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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Gabriel Arruda

The Spirit of Antichrist and My Fifth Grade Birthday Party

Father in heaven, we want to thank you for giving us the Sabbath day to come for the sacred purpose.

Lord, we trust and believe and we hang to your promises that you will be here and you will speak to us if we invite you.

And Lord, I ask and pray that there would be a message for each individual here today, that you'd please use me as your mouthpiece and give us soft hearts to hear and to receive your message.

Well, the title of the message is The Spirit of Antichrist and My 5th Grade Birthday Party.

So, what is the spirit of Antichrist and what does that have to do with my 5th grade birthday party?

We're going to talk about these things and answer these questions.

But I'd like to start by turning to a Bible verse.

Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of 1 John.

We're going to look at verses 18 and 19 together.

And if you didn't bring your Bible, I will also have it on the screen here eventually, but if you do have your Bible, it would be beneficial for you to look at it in your Bible.

It says, little children, This is the last time.

And as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are what?

Many Antichrists, whereby we do know that it is the last time.

They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.

But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.

So I've read this Bible passage many, many times, and as I've read it, maybe you felt the same way, I was a little perplexed.

Because whenever we think of the term Antichrist, we think of the papacy, we Think of the Vatican.

Yet this Bible verse clearly says that there are many antichrists.

And not just that, this verse here tells us they went out from us.

So these antichrists, they used to be Christians.

Line upon line, this verse gave more clarity.

You're in 1 John, let's go to chapter 4 and verse 3.

Notice this, 1 John 4 3, and again, I'll have it on the screen for you if you need it.

I'll start reading it says, And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God.

And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is in the world.

This passage gives us more clarity as to what John was talking about in chapter 2.

There is something called the spirit of Antichrist.

And the spirit, if you look up at verse 1 and 2 of chapter 4, it's referring to people because it says that it also calls them false prophets which are gone out into the world.

So this is not referring to a ghost or a demon, this is actually referring to people, the spirit of Antichrist.

So let me just establish what we've talked about so far.

We know that there is the office of the Antichrist, amen, which of course is spoken about in Daniel and Revelation, but there's also something called the spirit of Antichrist, which John here refers can apply to individuals, to people.

Now, we also need to understand what the Bible's talking about exactly when it says the term anti-Christ.

The word anti-Christ is actually a transliteration from the Greek word anti-Christos.

That's formed from 2 words, the word Christos, which, what do you think that means?

And anti, which means against or instead of, or in place of.

The prefix anti in the Greek is used several times and it's translated instead of or in place of.

It says, will he give him a fish instead of a snake?

It says Archelous was reigning over Judea instead of anti his father.

You know, today we use the prefix anti exclusively to mean against, right?

Oh, they're anti-religion or they're anti-big business.

But in scripture, it could be used in the sense of against or in the sense of in place of.

And so the term anti-Christ not only means against Christ, but it could also mean in the place of Christ.

So does this description fit the identity of the papacy?

Pope Leo XIII said this, "'We, the Pope, hold upon this earth the place of who?

The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh, out of the horse's mouth.

Absolutely, anti-Christ, in the place of Christ.

There's only 1 who fits the Bible description of the office of anti-Christ, that's the papacy, but we've found that there is also the spirit of anti-Christ which really is the principle at the foundation of the papacy, but can be present in the hearts of individuals and even Christians.

So in summary, office of Antichrist, that's talking about the papacy, spirit of Antichrist, an attitude or principle that anyone could have.

And this is why John said there are many, many Antichrists.

Not that there are many that fit the office of Antichrist, but there are many who have the spirit of Antichrist.

Now, what exactly is the spirit of Antichrist?

We're gonna delve into that a little bit.

What's this attitude or this principle that we're referring to?

We're gonna find this, we're gonna discover this by looking at something very interesting that happened on the Mount of Transfiguration.

So we're gonna turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 17, and we're gonna read verses 1 through 6.

And as you're turning there, I'm just going to talk about the context a little bit because what happens before is just as important.

In chapter 16 of Matthew, it was really clear that the disciples were still not getting it.

Despite the fact they had been with Jesus for years, they were still blowing it, they weren't getting it.

And verse 6 of chapter 16, you can take a look at that if you want, I have it on the screen as well.

Jesus told them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Well when he told them this, the disciples thought maybe he told them this because they forgot to bring bread on their trip and he didn't want them to buy bread from the Pharisees and Sadducees.

He rebukes them for having little faith and not discerning the spiritual meaning of his words.

You see, they should have understood because they had just seen him, just prior, feed 4, 000 by a miracle, and then 5, 000 on another occasion by a miracle.

And they should have known based on their culture that in Jewish culture, leaven is a symbol for sin.

They should have discerned the spiritual meaning of His words, but they completely missed it and He reproved them for it.

You'd think they would have started getting it by now.

We're actually told in the book Desire of Ages why they were misinterpreting Christ's words and this this is fascinating.

Notice what it says and the reference is Desire of Ages 409.

The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of what, friends?

The Spirit of Antichrist and My Fifth Grade Birthday Party

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