THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH IN AN AGE OF DECEPTION I
A little more time on the Rapture. It is the beginning of our Final Flesh so it behooves me to spend more time on it and see different focuses.
We start with the Olivet Discourse. It was delivered on the Mount of Olives midst ancient olive trees with the scent of olives and the nearby olive presses and the sound of all the daily life going on around the disciples as Jesus began telling them in answer to their question of what would happen at the end of the world.
Mt 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
(KJV)
We begin with the idea of deception because Jesus started there. He wanted them to see that deception was the start of everything wrong. Recall we mentioned that in Eden many. many posts ago.
God puts it toward the start of everything. Right after He created perfection. In popped deception.
You will recall the Devil and his lines. They don't bare repeating but he has so many variations on a theme that we will repeat them.
"Did God really say that?"
Keep it in mind. There will be a quiz later.
"Abortion is a right,"
"Thou shalt not kill."
"He killed my son so I killed him."
"For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten son that whosoever shall believe on Him shall have eternal life."
"I personally interviewed every teacher in Trump U."
"Thou shall not bear false witness."
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
"Thou shalt not ear false witness."
"I only claimed so much on my taxes."
"Though shalt not covet."
Yes, God really said that. And we're not paying attention. And there are times each of us fails to pay attention. We don't really believe "Do unto others" except to add "Before they do it unto you."
And we think the Golden Rule means what the King of Id did: "Whoever has the o]gold, males the rules.
"God didn't mean it. Not really."
"Yes," he said sarcastically, "because God is in the habit of saying stuff he doesn't mean."
No, that's the other guy, that rowdy friend you're Mom told you not to hang out with. The one who's always accusing others of the things he does.
"You will not surely die."
And, if you believe that...But then again, we all kind of do.
Our adult selves have made a religious segment of it called "reincarnation." We don't really die. Our spirit goes on and inhabits trees and frogs and water buffalo and other people on a journey to perfection and Nirvana.
We create an answer to the unknown by pretending we know and then calling it religion and getting others to agree with us as if the life after death is am matter of democracy.
"We vote for a do-over. Everyone in favor gets to come back. All in favor?"
Except one of the things God really said was:
Heb 9:25 And he did not have to make an offering of himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the holy place every year with blood which is not his;
26 For then he would have undergone a number of deaths from the time of the making of the world: but now he has come to us at the end of the old order, to put away sin by the offering of himself.
27 And because by God's law death comes to men once, and after that they are judged;
28 So Christ, having at his first coming taken on himself the sins of men, will be seen a second time, without sin, by those who are waiting for him, for their salvation.
(BBE)
Because, you see, the deceptions segments are linked.
When we are young, we all seem to think we are immortal. We climb trees too tall. We go swimming after eating. We get to our teens and drive motorcycles without helmets. We go as fast as we can in the coolest car we can own and thrill at the speed. We eat anything fried for the taste not the healthy process of digestion. We drink until we're drunk because we can. We smoke anything that can be wrapped in cigarette paper. We follow any leader that tells us what we want to hear, like our country will be forever even though every evidence says countries only last about 200 years.
We are immortal. Our nation which we identify with is immortal. The ones we love must be immortal as well.
Then reality sets in. A grandparent passes on. A child we know drowns or is killed by a car or a gun accident. Or shot in the street by some maniac. The time of the reality of death for us can vary widely with wherever you live.
Then we obsess. We go on diets. We exercise every day. We run. We lift weights. We injure our ankles and feet and our backs working so hard to get fit, to best death. we buy guns. Sometimes LOTS fo guns, building an arsenal to protect us. Because that big immortal government turned out to be a big immortal villain in our minds. So we buy semiautomatic AK-47s and anything as big or bigger and we stock up on ammunition and body armor and we're ready for the war because we are certain the government is out to get us never realizing they wouldn't be out to get us if we hadn't stocked up on all the weapons. Our fear of the death we have realized causes the situation which brings us a step closer to that death with the insane notion that: "At least we'll take as many of THEM with us as possible.
And our fear of that death powers our search for love. We want something that speaks of life. We search for the one, the ONE. The person to quell all our fears and our feeling that it is hopeless. that this life empties itself out around us rather than fills us up. The feeling that time is taking away rather than enlarging us. That we are withering instead of growing.
Sometimes we find that person to fill all our needs. And then they let us down. Psychology may miss the mark on some things but on that one it gets it right. No one can fulfill all our needs. First, because the one we seek is Christ and second because they can't be Christ and die for us when they don't even know what THEY are living for most times. And, third, because they are looking for someone to fulfill all their needs and WE aren't it either.
