Antichrist Spirit.
In the movie,
Jesus (who is in fact the figure of the Antichrist/Satan and not the
true Jesus) is depicted as God and has all the attributes of God.
The Antichrist is the master of disguise and has deceived many in the Community of the Redeemed yet, they are unaware they are deceived and are singing his songs of deception as if they are godly.
Who can dispute that we are living in a day where we are seeing an increase in Satan’s efforts to trap people in sin...and I am not referring to the overt sin that the sin condemners are preaching against that is rampant the land. I am referring to him being among us as an angle of light standing among us as He tries to solidify his stranglehold of deception on all of God’s creation especially believers..
Most believers and are looking forward to a future event in the future, where the Antichrist will sit himself down on a throne in a new temple to be built in Jerusalem, while at the same time they are oblivious to the truth that it is already happening in our midst and the majority of the people of God are totally ignorant to the fact and worshiping him as if he is Christ. Paul the apostle warned the Church what to expect of Satan in 2 Thess. 2:4...”who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, showing Himself that He is God.” The Antichrist is alive and well in religion today.
The Bible leaves no doubt as to “who” the temple of God is! 1 Corinthians 3:16...Do you not know the “YOU” are the “TEMPLE” of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Could it be that our belief in a future antichrist as a future event, has blinded us to the fact of a present infusion of the antichrist spirit...could it be that the antichrist has already found his throne in the hearts of many of God’s people? Didn't John already believe that the antichrist is already setting up house by stating “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.”
Even though you may believe that this will happen in the future, don’t overlook the fact that we need to look in our own hearts and gatherings where the antichrist spirit is at work today through all the deceptions that the religion’s of the world have accepted as being godly.
Elizabeth Haworth stated.
ReplyDeleteHow important therefore to look to Jesus daily, to search the scripture and maintain fellowship with the Lord. The more we know the truth the easier it is to recognize the counterfeit - how vital to know more of the Lord Jesus for is so doing the twisted truth/ half truth / none truth / and counterfeit truth will be revealed - EVery blessing Glenn
Here is an example of how false doctrines are built by just taking one verse such as 2 Thes 2:4. You need to take it in its context.
ReplyDelete2 Thessalonians 2:1-15King James Version (KJV)
2 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
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;
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.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
You need to take it in context of the whole 15 verses.
Paul says here that when the antichrist sits in temple he will be revealed and people will know who he is. Until then Paul says he is being restrained. So to say that this passage refers to our body which is temple of Holy Ghost is misappropriation of the Scriptures.
Let me ask you a question. Paul says when he sits himself up in temple we will know who antichrist is. If he is already set up in temple then who is he.
Also long before he sits himself up in temple he will be giving out his mark. Show me somewhere in world where somebody couldn`t buy or sell because they didn't have his mark.
Furthermore last but not least when antichrist sits in temple it will be God who will be deceiving the people. Here is what the grace preacher Paul said about our loving God:
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
I know you deem yourself a prophesy expert...as is your self-claimed title of being a Bible expert...and that you know better than anyone who disagrees with your what is right and what is not therefore, sharing any viewpoint that is not in line with yours, is the same as “casting pearls before swine” meaningless to the pigs. But I will present it anyway.
Delete2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
1. Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2. not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
3. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4. who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Paul makes reference to the king of the North as described in Daniel 11:36:
Then the king will do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done.
The king of the North/man of lawlessness would oppose God and exalt himself; he would prosper until the wrath against Israel was completed (cf. Dan. 12:7). This was the Antichrist, the prince to come who would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple (Dan. 9:26-27).
Vine says the following on the man of lawlessness’ opposition to God:
He that opposeth – antikeimai = “to be set over against”; it is used of those who opposed the Lord Jesus, Luke 13:17; of those who oppose His people, 21:15; 1 Corinthians 16:9; Philippians 1:28; 1 Timothy 5:14; or His doctrine, 1 Timothy 1:10; and also of the mutual antagonism between the Holy Spirit and the flesh in the believer, Galatians 5:17. In LXX it is used of Satan, Zechariah 3:1, and of men, Job 13:24; Isaiah 66:6. The grammatical form here [in 2 Thess. 2:4], i.e., the participle with the article, makes a descriptive title = “the opponent.” John . . . called the same person “Antichrist” = “the opponent of Christ,” 1 John 2:18; thus the later title supplements and defines the earlier.
