terry said:
I would like to discuss the origin of the False Prophet, the Beast that receives the wound (often referred to as The Anti-Christ and/or the church of which one or more will arise in. According to the decades of teachings concerning prophecy from such people as JR Church, Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, and many others... The Roman Catholic Church was to be from where the Beast rises. I am not convinced this is still not true, but this current pope was to be him but was supposed to have a different name. Now the prophet who claimed the number of popes would be disqualified as a prophet if this does not occur. There was a pope that was removed from that position only to be re-instated after another pope served which means the number of popes could be off by one... Is there a possibility that there are other possible exceptions that could throw off that number even more?
I have seen the posts claiming the Beast need not come from the Roman Catholic Church and to some extent I can agree with that but... This Beast that enters the inner-sanctum of the Temple thus committing the Abomination of Desolation certainly should have a "religious" background to such a point as to be more dominant than a political over-tone. The most dominant church in the world is still thee Roman Catholic Church and therefore I consider it the most likely origin with the reference to the 7 hills giving more credence to this as a probability. One thing is pretty certain - that we should never make this possibility considered an impossibility.
Hi! 'Terry'
Ummm, reading your list of these notorious Bible Repairmen gave me the shivers. :) ["... such people as JR Church, Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, and many others"]
Evidently, there are small fortunes being earned by these self-appointed alarmists and spiritual soothsayers; If it wasn't Hitler, it must be the Pope; if it isn't the Catholics it must be the Muslims. Since it wasn't Gaddafi, it must be Assad. The list of these so-called anti-Christs remain ever-changing to keep pace with the ever-changing newspaper headlines.
The problem is not that the Beast remains hidden from our view. Rather, it's that many are much too afraid to speak it's name aloud.
Look around you. The identity of the Beast is being clearly revealed in your midst. No one needs to be especially gifted to identity it. It's staring you in the face!
The Beast is not a specific man nor particular clergy; although these are indeed frantically seeking to cooperate with it.
To begin with, the task of identifying the spirit of the anti-Christ is made easier because we know that it's primary function is the origin of all falsehood ... lies. So, you would do well by beginning to focus on a propagator of lies and you will be well on your way to identifying the suffocating influence of the anti-Christ. It's always the entrance of the suffocating lies first and then the compelling powers demanding that the people subjugate themselves to them.
Not a wonder that Christians are groping for more adequate language to express the problem of evil in our world; to better comprehend what the Bible names as "principalities and powers". The collective profundity of the evil behind the realm of darkness is that it simultaneously manifests itself as both physical and spiritual. While it is the 'powers' that construct the dark spirituality suffocating our present world, it is the 'principalities which compel the lies of the emerging domination system.
This could perhaps be better understood by the illustration of physicists who tell us that everything from protons to sub-atomic particles have both an inner and outer aspect; what we might name as 'spirit matter'. The term 'powers' refers to the physical (outer) manifestation while 'principalities' refer to its spiritual (inner) manifestation. It is the 'powers' which form the spiritual ethos of our religious institutions and which compel the violent domination prevalent within the political and economic systems.
That being said, you might perhaps be better able to understood by an illustration from physics which tell us that everything from protons to sub-atomic particles have both an inner and outer aspect; what we might name as 'spirit matter'. The term 'powers' refers to the physical (outer) manifestation while 'principalities' refer to its spiritual (inner) manifestation. It is the 'powers' which form the spiritual ethos of our political, economic and religious institutions and which compel the suffocating domination prevalent throughout our daily experience.
We’re indeed living in a time when a confluence of stimuli are increasingly smothering us with falsehoods and devouring lies..
From a very early age, we are induced to seek intense emotive and psychological drama. By the time we reached early adult years, this desire had matured to become an addiction. We found ourselves craving the invented stimuli of suspense, anxiety, fear, disquiet and a host of other emotional responses. In ancient days, the people largely depended on cave drawings and physical idols to fulfill their inherent lust for stimulation. These have all been replaced in our present days by mass media of every sort.
However, the manipulative stimuli of our day is far more persuasive and hypnotizing; exceedingly more addictive than in former days … even more so than a mere 20 years ago. The effectiveness of its cultural and societal influence cannot be downplayed. For instance, when we were young teens, our heroes were mostly imaged by caricatures of harmless animals or cartoons. in these days, children from a very young age find corporate Logos much more meaningful and recognizable than cartoon characters.
But that’s just the half of it.
"Look around you!", is the refrain. The Beast is rising and is becoming increasingly visible.
