Excerpt from Chapter 1  Terms and Definitions

Antichrist

In layman’s terms this Bible term means literally “opposed to Christ” or “false Christ.” The root and center of the antichrist is Satan himself, the one who is opposed to things of God and perpetrates evil. The term antichrist is first used by the apostle John and appears in 1 John 2. The term has been associated with other pre-types in the Bible such as the false christs of Matthew 24:5, 23-24 that will come to deceive people. John tells us the “spirit of the antichrist” is already in the world (1 John 4:3). Also, the little horn described in Daniel 7:24 and 8:23 is so defined. In history we have seen many leaders as pre-types of the antichrist, the “man of lawlessness” to come (2 Thes. 2:3-20). Every now and then the spirit of the antichrist rears its head in some powerful, influential leader or people group to serve as an example of the one that will appear in the last days. Antiochus Epiphanies, Nero, Napoleon, Stalin, and Hitler are a few examples of this. We must not be mistaken who this person will be in the future for he will come with great persuasive and deceptive powers (2 Thes. 2:9-11; Rev. 13:3, 14).

God will continue to restrain the antichrist until the fullness of time (2 Thes. 2:6). The fullness of the antichrist is described in the Bible as the beast of Revelation 13 and 17. It can be best interpreted from Scripture that at some future point in time this world leader will arise, in whom the spirit of the antichrist, Satan himself, will physically dwell. He will be fatally wounded and will recover, perform miraculous signs and wonders, deceive people, and cause them to worship him (Rev. 13:12). Because he miraculously recovers from a grievous wound and perhaps rises from the dead, many will believe he is Messiah, Savior, and even God Himself. He will require the people of the earth to receive his identification mark (Rev. 13:16). Believers who reject him and remain true to Jesus Christ will be persecuted. Many will be martyred. He will set up worship of himself which will be seen by God as the abomination of desolations described in Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15. This will provoke God’s wrath and the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. The antichrist, Satan, and all of his followers will be destroyed in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10).

Since John tells us the antichrist is already in the world (1 John 4:3) we must be aware that his spirit is presently at work (2 Cor. 2:11). Since Satan is identified as “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), it would be reasonable to assume that though he is not in bodily form, he is planting ideas in the minds of unwary, naïve people (Mat. 24:24) to be able to manipulate world systems, technology, governments, and economies for his final plan. Presently, the “spirit of the antichrist” is establishing the infrastructure that will enable him to control the world. We must remember that our greatest enemy is an enemy that is spiritual; one that we cannot see; that many are ignorant of his workings; and some who do not believe exists (1 Peter 5:8).

The Bible—Truth

The Bible is the revealed word of God and is completely authoritative, accurate, and infallible. Our English translations represent our best scholarly effort to understand the original languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and translate them into our native language. Our translators, in their efforts to be objective and unbiased, have successfully translated the essential truths of God for our eternal benefit. We are forever grateful for their lives spent in this endeavor. In our translations, however, we will discover from time to time, and in place to place, certain words or phrases, though slight, may have alternate word choices. These slight variations in our translations in no way compromise our theology concerning the attributes of God, the essentials of faith and practice, blood atonement, salvation, or our mission to the world.

Truth—Commentary. We tend to think these days that truth is the establishment of a theory or ideology that meets our needs and fits our personal worldview. We often hear the common argument, “What I want to believe is fine for me and whatever you want to believe is fine for you.” We allow our own subjective experiences, education, and social mores drive our basic thought and reasoning processes. Many times we can become so confident in our own assessment of things that we come to believe that truths about God must bend and conform to our understanding.

On the contrary, objective truth stands alone despite the opinions of man; truth does not require the approval of man; truth is not subject to the intellect of this world. Truth stands steadfast, is unwavering over time, and patiently waits for man to come to his senses. Let us be certain about this fact: the Bible stands as un-refutable truth, whether we fully understand it or not is in flux. As we gaze to the future through the pages of Scripture, we must remain humble and flexible in our efforts to understand it.

