XVDHMAK@VCUVM1 (Michael Kline) (02/05/90)
Peter, I asked several friends for a "good response" to your question. Tom's a good friend of mine, and sends his response. Michael, First and Second John were written to deal with the problem of the heretics and the different preachings of Christ. 2 John 7 says, "Because many deceivers went out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist". First John 4:3 says, "And every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not out of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world." The spirit mentioned in this verse is the spirit of a false prophet actuated by the spirit of deception which does not confess Jesus coming in the flesh. This is the spirit of the errors of the Docetists (Docetes). This name was derived from the Greek "dokein", i.e. to seem or appear to be. The heretical view of the Docetists was that Jesus Christ was not a real man, but simply appeared so; He was just a phantasm. Docetism was mixed up with Gnosticism which taught that, since Christ is holy, He could never have had the defilement of the human flesh; His body was not real flesh and blood, but merely a deceptive, transient phantom, so that He did not suffer, die, and resurrect. Such heresy undermines not only the Lord's incarnation, but also His redemption and resurrection. Docetism was a characteristic feature of the first anitchristian errorists whom John had in view here in 2 John 7. The spirit of such errorists is surely not out of God. This is the spirit of antichrist. John deals with the heresy of Cerinthus in First John 2:22, "Who is the liar if not he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who is denying the Father and the Son." Cerinthus was a first century Syrian heresiarch of Jewish descent, educated in Alexandria, Egypt. His heresy was a mixture of Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity. He distinguished the maker (creator) of the word from God, and represented the maker as a subordinate power. He taught adoptionist Christology (Adoptionism), saying that Jesus became the Son of God by exaltation to a status that was not his by birth, thus denying that the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. In his heresy, he separated the earthly man Jesus, regarded as the son of Joseph and Mary from the heavenly Christ. To confess that Jesus is the Christ is to confess that He is the Son of God (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31). Hence, to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to "deny the Father and the Son" Whoever so denies the divine Person of Christ "is the antichrist." "Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also." (1 John 2:23) "Everyone who goes beyond and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; he who abides in the teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son." (2 John 9) As Christians, we need to be very careful that abiding in the teaching of Christ and not in the teaching and opinion that originates from a fallen man. Your friend in Christ, Tom Moriarty