See the anti-Christ Missed Insights series here
In Part 1, I introduced the concept, a parade of anti-Christs. That a phrase is my effort to distinguish, clarify and then combine a unique example of ‘people warnings’, about whom Apostles John and Paul wrote, and Jesus spoke. Could the people in this exceptionally long parade possibly be The Lord’s ‘highest, most significant’ warning to us (a) during this current, 3rd age of history, especially during its closing years, and (b) during the first half of the next (4th) ages of history??
Let’s dissect this parade into three sections: (1) the Christ-deniers, (2) the false christs, saviors and messiahs, and the (3) the parade's tail-enders.
1. Christ-deniers
John called them anti-Christs (plural). This is the largest contingent of the parade of anti-Christs that began in the early first century AD, and likely continues today. Colloquially, this is a label some people have long slapped on men whom they deemed to be overly threatening, charismatic, lawless, or simply opposed to their worldviews. You may have heard it applied in this manner. As such, it has been hijacked and seriously mis-applied, when compared to John’s original meaning—people (not just men) who deny that Christ, The Lord and Messiah, has already ‘come in the flesh’ (2 John 1:7); i.e., has already been born as a man, just as He signified He would in Genesis 3:15. In denying His past human birth, these people signal their belief that He ‘is yet to be born' as a man, and thus, they spread their expectation that He ‘will be born' as a man. As such, they:
A. Deny the most significant, accomplished works of The Holy Spirit; and
B. Become stumbling blocks to the faith of people who might otherwise have believed Scriptural declarations and testimonies of The Lord’s human birth.
Scripture iteratively affirms that, if/IF their denial constitutes blasphemy against The Holy Spirit, these people can never be forgiven for that unique sin. (See: Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 12.)
Please ponder these questions:
(a) your evangelism to the billions who await a savior who isn’t The One Who already came?(b) your discernment, if much of the world is being spiritually-groomed to receive the wrong messiah??(c) your theology, if denying Christ’s incarnation isn't merely an error, but a defining trait of the anti-Christ spirit???
2. False Christs/Messiahs
Ancient Hebrews and modern Jews experienced episodic periods of oppression, both in and away from the land of Palestine. This history has spawned endless faith that deliverers, saviors or messiahs would arise, and miraculously save oppressed and captive peoples from their woes. Their faith birthed hopes, and across the millennia, their hopes birthed schemes of many false deliverers, saviors, and messiahs. (See: List of Messiah Claimants.) Interspersed with these false claimants, The Lord did send an array of men who achieved various levels of relief for their constituents. The Bible is clear that The Lord was willing, and would have sent more, with greater relief. But He didn’t! Here’s why.
Hebrews and Jew are a unique, special people through whom The Lord intended to fulfill His veiled, Genesis 3:15 promise to be born as a man, to redeem humanity from the eternal curse of sin. Yet generation-after generation longed to be ‘just regular people, like everyone else'. Thus they lived and sinned as such. The Lord judged them only when they had exhausted His amazing, long-term Grace. Yet they continually failed to connect the dots between their sinfulness, and their judgments, just as the whole world still does today! (See: Ezekiel 14:12-23.) This conundrum feeds peoples' hope and demands for political and military deliverers and saviors, just as it does across the whole world today!!
Throughout history, and especially in our days, this same conundrum has birthed a multitude of false political and military deliverers, whose promises echo the cries of desperate nations and disillusioned people. Some are crowned by conquest, others elected by emotions. They arise, commanding armies, or draped in flags, or waving new constitutions, issuing commands, orders and decrees. Many promise to tame economic catastrophes, restore national greatness, uphold (their versions of) justice, or preserve freedoms (of their supporters)!
But who among them, call people to repentance from sinfulness that The Lord declares are seeds that bore fruits of their problems?!! (See: Ezekiel 14:12-23, which He says applies to ‘a land’, meaning ANY land, including yours and mine.) Whether rising from democracies, dictatorships, or spiritualized movements, these false saviors gain power through charisma, fear, lying deceptions, and/or brute force. Yet in The Lord’s eyes, they ALL belong to the same parade of pretenders, His 'people example warnings' that we all historically ...ignore. These false saviors merely offer earthly solutions to spiritual problems they deny, are blind to, and could never fix.
Stay tuned for Part 3
The Parade'sTail-enders
