On Friday, we were seeing away some brothers and sisters at the airport. And my daughter Grace, while she was in the airport, was given a leaflet like this. She asked me if I'd like to read it, so I looked at it. So this is the leaflet she received. "The ancient Roman arena appears again in Singapore." On this side it says, "Represent God to execute justice. Vanquish the tyrant, Lee Kuan Yew." Maybe you thought this has something to do with some political leaflet. But at the bottom it says, "New Testament Churches." But in this section it says, "This is a new church."
Well, what has that got to do with my message? As soon as I read the first two lines, you'll see. This is how it begins: "Superficially, Singapore is a free democratic country with the rule of law. But in actual fact, the Lee Kuan Yew government is an anti-Christ." Notice the word: anti-Christ. "Rebellious bloc which persecutes the church. And in fact, the Lee Kuan Yew government is a merciless, inhuman tyrant. The Lee Kuan Yew government is a subhuman brutal regime." All this is published by something called the New Testament Church. The reason for publishing this is because some of their members — one member was arrested. And when that person was arrested, the New Testament Church, as they call themselves, put up a demonstration in Singapore. As a result, a number of them got arrested and some of them got beaten up.
Now, the messages that I've been preaching in this series, as I said, concern the Antichrist who must come before Jesus comes again. But we need to get a very clear understanding of who the Antichrist is. Now, we need to understand who the Antichrist is. The language used in this paper shows you what kind of concept of the Antichrist they have.
But first, a comment about this, something that calls itself the New Testament Church. Now, I'm going to read the same words. When you listen to the tone of these few sentences I've already read, not to mention the rest in this paper, I wonder whether you already have the feeling that this represents a New Testament Church. Let me read to you the closing lines of this: "The Most High God who rules in human kingdoms says, 'He shall turn Singapore into a dump pit.' He says, 'I will turn Singapore into a dump pit, and the abode of jackals.' Passers-by will be astounded and mocked at her." Further on, Lee Kuan Yew is described as a Hitler, and every kind of curse is pronounced upon Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore.
I feel embarrassed about this. I don't know how something like this can call itself a New Testament Church. I have nothing against this church. I have never heard of them before. I don't know who they are. But can anyone who talks in this kind of tone, who curses those who persecute them — can these be New Testament Christians? What does the Lord Jesus say in Matthew 5, verse 44? He says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." What does Paul say in Romans 12, verse 14? "Bless those who persecute you. Do not curse them." But I see only cursing. It is just a joke.
Now, more to the point is about this matter of the Antichrist. It shows that they have not understood what the Antichrist is really about. They don't know what the Antichrist is about. Now, why do we end up in this kind of error? There are a number of things we have to do to avoid error.
First of all, we must learn to think clearly. I find it amazing how few people are capable of clarity of thought. So muddled. This point of clarity of thought is so obvious that you would think that most people would take some effort to learn to think clearly. Yet most people, and Christians included, are quite incapable — again and again, as demonstrated — incapable of thinking clearly. In spite of a busy timetable, I read a lot of books every year, every month in fact. It's amazing how I have to put so many comments in the margins of various books that I read, just because it's so nonsensical, it's so illogical, they simply can't even think straight sometimes. I say to you, all brothers and sisters in the Lord, look to the Lord for grace to think clearly. Especially the Lord's brothers and sisters — you really want to pray for God to give you a clear mind. God has given us a mind, and we have to learn to use it properly, just like all our other faculties.
The second thing that we need to do in discerning spiritual truth is to have a thorough grasp of Scripture.
The third thing, of course, we need to do is to ask God to transform our lives so as to open our spiritual eyes to discern spiritual things. Being able to think clearly does not necessarily mean that you have spiritual discernment, that you can see spiritual things. As Paul says, spiritual things are spiritually discerned. So if you are spiritually dead, you won't be capable of seeing spiritual things. And that is why the Lord Jesus says in John chapter 3, that except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't see it. This is not because he is stupid; it is just that he doesn't have eyesight.
But being born again is still not sufficient. So the fourth thing is we must go on to spiritual maturity. A lot of spiritual errors are committed simply because of immaturity spiritually. And that is why in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14, the writer says that the mature are those who have their faculties trained through discerning good and evil.
One of the books I've read recently — of course, I've read quite a number of books about the Antichrist recently — here is one very colorful and interesting book you can see. It says "How to Recognize the Antichrist." I fear that if you follow his guidance, you're not going to recognize the Antichrist at all. I'm going to explain why in a moment. But just to implement some of these points that I mentioned about clarity of thought and so on, I want to run through this.
