Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
1 Jn 2:18
The modern view of antichrist and the church’s struggle with him seems for many to only be futuristic, yet John nearly 2,000 years ago said there were already many antichrists among us. The danger in viewing the conflict with antichrist as only a future event is that we leave ourselves unprepared for the warfare that’s been raging since John penned the words above!
Did you know that John is the only New Testament writer to use the term “antichrist”? He uses it in our text above and in the following passages:
Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. (1 Jn 2:22)
Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. (1 Jn 4:2b-3)
Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. (2 Jn 1:7)
That’s it! There are no more passages in all of Scripture where the antichrist is specifically mentioned! To hear some people tell it, you’d think every chapter deals with this subject. And did you notice how John speaks of the antichrist? He speaks of him not as a single, future individual, but rather as a type of person that existed in his day and “even now is already in the world!” An individual that denies that Jesus is the Christ and does not acknowledge that He has come in the flesh is antichrist. I’d say we’re surrounded by such individuals, wouldn’t you?
My point is this. When Christ came into the world, many didn’t recognize Him because He didn’t come in the way they expected. The Jews had read about Messiah’s kingdom in the Old Testament, so when Jesus came on the scene, their preconceived idea about the Christ was that He would establish an earthly throne. In fact in Jn 6:15, Jesus hid Himself specifically because the people were going to take Him by force and make Him king! But, He said it plainly when speaking to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Many of the Jews did not receive Him because He didn’t come in the package they were expecting! They were looking for an outward, visible kingdom, but Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is within you.”
I wonder today if we’re also being lulled into a false sense of security. We’ve got our own preconceived ideas about the end times and how things are going to pan out, but are we overlooking the battle that was already very real back in John’s day? Some seem to be consumed with the visible signs of the “end times” that they’re looking for, and yet God’s people are said to “walk by faith, not by sight”. (2 Cor 5:7) Will we be waiting on some future great battle only to have Christ return and say the war’s over? Like Jesus asked in Lk 18:8, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Remember Eph 6:11,12: “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…”
Jamie