Clarence Larkin, in his helpful and useful commentary on the Scroll of Revelation wrote about the antiMessiah. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”(2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV): “He will be a composite man. One who embraces in his character the abilities and powers of Nechadnezzar II(of Babylon), Xerxes(of Persia), Alexander the Great(of Greece), Caesar Augustus(of Rome). He will have the marvelous gift of attracting unregenerate men, and the irresistible fascination of his personality, his versatile attainments, superhuman wisdom, great administrative and executive ability, along with his power as a consummate flatterer, a brilliant diplomat, a superb strategist, will make him the most conspicuous and prominent of men. All these gifts will be conferred on him by Satan, whose tool he will be.” All these superlatives are not hyperboles. Because the antiChrist will be indwelt and empowered by Satan, who gives him his seat, power and great authority(Rev. 13:2) for negative purposes, the antiMessiah will be the consummate Superman.
Empowered by Satan and aided by the second Beast, the false prophet(Rev.13:11-18), the antiMessiah shall enthrone an image of himself in the Holy Of Holies of the rebuilt Jewish Temple(the Third Temple), on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, built only for the God of Israel, the Sovereign Lord of the Universe(Dan.9:27; Matt.24:15; Mk.13:14; Luk.21:20; 2 Thess.2:3,4). Why would the antiChrist do this? Is he a fool, a rascal, just up to some trouble and mischief? No, he is an astute politician with a global ambition. His sole purpose would be to assimilate Jews and christians through his one world religion of humanism. For this purpose God will send them(unregenerate Jews and compromising christians) a strong delusion in order that they might believe the lie( 2 Thess.2:11). The KJV says a lie. Literally, the original Greek text says the lie. The NKJV corrected it. It is not just any lie, but the same old lie which Satan used to beguile Eve in the Garden Of Eden. “For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” It is a specific, definitive and identifiable lie, the same old lie that man is God. Man’s self-apotheosis, the deification of man by man, is the philosophical basis of the theology of Humanism. This deadly venom has poisoned the human soul from the first man, Adam, to the last man in the present age. Man’s self-exaltation and self-elevation to the status of God which began in the Garden Of Eden will find its final short-lived glory and inevitable demise in the very same place, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
There are four Cardinal points or pillars to humanistic philosophy. These are atheism, evolution, moral relativity, and amorality.
Atheism.
The word theism is derived from the Greek word “theos” which means God. When the letter a is added to a Greek word as a prefix, it negates its meaning. “Atheos” means no God. Atheism as a philosophy of life therefore means that there is no God, nor sovereign, nor creator, nor Being to whom man shall one day render account. But there is a sovereign God who created man in His own image and likeness, and is the possessor of the heavens and the earth(Gen.1-2, 14:19). “Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”(Psalms 100:3 KJV). The Bible dismisses as a fool anyone who claims and teaches that there is no God. “The fool hath Said in his heart, there is no God”(Ps.14:1; 53:1). The Bible did not try to prove that God is, but presented His existence as a self-evident fact both from nature and specific revelations(Ps. 19).
Evolution.
Evolution is a collolary, a natural consequence of atheism. For if there is no God, then man is not created. If man is not created, then he evolved from lower forms of life. Evolution cannot account for the complexity and orderliness in nature. It does not stretch credulity to believe that the complexity and orderliness of the human body, it’s morphology, anatomy, biochemistry and physiology, the diversity of the histology and cell biology necessitate an intelligent creator at work. If man evolved from lower animals, he ought to have evolved to some higher animal ever since. But albeit, he is still the same old sinner, liar, cheat and murderer he has ever been from the Garden Of Eden. Evolution is an unrealistic and nonscientific insanity. Whatever that is called science that is opposed to the word of God is false. Apostle Paul writing to his protégé Timotheus admonished him saying: ” O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vein babbling, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.”(1Tim.5:20,21). The evolutionists are not scientists at all. Science is the observation, study and experimentation with nature. And nature itself is not opposed to God: for God is the author and maker of nature. The evolutionists are rebellious and graceless men who seek to absolve their conscience of any responsibility and accountability towards God. They are intellectually dishonest men and women who think they can through denial of accountability to God extricate themselves from the wrath and judgment of God. For this reason also they attack and ridicule those of us who believe that God is and that He is the creator of all things in existence, man being the zenith of His divine genius whom He made in His image and likeness; our belief being a rebuke and condemnation to their unbelief and rebelliousness.
Moral Relativity.
The third pillar of humanisn is a logical outgrowth of the first two pillars. If there is no God, man is not created. If man is not created, he evolved. If he evolve, he is still evolving. If he is still evolving, there are no absolutes for living. There is nothing concrete, solid or eternal on which to build one’s life. Righteousness is conformity to a standard. And God is the standard for morality. If there is no God, there is no standard for morality. Man is still evolving, all is in state of change and flux. All is quicksand; there is no foundation.
Amorality.
The fourth cardinal pillar when followed to its logical conclusion is utter chaos. This fourth pillar is pragmatic and relates to value systems and lifestyles, conduct and manner of life. If atheism and evolution are true, then amorality reigns supreme. There is nothing right or wrong. It is a matter of expediency and inexpediency, efficiency and inefficiency, likes and dislikes etc. You cannot tell me what to do: I cannot tell you what to do. For you to tell me what to do, you have made yourself the standard. And for me to tell what to do I have made myself the standard. And there is no standard. It is a matter of likes and dislikes. I did it my way. You go ahead and do it your own way. I did my own thing. You go ahead and do your own thing.
Anarchy
Followed to its logical conclusion, there should be no government, no legislature, no judiciary, no law enforcement agents, no border guards, no soldiers to defend the territorial integrity and the values of nations. What this would result into is a dog eat dog society, the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest. It is your thing; I cannot tell you what to do. If you do not leave alone, we are going to fight. When we fight, the winner takes all. There will be nothing like love, justice, mercy and humaneness.
