Christianity has traveled a twisted winding road day by day, year by year ever since the apostles left the earth. No, I am not implying rapture. I’m talking about death. The creedalists (of which the church fathers were the biggest fans of) beginning in the second century began to write creeds to leave out those who disagreed with them. The church fathers were those who had copies of apostolic works, Matthew through Revelation. They were probably wealthy men since they had to have scribes working for them to copy the New Testament scriptures. John Q Church Member was poor and did not own a copy of scriptures, so he was dependent upon the church fathers to tell him what was in the scriptures. Additionally, it was the church fathers who were educated to read the scriptures.
Therefore, it was the church fathers who created the creeds; it was to their advantage to write creeds that would leave out of a doctrine that might put them out of office. No clergymen want to be fired over doctrinal issues. The clergy of Creedal Christianity wanted to maintain their authority like it always has done and always will do. Just look at the Pharisees in Jesus Christ’s day; they wanted to shut him up so they could spread their own brand of religion.
Am I calling the clergy antichrists? I’m calling any clergy who uses Creedal Christianity, i.e., historic christianity, as the basis for their authority and alleged historic connection with the apostles and Jesus Christ. See the following:
18 [Little children,,] it is the lastan, time:, and as ye have heard that antichrist, shall come, even now are there many, antichrists;, whereby we know that it is the lastan, time. 19 They [went out] from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued/ with us: but they went out, that they might be [made manifest] that they were not all, of us. 1 Jn 2:18-19.
There was a time when the apostles died, but the antichrists continued on doing what they do best. I posit that Creedal Christianity is the works of the ancestors of these many antichrists. Christianity has over 45,000 denominations that are split from one denomination, Roman Catholicism. The word antichrist is simply an alternate Christ. 45,000 denomination have 45,000 different variations of who Christ is and what he did. It’s not hard to see the similarities of the ancient antichrists and modern day ones. Except there is one blaring fact, the antichrist that live past the apostles aren’t antichrists as much as they are a pain in the neck.
The true gospel is found in passages like Matthew 24:34. Jesus has fulfilled all biblical prophecy as found in Matthew 23, 24, and 25. The antichrists will do everything they can to shut this up so they can keep their jobs and keep misdirecting people who might discover it. The battle has already been won folks, but there are still skirmishes that’s swirl around the truth of the true gospel, even though all the prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled.
The skirmishes are nothing more than those preaching and teaching covenant eschatology seeking to deflect the fallacious thrusts of clerical antichrists. I believe the best defense is a good offense for full preterists who would do well to pull out the Sword of the Spirit and defend the true gospel.
The biggest task of covenant eschatology is to preach the gospel. The gospel is simple and follows the old Greek acronym for fish,. It means, Jesus Christ, God Son, Savior. All it takes is a simple belief … in a fish? No, Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. There is no losing when you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior.
and that is no fish story!
Shean Smith, The Gospel Revolution Church
