On how to discern the Antichrist or… The Body without its Head is dead

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anointing, church, deception, discerning the spirits, experience, following Jesus, R.C. Sproul, Satan, T.A. Sparks, The Bride of Christ, wisdom

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Ps 1:1-3 ESV)
– Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Asking myself of what, or rather of who, the real Church of God might consist, I recently found a both simple and striking observation by T. Austin Sparks who said,

“The church has no existence in the thought of God apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is judged according to the measure in which Christ the Son of God’s love is in evidence by its existence.” [1]

Every institution, house church gathering, or theological conference that replaces His name and leading with their own ideas is not The Bride of Christ. Instead, it is indeed an epitome of the antichrist. Two years ago I felt urged to write a poem on this very issue where I called these inventions of the devil “the whore” of Satan. [2] Even before starting to write these verses, I sensed a very strong anointing to do so while I was driven by the fear of God to call a spade a spade. As we know especially from the Old Testament, God does not mince His words. And as we see in the New Testament, Jesus who is The Word of God offended several people by telling them the truth. [3] Not only the Pharisees and scribes received lessons regarding self-knowledge; even His disciples stumbled time and again over His hard words so that many of them eventually left Him as we can read in the following passage.

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Instead of Sanctification: The crossless gospel spirit

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discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, false gospel, false spirits, following Jesus, God, Jesus Christ, justification, pain, peace, sanctification, Satan, sin

Every gospel that focuses on man instead of focusing on Christ is anti-Christian by nature.
(Picture taken from https://thepropheticnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/antichrist.jpg)

I am sure there are more versions of that kind of gospel today and I presume there will pop up more and more of them in these last confusing days where Satan appears as an angel of light. However, I want to merely focus on two different manifestations of the crossless gospel I have met particularly on the internet since I began to write online comments in English on December 1, 2011. I would like to refer to these two confusing sub-categories as Spiritless Salvation of the Sinner and Spiritual Self-Salvation.

Justification vs. Sanctification

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A.B. Simpson, being born again, darkness, doctrine, experience, heart, justification, light, love, Martin Luther, prayer, repentance, sanctification, self-righteousness, the new self, theology, true faith, William Gurnall

Light after the Darkness (Wallpaper taken from http://www.scenicreflections.com)

“Justifying faith is not a naked assent to the truths of the gospel.”
(William Gurnall)

“The sanctified body is one whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on them, the withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them, the mark of violence is not found upon them. They have been separated from every occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow-man.”
(A.B. Simpson)

To start off with, I’d say that we as humans are neither able to justify nor to sanctify ourselves in order to make our way to God. Instead, both transforming periods of spiritual life are gifts from our Father through Jesus Christ. While the first one, justification, changes our whole thinking regarding God, ourselves, and others, and gives us the bedrock our spiritual house can be built upon, the second process that sanctifies our whole being enables us to change our behavior, too.