The Counterfeiting of Jesus Christ
Have you Fallen For The Counterfeited Christ? Are you following him confidently?
Did the ancient rebellion of the Nephilim foreshadow humanity's recurring temptation to replace the true Christ with a counterfeit?
Don Kenobi reflects on: Genesis, the Gospel, the example of Perpetua and Felicity, and the Counterfeiting of Christ...
Did the ancient rebellion of the Nephilim foreshadow humanity's recurring temptation to replace the true Christ with a counterfeit?
Don Kenobi reflects on: Genesis, the Gospel, the example of Perpetua and Felicity, and the Counterfeiting of Christ...
A Theological Reflection
What follows moves beyond history into theological reflection.
Whether or not one accepts this interpretation, it offers an interesting lens through which to consider both the Gospel and humanity's recurring temptation to replace Christ.
Perhaps one way of viewing the Gospel is through the lens of the Nephilim.
God's Rescue Plan
If the corruption before the Flood involved not only moral decay but also the corruption of humanity itself, then perhaps Christ's mission was, in part, God's great rescue operation: to preserve and redeem humanity.
Perhaps the Lord came so that every man and woman willing to receive Him, however few remained faithful, would still have a path back to God.
Perhaps, then, the Gospel can be viewed as God's determination to preserve humanity while extending redemption to every person who freely chooses the way of Christ.
If so, the Cross declares that no corruption, no ancestry, no lineage, and no darkness lie beyond the reach of Christ's redeeming blood.
The Oldest Deception
But another question naturally follows: What if the ancient rebellion did not end?
What if the same spirit that sought to corrupt humanity before the Flood now seeks to corrupt humanity's understanding of Christ?
If so, perhaps the greatest deception is not to deny Christ altogether.
Perhaps it is to redefine Him—to replace Him with a counterfeit Christ.
In short: A Christ fashioned in the image of fallen humanity rather than the image of God.
The Christ of the Gospels
Yet this is not the Christ of the Gospels.The real Christ crossed every boundary that human beings erected.
He touched the untouchable.He welcomed the outcast.
He defended the powerless.He broke down walls instead of building them.
His blood was shed for every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and every people.
Could it be, then, that the "curse of Ham" fable is itself a product of the very spirit that sought to corrupt humanity before the Flood—and now seeks to corrupt humanity's understanding of Christ?
For Scripture nowhere teaches that Christ's redeeming work is limited by race, ancestry, or genealogy.
Let me say that again:
Instead, Scripture declares:
"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." (John 1:12)
And the so-called "curse of Ham" raises its voice in protest:
"What about me?"
But Scripture smiles and replies:
"I have already answered you."
And then it speaks:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
If that is the testimony of Scripture, then no tradition, no ideology, and no man or woman—regardless of office, rank, or title—has the authority to say otherwise.
Perpetua and Felicity: One Humanity in Christ
The Witness That Shook an Empire
Perpetua and Felicity: One Humanity in Christ (The Witness That Shook an Empire)
The earliest Christians understood the truth of the Gospel in a way that should put many modern Christians to shame.
The story of Perpetua and Felicity reminds us why.
Perpetua and Felicity could scarcely have come from more different worlds.
Perpetua was a young noblewoman of Carthage—well educated, from a prominent family, and the mother of a nursing infant.
Felicity was an enslaved woman, heavily pregnant when she was arrested, with none of Perpetua's status or legal privileges.
Yet both had embraced Christ, and for that they were imprisoned together during the persecution under Emperor Septimius Severus.
In Christ, noblewoman and slave became sisters.
Their shared imprisonment, steadfast faith, and eventual martyrdom proclaimed a revolutionary truth: the Gospel creates a new humanity in which class, wealth, status, and privilege are eclipsed by a common allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Together, they entered the arena convinced that death was not defeat, but the doorway to eternal life.
The Roman Empire could imprison their bodies.
It could take their lives.
But it could not conquer the faith that united them or the hope that sustained them.
Their witness exposed the spiritual poverty of an empire built upon domination.
Rome arranged humanity into ranks.
Christ made them sisters.
That is the Gospel.
And any Christianity that cannot see the full dignity of every human being—regardless of race, ethnicity, social status, or background—has already ceased to see Felicity standing beside Perpetua as an equal.
That Christianity has already begun to replace Christ with a counterfeit.
The Counterfeit Christ
The Counterfeit Christ
If this reflection contains even a grain of truth, then the great spiritual battle is not merely over whether people believe in Jesus.
It is over which Jesus they believe in.
False religions openly reject Christ. But False Christianity does something far more dangerous - It keeps His name while quietly replacing His character.
Perhaps, then, the oldest deception has never been to reject Christ - but to replace Him....
....To preach His name while emptying Him of His nature.
To speak of Jesus while following:
- A Christ who sanctifies pride.
- A Christ who baptises prejudice.
- A Christ who excuses cruelty—even to the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses.
- A Christ who blesses hatred.
- A Christ who leaves the old man untouched instead of making him a new creation.
The enemy achieves his greatest victory not in persuading the world to reject Christ, but in persuading it to embrace a counterfeit Christ...
And the deepest battle of our age is not whether humanity rejects Christ, but whether it can still recognise Him.
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