CfaN Christ for all Nations

Reinhard Bonnke
And....  Antichrist

The letters of John are the only place in the Bible where we find the word Antichrist. That's not to say that the subject of antichrist is not addressed elsewhere. It certainly is – for example in Revelation 13, 17, Jude, 2 Peter 2, 1 Timothy 4, Matthew 24, and 2 Thessalonians 2, etc.

Even in the Old Testament, the prophets contended with antichrist back then, although not known by such a term. Isaiah adjured God's people:

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you (Is 52:1).

(More on this text is expounded under Awake! Awake!)

From the very beginning, the wicked have been a perpetual thorn to those who are true to God.

1. Cain resented Abel (Gen 4), but refused to do what was right – what God required of him.

2. Ishmael vied with Isaac (Gen 21:9; 16:12), and Esau contended with Jacob (Gen 27:41,42). The sons of promise were persecuted by the ones excluded (Gal 4:22-29).

3. Joseph was called to be a prophet / deliverer, so his brothers hated, slandered, and rejected him (Gen 37).

4. Balaam wanted to be 'in' with God, yet prophesy against Israel (Numbers 22-24).

5. God had chosen David, but king Saul whom he was to replace, sought to kill him (1 Sam 18).

These are just some of the stories that run throughout the Bible, of continual friction generated by the wicked against the righteous. It has never abated. It is part of Satan's attempt to undo God's plans, but God allows it. It is a test of the righteous, to have to face antichrists.

Now, in this end time, antichrist's subtlety is far more subtle, more pernicious, more damaging, because it looks so harmless. Of this danger, John was aware:

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come... (1 Jn 2:18). Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist (2:22). [That was the lie at that time. Now it is more subtle!]

Subtle substitution takes place, denying Jesus. John was warning them to beware of counterfeit, just as Paul had warned much earlier:

...take heed... savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves (Acts 20:28-30).

How could this occur? Through camouflage. By substitution.

Today, churches are full of these substitutes – camouflaged – made to look like the genuine thing, while they are not.

1. We have Christmas and Easter, both pagan in origin, NOT given biblical sanction, but masquerading as 'Christian' commemorations!

2. We have church government, hierarchic and convincing, looking like an authentic institution of Christ. But Jesus did not sanction it!

3. We have church meetings convened on Sundays, an 'alternative' to the biblical weekly Sabbaths – without authentic biblical mandate!

4. We have church buildings, church activities, church programmes all established by human decree!

5. We have ministers who don their ecclesiastical garb, not in accord with any biblical instruction, but because it's what their church does.

6. We have church doctrines, subtly taking away from Bible truths, the latter now being submerged in a sea of error.

7. And we have, on top of many other substitutions that we could mention, the worst and most blasphemous substitution of all – men taking the place of Christ in the Church – and when challenged about their errors, deceptions and false practices, who act as though they have no need to address such matters or change them, because THEY claim to be God's representatives, usurping Christ's prerogatives on earth.

All this is part of the Antichrist of which John warned, though he saw only a fragment of it in his time compared with today! It is a sign that Jesus is coming soon!

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin [lawlessness] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thes 2:3,4). This is a deceiver and an antichrist (2 Jn 2:7).

The IDOLATRY Of Reinhard’s Work

Is Reinhard Bonnke a deceiver and antichrist?

When Reinhard Bonnke stands on stage before tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, is he not standing ‘as God’ in the temple of God!? The temple of God comprises God’s people, so we are not talking about a physical building in this context.

When he officiates before the people, do they look up to him with veneration? They do. Do they look to him for healing and deliverance? They do. Do they regard him as a mediator between them and God? They do.

Anyone who stands in the place of Christ as the people’s mediator is an antichrist. So says your Bible.

The Word of God is sure. It cannot be broken!

Don’t look to the man, and think that just because Reinhard has led millions to Christ, that there could not be anything seriously wrong with his ministry! THERE IS SOMETHING VERY SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH REINHARD’S MINISTRY! And I have been trying to emphasise that in several articles, of which this is only one.

In fact, there are several things very wrong!

But do people care for the truth? Not really. Most people care for physical things more than the spiritual. They also prefer to elevate a man than worship God. THIS IS IDOLATRY!

Awake! Awake!

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you (Is 52:1).

