Spirit of AntiChrist

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

1 John 2:3-6

The term AntiChrist is used many times in describing Biblical, prophetic events. It is sort of a hook word to get people’s attention, possibly sell some books, or draw someone’s attention to read this blog. Although there is much that could be said about events that may take place in the future, the Apostle John was warning of an AntiChrist spirit that was present in the first century. How much more has that spirit festered, given the time that has passed since that early warning?

1Jn 2:18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

What is this AntiChrist spirit that John is speaking about? How can a spirit or person be AntiChrist? A quick study on the term itself may be helpful. The term comes from Strong’s G500:

G500
ἀντίχριστος
antichristos
Thayer Definition:
1) the adversary of the Messiah
Part of Speech: noun masculine
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G473 and G5547

G473
ἀντί
anti
Thayer Definition:
1) over against, opposite to, before
2) for, instead of, in place of (something)
2a) instead of
2b) for
2c) for that, because
2d) wherefore, for this cause

An adversary to the Messiah isn’t really that helpful of a definition. Breaking it down further, Strong’s G473 is for the word “anti”. We know the Messiah is Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua. To be anti Messiah or Christ, it is something that opposes or takes the place of the Messiah. An AntiChrist spirit could be looked at as an imposter, posing as the Spirit of Messiah, but being quite the opposite of the Messiah.

John warns of the AntiChrists that have come in the first century; how many more exist today? One type of AntiChrist John speaks of is one who denies the Father and the son.

1Jn 2:18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
1Jn 2:20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
1Jn 2:21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
1Jn 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
1Jn 2:23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
1Jn 2:24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
1Jn 2:25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
1Jn 2:26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
1Jn 2:27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

In the first century there were many who believed Jesus was not the son of the Old Testament God, Yahweh, thus denying the Father. These Gnostics believed the Old Testament God was a mean, law giving God, a demiurge that was not the true enlightenment. Jesus was supposedly from the true god of light. Sounds silly, right? However, the same AntiChrist spirit is alive today, although not using terms like demiurge, or claiming that Jesus is from a different God. Today the nature of Jesus is just changed not to align with Yahweh’s nature of the Old Testament.

Marcion was one of these early teachers that separated Jesus from the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh. Irenæous, an early church father, explains some of Marcion’s crimes:

Marcion of Pontus succeeded him, and developed his doctrine. In so doing, he advanced the most daring blasphemy against Him who is proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, declaring Him to be the author of evils, to take delight in war, to be infirm of purpose, and even to be contrary to Himself. But Jesus being derived from that father who is above the God that made the world, and coming into Judaea in the times of Pontius Pilate the governor, who was the procurator of Tiberius Caesar, was manifested in the form of a man to those who were in Judaea, abolishing the prophets and the law, and all the works of that God who made the world, whom also he calls Cosmocrator. Besides this, he mutilates the Gospel which is according to Luke, removing all that is written respecting the generation of the Lord, and setting aside a great deal of the teaching of the Lord, in which the Lord is recorded as most dearly confessing that the Maker of this universe is His Father. He likewise persuaded his disciples that he himself was more worthy of credit than are those apostles who have handed down the Gospel to us, furnishing them not with the Gospel, but merely a fragment of it. In like manner, too, he dismembered the Epistles of Paul, removing all that is said by the apostle respecting that God who made the world, to the effect that He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and also those passages from the prophetical writings which the apostle quotes, in order to teach us that they announced beforehand the coming of the Lord.

Irenæus describes one of the blasphemous acts of Marcion was to claim Jesus abolished the prophets and law of Yahweh. Despite church fathers writing volumes against the doctrines of Marcion and others, their beliefs tickled the ears of their audiences and many of these belief systems are held strongly in Christianity today.

2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

In the second century, Marcion’s teachings were easy to distinguish from the true gospel, and there were people like Irenæus pointing out these errors. Today, the teachings of Marcion are still being preached from modern pulpits, and just like many doctrines, have twisted and morphed into something still accepted by the masses of church goers.

Today the AntiChrist spirit of Marcion lives on through teachers proclaiming Jesus taught something different than His Father. Jesus clearly dismisses this.

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Joh 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Joh 10:29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one.”

Another verse where Jesus likens believing the Father to believing Him:

Joh 12:44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.
Joh 12:45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
Joh 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

The modern teacher of Marcionism doesn’t try to dismiss the Creator God as some demiurge; however, implies that the Father just changes the way He does things through the different dispensations of time. They say Yahweh, or the LORD, used to make people follow laws, observe certain special days, and live a certain way; but now through Jesus, He does not expect anyone to do that any more. Jesus came and made it okay to worship on the same days as the other nations worship their gods with the same traditions. Jesus did away with the laws, sabbaths and ways of the Father that were just designed for a different time. They claim that Yahweh is cool now with everything he hated before Jesus came. This way of thinking has been called dispensationalism since the early 20th century, but it is rooted in Marcionism and the AntiChrist spirit John taught about.

