By Moses Oludele Idowu
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not WORSHIP THE IMAGE of the beast should be killed.
“And he caused all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads”- [Revelations 13: 15,16. My emphasis ]
” And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them and I saw the souls of them who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not WORSHIPPED THE BEAST, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
” But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”
[ Rev 20:4,5. My emphasis]
There is a whole lot of misconception, misunderstanding and even misperception about the subject of eschatology and especially the very crucial aspects of the issues of the Last Days.
Often time people argue about irrelevancies and leave the very essential, the one that could determine how or where they would end in eternity.
One major aspect of this is the issue of Antichrist. For quite some time it has been laid in my heart very strongly about 2 years ago to begin to teach on this subject because most of what I hear people say and even the churches saying on this subject are somehow the irrelevant aspects, while we leave the main issues.
Many Christians for instance are worried presently and anxious that they won’t take the mark of the Antichrist. Some are still in denial living in fantasy land of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ of eschatological myopia or delusion that they would not meet the Antichrist in spite of clear Biblical postulations and Logic of God’s ways.
People are worried about the mark of the beast and are looking out to see they don’t in any way take the mark. That is good but it is not good enough.
The real issue
Hear me today people of the Living God. The mark is not the issue as the Spirit of Antichrist.
Did you hear what I just said? That statement is worth more than a billion dollars. The mark of the Antichrist is not the issue , the spirit of Antichrist is everything.
“How?”, you will ask me. Fine.
Partaking of the spirit of Antichrist is even worse than receiving his mark because if you partake of the spirit of the Beast and you are taken in by that spirit you won’t eventually refuse or be able to refuse the mark.
The spirit is more than the mark. The mark is only a physical identification of those who have partook of the spirit. So the mark is not real issue as the spirit.
That was why in the two places I quoted in the epigraph Worship comes before the mark. If you worship the beast or his image then you will certainly receive his mark.
The mark is only physical symbol of those who worshipped the Antichrist. If you refuse to worship the Beast and you reject his spirit even the mark cannot come upon you. Even the Antichrist himself will refuse to give you his mark. Why? Because you are not of the same spirit with him. Two cannot walk together except they agree.
That is why the occult people will request for certain people to leave before they can do certain things. It has happened to me. Even my presence alone disturbed their operations because of the spirit inside me which is opposed and contrary to their own.
Do you get this? This is what your pastors are not telling you and which they may not tell you.
Historical examples
Let me now validate what I just said from history.
During the Nazi Régime in Germany when Adolf Hitler, the closest approximation to the Antichrist that God has given the world to warn us of what is coming, Jews were required to wear a separate badge with the Star of David made for them.
They were not allowed to fraternise or mix with Germans or associate in anyway. Germans were forbidden to buy from or sell to Jews among other deprivations.
So there were two symbols in Germany: the Star of David worn by Jews and the Swastika worn by Nazis and followers of Hitler. To have access and enjoy the benefits of the Third Reich you must have the symbol of the Swastika. Germans can have this symbol or salute it, I.e., the image, the Nazi salute but Jews cannot. A Jew can never be given the Swastika and was not allowed to have the symbol except the Star of David.
Here is the secret that only historians know. Hitler even helped the Jews in his early days to emigrate to Israel and helped the Jewish/ Zionist Homeland Movement to get as many Jews to Israel as possible. Only he does not want them in Germany.
Why did the Nazis refuse the Jews their symbol of Swastika? Because they were Jews and they were opposed to Jews. Forever. Eternally. In the last words he spoke before he committed suicide, Adolf Hitler still urged all Germans and the Nazis to fight and continue to wage war “against international Jewry”.
Battle of identity
So you see this is a battle of identity, a battle without borders and without end; a battle that will not end in time or in eternity. It is between two spirits, diametrically opposed to each other and nothing will ever reconcile them.
Why did they hate the Jews so much? It is not so much the Jews they hate as their God. Jews – and their survival – is one of the best Evidences pointing to the existence of God and that is why every great power or movement have sought to wipe them out. From Romanism to Communism to Nazism.
