DISCERNING THE SPIRIT OF ANTI-CHRIST

OLUFUNSO J. OMIDIRAN
www.livingsword.org

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know the the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 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 now already is it in the world." (1John 4:1-3).

We have heard a lot of man-made fables or spurious speculations about the nature and attributes of the antichrist or the futuristic ‘man of sin’ or ‘son of perdition’ (2 Thess.2:3). Nevertheless, men’s theories do not displace the reality of God’s truth. We simply need to have a clear understanding of the balanced truth of God’s Word concerning who the antichrist really is. In order to have a correct understanding of the truth about this person, we first need to understand what the spirit of antichrist is. We must be mindful of the fact that the spirit of a person is the force behind the personality.

The word ‘anti’ in Greek means ‘instead of’ or ‘in place of’. The above scripture was originally written in Greek .So antichrist (Gk: antichristos) simply speaks of someone who takes the place of Christ, a usurper.

Today, we see a lot of instances whereby Christ has been displaced by men and replaced by something or someone else. The point is that, if ever Christ is not given His rightful place in our lives, we’ve fallen victims to the antichrist spirit.

Every religion that denies the lordship/headship of Christ is of the antichrist stock, no matter how many adherents are influenced thereby. Even in the church polity today antichrist keeps having his heyday. Many things are happening today and they give us a lot of concern. If Satan is alive and well in the modern Church then the world is in trouble!

ANTICHRIST IN CHURCH!

Every departure from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ is decline towards the antichrist spirit. We see a lot of hopeless and needless debates in the organized church because Christ’s Lordship has already been denied by reckless men. For instance, the ordination and consecration of gay(homosexual)priests, immorality among professing believers, indecent lifestyles, corruption, idolatrous practices, hero-worship, sectarianism, religious pride, feelings of false security and superiority. All these are manifestations of the antichrist spirit.

One serious deceit within “Christians” and “Christian nations” is doing so much religion and still hating Christ and what He stands for. While some are fighting tooth and nail to defend their denominational extremisms, they are drifting farther and farther from the Saviour whom they claim to serve.

Furthermore, we should remember that the antichrist may come either as a religious personality or in the secular form. We should not be deceived by the synagogues of Satan which abound so much in our days. The antichrist spirit makes its appearance within God’s temple (2Thess.2:3, 4). Through this spirit the temple is desecrated and corrupted. Nay, the spirit is already here and the devastation has already started. Every religious effort that does not thrive upon the saving work of Christ on the cross is after the order of the antichrist spirit. No replacement can be found for Christ, no other name above His. (Phill.2:9, 10; Acts 4:12).

OUR CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY

Every attempt you ever made to hide your Christian testimony or identity is an ominous decline. Do you often feel ashamed to stand before other people about your acquaintance with Christ the crucified Saviour? Do you often shy away from being identified with Him? Have you found it more convenient to deny Him before the secular world? Have you not been deceived by the flamboyance of modern, Christless ‘Christianity’ just because you love to gain this present world? How much of Him have men discovered through you?

PREACHERS, HEAR THIS!

Every attempt to reinterpret God’s word so as to meet popular demands is pathetic failure. It is shameful that today that Christian ministers are trying to do away with the old-fashioned ways of the Jesus of the Bible: The old rugged cross has been reduced to a small cosmetic and fashionable necklace which all men can wear with shear amusement. As preachers we cannot solve anybody’s problem without bringing them to the Lord who saves. Mere motivational speech, philosophical enunciations, ‘positive confessions’ and all idolatrous gimmicks can never transform the spiritually corrupt. In fact, every alternative method to the narrow way message of Christ is of the antichrist spirit. By reducing or misrepresenting the truth, we are not serving Christ. Let us get back to the ancient landmarks, even the everlasting foundations. Shalom.

Liberals Really Believe

From American Thinker:

Name a problem, and the Democrats have a "solution." Don't call it "wishful thinking" though. Call it "hope."

• Instead of harsh interrogation techniques, non-harsh ones.
• Instead of war, diplomacy.
• Instead of all the sources of energy that work today and made us the richest people in history, alternate sources.
• Recession problem? Stimulus spending is the answer. It never worked before, but we can't just do nothing.
• Banks in trouble? Regulate them. Of course, we already had all the New Deal regulation, plus Sarbanes-Oxley and about 80,000 pages worth of other regulations. But we'll come up with some new, sensible regulation we're sure will work next time, with zero harmful side-effects.
• Did Bush spend too much and run up big deficits? We'll fix that by spending so much that our first year deficit will be more than Bush's first seven, combined! We'll more than quadruple Bush's biggest deficit ever.
• Future deficits too big? Just assume GDP growth and future revenues to be higher than ever experienced in history.

