to destroy as many people as possible before God’s wrath is carried out on him.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 states,

“The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders, and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved. For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false, so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness.“

        A lot can be taken out of this passage. The Antichrist is being prepared and is coming based on Satan’s working. So Satan has been working throughout the ages to prepare this man to take control. The Antichrist is satanically prepared by the devil himself, and most likely will be physically possessed by Satan. Much like demons possess people and control them, Satan will be possessing the Antichrist.

        Part of the way Satan is said to be working is through false miracles, signs, and wonders. In the passage, these miracles are connected with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. “Those who are perishing” are everyone throughout history or currently living who have followed deception. Deception is obviously false religions, ideas about god, and other heresies. So the false miraculous signs and wonders are said to be connected to such things. Right now there are a few movements which are claiming many miracles such as healings, levitation, prophecies of the future, miraculous languages, bilocation (John Crowder, Bob Jones), teleportation, prophetic dreams, contacting angels, visions, ecstatic experiences and more. These movements claim to be Christian and claim to be from God. A lot of this is found from the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements, but are also heavily based on New Age and Occult practices through Contemplative Mysticism and the Spiritual Formation movement. Not only are there false religious sects claiming to be from God, but throughout history pagan religions have often participated in magical practices and spirit channeling as well as healing in much of the same fashion. In fact, some of these heretics admit that the New Age movement knows more about healing and supernatural experiences and prosperity than the Christians (while falsely associating that such practices are what Jesus Christ wants us to be doing). In Paganism these things are done through witchcraft and sorcery. Nonetheless, the heart of the matter is plain old spiritual deception, even if the deception is not miraculous. That means just unbelief and the enjoyment of what is unrighteous and a hate for the truth.

        In our age in history never before has there ever been such a huge claim of miracles and signs as what is happening now. There is also an extreme intolerance towards people who have actual opinions or a belief in an absolute truth especially if it is about the Bible. Postmodernism has influenced the world in an extreme way. This means that the normal thinking of people now days is to question if truth exists and have a disdain for people who claim to know the truth such as Christians who believe in the Bible. There is a constant attack on biblical interpretation and theological proclamations where people frown upon doctrine and want an antinomian approach to faith. This sets up an “anything goes theology” that is full of false beliefs, which also embraces false religions who deny Christ, in order to satisfy the appearance of “loving everyone.” Basically, where people who profess biblical truth are scene as divisive, haters, and intolerant (but the intolerance is actually on their end), while people who claim they are unsure about all things and wish to dialogue forever about them without ever coming to a conclusion are seen to be virtuous. This type of spirituality has invaded our churches and Christian universities.

        Just as the passage says the perishing “do not accept the love of the truth” it is so today. People who do not love truth, who are constantly confused out of false humility not to offend, who constantly will change their minds about anything and everything, who will hate you for loving what is true and accurate, are the ones who are perishing. Satan is setting up a king whom he will possess and control (the Antichrist will be willing) who will easily step in and take over the world with a one world worship of himself. In order to get people on the same page with religion, a hatred for truth has to exist in the minds of humanity. With no truth, everything else that is a lie is allowed. The current climate of the world screams for “world peace” and calls everyone who claims a hard stance on an issue an “extremist” or “terrorist,” while the actual terrorists, the islamofascists who claim an absolute truth for their god Allah, continue to kill people without anyone scrutinizing their religion as being wrong. Instead, Islam is embraced and accepted as a great religion people need to respect and claim just some of the Muslims are simply radicals and not the majority. The hatred for truth causes people to think illogically. So in due time, sooner than later, there will be a one world religion set up in order for the Antichrist to step in and take over and also to claim he is the god of all the religions. This is done heavily through occult spirituality that has invaded Christian churches: a seeking of mystical experiences and knowledge from spirits that people assume is god.

        The True God is thus said to give out a strong delusion on those who are perishing in order to keep them believing the lies to build up more wrath for themselves to be punished with when God judges everyone. You can read about this idea in Jude.