The person to whom Paul refers as the man of lawlessness is the same person to whom John refers as the Antichrist. Both titles refer to the evil ruler who would oppose Jesus at “the last hour” (1 John 2:18), at the time of his Second Advent (2 Thess. 2:8). The term “Antichrist” can either mean one opposed to Christ or the one in place of Christ. Paul, in discussing the man of lawlessness, reveals that both ideas are valid; the Antichrist would be both the one who opposes God/Christ at his coming (2 Thess. 2:4; cf. Dan. 7:21-22; Rev. 19:11-19) and the one who attempts to take his place by demanding worship (2 Thess. 2:4; cf. Dan. 11:36-37; Rev. 13:14-15). As Sproul notes: “Paul does not call him [the man of lawlessness] ‘antichrist’ here, but Paul does describe his activity in terms of being both against Christ and a substitute for Christ.”
HOW COULD THE THESSALONIANS THINK THE DAY OF THE LORD
DeleteHAD ALREADY ARRIVED?
Looking at 2 Thessalonians 2:2, there is some disagreement over whether the Thessalonians thought the day of the Lord had actually come or simply believed it was about to come.20 Given the common conception of the day of the Lord and the parousia (“coming,” v. 1) as happening in a visible blaze of glory, it is hard for some to understand how the Thessalonians could have believed the day of the Lord had already arrived. Commentator D. Michael Martin writes the following on this:
How then could the Thessalonians have believed that the day of the Lord had “come” (v. 2)? Might they have believed that that day was near but that it had not actually arrived? The perfect tense verb (enestēken) means “has arrived,” not “is imminent.” Elsewhere Paul used enestēken to signify “present” in contrast to future events (Rom 8:38; 1 Cor 3:22) and to speak of the “present” distress in which the church lived (1 Cor 7:26). When Paul did wish to describe the imminence of the parousia, he used different terms (see Rom 13:12; Phil 4:5) . . . It seems best then to allow enestēken its normal meaning and assume that the Thessalonians had heard that the day of the Lord had arrived in some immediate and climactic sense . . . Paul sought to defuse the situation not by arguing that the parousia was distant (the events described in vv. 3-9 could occur in fairly short order) but by highlighting intermediate events that distanced their immediate suffering from the event of the parousia.
The mistake the Thessalonians made was not in thinking the day of the Lord was about to come; rather, it was in thinking it had already come. How could this be? Paul taught clearly that the day of the Lord and the parousia were essentially simultaneous (2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2:1-8). The fact that the Thessalonians believed the day of the Lord had come indicates that Paul’s teaching on the Second Coming differed significantly from that of most present-day eschatological scenarios. For example, if Paul were a current-day pre-tribulation dispensationalist, he would have corrected the Thessalonians in a very different manner than he did. He might have argued that if the day of the Lord had already come, they all should have been physically raptured to heaven by now (cf. 1 Thess. 4:16-17). Since this had not happened then obviously the day of the Lord had not arrived yet.
Instead of answering in the above manner, Paul simply provides two events that needed to transpire before the Second Advent occurred. First, a falling away (“rebellion,” NRSV) had to take place. In response to this, the man of lawlessness—the Antichrist—would be revealed (2 Thess. 2:3). Soon thereafter, the parousia would happen (2 Thess. 2:8). Again, Paul nowhere makes the argument that the saints would have already been raptured to heaven if the day of the Lord had begun.
Notice that Paul was discussing an event that was about to occur in the lifetime of his hearers, not thousands of years in the future (in a completely different Temple no less). In fact, Paul indicated that the mystery of lawlessness (which would give rise to the man of lawlessness) was already at work (2 Thess. 2:7; cf. 1 John 4:3; Rev. 13:18). This point cannot be stressed enough: Paul was referring to events that were going to take place within the lifetime of his readers—events that would happen in the then-standing Temple—not some supposed third Temple that, two thousand years later, has still not been built.
DeleteIt should also be noted that Paul’s statement that the revelation of the man of lawlessness was an indicator of when the day of the Lord was about to happen is at complete odds with those who teach that Christians will be “raptured” before the Antichrist is revealed. Since Paul was giving his Thessalonian audience historical indicators so they could know when the day of the Lord was about to come, it would be nonsensical to give the Antichrist’s revelation as one of the (two) essential signs if the Thessalonian believers would not be around to witness his arrival.
