Shalom, shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.
I have a website called ancientscrollsonline.com where I post teachings, prophetic dreams, visions, and prophetic words; ancientscrollsonline.com.
So, I had been thinking about the mystery of iniquity which is a spirit of antichrist that been around since the Garden in Genesis. It is a spirit that is against God. I never detected the antichrist spirit or really thought about it too much until the end of 2008; but then after that it has accelerated. Anyway we will talk about the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of sin, from 2 Thessalonians 2:7 and go over I John 2:18 as well.
Shema
Shema, O Israel, the LORD God, the LORD is One. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Psalm 24
The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.
Father YHVH,
You are the King of the Universe; King over all creation. You alone are righteous, just and Holy. We pray to be cleansed of all unrighteousness so that our prayers will be effective against the designs and strategies of the enemy. We pray You release instructions and directions to Your people today. We pray those that have ears to hear, those that have ears to obey and to understand, will hear what You are saying through Your Word and by Your Holy Spirit.
Remove the callouses from our hearts, and give us hearts of flesh that are sensitive to Your Holy Spirit. Help us to not love the world and the things of it, but to love You above it and above ourselves.
I pray for the revival to increase, and pray that Your righteousness and justice will reign in the earth. Thank You for Your Word. In Yeshua’s name.
So today let’s talk some concerning the mystery of iniquity which is an antichrist spirit. We are going to look at some passages in II Thessalonians chapter 2. And first, I am going to open up by asking some questions that will cause some of you to think.
Do any of you listeners ever understand when you hear an antichrist spirit speaking, for example, like the news agencies, or a TV minister, officials of international organizations, leaders of other nations? Have you ever detected the mystery of iniquity, better translated as the mystery of lawlessness? The Jews understand lawlessness to be Torahlessness. Did you know that Yeshua was a Jew and so were ALL the apostles? They were all Jews. Did you know the Apostles did not teach from the New Testament? Did you know the New Testament did not exist at the time of the Apostles?
Did you know for a hundred years after the death of Yeshua, the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings called the Old Testament by the Gentiles and the Tanach by the Jews were their only source of instruction? When a person went to a Messianic synagogue, or a house meeting, they received instruction from the Torah.
Did you know there was no intention by the Apostles to write a New Testament? Years had gone by before the life and oracles of Yeshua were scribed first in Hebrew, the gospel of Matthew. It was people who attended the Messianic assemblies or synagogues who persuaded the apostles to record their accounts of the ministry of Messiah, and the acts of the Apostles. The church historian Eusebius provides a lot of information on the first canonization of the gospels and letters of the apostles.
Around 130 A.D., Church father Papias (a former student of the Apostle John) explained: So then Matthew wrote the oracles in the Hebrew language, and everyone interpreted them as he was able. (Recorded by Eusebius in Church History, 3:39)
http://appleeye.org/2014/01/04/the-gospel-of-matthew-was-first-written-in-hebrew/
Nehemia Gordon was looking through a microfilm of miscellaneous documents photographed at the Vatican Library, when he came across three Hebrew pages of the Gospel of Luke and one page of the Gospel of John. Nehemia has transcribed, translated, and annotated these manuscripts and has made it available for download.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Thessalonians it was from his Jewish understanding of the Torah, and revelation from the Holy Spirit. Did you know his audience knew he was referring to the Torah when he was writing about the mystery of iniquity, or lawlessness? How else would you know what iniquity was unless you had the Torah in which to understanding of what it was? Where else would you get the information on what defines sins, transgressions and iniquity? Without the Torah/Law there would be no transgressions. There has to be a definition of sins, transgressions and iniquity. The Law spells out to us what righteousness is and reveals our failure at times of not being righteous. A person’s conduct or behavior is weighed or judged by the teachings of righteousness. If we do not understand first of all what righteousness is, we will be fooled by the unrighteous antichrist. It is the law that teaches righteousness. If we love God, we would want to obey righteousness. We would seek out His righteousness and practice them so that the whole world would glorify His name.
