The spirit of Antichrist is the spirit of the rejection of God's rule in Christ. Antichrist always attempts to encourage people to seek security, pleasure, and accomplishment apart from the cross of Christ.

The true Christian saint has one goal in life. His goal is to come into such perfect union with Christ that it no longer is he who is living but Christ who is living in him.

The sign of the deceived believer, the one who has been led astray by Antichrist, is that he thinks and acts as though whatever he fervently desires he must have because it is not God's will for him to be denied his deepest longings.

The true saint, on the other hand, always is desiring fellowship with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will remain in any "prison" as long as the Lord desires. His continuing prayer is "not my will but Yours be done."

The deluded believer is seeking the power and help of Christ as he pursues his own course.

It is the carrying of one's personal cross that distinguishes between the follower of Christ and the disciple of Antichrist.

The true, Spirit-filled saint loves the cross. He embraces the cross as being the only path toward the union with Christ he is seeking.

The deceived believer honors and serves the cross with his mouth only (and sometimes not even with his mouth!). The truth is, he fears and hates the cross. He will seek out teachers who are willing to persuade him there is some route other than by carrying his cross by which he can gain the desires of his heart.

The cross of Christ is in his words and perhaps hung around his neck.

But the cross is not in his heart.

The working of Antichrist always has been a mystery. Antichrist has worked as leaven in society for two thousand years, just as the true Gospel of the Kingdom has worked as leaven throughout the same period of time.

The leaven of the rights of people may appear to be Christian in nature and intention. But it is anything but Christian in source. The emphasis on the rights of people comes from Hell, not from Heaven.

This "mystery of lawlessness" is working powerfully today in the so-called "free world"—perhaps more powerfully than in those countries that are under harsh regimes.

We do not for one moment condone the acts of torture and slaughter of innocent people that are performed so readily by those governments that are determined to rule the world at any cost. These also are from Hell. They are filled with the murderous nature of Satan.

But it may be true that the greatest danger to the saints is found in the "free world." It is in the free world that the citizens are giving themselves over to unrestrained orgies of the flesh—exhibitions of lewdness not permitted by the dictators of the earth.

The Christian churches are confused by these contradictions because lawlessness, the working of Antichrist, is a mystery (II Thessalonians 2:7).

The mystery of Antichrist will be revealed before the Lord returns.

The uncovering of the man of sin is soon to come. He may emerge from the inner circle of the disciples of Jesus just as Judas Iscariot, the former son of perdition and forerunner of Antichrist, came from among the twelve.

To be continued.