ON THE ISLE OF PATMOS
Now the SPIRIT speaketh expressly,
that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing
spirits,
and
doctrines of devils;
I Timothy 4:1
Is there a difference
between the spirit of antiChrist
and the antiChrist
himself ?
YES.
It would be the COUNTERFEIT of the function of
the HOLY SPIRIT and the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
The antiChrist, the man of sin, is one being,
one entity, one MAN. The spirit of the antiChrist is
able to infest MANY men.
The Apostle John told us : the spirit of the antiChrist is here NOW
,
affecting many. The antiChrist spirit is infusing many --- nay, the MAJORITY ---
of people across the earth, both in and out of the church.
Let us hear the Apostle’s words:
Beloved, believe not every spirit,but try the spirits whether they are of GOD: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.Hereby know ye the SPIRIT of GOD: Every spirit that confesseth that JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh is of GOD:And every spirit that confesseth NOT that JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh is NOT OF GOD: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.I John 4:1-3This is the WORD+ of GOD.+ + +
Some translators muddle the Apostle John’s
words and bring confusion into the church, thus DISARMING the Christians.
BUT, TAKE HEED . . .
this is NOT the SEASON
to WEAKEN the saints .
Some modern translators write that the Apostle
said,
“This is the
antiChrist” and “he” has already come.
Maybe he HAS come and
maybe he IS in our
world TODAY.
If so, that specific Man of Sin would NOT
have been in the Apostle John’s world 2,000 years ago. It was the SPIRIT of the antiChrist which was let loose upon
this earth, according to the Apostle.
The Apostle John would know for sure because he
knew The LORD JESUS CHRIST Who+ said:
And then if any man
shall say to you,
Lo, here is Christ; or,
lo, he is there;
believe him not:
For false Christs and
false prophets shall rise,
and shall shew signs
and wonders,
to seduce, if it were
possible, even the elect.
But take ye heed:
behold, I + have foretold you all
things.
Mark 13: 21-23
+ + +
It certainly is possible to deceive
the very elect, as is apparent even to the enemies of CHRIST, considering the
quagmire the Christian church is in today in so-called “Christian” lands like
America, Like England, like France and Germany.
Here is the EXACT phrase, translated CORRECTLY
from ~ and note this well ~
EVERY Greek text that we have, both Byzantine and Alexandrian manuscripts, with NO variants in this part of 1 John 4:3.. . and this is the ( spirit ) of the antichrist . .+ + +
Let us check our versions, courtesy of Bible
Gateway.com, to see which ones have accurately translated the Apostle John’s
words.
Notice especially the omission of the SPIRIT.
Contemporary English Version, (CEV) 1995, American
Bible Society (Note: Until 1984, Eugene Nida was head of the translation
department of the ABS.)
But when someone doesn’t say this about Jesus, you know that person has a spirit that doesn’t come from God and is the enemy of Christ. You knew that this enemy was coming into the world and now is already here.
DARBY New Testament --- 1884 / originator of the
false Pre-tribulation Secret Rapture doctrine
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that [power] of the antichrist, [of] which ye have heard that it comes, and now it is already in the world.
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, Catholic
Bible
And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God: and this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and he is now already in the world.
New Life Version ( NLV ) 1969 / Christian
Literature International
And every spirit that does not say Jesus has come in a human body is not from God. It is the teaching of the false-christ. You have heard that this teaching is coming. It is already here in the world.
Worldwide English (New Testament) (WE) © 1969,
1971, 1996, 1998 by SOON Educational Publications;
And every spirit that does not say this about Jesus, does not belong to God. That is the spirit of the one who is against Christ. You have heard that he is coming. And now he is already in the world.
Wycliffe Bible (WYC) 2001 by Terence P. Noble (
John Wycliffe’s original Bible with modern spelling and grammar. Keep in mind
that Wycliffe used the Latin manuscripts for his English translation.)
and each spirit that undoeth Jesus, is not of God. And this is antichrist, of whom ye have heard, that he cometh; and right now he is in the world.
+ + +
Now, here are three more MODERN versions which blur
the difference between the spirit of the antiChrist in 1 John 4:3
and the antiChrist, the Man of Sin, himself.
