When I read John my head hurts. His arguments appear circular but are not: as a good Jewish man he is doubling his statements in parallel. Just like the Psalms. By way of an introduction to the text, Calvin called the Pope of his day an antichrist — in my view, correctly, for he was a Borgia — and he was quoting this, referring to the daily subversion of the gospel by those who have returned to the spirit of the age.
18Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. 20But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. 21I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.
26I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. 27As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.
28And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming. 29If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of him.
Now what are the marks of this? We are told it is denying that Jesus is the Christ. Now, Calvin’s Pope did not do that. And many heresiarchs have not done that. Instead, they have conflated the idea of the Christ with other things: being a renaissance prince in Calvin’s time: being a good progressive in ours.
The faith is hard. It is true, but it is hard. And like most true things, it can be summarized simply. When people start trying to complicate it, they generally fall into error. And also, when people consider that they can live in faith without a congregation, they fall into error.
They fall into the traps and errors taught, powerfully, publicly, and often with great success, by the AntiChrist of today, who has substituted emotion and the words of therapy for the gospel. In this time, that is the daily Antichrist. The one to come is not here. Yet. But the preachers of error are. Here all of us would be wise to follow John Calvin and the current Pope. Both are biblical theologians, keeping closely to the text of the message before us, and clinging to the gospel. They are not letting their intellectual ability lead them into error, but in humility having their work reviewed — Calvin invented the consistory for this purpose.
For we cannot pray that the Antichrist of this day is taken from us. This world is fallen. We can, however, pray that we remain in Christ, and do not become antichristian.
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