I started the evening by reading from a book by John Chrysostom on singleness devoted to Christ. I thought of the bounds of marriage and of how having two sinful people, even two justified sinners, in one life has the potential to make the life a lot more sinful than if there were only one. Your spouse’s inclination to sin adds up to yours; at times it is you who seduce her into sin and at times it is she who seduces you into sin.

Then I started my computer to check my emails before going to bed. I started watching John Piper’s Christmas greeting for 2009 on youtube. John introduced his wife Noël and she started with the words: “If you came to our house, the first thing you would notice is manger scenes everywhere.” I paused the video and never finished it. I imagined John Piper as a single man in Christ. If he lived alone in an apartment, would he have manger scenes everywhere?

Just a question. A thing to ponder this new year.

If you came to my house, the first thing you would notice is no decoration at all. If you looked at my earthly tent, the first thing you would notice is no decoration, no make-up, no jewels and no clothes that would attract attention. Why? Because I have a very wide soul where God can store all the decoration he has for me.

Written at the end of 2009.

Lora

Hard to Get

Rich Mullins
Psalm 77:7-13, Isaiah 53:4, Isaiah 55:8-9
Matthew 5:4, Matthew 6:11, Luke 22:41-45
Romans 7:18-19, Romans 7:24-25

You who live in heaven
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth
Who are afraid of being left by those we love
And who get hardened in the hurt

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said

Still I’m so scared, I’m holding my breath
While You’re up there just playing hard to get

You who live in radiance
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin
We have a love that’s not as patient as Yours was
Still we do love now and then

Did You ever know loneliness
Did You ever know need
Do You remember just how long a night can get?
When You were barely holding on
And Your friends fall asleep
And don’t see the blood that’s running in Your sweat

Will those who mourn be left uncomforted
While You’re up there just playing hard to get?

And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained

And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this, somehow
All I really need to know

Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can’t see what’s ahead
And we can not get free of what we’ve left behind
I’m reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret

I can’t see how You’re leading me unless You’ve led me here
Where I’m lost enough to let myself be led
And so You’ve been here all along I guess
It’s just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get

Here is what I understand from this song.

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said

Jesus needs to be reminded about us. Jesus, who suffered beyond comprehension so He can have us, forgets about us.

It is His fault that we “scrape to find the faith to ask for daily bread”. When my own faith dwindles to this degree, I confess it as a sin and ask God to help me out. I ask Him to help me trust Him as much as He deserves to be trusted. I don’t ask Him to remember me. I am the one who has forgotten him.

You’ve forgotten about me? Well I memorized every word You said. See, Jesus! I am doing better in this relationship than You! I love You more that You love me!

Still I’m so scared, I’m holding my breath
While You’re up there just playing hard to get

Why am I scared and holding my breath? Because You are up there playing hard to get. But I know the real reason why Rich was scared and holding his breath. He said it in the previous verses and he’ll continue saying it until the end. Here’s the state he was in: 1) he was afraid of being left by those he loved and would get hardened by the hurt; 2) he was scraping to find the faith to ask for daily bread; 3) he could not get free of what he had left behind; 4) he was reeling from voices that kept screaming in his ears – words of shame and doubt, blame and regret.
Once again, when you have all these sins to confess and be cleansed of, will you beat yourself in the chest and repent or will you blame Jesus?

I can’t see how You’re leading me unless You’ve led me here
Where I’m lost enough to let myself be led
That’s a ray of hope. This is how you get saved. But he holds to his pride in the next two verses:
And so You’ve been here all along I guess
It’s just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get

It’s just Your ways, Jesus. You’re a sadist. There you go, I’m crying again. How many of us live according to this philosophy, even without expressing it with words? I have done it. I have been faithless and afraid. But before I was able to tell Him in prayer, “You’re playing with me. You’re playing hard to get”, I would shut up. In the darkness of doubt, you don’t have the right to lash out on God. You just shut up and do your best to remember what you know about Him.

Would you not cry for a man who spends his life studying God’s word and then, at 42, tells Jesus that He’s playing hard to get? Would you drop your selfish idolatry and tell him the truth? Rich Mullins (or anyone like him for that matter) was not given his musical talent so that we would spend our time gasping and flattering. Of all the people whom he played that song to, of all the people who could have talked to him about it, was anyone honest and loving enough to tell him that he was wrong? I hope so.

