"Hereby Know Ye the Spirit of God" From the Spirit of Antichrist --1 John 4:2,3; 2 John 7--
"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist."
Nothing should be plainer to any intelligent mind than that the Apostle is not referring to a person, but to an influence, doctrine or teaching. The context (verses 1 and 3) shows beyond a doubt that the Apostle's meaning is that the Lord's people must discriminate between doctrines presented to them as truth--they must "try the spirits," whether they be holy or evil, of God or of the Evil One--the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error. These both are introduced by prophets or teachers. Our Lord and the apostles and others following in their footsteps sowed the truth or "wheat" seed, begetting consecrated believers to newness of life and holiness of spirit. The enemy and his servants sowed error or "tare" seed, which has brought into the nominal church (or wheat field) multitudes of "tares"-- having not the holy "Spirit of Christ," but a modified, sugar-coated "spirit of the world." Hence every one presenting himself as a teacher and claiming to be a servant of the truth and to have holiness of spirit is to be tried, tested, as to whether he is preaching truth or error--inculcating the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error. The Word of God is to be the standard by which each is to be received as a true teacher or rejected as a false teacher: "for many false prophets are gone forth."
The Apostle points out one general test respecting true and false faith, true and false teachers--the Spirit of truth
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and the spirit of error--the holy Spirit of Christ guiding into all truth, and the unholy spirit of Antichrist, leading into all error, destructive to the faith once delivered to the saints and leading to a denial of the Lord's having bought us with his own precious blood. (2 Pet. 2:1) This test was the affirmation or denial of Messiah's having come in the flesh. And this was and still is a sure test--the ransom test stated in one of its forms: every doctrine that denies it is an active opponent of the truth, is anti-(against) Christ: every doctrine that ignores it is seriously wrong, not of God, however much of good may be blended with it; it is dangerous: every doctrine that confesses it is fundamentally correct--"of God," tending in the right direction.
Very early the Adversary began attacks on the true faith set forth by the Lord and the apostles from two standpoints, both of which denied that he came in the flesh.
(1) The heathen philosophies (against which the Apostle Paul also warned, 1 Tim. 6:20,21) claimed that Jesus was indeed a great prophet, a great teacher, and ranked him with their own philosophers; but they insisted that he was not the Son of God more than the others--not the Messiah of the Jews, whose hopes and prophecies they accredited to narrowness and national pride and ambition to consider themselves the divinely favored nation. Thus they denied our Lord's pre-human existence--denied that he came in the flesh--denied that he was anything else than a member of the fallen race, though admitting that he was a bright specimen of it.
(2) According to his usual custom the Adversary early began to set one extreme of error against another extreme, that in the warfare between the two errors the truth between them might be left undefended and be forgotten. Hence he started the other extreme error on this subject, whose claim was and still is that Messiah was not a man at all--that he was the very God, the Father, who merely pretended to be flesh for a time, while really maintaining all his divine powers--using the body of flesh as a covering or
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disguise to hide his glory and to permit him to appear to weep and hunger and thirst and die. This view also denies that Messiah came in the flesh--that "he was made flesh." John 1:14
As we look about us today we may well be astonished to find that the majority of Christian people hold one or the other of these false doctrines opposed to the Spirit of truth-- of the spirit of antichrist; and the remainder are generally quite confused--bewildered--do not see the truth on this subject clearly, and accordingly are not firmly founded on the ransom. For all who fail to see clearly that "the Word [Logos] was made flesh," became "the man Christ Jesus," are as unable to see the ransom [corresponding price] as are those who see Jesus as an imperfect man, begotten of the flesh by an earthly father. Thus we see that the simple test set forth by the holy Spirit through the Apostle is still a test of doctrines-- whether they be of God and the holy Spirit, or of Satan and the spirit of antichrist.
While considering these texts we will note an objection raised against the translation of our common version Bibles to show that it is not valid--that the translation is a good one; that the fault lies in the critic who evidently has not a sufficient knowledge of Greek grammar rules on syntax to attempt a criticism. His claim is:
(1) That the Greek words in these two texts rendered "has come" signify coming.
