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LESSON IV.—SABBATH, OCTOBER 28, 1893

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 49.

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LESSON IV.—SABBATH, OCTOBER 28, 1893.

ANTICHRISTS.

Lesson Scripture, 1 John 2:18-25.

18. Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby ye know that it is the last hour.
19. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest how that they all are not of us.
20. And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
22. Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, even he that denieth the Father and the Son.
23. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; he that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.
24. As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father.
25. And this is the promise which he promised us, even the life eternal.
  1. To what time does our lesson especially apply? Verse 18.
  2. Whose coming is foretold?
  3. How fully has this prediction been fulfilled?
  4. Of what is this the proof?
  5. With whom have these antichrists been nominally connected? Verse 19.
  6. Was the fellowship real?
  7. What makes this plain?
  8. Why do they withdraw?
  9. What is given to the believers? Verse 20.
  10. With what result?
  11. What was the real reason for writing the epistle? Verse 21.
  12. Who is a liar? Verse 22.
  13. Who is antichrist?
  14. How close is the relationship between the Father and the Son? Verse 23.
  15. What is to abide in the believers? Verse 24.
  16. What experience will follow?
  17. What has been promised to them? Verse 25.

NOTES.

1. VERSES 18-20.—Apostasy is a characteristic of the last time (or hour, R. V.). The Saviour predicted this (Matt. 24:11, 12), and the church has been warned of it more than once (1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-5). The incarnation is the testing truth (2 John 7), and this really means the union of divinity and humanity in the believer (Col. 1:27). This experience involves the death of self (Rom. 6:6), and giving up all things temporal (Luke 14:33), and hence many, like Demas (2 Tim. 4:10), fail to endure the test. The power of God in the church is the best agency for relieving it of unworthy members (Isa. 52:1), as is shown in the early church (Acts 5:1-14). Jesus was anointed by the Father (Acts 10:38), and so are his followers (2 Cor. 1:21), and they are thus enabled to comprehend the things of God (Eph. 1:17-19), which are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:12-14).
2. VERSES 22, 23.—Christ being the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4), one with the Father (John 10:30), through whom alone the Father could be known (Matt. 11:27), to see one was to see the other (John 12:45), and a denial of one includes the rejection of the other (compare 2 Peter 2:1 with Jude 4).
3. VERSES 24, 25.—Love to one another was the command from the beginning (2 John 5), and this involves the new birth (1 John 4:7), which results in the indwelling presence of both the Father and the Son (John 14:23). Christ is the life (John 11:25), and is from eternity (Micah 5:2, margin), and so is called the eternal life (1 John 1:2), which was promised before man fell (Titus 1:2), and announced to him before he was driven from the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15). To believe on Christ is to receive him (John 1:12), who is life (Col. 3:4), and so believers have everlasting life (John 3:36). When God gave Christ to the world, he poured out all the treasure of heaven in one gift (Col. 2:9), and it will be our constant study to all eternity to learn what we have in Christ.
WORD THOUGHTS.—Antichrist (v. 18), from the Greek antichristos, against Christ. Not necessarily professedly against him, but really against him.—Anointing (v. 20), a chrisma (common version “unction”). The root word is chrio, to anoint; from this christos, anointed, ho Christos, the Christ. What made Jesus the Christ was the anointing of the Holy Ghost (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38). The anointing of the same Holy One will be upon all those who are Christ’s, in abundant measure in the last days; and those professing to be his and having it not will be against Christ. The anointing, the Spirit of God, leads into all truth. See John 14:16, 17; 16:13, 14.