Please, if you ever meet a man who thinks that the Saviour plays with our feelings, with our trust, that the Saviour does not sustain us and takes too long to come back, cry for him before him. Make him see your tears. Or if you are that man or that woman, cry for yourself and repent. We can’t live with a ‘hard-to-get’ Jesus. We won’t be the modern depressed Christians who, according to John Piper, can get so depressed that they kill themselves and yet fly to heaven. We cannot be the newborn Christians who stop feeding and die and can no longer be restored to repentance. I’m not saying that these things apply to Rich, I couldn’t know, but this is exactly where his philosophy leads if you don’t repent of it.

We cannot be scared and holding our breath. We have to KNOW that we’ve been accepted. We have to hear God’s Spirit in us, testifying to us that we are indeed His children.

Psalm 77:7-13
“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah
Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?

Isaiah 53:4
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 6:11
Give us this day our daily bread.

Luke 22:41-45
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow…

Romans 7:18-19,
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Romans 7:24-25
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Lora, February 2010

…to all whom I have ever heard of, to all whose sermons I have read and sometimes translated and given to others in order to encourage those who sincerely long for God and are ready to leave everything in their earthly lives, just to have the pearl of great value, the treasure – the beautiful, loving, majestic and irreplaceable Lord Jesus Christ. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8)

You who know the true word of God and study it with trembling and passion; you who teach a wealth of precious things from the Lord’s doctrine and surely apply those things in your lives to a significant degree, please do not tell us: “Don’t go to Rick Joyner and Benny Hinn, but come to us, for we are better.” Please do not try to draw us to yourselves and to your denominations. Rather, call on us to go to God. There is a big difference between “attending” a church and walking with Jesus. Paul said this about the apostles in Galatians 1:8: “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed”. Who are we then to think so highly of ourselves? Paul didn’t exhort the churches to imitate him, but to imitate Jesus: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1). You’ll say, “But he includes himself”. He does, but you’ll never find a place that says that Paul and the apostles (of which he is the least) have any doctrinal differences.

These apostles exhorted people to build on the rock Jesus, not on the schools of humans. Those who build upon the schools of humans become followers of “overly anointed” ministers who, seemingly, can never draw away from Jesus. If Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming conceited, then what is left for us? You are divided into denominations and every “church” claims to have a little pope whom they meet with an applause, rising to their feet – how are we supposed to follow you if you’re like that? Has Jesus divided himself? Were you crucified to ensure the salvation of all who would believe? Can you say with the apostle Paul, “let me be accursed if I preach another gospel”? Just the contrary, you all say, “There’s nothing wrong with the existence of so many denominations; each has its place in the body of Christ; this is variety; it has historical grounds, the different denominations originated in different periods” and tons of other things! But there is only one truth: the Church (the kingdom which has come to earth, in the words of Jesus) originated in the first century when Jesus preached. Whatever originated afterwards was not of God, nor according to his will! It is to this Church that every newborn Christian has been added through the centuries.

Please don’t say: “You HAVE TO attend a church with a famous pastor and with sheep around him”. Don’t tell us to become part of an institution which has been registered by the countries we live in. This registration, this agreement with the State, is death to the Body, because it is an official recognition for the church from the devil, who is the god of this world! Although it sounds similar to Paul’s and Peter’s commands to obey the secular authorities, this is a completely different thing. Do not teach us to go to the “pastor” first with the books we’ve been given, so that the “pastor” can check them. Three years ago I used to listen to a preacher who adored Benny Hinn – how was I supposed to say, “You recommended this book to me, but its author is not a man of God”? He was my “pastor” after all! Do you know what his reaction is to such words and in such cases? “Next Sunday I’ll preach against you and I’ll pray that God will get you out of my church.”

The Church, the Body, has only one head and that head is Jesus Christ. Therefore no one can call the church or the sheep ‘his’. The sheep can never say, “We’re proud to be the sheep of such and such. We must not let another shepherd steal us.” Even though most shepherds, named “leaders” according to the worldly term, may not explicitly say that the church is ‘theirs’, the very fact that one town has so many different denominations, churches and churchlets shows that something is very, very wrong.

