JHOPSD GEAR

HUMANISM: Forerunner for Antichrist
By Derek Prince
For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.
(Eph. 6:12, TLB)

As followers of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves caught up in a conflict that spans both heaven and earth. The forces that confront us are “persons without bodies”—evil spiritual powers in the unseen realm that oppose all true righteousness and seek to establish Satan’s dominion over the whole world. Our responsibility in this conflict is unique, because Christ has committed to us alone the spiritual insight and weapons that can give us victory. The governments and the armies of this world, operating solely on the natural plane, have no understanding of the conflict and no power to deal with the satanic forces in the heavenlies. On the contrary, without realizing it, they themselves are manipulated and controlled by those forces. One essential requirement for victory is to identify the nature of the forces that are at work in any given situation. In recent months as I have been meditating on developments in the world—and especially in the U.S.A. and Israel—I believe that God has shown me the identity of the evil, deceptive power that Satan plans to use to consummate his purposes for the end of this age. It is HUMANISM.

I had always thought of humanism as a comparatively harmless error. When I consulted a dictionary, I was taken aback by its definition: “the denial of any power or moral value superior to that of humanity; the rejection of religion in favor of a belief in the advancement of humanity by its own efforts.” I realized that humanism is not spiritually neutral. On the contrary, it is a deliberate denial and rejection of God’s power and authority. It is an anti-religious religion. For this reason, it can be—and often is—taught in educational systems, such as that of the U.S.A., which prohibit the teaching of religion in its usual sense. I decided to trace humanism back through history, starting with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an image with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron. Daniel interpreted this as foreshowing four Gentile empires which would arise in succession. The head was Babylon; the chest and arms were Media-Persia; the belly and thighs were Greece; the legs were Rome (Dan. 2:31–40). One key factor was impressed upon me: the reproductive organs were in the area identified with Greece. With my background in Greek philosophy, this became particularly vivid to me. I realized that it was Greece—more than any of the other empires—which, through its philosophy, reproduced itself in subsequent cultures. Two of the early Greek philosophers of whom we have a record are Heraclitus and Protagoras. Three of their surviving sayings state: “all things flow” . . . “you can never step twice into the same river” . . . “man is the measure of all things.” It is amazing how these three sayings sum up the essence of humanism. They assert that everything is relative; there are no moral or legal absolutes; and man is the highest authority in the universe.

It is outside the scope of this study to analyze how this thinking has molded, first, the concepts of Europe, and then, through Europe, the concepts of contemporary “civilization.” The Greeks idolized the human mind. Aristotle’s concept of God was a perfect mind contemplating itself—because nothing less was worthy of its contemplation. Out of this the whole philosophy of rationalism has developed. In addition to philosophy, another main element of Greek culture was its emphasis on athletic contests. Their Olympic Games represented what was, in fact, an idolatry of athletic prowess, which has come back to life in the present century. The most widely viewed TV programs today are the great international sporting contests. The Greeks also tended to downgrade the marriage relationship between a man and a woman, and to view a homosexual relationship between two men as being more “intellectually fulfilling.” In their statuary, the idealized male form was usually presented naked, whereas the female was draped with some form of robe. The so-called “gods” of Greece exhibited all the moral failings of humanity: lust, immorality, jealousy, vindictiveness and deception—a complete absence, in fact, of any binding moral code. This left man free to be his own god, and to establish his own moral code. After all, no people can be expected to live above the level of its own gods.

All these effects of Greek humanism have been increasingly evident in our Western culture throughout the present century. In 1992, however, the spirit of humanism launched a major new offensive against both the U.S.A. and Israel. Almost simultaneously, a cloud of dense spiritual darkness descended upon both nations. In their national elections that year the spiritual force that brought to power both the Clinton administration in the U.S.A. and the Labor Coalition in Israel was blatant, undiluted humanism. Both administrations represent an open and deliberate rejection of God’s righteous laws and of the covenants He made with man, first through Moses and then through Jesus Christ. They have demonstrated that, carried to its ultimate, humanism will believe anything but the truth and will tolerate anything but righteousness.