As it was for Jews under the Nazis so it shall soon be with Christians in the days to come when the Antichrist takes over the world stage.
So you don’t need to worry about taking his mark. You cannot take it accidentally or ignorantly but if you are of the same spirit with the Beast and you worship it then you will take his mark, nothing an save you from the mark.
When you graduated from university they gave you a certificate. The certificate is only an evidence that I partook of this Training and Course of study. They wouldn’t have given me a certificate if I have not gone through the Discipline. Did you get it?
So the mark of the Beast is just an attestation, a certificate for those who are of the same spirit and worship his image. If you don’t want the Mark or certificate then stay away from his spirit. If you don’t want a university certificate then you don’t apply and partake of their training. It is just like that.
Just as every Jew was refused the symbol of the swastika in Germany because they were Jews but they were allowed to wear the Star of David so also in the days to come we shall know the True Christians and the Fake Ones.
THE REAL DANGER IS THE SPIRIT NOT THE MARK
So what am I saying to you today? The real danger today to the modern church is the spirit of Antichrist not his mark. Because if you worship his spirit or identify or partook or fellowship with his spirit then you will certainly take his mark. You can’t refuse it. But if you refuse the spirit of Antichrist and reject his methods and worship and renounce completely his worship then even the Antichrist would deny you his mark just as the Nazis denied the Jews the symbol of swastika in Germany.
You need to get this once and for all. Because this is where Christians are missing it and once you miss it here you miss everything.
Now listen to this story. For many years America and the defunct Soviet Union were locked against each other in what is called the Cold War era, one leading the Free world and the other the communist bloc.
America with her allies fought communism in all parts of the world – Vietnam, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, China, Egypt, Ghana, Congo etc. They were all over the world fighting communism and preventing communist or communist sympathizers from gaining ground and power through assassination or overthrow ( e.g Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah etc )
Yet all the time America was out in the world looking for Communism and fighting communism and its agents in the world the very ideology was running rampant inside the America – through its universities.
Marxist ideologues and professors continue to radicalise students and teach them about the very ideology and subversive ideas America is out in the world fighting.
Today most of American universities are centers of Marxist ideology and indoctrination.
Biodun Jeyifo, the radical Marxist ideologue and one – time President of ASUU confessed that he never learned about Marxism from Russia but from the very university of America during his postgraduate studies.
It is now established that Marxism has collapsed everywhere even in the Soviet Union where it first appeared except in one place: American universities, the only place where they still believe in that subversive ideology that is so good on paper but never worked in practice.
The lesson here is this: What you are fighting against abroad may already be fighting you and encroaching on you at home.
Churches and Christians are worried about the Mark of Antichrist while everyday they are partaking of the spirit of Antichrist. Which is worse?
THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST
So the question now is, what is the spirit of the Antichrist and how and where does this spirit operate?
When you speak of the spirit of a thing you are talking of the most important and vital aspect of the thing, the very essence of that thing.
The spirit of Antichrist is what makes Antichrist what he is. That is why he is called a beast, man of sin and lawlessness. The spirit of Christ is what makes Him what He is, that is why He is holy, righteous, loving, lowly, humble etc.
Everyone acts according to the spirit that is in him. The spirit determines the nature that is in a person. A person is a beast because the nature of a beast is inside him.
Someone is a harlot and fornicator because the spirit of a dog is inside him or her. Always everyone acts or does according to the nature or spirit inside him.
If the spirit of Christ is in you you can never take the mark of the Antichrist, he won’t even give you. A brother once said he wanted to break his virginity out of frustration and went to a harlot but the harlot refused him.
That is it. If you have the spirit and you are part of Him the Antichrist must refuse you. So the real thing is to be branded with Christ, to have the spirit of Christ since two spirits cannot dwell in the same soul at the same time and a servant cannot serve two masters.
” If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his”
The real danger today, the greatest danger that I see is that the Spirit of Christ is now being driven out of the modern Church and in His place the spirit of Antichrist coming.
I will explain in a moment.
THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST IN THE MODERN CHURCH
There is no need for argument all I just want to do is for you to see. The role of a writer is to help society to see, according to that great writer of the other day, Joseph Conrad.
