The M+G+R Foundation

How to discern sectarian groups within organized religion

Part 3

Discerning the False Christ

Thirteen Questions to Ask; Six Miracles to Seek


A guest document by Lee Penn

Originally published on January 22nd, 2011

Nuclear weapons have been used in combat for the first time since 1945; a global Depression – far worse than the 1930s – has collapsed the world economy; rioting, terrorism, and street crime are rampant; totalitarian leftists and fanatical rightists are battling for power worldwide; the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta are dead; the only limit to universal surveillance is the widespread collapse of the power grid and the unreliability of computer networks; police checkpoints, torture, and forced-labor camps are everywhere; in all religions, fanaticism and cultism are replacing authentic faith; charity, civility, and ordinary sanity are rare; epidemics, earthquakes, volcanoes, freakish storms, tidal waves, invasions of vermin, crop and animal plagues, and food shortages add to the misery.

It is difficult to get any accurate news – or even biased, stupid government/corporate propaganda – about what is happening throughout the world. The Internet is mostly down, and rumors have replaced CNN and Google.

Millions of conservative Christians who were sure that they would be Raptured off the planet (or led to safe places by Our Lady and/or the Saints) before the Tribulation began are now despondent and spiritually bereft; they never expected to suffer as they are doing now, and think that God has abandoned them.

Into this collapsing world, with its mass graves and universal fear and despair, a new “hope” has come. Handsome, enthusiastic, well-fed, well-dressed, and well-funded messengers are spreading the word everywhere that Christ has returned, and is going to restore the world, starting now. The evangelists are telling anyone who will listen to gather at a local church (or other meeting hall) to see him, to pledge allegiance to him, to be healed, and to be fed. The missionaries promise forgiveness, salvation, wealth, power, and security to those who obey.

Will you go to this meeting? Bear in mind that honoring the False Christ would be a deadly spiritual error with eternal consequences. Therefore, before accepting the invitation, it makes sense to get answers to some simple questions about the savior-of-the-day. (3)

Thirteen Simple Questions

When the False Christ comes, he will not come as an enemy of Jesus – he will claim to be Jesus returned (1 John 2:22-23). He will come in his own name (John 5:43), to claim the Church as his own, and to assert his own divinity (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:4). The False Christ will not come (in the manner of the Communists or radical Islamists) to destroy the Church. He will come appearing to be righteous. The False Christ will not meet the Left Behind-style stereotype of the left-wing, New Age Antichrist: a neo-pagan, Satanist, vegetarian, pacifist, ecologist, feminist, pot-smoking homosexual.

Christ will not glorify Himself; He will glorify the Father and render all things to Him (1 Corinthians 15:24, 28). When Christ comes, He will not need to make any claims on His own behalf; the heavens, the earth, and all who dwell on Earth will give Him honor. From the time that the Sign of the Son of Man appears in the skies (Matthew 24:30), the truth about Christ will be obvious to everyone.

The False Christ will either (a) use technology or the occult arts to appear in the skies in glory, or (b) will use his public relations apparatus to explain why such a manner of appearance is not necessary for him to be who he claims to be.

Christ will return on the clouds in glory, with the angels and all the saints accompanying Him. The Scriptural promises regarding the manner of His return (Acts 1:11; Matthew 24:30-31; Matthew 26:64) will be fulfilled literally and completely.

The appearance of the False Christ will be a media and ecclesiastical event, planned and exploited by propagandists and advertisers to the greatest extent possible at that time.

When Christ returns, the Church Administration, the propagandists, and their infrastructure will be destroyed by Him (Revelation 18) – if any of these people, organizations, and technology have remained in existence that long. The Return of Christ will be known for what it is, everywhere in the world, by everyone – with no media “push” needed or possible. (Matthew 24:27; Luke 17:24)

The False Christ will send out evangelists, and will seek converts. (Matthew 24:23-26). His apostles will counterfeit holiness, zeal, and orthodoxy – but the fruit of their deeds will be evil. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Matthew 7:15-23)

Christ will not proselytize; He will know His own and will draw them all to Himself, from all over the world (John 10:4-5; Matthew 24:28; Luke 17:37).

The False Christ will appeal to most people on Earth at that time – including most of those who now consider themselves to be “orthodox”, “conservative”, “traditional”, or “saved”. (So great will be his allure that – unless God shortened the reign of the deceiver – no one would be saved. However, for the sake of the Elect, God has shortened the time allotted to the False Christ to the very minimum – as noted in Matthew 24:22). The False Christ will attract, and reward, the rich, the powerful, and the proud – including the noble and royal houses of ancient “Christendom”. The Pharisees and Sadducees of our time will go down to their doom, following the accursed one who comes in his own name. In this, they will follow the precedent set by the Temple Masters, Scribes, and Pharisees of the time of Jesus and the Jewish revolts against Rome.