A place where 500, 5 000 or 10 000 people gather to listen to one single person for two hours and then go on their way – this cannot be called a church or the Body of Christ. How do these people get to know each other and communicate? When do they prophesy one by one? When do they get to see each other’s weaknesses, so that each can take out the log from his own eye and then remove the speck from his brother’s eye? When do they serve Jesus, that is, the poor, the needy, the bound, the prisoners, without disgust? The fact that you listen to a particular preacher is not the important thing (in most cases, he doesn’t even know you). The important thing is to live with your true brothers and sisters. The life of the Body is oneness all the time, not regular gatherings.

Do not call us to your churches and make us sign your extended church creeds, which inevitably differ from the creeds of other denominations. Were they not different, they would not need to be put in writing, confessed, signed or amended after a certain period of time. And all that – so the pastors can put our names in earthly, “ecclesial” books made by humans, as if those books had the power to take us to heaven! And if you make us sign a document different from the Bible, this means that your requirements for membership are higher or different than the requirements of the kingdom of God. When a group of human beings has higher or different requirements to accept you than God has to accept you in his kingdom, this is blasphemy. And what is the requirement to enter the kingdom/become part of the Body? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. God doesn’t even want us to sign the Bible. This has nothing to do with your rules and regulations.

Do we not have God’s word at our disposal? Do we not have the Spirit? Remember these verses: “But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.” (1 John 2:20,21) “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Hebrews 8:10,11)

Dear pastors, you didn’t give us our new birth, you didn’t write the covenant on our hearts, you didn’t give us our consciences that convict us, you didn’t keep us from the sins we never managed to commit before we were converted. We didn’t even know you back then, which means that we hadn’t heard you preach either. Before we were born again, we didn’t know anything about God and we hadn’t read the Bible. All those good things are the work of God and of his Spirit – both in believers and non-believers.

Dear brothers, I love you because you are of the same nature as I am. I love you because we are of the same kind – the children of Adam; because God made us in his own image. I love you because we have put our trust in Jesus and we love him, now and forever, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I pray that we will continue to grow together in him until we receive the heavenly crown, which is our justification and salvation. “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8)

I plead for just one thing: do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought to. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Rom. 12:3) “And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

If necessary, tear your clothes to make yourselves and those who are proud of you come to your senses! Do what Paul did: “Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.” (Acts 14:12-15)

Ulia Borissova, February 2010

Some will say that Jesus may not have had a problem with this because he was not like other men. Do you see how easy it is to be an antichrist? The apostle John wrote: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7) Jesus is “Son of God” and “Son of man”. He is fully human and fully divine. If, before his death and resurrection, he did not need a wife to put his sperm into, then you, brother, don’t either. Don’t be an antichrist. Don’t deny Jesus’ humanity.

And shame on you for being selfish enough to even bring up such arguments in a conversation. Do you think that your sisters are of such small worth that they can be used by their husbands as containers where sperm is discarged?

But when I see a Christian man in shorts, I can’t take him seriously. I asked myself why. I found that it’s because men in shorts look like boys. And that is very wrong. Men are supposed to directly reflect Christ, who is the radiance of God’s glory. Christ grew up and is now mature and in him is the fullness of God. He is not a beach boy. He is a teacher.

I. Who is the spirit of Antichrist?

II. The work of the Antichrist spirit among the New Testament
church while Jesus’ disciples were still alive.
1. False teachers desire to rule within the church.
2. False teachers preach a different Jesus.
3. False teachers cause divisions.

III. The work of the Antichrist spirit after Christianity was legalised and later declared official religion of the Roman Empire. 
1. The way Jesus is in this world, so are we.
2. Adultery is more dangerous than persecution.
3. A throne for false teachers.

IV. Who is the prostitute from Daniel 9 and 11 and Revelation 17? How does she prepare a throne for Antichrist?
1. The prostitute in the Old Testament.
2. Who is the prostitute in Revelation?
3. Her characteristics:
a) divisions and the preaching of a different Christ
b) apostasy from the Gospel, “the abomination that makes desolate”

V. Who/what is restraining Antichrist?

VI. Conclusion.

1 John 2:

18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

 2 Thessalonians 2:

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

I. Who is the spirit of Antichrist?

The spirit of the adversary of Christ has been in the world since the moment Lucifer rebelled against the will of God. God never created nor breathed this spirit. It was Lucifer’s creation. His names “devil” and “Satan” mean “slanderer” and “false accuser,” clearly pointing to his character as an adversary. The devil wanted others to become adversaries of God as well, so he tempted man, the image and likeness of God, to rebel. And he succeeded. Man also declared war with his Maker.