The New English Bible, Oxford University Press,
1961
and every spirit which does not thus acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is what is meant by ‘Antichrist’ @; you have been told that he was to come, and here he is, in the world already !
@ footnote = Or this is the spirit of Antichrist.
This next version wields WORLD-WIDE
INFLUENCE. GLOBAL prestige makes this
next version extremely important, for it is being used across the globe to
train native missionaries, as well as home-based foreign missionaries with SIL
/ Wycliffe Bible translators.
This volume is A Translator’s Translation.
It is authored by a retired Wycliffe translator, Ellis W. Deibler , Jr., 2008.
It is copy-righted and used by permission.
“But those who don’t affirm that about Jesus ^ are not teaching messages from God. They are teachers who oppose Christ. You have heard that people like that are coming to be among us. Even now they are already here!”
The italics are Mr. Deibler’s. Those words are
NOT in the Greek text. Neither are the words in RED, which Mr. Deibler did NOT
put into italics. These words are all inserted by Mr. Deibler himself.
Mr. Deibler ascribes to the “dynamic equivalency” theory of the SIL / Wycliffe school of thought and does not strive to translate Scriptures literally.
Even though retired, Mr. Deibler continues to
work closely with SIL / Wycliffe in training foreign and native missionaries to
translate Scriptures in this manner. Thus, he has written many books to “help”
translators and has and still is working with native missionaries to do
translations just like his.
Keep in mind that THIS is what the Apostle John
wrote:
And every spirit that confesseth NOT that JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh is NOT OF GOD: and this is the ( spirit ) of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Mr. Deibler has OMITTED all references
to the
spirit
of the antiChrist in his translation. He omitted the spirit of the antiChrist in
the first sentence of this verse and ignored the reference to it in the second
sentence.
He replaced both the literal word “spirit”
and the understood “spirit” with PEOPLE ~ i.e., those, teachers, and
people.
He inserts plurals where the Text is
singular as it clearly is in the Nestle-Aland / UBS texts as well as in the
Byzantine texts. In short, he changes the entire meaning of this verse.
Mr. Deibler has, in fact, inserted his OWN
WORDS and his OWN understanding in this verse, making it a commentary instead of a
TRANSLATION of the words of Scriptures.
Thus, he is giving --- AND TRAINING --- Christians to
receive the word of man, instead of the WORD of GOD.
Although retired, he remains a translator in
good standing with SIL / JAARS / and WYCLIFFE and is very active yet. In this capacity, he is
called upon to train both home-based foreign translators and native translators
in other countries.
+ + +
DAVID ROBERT PALMER
The next translation is by David Robert Palmer, a Bible language scholar
and translator in his own right. He grew up on the mission/translation field as
the son of Tom and Corrine Palmer, translators with New Tribe Missions in
Papau, New Guinea.
Mr. Palmer’s version is available on the
internet and can be freely downloaded at this link:
Mr. Palmer has done a thorough job of comparing the Greek
text in Robinson-Pierpont’s 2005 Byzantine Textform with the Nestle-Aland 28th Eclectic-Alexandrian
Greek text and has included BOTH , color coded, in his Greek text.
He also includes a thorough apparatus in his
footnotes.
For serious scholars, it is well worth the time
to read Mr. Palmer’s Greek-English version. He evaluates the manuscript evidence
clearly. He is open about his own opinions and usually explains “why” he chose certain
variants over others.
Mr. Palmer usually prefers the LITERAL
translation method to the dynamic equivalency method . . . which he calls
“junk.”
Keeping that in mind, it a total mystery as to
WHY this obviously competent language scholar has translated the Greek text of
1 John 4:3 by omitting the “understood” spirit of the antiChrist in the second sentence
of this verse.
He translates:
³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus [Christ has come in the flesh], is not of God. And this is antichrist, which you have heard that he was coming, and now is in the world already.
4:3 καὶ πᾶν πνεῦμα ὃ μὴ ὁμολογεῖ τὸν Ἰησοῦν χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν· καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου, ὃ ἀκηκόατε ὅτι ἔρχεται, καὶ νῦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστὶν ἤδη.
