The Lovable Antichrist

By Carol Drake Wheatley

Have you ever wondered how the very elect of God will be deceived? Have you ever imagined it could actually happen to you? Well, it has!

The Lovable Antichrist is a warning from God to His elect. It will help you identify the antichrist(s) in your life and why they are lovable to you. It identifies some of the myths and deceptions that have crept (and even boldly marched) into the church. These teachings have solidly established themselves as mainstay doctrines, almost replacing the gospel as it was once preached.

The modern church is in a degraded condition and weakened to a point that many do not even know how to draw upon Gods power in challenging situations.

Because we live in an age of grace, weve been given the freedom to create this convoluted mess, but weve also been given the latitude and knowledge to fix it. The Lovable Antichrist is more than just a wake-up call from the Lord; it is a warning and a solution.

We are facing a difficult future when church as usual wont cut it for Christians. Were going to have to overcome challenges in which only Gods word and Gods way will work.

It is imperative that we learn to walk in the truths of the Bible.

It is imperative that we heed this warning!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490811130

Carol Drake Wheatley

Carol Drake Wheatley is a graduate of Rhema Bible College and founder of Power in the Workplace Ministries. As a crisis chaplain, she has seen firsthand how deceptive teachings have weakened the elect leaving them unable to draw on God’s strength. She is a community business leader, grandmother and sailor. For more information, please visit www.powerintheworkplace.com

Book preview

THE LOVEABLE

ANTICHRIST

Carol Drake Wheatley

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Copyright © 2013 Carol Drake Wheatley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Author photo by Joy A. Wheatley

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-1114-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-1115-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-1113-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013918440

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/17/2013

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1:       The Lovable Antichrist

Chapter 2:       How It All Started

Chapter 3:       Stuff We Believe

Chapter 4:       Stuff We Refuse to Believe

Chapter 5:       What’s Next

Chapter 6:       How It All Ends

Afterword

A Call to Action

About the Author

Bibliography

Scriptural Index

The Lovable Antichrist is about people we love,

and like you, I’ve been deceived by people I love.

This book is for those who refuse to be deceived.

God is crying out a warning to the church:

the spirit of antichrist is already in your midst;

you’re following him;

you’re loving him; and

you’ll be loyal to him

even as he convinces you to drink the Kool-Aid.

Preface

For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:24

T his book is a word from God to His elect. It will help you identify the antichrist(s) in your life and why you find them lovable.

We’re going to take a look at some of the myths and traditions that have crept into the church. Some have boldly marched in and solidly established themselves as mainstay teachings almost replacing the gospel as it was once preached. As a result, the modern church is in a degraded condition and a far cry from what our Father intended it to be, threatening the very elect mentioned in Matthew 24:24 above.

We live in an age of grace. We’ve been given the freedom to create this convoluted mess, but we’ve also been given the latitude and knowledge to fix it. You know the old saying, You can’t fix a problem unless you first acknowledge there IS a problem! So we can say this book is more than just a word from the Lord about a problem; it is a warning.

We are facing some very difficult times now and in the very near future. Times when church as usual won’t cut it for Christians. We’re going to be faced with challenges in which only God’s Word and God’s way will work, so it is imperative that we learn to accurately communicate God’s Word to one another.

It’s amazing how well our spiritual ancestors communicated. Written letters and personal visits created unity, and that was how people found out what was going on down the road and across the country. Without them what would we have by way of impartation of what the original disciples learned from Jesus and one another? Today we have e-mail, social media, TV, radio, and multiple cell phones, and yet we still don’t know what’s going on. Now maybe it’s just me, but I’d love to know what the church is up to. When I say church, I don’t mean the building you go to on Sunday or Wednesday or any of the other buildings folks go to once or twice a week. When I say church, I mean the body of Christ.

The body of Christ has become crippled because its members are disjointed and therefore lame and impotent. How did we get this way? The answer is evident: we got this way because we are autonomous.

According to Scripture, churches are supposed to be responsible for themselves while under the authority of spiritual leadership. But our God-given autonomy has gotten out of hand. Many churches today have no real place for Jesus because they have their own agendas. It seems to me that every church is doing its own thing instead of doing His thing! Churches seldom work together in unity to take a region for the kingdom of God. Why?

"Because if I help you, you might steal some of my church members." Aren’t we all one body? We should be helping each other. We should be working together. We should be praying together to determine what it is the Holy Spirit wants us to accomplish in our region. Then we should be joining forces to get the job done.

But we don’t often join forces, and the result is disastrous. Do you know why people ridicule the church? Because they see us as we really are. They don’t see signs, they don’t see wonders. They don’t see Jesus’ love demonstrated. Instead, they only see a bunch of self-serving, well-dressed, Bible-ignoring, sinning preachers and whining pew-warmers who are telling people they’re going to hell but are not giving them one reason to go to heaven.

Why don’t we get together in our own regions and pray to see what God wants us to do? Let’s start by first identifying some important issues that are vital to preventing the elect from being deceived.

The First Inkling

I’m not sure when I first began to realize that something was amiss, but it wasn’t long after I was born again back in the seventies. I was so excited to have given my life to the Lord and wanted to learn as much about Him as I could. I wanted to fellowship with people who really knew Him or at least talked like they did. I actually had a good role model, my first pastor, Jamie Buckingham, and I respected him. He had the humility to admit his faults and explained to us why certain things were sin and what the Bible said about them. When he worshipped, his face reflected a presence that I desperately wanted in my own life. I considered him a spiritual giant—a consideration I’m sure he never would have wanted if he had known.

There were other spiritual giants in that church, but their in-church personas didn’t line up with their out-of-church actions. I wondered how people who had been saved by the blood of Christ could be so mean and spiteful to one another when they lived under such grace. How could the words that came from their mouths be so contradictory to the words in the Bible?

But one day I woke up, and unfortunately, the newness of my salvation had worn off. The old Chuck Berry song, Maybelline, rang in my head: You done started back doin’ the things you used to do.

Then I began to see others’ lives through my own shortcomings. I began to realize that no one is a spiritual giant and that no one is immune from the temptations of the Enemy. I began to realize that Jesus is the only spiritual giant. As long as we’re trapped in these frail bodies, the church will have to rely solely on the Lord to overcome those temptations.

Over the years, I’ve heard many wonderful teachings from many wonderful teachers, but I never forgot something Jamie Buckingham taught me early on. He said that when it comes to the Word of God, if someone can talk you into believing it, someone else can talk you out of believing it. You have to take what you learn, go home, open your Bible, and ask God to show you the truth; then it’s yours because