        These supernatural experiences or ecstasies feed a confidence in what is false and cause people to lose sense in what is actually true. Satan has created such sensual religions for people to follow, so what we see now is a sign of the times we live in. The Antichrist is nearer and closer to coming and the world is setting up for it. So Christians better get prepared and keep gospel witnessing. But in the end we can all be satisfied that these false beliefs will be done away with as all of the perishing people will finally complete their destruction and perish, including the Antichrist and Satan himself. All of these will forever burn in torment in Hell.

        Now, this one world order of Satan is said to be set up by every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. Right now there are a lot of people on the internet claiming some silly conspiracy theories with the Illuminatti, or Freemasonry and aliens and all kinds of wacky stuff. Christians have gotten involved and started a type of “conspiracy theorist theology” which is suspect at best and not based on much fact and more on speculation. Some people think Satan throughout time has a secret society or some cult through the generations that has been working to set up the Antichrist. I tell you Satan does not need to work in such a way with some interconnected web of intrigue. Satan has many things going on at the same time, things that are not even connected politically but are all at the same time being used for his evil purposes. In fact, much of these factions are even upset with each other. If we take the Bible literally about all that is unrighteous, it is logical to see that certain cults hate each other, certain sects of one religion hate each other, many evil groups are killing each other and in no way are connected in that sense. Yet, all these things are controlled by Satan but it does not mean that is it all some governmental satanic conspiracy. Such people are promoting an “X-Files Christianity” are making people who take a more biblical and less sensational stance on the workings of Satan, such as a typical Premillennialist, look bad. Satan does not need to use Freemasonry, Builderburgs, or Illuminati to do his work. They may have a part in it, but the world culture and spirit of the age will openly accept the Antichrist despite any political or secret societies existing. Taking a more biblical approach is better. Satan works through every unrighteous deception in order to bring this about, but we can be sure it will become his destruction. 

Biola University Threatens Pro-Life Student On Campus

Biola University Threatens Pro-Life Student On Campus

        In May 2013, Biola’s Chief of Campus Safety threatened Biola student Diana Jiminez, a Nursing Major, with arrest and expulsion for showcasing anti-abortion signs with a pro-life Christian message. Here is a video I found randomly on YouTube that shows the whole matter:

        I personally do not think that the sign she was said to have been holding was offensive in anyway, nor was it that violent. Biola University constantly displays “artistic” works with mildly sexually suggestive things as well as somewhat offensive “messages” by art students who are trying to make whatever points they want to make about politics etc. How do I know? I graduated from Biola University in 2009 and saw it all. The suggestive work is sometimes seen in their art shows for art majors who are graduating. This is also true when they happen to decide what worldwide social issue is cool to protest at any given moment. The main example is prostitution or sex trafficking. I once saw an art piece that had pieces of the LA Times newspaper’s personal section with sex phone numbers or addresses of porn shops, as well as another with pictures from magazines like Victoria’s Secret pasted in random fashion in order to make a point about lust or how bad sex trafficking is. To me that is offensive and also stupid and defeats the purpose of anti-porn ideology by having the ability to tempt people into lust. But I guess Biola picks and chooses what “edgy images” are acceptable on campus. Girls in underwear? Sure! The hand of an aborted child? NO WAY! I remember vividly how Biola’s Torrey Conference (their annual Bible conference) was themed Sex and the Soul in 2008. There were a couple of speakers who seemed to promote how awesome sex was with no real point but to say it is a God given desire and sex is going to be really cool by showing this Flights of the Chonchords video on the big screen. It was very confusing to talk that way to young people who are dealing with hormones. Also, the Biola Missions Conference (their annual missionary promoting conference) one time had a speaker who openly said postmodernism is a great thing and gave us a list of movies we need to see. Some of them contained full frontal nudity and sex (the movie Babal).

        It is obvious Biola University understands that sexual sin exists and with it the risk of pregnancy and abortion. The fact Biola is so upset a pro-life activist, who was also a current student at the time, wanted to display her message makes one wonder if they are being cowardly and want to avoid controversy by pleasing the world so they can keep enrollment. Dr. Corey did make a statement of apology for the situation and pleaded that the Pro-Life community will still support Biola, but I know Biola has steeped further and further into liberalism and a majority of their student base are “religious” yet very influenced by liberal progressiveness. Obviously if the chief of security, John Ojeisekhoba, and Associate Dean of Students, Matthew Hooper, both reacted without common sense on such an issue that should be obvious to Christians it shows their is a deeper problem at Biola than is on the surface. Sure, Dr. Corey apologized but the fact it even came to that is a reflection on the spirituality prevalent on Biola’s campus.

