The Holy Spirit will teach us what is true. His mandate from the Father is to counsel and convict and remind of Jesus teaching. Therefore, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to hold us together and help us withstand pressure and opposition to our faith in the Lord Jesus…
18 Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. 19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
20 But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth. 21 So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. 22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. 23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. 25 And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.
26 I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
1John 2:18-27 NLT
There are prophetic writings in Daniel and Ezekiel which form the basis of end times doctrine. I will not invest my time on digging more into it that I have in the past. Nor will I try to explain it with any level of science. At the end of times, there will be an Antichrist who stands up to oppose King Jesus. He will attract and mislead and defraud followers to deny Jesus and the Father to follow a God of ‘fortresses’ who says he is greater than any and all gods. As you can imagine, many link this description to political figures of their generation.
A first century debate continued to this time, in terms of whether this faction of Judaism was true – was Jesus the Christ? The denier of the new faith was an antichrist in the sense of not believing Jesus fulfilled that description. A teacher who formally opposed Jesus as Messiah would be an antichrist, yet that word did not come with the meaning we pour into it today. An antichrist is different from the Antichrist.
Let’s focus on John’s teaching in light of this future threat and the presence of antichrists in his day. In his context, many were leaving the church, presumably caught up in teaching of opponents to Jesus. John, as their teacher, wants them to hold firm and reminds them that the Holy Spirit motivates perseverance. Their unity will keep them together if they hold to the truth they have received.
John directs the followers of Jesus how to respond to those who oppose the truth about Jesus and attempt to lead them astray: they are to remain faithful to Jesus’ teaching, thereby remaining in fellowship with the Son and Father (echoing the teaching in chapter 1). Followers of Jesus are to be on guard against those who will lead them astray.
The best way to protect oneself, he offered, is through the reliance on the Holy Spirit. This is true through to the day you read this. The Holy Spirit will teach us what is true. His mandate from the Father is to counsel and convict and remind of Jesus teaching. We can rely on the Holy Spirit to hold our fellowship with God.
Consider John’s advice for when people and forces and movements arise which might seek to lead you away from trusting Jesus. The Spirit is always there for you…
Amen.
Marc Kinna
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