EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/23/2024 7:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Introduction to Antichrists”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 2:18
Message of the verse: “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
I mentioned in my last SD on 1 John that what I am
looking at this evening is actually the first sub-point from the main point
that I wrote about last night.
Let us look at this word in the Greek for children
because again John is addressing his readers as children. The Greek word is paidia, “I am writing to you, fathers,
because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you,
young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you
know the Father” (1 John 2:13). The
highlighted word, children, is the same Greek word John uses in 2:18. John is identifying the children as those who
belonged to the family of God, and those whom their Father desired to warn that
there was impending danger. Now it is
essential that Christians, and especially those who are less spiritually mature
and hence most vulnerable, understand the serious threat that antichrists pose.
MacArthur adds “Further underscoring
the urgency of the subject, John reminded his readers that it is the last
hour. The phrase literally reads, ‘last
hour it is,’ the word order making it an emphatic expression. The last hour refers to the present evil age,
one of only two ages—along with the age to come—that the New Testament outlines
(cf. Matt. 12:32; Mark 10:30; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 6:5). The last hour began at the first coming of
Jesus Christ)cf. 1 Cor. 10:11; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 1:1-2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20), and will
end when He returns. (The age to come
encompasses all the future, including the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year
earthly reign of Christ when righteousness will prevail in the world [Isa.
9:6-7; 11:2, 6-9; 30:23-26; 35:2-6; 45:22-24; 65:18-23; 66:13; Ezek. 34:25;
47:12; Joel 2:28-32; Amos 9:13; Zech. 14:16-21; 1 Cor. 15:24-28; Rev. 20:4; cf.
2 Sam. 7:16; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 3:21; 5:10].)”
I realize that I have posted many
verses to look up, but if you are not familiar with these verses then it will
be good to look them up for the references that MacArthur writes about in the
above paragraph.
Now one may wonder why there are
many antichrists that John writes about in this section that we will be looking
at, and if I remember I don’t think that that word antichrist is used by any
other Biblical author other than John.
Actually 1 John is the only book in the Bible that uses either
antichrist, or antichrists.
1Jo 2:18
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now
many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
1Jo 2:22
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is
the antichrist, the one
who denies the Father and the Son.
1Jo 4:3
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is
the spirit of the antichrist,
of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
2Jo 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the
world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
1Jo 2:18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as
you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the
last hour.
Once Christ arrived Satan’s opposition to an
intensity now seen before or since, and this resulted in the rise of many
antichrists. After three years of
relentless hostility toward Jesus (cf. Acts 4:26-28) His enemies finally had
Him nailed to the cross. Now that same malignant
antichrist spirit has continued to flourish to this day. “and every spirit that does not confess Jesus
is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have
heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world” (1 John 4:3).
11/23/2024 7:39
PM
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