Thousands of years later, the satanic forces were ready to attack the man Jesus as soon as they could find out where he had been born. King Herod tried to locate Jesus by talking to the teachers of religious law, the priests and the three “magi” and “sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under” (Matthew 2:16) The devil was against Jesus every step of the way, filling his life with persecution and rejection.

II. The work of the Antichrist spirit among the New Testament church while Jesus’ disciples were still alive.

The Antichrist spirit, through the false teachers, was at work within the church of God in order to corrupt it. The outcome normally was that the false teachers left the communities of believers, which were founded on the truth: “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21)

1. False teachers desire to rule within the church (1 Peter 5:3,2; 2 Corinthians 1:24). Amongst the first Christians, the desire to rule over other people, whether in the church or through the secular authorities, was not widespread. One could not easily be tempted because the secular world and the people in high places considered Christians as an unregistered group, a community living on this earth as foreigners, often rejected and despised.

But the lack of temptation was not the only thing that stopped them. They knew through the Holy Spirit that the earth was not their home, so they had no interest in earthly political power and chose not to benefit from many of their civil rights (Just a few examples: they sold their property, refused popular entertainment and rarely sought their rights in court).

The church was both unattractive and uninterested, so the false teachers finally left it (1 John 2:18-21).

2. False teachers preach a different Jesus by convincing people that no one needs true sanctification, that God’s wrath is not to be feared and even that he has no right to be angry.

1 John 3:7:

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

1 John 4:

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Romans 3:

5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

3. False teachers cause divisions.

1 Corinthains 3:3-6

3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

1 Corinthians 1:13:

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

III. The work of the Antichrist spirit after Christianity was legalised and later declared official religion of the Roman Empire.  

The antichrist spirit was still at work within the church through divisions and distortion of the Gospel. It also began to invade the church from the outside. The communities of believers were transformed into social and public structures. The state reached for the church and they entered into a lawful union, a covenant. The marriage between the church and God was broken and she became an adulterous woman. As a result, many devoted Christians left the official church.  

1. The way Jesus is in this world, so are we.

When Christ comes back to judge the world, everyone will bow to him. Two thousand years ago he came not to judge, but to save the lost. So only the lost, a small group of people drawn by the Father, can receive him and acknowledge him. Everyone else will reject him in the period between his first and second coming, while he is still Savior. And his followers will share in his fate – rejected. If the world accepts us within this interval, there are two possible reasons: either we are not true followers or the devil is trying to draw us into adultery (away from our husband, Christ). “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14)

Today many so-called Christians fight for the laws of religious freedom to be either put into force or observed, depending on the country they live in. Instead, they ought to be rejoicing when people offend and slander them. Because if they are safe and satisfied in this world and everyone accepts them, what will they need the Holy Spirit for? What will the Comforter comfort them for?

2 Corinthians 1:

5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

2. Adultery is more dangerous than persecution.

Christians do not fear the world when it persecutes them. But they become alarmed when the world wants to embrace them. A pastor from southern Bulgaria (where Islam is now gaining converts) once said that Mohammed’s religion was the devil’s most successful and dangerous invention. It is not. Satan’s biggest success was the legalisation of Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313 and, 70 years later, the fact that it became the Empire’s only official religion.

Here is a short but accurate description of those events that I took from a Christian message board:

At first Christianity was not forced upon anyone, but during the reign of Constantine and especially Theodosius “the Great” (379-359), the imperial church started to exercise constraint and force against its opponents. Emperors often used their power to appoint patriarchs and bishops. Different church councils under different influences cancelled each other’s decisions and anathemised each other. 

Except for the form of Christianity approved by the Empire, all other religions were banned. Thus every subject had to become a Christian. Soon there were few people left unbaptised, so the church stared to baptise babies. The adults, though baptised in water, were not born of the Spirit. They accepted Christianity because the state required it of them.
Council after council, the fall and the deception grew bigger until a universal council decreed that those who refused to worship certain images made of stone and painted on wood should be expelled. The adoration of icons and statues began – the priests burned incense to images that had ears but could not hear, and eyes, but could not see…

Until the fourth century A.D. the church was present in the world, but the world was hardly present in the church. Since the time of Constantine, the world invaded the church and took more and more leading positions within it.

