WARNING AGAINST COUNTERFEIT CHRISTIANITY
I John 2:18-29
For almost two thousand years of Christianity there have been those who would offer a counterfeit faith as a substitute for the real. In verse 18, John reminds us that the antichrist is coming. According to Nelsons New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (pp 79-80), the antichrist is “a false prophet and evil being who will set himself up against Christ and the people of God in the last days before the second coming. The term refers to one who stands in opposition to all that Jesus Christ represent.” Many see the prefix "anti" and say that it refers to "one who is against Christ." While this may be ultimately true, perhaps the real idea of the word is "substitute." The Antichrist is one who offers himself as a substitute for Christ.
Only John uses the title “Antichrist.” Other Biblical writers use different terms to describe this diabolical person. Daniel refers to the “prince who is to come” in Daniel 9:27. Paul calls him the “man of sin” or the “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. John calls him the “beast out of the sea” in Revelation 13:1-10.
However, John’s real concern in this present passage is not just for "the antichrist" that is yet to come, but to the existence of the "many antichrists" that were then present in the world. The “many antichrists” is a reference to the Gnostic teachers that were beginning to undermine Biblical Christianity near the end of the first century.
During my seminary days, I often complained about my professors teaching me about the Gnostics. I believed that the gnostic movement had died out centuries ago. However, ancient Gnosticism has been making a comeback in recent years. The so-called “Gnostic Gospels” are very popular today. The DiVinci Code is based entirely upon the errors of ancient Gnosticism. The Jesus of the Gnostics is not the Jesus of history. The world has always offered substitutes for the real; i.e. counterfeit Christianity as a substitute for true Christianity. They offer a counterfeit Jesus for the real Jesus.
I have never known a time when there are more evidences of counterfeit Christianity than in our day. The counterfeit movements are not trying to begin new works from scratch. Rather they are trying to deceive true believers by pulling them away from the true faith. In verse 26, John writes, “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” The Amplified Version puts it this way, “I write this to you with reference to those who would deceive you [seduce and lead you astray].”
Many are being deceived by the false teachers that abound today. Christianity is under attack like never before. How can we recognize the real and the false? John gives us several characteristics of counterfeit Christianity, as well as several characteristics of true Christianity.
I. Characteristics of counterfeit Christianity: There are at least three characteristics of counterfeit Christianity presented in these verses.
First, they have departed from the fellowship (2:19). “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” Counterfeit Christianity does not come from without, but from within the church. Charles T. Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, came from Presbyterian, Congregational and 7th Day Adventist backgrounds. Moon began with the Presbyterian Church. Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons was disillusioned with all churches so he founded his own. The leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult was a former Presbyterian. They went out from us, but the truth is they were never really part of us at all.
Second, they have denied the faith (2:21-22). “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” Many in the 21st century find it easy to talk about God but difficult to talk about Jesus. Recently, I heard Dr. Tony Evans tell of being invited to lead a prayer at the Dallas city council. However, he was told that he could not pray in the name of Jesus. Dr. Evans said emphatically, “I don’t pray non Jesus prayers.” This writer agrees with Dr. Evans. Not long ago, I was invited to pray at the opening at the Chancery Court in a Mississippi county. I asked if I would be allowed to pray in the name of Jesus. When they consented, I gladly agreed to lead in prayer.
One of the chief characteristics of a cult is the denial or the depreciation of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage reveals that to deny Jesus is to deny the Father also. Some groups such as the Gnostics, the Christian Scientists, New Agers, Unity, etc., deny the humanity of Jesus. That is, Jesus only seemed to be real. Other groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus Christ. In reality, all counterfeit Christianity denies the incarnation.
Recent years has witnessed the intensification of attacks on the person and work of Jesus Christ. For example, the Jesus Seminar is comprised of pseudo-scholars. The Jesus Seminar denies that Jesus was the Son of God, his virgin birth, his miracles, his vicarious atonement, and his bodily resurrection. According to the Bible, these people aren’t Christians at all. Yet, many TV documentaries on the Scripture constantly refer to the members of the Jesus Seminar as scholars. References to true Bible scholarship are minuscule.
