The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thes. 2:9-12)

It’s no secret that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  is preoccupied with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure, al Mahdi.  This continues to raise concern that a nuclear-armed Iran would create the kind of global chaos he believes will be necessary to set the stage for the Mahdi’s return.  Recent events  seem to confirm this.  For example, after years of promising that their nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful, Iran just announced their intention to test a 1 kiloton nuclear warhead this year. Iran’s Supreme Leader is thought to favor announcing Iran’s nuclear capability as an accomplished fact as soon as possible.

Iran  has also made repeated threats to close the Straights of Hormuz, blocking over 35% of the world’s ship borne oil supply, and they’ve warned the US not to send it’s recently departed aircraft carrier back into the Persian Gulf. The US has responded by reversing the carrier’s departure course and ordering an additional carrier into the vicinity, which entered the Persian Gulf  this week.  In addition to the thousands of  troops the US recently stationed in Israel and Jordan in case of trouble in Syria,  15,000 more have now been stationed  in Kuwait in case of trouble in Iran.  It’s widely assumed that some kind of military showdown between the US and Iran is imminent.

Al Mahdi, which means the guided one,  is said to have gone into “occlusion” (disappeared) in the year 941 AD, at the age of five.  Shiite Moslems believe he will reappear at the end of the Age. They say his reappearance will be preceded by chaos, war and bloodshed. When he comes he’ll establish a world wide Islamic caliphate, and following a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness that lasts 7 years, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

This is obviously similar to Christian eschatology of the anti-Christ. Indeed, the Hidden Imam, as he’s also called, is expected to return in the company of Jesus.  Iran’s “Twelver” sect of Islam  believes the Mahdi is Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant, of the Prophet Mohammad. Both the Ayatollah Khamanei and Pres. Ahmadinejad claim to have communicated with him.

As he has has publicly explained, Ahmadinejad believes he’s been called to “pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.” To some, this means creating the chaos necessary to bring al Mahdi back.

He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.(Daniel 9:27)

The Prophet Daniel spoke of a seven-year rule by one who brings about Earth’s final judgment over 1000 years before Mohammed fashioned the religion we know as Islam. And as is the case with Shiite beliefs, Daniel’s ruler will rise to power on the heels of a great battle between the forces of good and evil as well. How else would he be able to use the promise of peace to deceive the world? (Daniel 8:25)

According to Revelation 13, this ruler and his false prophet will force the world into a common religion, killing all who resist. Shiites agree.  They insist the religion will be Islam, and that in the process all the Jews and Romans (Christians) who don’t convert will be put to death.

Good News And Bad News

Please understand, I’m not trying to give these Islamic beliefs about al Mahdi any legitimacy.  I’m only trying to show how similar they are to Biblical prophecies of the anti-Christ.  In fact the only discernible difference lies in one fact. Whereas Daniel and other Biblical figures who prophesied of this coming ruler viewed him as the ultimate expression of evil, eventually indwelt by Satan himself, Shiites see him as a force for good, ushering in a glorious age of worldwide Islamic rule. The two perceptions couldn’t be more opposite.

I think this difference is the sprouting seed of the powerful delusion Paul spoke of in 2 Thes. 2:11. During the Great Tribulation the world will experience a total reversal of perception from that of its Judeo-Christian past. Consider these two passages from the Revelation as confirmation.

Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”(Rev. 13:4) The dragon is Satan and the beast is the anti-Christ.

Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. (Rev 16:10-11)

As they clearly show, the End Times world will worship Satan and curse God.

Amazingly, this reversal of perception is also the basis of a New Age heresy called the Luciferian Doctrine. Simply put it holds that Lucifer, the angel of light (in Latin, Lucifer means light bearer) is desperately trying to bring mankind through the final, spiritual phase of human evolution, into the Utopian world man longs for.   But Lucifer is being thwarted in his efforts by the evil Adonay (from the Hebrew Adonai, which means Lord) who wants to destroy man. As you can see, it’s also the opposite of the truth, just like Paul warned (2 Thes. 2:9-12), and just like prophecies of al Mahdi appear to be.