        Biola claims to be conservative Christian and some people have labeled them fundamentalists but they are far from that. They have statements of faith or stances on issues, yet the behavior of the general student population and some teachers beliefs do not reflect that. They even have a secret, but not really a secret, non-sanctioned and not approved by the administration, homosexual activist club on campus full of openly gay and bisexual students and alumni. The condemnation of them was never seen except that Dr. Corey admitted that Biola does not agree that homosexuality is correct, yet everyone should be willing to have an ongoing conversation on the matter of Christianity and homosexuality.  He seems to be encouraged even though Biola officially recognizes homosexuality as a sin and says gay students should have counseling and will not expel homosexual students. But as a Christian who reads the Bible I have to ask, “What is there to openly converse about when the Bible is clear about homosexuality! Cut the sin off right away!” Yet this is a very politically correct thing for Biola to do. Do not condemn what is popular or accepted wildly in order to avoid conflicts and the loss of potential students.

        Biola also recognizes abortion as a sin and claims to have a pro-life stance. It seems in name only though. Stuff like this shows that Biola is going further into apostasy as the world caves in around them. They just follow trends. Whether they want to admit it or not, abortion is an issue not void from Christian campuses. Sexual sin is everywhere including Biola and it is obvious. When I went to Biola there were always rumors of sex parties, tons of student binge drinking off campus and then coming back to their dorms wasted, drug users who smoke pot and even snort cocaine, as well as openly gay students. I had a dorm mate who openly told me he lost his virginity on campus and also had a female friend at the time that even had a member of the opposite sex spend the night in her all female dorm. I do believe that such sins are more prevalent on a secular campus, but such sins also happen on Christian campuses everywhere. Biola seems to have enough of that problem and this can be seen on Biola Confessions (a Facebook page). This is the environment parents will be sending their children into when enrolling them.

        The reality of a pro-life message should not be shunned from the campus. And a university that espouses “hipster Christianity” and being “edgy” which claims the abortion activist’s pictures were too graphic and offensive and trouble-making shows they have a liberal agenda. Biola realizes the homosexual issue is very touchy and they could get into big trouble so they have been influenced and been persuaded to be very tolerant. This pleases the world and keeps them looking better than a typical “fundamental Christian school.” Pro-life activism has been mocked by the media and labeled as people who hate women and are not understanding so protesting or enlightening people to the brutal reality of abortion as baby murder is not going to be popular with the masses so Biola has to shut it down fast and look progressive it seems. But when there is a reaction by a large amount of Christians who might not want to send their kids to their university they have to issue such apology letters really fast when it is convenient. If there was no reaction about the issue I honestly believe Biola would not have done the right thing. It is even a shame they had a Director and Professor of the Biola Nursing Department such as Dr. Susan Elliott, who wrote a letter to all nursing faculty barring them from writing a letter of employment reference for Diana Jiminez, to begin with. Where is Biola’s discernment on who they hire? At least she retired now.

        Biola University has been slowly changing for decades towards the left so expect them to get even worse during the years to come. Not only politically are they becoming more liberal with their student body but theologically as well. I am just glad I survived.

Ehud: Assassin For The Lord

Ehud: Assassin For The Lord

        I have always wanted a cool and biblical name for my blog and had for a couple of years wanted to change the name to “Ehud’s 18 Inch Dagger.” Finally, I decided now is the time to change it from “Maranatha” which is a typical word tons of ministries and Christian organizations use to the name I am using now. But the attitude of “come Lord Jesus” remains the same. I wanted to be more blunt as to how strong we should be for the Lord in our beliefs and what we stand for, as well as God’s bold commands that should not be taken lightly.  I think the name “Ehud’s 18 Inch Dagger” reflects the zeal we should have for the Lord and the hatred for what is false that should burn in our hearts.  Not that I hate sinners, but Christians are called to hate the sin. We should openly declare truth from error without fear and show the reality of the world we live in through theology, culture and society. The gospel should always be the forefront of our lives in everything we do.

