| 1 John 3:2-3 2 Beloved, now we are to be sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we will be, but we know that when He is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. [A Son of God is like Jesus, who is holy, harmless, pure, separate from sinners, and with no sin in Him; and when we see Him, we will be like Him. Jesus appears in the hearts of purified believers. Jesus is seen. Jesus is revealed. He who has been hidden is revealed, Christ in you, the hope of glory. From the Word of the Lord within: "You are a son when Jesus appears in your heart to guide you." Then you are like Him: holy, harmless, pure, without any sin.] 3 And every man who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He [Jesus] is pure.2 [From the Word of the Lord within: "We must become like Him to merge with Him." What hope?—The hope of being like Him and of seeing Jesus appear in your heart is the hope that saves and purifies you; for we are saved by hope. Rom 8:24. You must have this hope for the power of God to be released to purify you. For of this you can be sure, that no sexually immoral, or impure, or covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Eph 5:5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, Mat 5:8. — Christ in you, the hope of glory.] | 1 John 2:18 18 Little children, it is the last hour ; and as you have heard that antichrist will come, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour. [An antichrist is anyone preaching or teaching whose thoughts, words, and deeds are not controlled by the anointing, which is Jesus to come into man's flesh in sufficient measure to guide and control his thoughts, words, and deeds — thus being a person's true Lord. You can call Him Lord and Master, but if you are still sinning you deny Him as Lord; even Judas called Him Lord and Master. The antichrists were believers who left them; from the Word of the Lord within: "they did not have patience." Ambitious to preach or teach, seeking their own glory, eager for income, still thinking their own thoughts, they went out as the many false prophets have gone out into the world. Even 2000 years ago, John said many antichrists had come, and Paul said many preached for financial gain as unruly, vain talkers, and deceivers. — The Greek for children in this verse is paidia <3813>, the young children that know the Father; these are not the little children disciples who still sin.] | 1 John 2:28 28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.8 [In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus is recorded saying that some then standing with him, 2000 years ago, would see his glorious coming in the clouds with the Kingdom before they died. In addition Paul, Jesus preaching, Jesus in Revelation, Peter, James, and John, — all said, soon, the time is near, a little while, he stands at the door. Christendom blithely ignores this gaping incongruity between what the Bible plainly states vs. what they are taught by their blind guides. It would be a cruel hoax to be waiting on Him to appear if the past 100 generations of believers actually had no hope of ever seeing Him. — The Greek for little children in this verse is Teknia <5040>; these little children are disciples yet to be freed from sin and without salvation.] | 1 John 3:8 8 He who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God is revealed [in us], that he might destroy [in us] the works [sin] of the devil.4 [Let no man deceive you, saying that you can still be sinning and belong to God; those still sinning serve the devil. Christ is revealed in our flesh to destroy the works of the devil, by condemning the secret sins in our heart, and then destroying even our desire to sin. Paul confirms Jesus destroying the works of the devil in each purified believer: "the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet shortly." Rom 16:20.] | 1 John 4:3 3 And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard would come, and even now it is already in the world.2 [John told us in 1 John 2:18-19 that many antichrists had already come, who had gone out from among them; who tried to seduce the true Christians with their false gospel and false Jesus. So they could not confess Jesus to rule their thoughts, words, and deeds because they preached that being totally unnecessary according to their false gospel. From the Word of the Lord within: "they did not have patience." They did not have the patience to follow the hard, narrow way of the cross that the Apostles preached; being tempted and ambitious to teach before being perfected and authorized, they fell away to instead preach Christian liberty from the law without the necessity of first crucifying their sinful nature on the inward cross of self-denial. Their doctrines quickly became pervasive and dominated Christendom, and so Christendom became the whore of Babylon by adulterating with the kings of the earth, (the Roman Emperors), who declared their doctrines to be the only ones allowed; and then Christendom, aided by the crushing boot of the Roman Empire, persecuted and killed the true saints. John later saw and prophesied how the whole world would worship Satan, following the false prophets' beastly religion with horns like a lamb. And so all of Christendom became the whore of Babylon, rejecting the cross as foolishness and ignoring the Bible's many specific exclusions, the requirements, and the qualifying conditions of salvation. See Penington's writing on Babylon to understand more how the spirit of antichrist rules Christendom.] | |||||