Doctrine of the Antichrist Revealed
Who Is The
ANTICHRIST?
To what or whom
does the term "Antichrist" refer?
Is this
some unique teaching or heresy about Jesus Christ Himself?
Is an
"antichrist" merely a false teacher who teaches contrary
to the teachings of Christ?
Is there a special "Antichrist" who
will appear during this pulsating "End Time"
generation? Is
the "antichrist" those who proclaim the divinity
and divine
pre-existence of Christ and claim He was "God
incarnate"?
William F. Dankenbring
A
strange new teaching has come across my desk recently -- a unique idea which I
have never heard of before. The author
begins by pointing out basic truth -- that the term "antichrist"
means an opponent of Christ, one who not only sets himself in the place of
Christ, and in the guise of Christ, but also opposes Christ. He then points out that the antichrist is also the "man of
sin" foretold by the apostle Paul (II Thess.2:3-4). This evil man will represent himself as
"the incarnate God." Thus this
new teaching proclaims that there is to be an "opposition Christ" who
proclaims that he is "God incarnate."
So far, I would have no quibble with him. But he continues.
Says
Sidney Hatch, in his article "Christ vs. Antichrist -- In Search of the
Biblical Jesus,"
"This, then, is the characteristic of
the opposition-Christ: One who
claims to be God incarnate [ie.,
"God in the flesh"]. It is
in contrast
to Jesus of
he claimed to be the Son of God . . ." (emphasis mine).
This
writer goes on to claim, not only that Jesus never said He was God in the
flesh, but that all those who teach that Jesus Christ is divine God, who took
upon Himself human flesh, are actually
the real "antichrists"!
According
to Sidney Hatch, it was the Gnostics who drew a distinction between
"Jesus" and "the Christ." He points out that Gnosticism
taught that "the Christ" was an "emanation" or "aeon" (spirit being) from God. Thus, the Gnostics claimed Jesus Christ had
two natures -- one human, and one divine.
Says Hatch, this destroys the relationship between God and Jesus as
Father and Son, setting up "the Christ" portion of the Lord Jesus "as a
second God."
Hatch
then writes that only those who confess that Jesus Christ "is come in the
flesh is of God" (I John 4:1,2) -- that is, all
others are "a deceiver and an antichrist" (II John 7). According to Hatch, "in the flesh"
simply means "as a human being."
Says Hatch:
"Jesus the Messiah was 'a human
being.' And, conversely, a human
being was the Messiah, not an aeon
or emanation from heaven. That
child born of Mary was the spromised
One. It is not necessary for
there to be a 'divine' side from heaven for Jesus to be the
Messiah."
Hatch
continues:
"Certainly the antichrist, or the
spirit of antichrist, is in the world
today -- and has been since the great apostasy of the fourth
and fifth
centuries under
'Christology'
or teaching about Christ is essentially that of the
'opposition Christ' of those early centuries. We are told that there
is a 'fully God' side to our Lord, and a 'fully man'
side. To avoid
the problems this creates, we are told that the two are
perfectly
united into a 'God-man' (a term unknown to Scripture).
"This
creates more problems than it solves. A
person who was
'fully God' could not die on the cross for our sins. Such a person
would possess immortality (I Tim.6:16). It is best, therefore, to
believe in and assert
(without equivocation or apology) the unique
and complete humanity of Christ our Lord."
Hatch
goes on, stating, "It is not necessary for Jesus to be God in order to be
the Messiah. In fact, such a thing would
thwart God's purposes to redeem man and the earth."
Where
Hatch gets the idea God intends to redeem man "and the earth," as
well, I do not know. To be best of my
knowledge, Christ died for the sins of mankind -- not the physical earth! Nevertheless, his statements, at first
glance, seem positively outrageous. No
doubt conventional theogians, who believe in the
Trinity or Triune Godhead, would resist this new theology as heretical and
dangerous. However, it is not merely
that Sidney Hatch attempts to debunk the Trinitiarian
myth that is at issue here -- he also attacks the pre-existence and very
divinity of Christ the Messiah! Is that
true? Was Christ merely a "human
being," as Hatch claims, who "made
good"? Was Jesus merely a "human"
-- born of a human woman, Mary -- and not divine at all?
Hatch's
article is the most artful causistry one could
imagine. He not only claims that Jesus
was not divine at all, but also that to believe Jesus was divine is the
"spirit of ANTICHRIST"!