This exaltation of man is the force which will finally give rise to the Antichrist, whose name is the number of man (Rev. 13:18), the man of lawlessness, who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called God or is worshiped, and even sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thess. 2:3–4). Scripture reveals that he will bring under his dominion all who have refused the love of the truth. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie—the original lie, that is, with which Satan deceived our first parents: “You will be like God . . .” or “like gods.” This exaltation of man in the place of God will usher in “the great tribulation”—a period of worldwide agony so terrible that it will exceed even the holocaust of 1939–1945 (Matt. 24:21–22). Before this final period of tribulation, however, God still has tremendous purposes to work out for both Israel and the Church. A harvest of mercy will precede the harvest of judgment. God’s preparation for this is revealed in Zechariah 9:13: “I will raise up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece. . . .”

The “sons of Greece” are those who embrace the deception of humanism. The “sons of Zion” are those who take their stand upon the infallible Word of God, embracing both its promises and its covenants. They will be drawn both from natural Israel and from the professing Church. Of them it will be said, “They overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” They will be people with one overriding priority; to do the will of God will be more important to them than to hold on to life itself. Faced with this challenge, we each need to ask ourselves: Am I ready to take my stand as one of the sons of Zion? Numerically, we are vastly outnumbered by the forces of humanism. Nevertheless, we can take courage from the example of Asa, king of Judah. Facing an invasion by an overwhelmingly superior army, his prayer of desperation turned sure defeat into total victory. For us today, his prayer provides a wonderful pattern with which to counter the self-exalting forces of humanism.

“LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.” (2 Chron. 14:11, NIV)

Yours in the Master’s service,
Derek Prince
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THE ACTS AND MONUMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
by
JOHN FOXE (or FOX)

Introduction

The Times

There was never a worse place or time to be religious than Europe in the 16th Century. These were cruel times. There was the death penalty for all but the most petty offences, and hangings were a popular spectator sport. Indeed, hanging was a lenient punishment: flaying, impaling, breaking on the wheel, and being hung upside down and sawn through from groin to scalp were alternatives. Lesser crimes such as begging were punished with flogging, branding or mutilation. Torture was widespread and trials, if held at all, often a travesty of justice. Warfare, too, was conducted with the utmost brutality; massacre, rape and pillage of the civilian population were standard practice, and the slaughter of enemy prisoners was common, sometimes even including those who had been promised their lives if they surrendered.

Religious hatred made things even worse. Reading Foxe, or other authors of the time, whether Protestant or Catholic, it is striking how absolutely certain everyone was that not only were they right, but that their opponents were the agents of Satan. (See here for a Catholic example and here for a Calvinist one). Foxe knew that the Pope was the Antichrist predicted by the Bible in the same way as he knew that water was wet or that the sun went round the earth. From this certainty sprang the intolerance from which persecution arises. It was argued, that if a murderer, who only slew the body, deserved death; how much more deserving of death was a heretic, whose evil falsehoods could destroy the victim’s soul. This being so, it was clear that any means could and should be used to stamp out these devil’s spawn.

Both sides believed that there was only one true religion and all deviation from it was hellish; they only differed about which religion it was. Catholics persecuted Protestants and vice versa; each side persecuted its own heretics with equal vigour. In Eastern Europe, the Orthodox faith was both perpetrator and victim. In England, the official religion changed four times in less than thirty years, and each change was accompanied by persecution of those who would not change with it. The division of Europe into Catholic and Protestant powers, often at war with one another, meant that in some countries (especially England) preaching the wrong religion was regarded as supporting the enemy and punished as treason.

