Our Certainties in Christ in the Face of the Antichrist

Our Certainties in Christ in the Face of the Antichrist

What preceded

Living by the Word of God demonstrates our devotion to Christ.
This leads to raising two incompatibilities:
• saying that we love God without putting his commandments into practice,
• the first reflection is love for our neighbour (which is incompatible with hatred towards a brother),
• lying about ourselves and our lives to others;
• incompatible with preferring the values ​​of the world, of society, and setting them as foundations of our lives.

To do this, the apostle John recalls

• What is light and what is darkness?
• What is of God or the enemy of God?
• What is of Christ and from where Christ has drawn us to become part of his family?

If we fail, we have an Advocate, Christ, who constantly testifies of what He has done for us to the Father.

Why does the apostle write this?
The rest of the epistle shows us this clearly:
1 John chapter 2, verses 18 to 27
tells us that it is because there are antichrists who gravitate around us…
18 Little children, it is the last hour. You learned that the Antichrist is coming. Now, already, there are several antichrists; by this, we recognize that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from among us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But it happened so that it would be clear that not all are of us.
20 As for you, you have the anointing given by him who is holy and you have all knowledge.
21 If I wrote to you, it is not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and no lie comes from the truth.
22 Who is a liar? Isn’t he the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah?
Such is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
23 If anyone denies the Son, neither does he have the Father;
[he who declares himself publicly for the Son also has the Father.]
24 For your part, retain [therefore] what you have heard from the beginning. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
25 And this is what he promised us: it is eternal life.
26 I have written this to you about those who lead you astray.
27 As for you, the anointing which you have received from Christ remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you. On the contrary, since the same anointing teaches you about everything, that it is truthful and devoid of lies, you will remain in him as it taught you.

This text speaks to us of the Antichrist,
• a person who will have worldwide influence,
• who will subjugate men
• but who above all will rise up
• against Christ
• and His children (in a violent way),
in the last times.

The antichrists

It is about people who present the same opposition to
• Christ,
• to brothers and sisters in Christ.

Characteristics of antichrists:
• they come from the environment of the Church;
• they deny that Christ is the messenger of God, the Messiah;
• they deny that Christ is the son of God the Father;
• they pose as
• instructors,
• interpreters of God,
• directors of conscience.

To be preserved from this seduction
Faced with this danger, the apostle encourages the brothers and sisters of the Church by reminding them
• that the Holy Spirit (here the term used by John is anointing) equips them to discern the truth;
• To do this,
• they only have to attach themselves to what they received at the beginning
• and live according to that.

Consequences

• Communion with the Father and with the Son, Christ will be evident: to contest one is to contest both, and to adore one reflects on both.
• Acknowledging Jesus Christ as God impacts our assurance of Eternity by His side for the Lord’s children and thus not being ashamed of Christ’s return.

The apostle ends with this reassuring remark: Sooner or later a tree is recognized by the fruits it produces.

Text in Transcript

Transcription is an explanatory translation.
Not word for word, but several words to translate the original word.

Let us listen together to the reading of
1 John chapter 2 of verses 18 to 27
18 My children, we are entering decisive times. You have learned that an “antichrist” must come.
From now on, many antichrists have appeared in many forms. This shows us that we have entered the last hour.
19 These adversaries of Christ have come out of us, but in reality they have never been of us.
Indeed, if they had been, they would have stayed with us.
However, they left us so that it would appear very clear that all were not really ours.
20 You, on the other hand, have received the Holy Spirit from him who is holy. Each of you, therefore, has the required knowledge.
21 Therefore I am not writing to you either as to people who do not know the truth. Because you know it, you know that no lie, no mistake can come from the truth.
22 Where shall we find falsehood and error? Where it is denied that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed of God. Any man who refuses to recognize the Father and the Son is an “antichrist”.
23 For he who denies that Jesus is the Son of God does not know the Father either. Whoever recognizes that Jesus is the Son of God is also in communion with the Father.
24 Therefore, keep carefully in your hearts the teaching that you have received from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in communion with the Son and with the Father,
25 and you will benefit from the promise that Jesus himself made to us: you will have eternal life.
26 This is what I wanted to write to you to warn you against those who try to mislead you.
27 Remember that you have received from the Lord the mark (of the Spirit) which remains in you. So you don’t need “private instructors” to teach you. His Spirit who has marked you teaches you everything you need to know. And he teaches you the truth, never the error. So obey his teachings and remain in communion with him.
28 Yes, my children, remain united to the Lord so that when he appears, we will be filled with joyful assurance and that we will not have to hide from him when he comes.