1Jn 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1Jn 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
1Jn 3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

Sin is defined as lawlessness by John. Let’s look at the two words in question here. Sin, Strong’s G266, and lawlessness, derived from Strong’s G459.

G266
ἁμαρτία
hamartia
Thayer Definition:
1) equivalent to 264
1a) to be without a share in
1b) to miss the mark
1c) to err, be mistaken
1d) to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour,to do or go wrong
1e) to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin

G459
ἄνομος
anomos
Thayer Definition:
1) destitute of (the Mosaic) law
1a) of the Gentiles
2) departing from the law, a violator of the law, lawless, wicked

Breaking the law of Yahweh is sin? This is not a popular teaching. “All you need is Jesus” after all. Yet what is the warning Jesus gives that I often bring up?

Mat 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
Mat 7:23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

There is going to be a group of people who did great things in the name of the LORD, and He is going to say “depart, I never knew you”! How can this be? People who think they are working for Jesus, and Jesus says He doesn’t even know them? This should scare every church goer and give them an intensity to study scripture and not end up being one of these people. Are you going to take your pastor’s word that you have it right? How about a television evangelist you never even met? Spend your whole life serving Jesus, and if you got it wrong, He will say he didn’t know you and you are a worker of iniquity. Take the earplugs out and remove the blinders. What is a worker of iniquity or one who practices lawlessness, if not someone who disregards the laws of Yahweh? David knew this and wrote about it in the Psalms.

Psa 119:160 The whole of your word is truth, and your every righteous judgment endures forever.
Psa 119:161 Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles because of your word.
Psa 119:162 I am rejoicing over your word, like one who finds great spoil.
Psa 119:163 I hate and abhor falsehood; I love your law.
Psa 119:164 I praise you seven times in the day for your righteous ordinances.
Psa 119:165 Great peace is for those who love your law, and they do not have a cause for stumbling.

Psalms 103 is often the subject of sermons, refrigerator mounted, self-help scripture:

Psa 103:1 Of David. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all within me, bless his holy name.
Psa 103:2 Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits:
Psa 103:3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
Psa 103:4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loyal love and mercies,
Psa 103:5 who satisfies your life with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psa 103:6 Yahweh does deeds of justice and judgments for all who are oppressed,
Psa 103:7 who made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel.
Psa 103:8 Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love.
Psa 103:9 He does not dispute continually, nor keep his anger forever.
Psa 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities.
Psa 103:11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so his loyal love prevails over those who fear him.
Psa 103:12 As far as east is from west, so he has removed far from us the guilt of our transgressions.
Psa 103:13 As a father pities his children, so Yahweh pities those who fear him.
Psa 103:14 For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.
Psa 103:15 As for man, his days are like the grass. As the flower of the field, so he blossoms.
Psa 103:16 When the wind passes over it, it is no more, and its place knows it no longer.

These are conditional statements. The chapter does not stop at verse 16. Pay close attention to the rest of the chapter:

Psa 103:17 But the loyal love of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to their children’s children,
Psa 103:18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his precepts.
Psa 103:19 Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Psa 103:20 Bless Yahweh, you his angels, you mighty heroes who do his word by obeying the sound of his word.
Psa 103:21 Bless Yahweh, all you his hosts, you his attendants who do his will.
Psa 103:22 Bless Yahweh, all his works, in all the places of his dominion. Bless Yahweh, O my soul.

Even His angels and attendants do His will. How much more should we? Paul asked a similar question:

Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that to whomever you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whomever you obey, whether sin, leading to death, or obedience, leading to righteousness?
Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted,
Rom 6:18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Replace the word sin with its definition, “without Yahweh’s laws”, or lawlessness and iniquity. Verse 6:15 would read: “ Shall we practice lawlessness because we are not under law but under grace?”. Before Yeshua, everyone was under the curse of the law for breaking it. There was not any animal sacrifice that was given to fix that problem, much to the misunderstanding of many. Through Yeshua we no longer have to be separated from Yahweh’s people. Why would anyone think we are okay to do the things that caused the separation in the first place? Rejecting Yahweh’s feasts, laws, statues and precepts, and embracing the practices of the nations through worship of their gods, symbols and festivals, caused all the problems. Notwithstanding the commandment that was broke in the garden by Adam.

This is the gospel in the words of John the Baptist and Yeshua:

Mat 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
Mat 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repent from what? Lawlessness, iniquity and breaking the laws of Yahweh. Yeshua had the same message as the Father, Moses and the prophets had from the beginning, He just made doing it possible for everyone.