As we are engaged on these boards in the practice of identifying the man of sin, the son of perdition, the one called antichrist, we need to understand that since the time of Christ there have been many antichrists. The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the age and ascends from the adversary of God, who was the ruler of this world and still has power in the world, until the day when our Lord and Savior returns as the Lion of Judah and consumes His enemies. In a previous post, I made mention of one antichrist of the past, the founder of Islam. Mohammed derived much of his power by drawing upon the word of God, but rewriting it for the Koran and making changes to support his evil intent. This is where much of Satan’s power has always been derived, veiling his lies, in partial truth to give them a feel of authenticity, but ultimately to cast doubt upon the veracity of the Scriptures and to create doubt in the hearts of men as to the good and just character of God.
The scripture tells us a little about worldly wisdom or “craftiness” which is carnal or fleshly in nature, but not that which comes down from heaven: 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. NKJ James 3:13-18
Unfortunately, we have to look a little deeper at this worldly wisdom in order to understand the works of the devil, which are manifest throughout the world. Jesus told us to be wise as serpents, but gentle as lambs, so it is helpful to understand something of worldly wisdom, but we should be careful not to apply it, but to battle it with divine wisdom through the application of the word of God, the sword of the Spirit.
I want to use an example of a modern antichrist, a clever and well educated fellow who passed away recently, but still has a powerful following with a demonic agenda. If you are a person that has enjoyed the reading of books of “science fiction,” you may be familiar with the author by the name of Frank Herbert. You may or may not know that Mr. Herbert invented a pseudo scientific religion called Scientology which practices the principles he called “dianetics.” I was introduced to this occult practice when I was a youth and engaged in roaming about in midtown Manhattan with some friends, doing things that our parents wouldn’t have been pleased with. A proselytizer for the cult grabbed me off of 42[sup]nd[/sup] Street and gave me a quick introductory pitch in an attempt to enlist me (and get quite a substantial sum of money for my participation.)
Mr. Herbert was a student of science and of history, and being an intelligent man, recognized some carnal truths about us in our fallen nature. Some authors of science fiction like to call themselves futurists as they imagine where science and technology will take humanity and sometimes see it as a vision to aspire to. Other authors prefer to think of themselves as moralists, attempting to use their fiction to teach moral lessons, e.g. Ray Bradbury. Mr. Herbert belonged to the first group and he used the profits from his fictitious works to support his “scientific” religion in his own efforts to move humanity toward his own vision for the future. In other words, he had no problem with playing at being God and believed that this could be accomplished through “scientific” knowledge of good and evil. Mr. Herbert recognized that men are capable of far more than they usually accomplish and correctly identified one of our major limiting factors as “fear.”
13. For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. 14. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. NKJ Psalms 139:13-14
Scientology is about eliminating or overcoming your personal fear so that you can become all that you can be. Through the processes of “dianetics” Mr. Herbert believed that he could unleash the hidden potential of men to live life as fully as possible, not through faith in Christ, but by banishing fear through recognizing it as caused by mental and emotional blocks he called engrams, and dissolving them by a process which is essentially brain washing. Now, a sound faith in Jesus Christ with an understanding of God’s character, will do that which Mr. Herbert promised to do with his dianetics, but to the modern mind, the “scientific” sound of Mr. Herbert’s doctrine seems more reasonable than faith in an unseen God gained through the reading and believing of an ancient book.
The scientologists are so determined to replace Christianity, that they have taken to using Christian methods to sell their demonic product. Just last year I saw a billboard with an advertisement during the Christmas season, visible from the ramp to the Lincoln tunnel, stating that there is a hole in the human heart which only dianetics can fill.
That there is power in the false teachings is evident in the success of some of its most famous adherents such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. They have found their own lives and careers energized, by the expensive treatments that they submitted themselves to, but dianetics is all about self empowerment and self reliance for the sole purpose of self advancement: 13 For you have said in your heart: `I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'NKJ Isaiah 14:13-14
There are at least a few little problems with dianetics. It doesn’t help someone with tragic loss as I’m sure the first impoverished soul I’ve used as an example is painfully aware of. I hope and pray that he turns to the Lord for salvation and comfort before the reckoning with Hollywood and the “city of the angels.” Another little problem with it is that while you are less likely to make mistakes when your fear is banished from your conscious mind, no man ever has control over their own circumstances, and if you fall off a cliff while rock climbing, your parachute and backup chute don’t open after you’ve jumped out of the plane, or someone with a pathological hatred comes after you and puts a bullet in your head, you’re just as dead as anyone else who’s gone before you without the knowledge of God and faith in Christ Jesus. After that, death, the really big problem with Dianetics starts: Hell and eternal destruction.
