The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2019 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 56

God’s Authority on Earth!

It really is simple.

Christ obeyed the Ten Commandments.

Satan broke them.

Which one should you follow?

Sin is breaking the Ten Commandments, God’s Law.

1Jn 3 World English Bible
4) Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
5) You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.

8) He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.

In Christ is no sin. He who sins is of the devil. Pretty simple.

The old King James translation clearly states verse 4 as “sin is the transgression of the law.” A number of other passages also show that sin is breaking God’s Commandments.

The Greek word translated “lawlessness” IN 1 John 3:4 is anomia. “Nomia” is law and the prefix “a” means “not,” so anomia means not-law, as anemia means not-blood. Anomia is breaking God’s Commandments.

Many Bible translations, especially older translations, do not consistently translate anomia as lawbreaking or lawlessness. Instead they substitute some less specific word like ‘iniquity’ or ‘evil.’ For example, the World English Bible, a generally accurate translation, renders anomia as iniquity (immoral or wicked) in the following passage.

Matt 7
19) Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.
20) Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.
21) Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22) Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’
23) Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity [anomia].’

The KJV also uses iniquity there. The Contemporary English Version and the International Standard Version use “evil.” The Good News Bible just says “you wicked people!”

Such translations do not show specifically what iniquity and evil is — breaking God’s Law. And the word there is anomia – lawlessness!

A number of translations do consistently translate anomia in Matthew 7:23 as lawlessness, or breaking the Law.

Matt 7:23 New English Translation
23) Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’

Matt 7:23 English Standard Version
23) And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Mat 7:23 Modern King James
23) And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!

Yeshua clearly stated, “Depart from me, you who work lawlessness!” — anomia, the same word used to define sin. Translating anomia accurately throughout the New Testament immediately shows the problem with people — breaking God’s Law.

Law-breakers will be thrown into the fiery furnace.

Matt 13 English Standard Version
41) The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
42) and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Pharisees, who saw themselves as the ultimate law-keepers, were actually full of lawlessness.

Matt 23 ESV
27) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
28) So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

At the end time, lawlessness — sin! — will increase.

Matt 24 ESV
9) “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.
10) And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

11) And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
12) And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
13) ​But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Christians can be freed from being slaves to lawlessness.

Rom 6 ESV
17) But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18) and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19) I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

That was Paul, who was supposed to have done away with the law, writing about lawlessness.

A difference between a believer in Christ and an unbeliever is that the believer seeks to obey the Commandments and the unbeliever doesn’t. One is in the light of Christ and the other is in the darkness of Satan. Therefore a law-keeper must not marry a law-breaker.

2Cor 6 ESV
14) Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

The New American Standard Bible is even more consistent than the ESV in translating anomia as lawlessness.  Hebrews 1:9, NASB, says that Christ hated lawlessness.

Heb 1 NASB
8) But of the Son He says, “your throne, o God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom.
9) “you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.”

Christ himself was without sin – no amonia.

1Pet 2WEB
21) For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,
22) who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”

On the other hand —

Satan is the very spirit of disobedience, the leader in transgressions and sins.

Eph 2
1) You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;

Satan is a murderer — breaking the sixth commandment — and a liar — ninth commandment.

John 8
44) You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

So, after all that, Yeshua did not sin. Satan does. Which one should we follow?

Easy answer.

Christ.

Yet almost all the world follows the law-breaker instead of the law-keeper!

Even most who consider themselves Christian do not believe in obeying the Ten Commandments, as they were written with God’s finger and spoken with God’s mouth.

Amazing! How can this be?

Rev 12
9) The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Satan is the deceiver of the whole earth. That’s why most of the earth follows his example instead of following Christ’s.

But Satan doesn’t get all these people to follow him by yelling, “I’m Satan! Follow me!” That’s not deception. Deception is getting you to follow Satan — without you knowing it.