It is the same today. Wherever people want to gather “in the name of Jesus”, the group has to be registered under the law. The early church was very different from this. The body of Christ cannot be registered under earthly law, because his kingdom is not of this world. No human law can legitimise the Son of God as the head of the church. And if the head of the body was declared insane and then legally executed, how much more will the parts of the body be outlawed! If, centuries later, the secular authorities in Rome and in Israel had changed their mind about Jesus from Nazareth, they would have declared him innocent. Though they may consider him dead, it would not have been the first time a dead man was exonerated. But human legislation is against Jesus and will always be. Therefore no church institution can avoid the adversaries of Christ. Some may appear and then leave, but if they find good soil, they will stay and rule.  

3. A throne for false teachers.

As a result of this legal registration and of the church turning into an institution, false teachers remained in the churches, denominations multiplied (many candidates for the throne – multiple thrones built) and Christians welcomed the world into their lives (using grace as a cover-up for sin – Jude 1:4; Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 2:16)   

The church gladly complied with secular legislation, so that believers would no longer be persecuted. Thus it became attractive to politicians seeking supporters and to governments trying to increase their popularity. False teachers (shepherds feeding themselves) were attracted too. They wanted to use the church to influence their country’s politics and economy for their own glory and gain. What was supposed to be the bride of Christ was now a prostitute. Many devoted Christians decided to leave the church institutions, fulfilling Jesus’ call from Revelation 18:4: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.”

IV. Who is the prostitute from Daniel 9 and 11 and Revelation 17? How does she prepare a throne for Antichrist?

1. The prostitute in the Old Testament.

God calls his people “Israel” and “Church of Christ”. Israel is his wife when she is faithful to him. She becomes a prostitute when she commits adultery with her idols.

The body (church) of Christ is a pure bride when she is faithful to him. She becomes a prostitute when she commits adultery with the world and prefers the lusts of the world over the love of the Father.  

1 John 2:

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

2. Who is the prostitute in Revelation?

The prostitute includes all people who have the appearance of godliness, but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). All who have the reputation of being alive, but are dead (Revelation 3:1).

3. Her characteristics:

a) divisions and the preaching of a different Christ

People of the flesh can never be united. In Paul’s time some said they belonged to Apollos, others to Cephas, others to Christ (1 Corinthians 1:12). Today they are divided into Methodists, Baptists, Charismatics, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, etc. The same principle, just different names: Luther, Calvin, Wesley, the Pope, the Patriarch… True Christians, however, cannot divide because they have the same spirit – Christ’s Spirit. In addition, they come out of the assemblies of the flesh and stay away. 

As a result of the present separation between the people of the flesh into church institutions, their coming together on the day of Antichrist will look impressive and the cause that unites them – greatly significant to all humanity. It is over their union that Satan will be enthroned in the person of Antichrist, the man of lawlessness. This united church is the temple Paul writes about in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Here is how Antichrist will gather in his “church” all who are of the flesh and all worldly people who will worship him:

5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:5-9)

b) apostasy from the Gospel, “the abomination that makes desolate”

The word “abomination” in the Old Testament often refers to an idol and to the worship of a foreign god. This abomination prepares the church organisation and the world for the reign of Antichrist. It is the apostasy from the true good news about Christ; the preaching of a different Jesus.

Messiah, the Anointed One, had to come to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). He did this by going to the cross innocent and dying in their place. The false teachers John refers to in his epistle claimed that Jesus of Nazareth was not the promised Messiah. And they still do today because they don’t consider themselves sinful and needy of salvation from God’s wrath. They would rather have a Messiah that will save them from their earthly oppressors and other problems of this life. By saying this, they “take away the regular burnt offering” (Daniel 11:31 below). The word translated here “regular” means constant, continual, perpetual, always, ever, continually. It is used as an adjective for the perpetual sacrifices, for the bread of the presence in the temple, and as an adverb meaning “always”, for example in Psalm 16:8 and 51:3.  

Daniel 11:

30 For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. 31 Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. 32 He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.