Talk
about turning the truth upside-down and inside-out!
Does
Hatch really know what he is talking about?
Or could he be another "deceiver
and an antichrist"? Surely, if
Christ is the divine Son of God, then Hatch's theory explodes into thin air, revealing
him to
be the very "antichrist" which he accuses others of being!
Let
us carefully consider this matter. Just who -- or what -- is the
"ANTICHRIST," according to the Scriptures? What is the TRUTH?
What John Really Said
In
his first epistle, the apostle John wrote, "Dear children, this is the
last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how you know it is the last
hour. They went out from us, but they did
not really belong to us. For if they had
belonged to us, they would have remained with us but their going showed that
none of them belonged to us" (I John
John
goes on, "I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but
because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the
Christ. Such a man is the antichrist --
he denies the Father and the Son. No one
who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father
also" (I John
John
implies here that even though a great "Antichrist" will come in the
end time, there were already "many antichrists" existing in his
day. He says that they were at one time
brothers in the Church, but they left the Church, the body of Christ, and
obviously began teaching their own doctrines and dogmas in opposition to and
against the truth of Christ! John
referred to these false teachers as "liars," false ministers who knew
better, and said that in their doctrine they denied both the Father and the
Son! How did they deny them? Just what was their false doctrine? Were the original antichrists the
"Gnostics," as some would have us believe? Or were those known as "Gnostics"
merely one branch among "many antichrists," as John said abounded in
that time?
Jesse
Lyman Hurlbut in The Story of the Christian Church
tells us about that early period:
"Side by side with the development of
theological doctrine was the
rise of the sects, or as they were called, the heresies in
the Christian
church. As long as
the church was Jewish in its membership, and
even afterward when it was controlled by practical men of
the Jewish
type, such men as St. Peter and
tendency toward sbstract and
speculative thinking. But when the
church found its largest constituency among the Greeks, and
especially the mystical, unbalanced Greeks of Asia Minor,
all sorts
of strange opinions and theories arose, and grew to power in
the
church. The
Christians of the second and third centuries battled
not only against a persecuting heathen world, but also
against
heresies and corrupt doctrines within their own fold. . .
"The
Gnostics (Greek gnosis, 'knowledge') are not easy to define,
because so varied in their doctrines in different localities
and at
different periods.
They arose in
imaginations -- and were a grafting of Christianity upon
paganism.
They
believed that out of the supreme God emanated a large number
of inferior deities, some beneficient,
others malignant; and through
these the world with its mingled good and evil, was
created; that
in Christ as one of these 'emanations,' the divine nature
was for a
time indwelling; and they interpreted the Scriptures in an
allegorical
manner, making every statement mean whatever the interpreter
saw
fit" (p.64-65).
These
Gnostic ideas were not derived from the Bible, but from their own imaginings
and unconverted fertile minds. Their
concept of a multitude of divine "entities" in space is certainly not
Scriptural. However, this heresy of the
Gnostics in no way should be confused with the Biblical doctrine that the
Logos, a member of the Godhead, literally became a man, the man Christ Jesus,
and died for our sins!
The
Gnostics had many strange and weird ideas; but that does not mean they were
wrong in believing in the pre-existence of Christ!
The Humanity and Godhood of Jesus Christ
The
apostle John himself tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has
been made. In him was life, and that
life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4).
"The Word BECAME FLESH and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One
and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth" (John
Sidney
Hatch claims that there was no "divine" component to the birth of
Jesus Christ -- that He was merely a "human being." He, then, must like the Gnostics
"reinterpret" to suit his own fancy these powerful verses in the
Gospel of John -- or ignore them completely!
He must also refuse to take at literal, face value, the Scripture in
Matthew were we read of the birth of Jesus Christ: "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ
came about: His mother Mary was pledged
to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be
with CHILD THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT" (Matt1:18). An angel of the Lord told Joseph that the
child "conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (verse 20).
Obviously,
Jesus was unique. His Father was
literally God the Father! The
"sperm" cell that united with the egg in Mary's womb was the Logos or
Word of God, which had been transformed into a physical, fleshly human male
reproductive cell by the power of the Holy Spirit! It united with the egg in Mary's womb, and
the result was a child who was truly flesh and blood in every way, and yet was
also God transposed into human flesh, literally -- the One
who was to become the Messiah!