I don’t believe that nominal Christians today are fully cognizant of the dramatic meaning behind Cain's desire to build himself a city. Not unlike earthly Jerusalem, Cain's city too is a visible image of an invisible reality. By its very construct, Cain's city was fundamentally opposed to God; a counter-creation possessing a negative spiritual identity ... a counterfeit reality.
Cities throughout the Bible are parables revealing a pervading domination system which violently compels to subjugate and control in order to sustain itself. This explains why violence adorns its very core. Cain's city has spiritual significance because it's capable of directing and changing a man's spiritual life. It brings its domination powers to bear in man and swallows up his life, (his entire being, not simply his 'house'). And that is both the fearful legacy of Cain and also its dreadful mystery. From the times of Cain, Nimrod, and through to Babylon, (including our present day), the city represents a desire to violently dominate and destroy man for the sake of human works. At the moment that Cain decided to "build himself a city", he had entered into a personal reverse-metamorphosis which would ultimately have him sanctify, justify and glorify the violence (against the human spirit) contained within it.
The birth of our modern cities and the dominating powers behind them goes back to Uruk in Mesopotamia, 4th millennium BC; and other great cities like Ninevah, Khorsbad, Nimrod, Babylon and so on. The city was the center of political and religious culture. Its walls were not only physical but also spiritual; thereby giving the pretense of form, purpose and meaning to man's counterfeit and alienated existence.
We would also do well to make a distinction between ‘shadow of death’ and the ‘spirit of death’.
The spirit of the anti-Christ can be likened to the spirit of death in that it forms a ‘shadow of death’ which encompasses everything we know and experience .. every minute of our every day.
While the ‘shadow of death’ is related to every cultural, political, economic and religious activity, the ‘spirit of death’ is the predominant power behind the shadow … what one could define as the spiritual power which is the origin of the shadow. In a sense, those who live in the ‘shadow of death’ (under the ‘domination system’) are already tasting death … suffering various forms of poisonous damage to their inner man.
All our cultural, political, economic and religious activities give substance to this ‘shadow of death’. In other words, we are born into a pre-constructed social world which is the “deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in”. It is the ‘shadow of death’ which is the thief which steals, kills and destroys”. It is also the ‘shadow of death’ in 2Sam 22:5-6, “… the floods of ungodly men made me afraid”; “The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me”.
It was the ‘spirit of death’ which cast the ‘shadow of death’ after the Fall. It is the ‘spirit of death’ which interferes with the proper and orderly functions of the physical dimension itself. It could be said that while it is the ‘shadow of death’ which injures the invisible inner composite of man, it is the ‘spirit of death’ which is the lawless agent that degenerates and profanes the laws and substance of the God’s creation. It is the ‘spirit of death’ which attacks the "blue prints of life" and overwhelms the laws of God’s creation. It is the 'spirit of death' which alters and damages the substance of this physical world.
Since the Fall, the entire visible creation has been suffering under the ‘spirit of death’. For example: there is multiple evidence that genetic damage can be caused by man-made effluents and pollutants which can affect the very survival of a species and alter their evolutionary destiny. So too, genetic damage can be caused by lawless influences and pollutants from out of the invisible world which degrade and alter the intrinsic creation laws of God operative in the human body. My own personal view is that the origins of homosexuality are a combination of both the “shadow of death’ as well as the ‘spirit of death’. It can have both genetic (spirit) and environmental (shadow) origins.
Less and less people are able to intuitively realize that, underneath and within their social, economic, cultural and political institutions, are profound spiritual realities which must be confronted. Every aspect of our visible world has spirit at its core. This knowing is critical if we wish to give shape to our faith and prayer.
Cultural Christianity prompts a docile acceptance of the ‘shadow of death’; still more have eagerly become complicit with it and find no shame in their having resigned to the tyranny of darkness which is unfolding as their degenerate reality. They affirm the god of Mammon without qualification, are infatuated with sin, and even take pains to testify that they can never rid themselves of it. Where there is no more wrestling with death, the struggle for genuine life is deserted and people surrender willingly to the ‘shadow of death’.
Today cultural Christianity speaks about the necessity of evil and humanity’s common identity and bondage in guilt. They participate in an unconscious conspiracy with the ‘domination system’. Everyone knows of the fallacy and yet deny that the fallacy exists and continue their unwitting participation and involvement with the devices behind the ‘shadow of death’.
