The word anti-Christ probably conjures up some images and thoughts. You might start to think of the book of Revelation – full of other imagery including beasts, dragons, horses, and a host of other creatures.
Maybe you think of specific people of history. Nero was often referred to as an anti-Christ figure. But he wasn’t the only one.
Some of this gets confusing when we start to throw “the” at the beginning of anti-Christ. All of a sudden we go from thinking about an array of figures to a specific figure at some point in the future. And the debate about this flows.
But what is an anti-Christ? Simply put, an anti-Christ is someone or something that is in opposition to Christ – the opposite of Christ. While the term may cause us to think of sneaky individuals who are fooling many people, the reality is that anti-Christ figures often aren’t hidden. They aren’t sly. They aren’t even sneaky. They are pretty obvious actually.
I don’t think it’s all that controversial to say that an anti-Christ figure will be obvious to anyone who is truly faithful and really knows Jesus, what he is about, and what he’s up to in the world.
An anti-Christ quite simply takes what Jesus says and does the opposite. When Jesus talks about loving your enemies, an anti-Christ tells us to hate and kill our enemies. When Jesus talks about praying for those who persecute the faithful, an anti-Christ tells us to hit back on those who persecute. When Jesus talks about feeding the hungry, an anti-Christ withholds food. When Jesus talks about welcoming the stranger, an anti-Christ talks about pushing the stranger away. When Jesus talks about caring for the sick, an anti-Christ talks about only the strong surviving and the weak and sick dying off. When Jesus talks about setting the captive free, an anti-Christ talks about imprisoning more people. When Jesus talks about knowing the truth and the truth setting us free, an anti-Christ asks what truth even is. And the list goes on.
Our concern, as followers of Jesus, shouldn’t be about “the” anti-Christ. We should be on the look out for anti-Christs – both big and small. We should pay attention to those things and people who attempt to pull us away from Jesus. Not through trickery, but rather blatantly.
And most important – do not fear! Jesus says this phrase over an over again. While Jesus brings peace, an anti-Christ brings fear. Let those who have eyes see.
Most insidious anti-Christ of all is the ‘self’ nature inside of each one of us. That nasty beast is far worse than anything we can imagine.
Blessings,
Homer Les
Uncompromising Faith
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The anti Christ you describe sounds a LOT like the church I belong to EXCEPT that this group is a bit sly about it.
Actually, it is obvious, but there is smoke and mirrors clouding it too, though. I mean, we have some very well-to-do people, driving nice cars, living in nice homes, showing up to worship Jesus etc… but if you listen carefully, you see they actually teach us NOT to “enable” the poor with money, food, water, shelter etc. A lesson Jesus NEVER teaches, and in fact is the opposite of what he says (see Luke 6:30 for instance).
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It actually probably describes a lot of churches. But that should be expected in my opinion. When the church was the center of the culture, it became a cultural church more concerned with respectability and large numbers and fat checking accounts than discipleship. We have the vestiges of that cultural church in it’s death throes. In time, cultural church will die off and what will remain is the faithful remnant doing what Jesus told us to do.
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