Spiritual Life
http://www.gracethrufaith.com/selah/spiritual-life/spirit-of-antichrist
While preparing for a recent bible study, this passage really impacted me. I've taught from 1st John several times but never really got the same sense of these 2 verses as I did last week. John was writing about the spirit of anti-christ being evidenced in the false teaching that 200 years later would come to be known as "gnosticism". The fact that those false teachers had come from among believers gave them a certain credibility in the growing church, but in John's view the error of their doctrine proved that they had never been true believers. "For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."
We'll explore the power of that observation in a minute. But first let's review the basics of gnosticism as it was being presented in John's time. In essence gnosticism held that all spirit was good and all flesh was evil. Since good and evil cannot exist together, neither can spirit and flesh. Therefore God, being Spirit, could not dwell in Jesus, a man. Jesus being a man and therefore evil, couldn't have been sinless, and so couldn't have qualified to be our redeemer. The path to salvation was not through His completed work at the cross, but through the progressive attainment of secret spiritual knowledge (Greek: gnosis). As you can see gnosticism is till around today in various forms. There's nothing new about the New Age.
Now back to John's amazing declaration. "For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." If these proponents of gnosticism had truly received the Gospel in their hearts, they wouldn't have begun propagating false doctrine. Their belief in the truth would have prevented this. The fact that they were teaching lies proves that they had never believed the truth.
Think about that. The fact that they were teaching lies proves that they never believed the truth. Ever hear a speaker who sounded so good and was so persuasive, but put forth a view that you knew to be at odds with Scripture? I'm not talking about ancillary things like the timing of the Rapture, or what we'll look like in the Millennium, but a basic component of the Gospel. Let's take the Doctrine of Grace for example. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God - not by works so that no one can boast." (Ephe. 2:8-9)
According to the way I read 1 John 2:18-19, anyone whose teaching denies that salvation is by grace alone and the only thing we can do that's not considered work is to receive and believe, is teaching a lie. And that means the truth is not in him. Remember, grace plus work is no longer grace.
And what about those who believe the false doctrine? "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth" (1 John 2:20). Here John explained that just as those who have the truth in their hearts would be constrained from teaching lies, so also we who believe the truth will be constrained from believing those lies. Those who claim to have a Christian faith but then wander off into this cult or that, rejecting the truth in favor of lies, demonstrate that they never truly believed in the first place.
"The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thes. 2:9-10) The implication is that those who are perishing first knew the truth and then rejected it. Their unbelief was willful and intentional.
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (mythology)." (2 Tim. 4:3-4) Again the notion here is of willful and intentional rejection of the truth in favor of more palatable lies. I believe John was of the opinion that those referenced here didn't just stray away, they never believed in the first place.
Listen to His own words. "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:37-40). It's the shepherd's job to keep the sheep, and it can never be said that the Good Shepherd saved us but then couldn't keep us.
If I understand 1 John 2:18-19 then, teaching that Jesus can't save you, that it's up to you to do all or even part of the work, or that even though He did save you He could subsequently lose you, is evidence of the spirit of anti-christ. Therefore, those who do teach these ideas may have come from among us, but never really belonged with us.