Antichrist Operative
The antichrist spirit is not simply working through the spiritual leader who outright comes against Christ and denounces the Jesus of the Bible. In fact, this type of leader is perhaps the least dangerous.
The antichrist spirit works most readily and effectively through the pastor or teacher who acknowledges Jesus and uses the Bible, but who also diminishes the subject of human sin and the blood of Jesus Christ. The preacher who talks of Jesus but ever so unrecognizably begins to diminish Christ to a moral teacher, agent of change, social reformer, or the source of self-actualization, is a pastor who is operating by the influence of the antichrist spirit.
There is no middle ground. You are either holding fast to the Jesus Christ of all the Bible, or you are working for the devil – knowingly or unknowingly. Every leader who operates by the antichrist spirit will be held responsible, for at some point, he or she neglected the full Gospel. Perhaps they did so because of a motivation of selfish gain or increased popularity. Maybe they neglected the full Gospel out of laziness of study, absence of sincere prayer, or inundation of cultural “norms.” Whatever the reason, each is culpable.
The Bible speaks for itself. And when preachers avidly, purposefully, and prayerfully study and teach its contents, Jesus Christ will be exalted.
Be wary, my friends. The antichrist spirit is not simply the spirit that is “against” Christ; it is also the spirit that is “in place of” Christ. So many churches have exchanged the fullness of the Christ of the Bible with a Christ of their own, worldly making.
– Shelli Prindle
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
(1 John 4:1-3)