"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies."
-- John 8:44
I have no doubt Jesus IS the Son of God. So when He tells us how He recognizes the children of satan, we have to pay attention. He would know.
They are first of all plural, and clearly they were already around in Jesus' lifetime. There were still many sons of the devil around when Jesus' disciple John wrote about them some years later:
"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" (I John 2:18, my emphasis)
You're right to be aware The Anti-Christ is coming, says John: but be aware too that his little spiritual brothers and sisters are already here, and will be until The Lord returns to settle accounts.
(Which is certainly not to diminish the centrality of The Anti-Christ in satan's scheme. Just as Jesus Christ is the Incarnate and Only Son of God, here present in human flesh, anti-Christ will be the unique, full-on, counterfeit of Christ, satan's own son, present on earth in human flesh.)
Many of us are convinced we're living today in what John calls "the last hour." If so, Jesus' major teaching on the "end-times," in Matthew 24, must be of critical relevance to us. And that discourse is notable for Jesus' repeated warnings to His disciples not to be misled, and not to be deceived, even by the "many [who] will come in My name" (v. 5).
So Jesus again emphasizes that the children of satan will be on the scene, that they will be "many," and that they will be busily spreading their father's lies: for how else are people "misled" and "deceived" than by lies ?
Jesus warns that the "many antichrists" of the end-times will even be spreading "Christian" lies ("in My name"). Indeed, those whom Jesus called children of satan to their face appeared to be "Christians:" they had followed Jesus in Person, and "had believed Him" (John 8:31; for even liars must admit Jesus is speaking truth). So Jesus' command in Matthew 24 is that we discern, as He discerned, the children of satan by the fact they do satan's characteristic deeds.
(My opinion is that in our day we especially need to heed Jesus' warning, "do not believe them" (Matthew 24:23,26), regards the many "Christian" teachers of "end-times prophecy." Jesus flatly says that no man knows God's timing (v. 36); and that world-political events and natural disasters are NOT primary prophetic signs of the end-times (vv. 6-7). In broad characterization, many of today's "Christian" interpreters of "end-times prophecy." predicate their teaching exactly on those things Jesus proscribes.)
We therefore know that satan's children can be discerned by their lies. And we certainly know what lies are: statements contrary to fact, and reality: statements contrary to Truth, Who Jesus says He IS (John 14:6).
(I often hear people try to excuse themselves from obeying Jesus' command with the complaint that "it's hard these days to know what's true." That excuse is itself a lie. In these days of the internet, it's easier than ever to verify, from multiple official, news, or fact-checking websites and "citizen-journalist" sources, what someone has actually said, or if an event actually happened...often with on-scene video of what was said or done. The only relevant question is if a person loves truth enough to search for it...more properly, Him.)
Jesus says the other "spirit" by which we should discern satan's children is their desire to "murder." Our varying systems of human criminal-law have rather muddied our understanding of what constitutes "murder:" but Jesus gives us His definition in Matthew 5:21-22. Jesus says that angry, violent, contempt for others is murder...whether or not blows are struck, or lives lost.
America's experience has verified Jesus' definition. Violent contempt for others, which has become...rather, has been made...a dominant spirit of national politics, has repeatedly produced in our country horrific mass-murders which meet even humans' legal definitions.
We've also seen that the greatest spouters of violent contempt have also made lies a dominant spirit of American politics, to an extent never before seen. And it's not hard to see that this change has taken place because lies and murder...Jesus' checklist of "sons of satan"...have been politically successful, tactics for them.
Incredibly, even some Christians have followed the politicians whose ways are, relentlessly and always, lies and murder.
So this blog is my plea to those Christians to repent, and quickly turn back in these last days from following those Jesus has warned us are "children of the devil."
Amen.
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