VIEW
FROM
THE
PULPIT
The Views Expressed In This Article Are The
Opinions Of The Writer.
Christianity Versus The Anti-Christ
By Rev. GJE. Gilmore, Pastor
Temple Chapel M.B. Church
^ntl-christ is a power or person
>osed to Christ. The Bible says
it the anti-christ will rise to
wer before the last judgement,
e terms appears only in the
st and second epistles of John,
is mentioned in one sense as
evil power working against
rist in many persons and
ices. It is also used to refer to
i one who will oppose Christ in the
al battle between good and evil,
tnti-christ is an antagonist of
rist who denies that Jesus is
> Christ., but who will be con
ered for all time by the second
ming of Christ. Although
entioned by name only in I
fain 2:18; II John 1:7; it is
ought to be referred to as
nan”, in II Thessalonians
1-12 and as “beast” in Revela
ms chapters 13 and 17.
Jine concept erf a conflict be
veen the forces of good and evil
ppeared In a very early Baby
mian myth, became.a dominant
art. of Persian thought, and
lade its way into Jewish beliefs
nd Christian doctrine concerning
he Second Advent. Early
Christians associated anti-christ
vith false teachers and disciples
uid with apostasies and impious
denials of God. Some students
tiaveoidenUfied anti-christ with
the Roman Empire or with such
rulers as Nero (the last of the
Julian line to sit on the throne of
the Roman Empire) Caligula
(the great-nephew of Tiberius,
his formal name was Gaius, he
was incompetent, highly extra
vagant and insane before he
died), and Titus (son of Titus
Falvius Vespasian founder of the
Flavian dynasty - Titus defeated
the Jews at Jerusalem in 70
A.D. which marked the end of
Israelite independence and unity
ail a people unto the founding
of Israel in 1948). Other
students interpret II Thessa
lonians to show the Roman
Empire, as a force restraining
the anti-christ.
ANTI-CHRIST
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
The word anti-christ appears in
the Bible only in John’s epistles;
however, the antecedents of the
conception are found in the
Book of Daniel. Here the oppres
sor is identified as Antiochus
Iv Epiphanes, the seleucid king
who tried to do away with the
Jewish religion. In II Thessalo
nians, chapter 2, the anti-christ
appears as a tempter who works
by signs and wonders and series
to obtain divine honours. It is
further signified that this “man
of lawlessness” will obtain cre
dence especially among the Jews
because they do not believe in
Christ.
During the Middle Ages the
idea of the anti-christ developed
into a powerful historical and
political factor, especially in '
times of crisis. Joachim of
Floris predicted that a third age
of the Holy Spirit would begin
in 1260 and his followers identi
fied anti-christ with the Chris
tian emperor, Frederick II. Yet
T V VvT ’ '* . , t i '. •
Rev. Gene E. Gilmore
First in series
others saw anti-christ at the head
of the church in Popes Bonface
VIII and John XXII. It was a
common practice for opponents,
including popes and emperors,
to call each other the anti-christ.
Many preachers spread warnings
of the coming of the anti-christ
in order to call the people to
repentance throughout the 14th
and 15th centuries.
The Reformers during the Re
formation did not attack individual
popes as such but the papacy it
self as being anti-christ. This idea
that evil was embodied in the head
of the church itself, with the
clergy as the “body of the anti
christ”, became the most
powerful weapons to discredit and
denigrate the papacy. The em
phasis placed on the anti-christ
figure gradually diminished,
after the Reformation. Among
some modern protestant theolo
gians, the anti-christ can be
interpreted as whatever resists
or denies the lordship of Christ.
THE ANTI-CHRIST
MOVEMENT TODAY
The most popular of the anti
christ as they exist today are:
1. The Jews who don’t believe
in Jesus Christ. They are still
waiting on the Messiah to come.
2. The Jehovah’s Witnesses
don’t believe in Jesus Christ
They adhere to the theocratic
rule of God. That is, they deny
the existence of the Trinity
(Father, Son and Holy Spirit.)
3. Atheist who believes there is
no God.
4. Agnostic does not deny the
possible existence of God but
holds that this existence and
the origin of the universe are
not known and probably cannot
be known.
5. Cults are: a) formal religious
veneration, b) enthusiastic and
usually temporary devotion to
a person, idea or thing.
CULTISM TODAY
Cultism is the adherence to
major doctrines which are
pointedly contradictory to
orthodox Christianity yet
which claims the distinction of
either tracing their origin to
orthodox sources or of being in
essential harmony with those
sources. A cult, then, is a group
of people polarized around some
one’s interpretation of the Bible
and is characterized by major
deviations from orthodox
Christianity relative to the
cardinal doctrines of the Christian
faith, particularly the fact that
God became man in Jesus Christ.
The most prominent among the
cults are Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Armstrong’s Worldwide Church
of God, Mormonism, Christian
Science, Unity, and Baha’z
Baha’i. All of these deny both
the biblical doctrines of the
Trinity and the deity of Jesus
Christ.
Cultism thrives principally upon
two factors: ignorance and uncer
tainty; where these abound, there
cultism will also be found in
force. The cults consistently
appeal to “reason” and “rational
ity,” which many times they use
as their sole guide in evaluating
the character of God and His
revelation. Hell is “unreason
able,” eternal punishment is
“irrational” consciousness after
death is a “pagan theory” and
therefore these doctrines could
not be true, argue the cults.
Continued next week.
CALSA Sponsors Conference
A group known as CAUSA
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conference on Central
America August 25-28 at the
Howard Johnson, 2400 Wilker
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For more information,
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Call 376-0496
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