Then there were those who admitted that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the promised Messiah but denied that He was anything more than man. They denied that He came from above or existed before He appeared on earth. That is a modern as well as an ancient belief but it takes away from Jesus all redemptive power. Psalm 49.7 tells us that "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him ". The real truth concerning the manner in which Jesus Christ came "in the flesh ~ best expressed in Scriptural language, combining the angel Gabriel's words to Mary in Luke 1.35 with Paul's in Philippians 2. 8: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee,. therefore that Holy One which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" …"who being in God's form. ..divested himself, taking a bondman's form, having been made in the likeness of men." John, searching for words in which correctly to express this great truth when writing his Gospel, pointed to the prevailing belief in the Logos, the Word of God, all-powerful and ever active in carrying out the Divine purposes, the method of Divine communication with man, yet never seen by men. John, with rare inspiration, cried "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father" (Jn.l.14). There are two important words in 1 John 4. 2; one is "Flesh" and the other is "come" and both must be accepted and understood.     It was Jesus Who came from above, the One coming from above Who was made flesh. Here was no mystic union between a Divine being and a mortal man, no use of the empty shell of a living physical frame as a temporary abiding place whereby he was visible to other men. The Word, Who had been coexistent with the Father for untold ages before the world was, now laid aside that glory and became flesh by being born a babe of Mary. In the fulness of time the Word, no longer flesh, took again the glory He had with the "Father before the world was " - and, too, added glory. (John 17.5 and Phil. 2.9-11).

Every doctrine, therefore, that is built upon this understanding of the coming of Jesus in the flesh is given by the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is upon this basis that the doctrine of the "Ransom for All" is founded and all that makes our hope what it is, Times .of Refreshing, the High Calling, the ultimate destruction of sin and death and everlasting life for "whosoever will" after full and fair opportunity. All springs from, and is dependent upon Jesus Christ coming in the flesh and giving His humanity as a corresponding price for Adam.

In verse 3 the expression "Christ is come in the flesh" does not rest upon good authority. It is not to be found in either the Sinaitic, Alexandrian or Vatican manuscripts. It is also absent from many other versions. Thus amended, the verse reads '"Every spirit which confesses not Jesus" is not of God. It may be a strange thought to us, that any claiming to be Christians should totally deny Jesus, but the expression seems to imply as much. In John's day it was not so strange. Extremists there were who denied the "supernatural" element in Christianity and insisted that Jesus was a great ethical and philosophical leader and teacher and nothing more.

John had one word for all such— antichrist— and would admit of no compromise. This is antichrist, against which they had already been warned. Now, thus early in the age, it had appeared. John's words are significant. "Ye have heard that it should come" as though there had been the prediction, "and even now it is in the world" as though the prediction had now begun to be fulfilled.

 Paul also had something to say about Antichrist, but he declared that it was not yet to be revealed because of a "hindering one". "He that now letteth (hinders) will let, until he be taken out of the way,' and then shall that Wicked One be revealed. .." (2 Thess.2.7-8). Even then the full revelation of the Antichrist is to come apparently only toward the end of the Age, that he might be consumed and destroyed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth and the radiance of His presence (v.8), which betokens an extension of the manifestation of Antichrist into the days of the Second Advent.

It has been customary among Protestant commentators to refer the description in 2 Thess. 2 to the Papacy of the Dark Ages, on the ground of that system having usurped God's place in the "Temple", "shewing himself that he is God". We do well, however, to take careful heed to John's definition of Antichrist, one who denies Christ altogether. If John and Paul, both by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are speaking of the same thing, we have to apply the epithet of "antichrist" to that which both denies Christ and usurps His place. In this modem Age there is much in the organised social framework of the world that meets that requirement, and it may well be that "antichrist" is not an ecclesiastical power after all. It may combine within itself some of the secular things that are also arrayed against Christ and His Kingdom.

Whatever it is, and whoever it is, that seeks to usurp the place of Jesus Christ and His teachings in the hearts and minds of men, and in the affairs of daily life, by this definition is antichrist. Perhaps Jesus had something of the same thing in mind when in Matt.24 He referred to the "abomination of desolation standing in the holy place". In these last generations Christ has been denied, and His place usurped, as never before. The fact that in many cases this denial and usurpation has been done in ignorance, or under complete misapprehension of Jesus' message and life, does not alter the fact that this is antichrist, that should come into the world. The antichrist is that whole power that is set against Christ and His righteousness to oppose the incoming of the kingdom. It stands for the rule of this world as against the rule of the next; for the self-government of man by man without God, as against the self-government of man by man with God. It usurps the place of the powers of Heaven in the affairs of men and it justifies its usurpation by denying that there are any powers of Heaven. That is why the spirit of the Lord must be brought near to consume it and the radiance His presence to complete its destruction. These things will convince men of the reality of the unseen world and the concern of God for their welfare and happiness, and when these things are thus seen, the power of antichrist will vanish forever.

Some Christian groups look for the emergence in the Middle East, at the end of the Age, of some one man, mighty in power and of extreme wickedness, who will rapidly become a kind of world Dictator. He will ruthlessly persecute all Jews and Christians, so fulfilling the prophecies of Antichrist. Many expect him to make his capital in the ancient city of Babylon, which, they think, is to be rebuilt to more than its former magnificence. There is no Scriptural warrant for such an interpretation of the two Apostles' teachings respecting Antichrist. It is not that the idea of a World Dictator is unreasonable or impossible. Recent events have shown that much more unlikely things could happen nowadays on the stage of world politics. It is rather that the New Testament teaching regarding Antichrist demands something much bigger than the figure of one man astride the few short years of one human life can possibly meet. It demands an Age for its development, maturity and decline, and the whole sum of every system of evil that the Age has known, properly to fulfil all that is said of it. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed. " (Ps.2.2). It is that determined coalition of every evil force, set in relentless array against the Rider on the White Horse, that constitutes Antichrist, and it is that same coalition which will be utterly broken at the end.

John probably had a more personal thought in mind also. The next few verses speak as though he knew his readers to have challenged this incipient antichrist even in their own day, and overcome it because God was with them. It is not likely that he was thinking entirely of a doctrinal battle or the victory of "Truth" over Judaic or Greek errors. It is much more likely that John knew what we ought to know, that it is easy, so fatally easy, to deny Christ ourselves in our own hearts and lives even whilst we take His name on our lips. And if we do that, then on the authority of verse 3 of this chapter, we too are partaking of the spirit of antichrist. For we can deny Christ far more effectually in our actions or by our conduct than ever we can by our words.

(To be continued)