Apotheosis is a word that describes human beings elevating other human beings, including themselves, to God status.   The first instance of apotheosis took place in the Garden of Eden when the Serpent (Satan) convinced Adam and Eve that they could become “as God,” meaning that they would have the power to determine good and evil.  Only God can determine good and evil.  Religious, though unregenerate man has taken that power unto himself in the name of the very God he claims to have replaced.  The hundreds of “Christian” religions, faiths, denominations, cults, sects, orders, etc. bear witness to that truth.  Read the Introduction to this website for specific examples of man’s self-apotheosis.

There is a saying among humans that “timing is everything.”  Though timing is important, is not the most important aspect of an event.  Throughout the Holy Scriptures the Almighty reveals the importance of TIMING relative to what He would later do, and in some cases, what as well as what man would later do.  The Book of Revelation is a prime example of the Lord prophesying what both He and man would do during the final year of this present world.

In Matthew 24 Jesus warns His apostles (“sent ones”) would after they had fulfilled His commission to go into the world and preach “this gospel of the kingdom” to the masses (vs 14).  He warned them that a TIME would come when false prophets would rise up among their converts as wolves among sheep.  These men would profess to salvation seekers that He, Jesus of Nazareth, was indeed the Christ and, having gained their confidence, would “deceive many” of them into embracing one of Satan’s many religious organizations.  Today those groups fall into two categories: Catholic and Protestant.  Jesus was warning the apostles so that they could warn their followers of what would one day happen to them.  The only missing element was WHEN the mass deception would take place.  In DUE TIME man would be told what he needed to know.  That time is now.  One need only go to church or watch t.v. to see Christ’s prophecy coming to pass all around us.  The wolves are devouring the sheep.

For over 2000 years men have proclaimed that Jesus the Nazarite was indeed the Christ (“anointed One”) of God.  The consensus was that no one would actually believe a human being who proclaimed to be THE Christ of God.  Therefore, I, like everyone else, assumed that those false prophets would not claim that they themselves were the Christ.  We were right.  But there was another aspect to the Wolves’ message that would not be made manifest until the last days of the age.  TIME would reveal that there was more to Christ’s Words than met the spiritual eye.  In due TIME He opened man’s eyes to reveal what had been hidden in His Matthew 24:4,5 message.

I knew that the Lord’s Matthew 24 warning concerned the final days of this world system.  What I did not realize until a few years ago was that there was another TIMING aspect to His Words.  Truly, as King Solomon said, there is a TIME for all things.  There are several passages of Scripture that reveal this truth.  In Genesis 22 God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in a distant place, “… which I WILL show you,” meaning at the proper TIME.   On “the THIRD DAY”–the proper TIME–God showed it to him.  When Isaac reminded his father that they had nothing to sacrifice, Abraham told him that at the proper TIME God would provide a sacrifice, which He did (Gen. 22:7,8).

The location God had chosen for Abraham’s sacrifice was Mt. Moriah (the Temple Mount) in what is now Jerusalem.  When the TIMING was right, Abraham was shown where the sacrifice was to take place.  The Muslim world’s most important mosque now sits on Mt. Moriah.  Inside it is supposedly the boulder upon which Abraham laid Isaac.  I traveled to the Holy Land in the 1970’s with a church group.  The Muslims allowed us to enter the mosque and view the stone.  God would not allow me to go inside.

Scriptures reveal that men, including true men of God, are not allowed to know certain things until the TIMING is right.   But He always tells His messengers what is coming.  “Surely the Lord will do nothing unless He FIRST tells His servants, the prophets” (Amos 3:6).   TIMING, though often hidden, is important.  Which brings us to the “mystery” aspect of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:4,5.

Approximately 50 years ago the Almighty began to open the eyes of His true servants to a MYSTERY He had hidden from them for over 2000 years.  In the Matthew 24 statement He said that men would say, “I am the Christ.”  Jesus was warning that there would come a TIME when mortal men would say and actually believe that they, themselves are actual gods.  That which rational people did not believe could happen has indeed happened–man has declared that he, himself is in reality a god.  Today this theology is popular on the world scene and gaining in popularity among the masses.  The belief that people are themselves gods is the foundational theme of the NEW AGE MOVEMENT that came into its own in the 1970’s.

The prevailing mantra of the New Age Movement is: “We are all Christ; we are all part of the goodness and godness that permeates the universe.”  The belief is that once all people embrace their man-godness peace will be the order of the day world-wide and a state of oneness/goodness/godness will prevail upon planet earth.  This will create a heavenly state in which negativity of any kind will not be found.  Only the “enlightened” understand and embrace New Age theology today.  Over the past 50 years, the theology has made deep inroads into professing Christendom.  This series has pointed out some of its precepts, specifically concerning the will and its relation to reality.

One of the central themes of the New Age Movement is that sin does not actually exist.  Sin is a standard.  New Agers claim that there is no objective (socially agreed upon) standard of right and wrong by which humans are to judge their own and other people’s acts, thoughts, words, attitudes, etc.  With the eradication of wrong/sin, each person “… does what is right in his own eyes” as we are told in Proverbs 21:2.  The New Ager determines what is right–whatever pleases him at the moment–and wills away everything else.  In New Age reality, there is no wrong, no sin, no bad.  Man simply wills the concept of “wrong, bad, evil” out of existence.  “If I don’t want it to exist, it does not exist.”  Sound familiar?  As I stated, the New Age mentality is being embraced by conventional Christendom at an alarming rate.

Sin, New Agers tell us, is a forbidden figment of man’s imagination–a relic of the distant, ignorant past that has no place in the life of a more enlightened man-godkind).  After all, a god is incapable of sin.  Within the New Age Movement, apotheosis rules–man has become god, therefore man does not sin, which in actuality, does not exist.  Each person is his own deity and determiner of right.  Wrong having been done away with, man is only good, regardless of whatever form his “good” might take.  All are one; one is all; all is god; god is all.  “It’s all good” is the slogan of the day, all day, every day.  So where does this leave Jesus of Nazareth?  How does He fit into the system?  How does traditional religion fit into the New Age scheme of things?  As we will see, quite well.  L.J.