And the pain. Often, I think we fear death because of the pain. We learn there is pain in living and we want that loved one to end the emotional pain, at least, but then they can't do it for more than a moments's time and then we are back facing it and we just want the pain to end. Oh, we get used to it. For instance, I can live with the arthritis that is slowly advancing in my body, but the pain killers make it easier. It is a pain dilemma; arthritis seeks to freeze the body's bones in permanent position and the body must move often to resist the pull, but there is pain in the movement.
In fact, that is the truth of our pain: it is God saying, "You are human. The pain proves sin and the sin proves you are fallen and struggling and you must listen to me to get free. So long as you live in the fallen flesh that you have analyzed and sifted over and come to understand ganglia and firing neurons and synapse and tendons tied by ligaments and all that, so long as you live there, you will always know that what you need is Jesus. Not as an anesthetic. though you will use Him that way. Not as a diversion, not as a distraction from all the agony about you."
That is why the idols insult God so much. They diminish the love they divert. They make us see Christ as smaller than He is, as our servant instead of us as His servants. We see him a someone build=t for us, as less than a person. Recall they are seen as the earliest form of pornography. Just a porn reduces women to images of sexual organs and willing slave, so do idols reduce God to a collection of our wants and needs and our demands that they be met.
Even as we demanded it of our lovers, our spouses, even, at times, of our friends.
We want the world and everyone in it, plus everyone in heaven, to live for us, with our immediate longings as their purpose. Why do you think "name it and claim it" is so huge in churches? It tells us just the lie I've been repeating.
Because the idea of immortality links directly to that next deception.
"You will be like God."
Which is more to the point of "name it/claim it." We misinterpret who God is. We see him through our fallen flesh eyes. We think He must be like us. He has his desires and His wishes and He gets everything He wants. He names it and claims it. And we are saved, hae Him in us, so we can name it and claim it to. We are like God.
That is one reason the story is so hard to believe. God can have anything, create anything, do anything. Why would He bother with us, creating us to begin with, putting up with all our idiocy along the way? So He must have motives. Herbert Armstrong thought He wanted replacement angels. Sons of God misinterpreted again since we are told we will judge angles.
1Co 6:2 Is it not certain that the saints will be the judges of the world? if then the world will be judged by you, are you unable to give a decision about the smallest things?
3 Is it not certain that we are to be the judges of angels? how much more then of the things of this life?
4 If then there are questions to be judged in connection with the things of this life, why do you put them in the hands of those who have no position in the church?
5 I say this to put you to shame. Is there not among you one wise man who may be able to give a decision between his brothers?
(BBE)
We read the Bible only so far and stop when it gets to the part we like.
Why would He bother except to make us gods? Look at Wonder Woman. The latest comic book myth to movie is supposed to be a Goddess sculpted by Zeus and left in the care of an Amazon clan to be raised and taught fighting skills to face off against the God of War, Ares, if he shoud, rear his ugly head. She hears of a war from a pilot that crash lands on her island, goes with him back to the war to face off with Aries. Much fighting ensues. In the process, she walks into No man's land with only her shield, bracelets, sword, golden lasso and shin guards and routs German forces who have been dug into trenches for years. She eventually faces ff against Aries who has been disguised as a diplomatic officer and they have an epic battle all the while discussing the virtues and evils of man.
Aries, playing the part of Satan, dressed in horned helmet and all, points out he hasn't caused the war. Men are evil and he merely "whispers" in their ears. The writers are aware of Christianity as they are of the Greek myths. Wonder Woman is taken aback by her realization Aries is not the only cause of the war. (World War I). 25 million are dead by the evil in men's souls. One woman doctor has made poison gases and she alone has killed thousands, would kill many more except that Wonder Woman's downed pilot who has become her lover, sacrifices himself while she battles Aries, to destroy the plane carrying the gases. She seems nearly defeated and weak until his sacrifice stirs her. At first she lashes out against the Germans around her, then turns her attention to Aries saying that men have evil in them but they are worth saving because they are capable of love. Our goddesses need to learn we are worthy before they save us. A mighty humanist message.
Except of course, Aries is still right. We are Fallen Flesh and we are capable of love only because we have the Holy Spirit around us restraining the evil in our hearts and restraining Satan from bringing it to full power. If we see the Holy Spirit as our nurturer, the female side of God's Triune nature, then our Wonder Woman has been holding Aries back spiritually in a death battle since the beginning of the Fall. And holds him back still until he is withdrawn.
we have already discussed that.
We want to see ourselves as that God in us in that war. At battle with the sword and the shield and all the armor of spiritual warfare, but it is only that side of God working through us.
He didn't want us as anything but the bride. Whatever that may entail.
Because creating any other identity is delusion, Is falling for the deception.
We have talked about His original deception before and here. It has powered wars, religions. The destruction of marriages, countries, the planet, all for greed, selfishness.
That was a massive deception that keeps being whispered in our ears.
For Christ, he refined the attack. He designed special temptations and they failed. he took his best shot and it failed. flew off Jesus like he was Wonder Woman's and the Bible verses were bracelets deflecting bullets.
