Antichrist Is Not What You Think

Part five of the Come Lord Jesus series on the final return of Christ at the end of time. Today we examine antichrist.

Social media has much to say about antichrist. He is just around the corner and will soon arise. He brings welcomed order to our troubled world and will be a heroic figure destined to save humanity. In truth, he is demonic and a destroyer of all that is good.

As we did when discussing the Rapture, let us ask what the Bible says.

Antichrist in Scripture

“Antichrist” is a biblical term. The word occurs five times in 4 verses. Only John uses the word.

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

(1 John 2:18)

“Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.”

( 1 John 2:22)

“and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

(1 John 4:3)

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”              

(2 John 7)

Therefore, the question is not whether it appears in Scripture, it does. But, how is the term defined and used by John? Of equal importance, how are people using the word antichrist today?

The Second Coming

The antichrist is not associated with the return of Jesus and is never used in connection with the end of time. Observe each of the occasions where John used the word. Not once is John speaking of the end of time. His words are always directed toward the very day and time in which he was writing.

More so, John, in all four verses, declares that the antichrist was already present in his first-century world! The antichrist was a specific kind of false teacher: one who “denies that Jesus is the Christ,” and one who does not confess that Jesus is from God” (1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3).

Also 1 John 2:18 and 2 John 7 assert that there were many antichrists in the first-century. The antichrist of the Bible is not a single powerful ruler or influencer. We must reject false teaching on this subject. It is not relevant to say someone has good intentions. The only thing that matters here is the truth.

For more reading, visit this article from the late Wayne Jackson at Christian Courier.