Thoughts on Discipleship by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

LOOKING FOR ANTICHRIST (In The Wrong Direction)

From the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s to the late 1940s following WWII, life changed very little in the tiny village of my birth. Most folks did well to eek out a living from truck patch gardening, and harvesting the products of milk cows, hogs, and chickens. Many worked in local strip coal mining that abounded in Sebastian County, Arkansas. Consequently, the Bible was largely held in high esteem, and a fearful looking for Antichrist was widespread. One major problem with that was they were looking for Antichrist in all the wrong directions.

The war caused rationing of goods, and services needed for its support. Then, it was not uncommon to hear about rationing stamps for sugar, gasoline, and auto parts to be the “Mark of the Beast,” produced by Antichrist. The next cry was over social security numbers.

Also, in those days, and especially in that place, there was no comprehension of Biblical heresy beyond the sawdust and tent meetings of holiness type folks with their emotional melt down, speaking in tongues. The inroads of universalism, and ecumenism were unknown. So, was the vast importance of the Lord’s New Testament Church, and the role it must play in the heat of the last days. With cornfield plowing preachers filling the pulpit every first or fourth Sunday, and focus largely restricted to getting folks saved, the religious comfort zone of the times was largely undisturbed. Of course, this is the recall of a child growing up during those days.

The term “Antichrist” is found several times in the epistles of John. He emphasized that “. . . even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” I John 2:18.

To John in his day, it was the denial that Jesus was the Christ, and that He had come. That and kindred denials have grown exponentially. It is enlightening to consider that “Christ” is a Greek work transliterated rather than translated into English. It means “Anointed.” In the New Testament, two entities have been anointed: the Head of the body, and the body of the Head. That is: Jesus, the head of His body, the church, was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. It was appropriate then that His body which He put together in His earthly ministry should also be anointed if it is to carry on, and represent Him throughout the age. That anointing of the body occurred at Pentecost, Act 2.

Therefore, counterfeit churches that oppose the teachings of the faith once delivered to the saints are in fact antichrist meaning those that are against the teachings and work of the anointed body. Folks of a generation ago were right to look for the work of Antichrist, but most of them were looking in the wrong direction. If the apostle John were to return to the 21st Century, I wonder how he would describe the myriad of anti-anointed ones or antichrists, abound presently. They abound as prophesied!

FOR THOUGHT: The Lord’s churches are to learn, believe, and propagate the faith once delivered to the saints. How will those churches fare when they stand before the Lord and give account? Did you know that “Christ” and “Messiah” mean the same thing: “Anointed”? If the Lord’s church was anointed on Pentecost, Acts 2, then the term “Christ” applies to it. (Not in the same way it applies to the Head, Jesus), but its teachings must remain true to the teachings of Jesus. Therefore to be against that faith is to be “antichrist” as John repeatedly mentions in his epistles. Does this make sense to you? Why? Why not?

LOVING: A HIGH PRIORITY BIBLE “BE”

It is without controversy due to millenniums of experience and Holy Spirit inspired declaration: the greatest spiritual gift of God to man is love! I Cor. 13:13. As an unbroken pattern woven into the tapestry of history, it shines as the crowned virtue: the ultimate overcomer. In Matt. 5:44-46. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” It is of little wonder then that love is exalted in Holy Writ as the prime motivation, and winning strategy in the conflict of the ages. Please review this. and rejoice as you think with me!

It is love that motivates God to engage in the great conflict to bring about the ultimate defeat of sin, death, and hell. Nothing could be clearer as stated in John 3:16. It is pure love, beyond the comprehension of mankind that led the Creator-God to become one of us and to affix his eternal destiny in the victory He would procure for members of the repenting race.

Additionally, it is love that led God in human form to shed His Holy blood not only in redemption of fallen man, but in the purchase of His newly formed and established holy body: the church, Acts 20:28. Moreover, it is love through which proper evangelistic and missionary efforts are launched, and by which stormy seas of life are successfully sailed to the predestined harbor of victorious rest. Is it any wonder then that to love God with all of one’s being, and that supremely is the first commandment, and to love thy neighbor as thyself, the second one? Matt. 22:37-39

Furthermore, it is love that identifies the true disciples of Christ to the world at large as Jesus said, “Hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.” John 13:35. The apostle John wrote in exclamatory words in his first epistle 3:1, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…”

Truly, it is a good thing for all of God’s people to pray for increased love, then submerge themselves in the Word of Love to realize the answer to that prayer. Should one wonder at this most exalted of all spiritual gifts, far superior to charisma gifts of early New Testament times, the answer to such wonder will be settled forever in the biblical explanation so adamantly penned in I John 4:7,8,10: “. . . GOD IS LOVE . . . “ Successful Christians are loving people. They know it is an important Bible “Be!”