Frank Herbert’s fiction may have been used to finance his antichristian adventure, but his personal beliefs and philosophy were to some extent revealed by the fiction that he wrote, and this is true of all authors, artists, musicians, etc. His most popular work was actually a series of books, at least two of which have been made into movies. When you understand the plot you can understand why Hollywood would run after it for profit and why the devil would love them as well. The series is called the Dune series, the first of which was created for the big screen, then produced a second time for television with a follow up from the second book of the series. Dune is about a future empire, where machines have been largely banished, and technology is only tolerated in the form of enhancements to innate human abilities. The universe is ruled by Monarchies of ruling families that plot against each other for power and have developed the human potential through religious physical and mental training and the use of mind altering drugs. He populates his worlds with guilds, (craftsmen) who use mental powers to move great ships through space, develop their minds to full potential to act like human computers, religious orders of nuns that use selective breeding to try to bring forth a super human with the power to control matter with his mind (that they can control with their motherly influence), etc. These things reflect how Antichrist Herbert viewed religion. He believed, as many of his kind always have, that religion was created by man to control people through fear and zeal. However, religion was typically created by spiritual powers, wicked in nature, to control people through fear and zeal. God appointed these powers to rule and reign over men until the coming of His Son, whose purpose was to set us free from fear and re-establish our relationship with God in love.
Another aspect of Herbert’s writings, another common tool of the devil, is to use a false messiah as a hero of the book, creating doubt in the minds of the readers (or movie viewers) into the veracity of their own beliefs. Herbert’s messiah is the result of the genetic breeding of the evil sisterhood, who turns against them, takes control of the drug that fuels the economy of the universe, and sets himself up as the living god emperor, through taking advantage of religious beliefs planted by the sisterhood, his miraculous mental powers to see through time, manipulate matter with his mind, and the recruitment of rugged fighters for his own personal holy war. Frank Herbert recognized that religious zeal is tying strong emotion to purpose, and has been used by many false christs through the ages to enlist support for their schemes. The early empires of the earth were all ruled by men who fancied themselves to be living gods and their power came from the spiritual realm, and the wickedness of the rulers in those places. The promised rewards of the false christs tend to be riches and personal wealth, physical pleasures, virgins, etc., things which make their appeal to the flesh, rather than to the true reward of knowing and loving God and being loved by Him: 5 `Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 `And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.'' NKJ Exodus 19:5-6
To the ones that desire power and control over their own destiny, the false christs promises that you shall be as god. This last is probably the cleverest lie in that God’s intent for us is to be like Him, renewed in His image, but in submission to Him, to have His character, and without corruption. The devil doesn’t want to be like God, He wants to be god and usurp His throne. I’d rather have nothing and walk with my God than all the riches promised by the devil, yet He has reserved His greatest reward for His Son and all that are found in Him.
The other aspect of this entertainment industry fuel is that in presenting religion as man made invention; it allows those that are rejecting God to imagine things like “Jesus was an alien” or that “the Bible is just fiction.” We are dealing with the works of the inventor of deception. The Lord doesn’t want us to focus on the devil and his servants, but on Him. If you know the real article, the counterfeit is easier to recognize. Forgive me if I seem to make the Lord and Prince of peace seem like merchandise by my word usage, but that is also what the world has made Him, from plastic statues for your dashboard, to T-shirts that proclaim “Try Jesus” as though the Lord of glory is nothing more than a diet soft drink. I’m sorry that I’m getting a little angry as I write. This marketing of our Lord offends me more than most things and I tell you that the days of cheap grace are coming to an end and there will be a reckoning in the flesh.