The world at large doesn’t even believe in Satan. So when they follow him, breaking God’s Commandments, they think they’re just finding ‘self fulfillment.’

But Christians do believe in Satan. They do believe he is the adversary, going around as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Yet they usually still wind up following Satan’s example of breaking the Ten Commandments instead of following Christ’s example of obeying them.

How does that happen in the Christian religion?

It happens when people put someone between them and God — a religious authority.

The religious authority says that he or she or it is following God. And when people follow that religious authority, they think they’re following God.

Especially when that religious authority says stoutly and immodestly that people should follow him, her or it, possibly citing this verse.

1Cor 11 KJV
1) Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Paul already scolded the Corinthians in the first chapter of that first letter to them about following men, so Paul could not mean that people should follow him. Almost all other translations present the verse not as following Paul but as imitators of Paul.

1Cor 11:1 World English Bible
1) Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

1Cor 11:1 International Standard Version
1) Imitate me, as I do the Messiah.

Paul was saying to do the same things he was doing, not to follow him personally instead of following Christ directly.

Yet this is the deception that repeats itself. A religious authority, either a person or a church, appears to be righteous and doing good. At some point that authority then shifts the emphasis from following Christ directly to following the religious authority as it follows Christ. That emphasis is then shifted further to say that if people do not follow the religious authority, then they are not following Christ at all. And by that point, the religious authority, instead of following Christ – is actually following itself!

With that control, with centralized religious power, the religious authority then leads people into lawlessness, anomia, as they follow him, her or it instead of God.

Presto!

Satan wins.

Jeroboam did that.

We discussed Jeroboam changing the feast a couple of chapters ago, but Jeroboam didn’t really seem like a jerk.

1Kgs 11
28) The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon saw the young man that he was industrious, and he put him in charge of all the labor of the house of Joseph.

37) I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel.
38) It shall be, if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
39) I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever.’”
40) Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam; but Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

So Jeroboam certainly didn’t seem like a jerk. His kingdom could have been as David’s, except over ten tribes instead of just one. But Jeroboam put himself between the people and God. As king, he set himself up as the religious authority.

1Kgs 12
26) Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
27) If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
28) Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
29) He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
30) This thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan.
31) He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
32) Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; he did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
33) After this thing Jeroboam didn’t return from his evil way, but again made priests of the high places from among all the people. Whoever wanted to, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places.
34) This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth.

Yahweh Himself had set Jeroboam up, and promised him a kingdom like David’s. Wasn’t Jeroboam Yahweh’s representative on earth?

So Jeroboam, the religious authority, changed God’s feast, he created worship services with idols, and he consecrated the priests of the high places. He consecrated them. Jeroboam was like the high priest of high places, the authority between the people and God. And the people must have believed that.

Then Jeroboam, even though he didn’t speak Greek, led the people into anomia.

This pattern has repeated over and over throughout the last two thousand years, sometimes by kings, sometimes by religious rulers, sometimes by institutions. People always want a religious authority to look to, a king, a religious leader, a church, etc. So people — not God — set up what is for them a supreme religious authority. Then at some point – not always immediately but always — that authority leads the people into anomia.

When people centralize power in fallible humans, instead of looking directly to the infallible, sinless Son of God, anomia always appears. Kings, popes, chief apostles, archbishops and beatific bigwigs always — at some point — imitate Jeroboam.

This pattern of history culminates at the very end of this age with the ultimate in a human religious authority.

2Thess 2
1) Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Yeshua Christ, and our gathering together to him, we ask you
2) not to be quickly shaken in your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, saying that the day of Christ had come.
3) Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
4) he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
5) Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?
6) Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.
7) For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.
8) Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

That ultimate human religious authority will lead the world into anomia, and he himself is called “the lawless one:”

The ANOMOS!

Yeshua obeyed the Ten Commandments. Satan broke them. Which one should you follow?

Yeshua.

And only by following Him directly will you avoid Satan’s deception of anomia.