Dear amigo de christo,
Do you understand that after the death of Paul, scripture teaches that all new believers (babes) will be deceived by the spirit of anti-Christ and will fall from grace?
All the Elect will experience the apostasy in their own lives as they travel the "one way to the Father". They cannot avoid it.
This truth is taught in many of Christ's New Covenant teachings. For that reason, when Christ returns (His second coming) to convert one of His Elect, He will find them in an apostate condition. To restore them, Christ will pour out the Latter Rain of the Spirit. This is the baptism of the Spirit and it will heal the person's spiritual blindness just as it did for Paul when He received the Latter Rain of the Spirit:
17 And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. 18 And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. 19 And when he had received meat (truth), he was strengthened.
After the Elect person's spiritual blindness is healed, they will begin feasting on God's Word for the first time. This event is what the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Lord's Supper represent.
If you re-read the story of Paul's conversion experience in Acts 9, you will notice that after Paul received the Early Rain of the Spirit on the Damascus Road, Paul became blind and had to be led by the hand into Damascus.
Note: Damascus is a "type" for earthly Jerusalem where all the prophets/saints are killed. The Old Covenant prophets were physically killed because the Old Covenant was a physical and outward covenant. But the New Covenant is different. It is a spiritual covenant. When the New Covenant saints are killed, they are spiritually killed (loss of salvation) in earthly Jerusalem. This death can only happen in one way. That way is when they commit the "sin that leads to death" (1John 5:16) of mixing their own works with faith.
While Paul was in Damascus his first three days (the number three represents a spiritual process is happening), Paul could not eat or drink. This represented that Paul could not eat the true bread from heaven or drink the New Wine of Christ's blood. The spiritual process that Paul experienced during those three days made Paul into a "man of sin".
Christ teaches the spiritual process that Paul experienced in Damascus in the scripture below:
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself SEVEN other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
The spiritual symbol of an unclean spirit represents a spirit which teaches Satan's false truth through lies and deceptions.
Since a new believer remains spiritually blind (Mark 8:21-25) after receiving the Early Rain of the Spirit, they cannot replace their worldly false beliefs with the truth of Christ. ONE unclean spirit leaves but comes back with SEVEN more. The number "seven" represents perfection. In this case, the number seven represents the perfection of Satan's lies/deceptions which come to a believer by the indwelling of the spirit of anti-Christ. Now, instead of ONE unclean spirit within the believer, they now have EIGHT. The number eight is a spiritual symbol which represents a new spiritual condition. In this case, the new spiritual condition is worse than the first.
This "worse than the first" spiritual condition causes the believer to become a False Prophet, a Man of Sin, a Minister of Satan and a Seven Headed Beast with Ten Horns & Crowns.
After Paul had fully accepted Satan's "another gospel" and had become "worse than the first" (man of sin), the time for the "end of the ages" to come upon Paul arrived. Christ (typed by Ananias) then returned to Paul and poured out the Latter Rain of the Spirit.
The verse below teaches this same truth:
Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom (Satan's "another gospel) shall be preached in all the world (the apostate believer) for a witness unto all nations (fully accepted by person); and then shall the end come.
The "end" is referring to the "end of the ages" when Christ returns and pours out the Latter Rain of the Spirit upon the worsened child.
Paul confirms this understanding in the verse below:
1Cor 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as types, and have been written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
After the Elect person has received the Latter Rain of the Spirit, the new child of God will be born and gathered to heaven (spiritually speaking, Mat 24:29-31).
It is only the new child of God who can see spiritually. Carnal mankind is and always will be blinded by their carnal mind.
With their new ability to see spiritually, the Elect believer will see the Abomination of Desolation that had previously occurred within themselves when the spirit of anti-Christ entered them.
These verses apply:
Mat 24:15 When (not if) ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (God's temple/the believer), (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains (as Lot did before judgment fell):
When judgment falls on the Elect believer, it will spiritually remove and destroy the worsened child of the devil (man of sin) from within them.
This judgment is described below:
Mat 24:40 Then shall two (one Elect person) be in the field; the one shall be taken (the spirit of anti-Christ), and the other left (Holy Spirit). 41 Two women (one Elect person) shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken (the Great Harlot), and the other left (Holy Spirit).
The man of sin has two spiritual parts: the spirit of anti-Christ and the Great Harlot. The Great Harlot is a symbol which represents mankind's "marred" and carnal spirit (Jer 18:4).
This verse applies to the judgment of the Great Harlot:
Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great (city) is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils (spirit of anti-Christ), and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Babylon the great city is synonymous with earthly Jerusalem, Damascus, Egypt, Sodom AND the Great Harlot (Rev 17:1 & 18).
It is the spirit of anti-Christ that makes the person's marred and carnal spirit worse than the first. Both spirits must be removed and destroyed by Christ's judgment so that the Elect believer will only be guided by the Holy Spirit. After this judgment is complete, the Elect believer will be changed from a worsened child of the devil into a child of God. This is what must happen for a person to be converted.
I will end with this final verse:
1Sam 12:17 Is it not wheat harvest today? (conversion day of the Elect) I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and Rain (Latter Rain); that ye may perceive (spiritual blindness healed) and see that your wickedness is great (Man of Sin revealed), which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king.
What I presented above is the true "one way to the Father". It happens to a person solely by the work of Christ and at a time of God's choosing. The person contributes nothing because they have nothing that they can contribute.
Joe