More than anything else I am first a writer before anything else. So in all my engagements I try to help people to see because most people, due to no fault of theirs, cannot see. They can’t interpret or translate the symbols or the language they hear or decode the meaning intended. Most people will follow Jesus if the Gospel is clearly explained to them but it will not be.
For a longtime I have observed a phenomenon in the church that was not there before. This phenomenon is now total and widespread and has even attacked the Apostolic/ Gospel / Pentecostal churches even more than others.
Now to understand what I am about to say let us go to St. Paul. He speaks of three things that are vital if you want to know the life of a church. He speaks of ” Another Jesus”, Another Spirit and Another Gospel”
In this three areas you can know what spirit and the kind of spirit that operates in a church, whether it is the Christ spirit or the Antichrist spirit.
I want to mention specific areas for you to see.
GOSPEL OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY
In the old Gospel Jesus was the Object, the Foundation, the Mainframe and the Roof. He was the main thing. Paul said he does not want to see anything among them save “Christ and Christ crucified”.
The gospel is about the Cross and the Cross is the foundation of the Gospel. Everything is based on the Cross and rooted in the Cross.
That was the Gospel as Paul and Peter preached it and throughout every great moves of God in History. Whoever preaches any other gospel other than this and that is not connected or associated or a tributary to this, Paul says the person should be accursed.
People of God, my dear readers, fellow compatriots I ask you today in all sincerity and all honesty: What gospel is being preached today in the modern Church?
Is it about the Cross? Or cross- carrying? Or Christ crucified? etc Is Jesus the center or the mainframe of the modern religious enterprises? Is He the major subject or the margin and anecdote in the narrative of modern religious melodrama?
I ask you in all honesty to answer these questions sincerely.
If we will judge ourselves we shall not be judged.
In the Early Church they were united in their message because they preached the same thing: which is Christ and Christ Crucified. Every other thing was additional.
Today it is difficult to even know what the Message of the church is because there is a cacophony of voices saying different and contradictory things: success, prosperity, achievement, deliverance etc.
Jesus has become the all – purpose therapy for all ills, a magic wand to give instant success, prosperity, victory over enemies ( when the enemies are also largely inside the church), deliverance from devils ( when all the chronic witches and devils in the land are members of our churches)… But He is not Lord.
Now that is not the Gospel. If Jesus is not everything and the center of everything, if His Cross is not the center and mode of attraction then it is not the Gospel. It is another Gospel. You can mark my word.
By this standard today and ramrod most of our churches are now preaching Another Gospel and therefore….
You can finish the statement. Because Paul said whoever preaches any other gospel let him be accursed.
This is the first evidence of the spirit of Antichrist in the modern Church.
Have you noticed that there is no conviction for sin again among Christians and worshippers? Because there is no more Cross and the Holy Spirit cannot bring conviction where there is no true Gospel.
That is why today the Christians and pastors of this era can do anything, because there is nothing to restrain them. The restraining power or unction has been removed because another gospel, Antichrist gospel has been enthroned.
The Gospel of old brought tears, the gospel of today brings jeers and shouts and laughs… So that the House of Prayer for all nations has become a house of merriment and entertainment.
Some of us still weep even till now because of that mortal wound to sin and the conscience.
The Gospel of old brought fear of God the gospel of today brings fear of man, the G.O, bishop, etc
SPIRIT OF THE WORLD
The world is our enemy not friend. Whoever will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God , says St. John in his epistle. By this definition, most Christian churches today have become enemies of God because we are more concerned with human approval and worldly recognitions and approval rather than the approval of heaven.
We would rather receive our rewards now than wait to be rewarded at the Resurrection of the Just. This worldly spirit has entangled the church and it has embedded our gospel and whole affairs. It is why today there is more emphasis on money, money, money rather than even God in our churches.
Even in the apostolic churches today money talks and you are a nobody if you have not got silver and gold.
The apostles of the Early Church refused to forsake prayers and the Word to serve tables, the apostles of our day are prepared to serve tables first before serving the Word and prayer.
