San Francisco and New York City both use a highly efficient system to detect the presence of toxins in their city water supply, toxins that may be a possible sign of a terrorist attack. The two cities have found that the best tool for monitoring such threats are bluegills, those little fish many people catch on a lazy summer afternoon.
According to an article by the Associated Press, these two cities keep a small number of bluegills in a tank at the bottom of their water treatment plants because bluegills are highly attuned to chemical imbalances in their environment. When a disturbance is present in the water, the bluegills react against it. If the computerized system of the treatment plant detects even the slightest change in a bluegill’s vital signs, it sends out an e-mail alert.
Bill Lawler, the co-founder of the corporation that makes and sells these bluegill monitoring systems, said, “Nature’s given us pretty much the most powerful and reliable early warning center out there.”[1]
Just as we need early warning systems to detect potential physical danger, so also we need an early warning system to help us detect spiritual danger. Thankfully, we have just such a system. John tells us about it in this next section of his letter. Listen for God’s word to you from 1 John 2:18-23….
Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. 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. No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also.
The Last Hour
John begins this section of his letter by saying, “Children, it is the last hour.” This idea of the last hour or the last days runs throughout Scripture.
The phrase occurs in Genesis 49:1 when Jacob gathers his sons around him before his death to tell them what will happen to them at the “end of the days”. In this context, the “end of the days” referred to the time when the people of Israel would enter the Promised Land.
The prophets also used this phrase. In Isaiah 2:2 we read,
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
Thus, in the last days, God’s holy city will be supreme, and not only Israel, but also all the nations, will gather there.
The last days became associated also with the Day of the Lord. In Joel 3:14 we read, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”
William Barclay explains, “The Jews had come to believe that all time was divided into two ages. In between this present age, which was wholly evil, and the age to come, which was the golden time of God’s supremacy there was the Day of the Lord, the last days, which would be a time of terror, of cosmic dissolution and of judgment, the birthpangs of the new age.”
This does not mean that the Jews envisioned a time of total annihilation of creation. Rather, the Day of the Lord, or the last days, was the time in between this age and a new, perfect age to come. The question is: to which age will we belong? The choice is ours: we can invest in this age that is passing away, along with all of its desires, or we can invest our time, talent and treasure in the age to come. For the early Christians, the whole matter was to be decided in one’s response to Jesus.
Now, John felt that the very last hour of the last days was upon God’s people. However, two thousand years have passed since that time. Was John wrong?
No, he was not wrong, when you consider that every person should look at every hour as, potentially, the last. In every hour of every day, there is a conflict raging between good and evil. Will we make the choice for that which is against Christ, or that which is for him?
Even non-Christians realize the importance of looking at each day as, potentially, their last day. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple who died in 2011, wrote this shortly before his death….
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.[2]
Of course, the Christian must ask more than simply, “If today were my last day, would I want to be doing this or that?” The Christian must ask, “How will this or that agenda item look in the light of eternity with Christ?” That is a much bigger issue.
Antichrist
Thus, the first key concept that John introduces in this passage is that of “the last hour”. The second key concept he touches on is that of the antichrist.
The word “antichrist” can either mean the opponent of Christ or one who puts himself in the place of Christ. The one works by open opposition from outside, the other by subtle infiltration from within the Church.
This word appears only in the letters of John in the New Testament, but it reflects a very old idea. In the Babylonian legend of creation there is a sea monster called Tiamat that is subdued by the god Marduk. The Israelites took over this idea and the Hebrew Scriptures call this sea monster Rahab. (Job 26:12; Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 51:9)
The Israelites conceived of this evil power as a dragon or serpent. However, over the course of time, the Jews saw this evil as concentrated in particular historical figures like Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, who conquered Israel and set up an altar to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem. Daniel refers to this act as the abomination of desolation (Daniel 11:31; 12:11).
Mark uses this same phrase. “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.” (Mark 13:14) This reference in Mark, as well as the parallel references in Matthew and Luke, may point to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Roman general Titus in AD 70.
Then, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 we read:
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Then, of course, the book of Revelation talks about a beast, that probably represented Nero who persecuted Christians savagely. Down through history, people have fingered various historical figures as the antichrist… the Pope, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, and Gorbachev among others.
However, according to John, the antichrist is not so much a person as a principle. He tells his readers that many antichrists have already come. To John, the sign that the antichrist, or the spirit of antichrist, is in the world is the existence of false beliefs like those of the Gnostics. Thus, John thought of antichrist not as one person, but as a spirit of false teaching broadly present in movements that opposed the truth. We will look more specifically at the key truth John was defending in a few moments.
For John, the battle between good and evil was a battle for the mind. This same battle for the mind continues today. I can see it in terms of my own field of publishing. It never ceases to astonish me how many books are published in a given year. In addition to books in print, now we have electronic books of various kinds. I can download a book on almost any subject in the comfort of my own home.
Of course, books are no longer the dominant means of communication. The Internet, accessed through laptop computers and iPads and iPhones, probably outpaces every other form of communication in the world today. Yet, I wonder, how much of the information conveyed on the Internet is even accurate, or truthful, let alone, helpful. One thing that the Internet is certainly not conducive towards is deep thinking.
Sidney Poitier has written,
Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We aren’t just what we’re taught. It’s what we experience during those early years—a smile here, a jarring sound there—that creates the pathways and connections of the brain. We put our kids through fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings?
The battle for the mind races on at warp speed today compared to the first century. However, the question that John posed two thousand years ago is just as relevant now: will we listen to the Spirit of Christ or that of antichrist?
