THE RIDDLE OF ANTICHRIST

“Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that (the) Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.”
1 John 2:18-19 NLT

“Antichrist” is a hot potato in today’s prophetic machinations. Prophecy fundis have associated prominent names with “the Antichrist” almost since John wrote these words.

Who is this mysterious figure who dominates eschatological predictions? Some big names have come and gone, others are much alive, and still others have yet to appear on the horizon.

Trouble is, much of prophetic interpretation is imposed on Scripture rather than derived from Scripture.

So what is John saying? Since John is the only Biblical writer to use the word “antichrist”, we must look for the meaning first in his explanation.

“I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
2 John 1:7 NLT

First then, anyone who denies that Jesus was a real human being like us, is part of the antichrist. They are deceivers, obviously sowing their lies among God’s people to mislead them since people in the world are already living in deception.

Does this mean that antichrist is more than one person?

In our quote from 1 John 2, John spoke of “many antichrists”. What did he mean? “Many” means many! That isn’t difficult to understand! So, how can the Antichrist be a single figure?

“Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise, they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.”
1 John 2:18-19 NLT

Second, antichrists are those who originated in the church fellowship. They were once part of the church, but their departure is evidence that they were never real members of Christ’s body. No prominent political figure here!

Third, their presence from among God’s people is part of the “last hour”. What is the last hour? Scripture uses the terms the “last days” or “the last hour “, interchangeably, to mean the period of time between Jesus’s first and second coming.

“In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…”
Hebrews 1:1-2 NIV

So, John says that there is an antichrist spirit at work through people who were once in the church, the era of grace through Jesus, who deny the reality of Jesus’ real humanity. Their purpose is to deceive and mislead God’s people away from the truth. In this sense, anti-Christ means against Christ, in opposition to Christ.

There is a subtle way in which these “antichrists” speak against Christ. By denying His humanity, they rob Jesus of His right to be our atoning sacrifice. Since He had to be a real man to take our place in death, if He were not truly human, He cannot be our substitute and sacrifice.

John explains that faith is the incarnation of Jesus, His coming to earth as a flesh and blood human being, is crucial to the gospel. He took pains to explain, in the 4th Gospel, that the Word, the embodiment of God’s revelation of Himself, became “flesh” a term used to describe His physical nature, and lived for a while with us.

“So, the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”
John 1:14 NLT

Two natures God and man, perfectly combined in one person. To deny Jesus’ humanity shatters any hope we have in His work of the restoration of all things to His original plan.

How does our arch enemy, the devil, try to accomplish this? By using influential people to speak in place of (anti) and to speak against (anti) Jesus to deceive people into believing that He was never a real man.

“So, I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
1 John 2:21-23 NLT

So, what is John’s point?

“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.”
1 John 4:1-3 NLT

Apart from the many cults that deny the humanity of Jesus, there is a religious system, led by a succession of men representing that system, that denies the true humanity of Jesus. Through a process of human reason, the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary has become a central and official doctrine of a system that claims to be Christian but represents the spirit of antichrist.

This doctrine says that, since Jesus was born of Mary, and Mary was supposedly conceived without sin, Jesus cannot, therefore, have been made like us.

But the Bibles says…

“We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to
help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.”
Hebrews 2:16-17 NLT

Therefore…

“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testing we do, yet he did not sin.”
Hebrews 4:15 NLT

The debate about the identity of “antichrist” is, once again, a red herring, a distracter that lures us away from trusting and worshipping Jesus because He is the one and only true God/man, sent from the Father to bring salvation to the whole world.

“Then he (Jesus) asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.
Matthew 16:15-17 NLT

Unless we confess, like Peter, that the real Jesus, the human Jesus, is God’s anointed Son, we are also part of the antichrist that has been at work since Jesus was born in Bethlehem.