1 John 2:18, 22 - The Antichrist

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist -- he denies the Father and the Son.

"I like Jesus, but I don't like God." These are the words of a child who knows "Jesus loves me" and has seen the pictures of Jesus with children or carrying a little lamb back to safety. Jesus is kind and loving. In contrast, in this childish view, God is a wrathful judge, ready to wipe out entire nations and send sinners into everlasting fire. This is the God who rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), who sent plagues and death on those who challenged His authority, who sent prophets to warn of judgment to come and then executed that judgment. This is an unapproachable, angry deity. There's not much about this God to love.

That is, there's not much to love unless you're a Pharisee and have managed to get on the good side of this angry God. If you can manage that, there is power to be had. You can support this angry, vengeful God from the sidelines while He punishes sinners. You can celebrate every misfortune that strikes those less pious than you as a sign that God is still in the smiting business. You can even be his henchman (within legal limits, of course), helping God with the smiting. If you're a Pharisee and someone comes along who says he is God's representative in the world, God's Son even, but hangs out with sinners and doesn't follow your carefully crafted rules for staying on God's good side, you can recognize him as a fraud. When you say, "This man cannot be the Christ because he is nothing like the righteous God we know and love," what you are really saying is, "I don't believe that God is compassionate and kind. I don't believe that He loves sinners. This man cannot be the Christ because, if he does indeed represent God as he claims, it's not the God I know."

To deny that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed Son of God, is to elevate an image of God that doesn't fit with the life and teachings of Jesus. In rejecting Jesus as the Son, one rejects God as a loving, compassionate Father, full of grace and healing.

This week's scripture speaks of the antichrist, the person who is against the idea that Jesus is the Christ, the divine Son of God. Such a denial shows that the speaker doesn't know God well enough to recognize Jesus as the manifestation of the nature of God. The lesson to be learned is that any time there is a gap between our perception of Jesus and our perception of the Father, we know that there is a misperception somewhere. To deny that Jesus is a perfect representation of God made flesh is to fill the role of the antichrist, whether we are saying that Jesus isn't as righteous and holy as God is or that God isn't as compassionate and loving as Jesus was.

Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work" (John 14:8-10)