Test: 'Are you in it or aren't you?'

“You know what’s going to happen in the tribulation when the Antichrist shows up? The ‘false prophet’ is going to be able to make an inanimate object speak. He’s going to give life to the image of the beast. He’s going to be able to perform supernatural events.

“Pharaoh in Ezekiel 29 is called a dragon, as Satan is in Revelation 12. He has plagues that are cast out on him, just as the Antichrist has in Revelation 11, 15 and 16.

“After Pharaoh, the next type of the Antichrist is in Numbers 22. It’s a dude named Balak. In Numbers 22 is the unholy trio: Balak, Balaam and Baal. Balak’s the false king, Balaam’s the false prophet and Baal is the false god. In type, it’s the Antichrist, the false prophet and Satan.

“Cain was the first type of the Antichrist. The archetypal figure of Cain can be found in an astonishing variety of myths and legends from divers places and periods. Notable ones include: Kronos/Saturn, Hermes/Mercury, Zeus, Vulcan, Oceanus, Osiris, Oannes, Dagon, Moloch, Baal, Odin, Wotan, South American gods . . .

“Instead of Eden, Cain is going to reconstruct the world and society his way," explains Richard Jordan. "You see, God said, ‘You’re going to be a vagabond and a fugitive.’ A vagabond is a guy who has no real dwelling place.

"Cain said, ‘I’ll see about that,’ and in direct rebellion against Almighty God, in a humanly devised scheme to thwart God’s judgment on him, and realize on his own--his own desire for security--what did he do? He built a city.

“He took the population, which was obviously large enough to fill up a city, and gathered them together as a monument to his rebellion against God.

*****

“The Book of I John was written for instruction to a future group of people alive during the tribulation that they might be assured of being in the ‘little flock’ of Believers who stands against the Antichrist and apostate Israel.

“Christians use I John 5:13 sometime in witnessing situations to talk about how you can know for sure you have eternal life, but the doctrine in I John is not about soul-winning and assurance in this dispensation of grace. It’s about the conditional salvation the nation Israel will have and how they can know for sure whether or not they’re in the ‘true fellowship,’ and possess eternal life.

*****

“I John 2:1 says, [1] My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

“Now, this verse is missed completely by Christians today. He isn’t just writing this verse to a bunch of Believers so they can just be like, ‘Woo-hoo,’ and happy all the time. He’s talking about knowing whether you’re the true Israel of God!

“Twenty-one times in this Book of I John he says, ‘If we say.’ ‘If you say this, if you say that.’ There’s a series of tests to test the genuineness of what somebody is saying.

“Look at I John 1:6-8: [6] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
[8] If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

“There are liars out there but they’re professing to be the genuine article, see? They’re liars and you need to know how to tell them apart. There’s some people saying, ‘We have no sin.’

“Now, I know how we use that verse. We usually say you’re nuts if you say you don’t have any sin. Verse 10: [10] If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

“He says over there in I John 3:9, for example, [9] Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

“Whoa, could you identify somebody by that? Verse 3:10 says, [10] In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 

*****

“There’s some people born of God and don’t sin, and then there’s some people in I John 1:8 professing to be that bunch but are liars.

“By the time we get there, you’ll see that here’s some people who have a special status in the ‘little flock’ with regard to the New Covenant, where literally He puts His law into their hearts and causes them to keep His commandments. This is a book that’s specially focused on some people who are tested: ‘Are you in it or aren’t you in it?’

“What John is addressing in I John is there’s these counterfeiting wolves in sheep’s clothing kind of an attack that is part of the Antichrist. In fact, that title, the ANTI-Christ, means he’s going to come and present himself to be the true Christ and he’s going to have a deceptive counterfeiting program that works with him.

“If they aren’t spiritually alert and equipped with this doctrinal understanding on how to see through the one who is professing to be like the Most High God . . . 

"Satan is the great counterfeiter. He doesn’t simply come in and deny God’s truth; he counterfeits it and they’re literally going to see in the person of the Antichrist a counterfeit first coming of Christ, a counterfeit death, a counterfeit resurrection and counterfeit Second Advent and kingdom.”

(new article tomorrow)