Before I was Born Again I puzzled over 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12 and 2 Corinthians 11:3-4.
What was “The Mystery of Iniquity” & “A Strong Delusion” & “Another Gospel”? I read many commentaries about them and I felt so strongly that they were something that we as Christians need to desperately watch out for. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that it was linked to the Religion of Mystery Babylon that John wrote about in Revelation 17 but I never realized how basic and simple it really is.
(2 Thessalonians 2:5-12 KJV)
“Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE: THAT THEY ALL MIGHT BE DAMNED WHO BELIEVED NOT THE TRUTH, BUT HAD PLEASURE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.”
I knew that it was linked with Satan’s original Lie from the Garden of Eden …
(Genesis 3:4 KJV)
“And the serpent said unto the woman, YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE:”
i.e. You can Sin and not be Judged.
This is the heart of Gnosticism.
Gnosticism goes back to the teachings of the Greek Philosophers who taught that the Physical and the Spiritual realms are separated and that the things that you do with your body do not effect you spiritually. This stands in stark contrast to the Word of God which teaches that the Physical and the Spiritual realms are parts of the Supernatural world that we live in. Our actions do effect us spiritually.
(Matthew 7:22-23 KJV)
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: DEPART FROM ME, YE THAT WORK INIQUITY.”
(Proverbs 23:7 KJV)
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: …”
(Matthew 15:19-20 KJV)
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: …”
(Galatians 5:19-21 KJV)
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
There is also a Complacency that yes, you will die but you can have your best life now.
(Isaiah 22:13-14 KJV)
“And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: LET US EAT AND DRINK; FOR TOMORROW WE SHALL DIE. And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, SURELY THIS INIQUITY SHALL NOT BE PURGED FROM YOU TILL YE DIE saith the Lord GOD of hosts.”
This all started to come together for me recently.
Peter and Paul and James and John and the other Apostles were proclaiming the true Gospel of Freedom FROM Sin, (entering into Christ through Repentance, Baptism to Jesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit), while at the same time the Apostles were seeing Gnosticism come into existence. They were seeing many people Saved FROM Sin but they also saw many go on in Sin. They saw the Legalism and the Sloppy Grace and they perceived the work of the subtle Serpent.
(2 Corinthians 11:3-4 KJV)
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth ANOTHER JESUS, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive ANOTHER SPIRIT, which ye have not received, or ANOTHER GOSPEL, which ye have not accepted, YE MIGHT WELL BEAR WITH HIM.”
They remembered the words of the LORD through Isaiah the prophet.
(Isaiah 8:19-22 KJV)
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? TO THE LAW and TO THE TESTIMONY: IF THEY SPEAK NOT ACCORDING TO THIS WORD, IT IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that WHEN THEY SHALL BE HUNGRY, THEY SHALL FRET THEMSELVES, AND CURSE THEIR KING AND THEIR GOD, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; AND THEY SHALL BE DRIVEN TO DARKNESS.”
Gnosticism infected the early church just as was fortold in Jesus’s Parable of the Tares in Matthew 13:24-43 and will continue to the end of the world.
(Revelation 3:14-22 KJV)
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and REPENT. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man HEAR MY VOICE, and open the door, I WILL COME IN TO HIM, and will sup with him, and he with me. TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GRANT TO SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE, EVEN AS I ALSO OVERCAME, AND AM SET DOWN WITH MY FATHER IN HIS THRONE. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
(Matthew 13:41-43 KJV)
“The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and THEM WHICH DO INIQUITY; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Gnostic Doctrine of Free Will
The Gnostic Doctrine of Know Thyself
The Gnostic Doctrine of God Helps those who Help Themselves
The Gnostic Doctrine of the Mystery of Iniquity
The Gnostic Doctrine of Narcissism
