1 John 2:18-19 ESV
“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 out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”
I will delve further into a definition of “antichrist” in the next section, but right now I just want to say that “anti” means “against.” It means “a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else” (Google). So this has to do with people who are against Christ, who are the direct opposite of who Christ is and of what he stands for and teaches and models for us. It means to be opposed to Christ, to dissent, to differ in belief and in practice. So, it means to be contrary to him, not for him.
And many who are antichrist have indeed come, and they are influencing many people, even professing Christians, to be antichrist, perhaps not in profession of faith, but in practice and in conduct. And they have not left the fellowships of what are called “churches,” but they are well engaged in these “fellowships” in leading the people of God, or those not of God, away from the truth of the Scriptures and to believe the lies of the enemy, instead. And people are following these wolves in sheep’s clothing by the masses.
So, when this says, “they went out from us,” it does not mean what many people are interpreting it to mean today. So, let me first state this. The body of Christ, the church, is not a building called “church.” So, it is also not a location you go to. And these buildings called “church” are not the house of God, and when we enter them we are not entering into the presence of God. And the place where we are standing is not “holy ground.” It is just a building built by human hands, and God does not live in buildings.
Also, many of these “fellowships” are not biblical fellowships of genuine followers of Jesus Christ modeled after the early church in purpose and in practice, as is taught us in the New Testament. They are businesses created in the minds of human beings which are being marketed to the people of the world just like any other businesses. And so they are trying to attract the world to their gatherings via worldly means and methods and via diluting the gospel message and the character of God/Christ to make them more appealing and acceptable to human flesh and to the ungodly.
So, back to the passage of Scripture.. when they spoke of these antichrists having gone out from among them, and how that they were not of them, they were not talking about people leaving the institutional market-driven churches of today. They were speaking of people who were opposed to Jesus Christ by how they lived and by what they practiced who left the true spiritual fellowship of the body of Christ as described for us in the Scriptures, not what is being widely practiced in these businesses called “church” today.
So, we must be very cautious here that we don’t attribute the truth of this passage of Scripture to genuine followers of Jesus Christ who are coming out from the midst of those who are in unholy (unequally yoked) unions with the ungodly, as the Scriptures instruct us to do (see Revelation 18:4-5; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). For some of us have left the institutional churches (businesses) which are worldly, but we have not left the fellowship of true followers of Jesus Christ. And we left these institutions of men, for they were not following the Scriptures, and we are. So we are for Christ, not against.
1 John 2:20-25 ESV
“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. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”
Now we are going to delve further into what it means to be “antichrist,” for, again, we are not antichrist because we have left the institutional market-driven “churches” of today, which are being run like any other human-based businesses, and which are being marketed to the ungodly, and thus are being patterned after the cravings of the flesh and of the world. We are to come out from among them. And we are not to be in fellowship with them.
Thus, if we are antichrist, it means we are denying Christ by our practices, by our words, by our characters, and by our attitudes and beliefs. It means we are living the opposite of what the Scriptures teach us we are to live, and many who profess faith in Jesus Christ are doing just that. They are living like the world, and they are craving the world and its practices, and their desire is after the flesh and the world and sin and not after God and his holiness and righteousness, and not after walking in obedience to him.
So, if we deny Christ by how we live, and by what we practice, which includes our attitudes and beliefs and words and deeds, then we are antichrist regardless of what our lips profess. So we aren’t Christians merely on the basis of a profession of faith, but by living out the faith we claim to believe in our day to day living. And that faith is according to the teachings of the Scriptures, not according to what human flesh is proclaiming. For many people claim they are teaching the gospel of Christ, but what they are teaching are distortions of truth, and so they are lies.
So, we need to read these words in the context of the teachings of the whole of the New Testament which do not teach that lip service only is enough for us to be partakers of the heavenly calling. For confessing Christ is not lip service only, but it is agreeing with Christ and with what his word teaches by living it out in our daily lives, in practice, in the power of God. And denying him is by how we live and what we practice and by refusing to obey him and his commands, and by refusing to surrender our lives to him and to do his will. For many are those who confess him with their lips but who deny him.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
My Sheep
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
https://vimeo.com/114938263
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