On Wed, August 11, 2010, Rita sent:

I read in a place where you made the statement that anti-Christ is not
biblical, but that Christians made it up. Please explain. Who put it
into the scriptures? Thank you, Rita

Where, Oh Where Is Antichrist?

Rita,
Ah! Not quite. I said that "The Antichrist" is not Biblical.

John is the only one who used the word "antichrist" and he used it only in his epistles, not in Revelation. And John gave clear definitions of what he meant by using that word. First, it is both a spirit that moves upon many and a plurality. He used it to refer to Christian apostasy, people who turn their backs on God and walk away. He defined antichrist as being the denial that Jesus is the Christ (the Pharisees - the Talmud - Judaism) and the rejection of Christ come in the flesh. You can see that thread then through Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees. They claimed that they believed that God appeared in Moses and in Jeremiah, but those men were dead and gone, so it was an easy and worthless claim. They could not believe that God appeared in a man before them right now.

The same thing is happening with those who cling to the King James Bible for religious reasons. (It is perfectly fine to enjoy it for cultural reasons.) They believe that God appeared in intellectual, non-Spirit-filled translators 400 years ago, but He certainly would not appear in similar translators today. That spirit that clings to God coming in the past but not today, John says, is the spirit of antichrist. You can see it working all through Christian thinking. Jesus told the Pharisees, "You will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" That is true for everyone. We will never see Jesus, never, until we see Him in ourselves and in our brother or sister.

You can see how the spirit of antichrist is a spirit that fills Christianity. And so I have decided to spell it as anti-Christ because it is a spirit, it works in many, but particularly in those who follow Judaism, and in those who see themselves as separate from Christ, and it is not the name of some individual.

(The word "Judeo-Christian" culture is like saying the "antichrist-Christ" culture of the west. They are the two opposing spiritual religious forces working in the world. They are always at war. And yes, that is the culture of the West.)

But here is what Christians have done. They have taken the word "antichrist" that John uses in his epistles and stripped it of the definitions John gives. Then they take the "beast" of Revelation 13 and the "man of sin" that Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians, disregarding the explanations given in those passages that clearly speak of a plurality, and they stir it all together in a witch's brew and come up with, Ta Dah! - The Antichrist, a single man who becomes the dictator of the world, who is clearly identified as EVIL by everyone, I guess because he looks like Dracula.

That definition, that everything that opposes Christ culminates in one individual person, that idea is what is not Biblical.

You see, for one thing, it gets everyone else off the hook. If only one man can be "The Antichrist," then everyone else is free to practice antichrist without danger.

Let me give you a for instance. I read this on Facebook; someone, who, I assume, is a Christian, said something like, "You can burn the American flag, if you burn yourself in it."

Now, it is not hard to show how anti-Christ these words and the feelings behind these words really are. That is, of course, what flags are for. They give people the justification in their minds to speak Satan's words crying for death to anyone who does not bow down to the glory of man upon this earth, particularly death by fire. And so this person is speaking Satan, which means they are moving in the spirit of the false prophet and anti-Christ. And yet they believe that they are Christian and that their words are good and right. But look at what they are arguing. They want the glory of man upon this earth, that which God speaks the strongest words in all the Bible against, that which God hates and despises and calls an "abomination," to be exalted, and another human being, one created in the image of God, for whom Christ died, to be burned to death. You can see the same spirit moving in Nebuchadnezzar when he ordered all to bow to the image of Babylon, and those who did not were thrown into the fire.

That spirit, speaking through this sister in the Lord, is the spirit of anti-Christ. To be honest with you, I doubt if there is very much in the cruelty and pride of this world that God hates more than the American flag. It is truly anti-Christ, and those Christians who bind their hearts and the hearts of their children to it in an oath of allegiance do not understand the evil they are embracing. It is not a sin of the flesh; it is a binding oath to the glory of man upon this earth; it is the pride of life.

American children speaking a binding oath of allegiance to the American flag is exactly the same thing as the children of Israel falling on their faces before the golden statute of Babylon. There is no difference. And if you want to feel out of place in church, refuse to join them as they practice these things. You will feel exactly like the three Hebrew young men felt as they alone were standing while all other believers were worshipping the world.

The definitions that John gives to the term "antichrist" are quite clear. But I want to include, here, a paragraph from an earlier letter, The Apocalypse - http://www.dyordy.com/Archives/TheApocalypse.html.

"Just as there is no Superman (a false image of Christ) coming, so there is no Dracula, either. Just as Christ is revealed in the simple, the weak, and the mundane, so anti-Christ is found only in the common, the ordinary, and the very, very familiar. Both have been true all down through the present age of the church."

Anti-Christ is very familiar and close to every single man, woman, and child upon this earth. It is known intimately by everyone. Anti-Christ is common and ordinary. It is something people practice and speak all the time. And it is utterly anti-Christ.

