| 30 July, 2000 | Christian Living In The Last Days, Part 2 | 1, 2 & 3 John |
| Antichrists, Seducers, & Tyrants |
The gospel in John's time was under attack from a peculiar heresy
known as gnosticism.
The word gnosticism is from the Greek word gnosis,
meaning knowledge, it was a pagan philosophy that taught how the
world, the gods, and everything came into existence.
Gnostics believed that people could attain salvation only by acquiring
special knowledge. Freemasonry is a modern form of gnosticism.
Most Gnostics believed in a distant, unknown and remote, Supreme
Being.
They taught that an evil supernatural being called the Demiurge
created the world, which was ruled by evil spirits. Some of the
gnostics thought that this Demiurge was the Jehovah of the Old
Testament, and that Jesus had come to destroy Him. Go figure.
Gnostics generally taught that selected individuals had a divine
spark imprisoned in their material body. Through gnosis, knowledge,
that divine spark would be liberated from the basically evil world
and united with the Supreme Being.
Many Christian-oriented Gnostics believed that Jesus was a divine
messenger who brought gnosis to ordinary Christians. They claimed
Jesus only inhabited a human body temporarily. Thus they denied
His death on the cross and resurrection as described in the New
Testament.
"Christian" Gnosticism was the false teaching that John
is dealing with.
And this kind of false teaching is becoming more common in our
day. A lot of the various "New Age" teachings are starting
to sound like something that John would recognize, which is not
surprising.
Satan never has to come up with new lies, he just takes the old
ones and gives them a tune up and a paint job, and uses them on
a fresh generation of suckers.
All lies and teachings contrary to God's Word have certain things
in common. As we go through John's epistles today, I hope to bring
out some broad principles that will uncover any false teachings
we might encounter.
1 John 1:1 "That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the
Father, and was manifested unto us;)
:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that
ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
:4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at
all."
There were a lot of various different gnostic cults and doctrines,
but the main ones taught that the god that created the world was
a god of darkness, that Jesus Christ was a divine messenger opposed
to the god of the Old Testament, and also that time only
existed on this earth.
Once you got away from the earth, which they believe was created
evil, along with everything on it, then there was no time, time
did not exist.
Also, some of them believed that perhaps god was a duality, a
sort of yin-yang, half good and half evil, half light and half
darkness.
John starts right off in his epistle by writing to correct those
various errors.
In these verses he emphasizes the close loving relationship between
the Father and the Son, that the Son was the express Word of God,
there was no other secret word of knowledge that you needed
to learn in order to attain salvation, and also that God was not
a duality.
He starts out by emphasizing the truth. Further on, he gets more
specific about who and what is false, how to recognize a lie.
Chapter 2 and verse 18: "Little children, it is the last
time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now
are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last
time.
:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but
they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us."
We are currently in the last time; it's been going on for quite
a while hasn't it? Some day soon the real, bona fide antichrist
will indeed come, and then it will only be a short few years until
the last times are over.
Meanwhile, the last times have been going on for almost 2,000
years, and during that period, there have been a lot of antichrists.
Which makes perfect sense. Satan doesn't know when the rapture
will take place, when God will start the clock running for the
final seven years of tribulation, so Satan always has some "antichrist
person" warming up in the bullpen, sitting on ready.
Verse 19 indicates that these antichrist persons were at one time
part of the church, but left it.
This is a good time to remind ourselves that the term antichrist
has two meanings: one; is to be a false messiah, a false Christ,
and over the years there have been many of these.
The other meaning of the word antichrist, is to be anti-against
Christ; opposed to Christ, contrary to Christ.
Obviously, the antichrist that is a false Christ will naturally
be opposed to the real one, but there are also those that are
opposed to Jesus Christ that make no claims to being Christ themselves,
they just think, and act, and speak contrary to Jesus, to the
Word of God, against those that follow Jesus.
There are a lot of little antichrists around; the Peter Jennings/Bryant
Gumbel talking heads, most Jewish Rabbi's, certain college professors.
People that think, and speak, and act contrary to the Word of
God, contrary to the Gospel, contrary to Biblical Christianity.
According to verse 19, people with that mindset are not comfortable
in communion with Christians that are devoted to Jesus and the
Word of God, and they separate themselves. That helps to reveal
who they are.
Verse 21: "I have not written unto you because ye know not
the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son."
Notice the emphasis here on the relationship.
Verse 23 "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath
not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath
the Father also."
Later on in the epistle, John goes into more detail on the trinity,
but here, he brings out very clearly that there is a Father-Son
relationship between Jesus and God.
The Muslims say that's blasphemy, that is unthinkable that God
should have a human son.
Sorry, they need to get over it. Likewise, the Jehovah's Witnesses
teach that Jesus was not God in the sense that Jehovah is God.
That's a rehash of the old heresy of Arianism, that goes back
to the 3rd century. Once you accept the idea that God would have
a Son, how could that Son not also be God in the same sense, and
to the same extent, as His father?