Read More of Foxe’s Book of Martrys online

Abortion History
Legalized abortion has defied the unalienable right to Life and allowed the most marginalized and voiceless group in America to be slaughtered in the womb. Yet this injustice did not begin with denying Life. It began when we embraced the ideals of eugenics and rejected the first truth, that all men are created equal. Only by exposing the roots of legalized abortion in a legacy of eugenics can America have a full understanding of the injustice in this nation.

Eugenics is a science concerned with improving the human species, by such means as influencing or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have desirable genetic traits (Hunt, Abortion and Eugenics). This idea of creating a better race is not a new concept. Though eugenics was not a word then, Plato theorized that an elite human race could be conceived if animal breeding tactics were applied to humans (Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, The Roots Chapter One).

Like the eugenicists that would come after him, he rejected the Biblical principle that every man is predestined by God, called for a certain purpose, and created in the perfect image of God. Jeremiah 1:5 says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Plato could not control what man became through breeding techniques, for it is God who creates man.

Despite its faulty foundation, the theory survived through the years. It was finally labeled “eugenics” by Sir Francis Galton in the late nineteenth century. He created the word from two Greek words. The first part, eu (eu), means good. John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe points out that many words with the eu- prefix make a terrible thing appear good, with examples such as eulogy, euphemism, and euthanasia. The second part of the word comes from the Greek word gen (gen). Gen denotes birth or race (Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, The Roots Chapter One).

In one of his addresses, Galton explained that after studying plant and animal methods, he was convinced that traits were hereditary, good and bad alike. Therefore, it is possible to breed people to eliminate the “undesirables” and to multiply the “desirables” (Galton). However, all Galton had was theory based on observation.

READ MORE of “Abortion History”

Statement concerning Friday November 14, 2008 in the Castro District of San Francisco

Last Friday night our team of thirteen people, mostly ranging from eighteen to twenty-two years old, left the house around 5:30pm to head to the Castro District as we have done for the majority of Friday nights for the past three years. Over the course of the week we had actually been out in the Castro every night, singing and worshiping in the neighborhood. This night we arrived at Castro and 18th Street, with one guitar to simply worship and bring the presence of God to the Castro District. We understood that since Proposition 8 had passed it would seem instigating to talk with people, so we decided to only play the guitar and sing rather than to engage with anyone on the streets.

Our intention was not to stir up anger, but to worship Jesus on the streets the way we had worshipped there for the past three years. As we were worshiping a man approached us and began yelling “You are haters! Get out of here!” A girl on our team simply told him “We are only here to worship God. We love you.” This man became angrier and was screaming at her using profanity and obscene language. When he noticed that we were standing in front of a memorial that had been dedicated to an AIDS/HIV activist he became even more enraged. We had stood on that particular street corner numerous times when there had been a memorial and it had never been an issue before this night. She continued to answer him “We are only here to worship God. We love you and Jesus loves you,” and eventually he left the street corner. A police officer then came and asked us how long we would be out there. We told him until nine o clock and he said “ok” and left.

Our team continued to sing as a young man approached us. He stood near by until another man joined him. He was wearing a headdress, which led us to believe that he was affiliated with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This man in the headdress began to surround us with a cloth and shoving us to encircle us fully with the cloth. He wanted to do this so that people on the outside could not see us. While this was happening the other man instigated to people walking by that we were the “Yes on 8 people”. When in reality, we were only doing what we had always done at the Castro since before proposition 8 was even in sight. This was not a proposition 8 event.

At this point our team was standing in a circle holding hands singing “Amazing Grace.”

While they were holding the cloth around us someone from the crowd threw hot coffee over the cloth and it hit our team, including splashing two of our girls in the face and one on her head going down her back. At first the girls thought it was boiling water until they smelled that it was coffee. During the event people lunging through the crowd to get at us hit a couple of our girls in the face. We also had alcohol and soda thrown on some of those on our team.

Then a man picked up one of our Bibles and started to walk away with it. A girl from our team walked out of the circle after him and said, “Excuse me that is our Bible. Could I have that back please?” He turned to her and said “no” then hit her on the head with the Bible knocking her to the ground, then began kicking her legs. A man from the crowd pulled him off of her. A police officer then came and detained the man who hit her. One officer asked the girl on our team if she would like to press charges. She said “No. Tell him I forgive him.”

