The Antichrist

You've likely heard the word. If you've had any biblical training, you know exactly who it refers to. Or ... do you? Here, let's try a quick quiz. In which book of the bible is the word, "Antichrist," found? You know ... Revelation, right? With the Beast and the Dragon and all that. Nope. Not there. Oh, maybe Daniel? Okay, there is some "end times" stuff in there, but clearly not that word. Paul wrote about the Day of the Lord to the Thessalonians. One of those epistles? Nope. The word, "antichrist," does not appear in any of the end times writings. It is found in only two books of the Bible under only one author -- John. He mentions "antichrists" (yes, plural) in his first and mentions "an antichrist" in his second epistle. So, to the user of the term, what is it? John describes them in 1 John 2. "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" (1 John 2:18). (See? Plural.) What constitutes an antichrist? The word is simply "an opponent of Christ." Makes sense. What else do we know about them? They "have ... appeared." Not pending. Not someday. In John's day. What else? "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19). Now, that's interesting, isn't it? The Beast of Revelation is a world leader, but these guys come out "from us." They aren't government leaders; they are church people. They are teachers and preachers. How do we know them? They go out from us. They depart the faith, depart the truth, leave off biblical teaching. They do it clearly, measurably. Why? So we would know that they "are not of us." They were from us, but not of us. Never were. Another component of what an antichrist is can be found in 2 John. These John calls "deceivers" who fail to acknowledge that Christ came in the flesh (2 John 1:6-10). In 1 John he writes, "Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world" (1 John 4:3). That is "antichrist."

I think, perhaps, we've been taught a mistaken piece of information on the antichrist. We were taught he was some end times arch villain. Such a character exists in Scripture, but this is not that person. This is the corner pastor that tells his congregation that Jesus was a nice guy, not God Incarnate. He's a Jehovah's Witness who calls himself a Christian but denies that Jesus was God. He's a really nice Mormon who tells us that Jesus and Satan were brothers and we can be gods, too. They are the liberal preachers that deny the Virgin Birth. They deny that Christ died for our sin because, after all, we're not all that bad and He didn't need to. God's just nice that way. They are the ones who deny the faith and urge us to do the same. Sure, these guys will be around at the end times, but we don't have to wait that long to see them. They're in a lot of places today. Maybe even in your church. Oh, and John says, "If anyone comes to you and does not bring [the teaching of Christ], do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting" (2 John 1:10). John says, "Run!", because "the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds" (2 John 1:11). I don't think John meant that was a good thing.