Ed. You might like to grab your Bible as you read the following.
I John, chapter 2, verse 18
brings in "antichrist" and "antichrists". I'd never noticed a plural before! John defines antichrist as “the
one who denies the Father and the Son” (I Jn 2:22 NRSV). He then elucidates this with, “No one who denies
the Son has the Father; every one who confesses the Son has the Father also” ( I Jn 2:23 NRSV).
Now he returns to his “beginning" theme.
Repetition is a good tool in argument, isn't it?
Chapter
3:1-3 is a well-known passage, perhaps especially for those familiar with Christian Science. It is read at the
end of the Sunday service, and is announced as the correlative to the
scientific statement of being*. It is interesting to compare the opening demand,
“See” in the NRSV with the so well-loved KJV's “Behold.” What an attention-getter that “Behold” is! So much stronger than, “See.” Though the sense of the
verses in general is exactly the same. We understand that the masculine pronouns
refer to the Christ, i.e. the “he['s]” and the “him['s].”
“...the Son
of God was revealed...to destroy the works of the devil” (I Jn 3:8) has, for me,
echoes of the Tenets of Christian Science (Science and Health page 497).
With chapter 3, verse 11, we come to John's great theme: “love one another.”
Chapter 4:1,
with its “false prophets”, had me thinking of the story in Acts about the
lass (KJV has “a certain damsel”; NRSV has “slave-girl”) who had a spirit of
divination. Actually, it took me a while to find it in Acts 16 beginning at
verse 16. In the meantime, I also found the story about the exorcists who
imitated Paul's healings (Acts 19:11-20), and that of Simon wishing to do as
Peter and John did in conferring the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands
(Acts 14:-24). Simon was wanting to make a business of it.
It seems
to me that these stories, and, indeed, the whole of Acts, illustrate
what John is on about in this communication; all the problems that had to be
met, and were met through the Christ teaching.
*Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p. 468:9
Joyce Voysey
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