001.27. Chapter 27
Chapter 27 THE LAST TIME
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”
Why is this verse prefaced with the particular address, “little children?” What is meant by “the last time”? What is signified by “antichrist”? Who are referred to by the “many antichrists?” In what way did the presence of many antichrists make it evident that the last time had even then begun? Why is this statement brought in at this point? What is the precise importance and value of it unto us today? In seeking to answer these questions and expound our present verse we are mindful of the fact that we shall clash with the teaching many of our readers have sat under, and therefore they will not readily accept a part of what we are about to advance. Moreover, it will differ from the prophetic outlook which we held personally in the early days of our Christian life. But we must write according to the measure of light God has vouchsafed for us, and request our friends to heed prayerfully the injunction, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Why does our present verse open with the words “little children”? The term ought to have been translated “babes” in order to distinguish it from that which is used in 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12, etc. There the one employed is a term of endearment, being a general one in its scope, applied to the whole family of God. But the one found in our text is a descriptive and distinguishing one, being used only of the lowest grade of God’s children, namely spiritual infants. It will be remembered that in 1 John 2:12, John had employed the comprehensive term “teknion” when expressing his tender regard for all the saints. Then in 1 John 2:13 he had graded them into three distinct classes: “fathers,” “young men,” and “babes,” designating the last “paidion,” which term occurs again in this epistle only in the verse now before us. In 1 John 2:14 the “fathers” and in 1 John 2:15-17 the “young men” were each addressed a second time. Now in 1 John 2:18-27 the “babes” are again written to.
Thus we perceive once more what care the apostle devoted to the structure of his epistle, and how particular he was to follow a strict and logical order. In 1 John 2:28, the general designation “teknion” is again found, to denote a resumption of address to the whole company. Hence it is apparent that, through failure to observe the plan followed in the context, the Revised Version erred in beginning a new paragraph with 1 John 2:18. Not only did the due balancing of this section (the speaking twice to each of the three classes) require that 1 John 2:18 should be directed to the “babes,” but in view of its contents there was a peculiar propriety in addressing it to the third and youngest group. It was really a word of warning to them. As the young men are most in danger of being allured and spoilt by “the world,” so the babes are the ones most liable to be beguiled and poisoned by the “antichrists.” It was therefore peculiarly pertinent to put the young converts on their guard, for being more inexperienced and less established in the Faith, they were apt to give ear unto those who were desirous of corrupting them. Though not so pointed, it was indirectly the equivalent of Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:14). It is sad to see how little taken to heart are those words of Christ, “Take heed what ye hear” (Mark 4:24). Many professing Christians are as careless in this matter as ignorant children playing with sharp and dangerous weapons.
“Little children, it is the last time.” The order of words in the Greek expresses it still more emphatically: “Little children [the] last time it is.” The word here translated “time” (hora) signifies an indefinite period, be it long or short. It is rendered “season,” “day,” “hour,” “instant.” The Revised Version gives “it is the last hour.” Personally, we prefer “the last time.” By affirming that it is the last time we consider the apostle was announcing that the Jewish economy had passed away—the temple lay in ruins, its priesthood no longer functioned, Jerusalem was trodden down by the Gentiles.
