Humanism: The philosophy of humanism presents the idea that man is the center of all things; man is his own God. When this idea is held to be a fact, anything that works against the pleasure of man is viewed as bad.

The concept of the "rights of people" is part of humanistic thinking. Whatever people desire they should have. In America, for example, the rights of the individual often are held above the good of society. The rapist, the murderer, the thief have so much protection in the law that society often suffers. The rights of the child molester are such that he is let loose too soon and some other little boy or girl is molested.

It appears that many of the social experts of America have become fools. They cannot seem to understand that in order to protect the rights of one person the rights of another person must be violated.

The Scriptures are not directed toward the rights or the happiness of the individual. In order to be a true disciple of Christ we have to lay down our very life on the altar of God. We must wage a continual warfare against sin. We suffer numerous tribulations when we stand true to our commitment to Jesus.

Humanism will never accept such a gospel. The humanist will applaud every attempt Christians make to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to heal the sick. But the humanist will never agree that an individual should suffer for the cause of Christ—never!

The kingdom of Antichrist will praise the work of the churches as they feed the hungry and work for the betterment of society. But the kingdom of Antichrist will never tolerate a message of self-denial and other forms of suffering, much less the Lordship of Christ.

We see, then, that one of the four horsemen of error that seek to prevent the establishing of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is the philosophy of humanism. It is a powerful force indeed and it fills the Christian churches of today as the pastors inform the congregations that God does not want them to suffer but to be prosperous and successful in all they do.

Gnosticism: The philosophy of Gnosticism was prevalent at the time of the birth of Christianity. Although Gnosticism appears in several forms, two of the central ideas are one, salvation is obtained through specialized knowledge; and two, matter is evil and spirit is good.

We can see both of these ideas working in Christian theology. Salvation, as preached today, consists primarily of our knowledge and acceptance of the facts concerning Christ, His sacrificial atonement and His bodily resurrection. If we agree to these we are saved regardless of our behavior. It is salvation based on specialized knowledge. This is Gnosticism.

Since the central purpose of the new covenant is to change our behavior, not to merely change our beliefs, we can understand how destructive modern preaching is to the Kingdom of God. Even though the Book of James informs us clearly that faith without works is dead, most of the Christian preachers of today proclaim triumphantly that we are saved by "faith alone." Yet the inspired Scripture states unequivocally that we are not saved by faith alone.

Satan could not care less about what we believe. It is when we begin to serve God that Satan becomes enraged, for righteous, obedient behavior on our part signals the end of his kingdom.

To be continued.