Paul
tells us more about this amazing transformation. He writes, "Since the children have
flesh and blood, he too SHARED IN THEIR HUMANITY so that by death he might
destroy him who holds the power of death -- that is, the devil -- and free
those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels
he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For
this reason he had to be MADE LIKE HIS BROTHERS IN EVERY WAY, in order that he
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he
might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was
tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Heb.2:14-18).
Jesus
therefore was divine God who was converted into human flesh so that He could
die for the sins of mankind! God the
Father said of Him, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever"
(Heb.1:8).
Jesus
is God's true Son, "whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom
he made the UNIVERSE" (Heb.1:1-2).
Contrary to those who deny the overwhelming evidence in Scripture of the
divinity of Christ, one of the "Elohim" who
created all things (Gen.1:1-2), one of those God Beings who said, "Let US
make man in OUR image" (Gen.1:26), Jesus is "the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over ALL CREATION.
For by him all things were CREATED:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible . . . all things
were created by him and for him. He
[Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together"
(Col.1:15-17).
Was
Jesus very God?
Paul
taught that He was. Paul wrote: "Your attitude should be the same as
that of Christ Jesus: Who, BEING IN VERY
NATURE GOD, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but
made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in HUMAN
LIKENESS. And being found in appearance
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a
cross!" (Phil.2:5-8).
In
the book of Revelation we read of Jesus:
"He said to me: 'It is
done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End. To him who is
thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of
life. He who overcomes will inherit all
this, and I WILL BE HIS GOD and he will be my son"
(Rev.21:6-7). Isn't that plain language?
This
Alph and Omega, the First and the Last, is not the
Father -- it is Christ the Son (Rev.1:12-18;
It
should be plain that the TRUE "ANTICHRISTS", then, are all those
preachers, teachers and writers who so smugly DENY the very Lord and Saviour, and GOD, who died for them and gave His life to
pay the penalty for their sins! THEY are the REAL ANTICHRISTS!
Until
I read this article by Sidney Hatcher, in which he accuses all who believe in
the divinity of Christ as being "antichrists," however, it never
dawned on me who the real antichrists were.
But as Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, those who point the finger at
somebody else have four fingers pointing back at themselves! By his accusing true believers in Christ as
being "antichrist," Sidney Hatch reveals himself to be that very
thing which he accuses others of!
The End Time Antichrist
The
Greek word for "antichrist" is antichristos
and means "opponent of Christ."
The Greek word "anti" means "opposite," "instead
of," and denotes contrast, substitution, or correspondence. In other words, the term
"antichrist" can refer to one who fights against Christ, an adversary
of Christ, as well as one who substitutes himself for Christ, claiming to be
Christ, God, or the Messiah!
Antichrists
are all of the above, and more. They can
be lying pretenders, false Christs,
as well as false ministers opposing Christ and His truth. Jesus Himself warned, "Watch out that no
one deceives you. For many will come in
my name, clailming 'I am the Christ,' and will
deceive MANY" (Matt.24:4-5). He
went on, "And many false prophets will appear and deceive many
people" (verse 11). These events
were prophesied to happen increasingly around the "End Time," just
before His second coming!
Jesus
went on, "At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!'
or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will
appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect -- if
that were possible. See, I have
told you ahead of time. So if anyone
tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in
the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For
as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be
the coming of the Son of man" (Matt.24:23-27).
Such
an Antichrist, of course, is the "man of sin," prophesied by the
apostle Paul, who wrote, "Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for
that day [of Christ's return -- verse 1] will not come until the REBELLION
occurs and the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS is revealed, the man doomed to
destruction. He will oppose
["anti"] and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or
is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to
be God" (II Thess.2:3-4).
Although
this tyrant will not appear until the END TIME, our time, today, even in Paul's
day the process leading to his appearance had begun. Paul wrote, "For the secret power of
lawlessness is already at work" (verse 7).
He will be held back until the power holding him back is "taken out
of the way" (v.7, latter part).
"And then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of lhis
mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming" (II Thess.2:8).
Paul
went on to describe how this wicked individual will deceive multitudes. "The coming of the lawless one will be
in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit
miracles [fake mirages, visions, apparitions, weeping Madonnas,
etc.], signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are
perishing. They perish because they
refuse to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends them a powerful DELUSION so that they will
believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the
truth but have delighted in wickedness" (verses 9-12).
