This is one colossal ego trip.
This is one colossal ego trip.
Yet, God's people will be deceived by it.
I remember a few years ago, when the "faith" message was riding high, that a young man claimed if the missionaries had had faith they would not have had to suffer. (Can you believe this!) This is the sort of error that occurs when you tell the believers that if they have "faith" they can do anything.
The problem is, it is not true faith. It is presumption, triumphalism, the third temptation of Christ.
You may have noticed, in the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, that these firstfruits follow the Lamb wherever He goes. The triumphalists want the Lamb to follow them wherever they go.
I guess Audrey and I go back so far that we have experienced the real Glory of God, you might say. The modern "revivalists," and I won't mention names, are not the real Glory of God. They want the power and the glory of Pentecost, but they are working it up. It is not coming down from Heaven. You may have noticed that.
Why is this? It is because they are not following the Lamb. Perhaps they are speaking with the voice of the dragon: "I will, I will, I will."
The problem of triumphalism is not a small issue.
Glancing at Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation we may observe that:
The False Prophet exercised the authority of Antichrist on behalf of Antichrist.
It is the self-willed Christians who will make the earth and its inhabitants worship the Antichrist.
It reminds us of several hundred years ago when both the secular governments and the Catholic Church ruled the nations at the same time. I think this joint rulership may be true of "Babylon the Great" plus the secular governments, as mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
If this is so, the secular governments finally will destroy the giant ecclesiastical denomination.
The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. (Revelation 17:16)
It may be true that there is coming a day when the self-willed Christians will demonstrate all the power of Antichrist, thinking Christ is giving them authority.
I do not know the meaning of one of the heads of Antichrist being fatally wounded. I do understand, however, that America is noted as being an unusually materialistic (Antichrist) nation. We pride ourselves on being independent and insisting on our own will being performed. These are the characteristics of Antichrist.
In the present hour, there are forces operating from within America that will remove our nation from God's protection. As a result, America will become greatly diminished as a world leader. Maybe this is what is meant by one of the heads of Antichrist being fatally wounded.
If this is true, after America has been humbled in the sight of God, it will rise again as a leading secular government, no longer exerting the moral force of Christ in the world. The fatally wounded head of Antichrist will be healed.
It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. (Revelation 13:12)
The triumphalist Christians, if in fact they compose the False Prophet, will perform great signs, causing fire to come down from heaven.
And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. (Revelation 13:13)
These signs caused earth's people to believe in the Antichrist. It may be difficult to believe that deceived Christians would order people to set up an image in honor of Antichrist. But I think this is what is going to take place.
It will be some kind of image of buying and selling. It reminds us of the great statue of gold set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.
What I am saying is that deceived Christians will advocate the accumulation of material wealth. Isn't it true that there has been a major move in America, informing the believers that if they have faith they can become rich?
Do you believe that this move is of God? I certainly do not! I believe it is self-willed Christians, triumphalists, who are aiding and abetting the Antichrist spirit which is so common in America today.
We are approaching the Christmas season in America. Already there has been violence among the Christmas shoppers. A major department store sponsored a parade in which transexual people were glorified. This in front of children! So much for our materialistic culture!
Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. (Revelation 13:14)
The Apostle Paul warned us clearly about the love of money.
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (I Timothy 6:9)
Yet there are preachers today who are telling us Christians ought to be rich so that the people of the world will have to borrow from us. Can Antichrist and the False Prophet be far off!
It is deceived Christians who will give life to the Antichrist spirit of buying and selling.
Speaking of the great religious (perhaps Christian) organization of the last days:
For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries." (Revelation 18:3)
The second beast, deceived Christians, was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, Antichrist, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
The verse above may be saying that the Christian churches will become the "voice," of Antichrist, adding to the Gospel message the "good news" that we all are to be rich in material wealth.
It is deceived Christians with the spirit of triumphalism who will cause all who do not worship the Antichrist spirit of buying and selling to be killed.
We might not think that Christians could be deceived to the point they would kill other Christians who do not believe as they do. But it happened years ago when the Catholic Church put to death Christians who did not join the Catholic Church. So it is not as far fetched as one might think at first glance. Also, in recent times the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland have been murdering each other.
This was an exercise of self-will on the part of the Catholic Church and the Christians in Ireland, wasn't it? I do not believe any Christian in his or right mind would claim that killing a fellow believer was the work of the Holy Spirit. How do you feel about this?
It is the False Prophet, the believers exercising power like the Lamb of God, who will force everyone to have the mark of the world in their right hand or forehead. Everyone must act and think like everyone else in the world, and participate in the constant acquisition of material wealth.
It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Revelation 13:16,17)
The number of Antichrist, and all who serve him, is 666. Six is the number of the day on which man was created. The trinity of sixes means that man is making himself God. This is the spirit of triumphalism.
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666. (Revelation 13:18)
It is interesting to note that each year King Solomon received 666 talents of gold.
The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents. (I Kings 10:14)
When the anointing for witnessing is lifted from the saints of the last days, the testimony then will be overcome by "Egypt," that is, by worldliness, as well as by sexual lust (Sodom) and self-will (Jerusalem).
The love for Christ of the majority of people on the earth will grow cold after the marvelous demonstration of Divine power of the two witnesses; after the testimony of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.
I have written this brief essay so you will not be taken in by those who promise you how great you are going to be when they bring in the Kingdom of God. They are false prophets.
Actually, for those who remain true to Jesus in the coming days in America, the road may be rough. Some may be tortured or slain for the Gospel. They will have a greater appreciation of what it means to be an apostle. It will not be the glory trip they may be picturing!
This is what the Apostle Paul wrote about teachers who were seeking to impress the saints in Corinth:
Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.
I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. (II Corinthians 11:23-28)
When I think of the Charismatic people in America who are talking about how it is time now to take the Kingdom, and compare their present life-style with the words of Paul above, it occurs to me that they may be romanticizing what it will be like during the mighty revival that even now is beginning.
Stay humble and lowly. That is the way Jesus is. Follow the Lamb meekly at all times. Whether He gives you minor or spectacular assignments, perform them faithfully and cheerfully. Then fade back into the woodwork, so to speak.
Clothe yourself with the sackcloth of repentance and humility. Make yourself nothing. Christ will exalt you when you need to be exalted.
I see the enemy approaching. His name is triumphalism. He sounds wonderful and glorious. But he will end up in a mud puddle. Don't go there with him. He is nothing at all. The Lord Jesus Christ is everything!
Christ will use you in His war against evil if you will keep pressing into Him and obey His every Word. Follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Paradise will be installed and operated on the earth in iron righteousness by the Lord Jesus working through people in whom He has been formed and is dwelling.
Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8--Holman)