This passage of Scripture is a prophecy. It foretells of the need of God's people – His Church (Zion or Jerusalem prophetically depict the people whom God is working with, in whom He lives) – to 'put on' acts and attitudes that are righteous. Jesus gives us the interpretation of 'garments' in Revelation 19:7-8. There, He also places the above text in chronological context for us now, in this Age.

The uncircumcised and unclean represent false ministers and bogus Christians. It's an allegory of what is needful spiritually, for them, just as Jeremiah exhorted in Jeremiah 4:4 to the false in his day.

[Such people] make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness (Is 48:1).

So, God's people, who are to be righteous and true to Him, need to:

Shake yourself from the dust [the dirt of false teachings], arise [spiritually]; sit down [sit in the seats of authority which Jesus has given you as priests of God in accordance with 1 Peter 2:9], O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck [the bondage of deceptions, principally that of submission to church leaders who usurp Christ’s lordship], O Captive daughter [descendant, i.e. In the last days] of Zion! [Zion is a figure for the Church] (Is 52:2).

These people are in spiritual captivity. They are held in bondage – a bondage of subservience to false ministers in hierarchic domination; and bondage to such leaders' doctrinal errors, which they dare not defy.

This is where the end-time Midnight 'cry' comes in again:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace [Heb. shalom, well-being, i.e. the gospel], who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'

Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together; for they shall see eye to eye [church divisions are manifold now!] when the Lord brings back Zion (Is 52:7,8).

What is He talking about: Brings back Zion? What does He mean?

Look at this prophecy from Deuteronomy 4 and you'll see:

Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you (Deut 4:23).

At that time, such idolatry was a reversion to customs that were widespread in society around them. Egyptian culture was full of the worship of many useless gods, depicted by carved images. Today's counterparts for the modern people of God are the acceptance of our society's materialism, and the employment in worship of anything which society accepts in place of what God has instituted (such as Sunday worship; and following men instead of the Spirit). For you to rise up, you must reject society's, and the Church's, norms. They are idolatrous!

Continuing the prophecy:

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deut 4:24).

This is not merely Old Testament 'ferocity' or 'harshness', as some modernists like to claim. The same fiery portrayal of God as completely intolerant of such aberrance is repeated in Hebrews 12:29. You must serve God acceptably with reverence and fear (Heb 12:28). He will not tolerate wilful (knowing) compromise!

He tells us in His Word what is acceptable to Him. But men of the 'cloth' have twisted and distorted His words to suit society's norms. Their dishonest exegesis is subjective, based on false premises which they are not willing to have challenged. But they will be! They will be shaken out of existence before God is finished!

Again, continuing the prophecy:

When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly... and do evil... I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land... You will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone [made slaves by enemies, to produce the 'gods' of materialism that they chose to worship, until they are totally sick of it] ... When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days (Deut 4:25-28, 30).

This prophecy does not merely refer to Israel of old. Britain and America are facing its fulfilment right now. For the spread of unrestrained sin, God's judgement will fall! And on other nations, too.

It is the end time – God's time to judge all nations (Luke 21:22; Isaiah chapters 13-24). And He is judging the Church!

The catastrophe that God depicts in Deuteronomy 4:23-30 for His people in this end time is His judgement against their rebellion and sin. But He promises to bring them back from this captivity:

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God... (Deut 4:29-31).

Do you see now what Isaiah meant?...

...when the Lord brings back Zion (Is 52:8).

He will bring His people back to Him. He is bringing you back, for:

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart (Jer 29:13).

The Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you (Deut 30:3).

There is a spiritual parallel, too. God 'scatters' people in various churches and cults, so you can learn what is wrong with them. Then He delivers you out of your 'wilderness' experience, to find what is right. Only then can He truly come into you and lead you by His Spirit.

In 1990, my wife and I were thrown out of the church where we had been members for 22 years. Our sin? We defied the minister's 'authority'. I saw his evil fruits and labelled him a false minister. God set up the circumstances to deliver us, although I didn't see it as deliverance at the time. We were falsely accused and spiritually abused.

During 1991, He led me through an unusual 'tour' of His Word. He showed me what was wrong with church government. That year and in 1992, He added to that fund of knowledge by revelation and had me write it all down. It formed the basis of God's Church – Whose Authority?

