John the apostle’s words are ringing louder and more succinctly than ever in the senses of those alert to the deceptive siren song of replacement theology.
“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. 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” (1 Jn 2:18-19).
It was already the “last time” when John wrote this under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The apostle who was so close to Jesus told us just how near is Christ’s return. Even though it has been almost two millennia, in God’s economy of time that is nothing. Proof of it being the last time was the fact that there were many antichrists in and around Jerusalem. The coming of Antichrist–the final, ultimate antichrist, was on the way. But, John goes on to say: "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world…” (1 Jn. 4:3).
Many, following the crucifixion of Christ, were at first claiming they believed that Jesus had been the Jews’ Messiah. They seemed genuine followers of Jesus among the true believers for a time. But, the further away the time of Christ’s death, burial, and well-known resurrection got, the more these drifted away from the truth that indeed Jesus of Nazareth had come into Jewish flesh–the God/man—to die on the cross, thus to provide a once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin.
Now, these who had claimed to be a part of the body of believers were feeling the pressures and heat of the atmospherics surrounding the Ressurection. The Romans would tolerate no god but Caesar. The Jewish high-minded religionists persecuted and pursued all who accepted, followed, and worshipped this imposter Jew who had claimed to be Israel’s Messiah. The Judaizer Saul, of course, was one who persecuted true believers, but who would soon become Christ’s most fervent evangelist.
John said, again, under inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, that this denial that Jesus had come in the flesh–as a Jew—the God/man to seek and save the lost, were “antichrists”. They had the "antichrist” spirit.
This “spirit of antichrist” is more and more in view today. This comes to my attention not just on a weekly basis these days, but on a daily, even hourly, basis. There is a massive denial among those who say they are part of Christ that Israel, the Jews in the modern nation and around the world, are any part of God’s plans for the restoration of all things. As a matter of fact, many of these attribute the terms “Jew” and God’s promises to that people to themselves. They go so far, in some cases, as to attribute the designation “Israel” to the nations of, for example, Great Britain and the United States. They are, they say, part of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. They, in other words, claim that they and/or these nations are the true Jews, and that the people who claim to be Jews are–well, like those of the Antichrist spirit in John’s day claimed Jesus to be–imposters.
These are doing the same thing that the Judaizers–the hierarchy of the Jewish religionists—were doing in John’s day. They are denying linkage between the Jews and God’s coming to earth in the form of Jesus the Christ. This is a denial that Christ has come in the flesh–Jewish flesh. This is the spirit of antichrist.
This “spirit” is the one that caused the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be pursued, hated, and murdered down through the centuries. This is the “spirit” that Satan has used to rage against the chosen people since the promise of the seed that would be raised to destroy him (Gen. 3:15).
It is the spirit of antichrist that boils within Islam today. It is the spirit of antichrist that brought Hitler’s holocaust to the flesh and blood Jews–a thing that, unbelievably, is being denied as ever having happened by those who claim to be Christians.
And this is the reason for my rant in this commentary. The following excerpt is from one of many I get from around the world–most claiming to be Christians, and, I might add, to be the true Jews today–replacing the Jews that can claim genetic ties to Jacob, who became Israel.
The diatribe was much longer than I can devote to this limited space. But, this is the gist, and typical of what I get incessantly these days from those who say we who believe in the rapture, and who support the rights of a phony Israel to exist are, well, headed for a devil’s hell. The person sending this follows a “ministry” that holds to the British Israel theory, or to a theory that the Church has replaced the Jews–modern Israel—in God’s promises. He tells about a man who gives the following “testimony”:
“I have done my own research, and I have been to the concentration camp Dachau four times; once in college, and three times when I was in the military. I had some problems with what I saw, and with what I was told. I am going to attempt to clarify myself hopefully in an outline that is understandable.
First: 1) I stood in what I was told was the gas chamber; but it was concealed as a large shower room. One question I had was very simple. Why would the Germans use a shower to conceal the gas chamber? If your going to kill the people with gas; then just do it, don't try to disguise it. There I stood in the middle of this large room looking at the shower heads; and I could smell gas; but was it coming from a vent, an outside source, or what. I couldn't tell. I thought this was somewhat strange. I even went outside the building looking for an outside source, or some kind of piping that would funnel any foreign objects into the building, but I couldn't find any. Actually, the gas smelled like the gas that came from the canisters that we used in combat training when I was in the military.
It wasn't until 12 years later when I was in the Air National Guard; and I went to Widmund Germany to support a Tactical Command fighter unit out of North Carolina, that I really started questioning what I was told earlier. I was in a combat communications unit, and in 1985 I had to go to the Air Force combat communications training school at Tinker AFB Oklahoma…
I went through training in the classroom; being trained in CPR, First Aid, Geneva Convention, and so forth, and then I went out into the field for three weeks training in combat.
This was the first time I was ever in the full MOP suite (gas mask, boots, and the entire ensemble) while in training. I was in a fox hole for six hours under the hot Oklahoma sun. One thing I was taught was that in order to have a successful gas attack; there has to be nearly perfect weather conditions.
In other words, to much wind could blow the gas that you directed at another country right back at you; and also, the rain has a way of dissolving or nullifying chemical, bacterial, and nuclear gas agents. One thing I learned was that water and steam could very well nullify any gas in the area. I started thinking, than how could the German's gas the Jews while they were taking showers?. They couldn't, the water and steam would dissolve the gas to the point that the gas would be neutralized.
I realize that it is a terrible thing to come against the Jews; after all, wasn't Jesus Christ a Jew? Wasn't the Jews God's chosen people? And wasn't the Word of God given to the Jews for them to study, and use to bring the light of the Gospel to the world? The answer of course is, NO!!!…”
This same “spirit of Antichrist” is flagrant among those who claim devotion to Christ. It is the denial of the flesh and blood people –the “chosen people”—into which the son of God was born. It is this spirit that will bring about the ultimate beast –the Antichrist. Jeremiah spoke to this in his prophecy about Israel during the Tribulation: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7).
The spirit of antichrist is on a rampage, even in subdued ways among the Church, by refusing to address the hatred coming against modern Israel. It does, indeed, tell us where we are on God’s prophetic timeline.
--Terry
NOTE: Permission to republish granted as stated on Raptureready.com.
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