The story of Ehud the Judge

Judges 3:12-30

Ehud

The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight. After Eglon convinced the Ammonites and the Amalekites to join forces with him, he attacked and defeated Israel and took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab 18 years.

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a deliverer for them. The Israelites sent him to Eglon king of Moab with tribute money.

Ehud made himself a double-edged dagger 18 inches long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes and brought the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was an extremely fat man. When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had carried it. At the carved images near Gilgal he returned and said, “King Eglon, I have a secret message for you.” The king called for silence, and all his attendants left him. Then Ehud approached him while he was sitting alone in his room upstairs where it was cool. Ehud said, “I have a word from God for you,” and the king stood up from his throne. Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and plunged it into Eglon’s belly. Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly. And Eglon’s insides came out. Ehud escaped by way of the porch, closing and locking the doors of the upstairs room behind him.

Ehud was gone when Eglon’s servants came in. They looked and found the doors of the upstairs room locked and thought he was relieving himself in the cool room. The servants waited until they became worried and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened the doors—and there was their lord lying dead on the floor!

Ehud escaped while the servants waited. He crossed over the Jordan near the carved images and reached Seirah. After he arrived, he sounded the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hill country, and he became their leader. He told them, “Follow me, because the Lord has handed over your enemies, the Moabites, to you.” So they followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. At that time they struck down about 10,000 Moabites, all strong and able-bodied men. Not one of them escaped. Moab became subject to Israel that day, and the land was peaceful 80 years.

May we be used both like Ehud’s 18 inch, double edged dagger to stab what is evil and false in the fat of all that is against God, and reveal the filth and allow the dirt to pour out that is such evil doctrines, theologies, and sin. We are not literally a politically, theocratic nation as ancient Israel was in that time. They were also dealing with enemy kings openly at odds with God. Even so, as Christians we should be willing to do operations and evangelistic missions to stand up against wickedness by proclaiming the truth of God’ Word (the true SWORD or Dagger of the Spirit) and share the gospel while promoting it boldly. This means that despite the lies and emotional manipulations of false teachers claiming us to be divisive or unloving we should not worry about offending people with the truth. Reflect on that.

 

Documenting False Doctrines And The Charismatic Passivity Of What Is Counterfeit

Documenting False Doctrines And The Charismatic Passivity Of What Is Counterfeit 

        After watching the live stream of the Strange Fire conference held at Grace Community Church under the leadership of John MacArthur I have noticed some of the ridiculous and fallacious arguments (or accusations) that the Charismatic/Pentecostal/Mystical proponents are using on blogs and comments sections of reports about the conference.  I will mention one claim I have heard for many years about understanding truth from error. Or what a good Christian should focus on when knowing true theology. I even had a pastor use this type of argument on me when I was describing heretics or naming them off at a bible study we were having before I went to do a short term mission with his church. The argument is summed up like this:

“Stop worrying about who is a false teacher or what belief is false. Just focus on what is true. Do you know how the government figures out what money is real and what is counterfeit? They focus on the REAL money! They don’t study the counterfeit money to know what real currency looks like! So it is the same with the Christian faith! Don’t focus on what you think is false doctrine or counterfeit, focus on the truth or what is good in the bible!”

        Now there seems to be some valid point made in that kind of an argument. Yes it is very, very, very important to study real currency instead of only focusing on fraudulent bills produced by counterfeit money rings; because it is obvious you won’t know what real money looks like in all of its detail if you do not actually look at correct U.S. bills. The Secret Service obviously has spent a lot of time studying real money created by the U.S. Treasury. But it is simply not true to say that the Secret Service does not actually study fake bills or understand how they are made. They do! They study the techniques, materials, and ways such counterfeit bills are printed. Thew know past techniques, current techniques that are causing problems in our economy, as well as keep an eye out for future false bills with new techniques used in their creation. Also, not only do they find fake bills a lot, they also prosecute criminals who produce them and throw them in jail. They call them out and say, “You are under arrest for counterfeit money.” Then they go to court and are tried and put in jail. The fake currency is examined to be fake, then it is destroyed, and some is probably kept for future reference to document. This is obvious. Now if we truly use the Secret Service analogy to Christianity it would be a lot different than what many Charismatics or “open but cautious” people are explaining.