This
same wicked individual was prophesied by Daniel who wrote of this diabolical
tyrant and world-class deceiver, "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every
god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath
is completed, for what has been determined must take place. He will show no regard for the gods of his
fathers [possibly the Muslim religion and prophets] or for the one desired by
women [the "Christ on a cross" of Christian mythology, the
"Tammuz" of the ancients], nor will he regard any god, but will exalt
himself above them all. Instead of them,
he will honor a god of fortresses . . ." (Daniel
It
is characteristic of the Antichrist that he is described as he "that shall
come," even as Jesus Christ is thought of as He who will come again. So even in his "coming," the
Antichrist is a counterfeit Christ! He
makes himself out to be "the coming one," thus aping Christ,
counterfeiting and opposing Him.
The Test of an Antichrist
However, as there were
"many antichrists" even in the days of John, it behooves us to know
how to identify a real "antichrist" and the message of
"antichrist." John writes, in
chapter 4 of his first epistle, "Dear friends, do not believe every
spirit, but TEST the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many
false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not
acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This
is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is
already in the world" (I John 4:1-3).
John
further elucidates this point in his second epistle. He declares, “Many deceivers, who do not
acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have
gone out into the world. Any such person
is the deceiver and the antichrist” (II John 7).
What
is this key that unlocks the identity of the antichrists? First of all, notice that they DENY that
Jesus Christ was fully human, when He walked among us. This statement makes no reference to His
pre-existence whatsoever -- it merely declares that when Christ Jesus was a
Man, He was fully human, just as the Scriptures state. He GAVE UP His divinity. He literally became a MAN, in every sense of
the word. He was tempted in every point
just like we are, only He never gave in to sin. "For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin" (Heb.4:15).
Paul
explains further, "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up
prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him
from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience
from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in
the order of Melchizedek" (Heb.5:7-10).
Thus,
false ministers, false Christs and false prophets
generally DENY that Christ, although He was God, had become fully human in
every way. He could have sinned -- if He
had given in to sin! But He did not. He chose to obey God, His Father, in
everything! Those who deny this truth,
or who claim themselves to be Christ, or who claim Christ was some sort of
super semi-divine figure, are teaching a doctrine of antichrist!
However,
Sidney Hatch goes far afield when he claims that God
could not have literally become human flesh and blood -- that if Christ were
part divine as to His heredity, then He would have been "immortal"
and incapable of death. If Jesus had a
"dualistic" nature, such as the Gnostics proposed, then I suppose the
"divine side" of His nature could not have died. But the Scriptures simply state that God
"became flesh and dwelt among us" (John
The
literal Greek expression in I John 4:2 is that Jesus
Christ "is come in the flesh."
The Greek is actually a past participle.
However, the expression in II John 7, "coming in flesh," is
the present participle. This difference
could refer to the fact that Christ came in the flesh in His first coming,
and that He will return in the flesh when He comes again!
Another Key Meaning
However,
this Greek expression also tells us that Christ is literally living His life in
our flesh, as He comes into us through the Holy Spirit, today! As Paul wrote, "I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal.2:20). Paul told the Galatians, that he felt as if
he were in the pains of childbirth until "Christ is FORMED IN YOU"
(Gal.4:19). Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, telling them, "Rather
CLOTHE yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom.13:14).
As
Christians, Christ is to abide in us through the Holy Spirit (John
15:1-10). Paul explained, "And if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is IN you, your body is dead
because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus up
from the dead is LIVING IN YOU, he who raised Christ from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you"
(Rom.8:9-11).
Thus
another "key" to understanding who the antichrists are is that they
will not teach fully the truth that Christ is living His life within true
Christians, today. That is, that He
comes inside our flesh through the Holy Spirit and takes up residence in our
mortal bodies. If He literally does
this, then He will guide us by the Spirit of God, and He will lead us to obey
all the laws and commandments of God which He Himself observed when He was
"in the flesh" (Acts 5:32; Matt.5:17-19; 19:17-19) -- including the
Sabbath commandment! (Exodus 20:8-11).
The Acid Test
If
Jesus Christ is abiding within us, and He is the same, yesterday, today and
forever (Heb.13:8), and He obeyed the laws of God, and taught obedience to
them, 1900 years ago, then He will still do the same thing TODAY and forever!