Daniel 9:27:

And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

The permanent, constant, eternal sacrifice is Christ’s sacrifice, “for it is witnessed of him, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.’” (Hebrews 7:17)

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, … he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11a, 12)

Whoever claims that atonement for sin is not necessary, that it was not made the way Jesus made it (by dying on the cross in our place), that sanctification is not necessary or that anything is permitted for Christians, denies the sacrifice of Christ and contributes to the enthronement in the holy place of the abomination that makes desolate. The holy place which becomes desolate represents the person who is to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. The abomination is the nullification of the Gospel, the preaching of a different Jesus. It is on the wing of this abomination that Antichrist will ride when he comes; then he will sit in the throne in the place of God, exalting himself against every so-called god or object of worship.

Interestingly, God described to Isaiah the kind of community that will welcome false teachers into its temple and will easily abandon the truth:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. (Isaiah 29:13)

V. Who/what is restraining Antichrist?

The believers in Thessalonica know the answer to this question. Paul would not keep this revelation to them alone, so we are supposed to know it too. Let us earnestly seek the answer from our heavenly Father. 

2 Thessalonians 2:

6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

Paul seems to confound the who with the what in these two verses. We believe however that the thing and the person that restrain are related. Here is how they relate: the thing is the work of that person.  

Romans 11:25: “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Here is what could be delaying the event in question: at a certain moment in time all of the elect will believe and come to God – Gentiles and Jews.

Paul goes on in 2 Thessalonians 2:

8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

He is referring to a moment when the time of the Gospel will be finished. All the elect will already have been saved by believing the truth. From this time on, everyone who has refused to accept the truth will be given a spirit of deception, a “strong delusion,” in order to believe the false signs and wonders of Antichrist. He who still causes repentance and works to justify new people in our day will then be taken out of the way. The kingdom of God will stop its growth.

VI. Conclusion.

Let not the children of God be troubled: being part of a religious community or organisation (be it orthodox, catholic, protestant or any other kind) does not make us followers of Christ. We are Christians only if we belong to God the Father and Jesus (who live in us) and if we sincerely seek God’s face and his will. Paul says: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” This means that we need to have God’s Spirit in order to discern who imitates/follows Christ and who doesn’t. Otherwise we doom ourselves to gather with people whose “understanding of the Bible” is the closest to the desires of our sinful nature.

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5)

Psalm 1:

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Ulia Borissova, Lora Dobreva

May 2008

“When he went in to his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” “I haven’t been anywhere,” he replied. But Elisha asked him, “Don’t you realize that I was there in spirit when Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and servants? Because you have done this, you and your children and your children’s children will suffer from Naaman’s leprosy forever.” When Gehazi left the room, he was leprous; his skin was a white as snow.”

Indeed, “some people, craving money, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10b) Greed is a cruel master. But look at something else: in order to get Naaman’s money, Gehazi invented a clever lie: 1) he claimed that it was the prophet that sent him (and prophets speak for the Holy Spirit) and 2) he said that the money was for the clothing needs of other prophets. This is so much like today’s churches that ask their members for donations in order to cover their “budgets” – expenses for the purchase of church buildings and mission work.

The truth is that money in the church (community of believers) must be handled as indicated in Acts 4:34,35: “There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.” Challenging? Surely it can be done by God’s grace. But the “year-end challenges” in the budget of a contemporary church have nothing to do with this. Something is very wrong, doctrines are distorted and this body is walking on its head. Only Christ, the head, probably hasn’t walked on his hands since he was a kid.

So why didn’t the apostle Peter ask for money in order to purchase church buildings? Because in Peter’s time, the church was not a building. People gathered in their own homes and each of them knew that he was a temple of the Holy Spirit. As for missions, those who asked for money in order to support the poor, counted on God-inspired generosity instead of demanding 4 million by the end of the fiscal year. But that’s how it works when you are a member of a worldly organisation.

And if you are one of those Christians with a taste, you are useless to Christianity.

The Lord Jesus called me in 2004 when I was 20 years old. Before I could even start looking for a Christian husband, through the books of Cyprian and Tertullian and the letters of Paul, God showed me a glorious way. It was the way of the Christian who remains unmarried in order to serve God without distraction. He showed me that this way was easier and safer for the human soul. It is better and anyone can choose it and travel it by God’s grace.