Love of money and greed for money is evidence and the best evidence of the love of the world. And the spirit of the world is the spirit of Antichrist because it is the same Dragonian Trinity – Satan (Antichrist) Flesh and the world.
Music
Have you examine the music of today, what is called the gospel music? When you preach an Antichrist gospel then you will also have Antichrist music. It goes together.
That is why all the great hymns of the Church came in period of great spiritual awakening and revival. When the Gospel was really evangelical and Bible- based the music too followed.
Today there is another gospel and there is now another music, strange sounds, lyrics, accompaniments that tend to promote the spirit of the world rather than Christ.
Today most churches including our apostolic churches now have talking drums and hire a talking drummer every Sunday to beat drums for their worshippers to dance.
With this has come the, dancing in the flesh in response to the drum and the high percussion gigs rather than by prompting of the Holy Spirit. This is abomination to the Lord, to dance in the flesh before the Lord. It is like offering bronze in place of gold. It is abomination.
In the olden days music promotes worship and tends to worship with Christ only in view. Today the end of music is entertainment and dancing.
CHURCH OFFICES
In the olden days men do not seek church offices, in fact they tried to reject it. Being a pastor required the greatest suffering and hardship ever.
Look at it. In 1928 then, J.A. Babalola as a roller driver was earning about 4 pounds monthly from PWD. A catechist of CMS around the same period earned about 1 pound or less. So answering the call was the greatest sacrifice, it was indeed cross- carrying. Being a leader meant suffering, denial etc.
Today it is not. Being a pastor now is the easiest way to make it in the world, being loved by the G.O or by his wife is the easiest opportunity to get to the top.
Now everyone struggles to reach the top, to reach the highest position because the higher the cooler, they say.. In the olden days people only struggled for one thing: to be holy and in approval of heaven.
They care not about any earthly office or earthly opinion. Today people strive and struggled to even displace their G.O or whoever is there so that they too can get there. The goal is to reach the top – by all means and at all cost. Because there is no more suffering with leadership but power, money, enjoyment and glory and fame.
Niyi Adedokun sang it well: the pastor is struggling to become District Superintendent, the D.S is struggling to become Assistant General Superintendent, the AGS is struggling to become G.S and G.S wants to become President while it is likely the President wants to become God”.
In our churches today you see this spirit of mad ambition in different degrees. That is the reason for so many proliferations, so many denominations as ministers break away with their congregations to go solo. Everyone must be a supervisor over his brethren, everyone must be a G.O.
This is not the spirit of Christ, the lowly man of Galilee. This is the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of the Beast.
Time will fail me to talk about the Spirit of Great Cathedral… Building empires and buildings rather than building men. It came through Constantine, and it has now infested the church. Towers, skyscraper, universities, colleges, estates, cities, campground, stadia etc.
All these will become an albatross soon when the Antichrist comes to take the stage. Pastors would be willing to compromise and retain their empires than reject the Man of sin and lose their empires and kingdoms. So it is a snare.
CONCLUSION
This is a whole lot of teaching I am just introducing. We shall speak more on this matter.
What you should worry about now is your spirit, that you are not contaminated or polluted. There is a lot of pollution going on and love of many is waxing cold. St. John reveals to us more than anyone about the Antichrist. He even gave us his number and image and data. Why? Because he was also the one who loved Christ the most among all the Apostles and Disciples. He warned us in his epistles about the Man of sin.
“Little children keep yourself from idols”
He also warn us to steer away from the spirit of the world?
The secret of overcoming the Antichrist and his image and his mark and his spirit is to Love Christ, have the spirit of Christ and be branded with the image of Christ.
You learn more about darkness by looking into the light not by looking at darkness. That is why those churches who emphasize demons and devils and witches ended up having more witches and demons and darkness than others.
The answer to Antichrist is not by studying Antichrist but by loving Christ and being united with Him, spirit, soul and body.
In the end and in what is coming only those who love Christ, those who have His spirit will remain and survive what is coming. Every other will desert him.
A word for the wise is enough.
[©️ Moses Oludlele Idowu
February 7, 2021
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