RELIGION IS “ANTICHRIST”
( Always has been and still is!!)
Hello all!
I am so excited about writing this article because it came to me out of the blue and seems to be the perfect follow up to my last article. Having written so much about how Truth verses Religion and taken it to so many different corners of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, this just hits home in my heart! Even more than that Jesus plainly tells us what “antichrist” is by the way He chastises the religious Pharisees, Sadducee and Scribes of His time. As we look at the WOES of the Pharisees, and Christ’s warning to them, from Matthew chapter 23, it will be plain to see how much He hated what the religious leaders of His day did with the Truth.
Yet, before we get there, I would first like to take a look at the very word “antichrist”, and how it is used in the Bible. First of all, the word “antichrist” is only mentioned 5 times in four verses of two books of the whole Bible in 1John and 2John. Three times in 1John and once in 2John and it is never capitalized as being a particular person or government. It is an adjective not a noun or proper noun! If the Apostle John was the only Bible writer to use the word antichrist; we must look to John, not Paul or Revelation to tell us its meaning. If we study the writing of Apostle John carefully, we will learn what antichrist is, not who is THE antichrist.
Let’s look at those verses:
1Jo 2:18
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”
John explicitly tells his audience that they are in the “last days”…he says it twice! So, just think about that for a moment…has it been the “last days” for the past 2000 years!? Futurists totally ignore these end time references that are all throughout the New Testament…but that is another article.
Note that John did not say that “the’ antichrist” shall come!
1Jo 2:22
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1Jo 4:3
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the 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 it in the world.
John is telling the followers of Christ that there are already antichrists in the world during the first century. The Jewish leaders were a great example of these antichrists along with pagan Rome. Both were and are systems of religious practice, the Jews lost in the Old Covenant laws, and the Roman Empire lost in pagan worship of the Sun and Moon etc.
2Jo 1:7
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Already many false prophets and deceivers were in the world of first century Jerusalem. Greatest among them are the Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes that did not believe that Jesus was God in the flesh. Note: John says that these are deceivers and “an antichrist”. He never once says the words “the antichrist” or is the word ever capitalized!
The word “antichrist” is best defined as an ADJECTIVE, it is describing anyone who did not believe in the Truth that God as Christ came in the flesh. Adding the word “The” to antichrist changes the word to a NOUN that signifies a person. There are many today even as it was in John’s day that is filled with the spirit of antichrist.
Jesus and John among others warned the sheep of those who preached not the Gospel of the Kingdom. They came in some other way and their intent was and is to lead the sheep astray. The Apostle John said, those who were antichrist were against Christ.
Christ Himself said that those who were not for Him were against Him and would be scattered. An antichrist is anyone that is against the Truth of Christ, and anyone who denies that He would fulfill His purpose completely by bringing the New Covenant and destroying the Old.
(Mat 12:30
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.)
How Jesus Addresses the “antichrists” (the Jewish Religious Leaders) of His Day
When it comes to the Jewish religion not much has changed in the past 2000 years. Everything listed in the verses below are still happening within the religious communities of these people and within the Christian communities that deny that Christ came a second time, in Spirit, in 70 AD. They deny that Jesus fulfilled all that He came to do and that there is still something man needs to do to enter the Kingdom of God. This is such a grievous error.
These religious leaders still lay heavy burdens of dogmas and rituals on the shoulders of their followers without lifting a finger themselves.
Mat 23:4
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
These religious leaders still do works so that they can be seen of men, and they still wear phylacteries and garments that prove their “power”. They still love the uppermost rooms at feasts and chief seat in churches and synagogues.
Mat 23:5
But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Mat 23:6
And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Religious leaders love their titles of Rabbi and Father and Pastor and Priest and are proud to be called men of God when nothing could be further from the Truth. There is only one Master and that is Christ and all the rest are brethren of His. There is only one Father which is in heaven and that is God. Religious leaders love to be exulted and thought holier than thou, when in truth they shall be abased for their prideful errors.
Mat 23:7-12
“And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
THE 8 WOES
Mat 23: 13-35
Now this is where it gets really interesting and where the message to the religious leaders in Christ’s time could be the same message for today.
Woe #1 – “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”
This first woe is really telling about how near at hand the Kingdom of Heaven truly was. Jesus, the Truth and the Life, had arrived in the flesh and stands before all those that should know who He is. The whole of the Old Testament speaks of Him and what will happen when He comes and yet, these leaders refuse to believe Him even though the Scriptures, they hold so dear, are filled with prophecies about His coming and the spiritual Kingdom of God He is ushering in. By not accepting Christ as their Messiah, they not only don’t go in, but keep others from entering by choosing the Law over the Truth.
Woe #2 – “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”
Sounds like television-evangelists, selling religion instead of Truth! Taking little old ladies money as you lead them astray!!
Woe #3 – Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
So, we see here that Jesus is calling the Pharisees children of hell, and those chosen ones they teach are made twice the child of hell! Get the feeling that Jesus (the Truth) hates religion?
Woe #4 – “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’
You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.”
Wow! I feel that the best sentence that sums this all up is: “For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?” These leaders are choosing religion and the Law over the Truth, the Old Covenant over the New Covenant being ushered in by God Himself in Christ.
Woe #5 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
These “blind guides” are straining out the gnat of the Truth and swallowing a camel…big lies!
Woe #6 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”
They are more worried about how they appear outwardly to the world, than their inward worship of God, and His holiness.
Woe #7 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
This seems to be a restatement of the 6th Woe, thus making it twice as bad as the others!
Woe #8 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
This is a lot of blood to be responsible for!!! Starting with Abel, killed by Cain the “father of religion”…image that! Religion divides and conquers and kills, as the Law leads to death. And Jesus tells these men standing here listening to Him that all this blood will come upon THIS GENERATION!! It was not going to happen sometime in the far distant future…it was going happen within the 40 years of a generation…FIRST century!!
Mat 23:36
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Mat 23:37 – 39
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
I rest my case. Jesus hates religion and religion hates the Truth. Yet, no matter what, those who know the Lord of Truth, also know that Jesus came to save everyone and…
JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!!
Patti C.
TRUTH VERSES RELIGION 