Trump and John's Epistles

    Reminder: If you're new to this blog, start here with my post outlining the many links between Donald Trump and the scriptural figure known as the Antichrist.             

    “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.” – 1 John 1:6

                Some people reading my blog might ask: “How can Trump be the Antichrist if he’s always paying honor to Christianity and supporting religious freedom? He encourages prayer for this country’s success. Isn’t the Antichrist supposed to be someone who ‘denies the Father and the Son’? I simply can’t see Trump being the Antichrist because so many American Christians voted for him; and, anyway, wasn’t Kamala Harris a more explicitly anti-Christian figure?”

        It is important to remember that just because a politician pays lip service to religion and religious freedom, that fact alone does not absolve them if they are also guilty of acting in ways that dishonor Jesus’s message. Jesus said “You will know them by their fruit.” A man can get up on a podium and pay honor to God and the Bible as much as he wants – if the fruit of his behavior is the spreading of divisiveness, deception and violence – then that man is walking in darkness, and promoting darkness throughout his audience.

                I believe that a close look at how John’s epistles describe the Antichrist – as well as other “antichrists” – is key to realizing this point.

                Although prophecy researchers have cobbled together our composite portrait of the end-times Man of Sin from dozens of Bible verses throughout both the Old and New Testaments, the word “antichrist” is actually only specifically used in 1 John and 2 John. And John’s language in these epistles is, I believe, crucial for us to remember as we try to figure out what we are to expect when the Man of Sin does finally come on the scene.

                One of the biggest themes in these two epistles is the distinction between lies and the truth. John writes that no one who claims to be a Christian should be telling lies at all. There is a spirit of deception – and this is the spirit that John calls the antichrist spirit – and then there is the contrary spirit of Jesus’s message, which is all of the truth. No one claiming to be a Christian should be deceiving people, especially not as a prominent and influential public figure. “Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.” – 1 John 2:4. In other words, someone like Trump can get up in front of millions and people and proclaim himself to be a believer in God (or even a believer in Jesus Christ – notably, a step that Trump has not publicly taken) – but if the fruit of that person’s actions don’t line up with Christ’s commandments, then, according to John, that person is simply not a Christian at all. The truth is not in him.

                Another major theme in John’s epistles is the commandment to love one another as brothers and sisters:

1 John: “9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”

                Failing to love and respect the Other gets you kicked out of Jesus’s movement. We are commanded to love even our enemies. That means: no mockery of them; no humiliation of them; no spreading of slander about them; and no taking revenge on them. No one engaging in such actions has anything to do with Jesus’s movement – and by participating in such behavior, that person is actually bringing dishonor to the Bible, driving away unbelievers who may erroneously see such behavior as indicative of the way the Bible teaches people to act.

                Now, when we drill down to how John specifically describes the Antichrist – and the antichrist spirit – we note two revealing aspects he focuses on:

• ·   John states that “antichrists” have especially been noted to have originated from within the Christian movement – that is, they were once part of the Body of Christ but have then “gone out” to others and have followed the spirit of error, division and heresy.
• ·  “Antichrists” are known by the fact that they fail to confess that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). They deny the Father and the Son by failing to identify Jesus of Nazareth as God’s anointed savior come in the flesh.

Pay attention to the sections I’ve italicized below from John’s first epistle:

“Warnings Against Denying the Son

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.”

    “Those who are trying to lead [the readers] astray” are defined here as “counterfeit” Christians who “went out from us” – i.e., they were once part of our movement, even defined themselves as belonging to our movement, but later proved to be false followers of our movement. Why were they, in John’s view, false followers? They didn’t acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ – and because of this, because “no lie comes from the truth,” they became caught up in a spirit of deception which they then promoted to other people outside the Body of Christ.

    Reading 1 and 2 John also clues us in to the fact, which many are unaware of: The Antichrist clearly is not described in terms that would align with a modern day Muslim, atheist, pagan, etc. The Antichrist is described in the Bible (not only in these epistles but also in 2 Thessalonians) as someone who will emerge from within the Christian movement. However, although emerging from or aligned in some way with Christian followers, the Antichrist also will not explicitly say that Jesus Christ is his Lord and savior. Nor will his actions on the public stage align with the behavior expected of a true Christian. This is how he weaves his web of deception. A Muslim or an atheist would immediately be perceived by Christians as someone they should not follow. God is using Trump to test the loyalty and discernment of His own followers (and so-called 'followers'). If anyone tells you the Antichrist couldn't be Trump because we are to wait for a Muslim or an atheist, politely and nicely inform that person that he or she is simply unfamiliar with how the Bible teaches us to look for the Antichrist's appearance.

    1 John 4 warns against following false prophets of the Antichrist spirit. Again I’ve italicized sections that apply specifically to Trump:

“On Denying the Incarnation

4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

                Trump may sell $99 patriotic Bibles with his name on them.

                He may encourage people to gather in groups to pray for this nation.

                He may invoke the need to allow prayer in public schools.

                He may promote pro-life policies and decree that religious liberties be upheld.

                BUT:

                Does he also spread divisiveness, hatred, lies and violence?

                Does he berate his enemies, humiliate them and refer to them in vulgar and demeaning terms?

                Does his past life display an intense love of greed, lust and revenge?

                AND, perhaps most significantly, as John points out:

                Does he specifically refer to Jesus Christ as his savior? Does he go beyond selling expensive Bibles with his name on them, to actually invoking scripture and guiding his behavior on scriptural precepts? Does he tell members of other faiths that Christianity is the one true faith without which one can’t receive eternal life?

                If he doesn’t *also* do those things, then, friends: He is certainly no Christian, and therefore even promotes the antichrist spirit by falsely aligning himself with a movement that, at root, he displays no support for or loyalty towards.

                From 2 John 1:

“…Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.”

    Folks, anyone “welcoming” people like Donald Trump into the true Christian movement “shares in their wicked work.” Anyone not calling him out as a false prophet and false apostle is failing to expose lies, giving credence to a movement that is defined by wolves in sheeps’ clothing. And that is perhaps the most pernicious part of Trump’s strong delusion – he has actually gathered within his wicked fold a number of people who refer to themselves as Christians – but who are publicly aligning with his movement based on the two things John most strongly calls out in these epistles: lies and hatred. And just as John perceived among the churches of his day – Trump’s antichrist movement has emerged from within American churches themselves. That is part of what Paul refers to as the “apostasia” (Greek Strong’s # 646) – the “falling away.” In order to “fall away” from the faith and “lose what [you] have worked for,” you need to be deceived by Satan’s minions within the fake American churches who fail to do God’s work and fail to call out this influential figure who is continually using God’s name in vain as a talisman to gain his own political power.

                Use your discernment. If it walks like a liar and talks like a liar – then it is a liar. And no lie is of the truth. No one spreading lies and hatred throughout this nation is part of the Body of Christ, even if they wave a Bible in front of cameras or wear a crucifix on a chain around their neck.