Now, in the letter I referred to, The Apocalypse, I give a clear and Biblical definition of the term "the beast" as it is used in Revelation 13 - human government, men manipulating others for gain and for hurt - but I don't elaborate on it or draw in all that John saw as it applies to human governments today. And as I say over and over, prophecy is not given for us to predict the future. It is given for us, to each generation of the church in their generation, to understand the present. Every attempt to use prophecy to predict the future results in carnality and religiosity, but it makes good money, especially since all the predictions have to be re-written every few years and new books sold.

Also, the "man of sin" that Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians is related to and is often the same thing as the spirit of anti-Christ as John defines in his epistles. But the beast of Revelation 13 is slightly different. The beast shows up particularly as human government, and includes in its body all present human governments, whereas the "man of sin" and the spirit of anti-Christ works its way through all the fabric of man upon this earth, specifically selfs, living for self, trying to maintain some definition of separation from God.

Let me throw in something important here. Jeremiah told everyone, both the Jews, and all nations around, that God had given the kingdoms of men to Nebuchadnezzar and that if they would obey and serve him, God would preserve their lives, but if they rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, God would destroy them. Now, it is clear that God meant an obedience and submission only in certain areas. Nebuchadnezzar built the golden statute for all to worship - clearly, a symbol of the Beast of Revelation 13. But God honored those Jews who refused to obey Nebuchadnezzar to worship that symbol of the glory of the nation (a tiny minority among the Jews in Babylon).

This truth, that we see in the books of Daniel and Jeremiah, is exactly the same thing as what we see in the words of Paul in Romans 13 and of Peter. God has ordained that we submit to the Beast in certain ways. But that does not make the Beast holy or of God - no, the Beast is part of the curse. (Just read 1 Samuel 8 for a clear description of the history of the US government.) And clearly, there is a line of separation between godly submission to that Beast and the ungodly worship of the pride of life. The Beast is evil, we obey it in what is right, but we do not worship it.

Singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" IS worshiping the Beast. Look at how people tear up and are mightily moved. That is an unholy spirit of worship of the pride of life, of human glory upon this earth, moving through them. And all such worship swirls around mass murder and burning with fire, Cain killing his brother Abel, which is the exaltation of Satan, and exalts those who managed to kill more of them than they killed of us in an anti-sacrifice of death that mimics and mocks the sacrifice of Jesus. The “Star-Spangled Banner” is nothing else.

Now, here is a problem almost all Christians face who want to come into a knowledge of the truth and of things as they really are. Christianity has concocted such a fantasy world in their imaginative and un-Biblical definitions of "heaven" and "hell," of Christ and antichrist, of salvation and judgment, a greater fantastical world than Tolkien created in Middle Earth or Cameron created in Avatar. The difference is that those two men created fantasy worlds to illuminate the truth, whereas Christianity's fantasy concoctions have so filled the minds and thinking of all Christians that to rebuild an understanding of reality as it really is takes a life-long process of re-defining everything.

(I am taking advantage, Rita, of your simple question to expand my answer into an article that I intend to publish.)

Now, my understanding of the term, "anti-Christ," as John uses it is fairly clear because John's definitions are fairly clear (that doesn't mean my understanding is in any way complete.) However, the descriptions of the Beast by John and of the "man of sin" by Paul are filled with allegory and, although we see some things, we do not see them clearly. And so I do not have a full understanding of the "man of sin," as Paul describes it and as it works its way through this world, and if someone claims that they do have a full understanding, I simply do not believe them.

That doesn't mean that we do not draw from those descriptions particular truths as the Holy Spirit reveals them to us. And that is what all Scripture is for. The letter of the word (the words on the page) is simply a tool in the hand of the person of the Holy Spirit that He lifts off the page and makes alive to an individual to cause them to understand the particular thing the Spirit is teaching that individual in that moment. That is how the letter becomes Spirit. If it's not personal, (Christ in me), it's not Spirit.

But God created me with a passion to understand the world and the creation of God as it really is, a drive that has been evident since 1st grade, when my understanding first opened to a map of the world. And I am willing to say, by faith as Paul did, that God is working in me. And so I continue to circle around these things - the Beast, the man of sin, the mystery of iniquity versus the mystery of godliness, Cain versus Abel, Christ versus anti-Christ - not to "figure them out," but that God might grant me understanding of reality and truth as it really is. We are only just opening our eyes, blinking and not understanding what we see, we are only slightly coming out of total darkness. Even now, we can barely see. And it is only as we see God in all things, more and more, that we can begin to understand God inside this great conflict or contradiction that He has instituted into His universe.

And so it is only one who sees God in all things, who understands His ways and His heart, who has His passion burning inside of them, who thinks as God thinks, who walks as God walks, it is only such a one who can see and understand the full meaning and purpose of the great and terrible contradictions that are woven all through the fabric of the universe. But such we are becoming; it is our sure and certain inheritance.