Modern Gnosticism as presented by The DiVinci Code also rejects Christ. Note what John says about the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. In verse 22, John identifies this person as “the liar” and “the antichrist.” John Stott (p 116) writes of the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ. “We must pronounce him ‘the liar,’ the liar par excellence. Indeed, you can tell that this is the arch-lie, because he who perpetrates it is none other than the antichrist, not the personal antichrist who is still to come, but a living embodiment of the spirit of antichrist.” “He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (2:22). John declares, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the father” (2:23a).
Third, they deceive the faithful (2:26). “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” The purpose of this section of 1 John is to warn us, regarding those who would deceive us and lead us astray. They are deceptive in that they have the appearance of true Christianity but in reality deny the fundamentals of the faith.
II. Characteristics of true Christianity: The best way to recognize counterfeit Christianity is to know true Christianity. A friend of mine had a money changing business in Costa Rica. One day I asked him if he had ever received counterfeit money. When he said that he had, I asked him how he knew the difference. He answered, “I know the difference because I handle the real. I can be counting money without even looking at it, and immediately recognize a counterfeit bill.” If we are to guard against counterfeit Christianity we need to know the real. What are the characteristics of real Christianity?
First, real Christianity is characterized by an acknowledgment of the Son of God. “He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (2:23b). Several years ago, I taught a course on the cults at the Costa Rica Baptist Theological seminary. I taught my students that the best way to defend against the cults is to know the Jesus of Scripture. One characteristic of a cult is that they deviate in some way or another from what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ. For example, the Jehovah’s witnesses deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They teach that Jesus was a good man, even a prophet, but he is not God in the flesh. Moreover, the Jehovah’s witnesses deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Real Christianity teaches that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. John writes to prove that Jesus is all he claims to be, fully God and fully man. This is the incarnation. Jesus was sinless. He was tempted as we are yet without sin. He is the atoning sacrifice for all our sins. He shed His blood for us on the cross (I John 2:2). Moreover, Jesus rose again from the dead and has been exalted to the Father’s right hand.
The Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 did not develop the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ as some claim. They merely affirmed what the church had believed about Jesus from the beginning.
“We believe in one God, the Father all-sovereign, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made, things in heaven and things on the earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh, and became man, suffered, and rose on the third day, ascended into the heavens, is coming to judge living and dead.”
The Council of Nicea exalted the person and work of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the antichrist spirit of the Gnostic teachers continues to reject and belittle the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Jesus of the Gnostics, the Jesus Seminar, the New Age movement, and The DiVinci Code is not the Jesus of the Bible. Apart from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, these people are eternally lost. All peoples need to know Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Secondly, real Christianity is characterized by an abiding in the word of God (2:24-26). “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” What had they heard from the beginning? They heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus. The so-called “Gnostic Gospels” supposedly contain additional information about Jesus Christ. However, those books were written long after the events recorded in the Bible. One of the reasons why so many professing Christians are being deceived today is that they do not know the true Word of God. We are to abide in the Word. Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).
Third, real Christianity is characterized by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (2:20, 27). “But ye have an unction (anointing) from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (2:20). “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (2:27). Every true believer has the Holy Spirit living in his life. Paul wrote, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). Paul went on to write, “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).
The anointing in this passage is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is available for every true believer in Jesus Christ. Such anointing sets the believer apart to God, enables us to know the truth, and equips us for ministry.
Beware of the counterfeit Christianity. Don’t let the devil deceive you by pulling you away from true Biblical Christianity. Verse 28 commands us, “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”
In John 6:66 the Bible says, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more." But Jesus asked his disciples "Do you also want to go away?" Peter, speaking for all the disciples asked, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ the Son of the living God."
John wrote in III John 4, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." John was expressing the heart of the Lord Jesus in these words. Don’t be deceived by the counterfeit. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Abide in Him. Remain in him.
