1 John 2:18-27 Series

1 John 2:18-27

Warning Concerning Antichrists

18 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.

(18) This may be confusing in some ways saying that the antichrist is coming and that many have come. But John is talking about two different things here. One is “the antichrist” the one that we read about in Revelation. The other is those who appeared at first to be Christians, were a part of Christian things and among other Christians, but they moved away from the faith no longer believing that Jesus is their Lord. These people now speak against Jesus.

Signs of the End of the Age

Matthew 24:10-13 ~ And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

False prophets are easy to recognize, they speak of things that are not of God and not of scripture. Any “prophet” who speaks anything other than what we can find in scripture is not only a false prophet but as well an antichrist.

A true prophet will always speak from scripture revealing to us what God has said through scripture.

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

John now says something very interesting and I will only speak to what John is saying here in these verses.

(19a) John says that those who have walked away, were not Christians to begin with. He goes on to say “ if they had been of us, they would have continued with us”, in other words, if they were really Christians they would still be here.

(19b) But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

The proof that they were not Christians to begin with is that they left the faith. John says that this is “plain” or in other words it was obvious they were not believers because they left.

20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

All true believers are anointed by God with the truth. The ones that left were not anointed with the truth of God and of Christ. God did not anoint them with this basic knowledge that all believers have because they were not believers to begin with.

21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 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.

So this is not talking about the “antichrist” but rather all the people of the world that deny God and Christ. They are little antichrists but not the big one.

23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

No one who denies Christ has the father in them. No one it says. This is why even the Jew will have to at some point bend a knee and confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior or they will not enter heaven.

John also says that if you confess Jesus as Lord the father is in you. It is impossible to believe in the true Jesus without God being in you. This is why I always start my sharing of the gospel with God not Jesus. It is a natural flow from God the father to Jesus.

26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Understand that what John isn't saying is that we don't need to study scripture, he isn't saying that. What John is saying is that because you are saved you know God because you have been anointed with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit brings the knowledge that God and Jesus are real. No one can teach you that God and Jesus are real once saved, you already know it.