As is evident, the Greek “the-the” , τὸ τοῦ , is the problem here.
In English, it is “the- of the”. The FIRST “the” (τὸ ) is nominative neuter; the second “the” (τοῦ ) is genitive masculine.
Mr. Palmer with his language skills would know
that.
Another problem is τοῦτό (“this”) which is nominative neuter, just like τὸ .
Mr. Palmer would know that , also, just like he
would know that “antiChrist” is masculine, not neuter.
In Greek, everybody KNOWS we cannot connect a nominative NEUTER “this” to a MASCULINE genitive “antiChrist” by a linking verb.
As in
English, the predicate nominative MUST BE of the same case. [ That is why we
teach school children to say, “It is I.” A subject case is linked to a subject
case. ]
By stating “This ( neuter nominative
case) is antiChrist ( masculine genitive case)”,
Mr.
Palmer has broken a BASIC RULE of Greek grammar, called “agreement.”
Every English translation that states,“This is antiChrist”breaks that BASIC Greek grammar rule.That statement simply is not what the GREEK states.
Furthermore, Mr. Palmer has ignored the
nominative neuter case of τὸ , “the”.
In English, we cannot leave a sentence stating:
THIS IS THE ____.
We must complete the thought, when writing an
English sentence, and fill in the blank
for the readers.
Thus, we must find the “understood” Greek noun
to complete the meaning of this sentence in English. The clue is to look for a
noun in the NEUTER case because . . .
τοῦτό and τὸ are both NEUTER,hooked together by the linking verb is ( estin).
Thus, Is there ANY NEUTER noun to be found in
this verse, before the blank ?
YES.It is “spirit” ( pneuma ~ πνεῦμα).Spirit is always NEUTER.
Furthermore, “spirit” is the ONLY neuter noun in the entire verse !
It can fill in the blank with the correct
grammatical case and sense.
Thus, the whole sentence in English retains the integrity
of the Greek grammar if “SPIRIT” becomes the “understood” noun.
This -
is - the - (spirit)
NEUTER NOMINATAIVE – LVb – NEUTER NOMINATIVE “the” – NEUTER NOMINATIVE understood
noun
of the -- antiChrist.
genitive masculine ---
masculine noun
Therefore, we see “spirit” in italics as the GRAMMATICALLY-CORRECT
“UNDERSTOOD” noun found previously stated in that verse which completes the thought
in English . We see “… of the” antiChrist correctly translated then in the
genitive case.
Thankfully, the majority of the English
translations DO keep the integrity of the Greek grammar and indeed, do
translate this part of the verse correctly.
There are nearly a dozen though, who do not.
Courtesy of Biblegateway.com, here is listed
some other translations which have not followed the text and the grammar in 1
John 4:3 in this clause with the linking verb:
- AMPC Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, 1954-1987, Lockman Foundation
- CEV Contemporary English Version, 1995, American Bible Society
- DARBY John Nelson Darby’s ( of Rapture Theory fame) translation, 1884
- Douay-Rheims 1899 , American Edition ( a Roman Catholic Bible)
- GW God’s Word to the Nations, 1995, Baker Publishing Group
- GNT Good News Translation 1992, American Bible Society
- TLB The Living Bible, 1971, Tyndale House
- NLV New Life Version , 1969, Christian Literature International
- NLT New Living Translations , 2015 , Tyndale House
- TPT The Passion Translation, 2017, Broad Street Publishing Group
- WYC Wycliffe Bible, 2001, Terence P . Noble, editor. [ Mr. Noble converted Wycliffe’s old-style English into modern-day English. John Wycliffe translated from Latin manuscripts. ]
It is
the INFLUENTIAL FEW, however, that cause a tremendous problem for Christian
readers and translators, alike.
Their
influence is WORLD-WIDE, as foreign and native translators align their versions
with these faulty mentors.
+ + +
Take heed therefore how ye hear:
for whosoever hath, to him shall be given;
and whosoever hath not,
from him shall be taken even
that which he seemeth to have.
Luke 8:18