I read Tertullian’s “On exhortation to chastity” ( http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf04/anf04-15.htm#P946_228818 )  and Cyprian’s “On the dress of the virgins” (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.v.ii.html )

Here are two texts that will show you what the situation was around me in those first years:

A letter from the “bishop” of an evangelical church in another town sent to his co-workers, including the pastor of the church I attended.

http://christian-t-eng.hit.bg/LifeInChrist/09pastoralletter.htm

An article on why I translated John Piper’s sermon “Single in Christ: A name better than sons and daughters” into Bulgarian.

http://christian-t-eng.hit.bg/svidetel/lora/107whyitranslated.htm

My soul celebrated when I found John Piper’s sermon in 2007. As I watched the video, translated it and the watched it again, almost to the point of memorising it, my call was confirmed. Here it is on DesiringGod’s website: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2007/2162_Single_in_Christ_A_Name_Better_Than_Sons_and_Daughters/

I felt like I was standing on the top of a hill, taking a deep breath of fresh air. There was a valley below the hill, a valley I had never imagined I could cross. I felt honoured that God was ready to forget about my sexual sins and be my only husband, ever.

I had stopped attending church in the autumn of 2006. The prosperity gospel had taken hold of Varna Pentecostal and it is still gripping it to this day, along with most other religious organisations around the world. You may have noticed: the prosperity gospel isn’t just about health, wealth and lack of persecution. It includes theatre, interference in state politics and the desire to get married at any cost. It totally denies the possibility of choosing singleness because when you don’t have the joys of sex and your “own” children, you can’t have “your best life now” (an expression by Joel Osteen). Speaking of Osteen, the library at church had a video tape filmed in Lakewood Church at the time of John Osteen. In it, Jesse Duplantis claimed to have seen heaven and depicted eternity as a life you spend in a beautiful house with your wife and kids, enjoying the green lawn in the front and expensive antique furniture inside.

A little after I discovered John Piper’s message, I found this video on youtube:

From it, I learnt that “Rick Warren loves single adults and understands their value to God’s Kingdom” Since I don’t trust him, this reminded me of a poster I’d seen on TV: “The comrade Stalin loves children”. Anyway, it was obviously a way to fish for singles in order to use them for Warren’s big financial purposes. In the first part of the video, a pastor Clayton apologized on behalf of all churches in all history for not loving single people. I was amazed that a church could use the sins it had committed against singles for its own profit. What an idea! Quote the Scriptures in order to boost the self esteem of the unmarried.

In the summer of 2008 God helped me put in writing what he had taught me about sexual desire in “When is sexual desire normal and God-given?”:

http://christian-t-eng.hit.bg/svidetel/lora/077whenissexualdesirenormal.htm

For me, the information I gathered burst the bubble of messages like “Becoming Esther” by Paul Washer’s wife, Charo:

http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/resources/articles . Her article reflects the pagan and carnal traditions of how EVERY young woman and man prepare for marriage as they grow up. Look out for phrases like “that special one designed just for you” and “the man of your dreams” and then try to find them in your Bible. The article also legitimizes the sexual desires of young teenagers and makes a completely irrelevant comparison with Esther. It reduces singleness to “a season in life” with no exception for anyone.

“As women, our nature desires the company and companionship of a man. This is from God and therefore good… Needing another as a companion is not like needing to take your next breath of air. That is, you can survive without companionship, at least until God has done His perfect work in you.” If I believed in Mrs. Washer’s prophesy, with my intention to remain single, I’d literally be dead by now, and guilty of suicide.

Back to God’s word on the single life. This year I read John Chrysostom’s short book “On Virginity” I don’t have a link for it in English.

Now isn’t it a breath of fresh air when you open the website of a Christian and there isn’t a picture of the pastor and his wife hugging? And without the absurd note “Pastor John and Jane Doe”? There is no risk with pastor Bill Wilson from New York. Because he is single. And he looks happy. Check him out

http://www.metroministries.org/About/AboutBillWilson/tabid/2395/Default.aspx

He is the spiritual father of more children than he can raise with one wife within a lifetime.

