ANTICHRIST

According to 1 John, anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the unique Son of God, or that he has come in the flesh. The biblical term, however, principally refers to a particular person in whom that denial reaches its consummate expression and who will play a key role in the final stage of history.

The word “antichrist” occurs only four times, all in John’s epistles (1 Jn 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 Jn 1:7). First John 2:18 refers also to “many antichrists.” John assumed that his Christian readers knew about the Antichrist and had been taught to expect his coming (1 Jn 2:18-27). The presence of many antichrists, in fact, indicated that the end times had arrived. But John warned that a final Antichrist who, like the others, would deny that Jesus is the Christ, would yet make an appearance.

John further described any person or message that did not “confess Jesus” as being of the spirit of the antichrist (1 Jn 4:3). In his brief Second Epistle, John referred to “many deceivers” who would not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh (2 Jn 1:7). Such a person, he wrote, was “the deceiver and the antichrist.”