The Spirit of Antichrist!

I. Co. 11:17-19- Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church ( as the church), I hear that there are divisions among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be “heresies” (factions) among you, that they which are approved may be manifest (recognized) among you.

*heresies- from haireomai, “to choose.” The word originally denoted making a choice or having an opinion. Progressing to having a preference because of an opinion or a sentiment, it easily slipped into a mode of disunity, choosing sides, having diversity of belief, creating dissension (divisions), and substituting self-willed opinions for submission to the truth. The dominant use in the NT is to signify sects (factions), people professing opinions independent of the truth.

2 Pe. 2:1- But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

I John 2:19,22,23- ‘They’ went out from us (from verse 18-antichrists as the heretics, deceitful, destructive, divisive; prophets, teachers), but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out (with-drew) that they may be manifest (recognized), that none of them were of us…Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist (not just ‘against’, but ‘instead of’) who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

I. John 4:1-6- Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses the Jesus Christ has come ‘in the flesh’ is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus christ has come ‘in the flesh’ is not of God. And this is the ‘spirit of the’ antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (antichrists) because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2 John 7- For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. vs. 9- Whoever trangresses (goes ahead) and does not abide in the doctrine (teaching) of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son….