But the master of deception keeps producing his children, false Christs who believe his deception.
Here is a brief record of Messiahs from Wikipedia. (I exclude Jesus who was here because this is an atheist list.):
Simon of Peraea (c. Unknown – 4 BCE), a former slave of Herod the Great who rebelled and was killed by the Romans.[4]
Athronges (c. 3 CE),[11] a shepherd turned rebel leader.
Simon bar Kokhba (died c. 135), founded a short-lived Jewish state before being defeated in the Second Jewish-Roman War.
Moses of Crete, who in about 440–470 persuaded the Jews of Crete to walk into the sea, as Moses had done, to return to Israel. The results were disastrous and he soon disappeared.
Ishak ben Ya'kub Obadiah Abu 'Isa al-Isfahani (684–705), who led a revolt in Persia against the Umayyad Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
David Alroy, born in Kurdistan, who around 1160 agitated against the caliph before being assassinated.
Moses Botarel of Cisneros, active around 1413; claimed to be a sorcerer able to combine the names of God.
Asher Lämmlein, a German near Venice who proclaimed himself a forerunner of the Messiah in 1502.
David Reubeni (1490–1541?) and Solomon Molcho (1500–1532), messianic adventurers who travelled in Portugal, Italy and Turkey; Molcho, who was a baptised Catholic, was tried by the Inquisition, convicted of apostasy and burned at the stake.
Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), an Ottoman Jew who claimed to be the Messiah, but then converted to Islam; still has followers today in the Donmeh.
Jacob Querido (?–1690), claimed to be the new incarnation of Sabbatai; later converted to Islam and led the Donmeh.
Miguel Cardoso (1630–1706), another successor of Sabbatai who claimed to be the "Messiah ben Ephraim".
Löbele Prossnitz (?–1750), attained some following amongst former followers of Sabbatai, calling himself the "Messiah ben Joseph".
Jacob Joseph Frank (1726–1791), who claimed to be the reincarnation of King David and preached a synthesis of Christianity and Judaism.
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (r. 1920–1950), sixth Rebbe (spiritual leader) of Chabad Lubavitch.[12][13]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), seventh Rebbe (spiritual leader) of Chabad.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]
And:
Simon Magus (early 1st century), was a Samaritan, and a native of Gitta; he was considered a god in Simonianism; he "darkly hinted" that he himself was Christ, calling himself the Standing One.
Dositheos the Samaritan (mid 1st century), was one of the supposed founders of Mandaeanism. After the time of Jesus he wished to persuade the Samaritans that he himself was the Messiah prophesied by Moses.[24] Dositheus pretended to be the Christ (Messiah), applying Deuteronomy 18:15 to himself, and he compares him with Theudas and Judas the Galilean.[24][25]
Tanchelm of Antwerp (c. 1110), who violently opposed the sacrament and the Eucharist.
Ann Lee (1736–1784), a central figure to the Shakers,[26] who thought she "embodied all the perfections of God" in female form and considered herself to be Christ’s female counterpart in 1772.[27]
Bernhard Müller (c. 1799–1834) claimed to be the Lion of Judah and a prophet in possession of the Philosopher's stone.
John Nichols Thom (1799–1838), who had achieved fame and followers as Sir William Courtenay and adopted the claim of Messiah after a period in a mental institute.[28]
Arnold Potter (1804–1872), Latter Day Saint schismatic leader; called himself "Potter Christ"
Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864), Hakka Chinese; claimed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ; started the Taiping Rebellion and founded the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. Committed suicide before the fall of Tianjing (Nanjing) in 1864.
Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri, Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1864), born Shiite, adopting Bábism later in life, he claimed to be the promised one of all religions, and founded the Bahá'í Faith.
Jacobina Mentz Maurer (1841 or 1842–1874) was a German-Brazilian woman who lived and died in the state of Rio Grande do Sul who emerged as a messianic prophetess, a representation of God, and later declared the very reincarnation of Jesus Christ on earth by her German-speaking community called Die Muckers (or the false saints) by her enemies, Die Spotters (or the mockers). After a number of deadly confrontations with outsiders, Jacobina was shot to death together with many of her followers by the Brazilian Imperial Army.
William W. Davies (1833–1906), Latter Day Saint (Mormon) schismatic leader; claimed that his infant son Arthur (born 1868) was the reincarnated Jesus Christ.
Cyrus Reed Teed (October 18, 1839 – December 22, 1908, erroneously Cyrus Tweed) was a U.S. eclectic physician and alchemist turned religious leader and messiah. In 1869, claiming divine inspiration, Dr. Teed took on the name Koresh and proposed a new set of scientific and religious ideas he called Koreshanity.