(2) That with this change the Apostle's words would signify that any teaching which denies that the second advent of our Lord will be in the flesh is an antichrist spirit.
We reply to this claim--
(1) It is true that the word erchomai, the root word from which is derived eleluthota (1 John 4:2) and erchomenon (2 John 7) signifies coming or arrival; but whether the coming referred to is a past or a future event must be determined by the construction of the sentence, just as we may use our English word "coming" in referring to matters past and future
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and say--"Faith in the first coming of our Lord is general among Christians, but not so general is the faith in his second coming." The context proves beyond peradventure that an occurrence of the past is referred to, for the record is "many deceivers are gone forth" or "went forth"; and the two statements quite evidently refer to the same thing.
(2) This claim is put forth by some who have an object in claiming that the text refers to a future event--they claim that our Lord is not "changed" to the divine nature, that he is still flesh and that he will continue to be a man, a human, fleshly being, and bear the scars of his human sufferings to all eternity. They deny, or at least ignore, the many Scriptural declarations to the effect that "Him hath God highly exalted"; "Now the Lord is that Spirit," and "Though we have known Christ after the flesh [yet] henceforth know we him [so] no more." (Phil. 2:9; 2 Cor. 3:17; 5:16) Their wish to find some Scriptural statements to support their unreasonable and unscriptural position deceives them as respects these passages. Indeed we may say that the vast majority of Christian people hold this erroneous view, among them nearly all who have ever had anything to do with translating the Scriptures.
But we will buttress our position by quoting the criticisms of these texts by Prof. J. R. Rinehart, Ph.D., Professor of Languages in Waynesburg College (Cumberland Presbyterian). After quoting the text of 1 John 4:2 and 2 John 7, Prof. Rinehart says:
"(1) The foregoing quotations are from the Emphatic Diaglott of Wilson, purporting to be from the original Greek text of the New Testament. The word eleluthota is the accusative, singular masculine, of the second perfect participle of the verb erchomai, having the same relation to this verb that any other perfect participle has to its verb. It stands with the verb homolegei in indirect discourse, and represents a finite, perfect tense, according to ordinary Greek syntax. Goodwin's Greek Grammar, ##1588, 1288
"The following translation of the first quotation is, therefore,
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essentially correct. 'Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of God.'
"(2) The word erchomenon in the second quotation is the accusative, singular, masculine, of the present participle of the verb erchomai, and is subject to the same rules of syntax as the word above. Its relation to eiselthon through homologountes, as well as the context, justifies its translation as of past time. Ibid, #1289
"The translation of the second quotation, therefore, is properly given as follows: 'For many deceivers went forth into the world--those who do not confess that Jesus Christ did come in the flesh.'"
No Greek scholar, we believe, will ever be found to contradict this definition, even though he hold to the second coming of our Lord in flesh, and might thus have a preference for a construction favorable to his conceptions.
Finally, we notice that as a confession that Christ came in the flesh at his first advent is essential to a proper belief in the ransom, and a denial of that fact means a denial of the ransom (because otherwise he could not give a corresponding price for man), so all who believe that Christ is a man since his resurrection and that he will come a second time as a man, are thereby denying the ransom--for if our Lord is still a man he either did not give his manhood as our ransom, or, giving it for three days, took it back again--took back the redemption price and thus vitiated the purchase. But on the contrary the purchase was final; our Lord's humanity never was taken back: Him hath God highly exalted and given a name and nature far above angels, principalities and powers and every name that is named (the Father's alone excepted). He is no longer a man nor in any sense like us: we if faithful shall be "changed" and made like him and "see him as he is." 1 John 3:2
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He is Altogether Lovely
Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
Upon the Savior's brow;
His head with radiant glories crowned,
His lips with grace o'erflow.
None other could with him compare
Among the sons of men;
He's fairer too than all the fair
Who fill the heavenly train.
He saw men plunged in deep distress,
And flew to their relief;
For us he bore the shameful cross,
And carried all our grief.
God's promises, exceeding great,
He makes to us secure;
Yea, on this rock our faith may rest,
Immovable, secure.
O! the rich depths of love divine,
Of grace a boundless store!
Dear Savior, since I'm owned as thine,
I cannot wish for more.