“…and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” 1 John 4:3

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them [instruments, spirits of the Antichrist], because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4.

I became a bit confused when I read the phrase above, “and have overcome them…” the plural, them, is not consistent with the last sentence of verse 3 which is singular, “And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming…” Both verses are quoted above.

The question became, who is “them”? Upon closer inspection it can be seen that the Christian overcomes them, the spirits of Antichrist, which do not, “…confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh…”

The spirits of Antichrist encompass both the actual demons who influence the world with their hellish doctrines, and the individuals who teach these doctrines to those around them.

The Antichrist is an actual person who will arrive on the world stage very shortly. He will be a charismatic individual, a genius, and a supreme liar who will lull the world into accepting him as its absolute dictator and as Christ Himself, even though he is energized by Satan.

The drive toward globalism is in fact a doctrine of demons, to prepare a one world government for this charismatic man, to lead.

The goal will be to establish a world without God, and in fact the Antichrist will seat himself in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem calling himself God.

Here is a bit of a description of him from the book of Daniel.

“Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.” Daniel 11:36-38.

The Bible is written for all generations and has benefited those in the past, it benefits us today, and it will benefit those who read it during the tribulation period to come.

It is possible that a person will, in the midst of the tribulation chaos, at a time when the Antichrist is winning on every side, read this verse. “You are of God little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4.

Do you see the comfort that could be derived from such a promise?

“…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” is a promise to us too; the battle has always been on. For John, it was attacks against the deity of Christ, for those in antiquity; it was paganism against the knowledge of the one true God.

Today it is evolution against creationism and atheistic humanism against Christianity, and soon it will be the Antichrist against Christ. God will overcome all of these things, both in the world and in our hearts, for He is greater than all.

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32.

“They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.” 1 John 4:5.

They that are of the world are the false prophets, false apostles, false teachers, and those who propagate these falsehoods.

These are men and women who give themselves over to the demonic influences who teach them these doctrines of demons. Many of them are simply deluded while the rest are willfully ignorant.

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Ephesians 2:1-3.

Some of them are dedicated to self-gratification and evil.

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things.” Philippians 3:18-19.

“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness [unbridled lust, sexual intercourse] and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 4.

“These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves; they are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” Jude 12-13.

“Raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame”, wicked men and women whose inner filth and avarice roils up like the restless sea, defiling all who gather to them.

“But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” Isaiah 57:20-21.

These “wandering stars” flare up for a time in this world and then fade into the eternal darkness, “for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” They drag all who are willfully ignorant or deceived with them into the blackness of hell.

Among those in the world are those who prefer darkness.

“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” John 3:19-20.

There are a very great many who are content with this life, they are earth dwellers, folks who have settled down on this earth as their real home, embracing the world’s commerce and religion.

“…men of the world who have their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure. They are satisfied with children, and leave the rest of their substance for their babes.” Psalm 17:14.

“For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26.

There is no room for Christ in a world dominated by Satan.

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:11-12.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” John 1:10.

“We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:6.

The Holy Spirit abiding in the Christian teaches them the truth of the Scriptures and guards them against the subtle lies of the devil.

“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:13-14.

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” John 15:20.

Christians may get together and argue over minor details of Scripture, but they will always agree on the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.

When folks cannot agree on these basic tenets then something is wrong and the rules for confirming which spirit is speaking, the Holy Spirit or evil spirits must be applied.

We have seen the world is opposed to Christ and as it says above, “…he who is not of God does not hear us” the result is that the two sides cannot be reconciled and the spirit of truth or the spirit of error becomes evident.

You may have seen the bumper sticker that uses various religious symbols to form the word coexist; this is a very naïve statement.

While some of the world’s religions might give to a minor degree for harmony, and only if the majority of their luggage is brought on board. The liberal churches will be first to prostitute their godless theology to gain this coexistence in an attempt to compromise and gut the Christian church.

As for Islam, good luck, they want to dominate the world period, no compromise, no discussion, no infidels, full stop. Anyone with basic reading skills should have figured that out by now.

There is absolutely no room for the Christian church to compromise either; we do not want to overturn governments, dominate the world, or force men to convert with a sword at the back of their neck as the Muslims do.

But we must jealously guard our right to speak of Christ whenever He leads us to and we must jealously guard the fundamentals taught in the Bible.

Satan is insidious and he does not have to take things from us by violence like a thief, rather he would take them away incrementally piece by piece until it is all gone.

Like the snake that moves so slowly toward a bird that it does not notice the danger until it is too late.

This is one reason why you have these old guys in church saying, “Why do we have these new hymnals, what was wrong with the old ones?”

“Why are we reading out of this version of the Bible, what is wrong with the King James?”

“What do you mean; we are going to have a play today instead of a worship service?”

“Why are you taking the cross down off of the church steeple?”

“Why do we need a sermon on global warming?”

“Why does the new pastor always quote out of Time Magazine?”

“Why are we celebrating diversity this Easter instead of the resurrection of Christ?”

“Why are you putting me out of this church after forty years?”

Sprit of the Antichrist, 1 John 4:4-6 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 1-11-12, updated on 7-4-18.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.