Abd-ru-shin (18 April 1875 – 6 December 1941), founder of the Grail Movement.[29][30][31][32]
Father Divine (George Baker) (c. 1880 – September 10, 1965), an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death who claimed to be God.
André Matsoua (1899–1942), Congolese founder of Amicale, proponents of which subsequently adopted him as Messiah in the late 1920s.
Samael Aun Weor (1917–1977), born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, Colombian citizen and later Mexican, was an author, lecturer and founder of the 'Universal Christian Gnostic Movement', according to him, 'the most powerful movement ever founded'. By 1972, he referenced that his death and resurrection would be occurring before 1978.[33]
Ahn Sahng-hong (1918–1985), founder of the World Mission Society Church of God and worshiped by the members as the messiah.[34]
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), founder and leader of the Unification Church established in Seoul, South Korea, who considered himself the Second Coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself.[35] Although it is generally believed by Unification Church members ("Moonies") that he was the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ and was anointed to fulfill Jesus' unfinished mission.[35]
Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935–2007), born as Hulon Mitchell, Jr., a black nationalist and separatist who created the Nation of Yahweh and allegedly orchestrated the murder of dozens of persons.
Laszlo Toth (1940–2012) claimed he was Jesus Christ as he battered Michelangelo's Pieta with a geologist hammer.
Wayne Bent (born 1941), also known as Michael Travesser of the Lord Our Righteousness Church, also known as the "Strong City Cult", convicted December 15, 2008 of one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 2008.[36]
Iesu Matayoshi (born 1944), in 1997 he established the World Economic Community Party based on his conviction that he is God and the Christ.
Jung Myung Seok (born 1945), a South Korean who was a member of the Unification Church in the 1970s, before breaking off to found the dissenting group[37] now known as Providence Church in 1980.[38][39] He also considers himself the Second Coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself in 1980.[40] He believes he has come to finish the incomplete message and mission of Jesus Christ, asserting that he is the Messiah and has the responsibility to save all mankind.[41] He claims that the Christian doctrine of resurrection is false but that people can be saved through him.[42]
Claude Vorilhon now known as Raël "messenger of the Elohim" (born 1946), a French professional test driver and former automobile journalist became founder and leader of UFO religion the Raël Movement in 1972, which teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call Elohim. He claimed he met an extraterrestrial humanoid in 1973 and became the Messiah.[43] Then devoted himself to the task he said was given by his "biological father", an extraterrestrial named Yahweh.[44]
José Luis de Jesús (1946–2013), founder and leader of Creciendo en Gracia sect (Growing In Grace International Ministry, Inc.), based in Miami, Florida. He claimed to be both Jesus Christ returned and the Antichrist, and exhibited a "666" tattoo on his forearm. He has referred to himself as Jesucristo Hombre, which translates to "Jesus Christ made Man".
Inri Cristo (born 1948) of Indaial, Brazil, a claimant to be the second Jesus.[45]
Apollo Quiboloy (born 1950), founder and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group, who claims that Jesus Christ is the "Almighty Father," that Quiboloy is "His Appointed Son," and that salvation is now completed. Proclaims himself as the "Appointed Son of the God" not direct to the point as the "Begotten Son of the God" in 1985.[46]
David Icke (born 1952), of Great Britain, has described himself as "the son of God", and a "channel for the Christ spirit".
Brian David Mitchell was born on October 18, 1953 in Salt Lake City, Utah, he believed himself the fore-ordained angel born on earth to be the Davidic "servant" prepared by God as a type of Messiah who would restore the divinely led kingdom of Israel to the world in preparation for Christ's second coming. (Mitchell's belief in such an end-times figure – also known among many fundamentalist Latter Day Saints as "the One Mighty and Strong" – appeared to be based in part on a reading of the biblical book of Isaiah by the independent LDS Hebraist, Avraham Gileadi, with which Mitchell became familiar from his former participation with Stirling Allan's American Study Group.)[47][48]
David Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howell) (1959–1993), leader of the Branch Davidians.
Maria Devi Christos (born 1960), founder of the Great White Brotherhood.
Sergey Torop (born 1961), who started to call himself "Vissarion", founder of the Church of the Last Testament and the spiritual community Ecopolis Tiberkul in Southern Siberia.
Alan John Miller (born 1962), founder of Divine Truth, a new religious movement based in Australia. Alan John Miller, also known as A.J., who claims to be Jesus of Nazareth through reincarnation. Miller was formerly an elder in the Jehovah's Witnesses.
David Shayler (born 1965), former MI5 agent and whistleblower who declared himself the Messiah on 7 July 2007.[49]
We can add L Ron Hubbard. Major Applewhite. Jim Jones.
We sometimes compile them with false prophets and we will get to those, too, but the point is Satan deludes normal men into believing they are Christs. And then deludes normal people into following them.
We have deceptions just we have tribulation. And we have the Great Tribulation of the final years of the End times and the Great Deception we will discuss next time.