I’ll pray that God will bring repentance and my heart wishes that He would, but I was a pragmatist before I was saved, and that hasn’t changed. Understand the adversary. With all his cleverness, he still tips his hand and reveals his works, because his mind is corrupted, his spirit entirely defiled, and his pride is his great weakness. The scriptures tell us that heaven will give the saints into his hand, but even this is for our purification and glorification, so be fearless yourselves knowing this, that the Almighty has a Son who is the inheritor of all things, will raise us up even from the dead to be with Him, and whose desire for us is only good and not evil, even the blessed and beloved, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, blessed forever. Amen.
The scripture tells us a little about worldly wisdom or “craftiness” which is carnal or fleshly in nature, but not that which comes down from heaven: 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. NKJ James 3:13-18
Unfortunately, we have to look a little deeper at this worldly wisdom in order to understand the works of the devil, which are manifest throughout the world. Jesus told us to be wise as serpents, but gentle as lambs, so it is helpful to understand something of worldly wisdom, but we should be careful not to apply it, but to battle it with divine wisdom through the application of the word of God, the sword of the Spirit.
I want to use an example of a modern antichrist, a clever and well educated fellow who passed away recently, but still has a powerful following with a demonic agenda. If you are a person that has enjoyed the reading of books of “science fiction,” you may be familiar with the author by the name of Frank Herbert. You may or may not know that Mr. Herbert invented a pseudo scientific religion called Scientology which practices the principles he called “dianetics.” I was introduced to this occult practice when I was a youth and engaged in roaming about in midtown Manhattan with some friends, doing things that our parents wouldn’t have been pleased with. A proselytizer for the cult grabbed me off of 42[sup]nd[/sup] Street and gave me a quick introductory pitch in an attempt to enlist me (and get quite a substantial sum of money for my participation.)
Mr. Herbert was a student of science and of history, and being an intelligent man, recognized some carnal truths about us in our fallen nature. Some authors of science fiction like to call themselves futurists as they imagine where science and technology will take humanity and sometimes see it as a vision to aspire to. Other authors prefer to think of themselves as moralists, attempting to use their fiction to teach moral lessons, e.g. Ray Bradbury. Mr. Herbert belonged to the first group and he used the profits from his fictitious works to support his “scientific” religion in his own efforts to move humanity toward his own vision for the future. In other words, he had no problem with playing at being God and believed that this could be accomplished through “scientific” knowledge of good and evil. Mr. Herbert recognized that men are capable of far more than they usually accomplish and correctly identified one of our major limiting factors as “fear.”
13. For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. 14. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. NKJ Psalms 139:13-14
Scientology is about eliminating or overcoming your personal fear so that you can become all that you can be. Through the processes of “dianetics” Mr. Herbert believed that he could unleash the hidden potential of men to live life as fully as possible, not through faith in Christ, but by banishing fear through recognizing it as caused by mental and emotional blocks he called engrams, and dissolving them by a process which is essentially brain washing. Now, a sound faith in Jesus Christ with an understanding of God’s character, will do that which Mr. Herbert promised to do with his dianetics, but to the modern mind, the “scientific” sound of Mr. Herbert’s doctrine seems more reasonable than faith in an unseen God gained through the reading and believing of an ancient book.
The scientologists are so determined to replace Christianity, that they have taken to using Christian methods to sell their demonic product. Just last year I saw a billboard with an advertisement during the Christmas season, visible from the ramp to the Lincoln tunnel, stating that there is a hole in the human heart which only dianetics can fill.
That there is power in the false teachings is evident in the success of some of its most famous adherents such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. They have found their own lives and careers energized, by the expensive treatments that they submitted themselves to, but dianetics is all about self empowerment and self reliance for the sole purpose of self advancement: 13 For you have said in your heart: `I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'NKJ Isaiah 14:13-14
There are at least a few little problems with dianetics. It doesn’t help someone with tragic loss as I’m sure the first impoverished soul I’ve used as an example is painfully aware of. I hope and pray that he turns to the Lord for salvation and comfort before the reckoning with Hollywood and the “city of the angels.” Another little problem with it is that while you are less likely to make mistakes when your fear is banished from your conscious mind, no man ever has control over their own circumstances, and if you fall off a cliff while rock climbing, your parachute and backup chute don’t open after you’ve jumped out of the plane, or someone with a pathological hatred comes after you and puts a bullet in your head, you’re just as dead as anyone else who’s gone before you without the knowledge of God and faith in Christ Jesus. After that, death, the really big problem with Dianetics starts: Hell and eternal destruction.
