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NASB | 1 John 2:18 ¶ Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 John 2:18 ¶ Children, it is the last hour [the end of this age]; and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming [the one who will oppose Christ and attempt to replace Him], even now many antichrists (false teachers) have appeared, which confirms our belief that it is the last hour. |
Subject: Will we be here once anti-Christ appears |
Bible Note: Part 1 of 3 I think there are many scholars which would say that The Didache date of A.D. 70 is not likely. Excluding that as the propre date of The Didache, and reading through Ingatious we will find many things that we (most of us protestant evangelicals) would think differently about, not saying it is false teaching but just a slightly different take on things than we might have when we read the same scriptures. Ignatius being closer to the original author (in this case John) does not convince of taking Ignatious words as infallible anymore than you would take mine or I yours. We consider only the scriptures the inspired Word of God and therefore are willing to accept as very possible that Ignatius could have made the same mistake others might make today when reading "the Lord's Day" and just assumed Sunday was meant. But I cannot proove that and I understand your argument as a very good one that such references to "The Lord's Day as Sunday in the early writers is strong evidence that that is what John meant. However I believe that God did indeed watch over the Word but not the words of Ignatius, so that If all I had was a bible and no Ignatius or any other early writer, would I come to this conclusion that it meant Sunday or would I have strong evidence from other scriptures that it meant the Day of the Lord? I wish I was scholar enough to take credit for the post below but it is the work of Joseph A. Siess as I mentioned before in a previous post. With this also agrees the statement of John as to the circumstances under which he came to the knowledge of the things which he narrates. He says he "was in Spirit in the Lord's day," in which he beheld what he afterward wrote. What is meant by this "Lord's day"? Some answer, Sunday, the first day of the week; but I am not satisfied with this explanation. Sunday belongs indeed to the Lord, but the Scriptures nowhere call it "the Lord's day." None of the Christian writings for 100 years after Christ ever call it "the Lord's day." But there is a "Day of the Lord" largely treated of by prophets, apostles, and fathers, the meaning of which is abundantly clear and settled. It is that day in which, Isaiah says, people shall hide in the rocks for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty; the day which Joel describes as the day of destruction from the Almighty, when the Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; the day to which the closing chapter of Malachi refers as the day that shall burn as an oven, and in which the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings; the day which Paul proclaimed from Mars' Hill as that in which God will judge the world, concerning which he so earnestly exhorted the Thessalonians, and which was not to come until after a great apostasy from the faith, and the ripening of the wicked for destruction; the day in the which, Peter says, the heavens shall be changed, the elements melt, the earth burn, and all present orders of things give way to new heavens and a new earth; even "the day for which all other days were made." And on that day I understand John to say, he in some sense was. In the mysteries of prophetic rapport, which the Scriptures describe as "in Spirit," and which Paul declared inexplicable, he was caught out of himself, and out of his proper place and time, and stationed amid the stupendous scenes of the great day of God, and made to see the actors in them, and to look upon them transpiring before his eyes, that he might write what he saw, and give it to the churches. (continued on next post) |