A little more time on the Rapture. It is the beginning of our Final Flesh so it behooves me to spend more time on it and see different focuses.
We start with the Olivet Discourse. It was delivered on the Mount of Olives midst ancient olive trees with the scent of olives and the nearby olive presses and the sound of all the daily life going on around the disciples as Jesus began telling them in answer to their question of what would happen at the end of the world.
Mt 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
(KJV)
We begin with the idea of deception because Jesus started there. He wanted them to see that deception was the start of everything wrong. Recall we mentioned that in Eden many. many posts ago.
God puts it toward the start of everything. Right after He created perfection. In popped deception.
You will recall the Devil and his lines. They don't bare repeating but he has so many variations on a theme that we will repeat them.
"Did God really say that?"
Keep it in mind. There will be a quiz later.
"Abortion is a right,"
"Thou shalt not kill."
"He killed my son so I killed him."
"For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten son that whosoever shall believe on Him shall have eternal life."
"I personally interviewed every teacher in Trump U."
"Thou shall not bear false witness."
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
"Thou shalt not ear false witness."
"I only claimed so much on my taxes."
"Though shalt not covet."
Yes, God really said that. And we're not paying attention. And there are times each of us fails to pay attention. We don't really believe "Do unto others" except to add "Before they do it unto you."
And we think the Golden Rule means what the King of Id did: "Whoever has the o]gold, males the rules.
"God didn't mean it. Not really."
"Yes," he said sarcastically, "because God is in the habit of saying stuff he doesn't mean."
No, that's the other guy, that rowdy friend you're Mom told you not to hang out with. The one who's always accusing others of the things he does.
And, if you believe that...But then again, we all kind of do.
Our adult selves have made a religious segment of it called "reincarnation." We don't really die. Our spirit goes on and inhabits trees and frogs and water buffalo and other people on a journey to perfection and Nirvana.
We create an answer to the unknown by pretending we know and then calling it religion and getting others to agree with us as if the life after death is am matter of democracy.
"We vote for a do-over. Everyone in favor gets to come back. All in favor?"
Except one of the things God really said was:
Heb 9:25 And he did not have to make an offering of himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the holy place every year with blood which is not his;
26 For then he would have undergone a number of deaths from the time of the making of the world: but now he has come to us at the end of the old order, to put away sin by the offering of himself.
27 And because by God's law death comes to men once, and after that they are judged;
28 So Christ, having at his first coming taken on himself the sins of men, will be seen a second time, without sin, by those who are waiting for him, for their salvation.
(BBE)
Because, you see, the deceptions segments are linked.
When we are young, we all seem to think we are immortal. We climb trees too tall. We go swimming after eating. We get to our teens and drive motorcycles without helmets. We go as fast as we can in the coolest car we can own and thrill at the speed. We eat anything fried for the taste not the healthy process of digestion. We drink until we're drunk because we can. We smoke anything that can be wrapped in cigarette paper. We follow any leader that tells us what we want to hear, like our country will be forever even though every evidence says countries only last about 200 years.
We are immortal. Our nation which we identify with is immortal. The ones we love must be immortal as well.
Then reality sets in. A grandparent passes on. A child we know drowns or is killed by a car or a gun accident. Or shot in the street by some maniac. The time of the reality of death for us can vary widely with wherever you live.
Then we obsess. We go on diets. We exercise every day. We run. We lift weights. We injure our ankles and feet and our backs working so hard to get fit, to best death. we buy guns. Sometimes LOTS fo guns, building an arsenal to protect us. Because that big immortal government turned out to be a big immortal villain in our minds. So we buy semiautomatic AK-47s and anything as big or bigger and we stock up on ammunition and body armor and we're ready for the war because we are certain the government is out to get us never realizing they wouldn't be out to get us if we hadn't stocked up on all the weapons. Our fear of the death we have realized causes the situation which brings us a step closer to that death with the insane notion that: "At least we'll take as many of THEM with us as possible.
And our fear of that death powers our search for love. We want something that speaks of life. We search for the one, the ONE. The person to quell all our fears and our feeling that it is hopeless. that this life empties itself out around us rather than fills us up. The feeling that time is taking away rather than enlarging us. That we are withering instead of growing.
Sometimes we find that person to fill all our needs. And then they let us down. Psychology may miss the mark on some things but on that one it gets it right. No one can fulfill all our needs. First, because the one we seek is Christ and second because they can't be Christ and die for us when they don't even know what THEY are living for most times. And, third, because they are looking for someone to fulfill all their needs and WE aren't it either.
And the pain. Often, I think we fear death because of the pain. We learn there is pain in living and we want that loved one to end the emotional pain, at least, but then they can't do it for more than a moments's time and then we are back facing it and we just want the pain to end. Oh, we get used to it. For instance, I can live with the arthritis that is slowly advancing in my body, but the pain killers make it easier. It is a pain dilemma; arthritis seeks to freeze the body's bones in permanent position and the body must move often to resist the pull, but there is pain in the movement.