Frank Herbert’s fiction may have been used to finance his antichristian adventure, but his personal beliefs and philosophy were to some extent revealed by the fiction that he wrote, and this is true of all authors, artists, musicians, etc. His most popular work was actually a series of books, at least two of which have been made into movies. When you understand the plot you can understand why Hollywood would run after it for profit and why the devil would love them as well. The series is called the Dune series, the first of which was created for the big screen, then produced a second time for television with a follow up from the second book of the series. Dune is about a future empire, where machines have been largely banished, and technology is only tolerated in the form of enhancements to innate human abilities. The universe is ruled by Monarchies of ruling families that plot against each other for power and have developed the human potential through religious physical and mental training and the use of mind altering drugs. He populates his worlds with guilds, (craftsmen) who use mental powers to move great ships through space, develop their minds to full potential to act like human computers, religious orders of nuns that use selective breeding to try to bring forth a super human with the power to control matter with his mind (that they can control with their motherly influence), etc. These things reflect how Antichrist Herbert viewed religion. He believed, as many of his kind always have, that religion was created by man to control people through fear and zeal. However, religion was typically created by spiritual powers, wicked in nature, to control people through fear and zeal. God appointed these powers to rule and reign over men until the coming of His Son, whose purpose was to set us free from fear and re-establish our relationship with God in love.
Another aspect of Herbert’s writings, another common tool of the devil, is to use a false messiah as a hero of the book, creating doubt in the minds of the readers (or movie viewers) into the veracity of their own beliefs. Herbert’s messiah is the result of the genetic breeding of the evil sisterhood, who turns against them, takes control of the drug that fuels the economy of the universe, and sets himself up as the living god emperor, through taking advantage of religious beliefs planted by the sisterhood, his miraculous mental powers to see through time, manipulate matter with his mind, and the recruitment of rugged fighters for his own personal holy war. Frank Herbert recognized that religious zeal is tying strong emotion to purpose, and has been used by many false christs through the ages to enlist support for their schemes. The early empires of the earth were all ruled by men who fancied themselves to be living gods and their power came from the spiritual realm, and the wickedness of the rulers in those places. The promised rewards of the false christs tend to be riches and personal wealth, physical pleasures, virgins, etc., things which make their appeal to the flesh, rather than to the true reward of knowing and loving God and being loved by Him: 5 `Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 `And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.'' NKJ Exodus 19:5-6
To the ones that desire power and control over their own destiny, the false christs promises that you shall be as god. This last is probably the cleverest lie in that God’s intent for us is to be like Him, renewed in His image, but in submission to Him, to have His character, and without corruption. The devil doesn’t want to be like God, He wants to be god and usurp His throne. I’d rather have nothing and walk with my God than all the riches promised by the devil, yet He has reserved His greatest reward for His Son and all that are found in Him.
The other aspect of this entertainment industry fuel is that in presenting religion as man made invention; it allows those that are rejecting God to imagine things like “Jesus was an alien” or that “the Bible is just fiction.” We are dealing with the works of the inventor of deception. The Lord doesn’t want us to focus on the devil and his servants, but on Him. If you know the real article, the counterfeit is easier to recognize. Forgive me if I seem to make the Lord and Prince of peace seem like merchandise by my word usage, but that is also what the world has made Him, from plastic statues for your dashboard, to T-shirts that proclaim “Try Jesus” as though the Lord of glory is nothing more than a diet soft drink. I’m sorry that I’m getting a little angry as I write. This marketing of our Lord offends me more than most things and I tell you that the days of cheap grace are coming to an end and there will be a reckoning in the flesh.
I’ll pray that God will bring repentance and my heart wishes that He would, but I was a pragmatist before I was saved, and that hasn’t changed. Understand the adversary. With all his cleverness, he still tips his hand and reveals his works, because his mind is corrupted, his spirit entirely defiled, and his pride is his great weakness. The scriptures tell us that heaven will give the saints into his hand, but even this is for our purification and glorification, so be fearless yourselves knowing this, that the Almighty has a Son who is the inheritor of all things, will raise us up even from the dead to be with Him, and whose desire for us is only good and not evil, even the blessed and beloved, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, blessed forever. Amen.