I recently discovered the music of the late Rich Mullins. Here is a quote from the article about him on Wikipedia:

_______________________________________________

Mullins was engaged sometime between the late ’70′s and early ’80′s and had written the song Doubly Good To You (recorded by Amy Grant on her album Straight Ahead) for the wedding. However, his fiancée broke off the engagement, at which time Mullins wrote Damascus Road

Years later Rich shared thoughts about his relationships and personal life in a radio interview with Rick Tarrant:

“I would always be frustrated with all those relationships even when I was engaged. I had a ten year thing with this girl and I would often wonder why, even in those most intimate moments of our relationship, I would still feel really lonely. And it was just a few years ago that I finally realized that friendship is not a remedy for loneliness. Loneliness is a part of our experience and if we are looking for relief from loneliness in friendship, we are only going to frustrate the friendship. Friendship, camaraderie, intimacy, all those things, and loneliness live together in the same experience… I have no interest in anybody else and she is married to someone else so that’s the way it goes and I don’t mind that. Right now I cannot imagine that life could be happier married than it is single so I’m not in a panic about getting married. And I think, you know, maybe God wanted me to be celibate and the way that he accomplished that was to break my heart. So that’s the way it goes.”

His faith can be understood by a quote he gave at a concert shortly before his death. He stated that:

“Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.”

__________________________________________________

See you soon.

Lora

Metallica immediately reported the disappearance and added money to the reward for information that would help the police find her. Metal site noisecreep.com wrote about a woman who saw a girl looking a lot like Morgan on the arena’s parking lot. The girl physically struggled with a man. “She says the girl then started walking back toward the arena and the young man headed for the road, but later, ran back to the girl. She says it appeared the two knew each other, and she only had a vague description of the young man she saw.” The alleged witness was there to pick up her son and grandson from the concert.

Morgan’s parents said that she was a responsible girl and would not just run away, leaving her ID and cell phone behind.

This weekend guitarist Kirk Hammett said: “We are all hoping for the best and praying for her and her family. We all have children and as parents ourselves, it’s our worst nightmare for a child to go out and not come back home.” He added that they were positive that she would be found soon.

Metallica’s latest album, “Death Magnetic”, follows the pattern of their long history of singing about magic, curses, suicide, murder, demons, werewolves, phobias, despair, sex with animals, drunkenness and drug abuse. Dear reader, if you put 2 and 2 together, isn’t Morgan’s disappearance a consequence of, among other things, the curses she was subjected to while listening to Metallica?

I too want Morgan to come back home. And I know that she could have gone missing after going to a rock club or to the mall on Saturday. But I am sure that the trouble she got into is not Metallica’s bad luck. Metallica are actually responsible. Of course, if Morgan was kidnapped, her kidnapper is responsible. But so are the band and the concert promoters and organizers; so are her parents who should have seen the music’s bad influence on her life, and so is Morgan herself. I may sound cruel, but the fact that we are suffering for our mistakes does not justify is; suffering punishes us and tests us. It provides the best time for us to repent for our sins. When sin hurts the most, it is the least attractive, and that is God’s purpose, because he wants us to give up our sin.

I mentioned the music’s bad influence on Morgan because I’m sure it was there. You simply cannot enjoy this mood and mode of music and James Hetfield’s type of poetry and then just go out and be a good and loving person. When we enjoy evil, that means we ARE evil.

According to Hammett, he, James, Lars and Robert are actually praying for Morgan. To which God are they praying? The one being they exult as god in their music and lifestyles is Satan. He is the Harvester of Sorrow and the Master of Puppets. One thing both Bible readers and Metallica fans know is that Satan is unwilling to help find a missing girl – he is too evil.

In June 2003 I was 19 years old (a major citizen according to Bulgarian law). My then favourite band Whitesnake came to Bulgaria and I wanted to go to the concert. My mother dissuaded me; I myself did not like crowds and did not want to experience all the inconveniences of a rock concert. A few weeks later I felt sad, but I got over it. A year later I took up a Bible for the first time and believed in Christ’s sacrifice for me. I left the music I had been listening to until then, including Metallica, because my desire to obey God was leading me to the very opposite of my old life.

The Master of Puppets and Harvester of Sorrow lost me. By paying for my sins, Christ cut down the strings by which the devil had been holding me. I pray that Morgan will have time, like I did, to break free from those strings and believe that Christ loves her.  

Parents, please open up your ears! There is a war out there for your kids and if the devil has you, then he has a serious advantage on them as well. He may not hurt or kill them physically, but he will help them into the things that their favourite bands sing about. His main goal is not the destruction of their bodies, but the enslaving of their souls.

Lora Dobreva

02 November 2009