In fact, that is the truth of our pain: it is God saying, "You are human. The pain proves sin and the sin proves you are fallen and struggling and you must listen to me to get free. So long as you live in the fallen flesh that you have analyzed and sifted over and come to understand ganglia and firing neurons and synapse and tendons tied by ligaments and all that, so long as you live there, you will always know that what you need is Jesus. Not as an anesthetic. though you will use Him that way. Not as a diversion, not as a distraction from all the agony about you."
That is why the idols insult God so much. They diminish the love they divert. They make us see Christ as smaller than He is, as our servant instead of us as His servants. We see him a someone build=t for us, as less than a person. Recall they are seen as the earliest form of pornography. Just a porn reduces women to images of sexual organs and willing slave, so do idols reduce God to a collection of our wants and needs and our demands that they be met.
Even as we demanded it of our lovers, our spouses, even, at times, of our friends.
We want the world and everyone in it, plus everyone in heaven, to live for us, with our immediate longings as their purpose. Why do you think "name it and claim it" is so huge in churches? It tells us just the lie I've been repeating.
Because the idea of immortality links directly to that next deception.
"You will be like God."
Which is more to the point of "name it/claim it." We misinterpret who God is. We see him through our fallen flesh eyes. We think He must be like us. He has his desires and His wishes and He gets everything He wants. He names it and claims it. And we are saved, hae Him in us, so we can name it and claim it to. We are like God.
That is one reason the story is so hard to believe. God can have anything, create anything, do anything. Why would He bother with us, creating us to begin with, putting up with all our idiocy along the way? So He must have motives. Herbert Armstrong thought He wanted replacement angels. Sons of God misinterpreted again since we are told we will judge angles.
1Co 6:2 Is it not certain that the saints will be the judges of the world? if then the world will be judged by you, are you unable to give a decision about the smallest things?
3 Is it not certain that we are to be the judges of angels? how much more then of the things of this life?
4 If then there are questions to be judged in connection with the things of this life, why do you put them in the hands of those who have no position in the church?
5 I say this to put you to shame. Is there not among you one wise man who may be able to give a decision between his brothers?
(BBE)
We read the Bible only so far and stop when it gets to the part we like.
Why would He bother except to make us gods? Look at Wonder Woman. The latest comic book myth to movie is supposed to be a Goddess sculpted by Zeus and left in the care of an Amazon clan to be raised and taught fighting skills to face off against the God of War, Ares, if he shoud, rear his ugly head. She hears of a war from a pilot that crash lands on her island, goes with him back to the war to face off with Aries. Much fighting ensues. In the process, she walks into No man's land with only her shield, bracelets, sword, golden lasso and shin guards and routs German forces who have been dug into trenches for years. She eventually faces ff against Aries who has been disguised as a diplomatic officer and they have an epic battle all the while discussing the virtues and evils of man.
Aries, playing the part of Satan, dressed in horned helmet and all, points out he hasn't caused the war. Men are evil and he merely "whispers" in their ears. The writers are aware of Christianity as they are of the Greek myths. Wonder Woman is taken aback by her realization Aries is not the only cause of the war. (World War I). 25 million are dead by the evil in men's souls. One woman doctor has made poison gases and she alone has killed thousands, would kill many more except that Wonder Woman's downed pilot who has become her lover, sacrifices himself while she battles Aries, to destroy the plane carrying the gases. She seems nearly defeated and weak until his sacrifice stirs her. At first she lashes out against the Germans around her, then turns her attention to Aries saying that men have evil in them but they are worth saving because they are capable of love. Our goddesses need to learn we are worthy before they save us. A mighty humanist message.
Except of course, Aries is still right. We are Fallen Flesh and we are capable of love only because we have the Holy Spirit around us restraining the evil in our hearts and restraining Satan from bringing it to full power. If we see the Holy Spirit as our nurturer, the female side of God's Triune nature, then our Wonder Woman has been holding Aries back spiritually in a death battle since the beginning of the Fall. And holds him back still until he is withdrawn.
we have already discussed that.
We want to see ourselves as that God in us in that war. At battle with the sword and the shield and all the armor of spiritual warfare, but it is only that side of God working through us.
He didn't want us as anything but the bride. Whatever that may entail.
Because creating any other identity is delusion, Is falling for the deception.
We have talked about His original deception before and here. It has powered wars, religions. The destruction of marriages, countries, the planet, all for greed, selfishness.
That was a massive deception that keeps being whispered in our ears.
For Christ, he refined the attack. He designed special temptations and they failed. he took his best shot and it failed. flew off Jesus like he was Wonder Woman's and the Bible verses were bracelets deflecting bullets.