But the spirit of antichrist tells us the law, or the Torah is dead, even though Yeshua asserted that He had not come to destroy or abolish the Law, the teachings of God. It seems someone had forgotten to inform the apostles that the Law was now dead, because Paul wrote:
2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ESV
Paul instructed that all scripture is breathed out by God. There was no New Testament, so what is Paul referring to as all scripture? The Tanach, Gentiles say Old Testament.
I am going to read from the letter, 2 Thessalonians 2, that Paul wrote to them.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2. not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the Day of Christ had come. 3. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away (apostasy)comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
- who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 6. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
- For the mystery of iniquity/lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9. The coming of the lawless is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders, 10. and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. END
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2. not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the Day of Christ had come. 3. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away (apostasy) comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition . . . .
This portion is saying someone had spread a rumor that the Day of the Lord had already come. The Day referred to here is the Day of Yom Kippur/the day of Atonement/the Day of Judgment. This is observed in the fall after the feast of Yom Teruah, the blowing of trumpets. Whoever had spoken that the Judgment Day of the Lord had already occurred, Paul already knew from the Torah that was impossible. Paul goes on and explains The Day of Judgment, the coming of the Lord does not happen until the falling away comes first. The falling away is from the Greek word apostasia which often means, “defiance of established system or authority, rebellion, abandonment, breach of faith.
Paul is explaining that the day of the Lord cannot come until there is a widespread departure from the true faith of God. Some teach in error that the falling away, which is apostasia/apostasy, means to be raptured. There is nothing in the word apostasia that suggests somebody is flying away, it is just the opposite—they are falling away. There is a difference between going up and falling. Is there such a thing as falling up? I understand people are desperate looking for meanings that are not there to help build their case, but the love for truth should prevail over fleshly doctrines of men, truth should be the ultimate goal of learning and teaching.
Falling away, did you know Yeshua said the same thing in Matthew 24:10-12 when He taught there would be those who would abandon the faith: “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness (anomian, the Hebrew word for lawlessness would be hapasha means to break away from just authority) is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.
Paul would also stated: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away (aphistemi) from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons (I Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5)
Let’s go back and read 2 Thessalonians 2, I will repeat verse 3
- Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away (apostasy) comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition
- who opposes (what does the antichrist oppose? The Torah, God and Yeshua; the son of perdition is antichristian; he calls himself god) and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (this is an attempt to overthrow the Divine government that God had established, replacing God). 6. And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
There are a couple of things that is hindering the appearance of the antichrist: the Lord and time, and maybe the third thing would be there is no temple or tabernacle in Jerusalem. The antichrist will not make an appearance until God says it is time, so that the antichrist will be revealed in his own time and not before. If it were up to the devil, the antichrist would have already made his appearance; but he must be revealed in his own time—at the end of the age; after the apostasy. Now some would say it is the church that is holding him back, but I am unable to find any evidence of it. From what I can see the timing of the Lord is the biggest factor in the antichrist making his appearance.
- For the mystery of iniquity/lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
In 1Jo 3:4, the English Standard Version Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. This definition of sin sets forth its essential character as the rejection of the law, or will, of God; and the substitution of the will of God is self; in short, man replaces God. The mystery of iniquity exalts itself, it positions itself against the knowledge of God.
It is our responsibility like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10: We demolish arguments and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah.
The mystery of iniquity/lawlessness is against the Word of God. Because some of us do not read the Word ourselves, we are occupied with families and work and stresses of life, that we cannot understand the Word as a whole to us. We will accept someone’s opinion over what the Word gives us.
When the antichrist comes, many people and those who think they are Christians will receive him. He will speak words that are similar to the Word, namely peace. He will come in by peaceful methods because if I am understanding the word, the nations will be in chaos. The nations are already in strife and chaos because of COVID 19. The world is eroding, degenerating every day, divisions in this nation and throughout the world.
- Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9. The coming of the lawless is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders, 10. and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
So, the whole Word of the Old and New Testament is spiritual truth, and actually the New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament. Paul applied, or penned his knowledge of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings to the Messianic assemblies. If we do not know the Teachings/Law, what is righteous and what isn’t considered righteous, we will not recognize the antichrist when he comes speaking.
But anyway, I am at the end of the program.
If it is God’s will, I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spots, wrinkles and blemishes. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Love God and love your neighbor.
Ricco Cortes will sing the Aaronic priestly blessing.
