SPOTTING AN ANTICHRIST

1 John 2:15-18
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. 18 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 we know it is the last hour.
4:3 Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

I grew up understanding that there was Jesus Christ, and there was Antichrist. Prophetic speakers who came to my church usually sought to decipher Revelation and predict who this Antichrist was. Every really bad international figure--Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin--was at one time or another labeled as "the Antichrist." None of them, of course, turned out to be the one.

I now feel that these well-intentioned preachers had us pursuing the wrong goal: trying to identify the final Antichrist. The apostle John, however, spoke of "antichrists" plural. He made it clear that these are people who epitomize lawlessness and words that lie. These are always around, and we need to be able to recognize them.

A recent "spirit of antichrist" is the novel The DaVinci Code. The story is called a "historical novel"--one that supposedly weaves realistic fictional accounts around real historical events. Unfortunately, like so many other rules, the standard for a legitimate historical novel is also being regularly violated today. The book's author, Dan Brown, has written not only a fictional story, but he has also bought into an alternative "history" on which it is based--an account that denies much of the firmly established foundation of biblical faith and affirms false historical accounts.

Many books by genuine historians and Bible scholars have been written to expose Brown's false assertions. Sadly, however, most people don't take the time to seek out the truth. Instead, they are taken in by the deception that marks this and many other recent writings that deny the truth about who Jesus was--and is.

As the apostle Paul reminded us, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our faith is empty (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). But the fact remains: No history has as much verification as that of the true Christ. Every denial of what Jesus taught and how He lived, died, rose again, and will return is just one more deceptive spirit of antichrist. Watch out for them. --Dean Ohlman

* Is my faith shaken by denials of who Jesus is? Have I taken the time to explore the many good resources that address these challenges?
* Why is belief in Jesus still such a powerful presence in the world?

LINKS:
Answers To Tough Questions: Da Vinci Code
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/questions/answer/religion/davinci/

Why Does It Make Sense To Believe In Christ?
http://www.discoveryseries.org/q1104

bottom line: Falsehood screams louder as Truth gets nearer.

soul journey