But the master of deception keeps producing his children, false Christs who believe his deception.
Here is a brief record of Messiahs from Wikipedia. (I exclude Jesus who was here because this is an atheist list.):
Simon of Peraea (c. Unknown – 4 BCE), a former slave of Herod the Great who rebelled and was killed by the Romans.[4]
Athronges (c. 3 CE),[11] a shepherd turned rebel leader.
Simon bar Kokhba (died c. 135), founded a short-lived Jewish state before being defeated in the Second Jewish-Roman War.
Moses of Crete, who in about 440–470 persuaded the Jews of Crete to walk into the sea, as Moses had done, to return to Israel. The results were disastrous and he soon disappeared.
Ishak ben Ya'kub Obadiah Abu 'Isa al-Isfahani (684–705), who led a revolt in Persia against the Umayyad Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
David Alroy, born in Kurdistan, who around 1160 agitated against the caliph before being assassinated.
Moses Botarel of Cisneros, active around 1413; claimed to be a sorcerer able to combine the names of God.
Asher Lämmlein, a German near Venice who proclaimed himself a forerunner of the Messiah in 1502.
David Reubeni (1490–1541?) and Solomon Molcho (1500–1532), messianic adventurers who travelled in Portugal, Italy and Turkey; Molcho, who was a baptised Catholic, was tried by the Inquisition, convicted of apostasy and burned at the stake.
Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), an Ottoman Jew who claimed to be the Messiah, but then converted to Islam; still has followers today in the Donmeh.
Jacob Querido (?–1690), claimed to be the new incarnation of Sabbatai; later converted to Islam and led the Donmeh.
Miguel Cardoso (1630–1706), another successor of Sabbatai who claimed to be the "Messiah ben Ephraim".
Löbele Prossnitz (?–1750), attained some following amongst former followers of Sabbatai, calling himself the "Messiah ben Joseph".
Jacob Joseph Frank (1726–1791), who claimed to be the reincarnation of King David and preached a synthesis of Christianity and Judaism.
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (r. 1920–1950), sixth Rebbe (spiritual leader) of Chabad Lubavitch.[12][13]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), seventh Rebbe (spiritual leader) of Chabad.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]
And:
Simon Magus (early 1st century), was a Samaritan, and a native of Gitta; he was considered a god in Simonianism; he "darkly hinted" that he himself was Christ, calling himself the Standing One.
Dositheos the Samaritan (mid 1st century), was one of the supposed founders of Mandaeanism. After the time of Jesus he wished to persuade the Samaritans that he himself was the Messiah prophesied by Moses.[24] Dositheus pretended to be the Christ (Messiah), applying Deuteronomy 18:15 to himself, and he compares him with Theudas and Judas the Galilean.[24][25]
Tanchelm of Antwerp (c. 1110), who violently opposed the sacrament and the Eucharist.
Ann Lee (1736–1784), a central figure to the Shakers,[26] who thought she "embodied all the perfections of God" in female form and considered herself to be Christ’s female counterpart in 1772.[27]
Bernhard Müller (c. 1799–1834) claimed to be the Lion of Judah and a prophet in possession of the Philosopher's stone.
John Nichols Thom (1799–1838), who had achieved fame and followers as Sir William Courtenay and adopted the claim of Messiah after a period in a mental institute.[28]
Arnold Potter (1804–1872), Latter Day Saint schismatic leader; called himself "Potter Christ"
Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864), Hakka Chinese; claimed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ; started the Taiping Rebellion and founded the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. Committed suicide before the fall of Tianjing (Nanjing) in 1864.
Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri, Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1864), born Shiite, adopting Bábism later in life, he claimed to be the promised one of all religions, and founded the Bahá'í Faith.
Jacobina Mentz Maurer (1841 or 1842–1874) was a German-Brazilian woman who lived and died in the state of Rio Grande do Sul who emerged as a messianic prophetess, a representation of God, and later declared the very reincarnation of Jesus Christ on earth by her German-speaking community called Die Muckers (or the false saints) by her enemies, Die Spotters (or the mockers). After a number of deadly confrontations with outsiders, Jacobina was shot to death together with many of her followers by the Brazilian Imperial Army.
William W. Davies (1833–1906), Latter Day Saint (Mormon) schismatic leader; claimed that his infant son Arthur (born 1868) was the reincarnated Jesus Christ.
Cyrus Reed Teed (October 18, 1839 – December 22, 1908, erroneously Cyrus Tweed) was a U.S. eclectic physician and alchemist turned religious leader and messiah. In 1869, claiming divine inspiration, Dr. Teed took on the name Koresh and proposed a new set of scientific and religious ideas he called Koreshanity.
Abd-ru-shin (18 April 1875 – 6 December 1941), founder of the Grail Movement.[29][30][31][32]
Father Divine (George Baker) (c. 1880 – September 10, 1965), an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death who claimed to be God.