A couple of the people who were holding the cloth around our team walk up to her and said “We are sorry that happened to you.” and “He is not with us.” referring to the man that hit her. Then the man who had been responsible for making the crowd think we were there concerning Proposition 8 said to her “I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better, but let that be a lesson to you not to come here.”

At different points throughout the night one girl on our team had her camera and was able to film some of what was happening.

The crowd around began to grow as people started to scream “Shame on you! Shame on you!” over and over. They were yelling all kinds of obscenities and cursing us. That is when one of the young men who was with us called the police department to let them know what was happening. It was difficult to say how many people were surrounding us due to the chaos of the situation. We were trying to focus on worshiping rather than the masses, but we would guess anywhere from 200 to 500 people. One of the girls then stepped out to see how the girl who got hit was doing. And as she rejoined the team singing, she overheard a few men saying things like “we should grab them.” As well as “yeah we should grab their butts.” At that point we realized that it was climaxing into a really hostile situation.

Then it seemed like out of nowhere hundreds of whistles were being blown in our ears. Around that time someone removed the cloth which enabled the crowd to enclose around us turning the situation into what resembled a mob frenzy. The people in the crowd were shoving us against the wall blowing the whistles in our ears so close that we could feel the spit from the whistles hitting our faces. Around that time we began to sing “Oh the Blood of Jesus.” Things grew more intense and the crowd came in closer around us shoving and pushing us. Some men from the crowd began grabbing a few of the young men on our team inappropriately, sexually assaulting them and trying to take down the pants of one of them. When that began the young men with us quickly pulled all the girls into the middle so that no one could get to them.

The intensity of the mob around us grew until finally the police had to shove the crowd off of us and they made a wall between the crowd and our group. There was one moment when a man from the crowd around us pointed out Roger, the leader of our team, and said, “I’m going to kill you!” An officer overheard and said to him “What did you say!?” The man said “nothing.” And the officer replied, “I heard what you said.” Then one officer said to Roger “Do you want to leave?” and he replied, “We would like to stay” because we knew we had the freedom to be there. A few minutes later as the crowd was growing quickly the officer said to Roger “I am sorry, but we need to get you out of here because we fear for your life, you no longer have a choice.” Roger turned to our team and explained that we were going to honor the police and follow them. The officer came back, asked us where we were parked and told us we would be moving out in five minutes. At that point there was somewhere between 15 and 25 police officers. They surrounded our team and escorted us to 20th and Eureka Street where our van was parked. As they were escorting us to our van the crowd followed our team and continued to scream and threaten us. They even threatened to follow us all the way home. As we were being escorted out a man with a news camera showed up and began filming us. (Later we found the footage on KTVU, a local news station in the Bay Area) They had reported that we were doing a religious march regarding Proposition 8, when in all actuality we were being escorted out of the Castro. Realizing the hostility of the people who were still following us, and their threats to “follow us all the way home” we covered our license plate with post-it notes that a guy on our team had in his wallet. We did this so that they could not identify our vehicle later. We then loaded our entire team into the van and drove home. The time when we left was 8:30.

In closing, though this event was one of the scariest moments in our individual lives, because of those who have died in America to purchase freedom, we felt in this situation we were to stand firm and not be intimidated out of our rights. Furthermore our faith in Christ calls us to be willing to die for the sake of the gospel, and we are not to sacrifice for the sake of comfort or a false peace. Though the American church has not often been tested in this, these days seem to be upon us. We love the LGBT community and we do not believe that everyone in this community is filled with hate or anger. What happened on Friday night was different than what we have ever encountered. We forgive those who assaulted us physically and sexually. We forgive the anger and threats of violence against us. Our desire has always been to be a bridge to bring the love of Jesus.