Division in the Church
John takes as a sign that it is the last hour the fact that those teaching heretical doctrines in the first century church had departed from the various Christian assemblies. Of course, this does not mean that anyone and everyone who leaves a particular Christian assembly is antichrist.
Over the past 32 years that I have spent in pastoral ministry, I have seen countless people come and go from churches. I know that for most pastors it is so easy to take the experience as a personal rejection and get defensive. Once one gets defensive, it is easy to see those who depart a congregation as being in the wrong, and those who stay as being completely in the right. However, such is not usually the case. C. H. Dodd once wrote, “Membership of the Church is no guarantee that a man belongs to Christ and not to Antichrist.” I believe the opposite of that statement is also true, “Lack of membership in a church is no guarantee that a person does not belong to Christ.”
Anointing
This leads to a very important question: how are we to know the truth?
The Nature of Existence was a 2010 documentary that asked and attempted to answer some of life’s biggest questions. One of the segments was on truth. One particular scene began with the word truth on the screen and a drawing of a man with his fingers crossed behind his back as if he was concealing something. The narrator then asked questions, and various people would answer.
Narrator: Can you define the word truth?
A Hindu cleric, speaking in his native tongue answered: By worshiping God you can find the truth.
A Tao cleric said: Anything that runs counter to Tao will not be truth.
Then the Narrator asked: What is truth?
Bobby Gaylor, a musician, answered: Truth is what people don’t want to hear.
Alan F. Segal, professor of religion at Columbia University said: “When somebody claims to know the truth, and claims to be able to tell it to you, the first thing you should do is check to see if you still have your watch, because that’s the prelude to getting taken.”
Jim Murphy, champion drag racer answered: “I’ve had a pretty messed up childhood, and God gave me the faith of a small child. I totally believe. It’s all in my heart. I know my knower knows there’s a God, and he’s in charge of everything. I just know that. To me that’s faith.”
Julia Sweeney, author of Letting Go of God said: “In science, you don’t use words like truth. You say, ‘Closer to truth.’”
Irvin Kershner, director of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back answered: “Only art comes close to trying to answer truth.”
A 12-year-old child answered: “I think truth is what we’re all searching for, isn’t it? Even though, sometimes, it’s more fun to search for it than actually find it.”[3]
Out of the mouths of babes!
How are we to know the truth? How are we to know what teachings come from antichrist and what comes from Christ himself? John answers that question this way:
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.
We can know the truth because we have an anointing from the Holy One, that is, from the Holy Spirit. The title “Christ” or in Hebrew “Messiah” means “anointed one”. Every person who has put their trust in Jesus has been anointed or “Messiahed” by him through the indwelling Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth.
That is why, as Samuel Johnson said, we do not so much need to be taught, as we simply need to be reminded of the truth. According to John, the youngest, baby Christian, knows enough of the truth to distinguish it from lies.
Denial of Jesus as the Christ
What is one of the greatest of all lies, according to John? It is the denial of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. According to John, the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ also loses connection with the Father, with God himself. Why is this the case? This is true because, as Jesus himself says in John 14:7, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.”
This does not mean that truth cannot be found in other religions, or that all who follow other religions are certainly lost. However, this does mean that the only hope of salvation comes through acknowledging who Jesus was and is. We as Christians, who share the anointing of Christ, have a tremendous message to share with the entire world: it is the message of God’s love embodied in Jesus Christ. We, despite our sin, can connect with a holy God, and it can happen through Jesus. What wonderful good news we have to share!
The late psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck, wrote a book many years ago entitled People of the Lie. In the book, Peck discussed actual case histories of people he had counseled in his work, people with extreme dysfunctional behavior. In much of his counseling, Peck said he could track the reasons for his clients’ unhappiness and help them toward healing solutions. However, there were some cases where something more sinister seemed to be at work, something that went beyond the normal psychological classifications in which Peck had been trained. All of his training in psychiatry had ruled out use of the E-word. However, through long interaction with various clients, Peck came to belief in the existence of evil.
What was characteristic of these “evil” people was that they were chronic liars. They had lied to themselves and to others, not least to family and friends. What was worse was that these clients were believing and living by their lies. Thereby these clients had invoked the power of the antichrist, the power of the lie, a sort of evil that was more than the sum total of all their lies put together. This evil power then went to work around these clients with devastating effects. Let me tell you, when I read Peck’s book, I read it with all the lights in the house on; it was that scary.
It is just these kinds of “people of the lie” that John is warning us against. As N. T. Wright says about John,
He isn’t a psychotherapist; he isn’t offering the kind of careful or complex analysis of human motivation that we would expect from a professional in the field today. But he is putting his finger on one great Lie above all, and warning that those who accept this lie and live by it are a corrupting and dangerous influence. Those who do not believe the lie must learn to trust God’s work in them, the work because of which they believe the truth. They must hold onto it firmly.
In a world where everyone seems to be talking and very few people are listening, we need to beware that not all messages conform to the truth. Thus, if we want to know the truth, we must listen to one voice above every other. I will not say that we need to listen to only one voice, because we can find wisdom in many unlikely places. However, we do need to listen to one voice above all others: the voice of Jesus. When we invite Jesus into our hearts and lives then we have living within us the best spiritual warning system there is…
[1] Kristen Scharold, Wheaton, Illinois; source: Marcus Wohlsen, “Fish used to detect terror attacks,” www.ABCNews.com (9-19-06)
[2] Steve Jobs Best Quotes, The Wall Street Journal (8-24-11)
[3] The Nature of Existence, DVD, directed by Roger Nygard, 2010, chapter 23: “Truth,” 33:44 - 36:11; submitted by Jerry de Luca; West Montreal, Canada, preachingtoday.com
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