Antichrist

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. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us —eternal life.

26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. – 1 John 2:18-27

 

 

13:1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

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. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

10 If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. – Revelation 13:1-10

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” – Revelation 14:9-14

 

It is thus that I put to rest the case for blindly obeying any person (or beast) put in authority.  It is true that all authority is given by God, and even the beast in Revelation is given authority by God which God will eventually take away in the final battle to end all battles.  In John’s letter above, we see in verse 20 and again in verse 27 that through the Holy Spirit a believer has sufficient knowledge in order to exercise their gifts, their discernment and ministry which is always done in love.  Love was the central focus of this letter of John’s and so it should be in whatever we do.

 

In Revelation we see a far different picture of what happens when love is not present.  The day will come when the beast of Revelation will make war upon the saints.  What will you do?  I suspect that Romans 13 will be the passage of choice for enforcing the will of the beast and allow him to soundly defeat and deceive so many who will bear his mark. 

 

The antichrist is basically a counterfeit or a substitute.  Promising health, wealth and happiness but delivering bondage, misery and pain.  It is easy to see how the institutional church could become a pawn of the beast, if not take on many of the characteristics.  I’ve certainly heard enough questionable things from serious institutions which call into question the resurrection of Jesus or His fleshly existence.  I’m sure there are false prophets within the structure, the system and the walls of the institution.  While I’m sure there are those walking around spreading heresies outside of the system, it’s the ones on the inside who would institutionalize any false teachings or beliefs who are the most dangerous. 

Any system which stands in the way of having a relationship with Jesus or becoming more Christ-like would have some of that anti-Christ-like nature, basically getting in the way of love and loving one another.  I have heard of and known some various teachings that would like to strap the “whore of Babylon” baggage solely on the Catholic Church, but from where I am now, any religious institution where there is a separate clergy-laity would be fair game for such an accusation.

Just to make sure that I’m not putting too fine a point on it, any believer should be able to baptize other believers, should be able to administer and officiate a communion meal and at any time.  In fact, according to Acts, this was taking place all the time and everywhere the church spread.  The church expanded and spread to thousands and thousands, not by building bigger and more expansive buildings and ordaining more pastors, but house-to-house and neighborhood by neighborhood.  And this is the same way the church is expanding in areas of the world that do not have the opulent wealth that most of my readers enjoy.  And one could argue that many who live in atheist or Muslim countries are already in the teeth of the beast for not adhering to the official state religion or the official state regulations. 

Many of you have gifts that exceed those who might be leading you and exercising religious authority over you.  It’s time you be released and loosed in order to exercise those gifts and talents.  God did a wondrous thing in the first century through the movement of the Holy Spirit.  I see something similar happening, again.  There’s a part of me that wonders if this is a sort of pre-rapture, where people begin to come out of the institutions in search of a closer relationship with other people and with God.  I know I’m not the only one who senses this quickening.  World events continue to happen, but God is working locally in the hearts and minds of your neighbors, your friends, your family and each of you.  Just like the Pharisees in the first century, so too the religious establishment will miss out on this movement of God and will work to condemn it.  Afterall, what will happen to these lavish cathedrals and huge worship centers if there is no one who attends who wants to pay the bill?  Who will support the clergy?  Who will the clergy have authority over if the flock goes running off?

 

Here’s a lovely comic to brighten your day and give you a chuckle, not to mention something to think about.

D.

 

 

 

Relationship

I’m going to put the whole authority/leadership bit to rest in another post that should grab some interest.  In the meantime, I think a bit of an update is necessary.  It is in fact very much linked to my spiritual travelings.

 

I’ve started going back to the Methodist church in part, or at least just the Sunday school.  I don’t see myself going to a regular church service gladly.  I do see myself teaching again, but my techniques will be different and so will the content.  I have a better picture of where God is headed and I’m just opening up the possibility for other people. I’m going to try to be a bit less agenda-driven.  Or less purpose driven.  Only God really and truly knows what the outcome and purpose a person has in his/her life and our job is to be open to that leading and to equip ourselves and others wherever that takes us.

 

Arwyn and the boys still go to Saddleback East and I’m okay with it.  I actually better understand now why she had to make a move.  She was withering on the vine without any real relationships at the Methodist church.  And the Saddleback East Church has some programs that support the forming of deeper relationships.

 

Read that again: the part about it having programs that attempt to promote relationships.  Am I the only one that finds this odd?  That forming relationships has to be part of a church’s programming?  When did relationships become a line on the budget?  Did the early Christians have to have small group outreaches and programming to promote relationships?

 

Arwyn and I have talked about this fairly extensively. 

 

Yes, shocking isn’t it?  And she really does like talking about these things and has a bit of a heart for such conversations like we’ve sort of had around here.  She’s not terribly interested in the whole theology of a relational ministry, but just likes the idea of what could be described as a “real” Christian relationship.  And yet she’s not too keen to really get out from under the institution. 

