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When the wise men come to Jesus, they bring three gifts: Gold, which is the gift for royalty, a gift for a king. Incense, which was for divinity, a gift you give a God. And myrrh, which is a funeral gift, a gift used for burial. Their gifts show amazing insight.
At first hearing, you might think these gifts were a lucky coincidence. They’re not. God set up the events of Christmas in such a way that you would know that He was carefully orchestrating each element of it, years in advance. Nine months before Christmas, God sent an angel to tell Joseph and Mary about the birth of His Son. Christmas night, God sent angels to communicate with shepherds about the birth of His Son. Hundreds of years before Christmas, God sent a holy man – Daniel – to the eastern peoples to prepare their highest caste, their wise men, (court advisors to the king) to respond to the birth of His Son. God communicated to the wise men that the Messiah would be king and God, and that He would come to die. Through a combination of Daniel’s leadership, Hebrew Scripture, and the tailor-made revelation of a star, these wise men knew as much or more about the nature of the Messiah as the Jewish people.
THE DEVIL’S VISION
The devil once said, to his demons below, our work is progressing entirely to slow; The holiness people stand in our way, since they don’t believe in the show or the play; they teach that the carnival, circus and dance, the tavern and honky tonk, with games of chance, drinking and smoking, these things are wrong; that Christians don’t mix with this ungodly throng. They’re quick to condemn everything that we do; to cause unbeliever’s to be not a few. They claim that these things are all of the Devil, that Christian folk should live on a higher level. Now, fellows, their theology, while perfectly true, is blocking the work we are trying to do. We’ll have to get busy and figure a plan, that will change their standards as fast as we can. Now, I have a vision of what we can do; Hearken-- I’ll tell this deception to you. Then find me a wise but degenerate man, whom I can use to help out this plan.
There’s nothing as real as what you can see; the eyes and the mind and the heart will agree. So, what can be better than an object to view? I say, it will work and convince not a few. The home is the place for this sinful device; The people deceived will think it’s quite nice. The world will possess it; most Christians won’t tell that it’s all of the devil, and was plotted in hell.
We’ll soothe them with pictures of the latest of news, and while they are looking, then will advertise booze. At the soul damming cigarette they’ll also look, until they forget what God say’s in his book. At first it will shock them, they’ll seem in a daze, but soon they’ll be hardened and continue to gaze. We’ll give them some gospel that isn’t too strong; and a few sacred songs to string them along. They’ll take in the ad’s with the latest of fashion and soon watch shows that stir evil passions. Murder and love-making scenes the will behold, until there souls become bitterly cold. The “old family altar” which once held such charm, will soon lose its place without much alarm. Praying in secret, will also be lost as they look at the screen without counting the cost. The compromising preacher’s who won’t take their stand, will embrace the new vision and think it is grand. They’ll help fool the people and cause them to sin by seeking this evil and taking it in.
The influence is great, and this you can see; Just look at my fall and you will agree. It won’t take long my demon’s to tell, that the vision of Satan will populate Hell. Divorce will increase, sex-crimes will abound; much innocent blood will be spilled on the ground. I say, the home will be damned and this in short order. When this vision of mine comes in to stay.
Get busy my cohorts, and put this thing out; we’ll see if the church can continue to shout. The holiness people who stand in our way, will soon hush their crying against the show and the play. We’ll cover the earth with this “Devil vision” though we will camouflage it with the name “Television.” The people will think they are getting a treat, till the Antichrist comes to take over his seat, He’ll then rule the world, while the viewer’s behold; The face of the beast, to whom they were sold. We’ll win through deception, this we cannot fail. Though some holiness preacher’s against it will rail.
THE BEATLES REBELLION
The Beatles rebellion against the God of the Bible goes way back for most of them! One example is the fact that John Lennon was taken to Sunday School by his Aunt Mimi. He even sang in the choir. But, by age 11, John was permanently barred from Sunday services in his aunt’s Anglican church because he "repeatedly improvised obscene and impious lyrics to the hymns." (Rock Lives; p. 114). He did things even cruder and viler than that, such as urinate on members of the "clergy" from second floor windows and display homemade dummies of Christ in lewd poses. In his 1965 book published by Simon & Schuster, John Lennon blasphemed the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by calling them "Fahter, Sock and Micky Most." In 1964 Paul McCartney stated, "We probably seem to be anti-religious… none of us believes in God."