THE FALLING AWAY
In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Paul alludes to the fact that the ultimate day of the Lord would involve a first-century attack upon Jerusalem. This is consistent with the picture of the day of the Lord in the rest of Scripture (e.g., Joel 2; Zech. 14; Dan. 11:45-12:13, etc.). Although Paul does not explicitly mention the attack on Jerusalem by the man of lawlessness, it is implied (the attack is explicitly shown in Daniel 11:45 and the destruction of the Temple is explicitly shown in Daniel 9:26). The only way the man of lawlessness could take control of the Temple (“he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”) is if he had successfully captured Jerusalem. The Jews, of course, would (and did) fight to the death to prevent such a blasphemy. They would never willingly allow a man to usurp the worship of God in the Temple.22
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul says that before the day of the Lord and its associated events would happen, the “falling away” would first occur. The Greek word for “falling away” is apostasia, which can mean either a religious falling away (“apostasy,” NASB) or a political falling away (“rebellion,” NRSV). In translating apostasia as “the falling away,” the translators of NKJV were somewhat noncommittal as to whether it refers to a religious or secular rebellion. It should be noted that the apostasia in no way refers to the so called rapture of 1 Thess. 4:14-17. (I shall discuss the rapture at the end of this chapter.)
In the Septuagint, apostasia is used for both religious apostasy and political revolt. While the only other NT use of apostasia (Acts 21:21) is a religious apostasy, the meaning of apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 refers to a political rebellion, the Great Revolt of the Jews. As a case in point, apostasia is the word which Josephus uses in discussing the Jewish revolt of AD 66.23 Regarding this meaning, Gentry writes:
DeleteWe can make a good case for its referring to the Jewish apostasy/rebellion against Rome. Interestingly, Josephus calls the Jewish War an apostasia against the Romans: “And now I perceived innovations were already begun, and that there were a great many very much elevated, in hopes of a revolt [apostasia] from the Romans” (Life 4). “When John, the son of Levi, saw some of the citizens much elevated upon their revolt [apostasia] from the Romans, he labored to restrain them; and entreated them that they would keep their allegiance to them” (ibid., 10). Probably Paul merges the religious and political concepts, though emphasizing the outbreak of the Jewish War resulting from their apostasy against God.24 (brackets in original)
The New Jerusalem Bible actually translates apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as “the Great Revolt”:
About the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, and our being gathered to him: please do not be too easily thrown into confusion or alarmed by any manifestation of the Spirit or any statement or any letter claiming to come from us, suggesting that the Day of the Lord has already arrived. Never let anyone deceive you in any way. It cannot happen until the Great Revolt has taken place and there has appeared the wicked One, the lost One, the enemy, who raises himself above every so-called god or object of worship to enthrone himself in God’s sanctuary and flaunts the claim that he is God.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NJB
It was the Jewish apostasia against Rome, the Great Revolt in AD 66, which ultimately led to the revelation of the man of lawlessness. Titus, in response to this revolt, led the attack on God’s holy mountain on the ultimate day of the Lord in AD 70 (cf. Dan. 11:40-45).
WHAT TEMPLE WAS THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS TO TAKE CONTROL OF?
ReplyDeleteSome commentators, unclear on a first-century identification of the man of lawlessness, argue that the temple Paul was talking about really refers to the church. Beale writes the following along these lines:
What does it mean that the antichrist will sit in the temple of God? It does not refer to some future rebuilt temple in Israel, nor is it likely to refer to some past desecration of the temple in Jerusalem . . . It is more probable that the temple is a more specific metaphorical reference to the church as the continuation of the true cultus . . . Consequently, [2 Thess.] 2:3-4 teaches that the latter-day assailant will come into the midst of the church and cause it to become predominantly apostate and unbelieving. He will then try to take control of the church by carrying out further deception in it.31
Beale argues that the other places in Paul’s writings where he uses the phrase God’s temple, it is always a symbolic usage.32 While this is true, and initially sounds persuasive, it is not so compelling when one actually looks at the verses cited. Although Paul elsewhere uses the temple as a metaphor for both the church and the believer’s body (see below, underlined emphasis mine), he makes it quite clear that the literal Temple is not meant in those contexts:
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
2 Corinthians 6:16
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostle and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:20-22
Now look at 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; the obvious symbolism in the above verses simply does not exist:
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (underlined emphasis mine)
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DeleteIf you want to check out what commentators says go ahead. I will simply believe what the Scriptures say rather than commentators.
ReplyDeleteBefore the antichrist sits in temple people will have to receive his mark in their hand or forehead. Check your commentaries and show me when this has happened in history.
And please don't tell me like the Seventh Day Adventist will that keeping Sunday is taking the Mark of the Beast.
The problem is you are relying too much on what ungodly commentators have to say instead of Word of God.
ReplyDeleteIf the event that Paul refered to took place under Titus rule long before Paul started preaching why would Paul warn believers of his day about it. I guess I can't understand it because I'm not a prophecy expert.