André Matsoua (1899–1942), Congolese founder of Amicale, proponents of which subsequently adopted him as Messiah in the late 1920s.
Samael Aun Weor (1917–1977), born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, Colombian citizen and later Mexican, was an author, lecturer and founder of the 'Universal Christian Gnostic Movement', according to him, 'the most powerful movement ever founded'. By 1972, he referenced that his death and resurrection would be occurring before 1978.[33]
Ahn Sahng-hong (1918–1985), founder of the World Mission Society Church of God and worshiped by the members as the messiah.[34]
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), founder and leader of the Unification Church established in Seoul, South Korea, who considered himself the Second Coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself.[35] Although it is generally believed by Unification Church members ("Moonies") that he was the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ and was anointed to fulfill Jesus' unfinished mission.[35]
Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935–2007), born as Hulon Mitchell, Jr., a black nationalist and separatist who created the Nation of Yahweh and allegedly orchestrated the murder of dozens of persons.
Laszlo Toth (1940–2012) claimed he was Jesus Christ as he battered Michelangelo's Pieta with a geologist hammer.
Wayne Bent (born 1941), also known as Michael Travesser of the Lord Our Righteousness Church, also known as the "Strong City Cult", convicted December 15, 2008 of one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in 2008.[36]
Iesu Matayoshi (born 1944), in 1997 he established the World Economic Community Party based on his conviction that he is God and the Christ.
Jung Myung Seok (born 1945), a South Korean who was a member of the Unification Church in the 1970s, before breaking off to found the dissenting group[37] now known as Providence Church in 1980.[38][39] He also considers himself the Second Coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself in 1980.[40] He believes he has come to finish the incomplete message and mission of Jesus Christ, asserting that he is the Messiah and has the responsibility to save all mankind.[41] He claims that the Christian doctrine of resurrection is false but that people can be saved through him.[42]
Claude Vorilhon now known as Raël "messenger of the Elohim" (born 1946), a French professional test driver and former automobile journalist became founder and leader of UFO religion the Raël Movement in 1972, which teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call Elohim. He claimed he met an extraterrestrial humanoid in 1973 and became the Messiah.[43] Then devoted himself to the task he said was given by his "biological father", an extraterrestrial named Yahweh.[44]
José Luis de Jesús (1946–2013), founder and leader of Creciendo en Gracia sect (Growing In Grace International Ministry, Inc.), based in Miami, Florida. He claimed to be both Jesus Christ returned and the Antichrist, and exhibited a "666" tattoo on his forearm. He has referred to himself as Jesucristo Hombre, which translates to "Jesus Christ made Man".
Inri Cristo (born 1948) of Indaial, Brazil, a claimant to be the second Jesus.[45]
Apollo Quiboloy (born 1950), founder and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group, who claims that Jesus Christ is the "Almighty Father," that Quiboloy is "His Appointed Son," and that salvation is now completed. Proclaims himself as the "Appointed Son of the God" not direct to the point as the "Begotten Son of the God" in 1985.[46]
David Icke (born 1952), of Great Britain, has described himself as "the son of God", and a "channel for the Christ spirit".
Brian David Mitchell was born on October 18, 1953 in Salt Lake City, Utah, he believed himself the fore-ordained angel born on earth to be the Davidic "servant" prepared by God as a type of Messiah who would restore the divinely led kingdom of Israel to the world in preparation for Christ's second coming. (Mitchell's belief in such an end-times figure – also known among many fundamentalist Latter Day Saints as "the One Mighty and Strong" – appeared to be based in part on a reading of the biblical book of Isaiah by the independent LDS Hebraist, Avraham Gileadi, with which Mitchell became familiar from his former participation with Stirling Allan's American Study Group.)[47][48]
David Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howell) (1959–1993), leader of the Branch Davidians.
Maria Devi Christos (born 1960), founder of the Great White Brotherhood.
Sergey Torop (born 1961), who started to call himself "Vissarion", founder of the Church of the Last Testament and the spiritual community Ecopolis Tiberkul in Southern Siberia.
Alan John Miller (born 1962), founder of Divine Truth, a new religious movement based in Australia. Alan John Miller, also known as A.J., who claims to be Jesus of Nazareth through reincarnation. Miller was formerly an elder in the Jehovah's Witnesses.
David Shayler (born 1965), former MI5 agent and whistleblower who declared himself the Messiah on 7 July 2007.[49]
We can add L Ron Hubbard. Major Applewhite. Jim Jones.
We sometimes compile them with false prophets and we will get to those, too, but the point is Satan deludes normal men into believing they are Christs. And then deludes normal people into following them.
We have deceptions just we have tribulation. And we have the Great Tribulation of the final years of the End times and the Great Deception we will discuss next time.
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