To say that Jesus would be anything less than fully God would
be to put Him on the same level as the various Greek or Roman
demi-gods, descended from a mating of Zeus or Jupiter with an
earthly maiden.
The Bible is very careful not to leave that option open.
Now: Fresh direction. Turn to chapter 5 and verse 5; "Who
is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God?
:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ;
not by water only, but by water and blood." (Water at His
baptism, blood at His crucifixion) "And it is the Spirit
that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit,
and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater:
for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his
Son.
:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:
he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son.
:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son.
:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life.
:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."
This passage gives a very clear testimony to the Divinity of Jesus
Christ, and also a very clear testimony to the reality of the
Trinity.
I'm not sure that I understand the Trinity, I'm not sure any human
can, but I can read enough about it in the Bible to know for sure
that it's real.
Some of you may have had a little trouble around verse 7, as we
went through this passage.
Depending on what version of the Bible you're using, verse 7 might
have been missing, or in brackets, or in italics.
Verse 7 is the clearest statement of the Trinity found in the
whole Bible. There are other references, but that one is the most
straightforward.
A number of our modern Bibles omit it, or else they make a note
off to the side that the verse may not have manuscript authority.
It is missing in most of the Greek manuscripts.
Some Bible scholars believe that it was not original, but that
it was added at a later date.
Let's talk about why: You need to know that in church history,
there was a tremendous controversy back in the 3rd & 4th centuries
as to what the nature of God really was.
Was there really a Trinity? It was an enormous question. One Bible
scholar who said no, there was not a Trinity, and Jesus Christ
was not fully God, was a man named Arius, and his beliefs continue
today in the group known as Jehovah's Witnesses.
Not surprisingly, the Jehovah's Witness Bible, the New World translation,
omits that verse, 1 John 5:7.
Arius did not believe that the Bible was inerrant. He believed
that some of the things in it could be in error.
Bearing that in mind, let me suggest to you why some of the old
manuscripts might have this verse, and others might not:
A man that believed the Bible contained errors, could -with
a clear conscience- remove something from it that he did
not believe should be there, or he might just leave it out it
when he was making a copy. It's plausable.
On the other hand, let's take a person who believed that the Bible
was inerrant as delivered; you don't take away from
it, or add to it. Period.
What's the probability that such a person would add
an extra verse to the Bible just to win an argument, even
a very important argument? Slim?
I suspect it was more likely that this verse was omitted or deleted
from some manuscripts, rather than that it was added to others.
That fits better with what we know of human nature, and also there
is something else; the verse fits correctly in the passage.
It makes sense, it reads well, and it helps complete the thought.
If you read verse 6, and then go straight to verse 8, you have
a somewhat incomplete thought, something seems to be missing.
Let's do that, verse 6; "This is he that came by water and
blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and
blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the
Spirit is truth."
Verse 8 "And there are three that bear witness in earth,
the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree
in one."
Why would John use the phrase "in earth"
in verse 8, unless he was going to contrast it to the phrase "in
heaven" in verse 7?
Verse 7 gives continuity to the thought begun in verse 6, and
concluded in verse 8.
Now that is not the way that professionals determine
the validity of textual criticism, but it does make things fit
together nicely.
Anyway: I am totally persuaded that this verse is part of the
original writings of Scripture. Does that mean that if you have
a Bible that does something different with this verse, you should
throw it out?
No, it is good to use various references to come to a full understanding
of God's Word. Just don't be naive, not all references are of
equal value, and Satan will undermine God's Word any where
he can. Especially in Bibles.
God is true. God's Word is truth. Satan is a liar, and the father
of it, and more and more, I see it coming down to us, as
individuals, being responsible for learning how
to recognize those lies so that we can live true to God's Word,
and true to who and what God is.
Letting God's Word dwell in us richly, so that we can live out
our lives according to conformity with the life of God.
In John's 2nd epistle, the theme of the whole little book is on
truth and deception.
Turn to 2nd John verse 1; "The elder unto the elect lady
and her children," - John is addressing the church here as
an elder lady, and the congregation as her children- " the
elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not
I only, but also all they that have known the truth;
:2 For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with
us for ever."
Here he characterizes the Holy Spirit as truth, "Who dwells
in us," and if He is to be with us forever, then we need
to go ahead and practice letting truth be the way
we do everything. Might as well get in the habit
now, right?
Verse 3; "Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the
Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father,
in truth and love.
:4 I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in
truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment
unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love
one another.'
The more I learn about Christian Ministry, the more I am convinced
that truth and love, working together, will pretty much cover
all the bases.
If we stay in the Word, the truth; it will direct and guide our
love, our practical charitable behavior toward each
other, to where it needs to be.
Christian love always operates from a basis of truth. Love without
truth is what the hippies had back in the sixties.
A bunch of feel-good foolishness that accomplished nothing except
selling a lot of pot, posters, and black lights. That's not Christian
love.
