The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. - 2Thessalonians 2: 9-12 (ESV)

The second chapter of the second letter by Paul to the Church at Thessalonica is meant as an assurance to the believers there and a correction from Paul to what appears to be a misapprehension on their part from the first letter. Based upon the context of this chapter it would appear that when Paul wrote his first letter and addressed the second coming of Christ that this unsettled many at the church and they mistakenly thought the events were at hand. Verses 13-17 provide comfort for those who are truly in Christ but before Paul gets there he clarifies what will happen for those who are not truly in Christ. I highlight these verses in light of the fact that no one likes to talk about and that is the increasing rate of false conversion in the church. Over the past decade we have seen the vast majority of non-Catholic churches adopt the Purpose Driven model when it comes to church administration resulting in a dumbing down of the Gospel and a switch from people being viewed as unsaved to unchurched. Stripping out the portions of the Gospel that result in salvation - namely sin and repentance - we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of people becoming churched and an equally proportional fall in the number being saved. The Barna Group, and evangelical organization that researches faith in America, found that only 26% of churchgoers claim that church has dramatically changed their lives. A whopping 46% claimed zero change while 25% were of the lukewarm variety. Considering the likelihood for error is on the side of sounding more pious, these numbers are probably pretty accurate and potentially very frightening. 

So what can we glean from these numbers? I think it is probably a fair statement to believe that upwards of 75% of the people going to church every Sunday are not actually born again and will stand before Christ asking "Lord Lord." Some may think this is a high number but realize how many people are completely suckered by false television preachers these days. Preachers with five personal jets. Preachers who tell them the Bible is about them. That God wants them rich and fat and content. No sacrifice. No cross. Cheap grace bought by millions worldwide. When I stop and consider the stranglehold these deceptions have on people I realize it is only by the true grace of God that the percentage is not higher! Remember beloved, the broad road which leads to hell is broad for a reason - there are a lot of people on it. Narrow is the way to heaven and few find it; so 26% doesn't sound so fanciful after all. 

So the key verses spell out that the lawless one will arrive as an activity of Satan. As one commentary points out - the Antichrist is to Satan as Christ is to God. There is no question where the power is coming from. You will not hear much anymore from America's pulpits about Satan, let alone the Antichrist. They are not considered seeker friendly. Quite frankly, that is exactly how the devil wants it. But note the condition of the perishing. They are naive, duped and easily fooled. What do they buy into? Power, false signs and wonders and all wicked deception. Wow. Think about that for a moment in the context of some of the nonsense that passes for church these days. People chasing absolutely heretical ministries being led by people bragging that they are apostles and prophets. Chasing false prophecies spoken over their lives from the demonic side of the spiritual war they are losing. Chasing eastern mysticism, transcendental meditation, yoga, and contemplative prayer. Chasing fake healers. Buying fake prayer cloths and holy tap water. Chasing the power man has accumulated for themselves instead of the power of God. Deceived and wickedly so. 

But hear the warning very well. These things we have just mentioned are the symptoms; not the disease. The cancer eating away at them behind all of this is a refusal to love the truth contained in the Word of God and so be saved. Period. I have dealt with people every week who get upset because their favorite false teacher has been called false correctly. The ends they will go to defend man is astonishing. You can present them with Biblical proof after Biblical proof but it will not matter because they refuse to love the truth. When you chase the next false prophet to lay hands on you - you are refusing to love the truth. When you continue to sit under blatantly false and hypocritical preaching - you are refusing to love the truth. Please, do not tell me you are waiting for God to tell you to leave. He already has - it's called the Bible. 

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. - Ephesians 5: 11 (ESV)

When you refuse to love the truth you lose the path to salvation. Only the Gospel saves. Not some three sentence prayer that never addresses our sin and desperate need for a Savior. Not some bogus purpose developed by worldly motivational experts. Only the Gospel. This is serious business beloved. Look at the next verse! God sends them a strong delusion! He hardens the heart of those who continue to reject Him under the banner of religion. I heard Paul Washer once quip that Joel Osteen was no so much a false teacher as he was God's judgment upon those people who were willing to sit through his sermons! That is what this verse is saying! At some point, God turns us over to our own lusts. He says if all you want is to be rich - I will send you a smiling wolf in a thousand dollar suit to tell you this is your best life now. That is one strong delusion. He says if all you want is to believe you are heaven bound while living bound to hell - I will send you a man to show you how to use the grace of God to approve of your sin. That is one strong delusion. 

