The spirit of "the rights of the people" (another name for lawlessness ) is filling the democratic nations. The emphasis is on pleasing the people. In some instances this spirit is causing the systems of criminal justice to falter. Those in charge are unwilling to rule with sternness, fearing the criticism of lawyers, judges, pastors, psychologists, educators, the media, and others who are pleading "the rights of the people."

Perhaps the major Christian error, which is the interpreting of Paul's doctrine of grace to mean no matter what we do, how we behave ourselves, God will receive us into Paradise, has resulted from the spirit of humanism. Men love themselves. Therefore God must set Himself the task of pleasing and taking care of people.

This is the spirit of Antichrist. Antichrist is the imitation of Christ. Antichrist resembles Christ in many ways but he will not lay aside his life, take up his cross, and follow Jesus.

Today we have a false Christianity. It has the voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau. The speech is godly but the actions are those of the world.

It sounds as though we are being godly when we stress the rights of people, the welfare of people. However, this spirit is not of God. It is of Antichrist. The true Christian Gospel points people toward death with Jesus on the cross. It does not encourage their love of themselves.

The False Prophet already has entered the Christian churches, especially, it seems, the "Charismatic" churches. Perhaps this is because the Charismatic churches may represent the greatest potential threat to Satan's kingdom in that they have a little of the Life of the Holy Spirit. But in the Charismatic churches, Satan is speaking of the believer's right to be happy and increased with goods, claiming that no Christian need have any fear of being punished at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

The Kingdom of God cannot come into being until the ruling Son (Christ in us—Revelation, Chapter 12) is born. The ruling Son cannot be born until the Church is willing to bow in the travail of death to the flesh and soul. Therefore the tactic of Antichrist is to persuade Christians to "live." Christ wants to make you happy. Christ wants to make you a success. You can do all things through Christ. This is the cry of the False Prophet.

The point of all this flattery is to persuade Christians to save their lives. Satan has no fear of Christians. His fear is of Christ. If he can persuade Christians to save their lives "through Christ" he then can prevent the bringing forth of Christ.

It is the cross that brings about the end of Satan's kingdom. By persuading the believers to ignore their personal cross and concentrate on the "good things" they can get out of God through Christ, Satan hopes to set aside the maturing of the power of the Kingdom of God.

The tactic of destroying the power of the saints by gold rather than by guns is effective. It is the tactic of the last days and already has destroyed the Christian witness in the democratic nations.

To be continued.