Assume, wish, hope. That's the plan. Then a miracle occurs.

But here's the real kicker: Democrats know all this is baloney. They are not going to solve these problems with those "solutions," and they know it. All they need to do is convince you that they are solving those problems.

And that's the difference between liberals and conservatives in "public service." Conservatives think solutions should solve problems. Liberals know their "solutions" need only convince you they are solving problems.

Global Warming is Now a Persecuted Religion

At least according to the Independent Newspaper in London.

Gettlefinger Motors Marketing Strategy

Now that the UAW owns GM they have changed the marketing strategy to the six step program:

1. A union thug will show up at your door.
2. He will inspect your current automobile for trade value.
3. He will hand you a contract to sign. You will buy a car.
4. You will be assigned the car they decide you should have.
   
5. If you don't agree Vito will break your kneecaps.
6. They don't care if you can afford it or make the payments. That's the banks problem. Barney Frank insists that in the interest of the hard working Americans banks will be forced to supply the money to the buyers, even if they don't want the car. See Housing for an example.

In order to make selection easy, they will build one model, one style, one engine, one color.

Just like they did in east Germany.

SOCIALISM, MAYBE THIS TIME IT WILL WORK

Some Random Interesting Pictures.......I Hope

CLICK TO ENLARGE ANY OF THESE PICTURES TO FULL SIZE.

Southwest of Dekalb IL is a hamlet called Elva. There's not much there. Maybe a dozen houses. Like many small towns in ND. BUT

I like elevators. Look at this one. Brick. I have in my life never seen one just like this. It's amazing. But, it's in disuse. Falling apart. What a crime. If I were a rich man I would preserve it. It's worth preserving.

In an earlier post, I think on the Prophet side, I mentioned a spruce tree that blew down last summer. It's 64 years old. Here's a picture of the fallen root end. The trunk.


That's my cousin Wally standing next to it. It's as big around as he is. Or me.

Who knew a spruce tree could get so large. This was planted as a seedling. Yet when the wind came it just ripped out of the ground. Look at the root.


Last this is a male catkin from a native cottonwood tree I saw in Illinois where we are cutting live cuttings.

Look at the color, the size, the depth. These are beautiful, the whole tree was covered with them. I took a picture at a distance but it lost something in the frame. I know this isn't enough of a reason to plant cottonwood, but it's not a bad one. Did you know that they are now an endangered native species in the Dakotas? Too many Males, not enough Females. Plant native only.

Blogging for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Folks

At the risk of being a little insulting, the good people from the left who read this blog have a blindness problem, a hearing problem and when they speak it is mumblingly incoherent when it comes to economics.

As a gift and as a challenge, I would offer an opportunity to hear from and read a real economist with actual understanding. Unlike those who are at the helm steering the USA into the shoals of disaster.

I came by this thru my Friend RON MAC. Bill Bonner. Fair Minded. Not an ideologue. Just a pretty good economist. No agenda but truth.

So, if you want to know what is REALLY going on and what is REALLY going to happen, go back and read a dozen of his latest missives. You will find them clever and insightful.

It will shake your faith in the Messiah O. It should be shaken. His feet of clay are shattering.

It will help you prepare for the days to come. They are going to be rough. Long. Deep. Hard. Unsettling.

Or you can just go on as Rich Karlgaard just wrote about, shallow, inward, distracted, entertained by the likes of Stewart. As your country is flushed twice down the can. Swirrly Swirrly.

Then you will wake up, ask someone to help, and the echo will come back declaring no one is there.......They really never were. It was all an illusion. You bought into a liberal matrix fantasy. Free energy from nothing, free health care from people who care, free everything....until it collapses.

It will.

First Hundred Days - Hope and Change no one believes in

Catastrophe. That's the word I would use to describe the first hundred days.

John Kass gave him an F. Said, Mr Obama, stop campaigning, stop organizing, you won the election, it's time to lead. I don't think he knows how Mr Kass.

Reuters reports that the economy has collapsed over 7 percent since he was elected POTUS.