That long introduction leads into this last delusion I referenced - hyper grace. It is one of the newer movements in the modern church and one of the fastest growing. The undisputed king of hyper-grace is Joseph Prince. Between his personal ministry and his church, his annual revenue is probably well in excess of 60 million dollars per year. Finances aside, the Prince heresy is one of the most insidious and the most dangerous. All one has to do is try and have a theological discussion with a Prince adherent. You have better luck getting through to a Jehovah Witness. It is by far the strongest delusion I see out there today. You can have a rational discussion with someone who believes in Word Faith or even prosperity doctrines. I think that might be because those false doctrines add something to Scripture where hyper-grace is leaven that has been interjected directly into Scripture. It fosters a different Gospel altogether, which Prince readily admits he preaches. It sounds so good to the itching ears because it reinforces the false notion that the law no longer matters to Christians. It sounds so correct because it uses every Scripture on grace to prop itself up. The issue of course is not with grace, which is at the core of sound doctrine. The issue is when grace is abused to justify false teachings that lead people astray from the truth. Not just the selective verses you like - the entire truth. The interesting thing when one follows the metamorphosis of Prince's preaching we can start to see the cracks in the armor when one insists on approaching the Bible strictly to prove your view is right. Joseph Prince's early preaching was centered on the plethora of Bible verses regarding grace and as such it was often difficult to spot the leaven. Now however, years later, he has been forced to start using the rest of the Bible and as he does we see one egregious mutilation of the Word after another - all claimed to have been given to him by direct revelation from God. Just this year we have documented the following absurd claims:

1) Ananias and Sapphira were unbelievers according to Prince. They have to be or else his whole theology falls apart. Because according to Prince, God doesn't punish believers. 

2) That people who follow his teaching are part of the "Benjamin Generation" where God will provide five times the temporal blessings, five changes of anointings and that God will "serve you."

3) That God sent the flood as an act of mercy not wrath, because Noah was the only pure bred human left and God wanted to preserve humanity. 

4) That repentance merely means to "consent to be loved."

5) That the warnings to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3 is actually speaking against mixing law and grace. 

There are more but the point has been made. In order to continue to prop up his false gospel, he is now forced to create doctrine where it does not exist and make up the Bible as he goes along. When you start to peel away the layers of misinformation it seems that there are just some fundamental errors underlying his gospel and they deal with understanding the role of wrath, chastisement and reaping. Let's take a closer look at these and what the Bible says about them.

In Prince's teaching on the "Benjamin Generation" he claimed, as he usually does, that God has no more wrath because of the work on the cross. This is the closest he gets to the truth. We are not living in the time of wrath because of the grace of God. His wrath is coming though. God does not change and we know wrath is one of His attributes. Just ask Sodom and Gomorrah. Likewise however it is important here to realize that this time of grace is for everyone:

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. - 1John 2: 2-6 (ESV)

Propitiate means to bring a state of peace and that is exactly what Jesus did. His work on the cross allows all mankind the opportunity to come back home to the Father through Him who was slain. It does not eliminate wrath - it stays it. But the rest of the context completely destroys the core of Prince doctrine. How do we know if we have come to Christ? Not be ignoring the law. Not by pretending it has no value to us. No. By keeping his commandments! Where wrath is defined as punishment as a consequence of anger; chastisement has a more parental feel to it:

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. - Hebrews 12: 5-8 (ESV)

In the world of Joseph Prince God never does anything negative towards His children even though that makes Him an absentee parent! The reality is that God loves us as a parent. The "friend of God" theology continues to confuse the roles. Jesus Christ must be our Lord. That means He is in charge, not me. That means I understand that He disciplines those He loves. It is through discipline that we can grow deeper in Christ. Hyper-grace makes us illegitimate children. The final component tying all of this together is the general principle of sowing and reaping:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. - Galatians 6: 7-8 (ESV)

This is the other side of forgetting the law. Of casting it aside because of the cross. There is a reason why the Bible urges us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. There are real temporal consequences for sowing to our flesh. Carnality reaps more carnality. Encouraging lawlessness leads to lawlessness. The teaching that it is irrelevant flies in the face of many Scriptures even one that spells out the end time problem we touched upon earlier:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV)

These verses eviscerate the teachings of Joseph Prince. The people described here are obviously churched people. They may have even served in church their whole life. They saw many miracles and demonic deliverances yet were never really serving God. What is the calling card of such people? Lawlessness. If believers need not concern themselves with the law, how does one explain these verses? The truth is that grace and law are two sides of the same coin and hyper-grace is a powerful delusion that uses a double sided coin with grace on both sides. These three things - wrath, chastisement and reaping all work together. God is wrath but it is stayed during this era of grace where people can freely come to Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. That does not mean however that God ceases from being parental and abandons His children by eliminating discipline. Overall, we are still bound by the universal law of sowing and reaping and ignoring the laws God has established is nothing more than pure carnality and carnality always has a price tag we do not want to pay. 

These are truths however for the 26% that sit in good and bad churches across this land but are truly born again. You can find God wherever you are. He isn't that difficult to find for the one truly seeking Him. The harder reality remains for the 74% who go to church but report that it does not even impact their life. They sit under false teaching and lap it up each week instead of using their Bible to discern what is and what is not from God. Further compounding matters is they answered an altar call once in their life, said a three sentence prayer and were assured by some preacher that they were saved. No penitent faith. No regenerate heart. No continuing fruit of salvation. Jesus taught that when you are convinced that your darkness is actually light - how deep is that darkness. A delusion has been visited upon them because they refuse to believe the truth and pleasure in their unrighteousness. That is upwards of 74% of the people who sit next to us every week. Let us always work out our salvation with fear and trembling. If we find ourselves attracted to these types of false teachings let us always return to the full counsel of God. Because we always reap what we sow. God is always our Father. And wrath is coming soon. 

Reverend Anthony Wade - May 17, 2014