Derek Prince - Antichrist, There's More Than One
This is an excerpt from: True and False Christ - Part 1
Our theme in this session and in the next one will be 'True and False Christ.' I think it's appropriate to begin by saying a word of explanation about the word Christ, which for all churchgoing Christians is a familiar word but I think there are many Christians who don't realize the full implications of it. Just as there are many Jewish people who don't realize what Christians mean when they say Jesus Christ. You see, the term Christ, or the concept, did not begin in the New Testament. It was something that is a central theme of the Old Testament and the Old Covenant and it only came to its completion, and fulfillment in the New. In the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, there is a word which corresponds to the Greek word in the New Testament. I think it would be helpful if I just put them up in front of your eyes.
So, O.T. how many of you know what the word is? Messiah, that's right. If you're very Hebraic you say Mashiach, but that's the word. And that is the same word, or the same concept, as the New Testament Christ. So, when I say Jesus Christ, what I'm saying is Jesus the Messiah. Lots of Christians don't realize that and I think most Jewish people don't realize that when we Christians say Jesus Christ, what we are saying is Jesus is the Messiah. Not only is there the true Messiah, the true Christ, but there are false messiahs, false christs. I think it's becoming increasingly important for us to be able to distinguish the true from the false. In 1 John 2:18, John speaks about this issue. Writing to believers in Jesus, 1 John 2:18: Little children, it is the last hour [the last period of this age]: and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come; by which we know that it is the last hour.
Now there we have the word antichrist. And that again, I think, needs some explanation. Antichrist is a combined word which is made up of two parts, anti and Christ. In order to understand the meaning of it you need to know the meaning of anti. The preposition anti in Greek has two meanings. First of all, against. And second, in place of. So, the antichrist, or an antichrist, has two thrusts. First of all, he's against the true Christ; secondly, he seeks to take the place of the true Christ. That's absolutely basic. I'm going to say it again. Antichrist means one who is against Christ, against the Messiah, in opposition to Him; and secondly, in place of Him, one who seeks to take His place.
To illustrate this very, very simply, some friends of mine who belong to an evangelical church in the United States, and I won't specify the denomination said to me once, 'In our church you can talk about Socrates, you can talk about Plato, you can talk about Buddha, you can talk about Martin Luther King and no one gets upset. But if you talk about Jesus people get upset.' What's that? That's something that is, first of all, against but preparatory to putting another in place of. You see? So, you get the idea of what we're dealing with. Otherwise, the thing will not be clear to you all the way through.
Now, going back to 1 John 2:18, John says: as you have heard the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come; by which we know that it is the last hour. In other words, one of the distinctive features of the close of this age will be the appearance of many antichrists. Many men who are in opposition to the true Christ and whose aim is to take His place. This has been true ever since the days of the apostles. But the nearer we come to the end of this age the more relevant it is. In Matthew 24, a passage we may look at later, speaking about the period immediately before the close of the age, Jesus warned us there would be many false prophets and many false christs or false messiahs.