DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST

"By this you know the Spirit of God; Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." (I John 4:2-3)

We hear a lot about the Antichrist who will come at the end of the age. In the Bible, the word anichrist appears only here in I John, and it refers only to the "spirit" of the Antichrist.

The word, antichrist, is a compound word – anti or against, and Christ. The spirit of antichirst is the main focus of an ungodly world. It is against Christ. But the preposition anti can also mean, "in place of." The spirit of antichrist is evident in the way Jesus is replaced with other things. John was writing to an age of gnosticism. Gnosticism taught that everything that is material – like the human body – is evil. Jesus couldn't have come in the flesh or He would be evil. So, in order to fit Jesus into their philosophy, they denied that Jesus came in the flesh, and believed that He was only Spirit. They replaced the Jesus that is revealed in Scripture with one of their own making.

The Enemy of Christ – Satan – causes people to worship other things besides the true and living God. Jesus spoke of the end times when the abomination of desolation will stand in the holy place (Matthew 24:15). II Thessalonians explains that "the man of sin [will be] revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (II Thessalonians 2:3-4). He not only opposes God but will take the place of God in the temple of God.

Mildred and I visited the Pueblo at Taos in New Mexico when we were vacationing in Santa Fe. In the Pueblo is an historic Indian church. When you enter the church, the first thing you notice is a large statue of the Virgin Mary in the center of the altar area. The guide explained that to the Indians, this represents Mother Nature. But of interest to me was a small statue to the right of the altar that represented Jesus. In effect, Jesus was replaced by Mother Nature. That is the Spirit of Antichrist.

Even believing Christians are prone to fall for the antichrist syndrome. Satan is more cunning than to have us be against Christ. So he entices us to replace Christ with other things – even good things such as family or religious activity – rather than keeping Christ as the center of our lives.

We need to beware of the spirit of antichrist that would infect us as believers, and to keep Jesus as the object of our affection and worship.

Love, Dad