Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. (1 Corinthians 15:34)
Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
The Battle of Armageddon is the battle for our minds. Evil spirits have gone abroad throughout the world in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect of God. The rest of mankind already lives in deception and either actively supports the evil which rules this world or believes one or more of Satan’s false religions which forces them to persecute true believers while, at the same time, it keeps them from believing in Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake. There exists only one mediator between God and man, God’s son Jesus Christ. Jesus IS God who came to earth 2000 years ago and manifested himself and his ways in the flesh. You and I are not God. Our death, even if for noble reasons, can never bring salvation to another. There is ONE name under heaven by which men may be saved, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the actual Son of God. He created all things. John proclaims concerning him,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own,[b] and his own people[c] did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him,who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born,not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.[d]17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,[e] who is at the Father’s side,[f] he has made him known. (John 1:1-18 ESV)
In this amazing passage John succinctly states who Jesus is. Within it he also states who John the Baptist is not. John is not “the light.” John bore witness to the light, but he himself was not the light. Jesus proclaimed that among men born of women John the Baptist ranks the highest, or greatest. This means that one cannot attain to “godhood” by their own efforts in their flesh. Listen to me! Many lying spirits have cast their nets upon the earth in order to deceive men into thinking there is another way to God, another way to perfecting this flesh. I spent five hours yesterday listening to a lying spirit pretend that it was God the Father. This spirit used many, many Scriptures in his attempt to seduce me into believing that I, by faith in him “the Father,” could become in my flesh what Jesus was. The seduction was great, even baffling. I would have had no escape from this blasphemous teaching unless I knew the Holy Scriptures myself. So, in the hours following this encounter I simply began to remember what I have learned these many years and cast off the deception.
Jesus said that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John. How can this be? John, said Jesus, was the greatest man to have ever lived. How could he then be less great than the least in the Kingdom? John was flesh. The least in the Kingdom is spirit. Paul said,
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep,but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58)
John the Baptist was flesh and blood. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Our bodies of flesh and blood must be resurrected from the dead or they must be transfigured in an instant at the last trumpet when Christ proclaims the inauguration of his Kingdom before we may enter into that Kingdom. Do not be deceived. NO ONE enters the Kingdom unless he enters by the door, and that door is Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9) He also said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