Those whom Jesus draws to himself will come from all nations, races, classes, and creeds; “sinners”, outcasts, the humble, and the poor will be chief among them, just as when Jesus was first on Earth.

The False Christ will do all of this, if his reign lasts long enough. He may claim to be establishing the “Social Reign of Christ the King”, or to be claiming his own divine rights.

Christ will execute Divine Judgment at the time of His return, drawing His Elect to Himself and destroying His enemies by His own action (with no need to set up any new earthly institutions to carry out this act of Justice.) (2 Thessalonians 2:8,10-12; 1 Corinthians 15:24-26; Revelation 19:11-21)

If the False Christ has sufficient time, he will set up a New Inquisition, and his list of victims will be reminiscent of those whom the Nazis persecuted. Jews will head his target list, followed by liberals, leftists, homosexuals, and anyone (of any faith) who rejects him. He will not tolerate Islam, atheism, “interfaith”, religious diversity, or worship of anything other than himself.

Christ will judge perfectly, and will save faithful Jews and Gentiles alike – whatever religion (or none) that they may now profess, and whatever their social standing or earthly reputation may have been.

The False Christ will work miracles in this manner (Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12), but they will be by the power of satan and not the power of God. His miracles will be materialistic, showy, presumptuous, and oriented toward earthly power (and his own self-glorification). Their pattern will be the “miracles” that satan proposed to Christ in the desert. (Matthew 4:1-11)

Christ’s miracles will be universal in scope and will – in sum – be greater than any since the time of Creation. In fact, Christ will renew, heal, and transfigure the whole Earth at the start of His Reign.

The Antichrist arose and remains within the structure of the Church (1 John 2:18-19). This forerunner and prophet of the False Christ lives in luxury in a palace (Matthew 11:8), wears ermine and custom-made red slippers, is honored by worldly men, and is world-famous.

The forerunner of Christ in this era follows the model of John the Baptist and Elias: he lives in austerity, is despised by the worldly who know of him, is known to few, and is believed by fewer.

The False Christ will arise from within the Church, will be promoted and honored by the Church Administration (except for a faithful few clergy and religious), and will proclaim his own divinity from his position within the Church.

The Church Administration will reject, hate, and fight Christ – until their enmity meets its reward from Christ.

The False Christ will give riches, honor, and power to the occupant of the Throne of Peter, the Church Administration, Opus Dei, and their allies.

Christ will swiftly and utterly destroy all these people and organizations (2 Thessalonians 2:8,10-12). They will descend from exaltation under the False Christ, to abasement and doom at the Return of Christ. (Revelation 19:20)

The False Christ will come to Rome, and be proclaimed there.

Christ will destroy Rome, the spiritual Babylon of our time. Mary’s prophecy of La Salette (4) (“Pagan Rome will disappear”), and Divine prophecy (Revelation 18:10, 21-24), will be fulfilled.

Even as the False Christ establishes and extends his power, the man-made and natural disasters that preceded his appearance will intensify (Revelation 16, 18).

When Christ returns, the disasters will end and the New Creation will commence.

The Six Great Miraculous Events At the Return of Christ

1.  At the time that the power of the False Christ is at its peak, it will begin to collapse, by Divine Intervention (Acts 2:19-20, referring to Joel 2:30-31; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-25; Luke 21:25-26; Revelation 6:12-14; Revelation 8:12).

2.  The Sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky; the nations of the earth will mourn as they see – too late – the truth about Christ. (Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7)

3.  Christ will send the angels to gather up all the Elect, those living and those who have died. (Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27)

First, the faithful dead will rise – the First Resurrection (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 6:13-14; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16; Revelation 20:5-6).

Then, the living faithful will be transfigured and will be taken up to Christ: the real Rapture. (Matthew 24:37-41; Luke 17:34-35; 1 Thessalonians 4:17)

4.  Christ will return to Earth on the clouds of heaven, in power and great glory, along with the angels and with the saints whom he has taken up to Himself. (Zechariah 14:5;  Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 16:27; Matthew 24:30-31; Matthew 26:64; Mark 13:26; Mark 14:62; Luke 9:26; Luke 21:27; Luke 22:69; John 1:51; Acts 1:10-11, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 19:11-16)

5.  By an act of Divine Judgment, Christ will destroy His enemies (Isaiah 11:4; Zechariah 14:3; Zechariah 14:12-14; Revelation 19:11-21)

6.  There will be a New Creation, a new heavens and a new earth. (Hebrews 12:26-27; Revelation 21:1-5)

How to discern sectarian groups within organized religion:

The manifestation of the False Christ

A typical example of an overzealous religious group

The attempt to establish One Universal Religion

The attempt to establish a New World Order

Sects within the Church (ecclesiastical masonry) - Who may they be?

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