The worth, integrity, nobility and dignity of human life lie in the fact that God created man in His own image and likeness. He breathed into Him the breath of life, and man became a living being(Gen.1:27). If atheism is true, there is no God. And if there is no God man is not created. He evolved. And if he evolved, there is no basis for human dignity, worth, integrity or nobility. He is an animal in evolution. Out of such thinking emerges the proabortion mentality and euthanasia. If man is an animal, what is wrong with terminating unwanted pregnancies, and euthanizing the elderly who have outlived their usefulness. Millions of animals are killed for human consumption daily. Thousands of pets are put to sleep on a daily basis. So, what is wrong with eliminating unwanted humans; the mentally ill and the physically deformed. There will be nothing wrong with cannibalism, ritual killings, murder, oppression, racism, and political demagoguery.
Marvin J. Rosenthal has written, “if there are no moral absolutes, no God-given eternal standard of right or wrong, then what is wrong with homosexuality, adultery, drugs, alcoholism, and wickedness and pervasions of every kind which have invaded and virtually dominate the present hour of history.” If there are no moral absolutes, incest and pedophilia and child pornography would be games anyone who so desires would play.
Ireland have legalized same sex marriage. The US Supreme Court has voted 5-4 in favour of Gay marriages, and thus became the 20th nation in the world to do so. No state in the US can delegitimatize Gay marriages or bar same sex couples from getting married. If homosexualism is legalized, what about pedophilia, incest, adultery, rape and bestiality, and sexual persons of all kinds? These evils which destroy society carry the death penalty as does homosexualism under the law of Moses(Lev. 20:10-20; Rom.1:27).
Man is headed towards the globalization of humanistic thinking, which has captured, and now controls the minds of most men, especially in the western society. It is the philosophy of Satan, the Supreme personality of evil, the enemy of God, and the souls of men. In very many ways, through radio and television, the internet and the entertainment industry, the media, educational institutions, through music and cultural revolution, and Big Brother Naija, we are being bombarded by humanistic philosophy based on the supposition that there is no God, that man evolved, and that there are no moral absolutes.
But Apostle Paul admonished us that we must not be conformed to this world(Rom.12:2). The Greek word translated world here is “eion” which is better translated age. It denotes the moving world. It is passing away. “Love not the world, neither the things that in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is the world, the lust of the flesh, the laut of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the World passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”(1 Jon.2:15-17). But unfortunately, and tragically for that matter, the humanistic philosophy of This Age(olam haze), is squeezing many of us, children of God, into its mold, and so tightly for that matter that we would be nigh unto spirituality death if it were possible. We must not be fashioned, molded, shaped, put into a box, wrapped up, and tied up with the ribbon of this age’s humanistic philosophy.
What can we do to get out of this choke hold, and suffocating grasp? We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds(Rom.12:2). In order not to allow the external godless philosophy of this unregenerate world system to come upon us and mold our thinking and mindset, we must be transformed by the word of God. The Greek word translated transformed in the KJV is “metamorphou,” from which we derive the English word metamorphosis. It is a biological term. In the Greek, it is a passive verb. The transfiguration of the ova to larva, pupa and the imago is inevitable while it is in the right environment. The ova has all the genetic ability to become the imago in the right environment. With enabling environment, the transformation is passive. In the case of spiritual transformation to maturity, the mind must first be renewed with the word of God. The renewing of the mind is active. This means that we have the responsibility to renew our minds by ingestion of the Word of God. If the mind is not renewed with the word of God, there can be no transformation to spiritual maturation. The word of God is the building block with which the Holy Spirit builds the image of Christ into our soul. “We all with open face, beholding in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”( 2 Cor.3:18). The word is like a looking glass. When we look into the word of liberty, we see two images: the image of the Christ, and our own image. There will always be differences. We must then desire to conform to the image of the Christ, which gives impetus to the Holy Spirit, the divine surgeon, to carry out the inward organ transplant and the plastic reconstruction as it were. For the Holy Spirit to take full control of our lives, our minds must be renewed with the word of God. We must be “doers of the Word not hearers only deluding ourselves. If we be hearers only and not doers, then we are like the man that beholds his face in a glass, and goeth away, and forgeteth what manner of person he was”( Jam.1:22,23). Why are we unable to retain a permanent image of our faces in our minds? Why do we often view our faces in the mirror and yet have no permanent memory of it? Is it only for the purpose of hygiene that we view our faces in the mirror so often? For starters, our faces like every other part of our bodies are in the process of degeneration. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”(2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV). So, aging is a natural process, the inevitable and inexorable consequence of sin and the fall of Adam. Is it only for these reasons, personal cleanliness and aging that we view our faces so often in the mirror? Why do we always forget our facial looks?
Although this age’s humanistic philosophy will find its fulfilment in the antiMessiah who will set up an image of himself in the rebuilt Jewish Temple on Mount Mariah(2 Thess.2:3,4), and demand worship of all men, God will not let man prevail(Ps.9:19). Satan will not triumph. The antiChrist will be defeated. Man will not be deified. All the combined forces of darkness arrayed against the divine purpose, though enormous, formidable and powerful will not succeed. The omnipotent Father has spoken: “Yet Have I set my king upon my Holy Hill of Zion”(Ps.2:6). “And again, when He bringeth the first begotten into the World, He saith, let all the angels if God worship Him”(Heb.1:6). The enemies of our God and His Christ shall be destroyed(2 Thess.2:8; Heb.2:14; Rev.20:10-15). And then, every knee shall bow, and every shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father(Phil.2:10, 11).
Avraham Shallom.
Mt Zion Heritage Ministries 