Does the Bible say anything about those who do not believe in God? YES! It says they are fools. Psalms 14:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." That description pretty well describes the character and accomplishments of the Beatles… "corrupt" and having "done abominable works." The words of their own press officer Derek Taylor, affirm the application of Psalms 14 to the Beatles: "They’re [the Beatles] completely anti-Christ. I mean, I am anti-Christ as well, but they’re so anti-Christ they shock me which isn’t an easy thing" (Saturday Evening Post, August 8-15, 1964, p. 25).
One last illustration to prove the point. George Harrison financed Monty Python’s vile and blasphemous mockery of Christ in the movie "Life of Brian." Even Newsweek magazine described the movie as "irreverent." Time magazine called it an "intense assault on religion" (Time, Sept. 17, 1979, p. 101).
SOURCE: The Unholy Legacy of The Beatles by Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D.http://logosresourcepages.org/beatles.htm
False prophets and false Christ’s will make the scene in the last days. There was Prophet Jim Jones of the terrible Guyana tragedy on November 18, 1978 when he lied to his followers and convinced them (or commanded them) to drink Kool-aid laced with poison. 913 people were found dead, including Jim Jones. Jones thought he was the re-incarnated Christ.
All I can say is, “It is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment.” In his case, it may well have been more judgment than for others.
And there have been others. David Koresh of the Branch Davidians and the Waco, TX, shootout in April of 1993. When David Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howell) was 19 years old he (supposedly) became a born-again Christian in the Southern Baptist Church but soon joined his mother’s church, the Seventh Day Adventist Church. There he fell in love with the pastor’s daughter and while praying for guidance he opened his eyes and found the bible open at Isaiah 34 which stated that none should want for a mate; convinced this was a sign from God he approached the pastor and told him that God wanted him to have his daughter for a wife. The pastor threw him out, and when he continued to persist with his pursuit of the daughter he was expelled from the church.
In 1981 when he was 22 he moved to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians. From there it was apparently all downhill. And Koresh took 80 people with him to their deaths on April 19, 1993.
And one of the latest to hit the scene is De Jesus from Puerto Rico. In the eyes of his flock, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is, in fact, the second coming of Christ. As the head of the Growing in Grace International Ministry, he presides over a sprawling organization that includes more than 300 congregations in two dozen countries, from Argentina to Australia. He counts more than 100,000 followers and claims to reach millions more through a 24-hour TV channel, a radio show and several Web sites. He is supported by the generosity of his devotees, who have launched some 450 businesses to pour cash into Growing in Grace’s coffers. Though de Jesus’ followers worship him, others denounce him as a charlatan.
De Jesus, 60, spent his youth drifting from the Roman Catholics to the Pentecostals to the Baptists. Then one night in 1973, he says, he awoke to a vision of two hulking men at his bedside who announced the arrival of the Lord, who, says de Jesus, "came to me and integrated with me." In the early years after founding Growing in Grace in Miami in 1986, de Jesus didn’t claim to be Christ. Instead, he worked as a pastor spreading his doctrine: that ...
THE CROSS AND ANTICHRIST IN HISTORY
Massachusetts Bay Colony was the scene of "The Great Migration" wherein thousands of religious dissenters came over to the New World to make a new life for themselves in the company of "saints" and other Puritans. Right off quick they passed laws regulating social behavior and the observance of the Sabbath and the ministers went to great pains to condemn the traditional "idols" of the established church (not to mention Popery). In 1636, following a sermon by Roger Williams (who was later ousted from Massachusetts for being too liberal and went on to found the Rhode Island Colony) condeming the cross as a symbol of the Anti-Christ, the Governor of the Colony, John Endicott, ordered the Standard Bearers of the Colony to remove the St. Georges Cross from their flags. Before this was done, however, the Great and General Court hauled Endicott in for examination, found that he had "exceeded the lymits of his calling" and punished him by forbiding him from holding public office for one full year! Then they gave the Standard Bearers permission to devise any kind of flag they wanted and, without exception, they removed the crosses from their flags.
More than a generation later, the Puritans having lost some of their hold on the beliefs of the Massachusetts settlers, the St. George’s cross again began to appear on the flags.
SOURCE: THE NEW ENGLAND FLAG by David B. Martucci
http://www.midcoast.com/~martucci/flags/NEFlag.html
When I think of the idea of antichrist, I think of the Pillsbury Doughboy, no not really, I think of Judas. Judas was named as one of Jesus’ disciples, but yet he was really never one of them because he did not stay true to Jesus’ teachings. There is one occasion recorded in John 12 where Jesus was receiving worship from a woman who had bought an expensive box of nard (perfume) and broke it on Jesus’ feet and was wiping His feet with her hair. Judas was upset that this woman had wasted an entire year’s salary on this offering to Jesus. He said that she would have been better to sell the ointment and give the money to them so that they could give it to the poor. However, the Bible tells us that he didn’t really want to give the money to the poor. He wanted her to give the money to them because would embezzle funds from the money that was given to Jesus to support His ministry. Judas was opposed to Christ and embodied the thinking of the world’s system that John outlined in 1 John 2:15-17 – cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does.
