Taking a Stand part 3 - Knowing God's Word, How To Interpret; Includes fun game idea

 How many words can you find? I’ve got a fun challenge about that on page 2 – you can challenge others, too. Missionaries faced this challenge in a remote tribal language that isn’t written. They had people write 5,000 words with symbols for sounds they made.

I don’t know if they had prefixes and suffixes – not all languages do. They make words come alive, you might say. “I ran faster” means more than before or more than someone else. Un- means in reverse (untie shoes) or opposite. Anti- is similar, it goes against something. If you get a bite from a poisonous snake, you might get treated with antivenom.

As we stand against deception, we must stand against the spirit of antichrist. Antichrist isn’t just the evil leader in Revelation. He will make war against all Christians – and, after 3.5 years, all Jews - and demand to be worshipped as God. The antichrist will be indwelt by the devil himself after 3.5 years. But there is another meaning to that word.

First John 4 says the spirit of antichrist was in the world even 2,000 years ago. This spirit denies all that Jesus stands for – love, mercy, grace, but also truth, justice, etc.. Remember, Jesus is God. His Second Coming will be as a conquering King. Ultimately, He will defeat all those who go against His perfect truth, He will defeat all who deny justice to others, etc. But, we should never forget the first. In a world where emotions run high and so much hatred exists, it’s very important to show a Godly example to others as we stand for truth.

How we stand against the spirit of antichrist depends on what form it takes. In this verse, it means anyone who says Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh. There were false teachers then, just like today, who don’t believe Jesus is God. This is why the right Bible is important – some flat out lie about Him, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who also don’t even read their own bible. Because it says the 144,000 witnesses in the End Times are all Jewish, from the 12 tribes of Israel, just like the real Bible does. Yet they claim they are the 144,000.

This shows how people can get so messed up when they take their minds off God’s Word and try to invent things. But people usually don’t get into cults like that because of their beliefs but because of the friendships they build. This is why it’s vital to watch where friends take you in life. But, also why if someone is in one of those, speaking the truth in love is vital, and prayer is so important so the Holy Spirit can help that person see the Bible is true, and that they shouldn’t follow the spirit of antichrist.

The spirit of antichrist, then, can mean one which is totally against Jesus because of its hatred of Jesus, or it can mean one which sounds very close but which doesn’t say Jesus is God, or doesn’t say Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Remember, for Him to die physically for our sin, He had to be fully man. For Him to rise again, He had to be fully God. Because He is fully God, that also means He never sinned, so He could become sin for us.

To stand against the spirit of antichrist, know your Bible – it’s why Sal emphasizes the KJV, too, from original Antiochan Greek. Plus, act in a way that honors Jesus. The spirit of antichrist is in churches, too, so don’t just ask people if they go to church. Ask what they are trusting in to get to Heaven. Be able to share how to trust Jesus by faith to be saved.

Now, our challenge: Write as many words as you can in a set amount of time.

NOte: I'm adding this if anyone wants to try - it's a fun game I challenged the Youthquake kids with whom I sent these to.

Background: Missionaries to the Buket people in the Asia Pacific region (look Buket up at Ethnos360.com) wanted to create a phonetic alphabet with words these people used. Since it wasn’t written, they came up with symbols for each sound and used those words to decide what are the most common sounds and so on. Along with the Ethnos360 search, you can Google “rapid word collection” for more info.

Limits: No looking at written material or the Internet for words. This must be oral, like that tribe did; 80 people got together and worked for several hours a day for 5 days.

You can use this paper, since I give some ideas, but once it’s put away it can’t be pulled out again. So, write the ones down you want to remember.

No fair adding prefixes or suffixes when you take this challenge. You can count each prefix or suffix once. (-er, -est, un-, and so on.)

We have a few much more educated people who I send e-mail devotionals, but I know they’ll find a way to handicap themselves like maybe not giving any words in their fields - otherwise they could give 5,000 parts of the body when you count names for all the different bones, muscles, etc.. Of course, that includes repeats, like left lung and right lung.

Speaking of repeats, you can use compound words since they usually have a unique meaning. (streetlight is a specific type of light and street is also a different word.) However, you can list “twenty” and “one,” but you can’t list “twenty-one” because otherwise you could just count all the way up to a million. So you can only use the numbers counting up to twenty, count by tens to hundred, and then words like thousand, million, etc..

Hints: Narrow a list into concepts. (animals, fruit, numbers with above limits, etc.)

Think of an object and then its parts. (Tree, bark – yes, only list the word once even if it has multiple meanings - trunk, leaf, etc.)

Talk things out – some words you might say naturally, but you don’t think of them when listing them since, of course, they are not objects (like “course”) or they go in between and around words to connect phrases. (“since,” “of,” etc.)

Remember, words can also sound the same but be spelled differently and have different meanings – so they count as separate words. (Course and coarse, meaning rough like sandpaper)

I’ll give anyone from the time you get this to the 28th. (At least one doesn’t check e-mail as regularly) This gives you time to tell classmates. Teachers can make it an in-class competition with their own rules. If yours does it in time, they can also e-mail and I’ll list the class winner or if they did it as a class, but make sure all visit our website, gcyouthquake.org, for the Gospel. If they decide to do it later, it’s still a fun activity but we want to say we have a definite winner in one of a few areas, not just a leader in the clubhouse. :-) But, still have them come see our site. Even if you don’t want to give your total, it’ll still be fun.