 

We had another small group thing yesterday, and our small group is smaller.  It’s us and then another couple who have a boat load of kids.  Like 8 or so with 3 of them under the age of 10.  They are supposedly typical (Two teenagers have mild/moderate disabilities) but they are a lot more clingy/needy than my two boys.  We were at a large park with stuff to do for the kids, but they always wanted attention.  I’ve seen this from a lot of kids and I’m going to be observing to answer the question: how do you teach young kids to play independently?  Our boys can do it, except for the occasional argument where adult intervention is needed.  We watch them closely, but we’re not hovering. 

 

Anyway, that made adult interaction more complicated although we did manage to have a pretty decent time.  I think the kids all had fun.  This other couple is open to a lot of the things I’ve mentioned here, and have their own interesting background which includes a history of pain and rejection from church people.  I’m not sure these are people we would socialize with without the church program and without the whole disability label, but I’m willing to see where it goes.  Heaven knows I have much to learn.

 

It just sort of hit me that I’m not terribly skilled when it comes to relating on any level deeper than the surface.  I can talk and engage, but there’s always a part that never fully commits.  That has been true in my marriage more than anywhere else.  I think God is taking the long and scenic route into some newer place where I might actually learn about real relationship and truly being invested in other people.  The institutional church has been an exceedingly poor teacher of how to have meaningful and genuine relationships.  It seems to embrace hypocrisy as some sort of birthright!  Yes, yes, I know it is made up of flawed people etc.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.   But the problem is everyone shows up in their Sunday best and rarely allows their real Monday-Saturday selves or brings the M-S problems with them.  Especially the pastors.  They never seem to bring their burdens to the altar publicly.

 

Hebrews 10:25 talks about meeting together to encourage and lift one another up,  but that stimulation we are enjoined to participate in rarely comes out.  Sometimes it does happen accidentally.

 

Jesus did not come to start a new religion.  He came so that we could have a relationship with God through His atoning sacrifice.  And that’s just something that can not be “programmed” in to a service in a typical worship center. 

 

To be honest, I have been more than a little deficient in the relationship arena on many levels.  While sex is very important to me, it can’t be just the sole focus of everything I think of as relationship.  It is the manifestation of several dysfunctions, including a major one that has roots in the spiritual realm.  Actually they all do, if I think about it. So basically I’m sort of starting over and working from scratch in all my relationships.  Since Arwyn and I have recognized and talked about where we are, spiritually speaking, it is a much less contentious thing for both of us.  She doesn’t resent me for not going to her church, and I don’t resent her for leaving our old one.  The fact that her and I have had some deeper conversations about these things has made us not being together for 90 or so minutes on a Sunday morning less of an issue.  God basically used Arwyn’s actions as a catalyst to open my eyes as to where I really was.

 

God is not so much calling us out of institutional churches as much as calling us into a relationship with Him.  The fact is, the institutional church happens to put up obstacles and road blocks to that relationship.  The clergy-laity divisions, the controlling nature of the organization, the lack of equipping, and the burden of financially nursing along an administrative and professional staff while supplying all the needs that maintaining a large physical plant entail all get in the way of a relationship with God.

 

I remember Christian Husband writing about Christian unity.  He basically said he had a hard-on for Christian unity and then went on to outline what it might take to get something resembling unity amongst the family of Jesus Christ.   And now I know that unity will never come as long as each institution insists on defending its own turf.  It’s like calling for unity amongst fast food chains.  The Catholics are like McDonald’s where you get almost the same thing no matter where you go.  Then you have some Burger King-like congregations where you can customize your order.  Or Wendy’s or Arby’s, each with it’s own brand and innovations.  Each has an interest in stealing the clients of the other.  Universally, they can all agree that more people should eat fast food.  They may all join forces to oppose negative advertising and legislation concerning the health of their foods even while devising ways to fool consumers into thinking that fast food can be part of a healthy diet.  But they will not agree on what should be on the menu or how it should be prepared or served except in the most generic sense when they adopt one another’s most successful hooks.  Look how many places now offer a kid’s meal with a toy!  Or how many have a drive through window!  This is not an angle towards unity, this is pure competition!

 

And so it is within a community where there are several church groups fighting over the same consumers.  The CGM churches employed superior research and marketing and are now getting more people than the older franchises. 

 

As long as each of you wears your franchise’s colors to the gathering, it isn’t unity and it never will be.  I’m telling you to quit the fast food altogether and join with others and share the food you have!  You will be eating healthier and you will leave the table more satisfied.  I don’t know of too many people who have forged many meaningful relationships at the drive through window.  But when 2 or 3 sit around the family table you actually have all you need there and more.  You serve each other instead of relying on paid staff to cook your fries and burgers.  It may take a bit longer, but the experience helps forge real and more functional relationships and somehow you might not mind as much if you can’t leave at a certain time.  You won’t need ushers, an organist, and people to direct traffic in the parking lot, nursery workers, custodians, landscapers, exterminators, sound system people and lighting people.

 

Church does not have to be what about half of you who are believers have already dropped out of.  There’s another way that is truer to scripture and much less burdensome and threatening.

 

D.