ANTICHRIST by H. J. Farman

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 10, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 19.

ANTICHRIST.

By H. J. Farman

Who and What Is It?

BY H. J. FARMAN.

MANY questions have been asked concerning this working: Is it a person, a power; or a system of spiritual working? A few texts of scripture will make this working plain. We are told not to "believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1. Therefore there is a spiritual working, manifesting itself in the "many" called "false prophets." There is but one way of testing these prophets, namely, "To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this Word, surely there is no morning for them." Isa. 8:20. Christ's life was tested by this same law and found guiltless: "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John 15:10. This is the great moral measuring rod by which all character is proved or tested. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter!" or, as the A. R. Version renders it, "This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." See also James 1:25; 2:10-12. From these texts it is plain that character is proved, tested, and judged by the law as lived out in Christ's life. Therefore every spirit, prophet, or teaching must be proved, tested and judged by the same law.

"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh [His flesh] is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ is come in the flesh [His own flesh] is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is in the world." 1 John 4:2, 3. The above scriptures show that antichrist is a spiritual working manifested in the individual who professes to be a Christian and yet is not in harmony with the life of Christ, who has not the Christ-life in him. As Christ hath said, "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth." Matt. 12:30.

This spirit of antichrist (anti opposed; antichrist, opposed to Christ) has always been in the world ever since sin came in through disobedience and unbelief; yet at the same time professing faith and obedience, as in the case of Cain, he came forth with his offering apparently as religious as did Abel. But what was the real difference?—Abel's was a lamb slain, whose blood typified the life of the Son of God, which Abel by faith appropriated to himself, for righteousness, according to God's commandment (Heb. 11:4), but Cain reasoned thus: What is the difference? "The fruit of the ground" is an offering, it is religious service as much as is Abel's. Yet there was no Saviour in it, no faith, no obedience, a Christless offering; antichrist indeed, who soon murdered his brother, "because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." 1 John 3:12. This same antichristian spirit existed and worked throughout the whole history of national Israel with few exceptions. They rejected Moses and the prophets while at the same time professing to believe in God who instructed them. Last of all they rejected the Son, saying, "This is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and take His inheritance." Matt. 21:38, 39.

The same antichristian spirit began to work very early in the church, even before the death of Christ, in the person of Judas Iscariot, who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, while professing to be one of His disciples, and betraying Him with a kiss. Matt. 26:14-16, 47-49. In Matthew 24, the Saviour foretold of this working, which would immediately follow His resurrection and finally develop into that antichristian power, noted in the Scriptures as "the mystery of lawlessness," "the man of sin," "the son of perdition." Matt. 24:4, 5, 9; 2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 7. The working out of this system was the exaltation of self and the traditions of men in the place of God's commandments. 2 Thess. 2:4; Dan. 7:25; Mark 7:7-9, 13.

In the last days this antichristian spirit was to be more deceptive and wide-spread, consequently more dangerous than at any other period of the world's history. For, said the Saviour, "There shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:9-12. The many forms of this antichristian spirit is one of the most pointed signs that we are in the last days: "Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour." 1 John 2:18.

This last hour's deceptive working by antichrist, while professing to believe in Christ, denies both the "Father and the Son." 1 John 2:22. How can this be while confessing and professing to believe in both of them? "By their works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient." Titus 1:16.

"For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." 2 John 7.

Reader, it becomes a serious question to us as to what spirit we are of. Because "if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. 8:9, 10. And "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." 1 John 3:7.