To see all the studies in this
series, please go to https://surrenderdaily.blogspot.com/
The next couple of short studies
will be a little bit different. They
will center around those who are enemies to the fellowship. We are still working our way through 1 John
and our key verse is still 1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is
in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his
Son cleanses us from all sin.
However, just as the last study
talked about the things of the world that draw us away form the fellowship,
these next few studies will focus on false teachers who try to separate us from
the fellowship.
John calls these people antichrists. In our modern American Christian culture, we are fascinated with prophecy and end times, so I would suspect most, if not all, of us are familiar with the concept of THE Antichrist. The Antichrist is a person who, according to the book of Revelation, will be indwelt by Satan himself and establish himself as a major world leader for the purpose of drawing people away from God. However, as we progress through 1 John, we discover there are many antichrists out there even now. Here is what he says in 1 John 2:18
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. (ESV)
This requires us to differentiate
between The Antichrist of Revelation and the antichrists to which John is
referring here. To put it plainly, an antichrist is really anyone serving as an
agent of the devil trying to draw people away from the fellowship of Christ. An
antichrist has the goal to disrupt, divide, and ultimately destroy the
fellowship of the believers. In many cases, these antichrists may not even
realize they are agents of the devil.
They may truly believe they are in the right, doing and saying what is
right. And they may even be found within
the context of the church.
Therefore, we have to be always on guard so that we may recognize and reject their teaching. The picture at the top of this article is a bit ridiculous, of course, but it is a caricature of false teachers in the church. We would never listen to anyone tell us 2+2=5, but how easily we listen to those who teach that which is contrary to scripture. If we are not careful, we can find ourselves in a situation where these antichrists are in leadership positions even within our own ranks. Consider what Jesus’s own brother, Jude said:
For certain people have crept in
unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people,
who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 4 (ESV)
I believe we have reached a point in our Christian culture where these words from Jesus’ brother have come true. I believe the grace of God has been perverted such that all manners of sensuality are considered acceptable. I believe that Jesus himself is no longer Lord and Master in many churches across our land. Instead, cultural acceptability has become the Lord of the church. So the question is: how can we be aware of such antichrists? How can we recognize them and be certain they have not crept into our own midst?
That is what we will be looking at
from these next verses in 1 John. In
this article we see first the idea that
Antichrists
depart from the fellowship.
19 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 out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 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. (ESV)
As we consider John’s words, we
have to be careful about what we mean when we say depart from us. Jude tells us that some of them are actually
within our midst, so how can they depart from us if they are within our own
ranks. The truth is, sometimes, they
actually do physically depart. There are
several ways they can do this, the foremost of which is that they can outright
deny the faith and leave the church. As they depart, they have as their goal to
convince others to deny their faith as well.
In the last couple of years, we have seen a surprising number of prominent nationally known Christians deny their faith, and I believe one of the reasons why is because our popular culture is becoming increasingly ANTI-Christian. It’s easy to become a prominent, even famous “Christian” when the culture is pseudo-Christian, but when the culture begins to turn against Christianity, which it currently is, then the pretenders are the first to fall away.
Not all antichrists, however, completely deny the faith. Some just create new religious groups. Do you realize that by some estimates, there are over 33,000 so-called Christian denominations in the world? That astounds the mind considering that the whole purpose of koinonia is to be of one body and one mind. It seems like perhaps we are not doing such a good job at the whole koinonia thing.
The idea here is that if we don’t like what the church is teaching, let’s just make our own church. Once you have a buffet of religious groups out there, then it becomes easy for the individual to have the same mentality. If I don’t like what my current church is selling, I’ll just find a church that is selling what I want to hear. Paul warned Timothy of this in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
3 For the time is coming when people
will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate
for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (ESV)
Brothers and sisters, I believe we
are in these days today.
On the other hand, antichrists do not have to physically leave the church to depart from us. Rather, they might simply depart from orthodox doctrine. With so many so-called denominations out there, they can’t possibly all be orthodox, but even within orthodox churches, there can be those teaching unorthodox doctrines. Ultimately, all these antichrists have departed from orthodox doctrine, but you don’t have to deny the faith or create your own religious group to depart from orthodox doctrine. In fact, it was because so many within the Catholic Church had departed from orthodox doctrine that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Whittenburg Church, sparking the Protestant Reformation. When the church itself has left orthodox doctrine, it is no longer the church. That is when you have to leave that organization and find the true church. That is what Martin Luther did.
Since that time, many antichrists have departed from orthodox doctrine while remaining within the church, and while many denominations exist because of differences over secondary issues, there are still many churches out there whose leadership has departed from orthodox doctrine.
This is not a new problem. There were a number of heresies that attempted to infiltrate the early church. To combat these heresies, the early fourth century church fathers came up with a simple summary of the teachings of the apostles. We call it the Apostle’s Creed. It is simple and it summarizes the basic elements of orthodox doctrine.
I believe in God, the Father
almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the
dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God
the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the
living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church, (the universal
church made up of all believers)
the communion of saints, (fellowship –
what we are talking about)
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Any teachings that contradict
these truths are antichrist in nature and represent a departure from the faith.
Have you evaluated the doctrines of your church against the authority of scripture? Do you have measures in place within your fellowship to safeguard against false teachers wishing to disrupt the fellowship and even drive the church away from orthodox teaching? Unlike many areas of our walk of faith where we humble ourselves in consideration of others, this is one area of our fellowship in which no amount of compromise can be tolerated.
Next time we will continue looking at these enemies of the fellowship to so other ways in which they can be identified.
May the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may
abound in hope. Romans 15:13
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