Many Antichrist

 

1 John 2:18-23

A warning about antichrist, and many minds will go instantly to a person who comes on the world stage with all kinds of charisma, he is a handsome person, and he is brilliant; he is a solver of many of the problems facing the world.  And the masses are willing to make him their ruler, because he is a leader, and all he demands is obedience, but they soon will find out that they have lost all freedom, and that he demands to be worshipped.  That is not whom the apostle John is making reference to, the antichrists John is telling us about have been around since Christ walked on planet earth. 

We are seeing more preachers from some church you have never heard of coming on the world stage and telling us that Jesus is coming back on October 12, at 6:01 PM.  That is a very different message from the one given in this letter by apostle John; that time is running out, Jesus is coming back, look at what John has to say: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.  Therefore we know that it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.  But they went our, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.  But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.  I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.  Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?  This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.  No one who denies the Son has the Father.  Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”

Now we know what to look for or do we?  Do we have names for these antichrists, yes we call then atheist, or agnostic, and they are surely antichrist, but are they whom the apostle John is warning us about.  In 1 John 4:1-3, we have these words: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets (teachers, preachers, seminary professors, and priests) have gone out into the world.  By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (Emphases add)

I learned very early in the art of sales that people do not always hear or understand the subject matter you are trying to sell, so repeating the main points of the presentation is very helpful and success is when the customer can engage in dialogue and they refer to the technology you have discussed.  I’ve also found it is helpful when wives are talking to their husbands while he is watching sports on T.V.  The apostle John must have understood that concept because he is addressing the antichrists two of his three letters to the church, to us.  In his second letter verse 7, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.  Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.  Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.” 

So watch-out my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, for just as Christ lives in you, the spirit of Satan lives in these deceivers, the ones John is referring to as antichrists.  They will be very deceptive, they will be great at putting the right spin on their lies, and they will use very religious words, but they are only out for personal gain, or they are being used to turn your heart away from the word of God, and to guide you to the believes of some man. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice