The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 2 – 5
Everyone believes Antichrist is a single person from end-time prophecy who shows up just before Jesus returns. Someone who denies the true religion and sets himself up to be worshiped in God’s place. This is based on a few different scriptures, and we’ll study all of them another day. But today I want you to ask the Bible… is Antichrist one prophetic person? 1 John 2:18. There is not one, but MANY Antichrists! And this was true even while John was alive, 2,000 years ago! How many more are there today? Who are they? Where did they come from? What do they believe? Were these Antichrists once part of the true church?1 John 2:19. What does Antichrist do? 1 John 2:22.
These Antichrists “deny that Jesus IS the Christ”. This is important, because it doesn’t mean they deny Jesus existed! Nor that they deny something He said; they deny, specifically, that He is the Christ. Not many realize it, but “Christ” isn’t the last name of Jesus. Few people then had last names as we understand the term – Jesus’ full name was “Jesus, son of [Joseph] the carpenter” (Matthew 13:54-55). So why do we call him Jesus Christ? Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, meaning “the anointed one”. “Christ” is not a part of Jesus’ name, any more than “King” was a part of King James’ name! It’s just easier to say “King James” than “James, the King”. Likewise, it’s easier to say “Jesus Christ” than “Jesus, the Christ”.
This is important because Antichrists don’t necessarily deny that Jesus existed; nor even that He was the Son of the God! Because Antichrists in the NT church were still attending church with believers! Otherwise, why would John need to tell the church how to recognize them? (1 John 4:1). These Antichrists were false prophets in the NT church spreading a false doctrine, and a false spirit, about another Jesus! And these false prophets had been so successful, Antichrist was sometimes running the church by the end of the first century! (3 John 1:9-11). 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (WEB) For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness…
Antichrist is a deception (2 John 1:7), and a deception must look a lot like the real thing! Has anyone ever been deceived into buying fake gold made of cheese? No, they buy fake gold made of lead, painted to look like gold! Something similar, which looks like the real thing but with a different heart! Something so similar, only someone who really KNOWS how gold feels can tell the difference! Jesus said these other Jesuses would be deceptions so close to the real thing that only someone who REALLY KNOWS Jesus can tell the difference! Such a good fake, that even those who know Him best, the elect, might almost be deceived!
Who would follow Satan if he appeared like a devil? So he appears as a righteous angel, worshiper of God! His servants don’t try to get you to worship the devil! They masquerade as ministers of righteousness, apostles of Christ, doers of good deeds! So Antichrist is not trying to seduce people into joining his compound! Antichrist doesn’t teach you to sacrifice little children! How does Antichrist appear? Antichrist appears to love Jesus, and teaches you to worship Jesus! But the WRONG Jesus!
HOW TO DETECT ANTICHRIST
As you’ve read, Antichrist doesn’t tell you to drink blood nor bay at the moon. Antichrist worships Jesus, and teaches you to do the same! Read 1 John 2:22 very carefully. What exactly does it say? Does it say they deny Jesus? No! It says they deny that Jesus IS the Christ! They don’t deny His existence, that He was a good person, or that He came from God! They don’t even, necessarily, deny a single word Jesus taught us about His Father! They may do all these things, but that isn’t the definition of Antichrist! Antichrist is specifically anyone who denies that Jesus was the Christ.
Isn’t that the same thing? Not at all! There is a big difference between believing someone existed, and believing they accomplished their mission! So what, specifically, was Jesus’ mission? Romans 8:3. Jesus came to condemn sin in the flesh. How exactly do you condemn sin? One way is obvious: John 7:7. But those are just words – is there a better way to condemn something? Hebrews 11:7. So Noah’s WORKS condemned the world – by putting his life on hold and building a boat, he showed it was possible to obey God and have faith in Him – and thereby condemned anyone who didn’t! The best way to condemn someone is by doing something they failed to do – in this case, by being obedient to the law of God. If you’re twice my size, should I be embarrassed that you can pick up more than me? Of course not. But if I could pick up more than you, you’d be very embarrassed, wouldn’t you? You only feel ashamed if someone of equal or lesser ability accomplishes more than you!
But we focused on the wrong word in Romans 8:3. Jesus came to condemn sin, yes. But HOW? “In the flesh”. What exactly does that mean? We’ll answer that after you read 1 John 4:1-3. Here, John tells us exactly how to tell a deceiver from a believer. This is a promise from God that cannot fail! If a teacher or spirit believes Jesus “came in the flesh”, then they are not Antichrist! (2 John 1:7). Anyone who believes Jesus came in the flesh is a true Christian. Read it carefully, it says clearly that ANYONE who confesses Jesus came in the flesh IS FROM GOD! Why? John 8:47. Because true Christians believe Jesus when He said He was just like us!
But think what that means. It means if you can make someone mouth the words “Jesus Christ came in the flesh”, they are a true Christian. So let’s test that! Ask an atheist friend to repeat after you, and give them those words. If they say it, they are a true Christian, right? Of course not! Because the Bible ALSO says that anyone who doesn’t keep the commandments is not of God (John 14:21-24). So what does it mean? The whole purpose of 1 John 4:1-3 to give us a simple test so we can challenge anyone and immediately know if they are our brethren or our enemies! So why is it so unhelpful? Because we’re assuming that “in the flesh” means “appeared to be a man”!
The word “flesh” is translated from the Greek word sarx and means, according to Strong’s Greek Lexicon, “body, meat,” etc, “or by implication human nature with its frailties [physically or morally] and passions”. So coming “in the flesh” doesn’t mean that Jesus merely looked like a man! It means that Jesus came with a morally frail, passionate human nature JUST LIKE WE HAVE! IN THE FLESH Was Jesus JUST like us in ALL things? Hebrews 2:17. Was Jesus tempted in ALL POINTS like we are? Hebrews 4:15. This is very important, so read it carefully! Jesus was tempted in ALL POINTS like we are. Not just in some points – not tempted only from outside, by others, but tempted from within JUST like us! IN EVERY WAY! That’s what it says!
It does not mean He was merely “tested”, as some would tell you it “should” read; it clearly says He was TEMPTED – really, truly, TEMPTED, JUST LIKE YOU AND ME! He was made IN ALL POINTS like His brethren – and for that to be true, and for Him to be on even footing with us, He HAD to have the SAME NATURE we have, that carnal nature that is the ENEMY of God! Think about it! If Jesus was not as human as we are, then He did not condemn sin! If Jesus accomplished something inherently beyond our abilities, we would not be in any way embarrassed by our failure to keep the laws perfectly, because “OF COURSE He was more righteous that we are! HE WAS GOD!”
If He were not human like us, we could say “He was ABOVE TEMPTATION, so it was EASIER for Him! If I were God, living according to laws I MYSELF WROTE, I could have kept them perfectly, too!!” If we could say that, it would immediately disqualify Him from condemning sin in the flesh! For how could He condemn sin in the flesh if He were not completely and fully MADE of flesh! He came to this earth to RULE His nature, the same selfish nature we have, and prove it CAN be done! There is your answer. Those who are Antichrist can admit that Jesus existed. They can worship and exalt Him, in their own way. They even can call themselves Christians! But what they cannot admit is that Jesus came in the flesh. That He came with flawed, selfish, carnal human nature, like us. Can you?
THE NATURE OF MAN
What is our nature like? James 4:5. And is EVERY MAN tempted this way? James 1:14. So EVERY MAN is enticed of “his own lust” – and wasn’t Jesus a man? Philippians 2:7. Did He keep His Godhood while He was a man? Or was He FULLY human? Philippians 2:8. Can God be tempted? James 1:13. Yet Jesus was tempted! Which means at the time He was tempted, He was not a God! Did Jesus keep His perfect nature when He became human, or did He take on the same flawed nature that Abraham had? Hebrews 2:16. Philip’s translation says it clearly: “he assumed a nature from the seed of Abraham”. Did He voluntarily take on the nature we have – the nature that lusts to envy? Hebrews 4:15.
When Jesus was God, before the world was, Jesus could not be tempted. The Bible plainly says that! Yet it also says that when He was a man, He was tempted. Why? Because He had completely given up His Godhood to become a man! He had to be like us in every way – and He couldn’t be like us unless He was tempted like us! So to share in the tribulations of His brethren, He became like them! Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of SINFUL flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: It wasn’t enough to come to earth as an inherently untemptable God and condemn sin by not sinning! This is what almost the entire Christian world believes, but that wasn’t enough for Jesus to be the Christ!
To condemn sin properly, He had to come in the likeness of SINFUL flesh! Not just FLESH, perfect and holy, but SINFUL, selfish flesh! The same flesh He made Adam and you and me out of! Jesus didn’t simply appear like us, similar to us, yet somehow better, somehow special, half-man, half- God. He had the same NATURE that we have, the one that desperately desires to sin (Jeremiah 17:9), yet He did not sin! And that proves that WE CAN DO THE SAME!
IS IT A SIN TO LUST?
People recoil at the idea that Jesus had a sinful nature like ours – even when it’s precisely what the Bible says – because they think, “but if Jesus lusted, then He must have sinned, right? Because lust is sin!” Read James 1:14-15 carefully. He lays out a clear pattern that says EVERY MAN – sinner and righteous alike – is “enticed” by their own lust! He then says lust, WHEN IT CONCEIVES, brings forth SIN. So it isn’t sin UNTIL it conceives! Just as sin doesn’t bring forth death UNTIL it is finished working! Women are born with roughly 1 million eggs. Are those children? No! They’re only children if they conceive! Only if those eggs surface from her depths, ovulate, AND meet a sperm willing to help them grow into a PERSON!
You are born with a million lusts. Are those sins? No! They are only sins IF THEY CONCEIVE! Only if they surface from the recesses of your subconscious mind, reach your conscious mind, AND find your spirit willing to help them grow into an evil ACTION – a sin!
Think about it – if lust alone is a sin, then it’s a sin to be hungry. Right? Because your soul is lusting after bread. Yet having what you lust after is one of the blessings of God! (Deuteronomy 12:20). When you’re hungry, you desire food; if you’re cold, you desire to be warm; if you’re old, you wish you were young again. Are ANY of those things wrong? Remember how we can find out if something is wrong or not? The golden rule! So let me ask you; I have some bread in my refrigerator. Do you mind if I lust after that bread? Does it harm you, or anyone else for me to lust after my hat that I forgot at home on a sunny day? Does it harm anyone if I lust after my wife?
None of these things can possibly harm anyone else; which means I would not mind if someone else did them – if someone else desired their food, their hat, their wife – therefore it cannot be a sin for me to desire my own things! HOWEVER. If I lust after YOUR loaf of bread, your hat, your wife – that changes things, for NOW you mind. Now – if you knew – you would be uncomfortable, concerned I might steal from you, and now it has become an internal sin for me, because I wouldn’t want someone to do it to me! So lust has conceived and brought forth sin. In other words, Lust had a baby and named it Sin. But it has not yet brought forth death! For Sin has not yet grown up! That first adulterous glance, like an embryo, must be nurtured for days, weeks, years even, before it is leaves the body.
But when that internal sin is mature, when I am finally prepared to act upon it – then it is finished, and it becomes an external sin when I actually commit adultery. Then it causes death, sooner or later – even if the law of God isn’t enforced by men, the sin itself inevitably creates death, even though it may take generations to do so. Do most people – enemies of Christ, Antichrists – obey their impulses, or rule them? Philippians 3:17- 19. Every man seeks his own things, not the things of God? Philippians 2:21. But can such people still put on a show of godliness? Still appear righteous? Romans 16:18. But can you choose to follow a different path? Romans 8:5-6.
Having those initial thoughts isn’t wrong – encouraging them, dwelling on them, letting them flourish in your mind until it DOES bring forth sin IS wrong! When that first lustful thought comes into your mind, if you immediately slap it down and say “No! That’s wrong!” – then you didn’t sin. You stopped lust before it could conceive! So that temptation which you feel, that attraction to things you shouldn’t have, that “lust” which EVERY man feels, IS NOT SIN. It is a part of your carnal nature that tempts you to be evil. That is why Paul said there was NO GOOD THING in his flesh! In his human nature! (Romans 7:18).
But that doesn’t mean you have to be evil. It just means you have a MOTIVATION to be evil. It is fully in your power to resist it, which is precisely what Jesus came to prove! He came to prove it by having sinful flesh, a selfish nature like we have, and then overcoming it! This is why Jesus said that EVEN HE – meaning, as Paul said, His nature – was not good! Mark 10:18. Why can’t people stop exalting Jesus long enough to just LISTEN to what He said! He repeatedly told us His nature was not good, because it constantly encouraged Him to sin by lusting!
But that lust did not find a spirit willing to nurture it, so – like a woman’s unfertilized eggs – the lust died without becoming a sin! Our job isn’t to eliminate those subconscious lusts! It would be nice, and it is what will happen when we are resurrected into the family of God (1 John 3:9), because we will be “like Him” (1 John 3:2), and will not be tempted to sin (James 1:13). But for now, not having them is not the point – the point is having them, BUT RULING THEM PROPERLY! (Proverbs 16:32).
Jesus really was tempted just like we are, in every possible, conceivable sense. He had the same subconscious desires for food, money, validation, approval, power, glory, and reproduction that we have; He had the same trials, the same grief as us. And yet He DID NOT SIN! Why? Because He ALWAYS controlled His lusts – and that’s what you must learn to do if you want to be like Him! Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE, yet without sin.
If He was tempted like me in every way that I am tempted, then His heart HAD to want to sin – but to be my Saviour, He also had to CONQUER that, as I must, and RULE – not eliminate, but DOMINATE – that instinctive lust so it cannot CONCEIVE and THEN bring forth sin! This means when Satan TEMPTED Him to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3-4), then after not eating for 40 days (Matthew 4:2), HE HAD TO WANT IT! Imagine the hunger after no food for almost six weeks! For it to BE a temptation, IT HAD TO BE TEMPTING TO HIM! I mean, that’s mind-blowingly obvious, but I can’t tell you how many sincere Christians have argued with me against that plain statement with a straight face! And the fact that they argued it tells us that they were in fact deceived false Christians, ignorantly serving anti-Christ!
Because the fact is self-evident: A temptation must be tempting or it isn’t a temptation! A loaf of bread had to sound mighty good to Jesus after six weeks of hunger! But despite His lust for the bread, He knew that the method of getting it was wrong, so He RESISTED the temptation! And again, when Satan offered to make Him emperor of the world (Matthew 4:8-10), for it to be a temptation – the best one Satan could offer – IT had to be DESIRABLE TO HIM! Imagine if the devil offered to make YOU emperor! How flattering, how appealing to your vanity that would be! How MUCH your carnal nature would LOVE that position, that wealth, that power, that respect!
Jesus was tempted just like us, which means that idea had to be APPEALING to Him, or else it wasn’t a temptation! (Matthew 4:1). The whole point of His life on earth was to walk in our shoes and prove you CAN “do unto others”, even when saddled with a carnal nature and the temptations of the devil himself! And so it must have not only been tempting, but MORE tempting than ANY temptation ANY man has EVER faced in the history of the world! But He ruled that desire and conquered it before it became sin; He governed His heart, and He took those temptations head on and then did the right thing anyway. Now that’s impressive. THAT exalts Jesus!
WHICH HONORS JESUS MORE?
You have to either believe the Bible, or not; most of the world absolutely HATES the idea that Jesus was tempted like we are; they call it blasphemy, and “belittling” to Jesus. They said that what you’ve read here cheapens His sacrifice. But does it? Really? See for yourself by comparing (A), the option most of the world believes, and (B), the truth.
A. Jesus was fully God the whole time; He came down to earth in human form, appeared to grow, always had all the answers, remembered every answer to every question that had ever been asked in the history of the universe. He never had the slightest inclination to sin – didn’t even feel tempted to sin. Oh sure, someone might have offered Him some marijuana once and TRIED to tempt Him, but He politely declined! Because He never even WANTED to sin! He knew every step He was ever going to make, and then went through the motions of dying, even though He didn’t actually die (because God can’t die!). That is a fair approximation to what most people believe. Naturally, they all bicker about the details, but that’s close enough.
Now this is what the Bible teaches:
B. Jesus gave up His Godhood entirely, and was fully human during His life on earth; He didn’t have any power at all except what God gave Him through faith – the exact same way we can have that same power. He knew NOTHING about His former life or His future except what He learned through the scriptures. He was tempted in ALL points like we are; He liked pretty girls and praise and fast chariots, but HE NEVER GAVE IN TO THOSE THOUGHTS! He never pursued them in a direction which was sinful!
Now I ask you, which exalts Jesus more – which way was harder for Him to accomplish? And therefore, which REALLY gives Him more glory since He DID accomplish it? The one which says He was utterly beyond temptation, or the one which says He was tempted just like we are? Does it really exalt Him to say He was “different” and “not subject to the feeling of our infirmities”? Or does it totally deny the value of His sacrifice? If Jesus had an unfair advantage over us, does it not deny that He was qualified to be the Christ?
In the name of honouring and worshiping Him, they say Jesus wasn’t truly human; He wasn’t really tempted; He didn’t really die; He knew all the answers. And He certainly didn’t have a carnal nature! He never even wanted to sin! And by exalting Him in this unscriptural way, they set Him up on a pedestal so high they in fact deny the greatest part of His accomplishment – overcoming a selfish, lustful nature while not being on a pedestal! Conquering the same lusts we face when he was just as weak as we are!
And by arguing so violently that He didn’t have a carnal nature that lusted to sin, they prove that they really don’t believe He COULD have resisted true temptation! They argue so ferociously for the untouchable purity of His not-really-human nature because they don’t believe He could have kept His nature pure if He had to battle the nature He gave us! And that’s what makes them Antichrist! By saying Jesus was different from us in ANY way – when the Bible plainly says He wasn’t – the spirit of Antichrist always concludes that He may have come “in the likeness of flesh”, but NOT “in the likeness of SINFUL flesh”! Not with a selfish, carnal, lustful nature! And thus, not IN THE FLESH, with its frailties, physical and moral!
Inevitably, they always conclude that He really wasn’t like us at all! Because He was special! He was God. He was different! So He did NOT come in the likeness of sinful flesh! And therefore, He did NOT condemn sin IN THE FLESH, for HE HAD NO FLESH! “He was not a man,” they say, “He was God, and God cannot be tempted”! And if that were true, Jesus was not the Christ! (1 John 2:22). Now do you see how the attitude of Antichrist denies that Jesus is the Saviour? They deny it by denying the very purpose of His human existence – which was to prove mankind CAN obey God!
And He did! Jesus proved it once and for all by obeying God perfectly despite having every moral and physical frailty we have! And since they deny He had any frailties whatsoever, they teach against the most important part of Jesus’ life, and the ONLY one that qualifies Him to be our Saviour and Messiah!
HOPE
This lesson gives you hope. You’ve been learning a lot about God, and at times He may seem strict to you; you may wonder how you can ever overcome, how you can ever defeat that carnal nature inside of you. You have looked at the example of Christ and said, “well sure, HE did it, but HE was Jesus; HE was God” – but that was the spirit of Antichrist talking. Yes, HE did it – but He was no different from you. Yes, He overcame, but not because He had been alive for eternity – He remembered none of that. Not because He had no inherent lust, but because He loved the law more than you!
He WANTED to fulfill the golden rule MORE than you do, so His soul RULED those lusts. Just as He now commands YOU to do. And He is proof that you can do it, if you want to. And all the righteous men who came after Him are more proof it can be done. And in case anyone wants to make excuses about how hard their problems are, Jesus made sure He had it harder than anyone else ever did, or ever would. He was put in tougher situations and faced temptations that He would NEVER let you encounter, because you wouldn’t be able to handle them. (1 Corinthians 10:13).
And that should give you hope that yes, you really CAN obey God; that it really CAN be done, and done by frail humans like you and me. God promised He would see to it that it will be possible for you to obey Him, and God keeps His promises! Jesus was at no time endowed with special powers we cannot have, or given anything beyond our own comprehension. He simply believed God, loved the golden rule and the laws that come from it, and obeyed God, which is all you or I have to do. This understanding is a test. It is a test God gave us, 1,900 years ago, to see whether a person is being called by God, worked with by God, or is opposed to God. I’ve used it many times, and it is infallible. If a person understands that Jesus was fully like us, then God is with them. If they hate the idea, then they are against God.
This does not mean that someone who passes the test today will not be any enemy of God in five years – I’ve seen that happen. It doesn’t mean someone opposed to it today won’t be called in five years. It simply means that, for now, they are not a part of the true church of God.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Satan’s defense argument against God’s judgment is built around the idea that Jesus cheated. Jesus was more righteous only because He was special, He had help, He was different. This is the core of Satan’s argument against God. (I’ll prove this at length another day.) After Jesus lived a perfect life, one of the last things He said was that He had proven the devil wrong (John 16:11). He had proven a fully human man can fully obey God. Which means anyone who failed, like you and me, only failed because they didn’t want to obey God enough!
You’ve learned a lot of things in these lessons that are new and different; and it’s easy to assume that your pastor and his teachers were just ignorant and deceived. And that’s partly true – but partly not. This lesson should make you realize that much of what you’ve been taught about God was not simply incorrect or incomplete, but actively contrary to the truth. The Bible is extremely clear, in unusually easy-to-understand verses, that Jesus was tempted just like we are, in every way. Yet if you tell practically ANYONE in ANY church that “Jesus had a carnal nature, like us”, they will call YOU a heretic and put you out of their church.
I know this from personal experience. If you don’t believe me, I encourage you to take this understanding to your church and see how you fare. Seriously, do it! (Hebrews 10:24-25). Let me know it works. Because if you show someone Hebrews 2:16, Hebrews 4:15, and James 1:14, and show them what that means… if they reject it – and most will – that is your proof, on the authority of the Bible, that God is not with them. That they are Antichrist, enemies of Christ, opposed to the truth. Would you still want to go to church with them, knowing that? Psalms 26:4-5, Jeremiah 15:17.
They may do all sorts of great works, helping the homeless and hungry; they may speak of Jesus and blessings with every other word! They WILL be to all appearances perfect Christians, but if they do not confess that Jesus came with a carnal nature like ours, they are NOT brethren of Christ, but Antichrist. And if you won’t take these verses to your church and your friends, why not? It’s a very simple concept, anyone can explain it to anyone. All you have to do is read three verses. Perhaps you’re afraid deep down that your “brethren” are really Antichrist, and you don’t want to deal with the conflict? And you’re afraid that after the conflict, you’ll be all alone?
If so, then you are literally denying Christ before men, denying His true sacrifice and His true accomplishment (Matthew 10:32-33). You are, in short, helping Antichrist do his work. But sharing this truth will cause friction between you and the church, between you and your family, between you and those you thought were your friends. Did Jesus know this? Read the very next verses, Matthew 10:34-40. This was part of the point. Part of the test. Jesus CAME to divide families, houses, churches; He came to see who loved the truth, and who loved the social club most churches have become! He did not come to bring “peace on earth”! No matter how many Christmas carols say so, Jesus said otherwise!
Who will you believe? Antichrist, or the Real Jesus? The false Jesus, the Antichrist, is beyond temptation, beyond humanity, beyond comprehension, beyond reality. The real Jesus was a man, just like us; He had been a God, but it would have defeated His purpose to come as a God. So He EMPTIED Himself of power, of authority, even of divinity. He became a MAN, just like you and me. Made in the likeness of sinful flesh, with the same selfish nature you and I must battle. The difference is, He never gave into it as you and I have. Because He truly loved the law, and ruled His selfish nature. That’s why He was our Savior, and why you and I need saving.
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