Still more definitely, he was averring that this Christian economy is the final one. Calvin (in his Institutes) pointed out, “And for this reason the dispensation under which we live is designated in the Scriptures as ‘the last time,’ ‘these last times’ (1 Peter 1:20), ‘the last days’ (Acts 2:17), that no one might deceive himself with a vain expectation of any new doctrine or revelation.” This Christian dispensation is the one during which the history of this world will be brought to a close: whether or not it will include within its scope and be terminated by what is known as “the millennium” we are not prepared either to affirm or deny; but this we must believe, that no separate and distinct age will follow the present one. The coming of God’s Son to this earth in human nature introduced the concluding season for this world, in which all its affairs will be wound up. But as Barnes pertinently remarked, “The apostle does not, however, say that the end of the world would soon occur, nor does he intimate how long this dispensation would be. That period might continue through many ages or centuries, and still be the last dispensation.” The concluding era of God’s gracious government over men had arrived. “The world’s history is divided into two sections. The first is the preparatory, and the second is the final. The incarnation of Christ is the goal of the first, and the starting point of the second. John the Baptist, who closed the first period, might have written, ‘It is the first hour.’ And yet the life of John the Baptist was synchronous with the life of John the Apostle, who said, ‘It is the last hour.’ But between those two Johns there stood the milestone that divided the world’s history. To pass that way-mark was to pass from the preparatory to the final, from the old to the new, from law to grace, from prophecy to fulfillment. Before Christ one day had been as a thousand years, but now a thousand years were as one day” (Levi Palmer). So mighty and revolutionizing the change effected by the advent of God’s Son, that henceforth time is measured more by events than by duration. The birth, death and resurrection of Christ, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, were events which represented more than all the previous “hours” or seasons of human history. The proofs for the Scripturalness of the above assertions are many and decisive. It was “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4), as it is in this “dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one [“family”—Galatians 3:15] all things in Christ, both which are in heaven [the holy angels], and which are on earth [redeemed sinners]; even in Him” (Ephesians 1:10). “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11): not the end of the material world, but (as the Greek means) of the ages. All previous ones were but introductory: they furnished the types, this one has the substance. The last of those periods which God has assigned to the duration of this earth is the present order of things: no new administration of it will follow this era. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Finality has been reached: God has nothing further to communicate unto mankind. Christ is His ultimate revelation (compare “last of all he sent unto them his son”—Matthew 21:37): in Him there is the finishing of the unfolding of God’s mind, the conclusion of the making known of His will. There will be nothing higher, nothing further; what God has spoken through Christ will continue unaltered to the end of time.
Another apostle declares that Christ was “foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). The Messianic age was at once the consummation of all that preceded it and itself the ultimate Divine economy. So also Jude reminded the saints that they had been forewarned how that there should be “mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” (1 John 2:18), and that this prediction was being fulfilled before their very eyes. Some have wrongly concluded from 1 Peter 1:5, that “the last time” is yet future. There Christians are informed that they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” While the “salvation” there mentioned is still future, for it has reference to the completion of their redemption (their resurrection and glorification) when the Lord Jesus shall “appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28), when the open vision of Him will perfectly conform us unto His holy image (1 John 3:2); yet that blessed hope will be realized and that glorious event will take place “in the last time” and not in some subsequent age lying beyond the close of this present one. “John announced ‘that it was the last time’ or the last dispensation, which God intended to introduce on earth, under which He would establish the kingdom of His Son... and this kingdom should continue till all enemies were put under His feet” (T. Scott). As indicated above, this Christian dispensation is designated “the last time” for two reasons: first, in relation to former times, which were introductory, paving the way for it; second, in relation unto the remainder of human history, for at the end of it the curtain will fall. There is nothing in the expression itself to determine the length thereof, nothing to intimate that it might not last longer than any previous one or be even more protracted than all others put together. Certainly Christ gave no intimation that His absence would be a brief one. Instead, He foretold that “while the Bridegroom tarried” all would slumber and sleep. He spoke of His departure as “travelling into a far country,” and said that “after a long time” He would return and reckon with His servants (Matthew 25:14, Matthew 25:19). “Since then nineteen centuries have dragged their weary round, but compared to what happened in John’s day, they would not make one hour. And time’s hour glass may yet contain other centuries, or millenniums, or even half an eternity, but compared to what took place in the first century of the Christian era, they can only be as moments or minutes. It is the last hour (or time), although its moments may be centuries, and its minutes millenniums” (Levi Palmer).