In an earlier message I have shown that the word "anti" in Antichrist has two possible meanings in the original. "Anti" can mean "against," which is the usual meaning it has now in English. "Anti" can mean "in place of," that is, a substitute for. "Anti" in the original meaning is the meaning of "anti" in Antichrist. In our examination we indicated that the meaning should really be the latter, the second one. That is, that it is a replacement or pseudo-Christ. So the two meanings are contra-Christ or pseudo-Christ. It is more accurate, the second meaning.
Now we are on very safe ground, exegetically. Because the Lord Jesus Himself never speaks about a contra-Christ, an Antichrist in that sense, but a pseudo-Christ. You see Matthew 24 — He speaks of many pseudo-Christs.
# Truth Versus the Antichrist (Part 2)
And here is the reason he gives: "If the world thought that the Antichrist was Christ, they would be more likely to crucify him than to worship him." Now, talk about clear thinking. Can you see the problem with this statement? If this were a classroom, then I would analyze this on a blackboard for you. Now, it sounds plausible, isn't it? If the imitation Christ was like the real Christ, then people would crucify the imitation Christ just as they crucified the real Christ. That is the logic here. It sounds plausible. As I said, even mistaken statements sound plausible until you analyze them.
But this statement is riddled with logical and factual errors. One of the factual errors, of course, is it confuses the two meanings of the word "Christ," which is a very common mistake. "Christ" can be the name for Jesus Christ, that is, referring to Jesus. Or "Christ" is simply a title referring to the coming Savior King. So he has confused the two terms. He also confused the first and second coming of the Lord. He seems to be talking about the first coming, but we are talking about the second coming. And when Jesus comes the second time, He comes in glory, and nobody is going to mistake that. And of course, if he had been a little bit more careful with his facts, he would have seen in 2 Thessalonians 2, that when the Antichrist comes, he will come imitating Jesus' second coming, not His first coming. And when Jesus comes the second time, I guarantee you that nobody will even attempt to crucify Him. These are just some of the many errors in this one sentence alone that I shan't bother to further analyze. I just use this to illustrate the four points that I mentioned of how to refrain from being deceived.
So, I've read recently, in the last few months, four books about the Antichrist, and quite a number of other books concerning the last things. In case you're interested, I'll tell you what these four books are, because the titles are significant for my message today. The first one, I've already shown you: "How to Recognize the Antichrist." The second one is called "The Coming Antichrist," by W.K. Price. The third book is called "When Your Money Fails, 666." As you know, 666 is supposed to be the secret code of the Antichrist. And the fourth book is called "The Coming World Dictator," by John Wesley White.
Now, all these books have one thing in common. They all portray the Antichrist, as the title of the last book shows, as "The Coming World Dictator." They differ in certain details, but they all agree on this one thing: that before Jesus comes again, there will be this great world dictator. And this book about how to recognize the Antichrist says that he will be like a super Hitler. Why does he say super Hitler? Because he will persecute the Jews even more thoroughly than Hitler did. It's quite something.
Now, the other one — this one about "When Your Money Fails" — as the title shows, is that this super dictator will control all the money in the world. And she says that what will happen is that this dictator will take all money out of circulation. So if you've got any money left, you might have to dig a hole and bury it. Because the dictator is going to control all the banks. So how do you buy and sell anything? Oh, simple. You've got your — nowadays you have your charge card. Well, it will be a super charge card. This super charge card will have the number 666 on it. That's why this book is written. So money is not necessary anymore.
Of course, I have a little bit of problem understanding this one. I'm trying to think of a little boy who goes to the corner store to buy 10 cents' worth of sweets. I presume that, according to this writer, the 10 cents would have to be put on a card. No, she says even the card will be done away with. Wow, this is getting more exciting all the time. No, what will happen to you is this, if you were around at that time — the dictator will implant this card, or a symbol of this card, into your right hand or into your forehead. And we are told that the technology for doing this is already in existence. You don't have to worry, it's painless. You just go into your checking station, and then what they do is they use a machine that will, in a split second, put in this mark into your forehead, but it's not visible. It cannot be seen. And the technology is that when you want to buy something, instead of this scanning machine that you see in many stores in North America and so on, where they pass the label over and it shows the price, this scanning machine will just run over your forehead. You won't even take off your makeup. If you don't like it on your forehead, you can have it on your hand — it's okay too.
I mean, the advantages of this are amazing, of course. You never have to worry about losing your money, or forgetting to take your American Express card or whatever. Even American Express doesn't have to remind you, "Don't leave home without it." Because you can't leave home without it — it's implanted in you. Even more wonderful: nobody can steal it from you. You don't have to worry about losing your passport, or somebody stealing your ID, because nobody can steal it from you.
All this sounds really interesting, sounds like a great idea. But I wonder if every corner shop has a scanning device, so when the little boy wants to buy 10 cents of sweets, this little shop also has a sophisticated scanning device that will deduct 10 cents from his account. Now, these are the very interesting ideas put forward. They are told that the Antichrist is the super world dictator. He will control your life, because of course, without that number, you cannot buy anything, you cannot sell anything. And there is plausibility in all this, because there is a mention of something to this effect in Revelation 13.