Thank you,
JHOPSF team.
Watch Video: Castro District

Statement concerning Friday November 14, 2008 in the Castro District of San Francisco

The Root of Anti-Semitism

By Derek Prince

A Roman Catholic historian has given a brief but vivid summation of 2,300 years of continuous Anti-Semitism:

As the historian of Anti-Semitism looks back over the millennia of horrors he has recorded, an inescapable conclusion emerges: Anti-Semitism is the longest and deepest hatred of human history. Other hatreds may have surpassed it in intensity for a historical moment, but all in their turn have assumed � or presently commence to assume - their proper place in the dustbin of history. What other hatred has endured some twenty-three centuries and survived a genocide of 6,000,000 of its victims in its twenty-third century of existence only to find itself still intact and rich in potential for many more years of life? The very magnitude of the record, seen as a whole,cries out for explanation. How did this amalgam of undying hatred and oppression come to be? What is it essentially? Who or what was responsible for it?

The author goes on to offer his own explanation of Anti-Semitism. His remarks are illuminating and helpful, but in my opinion they do not provide an adequate explanation.Over the years I have heard explanations of Anti-Semitism representing a variety of different approaches: theological, philosophical, sociological, economic. But none ever seemed adequate.

In 1946 I discussed this question with my first Hebrew teacher, Mr Ben Zion Segal, who was the secretary of the newly established Hebrew University located at the time on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem. Mr Segal believed that the problem of Anti-Semitism was basically sociological: the Jews were always an alien minority with a distinctive culture of their own, out of harmony with the culture of the Gentile nations that harboured them. Once the Jews got a state of their own - which happened two years later - this would resolve the basic cause of Anti-Semitism.

To this I replied: “If you are correct that the basic cause of Anti-Semitism is sociological, then the establishment of a Jewish state should go a long way toward resolving the problem. But if - as I believe - the basic cause is spiritual, the establishment of a Jewish state will not resolve the problem, but will intensify it by providing it with one obvious focus:the newly established Jewish state.”

Looking back now over nearly 50 years, I have to say - regretfully - that I believe history has proved me right. The establishment of the State of Israel has merely provided a more “politically correct ” name “Anti-Zionism” in place of “Anti-Semitism.” If anything,the virulence has increased.

Although I was right in identifying the basic cause of Anti-Semitism as spiritual, I did not feel I had laid bare the root. Quite recently, however, without any conscious searching on my part, I received two successive flashes of inspiration from the Scriptures which I believe do trace Anti-Semitism to its root. While I was preaching in our local church in Jerusalem, quite unexpectedly I heard myself say, “Anti-Semitism can be summed up in one word - MESSIAH!!”

At that moment I understood that from its beginning Anti-Semitism had one source-Satan-who was motivated by the knowledge that the One who was to be his conqueror, the Messiah, would come through a people that would be specially prepared by God. This people would have one distinctive feature: the Messiah would be able to set an example of obedience to his earthly parents without dishonouring his heavenly Father by any form of idolatry. Moulded by God through many centuries, the Jewish people alone fulfilled this requirement. Then I saw how, from the birth of Israel as a nation onwards, Satan had unceasingly sought to do two things: to entice them into idolatry,and if that failed, to completely destroy them as a nation.Satan’s attempts to entice Israel into idolatry are a recurring feature of their national history.

History also records two main attempts of Satan to destroy Israel as a nation. In Egypt Pharaoh ordered the murder of all their male babies. If this had been carried through,it would have effectively terminated their existence as a nation. Later, Haman came very close to carrying through a decree for the extermination of all the Jews in the Persian empire which was in effect all the Jews alive at that time.

In the second century BC Antiochus Epiphane,the dictator of Syria, attempted by force of arms to compel the Jews to renounce their unique destiny as a nation and to merge into the idolatrous culture of the surrounding Greek empire. Only the courageous resistance of the Maccabees foiled his attempt and ensured that a century and a half later there was a Jewish nation to which Jesus could be born as Messiah.