This is a man without a rudder or a sail. We are adrift in a doldrum from which we may not emerge.

And we will all suffer for it. America is dying at the hands of bad leadership.

A Sense of Dread

Over the weekend I was talking to a liberal friend. She had voted for Obama. Was excited to do so. She has been a liberal for a long time.

But, she reported to me that she is suffering from a severe sense of dread. A fear, a trepidation.

Nothing seems to be as it should be. Things are out of kilter. The government owning the car builders and banks. Swine Flu. Economy not getting well. Basic rights being threatened.

I was shocked to hear her say these things. She is not a one time liberal. She has voted D most of her life. Proudly.

Now, as she put it, there is something profoundly wrong and I am afraid.

If this were one of my right wing friends it might be expected. But she fears our country is sliding down a slope more slippery than she signed up for at the ballot box.

I think this feeling is wider and broader than anyone things. I was watching Jon Stewart for the first time in years. He had a bit on swine flu. It was amusing.

Then he lit into Obama.

Obama and all the cronies which now includes Specter (they can have him, we'll wipe the floor with him next year) have found the deep end and gone off it.

This won't end well.

There is No Argument

This from a long list of really stupid liberal statements in just the last week on the news, in blogs and comments.

They don't want argument. They don't want discussion. They are mindlessly committed to mind control.

I don't know if in fact any of these dopes on the air have any idea of how jaw droppingly stupid they sound.

I would catalog them, but it would be a very long list.

This is just my observation, I have come to the conclusion that when you publically become a liberal you check your brain at the door and put the liberal teleprompter chip in your head.

This is a rant, pay no attention to it.... I'm just irritated with the inane quality of public or discourse or more important, the lack of it that exists because the drones go along with every stupid liberal idea that floats out of the big giant heads.

Sigh..

Two Great Love Songs.....

A Good Ad for A Church

A Little Perspective on Obama's Budget Cuts

FUNNY VIA EMAIL

True Stories of People who are a Bit on the DULL SIDE! I got this from my friend Barry this morning.. You may have seen it, you may have experienced it, you surely will get a laugh from it:

IDIOT SIGHTINGS:

We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, 'NO, it's not.' Four is larger than two..'

We haven't used Sears repair since.

IDIOT SIGHTING:

I went through the McDonald 's take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, 'you gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.' She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said 'We're sorry but they could not do that kind of thing.' The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change..

Do not confuse the clerks at McD's.

IDIOT SIGHTING :

I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'

From Kingman , KS .

IDIOT SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICE :
My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' He said he was sorry, but they only had iceburg lettuce.

From Kansas City

IDIOT SIGHTING:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened in Birmingham , Ala.

IDIOT SIGHTING :

The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?!' She was a probation officer in Wichita , KS

IDIOT SIGHTING :

At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker. She was leaving the company due to 'downsizing.' Our manager commented cheerfully, 'This is fun. We should do this more often.' Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare. This was a lunch at Texas Instruments.

IDIOT SIGHTING :

I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the sake of her life, couldn't understand why her system would not turn on. A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs office, no less.

IDIOT SIGHTING

When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'its open!' His reply, 'I know. I already got that side.' This was at the Ford dealership in Canton, MS


I can't help but wonder what the voter registration for these folks noted above would look like. I mean we did elect Barack Obama......

Personality Defect

In a long conversation driving back with Kevin yesterday we discussed people we know and knew who just seem to never have any friends. Who are bad at being sociable. Who just never seem to connect.

I know a man who is profoundly friendless. Who never can make and maintain any form of friendship. He is a sad case. Late 40's and friendless. I have tried but he is trying.

We came to the conclusion that friendlessness is the result of a few fatal flaws:

• Self Centeredness.... Enough about me, what do you thing of me
• Talking too much - Always a need to be right
• Never asking questions to encourage others to talk
• A poor or nonexistent sense of any humor whatsoever
• The need to dominate any conversation with their own opinion no matter what
• A lack of any capacity for true empathy
• No true transparency --- Not letting people into your life
• Clingyness - inappropriate contact for personal reinforcement

I know people like this and so do you. They are sad and friendless. I don't know if they can be helped. I have tried to help the man I mentioned. I don't think he will get there because he blames everyone else around him for his friendless state. He will end life with a small funeral.

How to win friends and influence people would be a good book to read. He won't. He, well, read the list above. He has a profound personality defect.

If you want to have friends, you have to be a friend. He's not.