Most remain completely blind to the existence and pervasive presence of the spiritual principalities and powers and remain horribly ignorant of the evil mechanisms affecting our world. There is a lack of discernment about this “present age” and the suffocating powers of domination which shadow it. This might explain the increasing evidence of mainstream Christianity attempting to effect beneficial change by becoming merged with political forces. In this way, they are unwittingly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome; where the prisoners become sympathetically identified with their captors. Therefore, the task of presenting our Gospel is oftentimes that of shifting the current dialogue about Christian fundamentalism to the fundamentals of what Jesus really taught.
The fact that they so many casually dismiss the Gospel of the Kingdom shows that there is a deteriorating emphasis on taking a stand against evil. People oppose an uncompromising stand, calling it legalism and fanaticism. They are determined to avoid the decisive choice that the Gospel of Jesus represents: God or mammon; the eternal or the temporal. They have turned away from the clarity of Jesus, Who challenged us to say yes or no and nothing in between. They have accepted a paradoxical situation in relation to God; they boast in their vanity of saying “yes and no” or “no and yes” simultaneously.
Thankfully, our Gospel has its roots in the certainty that every person and atmosphere now straining under the ‘shadow of death’ can be truly freed and restored to the original intentions of God. I am not speaking here about a movement of conscience which might camouflage itself as socialism or communism or other such “isms” Ours is not the task to remedy the coercive powers. The domination system (‘shadow of death’) is beyond both contempt and repair.
Rather, ours is the task to triumph over the ‘spirit of death’ and it’s suffocating shadow by becoming “equipped for every good work” and thereby immune to its killing spirit and degenerate constraints. In this way, we disarm the tyrant of the earth and strip him of power to occupy our land and to destroy his evil achievements and works.
While it is true that many in these days shout about expecting God’s future, most are without the slightest inkling of what God’s absolute will is for the present. Mainstream Christianity is like a man about to be buried alive in a tunnel collapse: at first he flails blindly in the foul darkness; but when he suddenly claws through the layers of rubble, light extinguishes the darkness and refreshing air rushes in. He is once again united with the atmosphere for which he longs, even if he cannot immediately climb up into it.
Thankfully, we have a Gospel for those suffocating under the ‘shadow of death‘! It is the Gospel of the Kingdom which alone equips man with the powers of eternity as soon as they dare to open themselves to the eternal and perfect plans of God for their lives. Our inner man earnestly seeks the day that God, Who until now has been blasphemed, might at last be deservedly honored. Our Gospel testifies that we, as the living seed of the God’s Kingdom, have been entrusted with the spirit of life.
Therefore, we remain “aliens” and “foreigners” to this present world order precisely because we are citizens and ambassadors of an eternal divine order. To testify otherwise causes the message of our gospel of restoration to become a Utopian fantasy, a self-deceiving madness.
Cultural Christianity says: depart this world and go to the other! But Jesus says: The kingdom of God will come to this world!
Cultural Christianity speaks of a transition from the visible to the invisible; but Jesus spoke of something entirely the opposite; a transition from the invisible to the visible.
Cultural Christianity tempts us to give up being godly, but it is precisely because the Word became flesh in Jesus that permits us full Redemption.
So it is that our Gospel has us desiring nothing else but to become truly human (the ultimate intention of God with man);
His Seed (Word) has been planted in the earth (us) and we earnestly await His glory to be revealed in us.
This is the festival of our hearts; the embryo of our eternity!
You can read previous comments to a Thread which I submitted during August last year which basically is stating the same as above # 116
http://www.christianityboard.com/topic/15205-the-united-states-of-evil/page-4
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. The counterfeit reality is by its very nature in a permanent crisis of legitimization. Because its captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It pretends to pretend nothing. Because it is so utterly foreign to the composite of man, (“no so from the beginning”), it is an artificial amalgam held together through violence. This is why falsehood and delusion are so essential to it.
When people suppress the truth and worship the created things, (counterfeit reality), they succumb to darkened minds and folly; become overwhelmed by a sense of induced powerlessness. So it is that people live within a lie. In most cases, it is not as if the multitudes happily accept the delusional web; rather, it is that they have accepted their life with it and in it. They unwittingly confirm the lie, fulfill the lie and ultimately become the lie. Our triumph over the domination system occurs as we overcome the “present evil epoch” (aion) who “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ”. In this sense, we “redeem the time”, (Col 4:5). The wonderful testimony of our gospel is not that it is a convincing substitute for the counterfeit reality; rather, it is in its being hated by it. Thus, our gospel has no need of salesmanship because genuine reality is eager to confirm it."