We shall give here only the briefest of answers to the third question, reserving our fuller remarks thereon for 1 John 2:22 (D.V.). Suffice it now to say that an “antichrist” is an antagonist of Christ and a corrupter of His doctrine. From those words “ye have heard that antichrist shall come,” it is clear that the saints of those days, even the youngest of them, were taught to expect that, so far from Christianity making a speedy and complete conquest of the world, there would be fierce opposition against it; that the servants and followers of Christ would be no more acceptable to the unregenerate than was their Master. Yet it must not be supposed that they were entertained with a cheap sensationalism under the guise of “expounding prophecy,” but rather were they informed that it was God’s will that the enmity which He put between the serpent’s seed and Christ’s seed would continue until the end. Therefore they must be prepared to encounter false prophets, and persecution if they withstood them. Implicitly, this “ye have heard that antichrist shall come” was a solemn and urgent exhortation unto believers to contend earnestly for the Faith, and to instruct new converts in the duty of watchfulness against deceivers. Nor is there any need for us to say much upon the “many antichrists” of the apostle’s day, the chief reference being to the Gnostics and to such men as Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Timothy 2:17-18). In view of the faithful instruction and warnings which Christians were then receiving from the ministers of God, there was no excuse for any of them being taken unawares and imposed upon. But alas, how sadly were such warnings generally disregarded is only too evident from history. The Christ-hated doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitanes (Revelation 2:14-15), and the suffering of one who called herself a prophetess to seduce His servants (Revelation 2:20) were the precursors of many others in the next three hundred years, and by the close of the sixth century almost the whole of Christendom was as completely deceived as though God had given no warning against the anti-christ, and for almost a thousand years there followed what are known as the “dark ages.” Concerning antichrist Calvin remarked, “They who suppose that he would be only one man are indeed greatly mistaken,” and then pointed out that such influential heretics as Cerinthus, Marcion, Ebion, etc., “were members of that kingdom which the Devil afterward raised up [in the papacy] in opposition to Christ.” The question, In what way did the presence of many antichrists make it evident that “the last time” had even then begun? also admits of a short and simple answer. As increasing infirmities and failing faculties are sure signs that old age is upon us, so the presence of antichrists was proof that the true Christ had come, and since He had ushered in the final era for this earth, naught remained but the judgment of God—His longsufferance alone postponing the same. The outstanding characteristic of all former ages was the rejection of the Truth, not only in man’s refusal to be subject to God’s Law but particularly that revelation which He had made through the prophets concerning His Son; whereas the most prominent feature of this dispensation is the reception of error, especially seen in the corrupting of the Gospel. As the presence of counterfeit money argues the existence of the genuine, so those who set up themselves against the person and kingdom of Christ are tacit but real witnesses unto the same. The fact that those false prophets received such a welcome and favourable hearing in John’s day was proof that, to use the language of 1 Peter 4:7, “the end of all things is at hand.” As to why John brought in 1 John 2:18 at this point in his epistle, several reasons may be suggested. First of all, it gave point to his preceding statement. In 1 John 2:17 he had said, “the world passeth away,” and now he declares, “it is the last time”—its harvest was ready for the sickle. Thus, second, it was a note of imminency and urgency. In the whole context John had made it clear that the world in which believers are left as witnesses for Christ is a very evil one, and here they are informed that it has entered upon the final stage of its history. It must be “the last time,” for the lowest depths of human depravity have been exhibited in the world’s treatment of God’s Son: the climax of its sinfulness appeared in His precious blood being despised and trampled upon by man’s unbelief. Moreover, the presence of the “many antichrists” was a fearful omen that the final catastrophe was impending, for their evil activities made unmistakably plain the determined and continued antagonism of the world unto Christianity. How evident it is that our present verse, so far from beginning a new paragraph, is a continuation of what went before. In 1 John 2:16 we behold how the “darkness,” mentioned in 1 John 2:9 and 1 John 2:11, had corrupted the world; here we see the darkness opposing the Truth.
