Oneness Heresy Paving the Way for the Antichrist

The Bible makes it clear that the antichrist is going to be very convincing. Many unsaved people all over the world will be deceived, and there is a reason why that is the case. The idea of a mark in the forehead originally came from God, not the Devil. The Bible mentions a mark being placed in the forehead of those who are righteous. The first mention of this mark is found in Ezekiel 9:4 and it comes up again a few times in the Book of Revelation.

“And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Ezekiel 9:4

“Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Revelation 7:3

The Devil is not stupid. He wants to dupe people by counterfeiting something that is mentioned positively in scripture. He's going to use the verses about God's mark to convince people to take his mark, but there is a colossal difference between the mark of the beast and the other forehead mark. I believe the major difference in the two marks will be the name.

The Bible teaches that the antichrist won’t be coming in the name of God the Father. The antichrist will come in his own name. I’m not sure if he is going to go by the name of Jesus or by the name of "Yeshua" (a bogus name promoted by the Hebrew roots movement), but whatever exact name he goes by, he will be claiming to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. In order to deceive those who know that the mark is supposed to be the Father’s name, the antichrist will have to teach a doctrine that says the name of the Father is Jesus/Yeshua and that “Jesus is God the Father.”

The increasingly popular “oneness” doctrine denies the distinction between the Father and the Son, making it easier to deceive those who may have otherwise questioned why the mark they are being asked to take is not the Father’s name. Modern versions support oneness by changing a key verse to read that the mark of the beast will be both the Father and the Son’s name. Here’s what Revelation 14:1 says in the ESV:

“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.” - Revelation 14:1 (ESV)

Here’s that same verse in the King James Bible:

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.” Revelation 14:1 (KJV)

The true Word of God is careful to tell us that it will be the Father’s name in the foreheads of the righteous.

It is alarming how well the oneness doctrine fits with the antichrist’s agenda. Although oneness/modalism existed in the early centuries after Christ, it was rejected and eventually disappeared for centuries before being resurrected in 1913 by the "Oneness Pentecostal" movement. Bible believing churches have kept this strange doctrine at bay for years, but it is just now starting to creep into evangelical and Baptist churches. I believe this is because the false doctrine of oneness is an end-times heresy that will be used to pave the way for the antichrist. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs all believe in a "oneness" type God, so in order to bring all religions together, the trinity will need to be discarded.

Instead of trying to meet oneness heretics halfway, we need to stay strong on the traditional, biblical view of the trinity that every Baptist has believed for hundreds and hundreds of years. The Bible clearly teaches that the trinity consists of three distinct persons that make up one God.

Here is a sermon on the trinity.