The Church

The Church, in the strictest definition, is a group of people who share a common faith in Jesus Christ. 

Matthew 16 (NIV) 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ,  the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock* I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

• The “rock” refers to the revealed truth from the Holy Spirit, “You are the Christ…”   Jesus tells us the foundational basis of His church is the declaration, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” All who make this declaration and follow His teaching are the church (John 14:12; 1 John 2:6). From this we may see this extension: The church is a group of people in Peter’s likeness—who received revelation from the Holy Spirit concerning Jesus Christ and proclaimed it from their mouths. Paul affirms this rendering:

Romans 10 (NIV) 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

The Church is a Priesthood
In the passage below the apostle Peter, who made that historical declaration, defines the church as a “priesthood of all believers.” Here, he brings everyone together as one united body of servant priests. Notice the Church is not a physical building or a physical location.

1 Peter 2 (NIV) Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ . . . .
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Birth of the Church
After the ascension of Jesus Christ the followers of Jesus were instructed to stay in the city until they were clothed with power (Luke 24:49). On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit poured out on them. Peter preached and three thousand people were saved (Acts 2). The result was the birth of the church, a gathering of believers who believed the message and were immediately baptized. This is the snapshot of the early church:

Acts 2 (NIV)  42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Church Establishment
The Lord gave us a very simple, practical design that could be implemented without very much in the way of capital expenses and overhead. Over time, church leaders saw fit to move from the house-to-house design and establish the church as a formal religious institution. The rest is in the history books. This metamorphosis, whether it came from a need or desire for control and power, is a moot point. Only God knows the answer. By our own self-examination, we should not be surprised at what man is able to do with something given to him from God. We are all finite, corruptible beings. Still, Jesus in His foreknowledge, at His pleasure, chose us to join Him in His outreach mission to the world, to seek and save the lost.

The establishment church has done much to create and sustain what believers enjoy today. For that, we are thankful and grateful. They have carried the gospel message to the world, have worked to refine theology, built institutions of learning, have influenced governments and their laws and policies around the world, and the list goes on and on.

The Prevailing Church
At this point we need to add this distinction to our explanation of the Church: The universal body of true believers around the world is the Church (upper case) and the local representation of this body is the church (lower case).

As the gospel message expanded into the world, like-believing followers banded together and went out into the mission field of the world. As they did, they naturally formed different local churches and were separated geographically, culturally, and experientially. Other times, disagreements over doctrine, leadership, and church government caused people to part paths. In the Lord’s infinite wisdom, a natural cleansing process precipitated. While church schism is often painful and viewed as destructive, it serves to keep doctrine correct and the true church strong. Here is the process: As the heretical group splinters off, the remaining church is purified. The opposite can happen as well—the true church splinters away from the heretical. In either case, the heretical will cease to have internal influence in the true church. As for the heretical group, they may continue on their path until the end when everything is exposed. This process can be likened to the parable of the wheat and tares (Mat. 13:24-30).

Denominationalism
We know that as leadership differs in emphasis and style of teaching, their churches differentiate. We see these distinctions in the world today. For the church to endure the span of time, the Lord’s incredible wisdom is again displayed. May it be seen that different denominations are like time capsules of like-hearted, like-minded believers. Strength is found in their unity of doctrine and philosophy of ministry. This strength in unity gives them the blessing of perseverance. These differentiated churches reveal the vast array of colors, expressions, and designs of God—all different, yet the same DNA imprint of origin is found: “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Most High God!”  

The Remnant Church
Concerning the last days, as turmoil in the world continues to escalate, the Church will be the focal point of much persecution. Large churches will be certain targets. The institutional church may be forced to give way to its original design, meeting house to house as seen in other parts of the world today. The Holy Spirit will release His power once again with the manifestations of the early Church as is already going on in various places (Acts 2:43; Joel 2:28-29). The fingerprints of Alpha and Omega will be complete.

Proverbs 28 (NIV)  28 When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.