Jesus Christ, Denying

David C. Grabbe:  By the time the apostle John penned his gospel and epistles, he had witnessed the ministry of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrected Messiah, and the founding of the church of God. ...

Richard Ritenbaugh, reporting on an activity that has been going on for the past seven years, namely Evolution Sunday or Evolution Weekend, a convocation of Robert Stevens to honor the birthday of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, wherein he calls on religious authorities to recant their belief of the scriptural account of creation and accept Darwin's theory and the 'scientific explanation for creation. A number of clergy from 'enlightened' churches have initiated a Clergy Letter Project, affirming their faith in scientific explanation as opposed to the 'unenlightened biblical explanation.' The main problem for faith in evolution is that man's span of life is a little over 70 years, while the origin of life goes back thousands of years, a time span which is well beyond the purview of science in the best of conditions. Jesus Christ affirmed the scriptural account of the creation as well as the flood. To believe evolution is to deny Christ. Though the perpetrators of Evolution Sunday and Evolution Weekend and the Clergy Letter Project attempt to characterize their efforts as representing a vast number of clergy, in truth the 13,000 participants, largely leftist, secular progressive, homosexual, feminist, Episcopal, Unitarian-Universalist, Moslem, and secular Jewish groups, do not even constitute 2% of the 500,000 total estimated clergy currently in the United States. Evolution Sunday or Evolution Weekend hardly qualifies as a "flash in the pan."

Martin Collins, focusing upon various interpretations of who or what constitutes antichrists, examines several characteristics of this group of beings, including fostering deception and confusion, preventing fellowship, and creating intense spiritual conflict. Realizing that our real enemies are not human beings at all, but demonic principalities emanating from the spirit of darkness, we are mandated to put on the whole armor of God, embracing the truth. The mystery of evil and lawlessness has been extant from the beginning of the early church, recognized by Paul and John. Some teachers in the early church actually attained leadership and influence in the teaching of noxious false doctrine. Ultimately, the being or order emerging as the antichrist will be motivated directly by Satan. Historically, antichrist teachers have proclaimed that Jesus was only a man, or that He had a phantom body and never really experienced death. The syncretistic new religion of Chrislam is actually a prime example of antichrist doctrine. The false prophet and the great political leader in Revelation 13 and 17 will both be worshipped by people duped by Satan to believe a strong delusion. We need to be on guard for antichrist influences attempting to penetrate the greater church of God. We are admonished to test the spirits, realizing that heretical tares have been permitted to test our faith. The spirit of the antichrist is alive and well today, attempting to sabotage our spiritual welfare and steal our spiritual crown.

Richard Ritenbaugh contends that the book of Jude, a scathing indictment against false teachers, is perhaps the most neglected book in the New Testament. It was designed for the end time, a time of apostasy, when most of these problems would occur. Jude admonishes ministers to protect the flock, warning that brute beasts (false teachers), having wormed themselves into leadership positions in the church, governed by lusts and desire for gain, will attempt to devour the flock with their cunning antinomian, ungodly teaching, twisting the doctrine of grace into licentiousness, encouraging unbelief, rebellion, and immorality. Jude, seeing the coming apostasy, admonishes people to put forth agonizing effort to be grounded in the truth, taking on God's mind.

Some say Christ cannot be the Messiah because of His genealogy. Is this true? Richard Ritenbaugh shows why this argument is fallacious and why Jesus IS our Savior!

John Ritenbaugh warns that, as the calamitous events of the end times intensify, we need to be able to determine what is important and what is marginal, devoting our energies to what Christ is most concerned: overcoming human nature and developing faith in God's ability to provide. Will we trust God in the basic areas of life—food, clothing, and water—or compromise, accepting the mark of the beast to save our physical lives (Revelation 13:11-17)? Doing this would indicate our acceptance of the beliefs of the great false religious system and brand us an enemy of God. The mark on the forehead and hand signifies submission of mind and deed to this foul system (contrasted to Deuteronomy 6:8), willfully disobeying God's commandments (particularly the Sabbath - Exodus 31:13) and denying Christ.