By whatever name, this doctrine will permeate the One World religion of Daniel’s 70th Week. Because of the dramatic manifestations of supernatural signs and wonders during that time, the last vestiges of the godless secular humanism will finally die. Satan, who during our age has been content with giving anyone but God credit for the Creation of Earth and Man, will begin demanding credit for himself. And having refused to love the truth, man, who needs to believe in someone greater than himself, will be fair game for this lie.

The Luciferian Doctrine explains the difference between the Shiite view and Bible Prophecy and could be the powerful delusion Paul spoke of.  The god of Islam is not the God of the Bible, after all, and besides man there’s only one other created being who aspires to be God.

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11)

The man who doesn’t stand for something will fall for anything, the saying goes, so after the church disappears and the famine of God’s word prophesied by Amos takes hold, there will be a real longing for something to believe in on Earth. The Luciferian Doctrine will fit the bill nicely, especially when its two leading proponents, the anti-Christ and the False Prophet, will seem to have such supernatural power.

Mahmoud The Zealot

The introduction of religious zeal, counterfeit though it may be, into world events is the most dramatic proof since 1948 of the nearness of the end. In the final days of Communism, when some folks thought Gorbachev was the anti-Christ, they overlooked the absence of this critical component. Coming from the perspective of the Modern Rationalism of the 50′s, when God wasn’t thought to be real anymore, the godless Soviet enemy seemed sufficient to fulfill end times prophecy. And yet, the Bible speaks of powerful spiritual contention at the end of the age. After all the final battle is fought and won in the spiritual realm. It just takes place on Earth. It’s clear that events at the end of the age will include powerful, opposing, spiritual forces.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a religious zealot of the first magnitude. By his statements, it’s clear that he believes his Mahdi is coming soon, and that he has been chosen to have his country ready to receive him. An old Islamic saying goes, “When the students are ready, the teacher will come.” And he himself has declared, “We don’t shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world.” A man with that kind of zeal, given the kind of power he has, will not hesitate to plunge the world into chaos to hasten the day of his lord.

For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way (2 Thes 2:7).  But remember this, my friends. Before the powerful delusion can truly take hold, the truth has to disappear. The repository for truth in this age is the church, so when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.(Hebr. 4:12-13)

Some people view the soul and body interchangeably, while others think the soul and spirit are the same. But it’s more accurate to think of them as separate components.  Our soul is the conscious part of us, composed of mind (intellect), will, and emotions.   It makes choices and controls our behavior by giving orders to the body. Our spirit is the subconscious part, an internal adviser to the conscious soul.  It’s  our conscience.

Both our soul and our spirit are intangible and eternal and are housed in our body which is tangible and temporal. Our body is designed for use in this life, and when we die we leave it behind. Paul described our body as our earthly dwelling and spoke of how we long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.  Believers don’t desire so much to be rid of our earthly bodies, he said, as to receive our heavenly ones. He said receiving our heavenly body is the very purpose for which we were created, and that’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit at the first moment of our belief. He’s a deposit guaranteeing what is to come, which is the exchange of our earthly dwelling for our heavenly one. (2 Cor. 5:1-5)

It Wasn’t Always Like That

I believe Adam and Eve were created with a heavenly alignment of body, soul, and spirit.  Their body was submissive to their soul which was submissive to their spirit which was one with the Spirit of God.  But at the fall this alignment was perverted and through Satan’s influence the soul began to assert itself over the spirit. Both were contaminated by sin and the direct link to God was broken. In the time after the fall the soul became more assertive as man entered the period between Adam and Noah that some call the Dispensation of Conscience. Man was left to decide for himself what was right but because of the misalignment that came with the fall,  things got progressively worse until God had to wipe the slate clean and start over. This experience has been repeated again and again . Even the time of Israel’s dominance in the world, when the communication link with God was formally re-opened, ended in failure. During that period Prophets were appointed to speak to the people for God and Priests to speak to God for the people. But it wasn’t enough.

The problem was that the spirit of unsaved man is confused and uncertain because of the effects of sin and often gives bad advice to his soul, which is also contaminated by sin, making it impossible for him to please God.

The cross changed all that. Now, when we are born again our spirit becomes one with the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6:17) and the confusion and uncertainty clears up. Our spirit again knows right and wrong as absolutes, and as our conscience it begins to serve as a reliable guide to our soul, which is still sin infested.