        Now applying this analogy about the reality of what is counterfeit and real to the Bible is much the same. It is simply not true that to really understand truth from error all you should do is study the bible itself and what is good in itself. No you must examine every doctrine that people claim and view them and compare them to the bible. So you actually DO have to look for, be aware of, figure out the techniques used to propagate such false teaching, and understand why it is false. You cannot just ignore them and only look for the true things someone has said. Just because someone is a liar does not mean they can never, or never will say something true. It is possible that people who lie or promote a false teaching also say what is true from time to time and mix truth with error. This is common sense.

        You should call counterfeit spirituality out to keep the church pure much like the Secret Service has to keep the economy full of pure and true dollar bills by separating the fake ones. Also, Christians should call out, document and punish heretics and false teachers by naming them and kicking them out of the church. The whole argument of being divisive is just illogical. The Secret Service cannot unite with false money or say “Hey lets not hurt peoples feelings by separating fake money and also reporting criminals.” No! They separate it and report criminals! So Christians if using such an analogy in a realistic way should also separate false teachings and false prophets and teachers who produce such teachings! This is common sense. You cannot avoid being divisive when it comes to counterfeit money and you most certainly should not worry about being divisive when it comes to false teachings that are counterfeit to what the bible teaches. I think any rational person would agree.

        The Bible is full of identifiable things, judgments, and divisions of truth from error. 1 Corinthians 11:19 talks about separation and identifiable things of who is a true believer and who is not. Paul wrote, “There must, indeed, be factions among you, so that the approved among you may be recognized.” This speaks to such a similar thing as today with the false miracles and supernatural occurrences (some demonic and others just fake). This is similar to the Secret Service dividing fake money from real money, and the true Church of Christ separating false believers and false teachings from what is truly found in the Bible.

        The Charismatic movement is notorious for producing counterfeit spiritual currency into the true Church of Jesus Christ and causing confusion. Such promoters of charismatic experiences use a similar argument as the counterfeit money argument. I saw a blog post by a charismatic who is viciously angry at John MacArthur that used this “counterfeit money” argument. Adrian Warnock said,

“…surely spending my focus on highlighting the good things is a better use of my time? If people are taught to recognise (sic) real money by studying it, when fake currency turns up they will identify it in an instant.  I am surprised how much time some of these folks seems (sic) to spend hunting out increasingly bizzare (sic) YouTube videos. Surely building and declaring a true model of the Christian life is a better use of our time?“

Notice how he is assuming we should never point out or look for false doctrines, and claiming that anyone who finds bizarre videos showing the charismatic blasphemies committed (that other self proclaimed “responsible charismatics” are not calling out) is behaving badly. The context of this quote was in response to John MacArthur stating at the conference that there has been no good out of charismatic faith and ministry. But it remains a fact that ignoring such evil behavior that has been displayed by obvious heretics, false prophets, demon possessed loons, and greedy charlatans is actually extremely detrimental to the cause of Christ. It is a far greater good to call out such people to repent, or kick them out of ministry, than simply trying hard not to hurt anyone’s feelings by trying not to be divisive. As John MacArthur states in the Strange Fire Conference “Truth in its very nature is divisive!”

        More Christians should keep to faithfully examining Scriptures while also scrutinizing and separating, as well as sometimes finding false teachers, calling them out and separating these counterfeits with their counterfeit spirituality and experiences, away from what is true. Also, to warn people of such wicked behavior and such wicked men who propagate such blasphemy and heresy! It is our Christian duty much as it is the Secret Service’s duty to separate counterfeit bills from real currency!

        I thank God that Grace Community Church had the Strange Fire Conference and I was encouraged by the Lord to know that there are still a multitude of people who do not embrace the charismatic and Pentecostal false beliefs and behaviors as well as the occult mysticism that has invaded evangelicalism. It is encouraging to know it is okay to call this heresy out and stand against it openly and not have to be quiet! Cessationism is biblical truth! The unfortunate thing is young people my age and younger want more experience, and entertainment and action instead of honest to God truth. The future looks bleak but at least there is an effort to fight it still today.