Through His sacrificial death on the cross Jesus fulfilled the purpose for which He came. As the representative of Israel and all nations,He satisfied the requirements of God’s justice on our behalf and thus cancelled all Satan’s claims against us. By this He imposed upon Satan a total,eternal,irrevocable defeat.The full outworking of this defeat,however, will only be consummated at the second coming of Jesus.

Satan, who pays more attention to biblical prophecy than many preachers,is fully aware of all this.Until Jesus returns,Satan knows that he will remain free to continue all his evil activities and to present himself as “the god of this age ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

There is therefore one event which Satan fears more than all others and which he opposes by every means in his power: the return of Jesus in power and glory to establish His kingdom and to banish Satan from the earth. The opposition of Satan to the return of Jesus is the unseen force behind many of the conflicts and pressures in the contemporary world situation. In His final prophetic discourses in Jerusalem, Jesus pinpointed two events which must precede His return to earth.

In Matthew 24:14 He said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations,and then the end will come.” At the close of His earthly ministry, Jesus gave His disciples an explicit order: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature …” (Mark 16:15). “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19). Jesus has never cancelled this order.It is still in force.He will not return until His disciples have carried it out.Satan therefore uses every means in his power to divert the church from completing its task. The longer the church delays, the longer Satan retains his liberty. Just previously,however, in Matthew 23:38-39, Jesus had said to the Jews in Jerusalem, “See, your house [that is,the temple ] is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say,’Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

The way in which the Lord will prepare the hearts of the Jews for this is predicted in Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a first- born.” Notice that the Lord Himself is speaking in the first person, yet He says “Me whom they have pierced.”

The Holy Spirit will move supernaturally on the hearts of the Jewish people to bring a revelation of their Messiah and anguished repentance for having rejected and crucified Him. Notice, however,that this description refers specifically to “the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” The restoration of the Jews to their own land and to the city of Jerusalem is an essential preliminary. Until this takes place,the defeat of Satan will not be finally consummated.

This,then,is the second condition that must be fulfilled before Jesus will return: the Jews must be re-gathered in their own land and in the city of Jerusalem,and their hearts must be prepared to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. Just as surely as Jesus came the first time through the Jews, so surely He will come back the second time to the Jews.

This insight gave me an altogether new understanding of the worldwide furore and confusion concerning the situation here in Israel.What else could explain the almost daily focus of the world media, of the United Nations,and of the world ’s most powerful governments upon a tiny strip of land at the east end of the Mediterranean, with a population of five million and an area about the size of the nation of Wales or the state of New Hampshire?There is no normal,political explanation for such a concentration of world forces upon a situation and a people that would normally be considered insignificant.

I also understood in a new light the clear revelation of Joel 3:1-2 that at the close of this age God will judge all nations on the basis of their attitude towards the re-gathering of Israel in their own land:

“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgement with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.”

The implications of these revelations are far-reaching and frightening. Our attitude towards the return of Jesus is revealed by two things: our concern for world evangelisation and our concern for the re-establishment of the Jews in their own land. If we are indifferent towards world evangelisation, we are in fact whether we acknowledge it or not � indifferent to the return of Jesus.

Probably there are many Christians who would give at least lip service to the urgency of world evangelism,but who are still blind to the significance of the restoration of Israel. Yet both alike are main themes of the prophetic Scriptures and of the words of Jesus Himself. The issue of Israel ’s restoration goes much deeper than theology or intellectual understanding. Ultimately it is spiritual.The spirit that opposes the re-establishment of Israel is the spirit that opposes the return of Jesus. Though it may wear many disguises,it is the spirit of Satan himself.

Faced with these clear scriptural issues,we each need to ask ourselves a decisive question: Am I sincerely committed to support by every legitimate means the task of world evangelisation and the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in its own land? The answer we give will reveal our attitude towards the return of Jesus.

In the Master’s service,

Derek Prince