It is very interesting that every book on the Antichrist, every Bible teacher tells us that the Antichrist is a super world dictator, like Hitler or something of that kind. But I said that if this is the Antichrist, if that is how to recognize the Antichrist, I'm afraid you are not going to recognize him at all. And so often in the church, I have to be a voice crying in the wilderness. I have to say to all these dear friends and Bible teachers: my friends, you are wrong. I have to tell you, that isn't the Antichrist. In other words, it seems to me the deception has already begun. We are already being deceived. I don't in the least mean to suggest that all these Bible teachers intend to deceive us. No, no. What I have to say is they themselves have been deceived.
That's a big statement to make. I better present some evidence to substantiate that. My evidence that I can put forward is very simple, and I am in no danger of being contradicted. What is the New Testament definition of Antichrist? Earlier on in these messages, I pointed out that the word "Antichrist" occurs only in the letters of John. So it follows that if we want to define Antichrist, we must define it in the way that John uses that word in his letters. All you have to do is look at the references yourself. You don't have to take my word for it. Here are the references. These are the only places where the word "Antichrist" is used in the New Testament: 1 John 2, verses 18 and 22; 1 John 4, verse 3; 2 John, verse 7. You look at it and see how the word "Antichrist" is used.
From these passages, we can deduce four definitions of Antichrist. First of all, remember that these are Christians that John is talking about. But they are false teachers. They teach falsely. The second thing, as you look at these verses, you can see is this: these false Christian teachers will make their teachings sound plausible by making it sound spiritual. "Jesus did not come in the flesh with an ordinary human body like ours. Jesus is a super spiritual being. He is so spiritual that..." One has already moved Him right out of this world. But the Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus came as a human being with the same kind of body like you and I have. He is man and He is God. So you see that these false teachers want to deny one of these two things — either that He is God or that He is man.
The third thing about these antichrists is that although they are Christian leaders and teachers, they do not live godly lives. You may not know about it, but their lives are lived in sin. That is why John says again and again that they do not walk in the light. They walk in darkness. And one evidence of this is their lack of love. You go to a church where there is a lack of love and you know that there cannot be truth in that church. And that is why in the First and Second Letters of John, John is constantly talking about love. He is not talking about some kind of human love, but he is talking about God's love being manifested in our lives.
But the first thing you will notice about the antichrist in John is that he is strictly a religious figure. He is not a political figure, much less a dictator of any sort. It does not mean that he may not exercise political power, but that he is primarily a religious figure. This is quite different from the notion of his being a Hitler or some kind of political figure rising through political channels. One might think of Khomeini in Iran — he is a religious figure. He may exercise political power, but he is not primarily a political figure. He is a religious figure.
Yet you can see from these four points that the antichrist does not fit the picture that our friends describe at all. It is hard for us as Christians to have to speak out and warn people that the greatest liar of all time will be a Christian. I know that many people find this very difficult to believe. It seems that we are slapping our own face. But that is what the Bible says. The Bible is ruthlessly honest, as you know from beginning to end. And it tells us that the Antichrist is not going to be a non-Christian. He is going to be a Christian. That is why John says, "He will go out from us, but he was in among us."
Now, you can say — at least you have to say, even if you are a non-Christian — that it is quite amazing for the Bible to speak in this kind of way, isn't it? It is very interesting. Again, the Bible warns us that the greatest liar of all time will be a Christian. That should cause us to think. I wonder whether some of our Bible teachers find that they can't swallow this. And that is why they speak about a world dictator without ever mentioning that he is a Christian, nor do they ever mention, as John mentions, that he would be a great Christian teacher, a great church leader.
Our time is gone. And in future messages, I will have to describe more fully what this Antichrist is like according to the Bible. But I want to show you how the Bible is committed to speak the truth, even if the truth is hard for us to swallow. The effect of it is to speak to every Christian and to warn every Christian: could it be that you are behaving or thinking like the Antichrist? Because it is warning us that the first victims of the Antichrist will not be the unbelievers. It will be the Christians.
Perhaps after listening to that leaflet that I read out concerning something that calls themselves New Testament churches, it isn't that hard to believe, is it? How can people call themselves a New Testament church and yet behave and write in a way that is completely contrary to the spirit of Christ Himself and of the New Testament? Can you understand it? I can't understand it. It seems that the great deception has already come upon us. And if that is the case, that means the coming of the Lord Jesus is much closer to us than we dare even to think. And unless you are committed to pursue after the truth, you may be the next one to be deceived. May God give to us a heart that pursues without any reservation after the truth. Let us pray.