This text had a visibly obvious and concrete scope for its recipients.

God desired it to be recorded in history so that there would be no confusion as to the divinity of Christ, His position as Son, and His mission of redemption, as Messiah.
All people denying it are not of God, but His enemies.

Why is this important?
If Jesus is not the Son, He would only be human,
• fallible like everyone else,
• a sinner,
• His sacrifice on the cross could not be accepted by the Father,
• and humanity would remain lost.

Jesus is indeed the Son of God, He is God.
His presence among men proved that He was the son of God, completely God and also completely man.

He took it upon himself
• the sin; the sin of every man,
• He suffered all the consequences
• and suffered the consequent condemnation on the cross.

As He was God, perfect, He had the victory.

As He was perfect, the Father received His sacrifice approvingly.

From then on, every man can recognize in Him, the only solution to re-establish
• communion,
• communication
• and life
with the Father.

No witch hunt
This text does not invite us to go on a witch hunt or to lose ourselves in the condemnation of this or that movement, whether religious or more general
in the words of our society,
• through media,
• school education
• or the moral habits of our society.

We might be obsessed with them when the point of these talks is to live Christ in a coherent way.

Finding the Balance
If One spends more time seeking out what is troubling to expose it, One spends less time with the source which is Christ.

And lean on the basic truths.
This text is addressed to the faithful so that they persevere: however, let us ask God to have
• discernment,
• to be attentive to the work of the Spirit in our lives so as not to be troubled, destabilised, and finally broken down.

Conclusion

It is up to us to personally watch over what we have known of Christ, in order to live it.

As an assembly, it is everyone’s duty that the person of Christ may be exposed and experienced in a way that conforms to reality.

Divinity of Jesus
• Son of God,
• The divinity of Jesus sounds like a nod to the Wednesday night home group because that was the topic we shared on a Wednesday night.

As I was preparing for the evening at Francis’s, he reminded me of this verse, in the usual translations:
8 But he said to the Son: Thy throne, O God, is eternal. The scepter of your reign is a scepter of justice.
Hebrews 1

But we don’t necessarily have as good a memory of verses as Francis! 

And indeed, finally, the Bible is teeming with many facts which are signposts showing us His divinity.

• God waited patiently in the history of mankind, in the Old Testament, to show that no man had this identity while indicating that there would be one.
• The 3 years of ministry of Jesus also served to understand this unique identity.

So what we remembered:

Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ
• Eternal,
• omnipresent,
• omniscient,
• omnipotent.

The functions of the deity
• Creator,
• maintenance of creation.

Divine prerogatives
• Forgive sins,
• resurrection of the dead,
• execution of judgment.

His identification with the Eternal (of the Old Testament)
There is a question of the Eternal in the Old Testament and it echoes a verse of the New Testament, concerning Jesus.

Names that signify divinity, a supernatural character:
• Emmanuel Isaiah 7/14 Mathew 1/22– 23
• Word (Logos ) John 1/1-14 Revelation 19/13
• Son of man
• Lord
• Son of God
• God

As you will have understood, the number
of

 • facts,
• assertions, from different angles underline the obvious.

One must
• really be in bad faith,
• be fanatical
• or vector of the enemy of God to sustain in conscience the opposite.

But on the other hand, think of all those who are deceived by the doctrine, the culture, or the belief in which they are bathed.

May God help us to be tactful in showing
• the greatness,
• the beauty,
• the divinity
of Jesus.