In
other words, Christ Jesus clearly taught that the laws of God are in force and
must be obeyed today! The spirit of
Antichrist teaches that the laws of God are abolished, done away with, and are
nullified by "grace"! The
spirit of Christ says, "KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS!" (Matt.19:17). The spirit of antichrist says, "You
don't need to keep the commandments; they were 'nailed to the
cross.'"
This
is the real "acid test" of whether a minister, prophet, or teacher
has the spirit of antichrist -- WHAT IS THEIR OPINION OF GOD'S LAW?
John
himself made this very clear in his first epistle. He wrote, "We know that we have come to
know him IF WE OBEY HIS COMMANDS. The
man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a LIAR [and an
"antichrist"!], and the truth is not in him. This is how we KNOW we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him MUST WALK AS
JESUS DID" (I John 2:3-6).
How
did Jesus "walk"? He observed
the weekly Sabbath days
and holy days of God (Luke 4:16; Luke 2:41-47). He taught obedience to all God's commandments
(Matt.5:17-20). The Spirit of Christ,
then, will do the same thing -- but the spirit of "antichrist" will
claim that the laws of God are abolished and no longer need to be obeyed. The "antichrist" will claim that the
weekly Sabbath is no longer obligatory for Christians to observe.
Do
you see the point? John explains,
"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before
God and receive from him anything we ask, because we OBEY HIS COMMANDS and do
what pleases him. And this is his
command: to believe in the name of his
Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who OBEY HIS COMMANDS live in him, and
he in them. And this is how we know
he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit
he gave us" (I John
Even
as John commands us to "test the spirits," to see whether their
origin of inspiration is of God or of some demonic source, even so Jesus Christ
told us, "Watch out for false prophets.
They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious
wolves. By their fruit you will
recognize them" (Matt.7:15-16).
"Prove All Things"!
Along
this same line, the apostle Paul commands and exhorts us, "TEST
EVERYTHING. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil" (I
Thess.5:21-22). The final test we must
perform with any teaching which purports to come from God is to compare it with
the Scriptures very
carefully, and see if it measures up. Isaiah the prophet wrote, "To the law
and to the testimony! If they do not
speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn" (Isaiah
This
principle of trial by testing is found in Deuteronomy 13. Here we read, "If a prophet, or one who
foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign
or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he
says, 'Let us follow other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and let us worship
them,' you must not listen to the words
of that prophet or dreamer.
The LORD your God is TESTING YOU to find out whether you love him with
all your heart and with all your soul.
It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and
hold fast to him" (Deut.13:1-4).
Don't Be a Gullible Goose!
Why
are there so many warnings from God for us to beware, to be vigilant, and on
our guard against false prophets and false teachers? The sad truth is that God's people tend to be
foolish, gullible, naieve, and trusting. If a person looks good and sounds sincere,
they tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Thus many of God's people are ripe candidates for a royal roasting --
they almost seem to be crying and yearning to be led astray by some malicious,
malignant ministerial monster in God's sight -- some pleasant-voiced heretic or
some friendly, avuncular writer or self-styled "scholar"!
True
Christian faith examines a belief or doctrine carefully before putting any
reliance, confidence or stock in it. We
must be willing to test ALL who claim to speak or write under spiritual
inspiration. True prophets are the
mouthpiece of the Spirit of God, and are inspired by the Spirit of truth. But false prophets and antichrists are
inspired by an altogether different source -- one who denies obedience to God's
laws, one who seeks to search out and destroy God's people and lead them to
perdition.
There
are many voices and much literature today clamoring for our attention, saying,
"Listen to this," or, "Read that." There is an urgent need for discernment among
true Christians. God does not want us to
be dupes or pawns of Satan. Many of us
are often too gullible, and exhibit a naieve
trustingness, and seem to be too ready to give credit
or credence to "new theology" that comes before us. Unfortunately, as Paul said, too many of us
are like "infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and
there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in
their deceitful scheming" (Eph.4:14).
Many
of us are not yet "rooted and built up in him, and stablished
in the faith" (Col.2:7, KJV). Paul
warned, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and
deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles
of this world rather than Christ" (Col.2:8).
There
is such a thing as misguided charity and tolerance toward false doctrine. If we make friends of those who promote false
doctrine, then we may one day find ourselves compromising, straying from the
right path, and taken in by a "sham."