COUNTERFEIT TEACHERS
When Secret Service agents train bank tellers to identify counterfeit bills, they show them both fake money and real money, and they study both. To detect a counterfeit problem, they must look for the differences in the genuine bill compared to the counterfeit—and not the similarities.
In 1 John 2, the apostle John helps to protect believers from heresy by showing them examples of counterfeit Christians and teachers. One of the signs of the last days is the coming of antichrists (1 John 2: 18). Antichrists are those who claim to have His power and authority but don’t, or those who reject and oppose Him and His teachings.
Are we looking for some common grounds in all faiths and denominations or the dividing crevasse that determines and establishes our foundation in Christ and only in Christ alone? What is it that separates us from the majority and aligns us to the one and only Triune God and His Word?
FAMOUS FALSE PROPHETS
Famous False Prophet A: Jim Jones
Religious leader from CA that took his "People’s Temple" to South America in a country called Guyana. After an investigation was going to find him guilty of murder among other things, he convinced his 900 plus followers (including 150 children) to drink some cyanide-laced kool-aid in a mass suicide.
Famous False Prophet B: Marshall Applewhite
Heaven’s Gate cult leader that convinced 38 people to commit suicide by eating poisoned pudding. His group felt that they had to commit suicide in order to evacuate from earth to transform their bodies, it was the only way to jump on Haley’s Comet and end up in outer space (Applewhite told followers he was Jesus).
Famous False Prophet C: David Koresh
Another person claiming to be Jes...
THE BEGINNING OF MARILYN MANSON
Brian Warner started going to church with a friend years ago. Brian was a skinny pizza faced nerdy looking kid that nobody liked. He was also a loner who looked out of place most of the time.
The youth group took a trip to an amusement park one weekend and when they got there the Youth Pastor instructed everyone to pair up with someone so nobody would get lost or left behind. Everybody got a partner but Brian. Nobody wanted to hang out with him, so he was left by himself.
The weeks went by after that little trip and Brian came to church occasionally but he was never really accepted there and he never felt welcome. Eventually he just quit altogether, and sadly, nobody seemed to notice.
Years later that Youth Pastor got a call from one of the teens that had been in that group. The former teen asked, "Do you remember Brian Warner?" The youth pastor didn't. The former-teen said "Let me refresh your memory, he was a skinny nerdy kid that nobody liked"
The youth pastor said, "Oh, I remember him. Whatever happened to him?"
The teen said, "He changed his name. He took the first name of Marilyn Monroe because she committed suicide and the last name of Charles Manson because he was a serial killer. Now he calls himself Marilyn Manson. He formed a band and all the members have taken the first name of a movie star and the last name of a serial killer."
Most people have heard of Marilyn Manson because he sings some of the most satanic and anti-Christian songs of all time. One of his albums is titled, "Antichrist Superstar". He once said it was his goal to totally wipe out Christianity.
FALSE MESSIAH—REV. SUN MYUNG MOON
It amazes me how many religions are in stark opposition to Christianity; and they do not even have God as their leader. In fact, they are just empty philosophies being advanced by empty followers.
While members of Congress looked on, Rev. Sun Myung Moon declared himself the Messiah. In a ceremony that took place in Washington’s Dirksen office building on March 23, 2004, Moon wore what appeared to be a white silk stole and a red velvet robe for the coronation.
The senators and Congressional members present had been invited to attend what was called a "peace awards banquet." Those who attended did so to witness the honoring of a constituent. Some lawmakers said they left prior to the ceremony and were unaware it had taken place. Others who stayed were uncertain as to its meaning.
The 83-year-old Moon is the founder and leader of the Unification Church. Moon also owns the Washington Times newspaper and the United Press International wire service.
The ceremony included the placement of ornamental golden crowns upon the heads of Moon and his wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. The New York Times summarized Moon’s speech after being crowned. "Emperors, kings and presidents had declared to all heaven and earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."
(Citation: John Beukema, Western Springs, Illinois; source: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "A Crowning at the Capital Creates a Stir," NYTimes.com (6-24-04). From a sermon by Timothy Dolan, Lives of Worship, 5/22/2012)
