“The word “antichrist” has a twofold significance. The first is against (i.e., in opposition to) Christ: the second significance is instead (i.e., a counterfeit) of Christ. In the first sense the expression is a general one, which would apply to any enemy opposing Christ. In this sense all the Pagan emperors and all non-Christian religions have been antichrists—opposers of Christ. However, it is not in this sense that the Scriptures use the name The Antichrist. They pass over all such enemies of the faith, and apply the term Antichrist in the sense of its secondary meaning—misrepresenting, counterfeiting, and taking the place of the true Christ, In other words, usurping the position of Christ.
The Apostle John points out this twofold significance in 1 John 2:18, 19: “Ye have heard that The Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists.” The Greek distinguishes between The special Antichrist and the numerous lesser ones. John’s subsequent remarks show that he does not refer to all opposers of Christ and his Church, as Islam, but to a certain class who, though professing to be of the true Church, had left the foundation principles of the truth, and were therefore not only misrepresenting the truth, but were, in the eyes of the world, taking the place of and name of the true Church. John says of these, “They went out from us, but they were not of us…” They do not represent the sincere followers of Christ who love the truth, even though they may deceive themselves and the world on this subject. See also 2 John 7.
It is important to fix the concept in our minds that this Man of Sin, this Antichrist, is NOT a single individual. The Man of Sin is more accurately described as a SYSTEM which began its gradual development in the early Church (as the Apostle Paul wrote the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work) and would be revealed before the Lord’s Second Advent.
Just as The Christ consists of the true Lord and the true Church, so The Antichrist is a counterfeit system consisting of a false lord and an apostate church. (1 Cor 12:12-28) This system, which for a time has been permitted to counterfeit the authority and future reign of the true Lord and his Church, has intoxicated the nations with false claims of a God given right to reign. A single individual could never fulfill all the predictions made concerning The Antichrist. Only a corrupt system—an unholy union of church and civil government—could fulfill these predictions.”
“Without any desire to treat lightly the opinions of others, we nevertheless feel it necessary to point out a few of the absurdities connected with the common or orthodox view concerning Antichrist, that thereby the dignity and reasonableness of the truth on this subject may be properly estimated, in contrast with the narrow claim that all which the Scriptures predict concerning this character will be accomplished by some one literal MAN.
This man, it is claimed, will so charm the whole world that in a few short years he will secure to himself the homage and worship of all men, who will be so easily imposed upon as to suppose this man to be God, and, in a rebuilt Jewish temple, to worship him as the Almighty Jehovah. All this is to be done at lightning speed –three and a half years say they, (misinterpreting the symbolic time), even as they misinterpret the symbolic “man.”
Tales of fiction and the most absurd imaginations of childhood furnish no parallel to the extreme views of some of God’s dear children who are stumbling over a literal interpretation of Paul’s language, and thereby blinding themselves and others to many precious truths, which, because of error on this subject, they are unprepared to see in an unprejudiced light.
No matter how much we may sympathize with them, their “blind faith” (credulity at most) forces a smile as they seriously tell over and over the various symbols of revelation which they do not understand, misapplying them literally to their wonderful man. In this, the most skeptical age the world has ever known, he will, they claim, in the short space of three and a half years, have the whole world at his feet, worshiping him as God, while the Caesars, Alexander, Napoleon, Mahomet and others sailed through bloody seas and spent many times three and a half years, without accomplishing the one thousandth part of what is claimed for this man.
And yet those conquerors had all the advantages of dense ignorance and superstition to aid them, while today we live under conditions most unfavorable to such a development of deceit and fraud: in a day when every hidden thing is being manifested as never before; in a day when fraud of the sort claimed is too preposterous and ridiculous for consideration.
Indeed, the tendency of our day is toward a lack of respect for men, no matter how good, talented and able, or what offices of trust or authority they may occupy. To such an extent is this true, as never before, that it is a thousand times more likely that the whole world will deny that there is any god, than that they will ever worship a fellow human being as the Almighty God.
Continued with next post.
The Apostle John points out this twofold significance in 1 John 2:18, 19: “Ye have heard that The Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists.” The Greek distinguishes between The special Antichrist and the numerous lesser ones. John’s subsequent remarks show that he does not refer to all opposers of Christ and his Church, as Islam, but to a certain class who, though professing to be of the true Church, had left the foundation principles of the truth, and were therefore not only misrepresenting the truth, but were, in the eyes of the world, taking the place of and name of the true Church. John says of these, “They went out from us, but they were not of us…” They do not represent the sincere followers of Christ who love the truth, even though they may deceive themselves and the world on this subject. See also 2 John 7.
It is important to fix the concept in our minds that this Man of Sin, this Antichrist, is NOT a single individual. The Man of Sin is more accurately described as a SYSTEM which began its gradual development in the early Church (as the Apostle Paul wrote the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work) and would be revealed before the Lord’s Second Advent.
Just as The Christ consists of the true Lord and the true Church, so The Antichrist is a counterfeit system consisting of a false lord and an apostate church. (1 Cor 12:12-28) This system, which for a time has been permitted to counterfeit the authority and future reign of the true Lord and his Church, has intoxicated the nations with false claims of a God given right to reign. A single individual could never fulfill all the predictions made concerning The Antichrist. Only a corrupt system—an unholy union of church and civil government—could fulfill these predictions.”
“Without any desire to treat lightly the opinions of others, we nevertheless feel it necessary to point out a few of the absurdities connected with the common or orthodox view concerning Antichrist, that thereby the dignity and reasonableness of the truth on this subject may be properly estimated, in contrast with the narrow claim that all which the Scriptures predict concerning this character will be accomplished by some one literal MAN.
This man, it is claimed, will so charm the whole world that in a few short years he will secure to himself the homage and worship of all men, who will be so easily imposed upon as to suppose this man to be God, and, in a rebuilt Jewish temple, to worship him as the Almighty Jehovah. All this is to be done at lightning speed –three and a half years say they, (misinterpreting the symbolic time), even as they misinterpret the symbolic “man.”
Tales of fiction and the most absurd imaginations of childhood furnish no parallel to the extreme views of some of God’s dear children who are stumbling over a literal interpretation of Paul’s language, and thereby blinding themselves and others to many precious truths, which, because of error on this subject, they are unprepared to see in an unprejudiced light.
No matter how much we may sympathize with them, their “blind faith” (credulity at most) forces a smile as they seriously tell over and over the various symbols of revelation which they do not understand, misapplying them literally to their wonderful man. In this, the most skeptical age the world has ever known, he will, they claim, in the short space of three and a half years, have the whole world at his feet, worshiping him as God, while the Caesars, Alexander, Napoleon, Mahomet and others sailed through bloody seas and spent many times three and a half years, without accomplishing the one thousandth part of what is claimed for this man.
And yet those conquerors had all the advantages of dense ignorance and superstition to aid them, while today we live under conditions most unfavorable to such a development of deceit and fraud: in a day when every hidden thing is being manifested as never before; in a day when fraud of the sort claimed is too preposterous and ridiculous for consideration.
Indeed, the tendency of our day is toward a lack of respect for men, no matter how good, talented and able, or what offices of trust or authority they may occupy. To such an extent is this true, as never before, that it is a thousand times more likely that the whole world will deny that there is any god, than that they will ever worship a fellow human being as the Almighty God.
Continued with next post.