Third, 1 John 2:18 was brought in for the special benefit of babes in Christ, who are less suspicious of false prophets, and not yet able to say of Satan “we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Therefore they needed to beware of teachers of error lest they make shipwreck of the Faith, for the words of such “will eat as doth a canker” (2 Timothy 2:17). The very name “antichrists” should awaken the deepest horror and concern, for it imports that they are opposed to Christ and all who adhere to Him, ready to rob them of every blessing enjoyed in Him. The fact that there were many of them intimated that on every side were deadly enemies unto faith and holiness. Of this they “had heard.” No truth which was profitable had been kept from them; everything the apostles had heard from the lips of Christ they faithfully committed to their converts. It therefore behoved them to make a proper use of such instruction, especially since so much contrary to sound doctrine was prevailing. Finally, since this era is the completion of all previous ones, great are the privileges and obligations of the saints. The practical importance and value of 1 John 2:18 for us today lies, principally, in our noting and taking to heart its moral connection with 1 John 2:15-17, where a number of reasons are advanced why we must not love the world, while here we are warned against antichrists. There is a far more intimate relation between the state of our hearts and the receptivity or repulsion of our minds to error than is commonly supposed. Yet that relation is not far to seek nor difficult to understand. The doctrine of Scripture “is according to godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3), and therefore just so far as the heart be in a sound and healthy state will the holy and searching truth of God be acceptable to it. As John points out a little later concerning the false prophets, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1 John 4:5).
Such charlatans quote (and misquote) sufficient of the Bible to deceive the unwary, but they are careful to omit everything unpalatable to the unregenerate, which rebukes carnality or calls to a closer walking with God. They deliberately tone down the Truth and prophesy “smooth things.” And “the world heareth them,” because their rotten hearts fully accord with such preaching. As we pointed out in a previous article, the world is the sphere where the darkness reigns, and therefore the more a believer comes under its influence the less spiritual perception will he have and the less ability to “try things that differ” (Php 1:10). It is in God’s light that we see light (Psalms 36:9), and morally speaking we are far from Him when our affections be set upon things on earth. It is only so long as the sheep follow Christ (walk according to His example, in obedience to His commandments) that “a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him” (John 10:4-5). In proportion as the soul finds its satisfaction in Christ will the world repel it; but when the heart grows cold unto Him, the things of the world appeal to it. The first century supplies numerous examples of that sad fact, and not a few wonder how it was possible for so many of the early churches to be corrupted (Revelation 2:14-15; Revelation 2:20); the explanation is found in “thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). When a soul or church does that, the door is open for the entry of every possible abomination.
We have an illustration in the case of Isaac of a believer being deceived when his heart is not right with God. How came it that he was tricked by so clumsy a device as Jacob’s? He knew that the voice was Jacob’s; were then his neck and hands a surer test? Surely not. Then how are we to account for his being imposed upon in a way that no man of the world, with common sense, would be? The answer is, because he was out of communion with the Lord, and when that be the case with any saint he is likely to be deceived by the grossest of shams. It is quite clear from the preceding record that the eye of faith in Isaac was as dim as his natural ones, otherwise he would have discerned the sinfulness and madness of trying to fight against the Most High. He was displeased at God’s appointment regarding his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). He deliberately sought to turn the purpose of God into another channel, and in his intention gave to Esau the blessing which God had said should be Jacob’s. It was the flesh and not the spirit which was dominating him, and that dulled even his natural judgment.
First, Isaac had done wrong in making Esau his favourite, and that because of the venison he provided for him (Genesis 25:28). Second, he condoned Esau’s act in marrying a Hittite (Genesis 26:34), for as Genesis 27:1 indicates, he continued to show partiality unto him. Third, in his old age and as death drew near, he yielded to the lusts of the flesh, determining to gratify his carnal appetite by eating of his savoury meat. No wonder his judgment was blinded. But later, when he was made conscious of his failure to recognize Jacob and of his attempt to set aside God’s choice, he “trembled very exceedingly” (Genesis 27:33). Then it was that his slumbering faith awoke, and the scales fell from his eyes. Now he bowed to the Divine will, and in spite of natural prejudice said of the one who had tricked him, “yea, and he shall be blessed.”
Now as the allowing of carnality dulls the judgment of a believer, so does the entry into his heart of a spirit of worldliness; consequently he is likely not only to be imposed upon by natural things, but to mistake error for truth. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). In order to spiritual perception there must be a steadfast refusal to follow the ways of the world. Error always flourishes most in the soil of worldliness, and it is there that the antichrists meet with success.