Right. “The Antichrist” appears nowhere in Scripture meaning a son-of-Satan individual ruler who takes over the world. In Revelation the ruler (or regime) represented as the Great Beast is never identified as “the Antichrist”.
Meanwhile the use of “Antichrist” in the attributed Letters of John is not necessarily prophesying one unique individual “The” Antichrist who would be a human temporal ruler, but as a more purely theological warning against those who would throw Jesus under the bus, and of the presence of an evil spirit in the world:
1st John, 2:22 - 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.
1st John, 4:3 - …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.
2nd John, 0:7 - I say this because 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.
Doesn’t the promise of salvation turn that reasoning on its head, though? To me, good works and good intentions are those things done out of true generosity, without expecting anything in return. A believer who gives to charity, who feeds the hungry and shelters the homeless, does it in the hope that it will punch his ticket to heaven. When a non-believer does those same things, there’s nothing to gain from it.
As I said, the Bible doesn’t teach that you can get to heaven through your own good works. The good works are a side effect of turning over your life to Christ.
Nothing you do is supposed to be enough to get you into heaven, as all of sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All have too much evil to get into heaven on their own.
Basically, you don’t get credit for good deeds because those are done because you believe in Jesus-He gets the credit. On the other hand, if you do bad deeds you get all the blame-You don’t get to pass the blame to Satan.
I just realized from this topic, is Howard Stern the Antichrist? He’s a powerful orator, he’s crass, he’s a braggart, he has a massive audience, and most of all he’s a Jew.
Well sort of but not really. This may be the intention of a believer but this is also God’s teaching moment for them, they are learning the actions they should be taking though they don’t understand why yet. When one accepts Christ they are reborn as a child of God. Jesus and Paul makes it clear that this childhood goes back pretty much to infancy, with God as their father. A child has to learn the ways and also be disciplined. Even the scriptures show that there was a time when Jesus didn’t know how to chose the right and reject the wrong as He was apparently too young (Is 7:15,16). But childhood innocence seems to be cool with God even if the wrong choices are made, and I would place donating to get the heaven ticket into this category.
Jews don’t deny the christ (in a generic way christ means anointed one), as they are waiting for him. Scriptures give them (Jews) a pass on this, so no Howard Stern would be a Jew, not an anti-christ.
Well that is a bit subjective, if being glorified is ‘credit’ or not (Ro 8:30): And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
As for if you get the blame, yes, in the form of discipline from the Father, being treated as a child of God:
He 12:10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
I addressed my views on the believer in the context you framed but see I ignored this part:
Scriptures says God judges the heart (not the act), and in my view what you are doing sounds like perhaps like the work of God though you. If you do such things automatically to a point where you are asking yourself how did that happen, I’d say that would most likely be God in you doing that work though you and it is very likely that at least some of those you have helped have recognized Christ in you (thus God does get the glory).
What I stated above however is a privilege to experience, and does not negate our obligations to help to our ability. Not experiencing it does not negate selfless giving.
Yup, “Once Saved, Always Saved”!
IIRC I’ve heard Calvinists say that God’s Chosen can not sin. That is, even when (not if, since that isn’t actually possible) they sin it isn’t actually a sin.
The more I think about it the more I have to say that Trump is not an antichrist. Trump does acknowledge Jesus, that’s not saying all that much as the devil also does acknowledge Jesus, but it does seem to take him out of the running of an antichrist as used by John which would require Trump denying Jesus. However the term antichrist as used in pop culture seems more to mean the beast in Revelation as opposed to what John wrote about.
The beast or ‘a head’ of the beast in Revelation does fit much better with Trump requiring loyalty which seems like worship. There is suppose to be 3.5 years of the 1st beast rulership which is close but not exact to the 4 year term, though that is the term of authority given to the beast by the dragon (aka Satan), and not speaking of the term of the presidency. Trumpism even seemed also to spread to other nations which again is somewhat in line with the scriptures in Rev 13.
First, I don’t think so, it all seems like lip-service to me, he really doesn’t seem to be the spiritual type. And second, if he does, it again strikes me as totally unfair that a guy who commits more sins each day than I have in all my lifetime should be granted salvation and I’m doomed for hell, just because he might accept Jesus and I do not.
I think you’re missing my point. I was disqualifying Trump as the Antichrist and not commenting about his salvation. Though I did comment that he may be a head of the beast or the beast itself, thus Trump would be consigned to the lake of fire for ‘ages of ages’ so would not qualify for salvation as we understand it.
I’m sorry, though it might have sounded like that, my comment or criticism was not aimed at you personally, but at evangelical Christians in general who hold these views.