My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing to in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought! (I John 4:1-3)
Jesus the Christ, the anointed Messiah, is fully human, and fully divine. But the antichrist spirit that is loose in the world and gaining many followers—including some well-known pastors—argues against either His humanity and divinity, or both…
Many antichrist leaders and followers deny that Jesus came in the flesh as a fully human being. By saying things like “God made me this way” to justify sin and deny the clear testimony of the Word, many false prophets are denying that Jesus understands our sin nature and our inability to fix it. They teach rather a Jesus who winks at or even applauds rebellion, denying that He was “tested in all ways, yet did not sin.” If Jesus did not and does not understand the depth of our human brokenness, then Jesus is not able to identify with and have mercy on our human brokenness…
GOOD NEWS: Jesus is fully human and understands every twist and pain and rebelliousness and lust and fear and fury that comes with being human. His understanding is perfect, as was His conduct. He did not sin—but He understands our bent toward it perfectly…! He offers forgiveness in the place of shame; Hope in the place of helplessness…
Many antichrist leaders and followers deny that Jesus is fully God, fully divine. By reducing Jesus to a historical figure who simply came to teach us a way to live, they fail to preach and teach and know the true Jesus who offers the power to actually live what He taught! To deny the Supernatural reality of Jesus is to deny healing and restoration and regeneration and deliverance. This antichrist “jesus” fits neatly in a church bulletin and never does anything beyond what our flesh desires, but he is not the real Jesus…!
GOOD NEWS: Jesus is fully Divine—God the Son—and loves us with transforming grace, not just pretty words and nice thoughts. He is our Deliverer; He is our Healer. He backs up His Word with Holy Spirit power to make the Word (Jesus!) absolutely alive in us! His Love heals! His love transforms! His love restores!
One shocker to the early church and to the church in our day is the fact that these antichrist leaders are not just journalists or college professors or political pundits—they are preachers and bishops and authors of “Christian” books. They are false shepherds who prey on their often-clueless sheep. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. (Jude 19)
What are we to do? The Scripture above makes clear how we know the real deal from the anti. By KNOWING the Word by the Spirit, we are in a place to see clearly false teachings that deny either Jesus’ humanity or divinity. We recognize that not everyone or everything that wraps itself in the guise of love has any clue of what fully-human, fully divine LOVE offers: Both an identification with our weaknesses and the supernatural power for us to live above those weaknesses! God IS LOVE. LOVE HIMSELF is fully Human and fully Divine. Anything less is not loving and is in fact anti-love, antichrist…!