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THE BODY OF ANTICHRIST

Part XIV

In the Body of Antichrist, we have shown Scripture that plainly indicates that every individual in the world today that is not a part of the Spiritual Body of Jesus Christ can be identified as the Body of Antichrist.

A vivid example was pointed out in our last chapter of the present work, as the Apostle John told the Christians that because the LORD who resides in the believer is greater than “he” that is in “the world,” the Spirit of God in the believers have overcome “them.” 

“Ye are of God…and have overcome them” (I John 4:4).

The “them” that the believer has overcome is the Body of Antichrist. In this context, it’s important to see that what has been overcome is not the flesh and blood vessels hosting the Spirit of Antichrist, it is the spirit that has captured them that has been defeated by the Spirit of the LORD that is in the believers.

In this regard, the Spiritual “Israel” that is the church in the AD Christian timeline, Sequentially Recapitulates the physical primacy of Flesh and Blood Israel in the BC Old Covenant timeline. This is demonstrably evidenced in the victorious life of David – who was a man after the Lord’s “own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Furthermore, we find an interesting link in the previous verse from the Apostle John who reassures the believers that they have overcome the Body of Antichrist. In the book of Revelation, John writes the following:

“He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2:11). 

Christian Media has repeatedly pointed out that the greatest danger found in Life is not readily recognized, but anyone with common sense should wonder about the “second death,” and this verse points us towards understanding that complex subject.

John has just said that the body of Christ has “overcome” those who are filled with the Spirit that is in the “world.”

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4).

 It is clear that the “he” that is in the world is the Spirit of Antichrist.

“Who is a liar but he that denieth the Jesus is the Christ? This is that spirit of Antichrist…and even now already is it in the world” (I John 2:22, I John 4:3).

That Spirit of Antichrist inhabits all those who are not born again in the Spirit of Christ, as they have been rejoined to the Father in heaven through JESUS CHRIST. When you become a born again Christian, it is because the Father in heaven has revealed to your soul that Jesus is the Saviour sent by God to give us salvation.

When Simon Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus said this occurred because God – who is a Spirit – revealed it.

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

When God reveals to you that Christ is real, you naturally invited Him in to your life to be your Saviour, so when the Scripture speaks of “Christ in you,” it refers to John’s statement that “he that is in you” is greater than the Spirit of Antichrist that is in all the unredeemed people in the world.

“[I speak of] the mystery which hath been hid from [previous timelines], but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of this glory among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

When you were not born again in Christ, you were dead in your sins, and scheduled to be rejected by the LORD on judgment day.

“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13).

This verse says that God resurrected us (“quickened” in the KJV) from the death in our flesh together with him. Since there is no time in the Spiritual realm, we who are in Christ have already been raised from the dead!

“[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

In other words, when the Spirit of God moved in your life and the divine Life of Christ entered in to you, you were resurrected from the death you were born into.

This magnificent truth makes the verse about the mysterious “second death” jump off the page!

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6).

Because this verse indicates there is a “second death” there must be a “first” death. At the same time, as it speaks of a “first resurrection,” there must be a “second” resurrection!

Because we have just shown that all who are in the “world” have been “overcome” by he that is “within” us (I John 4:4), and we are resurrected “together” with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), the “first resurrection” must be a Spiritual resurrection when Christ came to live within us!

As a result of the fall in the Garden, wherein God told Adam if they eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, the Scripture says they will die.

“Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Genesis 3:3).

The preceding verse was what Eve said to the serpent when she entered in to the process of the dialectic with him. Actually, God said “in the day” you eat of the fruit ye will die.

“Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

Obviously, Adam and Eve went on to have flesh and blood children, so what died that day was their Spiritual Life that connected them to the Life of God. At that stage, God introduced the concept of “substitutionary atonement,” by sacrificing animals in their place to account for their sin.

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).

Death entered the world on that day, and we note that it was God who made the coats of skins, which of course took the lives of the animals. Thus, when Adam and Eve sinned, what is seen as the “second death” in the Spiritual realm portrayed in Revelation, was actually the first death seen in the world!

To put it another way, when Jesus Christ brought the Life of God back into the world, He reversed the order that came about through the fall of man. The best way to understand this, is to elaborate on the wonderful  work that Christ accomplished, and then look at it in reverse when viewing the timeline before Christ.

That is why the concept of the “first resurrection” and the “second death” is so important. Once again, after Death entered the world, the entire creation was affected.

“It is appointed unto men once to die…for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Hebrews 9:27, Romans 8:22).

 Since all creation now has a limited existence because of the sin which entered the world, the death that all are appointed to is the “first” death.

“As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

The Scripture teaches us that because of the fall when the first couple disobeyed God, the “second death” is the judgment that follows the physical death of all that are in the world.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

Therefore our sin has to be accounted for before we face the judgment, which results in complete Spiritual death. As a result of these circumstances, it is clear the “first resurrection” is a Spiritual experience, as opposed to a Physical rising from the dead. 

Under the Old Testament, an animal sacrifice for sin was required, as Israel set the example for what was to come. But Israel eventually turned away from the provision that God had decreed for them.

“For it that first covenant had been faultless, then no place have been sought for the second” (Hebrews 8:7).

So God took the extraordinary step of offering a one-time sacrifice for sin, in the form of His only begotten Son, who voluntarily went to the cross to redeem all mankind. When He rose from the dead because Jesus is God, that salvation was first offered to Israel, then the balance of the nations.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:6, 2:10).

So when you absorbed the Life of Christ by inviting Him to be your Saviour, you imported His divine Life in the process, and you were Spiritually resurrected from the dead, and this occurred in the Spiritual realm in “heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6).

- James Lloyd

To Be Continued