Tag: John

The term “antichrist” occurs only in the second and third letters of John, and he applies the plural noun to deceivers that are causing dissension in his congregations. Their very presence constitutes irrefutable evidence that the “last days” have commenced. These troublemakers are “antichrists” and forerunners of the “Antichrist” who is to come.

In popular interpretations, the Antichrist is a political tyrant intent on world domination. Whether this proves true, Jesus and his apostles expressed more concern about the deceivers who ply their trade in the church. And in passages that refer to the Antichrist, the issue is deceivers who infiltrate the church.

The only New Testament author to employ the term “antichrist” is John in his first two letters. In them, he warns that “it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.”

The “spirit of antichrist” is raising up deceivers within the church, though a final “antichrist” will also appear at the end of the age.

The only New Testament author who uses the term “antichrist” is John, and only in two of his letters. He applied it to “false prophets” who were active in his congregations, false brethren he charged with denying that “Jesus is the Christ” and had “come in the flesh.” Such men were of the “spirit of antichrist” that already was operating in the world in John’s day.