(1 John 2:18).
1906 37 It is important for our souls to have sound and scriptural judgment of the time through which we are passing. We can have no hesitation in taking up the apostle's word and saying with renewed emphasis, "It is the (or, a) last time (hour)." It was so in principle then; it is immensely developed since, nothing less but a vast deal more. Now one peculiar feature of the evil with which we have to do, and through the midst of which we are passing is that the fairest forms are thrown as a veil over the foulest evil. This it is that deceives even true children of God. Babylon has not only the purple robe and the golden cup in her hand; she is also arrayed in fine linen. There is the appearance if not the reality of the righteousnesses of saints. No doubt she wears also gaudy splendour of the world; in these she revels, these alone she values. Practical righteousness here or there is but an accident of grace, and used as a decoy for those who are foolish enough to regard it as an indigenous fact, instead of God's honouring the name of Jesus in spite of so much that contradicts it. Men thus abide in, or rush into, that which their own consciences must know is altogether opposed to His word and Spirit.
There is nobody who tries Christendom in general by the N.T. but must know that the very point and calling of a Christian man is to be separated to the Father's love in Christ, and thus to have the world hating him, as it hated Christ here below. The great mass of men in Christendom are the most opposed to God as revealed in His Son, the Lord Jesus. There is no evil so vile in this world, as that which is found in Christendom under the true light which makes all things manifest. There may be more gross things in Mahommetanism or heathenism; but there is nothing so deadly nor so utterly different from Christ as that which is everywhere around us. Here alas! judaised feebleness of faith is apt to deceive souls. Men go so much by public opinion, and the spirit of the age. They think a great deal of that which might send evil-doers into a prison, or of what disgraces them in the estimate of society. Is not this the world? So far as we do thus we are letting slip the whole groundwork of faith. We dishonour the word of God as made known in Christ, the special object of which is to give us communion with the Father and the Son, outside the world and rejected by it. Consequently so far as we accept the opinions of the day, we are not walking as Christians, but "according to man" (1 Cor. 3:3). We are thus habitually exposed to being drawn away by that stream which is yet to carry into perdition the whole of Christendom. Every one in the day that yields to the delusion that is coming will be swept away, whether by an open scepticism or by following the stream of tradition, which is vainly trusted as the saving antidote. It becomes increasingly serious therefore for ourselves or for our children if we give man's way the smallest allowance now.
Let us remember that to the Christian there will be no signs save of a moral kind for what is coming. Godly Jews who follow us are to have sensible tokens also, as they had of old. We on the contrary are called to walk by faith and not by sight. The Lord has revealed all the truth to the church of God, not such external tokens as would dispense with His Spirit guiding by His word. We are called thus to judge things by the mind of Christ; and the only standard of the truth is the written word.
Therefore should we particularly desire for ourselves to cherish this increasingly, and with earnest love and zeal warn and entreat the children of God to be upon their guard in the small things as well as the great, looking well to it that they be vigilant as to their children in what is fated to perish so awfully; or for the sake of worldly advantage not to be seeking for them what they know would be wrong for themselves. We are regarded by God, not as one exactly with our children, but as bound to exercise a guardian care over them. Our children may throw off our authority and despise our care; but we are responsible to keep the Lord and the complete word of God before them.
We all know that much depends upon the way in which our children are brought up and trained. A pliant twig may be formed and fashioned while it is tender and young, and in the same way we may train our children to a comparatively sound judgment of that which is evil and contrary to Christ. Even children are, in their measure, capable of forming a judgment and of knowing sufficiently well what is according to the word of God and what is opposed or indifferent, and therefore they have their responsibility. But there can be no doubt that Christians are responsible, more particularly as parents or guardians, in whatever position we may stand related to those put under us by God. And assuredly no person allows that which is contrary to God in his child without showing how lamentably feeble and. false they become in their own ways. It is impossible to lay all the blame upon the child. Even the world acknowledges that such are under our authority and that we as parents are bound to train them in early days in spite of discouragements, instead of making excuses for giving up, if one or another breaks through. If there has been a slur upon ourselves for too easy-going and a deep sorrow on our hearts for the ill effect on the children, why should we be discouraged or despair? Have we not title in Christ to approach with boldness the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for seasonable help?
Already as we see from the passage itself there are many antichrists; not legalists or errorists only, but antagonists of Christ. For these Satan prepared the way by inciting good men to sanction evil things. The prevalence of "many antichrists" shows that His name was, even in apostolic times, made the cloke for thoughts and ways the most opposed to Himself. The devil could do nothing to destroy Christianity without attaching the Lord's name to his evil plans.
Even before the apostles disappeared how marked the change! Worldliness and the world, under the name of the Lord Christ! This laxity became a great snare for both Christians and the world. Christian professors were already too easily beguiled to countenance plausible lies of the enemy: for deadly heterodoxy may outwardly sound very like blessed truth. Thus sincere believers are often misled for a while, and those who have only a mental acquaintance with the truth are drawn away to take licence from such sanction as theirs.
The Lord grant that we may feel deeply what a solemn importance attaches to Christ and the truth! What will the world think of you who profess to know better? What pleasure can Christ find in you, if you relax your protest and grudge your separation to Himself? if you grow careless and begin to allow evil you once felt in this or that? May grace make us lowly, yet earnest, not in a spirit of bondage or of petty fault-finding with others but in being true to the Lord Jesus who has been so true to us. We are told here that Antichrist is coming, but at the same time "even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour." We must beware therefore of evils on every side, and of evil particularly done under the name of Christ — that is antichrist. It may be utterly to destroy the Christ of God, but an antichrist can do nothing but oppose the name of Him.
Finally we are told in what consists the great evil of the latter days: it is in this a denial of all revealed truth of Christ. "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" But this is not the full character of Antichrist. It was what the Old Testament prepared us for; it pointed to the promised One Jesus, and showed that He was the true Messiah, the Anointed of God. But the New Testament shows that He was not only the Messiah but the Son revealing the Father. That Jesus is the Christ is the great answer to all Jewish expectations, such as the Old Testament would form. But that Jesus is not only the Christ but the Son of the Father is the grand truth of the New Testament. Whatever tends to supplant and overthrow the truth of the New Testament will assuredly bring in antichrist. "He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son,"
And this is what things are rapidly hastening to. It comes now to be a sanctioned thing that men may teach doctrine that undermines both Old and New Testaments. Even those who are in the highest position ecclesiastically lay it down that there is nothing in such speculations contrary to sound doctrine! What then since this Epistle was written can be more calculated to fill one with concern than that which is now avowed by those accredited as Christian men to speak with authority?
Truly do we need to be "kept by God's power, through faith." Let us own that these are solemn words to ourselves; for this extreme evil is a thing floating in the air. Doubt of God and confidence in man prevail. It is not confined to a few individuals here and there; "even now are there many antichrists." It is by their frequency that we know it is the "last hour" however long its continuance from the apostle's day.
The Lord keep us, not so much occupied with the evil, but cleaving to the good in Himself, entering more and more into the truth that God has revealed in Him. This is the surest preservative where it is coupled with a good conscience and a devoted heart. "As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father."