If there is a revelation of Jesus Christ that is to be revealed to us by God, then you can also believe and trust that God intends to reveal His opposite to us. Jesus is the Christ, so for the sake of learning, it makes perfect sense that there would be an Anti-Christ who is raised as part of God's story so that we can learn the difference between the two.
It's important for us to understand the Antichrist but also to discern how he is working against Christ in our lives today. Many are looking for a physical man to come in the future, but the apostle John's teachings on the Antichrist reveal that he is a spirit more than a man. This is important because it means you must discern this spirit today in your walk with God and not get caught waiting for a future man to arise. In short, he is already here and deceiving many, so if you are willing to discern him as a spirit rather than an earthly man, you will overcome him now rather than later.
If you believe that Jesus lives in you and is the true Christ, then you must also believe that the Antichrist is found within you as well, and that's where you overcome him. The Spirit of God makes all this possible.
Everyone wants the answer to who the Antichrist is because most are looking for a physical man to come, and knowing who he is would give you a chance to prepare yourself early enough so that you are not deceived by him when he gets into power. However, this thinking contradicts the scriptures and God's story. The answer has been written by the testimonies of faithful men for thousands of years, but because we continue to look for him in the physical flesh, we continue to miss that he has been here all along, not least, working secretly in God's people.
Question:
Who is the Antichrist?
Answer:
1 John 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.
The Anti-Christ is the Anti-spirit that opposes and denies that God sent Jesus, His Son, as the way to God, the truth of God, and the life of God. If he can deceive you with his lies to believe that Jesus is not the way to the Father, you will not have any hope for salvation.
Explanation:
God chose Jesus Christ through an oath to be the Son of God; He is the Word of God and the true Christ that lives in you. The Antichrist is not the Word of God or the true Christ and was not chosen by God to be so. He is the one who exalts himself by false witness and deceives many to believe that He is the true Christ. Albeit, his time of glory will halt when God is finished with him.
Although the word Antichrist is only mentioned four times in the Bible (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7), it is an idea that was well known and taught by many believers and writers of the Bible. The word Antichrist means to oppose Christ or take the place of Christ; it's a false anointing. The name describes what spirit is at work against the work of Jesus Christ.
In the Old Covenant, the Antichrist worked against the prophecies of the coming Christ by denying the Spirit of Christ in the saviors that God sent. They were our examples of Christ, and many denied and killed them.
In the New Covenant, Jesus and the apostles taught that this spirit was after the absolute denial of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the one true image of God.
Jesus and Paul both warned against false Christs and false prophets that would lead many astray and even taught us to look for him as the abomination of desolation who sits in the temple of God, saying he is God. (You are God's temple.) Jesus and Paul called him the son of perdition, the son of lawlessness and made the point that he is the spirit that works in your disobedience to lead you away from the true savior and convince you to be your own. That has been his goal all along.
He hates Jesus and wants to replace Him as the heir to God's kingdom. We see this in the two brothers' parables throughout the Bible. The Antichrist rejects the image of the Son of God as the true heir of the kingdom by making accusations against Him before the Lord God.
The sole purpose of the Antichrist is to convince you that you are a god and that God has no way to help you. We see this in the Old Testament starting in Genesis when the serpent convinced Eve to seek god-like status in the Garden. From there, through every generation, the Antichrist has opposed God-sent saviors and caused saints to follow other idols or gods, including themselves.
In the New Testament, the Pharisees hated Jesus and denied Him as the Son of God so that they could remain in the high seats and proclaim that they were God's sent ones.
Today, that same spirit wants to convince the saints of God to deny Jesus by thinking that we can work out our salvation without the help of Jesus, but he is a lair.
And finally, if you think you have no issues or run-ins with the Antichrist, I ask you to seek the Lord and look deeper into the mysteries of God. If Jesus is the spirit of God who works in you to bring you to heaven, it's the spirit of the Antichrist who works within you to bring you to the pit and even into hell itself.
What to do:
This is simple: those who believe in Jesus and are born of God are of God. Instead of waiting for a physical man to rise up and be the Antichrist, I encourage you to look inward and see what the Lord intended for you to see all along. The Antichrist is the son of destruction that hides in your temple of God through the mystery of iniquity, saying that he is God. Deny him by denying your way, truth, and life, and give glory to Jesus as the true door to your eternal salvation.
Scriptural references:
Matthew 24:24; 1 Corinthians 3:16–17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:2–3; 2 John 7
The spirit of the Antichrist works in your consciousness; that's where you will find him.
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