Prejudice in the Church

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

>LONG and FINAL POST:
>
>On the matter of making statements such as follows:
>
>>" Are the Jews Antichrist?  It is John that has the opinion that they are..."
>
>>Notice, THEY (antichrist) went out from us THEY(antichrist) were not of 
>>us, if THEY (antichrist)had been of us.....etc.  you get the picture.  
>>Antichrist in Johns writing is They not he. 
>
>(refering in context to Jews)
>
>> You cannot have the Jew be Gods chosen and have the Bible 
>>say they are antichrist all in one breath.  They are antichrist or 
>> they are Gods chosen but certainly not both.
>
>Perhaps one might say that they hav identified the source of
>persecution of the age of tribulation. Yes, the word "antichrist" is
>never used personally, refering to an individual, but refers to a
>spirit which denies Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
>

I would like to point out a couple of things in this discussion. First of
all "Jew" has two different meanings.

1. A member of an ethnic group comprised of those who claim to be descended
from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

2. One who practices the religion of Judaism.

Now under the old covenant, these two groups were meant to be the same (i.e
Godfearers would join the nation of Israel). This has changed so that many
of Jewish ethnic descent no longer practice Judaism. 

When John warns his readers about the spirit of antichrist "not of Christ"
is the appropriate rendering of this little gem, more so than "against
Christ", which is a secondary meaning.

Those that deny Jesus' divinity have the spirit of antichrist. They have it
because of their choice not their ethnic grouping. You are not antichrist
because you are American, you have the spirit of antichrist because you
reject Jesus and have not His Spirit. We who preach the birth of water and
spirit should realize this more than anyone. Unless we don't preach it as
much as we used to ;-)

If we accept the statement "jews are antichrist", than where do we put the
120? the 3000? the 5000? Also as Bro. Mark said, what about muslims,
buddhists, et al? They deny the Christ, what spirit are they of?

So as we look at this we see that there are those of Jewish background who
rejected the Messiah and were captivated by that spirit. Paul talks about
the results in the parable of the Olive Tree. But let me emphasize that
they came into this predicament through personal choice not any ethnic
"whatever".

But, although salvation has been opened to the Gentiles through this, Paul
also points out that we may suffer the same fate and fall prey to the same
spirit.

The eschatological concept of "Antichrist" is that an individual will
appear on the earth and be the embodiment of all this spirit has tried to
do through individuals since the time of Jesus.

Hope this edifies,

Frqank Vandenburg