But to understand these things, the man of sin and the mystery of iniquity, and their opposites, we cannot look at Christianity or find much help in the "Christian" world view that is based on so much un-Biblical nonsense. And thus our minds and our understanding must be completely re-written before we can understand reality as it really is. If you could see the difference between the thinking of the average evangelical Christian in this world, and the thinking of one who understands all things as they really are, you will see almost no similarity. And yet, here is a marvelous thing! The one who sees all things as they really are will recognize the Spirit of Christ inside that brother or sister whose mind is filled with darkness, and will receive them with open arms in just the same way that Christ receives us. The sad, sad, thing is that the receiving often will be met with rejection.

And so, to gain a clearer glimpse of the mystery of iniquity working in this world, I sometimes turn to perspectives that are not twisted with Christian fantasy. As Jesus said, "The children of this world are wiser than the children of light." These things simply given us glimpses of understanding, they point us in a direction that is true, but truth itself remains the person of the Lord Jesus revealed in us. But Christ revealed in us is always a light that shatters the darkness. And darkness always snarls for one brief moment before it vanishes forever.

Here is one article I read just yesterday that gives a clear understanding of reality that has not been understood in the past. It is important that all who want to understand the issues of Christ and anti-Christ, issues that we are right now caught in the grip of, issues that no man, woman or child living right now upon the earth will escape, to read this article and to ponder these things before the Lord.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/213382-Reflections-on-Political-Ponerology

What you see in this article is a significant signpost pointing towards the reality of the mystery of iniquity and the man of sin working in this world.

Then, I would point you to another article that I also read this week. I had stated in an earlier letter that I consider Chris Hedges to be one whom God has set as a testimony against this nation, though he is not a Christian. When I got to the end of his third paragraph, the one that starts with “You may have the bulldozers,” I was shouting glory. Chris Hedges nails without realizing it, the very point of the issue, the very victory of the second witness of Christ in the final showdown of the age. Chris Hedges is speaking the truth of Christ through this article, truth that is almost entirely absent from American Christianity.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/the_tears_of_gaza_must_be_our_tears_20100809/

(Understand that in drawing from sources like these, we are not overly concerned about those things that are not in line with truth. Every bite of food we eat contains stuff that is useless or even harmful to our body, yet a healthy body is equipped to deal with it and, as Jesus said, all the useless stuff passes on out. So it is as we walk in the Spirit, seeing God in all things. God can teach us truth from these things, and anything useless simply passes away.)

But this question, as I have worded the title, “Where, Oh Where Is Antichrist,” is extremely critical and pertinent to us right now. We are watching our brethren in this country absolutely go insane. They are so frightened of the evil that consumes this country, so “high” on the drug (sorcery) “God bless America” that blinds them to reality, so terrified of the destruction that they cannot deny, that they are grasping for every possible form of what “Antichrist” must be. My goodness, now they have latched onto the terrible “evil” and danger coming towards us from children being born in the US granted the full recognition and respect the constitution can give to an individual person. Do you see how their minds have already snapped?

And it is Christians themselves who are attacking the very foundations of freedom of conscience by railing against a Muslim community center a few blocks from “ground zero.” They do not comprehend that if they succeed in closing that Muslim community center legally, then the closing of churches follows close behind.

The target of the evil men who rule this world is not Islam, the only thing they fear in Islam is banking without usury, and they are very successful in squashing that using the American military (that is the first of several reasons why American soldiers are in the Middle East). The target is the Christian church, and the extraordinary reality is that it is Hamas and Hezbollah and the front lines of Islam that are our first allies in staving off the final destruction that is right now vomiting out of the mouth of the dragon and of the Beast upon the earth.

People who read this may scream “No, that can’t be,” but what I am speaking is the truth. I am holding my breath and praying for that thin brown line called Hezbollah in southern Lebanon right now. May God keep them. And if this be treason, count me in. I am ready to stand openly against anti-Christ, when God appoints the time. If they tried to kill Jesus, but could not, so they will try to kill us, as we reveal Him as light in this world, but they will not succeed, until and unless by the appointment of God.

So we will continue circling around these topics, as the questions continue to come up, as God gives us light to see all things as He sees them.

Now, understand this. Contrary to the fantasy of Christianity, the devil and the beast do not rule the end of this age. On the contrary. It is the man of righteousness who exposes the man of sin. It is the mystery of godliness that confounds the mystery of iniquity. It is the exaltation of Christ, speaking Him only, that banishes the false separation of anti-Christ from our hearts and minds. It is the kingdom of God revealed in us that brings the kingdoms of this world, the kingdoms of America and Israel, of the European Union and Russia and China, the kingdoms of democracy and socialism, the kingdoms of banking and medicine and the increasingly insane pursuits of modern science and technology, and all the darkness of man upon this earth, crashing down into ruin.

It is the overcomers who cast the evil one out of the heavens. It is the unveiling of the sons of God that overthrows the curse upon this earth.

It is the most exciting time in all the history of the world.

Blessings in Christ,
Daniel Yordy