“Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).

Who can deny that the world today is a little overwhelmed with the discussion of religious things? Many in America had come to believe that if the vastly divergent peoples of the world could find a way to set aside their petty differences, there could be peace and happiness in the world. It’s a big world, isn’t it? There has to be room for everyone! And everyone should be respected for who they are, no matter what their religious beliefs...right?

They planned to build their world on “sensitivity” and “religious pluralism!” That had been the politically correct philosophy for quite some time! But the terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed all that. As the Pentagon and World Trade Center burst into flames, the light of reality exploded into the darkness of the liberal mind, illuminating a very obvious truth they had long denied.

Even if Americans were able to separate their politics from their religion (a questionable assumption), there is a substantial and growing segment of the world’s population that not only cannot do so, but will not! In their eyes, the tolerance of which we are so proud is nothing more than a shocking denial of our faith. To them, we are allowing spiritual things to be held captive by the secular.

The evangelical and fundamentalist segments of Christianity have faithfully reminded us of our Christian heritage, and urged our nation to honor the Christian principles upon which it was founded. Our Constitution was framed by people who fought for freedom while professing in writing (check the history books) their commitment to use this new nation, the United States of America, to spread the message of Christ throughout the world.

But Christianity is not the only evangelistic faith. Islam is just as committed to the goal of conquering the world in the name of Islam, as Christianity is to winning the people of the world to Jesus Christ. So as we arrive at this point in history, we find ourselves ducking the crossfire between very different cultures with irreconcilable belief systems. And it is religion that will inevitably propel those cultures to a violent, potentially global conflict.

The smashing success of The Passion Of The Christ portraying the crucifixion of Christ reminded the world of what Christians believe. The equally spectacular accomplishment of The Da Vinci Code (book and movie) then took those beliefs to task, seeking to undermine and even destroy belief in Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God, our Savior.

So it is, with the threat of widespread destruction and upheaval caused by religious conflict as the backdrop, that the end-time battle to destroy the very foundation of Christianity—belief in Jesus Christ—has been mounted. But few people ever suspect how very many fronts that war is being waged upon, or how many of the people that we’ve come to trust are on the opposing side.

“And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come” (1 John 4:3).

The spirit of antichrist is not new. It has been here since the time of Christ. Even then, there were people who would not accept Him as the Son of God. Among them were the Gnostics, who worked diligently to dissuade people from faith in Him. They conjured up the very fantasies being promoted today by The Da Vinci Code—heresies resurrected from a dusty Egyptian grave. They cobbled together anti-Christian ideas from many cultures, wrote them in fictitious books named after people long dead, and proclaimed them to be inspired “gospels.”

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).

They were among the first to spread the spirit of antichrist throughout the world, even convincing Muhammad hundreds of years later that Jesus was not the Christ. And it was their counterfeit Book of Barnabas that he used as the basis of his writings, as he wrote the Koran and founded Islam.

“Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).

Unfortunately, the spirit of antichrist is not limited to, nor as easily disputed, as an obviously contrived movie.

The spirit of antichrist moves today among all facets of society, in virtually every nation and culture of the world. It can be seen in those who teach our children a humanistic rather than Christian view of life. It lurks behind the so-called “science” that tells them they are descended from apes, rather than created by the one true God.

Virtually every day, the spirit of antichrist enters our living rooms through the TV screen, bending our viewpoints and seeping into our minds through the relentless anti—Christian spin of charming commentators and reporters we thought we could trust.

Many times those who enter liberal colleges, hoping to become ministers of the Gospel, are touched by the spirit of antichrist as well. They study under faithless “theologians” who use their position as educators to methodically disassemble the faith of their students—one piece at a time!

So while we live in a world of obvious physical conflict, the most important battle of all is waged quietly, behind the scenes, undetected by the vast majority of people. It is a covert operation, so to speak, that is being mounted by Satan himself. It is a battle that we, as Christians, must not only fight—but win!

Our hope is that you will recognize and engage the enemy yourself, as you move through the activities of daily life. A battle of faith—the biggest battle of life—is breaking upon us.

In that battle, our ultimate enemy is not, really, the Muslim shopkeeper who runs the market on the corner but who could also be a terrorist. It’s not a well-written book that denies the deity of Christ, or the person who wrote it. It’s not even an educational system or media empire that uses its influence to bend and destroy basic Christian faith.

Our real enemy is the Devil, and the spirit of antichrist that he is spreading throughout the world. He is the author of a diabolical plan to destroy Christ and Christianity, and eventually gain control of the entire world.

It is, in the final analysis, the spirit of antichrist that we must combat. All of the others are simply pawns in the game... embassadors of a faith-destroying perspective that is rapidly eroding the foundation and structure of Christian civilization.

While we would not suggest that you stop feeding the hungry, working with young people, fighting the rise of evil in our society or a hundred other worthwhile endeavors, we would encourage you to take the battle for the souls of men seriously. Before anything else as Christians, we must follow Christ’s Great Commission and take His message of salvation to a lost and dying world.

Let’s keep first things first, redouble our efforts to fight the rising spirit of antichrist, and take the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ to the ends of the world!

by Dave Weeden, World Prophetic Ministry

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THE COMING WORLD RULER

Evil pervades the world. The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one. Evil will coalesce one day into the form and the life of a person called the Antichrist. He, being against God, will decide to organize the world against God. He will have deadly, terrible intentions. First of all, he will run a political campaign that will establish him as the head of a ten nation complex that will rise out of Europe.

As a world leader, he does a lot of things that make people get up and take notice. He introduces anarchy in the political system of the world, and heresy and apostasy in the religious system of the world, and has a terrific influence on the world’s economic system. So inch by inch and hour by hour, he is escalated in his power, to the place where he becomes temporarily the ruler of Earth. Just to read what the Scripture says of the terrible things this man will do, when he does rule the world during the period of time called the Tribulation, is a scary experience indeed. Let’s remind ourselves of several names that the Bible gives to the Antichrist, with a brief description of what he is going to do:

The Little Horn “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Daniel 7:8).

The Willful King “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all (Daniel 11:36-37).

The Man of Sin “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called god, or that is worshiped; so that he as god sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is god” (II Thess. 2:3-4).

The Son of Perdition “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”(II Thess. 2:3).

The Wicked One “And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (II Thess. 2:8-10).

The Prince That Shall Come “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined” (Daniel 9:26).

So for our purposes now, thinking about the Antichrist, what will happen to him? He will build himself up to the place where he calls himself God; he will start a war against God to do away with the Lord Himself, which is the ultimate stupidity and arrogance; he will be defeated in that war by an army under the leadership of Jesus Christ, when He returns in power and great glory; and then, he will be hurled into the lake of fire. So remember about the Antichrist, the days of his emergence will be fantastic—interesting, challenging, dangerous. The days of his destruction are inevitable, because Christ is coming again. We as Christians who join Christ in the Rapture before the rule of Antichrist, will return with Christ to take part in the Antichrist's defeat.

This timeless booklet was written by Dave when he was the Bible teacher on The King Is Coming telecast.

For Any Contribution

Excerpts from the 3-part booklet by Dave Breese