Later that year, He showed us the need to start a regular paper or journal through which He could reveal more as I listened to Him and wrote as I was moved by His Spirit. When our family was sitting in our lounge one evening, He gave us the title of the journal. He took Helena to Isaiah 52 and showed her it was to be called Awake! Awake!

In 55 issues of Awake! Awake! I wrote down the revelations which God gave us and elaborated upon them. Then in 2000 God directed us to cease publishing it. The number (5 x 11) is significant. 5 depicts God's preparation; 11 is a numeric symbol of writings He inspires, with a secondary meaning of judgment.

God was moving!

The many articles we included in those magazines now comprise five volumes entitled Articles of Faith. (Available from Midnight Ministries for a suggested donation of £5.00 each.) All this was God's doing, from the direction and guidance of His Spirit, to help prepare the Bride and deliver her from spiritual captivity.

That's why He took us to Isaiah 52 and spoke so forcibly about the Church's need to AWAKE!

Most still sleep! There is much work to be done to awaken them from slumber. And there is very little time in which to do it. Emphatically:

Therefore He says, 'Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light' (Eph 5:14).

How will Jesus wake them up?

Your dead shall live; together with my dead body [margin: their dead bodies] they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs [life-giving, regenerating, restorative!], and the earth shall cast out the dead (Is 26:19).

That is what God is about to do. He is going to raise 50 people, and more, from the dead! You will see it in Britain and elsewhere.

We have reported four people raised from the dead in Nigeria^[1] in conjunction with this ministry's outreach through David Isaac Ohuoba, and have publicised another person's story, also from Nigeria,^[2] besides various anecdotes of many other people in the booklet Raising The Dead – Testimonies in Our Time (£2.00).

But, more than those precursors, God is going to bring back people from the dead who have been long gone – dead for many years! When dead people walk your streets, like before (Matt 27:52,53), you will know that it is time for the ten virgins to awake – to acknowledge the errors of their churches and come out to follow Christ more fully.

While they stay there, their worship is compromised. While you give church leaders – even though they ostensibly 'represent' Christ – your loyalty, you commit idolatry, and sleep.

It's high time to awake, to come out (Rev 18:4), to put on the 'new' garments of righteousness He is presenting through this ministry. It's time to shake off the dust and dirt of heresies, and be willing to follow Him uncompromisingly, so that you can truly meet with Jesus.

Getting Ready

I don’t have space in this short article to tell you all that you need to do to get ready so that you can be part of the Bride. All I can do is list some publications you would do well to read, so that you can move ahead spiritually.

Revelation 11:1 describes the measuring of the Temple. That is taking place now. But the outer court, which represents those in churches who do not move on with further truth, and who do not listen to the Spirit, are left out (Rev 11:2).

We are not far away from this measuring taking place throughout the whole Church, worldwide. It culminates in the judgement of God during the time of the two witnesses (Rev 11:3). All this is explained more fully in Understanding The Book of Revelation.

Paul wrote of a ‘false prophet’ or antichrist, who, in his presumptuous, permissive arrogance:

...opposes [truth and those who are true] and exalts himself above all... so that he sits as God in the temple of God... (2 Thes 2:4).

This is part of "the mystery of lawlessness" as Paul called it (v 7). Mystery means something hidden from the eyes of most.

You don't perceive this error for what it is. Most people are fooled – deluded by personality or human performance – carried away by the charm, charisma and prophetic giftings of those who have gone in Jesus’ name. They don't see that these highly seductive people (in a spiritual sense) have received "strong delusion that they should believe the lie" (2 Thes 2:11).

[They] perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved (2 Thes 2:10).

There’s one essential ingredient for you to be able to get ready to be part of the Bride of Christ. On that, all others hinge.

You need the fear of God!

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil (Prov 3:7).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Prov 1:7).

But the majority don’t care for that fear of God. Most won't receive correction. They just won't be instructed! They think they've got it all – or near enough all. And they certainly don't think they need what this prophet presents to them – further truths that are not appealing. They definitely won't receive those! It's a shame.

Only those with humility will hear from Him truly:

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant (Ps 25:14).

But the obdurate only resist and rebel. I am under no illusions about the fact that the majority will NOT accept further truths which God is restoring! They will not be part of the Bride.   

Malcolm B Heap, March 2008