The difference that being born again makes in us is so profound that we can only understand God’s word after we become believers. The natural man cannot comprehend it. (1 Cor 2:14) This explains why the Lord’s disciples were often confused about His teaching, and failed to understand much of it. They didn’t receive the Holy Spirit until the night of His resurrection. (John 20:22)

This is also why Jesus told us that our righteousness has to surpass that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  Not being born again, their efforts at keeping the law were acts of will and were often in conflict with what their spirits were advising them to do. In other words, it was still a matter of their soul asserting itself over their spirit. They just knew the law well enough to know when their spirits were giving them bad advice.  In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord had said, “These people come near to me with their lips (governed by the soul), but their hearts (spirits) are far from me.” Jesus accused them of looking like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matt. 23:27) Their obedience to the law was only intellectual assent backed up by will power. Their spirit was still infested with sin.

Back To Hebrews 4

But the Lord pays special attention to the motives of our heart and judges us on our intentions, not our actions. This is what the writer to the Hebrews meant when he said that the word of God can divide soul (behavior) and spirit (motive). He’s not fooled by man’s attempts at good behavior. He knows the thoughts and attitudes of our heart. Nothing is hidden from His sight. Commenting on ceremonial cleanliness He said that it’s not what goes into us that makes us unclean, but what comes out of us. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matt. 15:17-19) Jeremiah wrote that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. (Jere. 17:9) After sinning with Bathsheba, David prayed that God would create in him a pure heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within him. (Psalm 51:10)  This is what happens when we’re born again and the Holy Spirit unites with our spirit. It renews a steadfast spirit with in us.  It’s what David longed for, but it couldn’t happen before the cross. (John 7:39)

In effect, the Holy Spirit works through our spirit to repossess our soul from its bondage to sin. But since it’s not the conscious part of us, our spirit can only work to influence our decisions. Our soul must choose to heed the advice of our spirit, in whose “ear” the Holy Spirit is whispering. This is what Paul meant when he told us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (soul) (Romans 12:2).  This transformation consists of consciously choosing to allow the Holy Spirit to become the primary influence in determining our actions. This is the heavenly alignment again. God’s Spirit to our spirit, to our soul, and to our body. This is why the Pharisees were criticized. God’s Spirit was not within them, and so their obedience was a product of their intellect, their soul. Their spirit remained unregenerate. It looked good on the outside, but inside it was all out of order. It was form without substance, and it produced self righteousness, not humility.

The biggest problem we have is that our soul is still struggling with its bondage to sin, and therefore must constantly choose to submit to our renewed spirit. Remember the soul is where our behavioral decisions are made. Our spirit is one with the Spirit of God, but can only advise. Paul described our dilemma poignantly in Romans 7:14-25, saying that he had the desire to do good but could not carry it out. His spirit was one with God, but his soul sometimes rebelled. Inwardly he could delight in God’s Law, but outwardly he would sometimes conform to the law of sin and death.

It’s actually the opposite of the Pharisees’ problem. They looked good on the outside but were full of evil thoughts and intentions. While the Lord condemned them, he directs no condemnation toward us (Romans 8:1) because although our soul often betrays us, our spirit is one with God. He goes so far as to separate the behavior from the believer saying that it’s not we who sin, but the sin nature that dwells within us. (Romans 7:20)

Will This Ever End?

When we die or are raptured, our transformation will be complete, and the Holy Spirit’s work of repossessing our soul will be finished. The heavenly alignment will be permanently restored, our regenerated soul in perpetual submission to our spirit which is one with God. Only then will we be ready for our resurrection bodies. It will no longer occur to us to behave in a manner contrary to God’s will, and we’ll finally be fit to dwell with Him forever.

The new body we receive will compare to the old one only in physical characteristics. The old one is corrupt and doomed to perish. The new one will be incorruptible and will never perish. (1 Cor. 15:53) We’ll recognize each other and will know God as we are known by Him. (1 Cor.13:12) No longer will things be hidden from our understanding or beyond our comprehension because our soul, where understanding and comprehension take place, will finally be freed from the bondage of sin. The immeasurable creative capacity with which the human mind was created will finally be unleashed for our eternal use and enjoyment. The tiny nuggets of talent and ability in the arts and sciences that we can only faintly glimpse now will become rich veins to be mined for all eternity.

And best of all, we’ll finally achieve our heart’s true desire, to be one with our Creator, body, soul, and spirit.