1 John 4:2-3 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 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.
Civilization continues to erode as the world is being prepared for its greatest deception, the appearance of the false messiah — the Antichrist. The word literally means “one against Christ” and also, one “in place of Christ.” Yeshua (Jesus) predicted and warned his disciples and all believers of this dangerous development in the last days.
Toward the end of the first century, the gospel message came under the influence of Greek philosophy and culture, and was corrupted by Greek “Gnosticism” to the point of heresy. “Gnosis” – meaning “knowledge”, in this case, special, particular, hidden, esoteric, “spiritually enlightened” knowledge, was the basis and goal of Gnosticism, both at that time, and today in its many contemporary expressions. These spiritual adepts claimed to be the “spiritually enlightened” ones, some of whom inserted themselves among the true believers to draw followers and to replace the true revelation of Yeshua (Jesus) with a counterfeit.
The apostles addressed this heresy in numerous letters. Paul exhorted Timothy to, “Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge (gnosis).” [1 Timothy 6:20]
Most of these Gnostics believed Yeshua, whom they called, “Christ”, to be divine, but that he was only one of the “aeons” or “divine spiritual beings.” They taught that Christ only seemed to be human, that he was never actually born to a Jewish household, growing up in Nazareth, and that He was never actually crucified nor bodily risen from the dead. This Gnostic “Christ” revealed himself only to reaffirm and exemplify the message of “spiritual enlightenment” for those who sought this “special revelation.”
And they believed that he was only one of numerous “prophets” appearing from time to time with this “universal” Gnostic message. The apostle John was well aware of this and was led by the Holy Spirit to teach and warn of it.
And Gnosticism is alive and well today. One of its ubiquitous signs is the “all seeing eye”, which is traceable to ancient Egypt as the “eye of Horus” and is associated with the same “special revelation” or “enlightenment” propounded by the Greek Gnostics. The same false rendering of Yeshua also abounds today in various Gnostic teachings, so that the words of John the apostle are just as relevant as ever, perhaps even more so. According to Gnostic teachings, Jesus is no longer the savior of the world who died for sins and rose from the grave, but a spiritual adept who appeared to exemplify and teach the transcendent knowledge of “enlightenment.”
There is a dark being in the scriptures who is associated with “light” [2 Corinthians 11:14] and who is behind all false teachings of “enlightenment.” His light is darkness. [Matthew 6:23]. So our brother John carefully warns us to, “Test the spirits … to see whether they are from God.” The test is simple but unequivocal. “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” “In the flesh!”; not a “spiritual, angelic, aeon/avatar, one of many bringing a false message and a false “light”… but a unique incarnation of the Creator YHVH, who lived a human life, and died a human death, and was physically, bodily raised to eternal life.
The true Gospel message is simple and beautiful, and accessible to all. It is not a deep esoteric knowledge, or mystical experience. We can rejoice in the beautiful and simple fact that in Him, namely “Yeshua (Jesus),… are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” [Colossians 2:3]
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Knowing He was about to depart, Yeshua (Jesus) left His disciples with a final command: stay in Jerusalem, and wait…for the promise. Of the thousands who had witnessed His miraculous ministry and heard His amazing teaching, and the hundreds that had actually seen Him after the resurrection, we read in Acts that only 120 stayed and tarried until the promise arrived. But these 120 were steadfast. They waited the full term…
I don’t know about you, but it seems that the tests we’re going through are getting harder and harder. Do you remember when you took tests in high school? At the time they may have seemed hard. But imagine if you had to take an elementary school test when you were in high school. You’d probably think – oh this is so simple.
Over the past month, it seems that we’ve been dealing with different internet issues … and hopefully, these issues will be resolved sooner rather than later. Being that the bulk of our ministry is based upon the internet, it can be problematic at times, especially when you’re suddenly disconnected from the web!
As we continue this study of the Dead Sea scrolls, authorities announced the discovery of several more scrolls as their extensive search for more hidden caves and treasures continues. Given the “coincidence” of the events described in previous devotionals, God’s providential involvement in these developments becomes clear. His Word tells us what is about to happen, and new discoveries of Biblical texts seem to be directly related to modern prophetic fulfillments.
As we continue this study of the Dead Sea Scrolls we jump to 1963 and the unearthing of Masada.
Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian recorded the tragic events at Masada in “The Jewish Wars.” Masada was ignored for years as it reminded the Rabbis of the failures of the many false messiahs that appeared after Yeshua (Jesus).
As we continue into the historical and prophetic significance of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, I take you back to 1948. Professor Eleazar Sukenik discovered that Mar Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem purchased several of the Dead Sea scrolls. So Professor Sukenik visited the archbishop and took several photos of the scrolls which were then sent to William Albright, a Biblical archaeologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
As we’ve been travelling around the U.S., we’ve been trying to take extra care of ourselves, taking vitamins and disinfecting our hands regularly as not to get sick.