Christian love always lives and moves in the area of truth. It
has to; the one that it comes from is truth, and
if love is not living and moving in the area of the truth, then
it isn't Christian.
It is also possible to have the truth without love.
That leads to harshness and it denies the character of God, it
is not Christian either.
As John is bringing out here, Christianity is a full, equal
balance of both truth and love.
Verse 6 "And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.
This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning,
ye should walk in it.
:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a
deceiver and an antichrist."
Over the years, there have been all sorts of false teachings about
Jesus. Some have taught that the "Christ Spirit" entered
into the man Jesus when He was baptized, and then left Him when
He was crucified.
Others have taught that over the centuries, many Avatars, Ascended
Masters, have come to earth, and Jesus was one of them, just like
Buddha, or Mohammed, or whoever. False teachings.
Jesus Christ was sinless, perfect, without a sin nature, but he
was fully man, and fully God from conception. Anyone
who hedges on this point is wavering on the very basis
of the Christian faith.
No compromises are acceptable, period. John states
right out that such a person is a deceiver,
and an antichrist.
Verse 8 "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things
which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward."
That sounds like a warning to some in the congregation that were
indecisive, or in danger of being led astray.
Verse 9 "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the
doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son."
It doesn't matter how much a person talks about God, "I love
God, God loves me, yada yada yada"; what matters is; what
is their response to Jesus Christ?
The doctrine of Christ is laid on the foundation of the Old Testament,
all the prophets and psalms, everything points toward Him, the
Bible uniformly points in one direction: Jesus Christ.
The doctrine of Christ is all that the Bible teaches about
Jesus Christ, who He is, and what He's done.
To fail to abide in the truth of Jesus Christ, as the Bible
presents Him, is to go after another Jesus, one that
is not the Jesus of the Bible.
John says that such a person does not know God. The person that
abides, stays, lives in the truth about Jesus Christ, has it all;
both the Father and the Son.
Verse 10; "If there come any unto you, and bring not this
doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God
speed:
:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil
deeds."
Does this mean that when someone comes to your door, and they
are pushing some cultish idea about God, that you should not
let them in, or not tell them "Good-day",
when they leave?
Maybe. Some of those people are pretty good with "plastic
words", like we talked about last week, and they know how
to mess with your head.
But I think the main reference to "your house" in this
passage is to the church meeting.
Believers met in homes back then, and evangelists and teachers
would travel from one place to another, and stay in the home,
and then preach there on the weekend.
This is a warning to be careful who you encourage or let preach,
that you don't let just anybody up into the pulpit.
I have had strangers come up to me on Wednesday nights, and offer
to come and preach on Sundays, and I don't know them from Adam.
It doesn't work that way. That's asking for trouble, and it's
unscriptural.
You don't let anyone preach or teach in the assembly until you
know what they're about.
Next topic, new direction. Something that God does not approve
of, is a church that is run by one man as his personal little
kingdom.
Turn to 3rd John, verse 1; "The elder unto the wellbeloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and
be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
:3 For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified
of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in
truth."
Here he is emphasizing the importance of walking, living in the
truth of God's Word, and how he pleased he is that they are consistent
to do it.
Verse :5 "Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou
doest to the brethren, and to strangers;
:6 Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church:
whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort,
thou shalt do well:
:7 Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing
of the Gentiles.
:8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers
to the truth."
He is referring here to the missionaries and evangelists that
traveled from one area to the next, and the church was faithful
to support them and meet their needs. Those are the ones that
you wish "God speed".
Verse 9; "I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth
to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
:10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth,
prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith,
neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them
that would, and casteth them out of the church."
Whoever this person was, he rejected the authority of John, he
refused hospitality toward the missionaries, and he excommunicated
whoever did not go along with him.
This guy had major problems, and the Bible gives us an insight
here as to why.
Something that believers would do back then, if they had names
that honored a pagan god, they would change their names to something
different, as part of having a good testimony.
Diotrephes' name means "nourished by Zeus", and apparently
he chose to keep his pagan name after he professed Christianity.
Combined with what we know of his behavior, it seems to fit. Makes
you wonder how he got to be the head of that particular congregation?
Makes you wonder how well he was actually converted from paganism,
or how well the truth was being taught at that particular church?
We don't know. But we do know a good tree is not supposed to bring
forth bad fruit.
Verse 11: " Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that
which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth
evil hath not seen God."
It gets back to the thing about judging a tree by it's fruits.
God has not called us to judge other believers,
but He has told us how to tell good fruit from bad fruit,
and a tree with rotten fruit has problems.
In these three short books, John has given the believers some
basic tools to discern truth from error.
In 1st John, he reminds them of the nature of God, who He is,
what He is like, and what He is not like.
He gives us a working definition of antichrist, either someone
in the place of Christ, a false Messiah, or else someone that
is contrary to who Jesus is, and what He stands for.
He reminds us that antichrist denies the "God the Father/God
the Son" rela