He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (II Thessalonians 2:4—NIV)

Antichrist is the worship of self. It is scriptural that there will appear in the last days an individual who will fully express the self-centeredness of Satan. However, the spirit of Antichrist is in every one of us until God and Jesus are firmly seated on the throne of our personality.

Sin is a bondage, a symptom of the worship of self.

The democratic stress on the rights and freedom of the individual, while it appears at first as an expression of Christianity, or at least a friend of Christianity, is by far the deadliest enemy of God and man. This is because it nourishes the worship of self.

It began around the Throne of God as "I wonder how it would feel to be like the most High." A thousand years later it was "I will be like the most High." Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.

The Ten Commandments are a judgment on the self-love of Satan.

A desire to worship ourselves prevents the expression of God in us and our being a blessing to other people.

The spirit of murder, of gossip and slander, addiction to drugs and alcohol, a desire to lie and steal, lust, a willingness to molest little children, are symptoms of a deeper problem. These sinful, destructive bondages, these chains, are placed on us because we love our self more than we do God.

I saw a picture in the newspaper two days ago of a man sentenced to twenty years in prison. He had ingested cocaine and as a result had run over a young girl with his truck and killed her.

He was a decent-looking person. The expression on his face at his sentencing was one of horror at what he had done and the penalty imposed on him. He was not defiant, not peering around murderously at the judge and jury as happens nowadays.

He was not a truly wicked individual, just a human being chained by addiction to cocaine. He was vulnerable to the addiction because he was serving himself rather than God.

One man in Texas, waiting on death row for his date of execution, was heard to say, "How did I get here?" The poor man got there because he was serving himself instead of God.

Until we are taught and helped to love and serve God rather than our self we will remain bound by the destructive practices of sin.

All of us, until we have been pressed into the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, have the spirit of Antichrist, of self-worship, in us. Yet we may have some persons whom we truly love and would die for.

Then there are those individuals who are much more advanced in the worship of self, who love and adore themselves to the exclusion of all others.

To be continued.