In some areas, unbelief, skepticism, and doubt, can be just as much a
hallmark of a mature, seasoned, adult Christian, as the right kind of faith can
be in other circumstances. We should not
be too ready or willing to listen to exciting or challenging new ideas -- they
could be as wacky and weird as Satan's horns and pitchfork!
Can
we get a right balance between a suspicious scepticism
on the one hand, and the extreme superstition that believes everything, on the
other hand?
Solomon
wisely wrote in Proverbs, "A simple man believes anything, but a
prudent man gives thought to his steps.
A wise man fears the LORD and shuns evil. But a fool is hotheaded and reckless. A quick-tempered man does foolish things, and
a crafty man is hated. The simple
inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge" (Proverbs
Solomon
also wrote, "For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the
complacency of fools will destdroy them; but whoever
listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm"
(Prov.1:32-33).
The
Greeks were famous for their interest in speculation and new philsophical and theological ideas. Luke wrote about them in the book of Acts,
saying, "All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their
time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas"
(Acts 17:21). As a result, the city was
"full of idols" (verse 16).
Being too open-minded is not the way to attain stability and spiritual
security.
James
reprimands the doubters who are "like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed
by the wind. That man should not think
he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in
all he does" (James 1:6-8).
How
about you? Are you well-grounded in the
truth, stable, and sure-minded? Or are
you unstable, always on the look-out for new fanciful doctrines and wild new
theories?
A Very Serious Matter
To
question the very nature and divinity of Christ is no small matter. Although such questions may seem titillating,
provocative, and intellectually stimulating, to some, the truth is that they
jeopardize faith and impugn the Messiah, stripping Him of His very
Godhood. Those who claim that Jesus was
merely a man who "made good" fail to see that if such were the case,
then His death on the cross could only atone for one other person -- not for
the sins of the entire human race! Yet
the death of Jesus, since He was God IN the flesh, atoned for the sins of all
mankind -- billions and billions of people who have been born, lived and died,
since Adam and Eve!
Furthermore,
those who deny the divinity of Christ come under the specific condemnation of
Scripture. Their intellectual ramblings
will not save them from divine retribution and punishment. The apostle Peter wrote, "But there were
also false prophets among the people, just as there
will be false teachers among you. They will secretly INTRODUCE DESTRUCTIVE
HERESIES, even denying the Sovereign Lord who bought them -- bringing
swift destruction on themselves" (II Pet.2:1).
Does
this very teaching that Christ was only human not "DENY" the
Sovereign Lord, Jesus Christ? It is a
vicious and scurrilous attack, just the sort that one would expect from a
raging, foaming at the mouth, vicious devil who is
bent in these last days to destroy every vestige of truth that remains! Remember, Satan is FURIOUS -- he knows that
his time is short (Rev.12:12). Therefore
he is stepping up his campaign of disinformation and deception as never
before.
Unfortunately,
Peter goes on, "MANY will follow their shameful ways and will bring the
way of truth into disrepute. In their
greed these teachers will EXPLOIT you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over
them, and their destruction has not been sleeping" (verses 2-3).
Peter
picks up this same theme again in verse 10:
"Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial
beings . . . But these men BLASPHEME in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts [despite their
intellectual-appearing approach and cunning inventiveness], creatures of
instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will
perish" (II Pet.2:10-12).
Certainly,
Satan the devil is going straight for the throat, straight to the heart of
Christian doctrine and experience, when he viciously attacks the very divinity
of the Messiah. In so doing he virtually
denies the full meaning and importance of the virgin birth! He emasculates the Scriptural record; he
rejects and repudiates the very statements of Christ Himself concerning His
origin and divinity. He warps and twists
and perverts the entire gospel, the purpose of human life, and the truth about
the
The
teaching that Christ was both human and divine, in the sense that God gave up
His divinity to become a human being, is at the central heart and core of
Scripture, the New Testament, and Christian faith. To deny it is to deny Christ and the full
meaning of His Messiahship. To claim that belief in the divine origin of
Christ is "the antichrist" is to completely distort and reverse the
truth of God, equivalent of calling black white, sweet sour,
and light darkness!
Brethren,
we must come to grips with these matters, and renew our study of God's own
Word, lest we fall victim to the snares and traps the devil is setting for
God's people, to deceive and delude them.
We must be very careful when studying new theological opinions, lest we
succumb to their novel and seductive appeal, "in order that Satan might
not outwit us.
For we are not unaware of his
schemes" (II Cor.2:11).