Some believe that there is coming a world ruler, a personal Antichrist, who will appear shortly before the Second Coming of Christ. Agreement about the who, what, when, where, and how is in short supply. You will get different answers depending on who is preaching, teaching, or selling what their latest dream or scheme.
Down through the centuries several people have been identified as the Antichrist. Included in the notorious list are Adolf Hitler, the Pope, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Osama Ben Laden, and Barrack Obama. Does it make sense to you that God should keep changing His mind about the Antichrist? Or are we spending too much time trying to read the newspaper into the Bible instead of looking to the Bible for what it says.
If you wanted to find the word “antichrist” in the Bible so you would know what the Bible says about antichrist, where would you look? In the Gospels? No, Jesus never spoke of an antichrist! Revelation? You’d be close, but almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and water balloons! The word, “antichrist”, is not in the book of Revelation! The writer of the Revelation, John the Apostle, used the word, “antichrist”, four times and today we will look at all four to see what the Bible says. Be careful…you could become “antichrist”!
John, the Apostle is the only writer who even uses the word, “antichrist”. It is interesting to note that every time the word, “antichrist” is used in the Bible, it uses small letters, indicating a non-specific reference. In other words, John was not thinking of a specific individual. Two of those references do not even use a definite article and the other two talk about the spirit of antichrist. None of these references about “antichrist” say anything about the future!
Antichrist = one who denies Christ
1 John 2:18-23
1 John 2:18-23
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
When John is writing, he is trying to address a group of people in his day who were called, “Gnostics”, who believed that Jesus was only human, born in the natural way, but NOT DIVINE, not the Son of God! A leading teacher of that group was named Cerinthus who even said that Jesus was empowered by God at His Baptism, performed miracles and brought words from God, but on the cross, the Spirit of God left Jesus so that it was the human Jesus Who suffered, not he Divine Christ. Cerinthus believed that Christ would establish a 1,000-year earthly kingdom, filled with sensual pleasure, prior to the general resurrection . The disciple of the Apostle John, Polycarp, told the story that John the Apostle, in particular, is said to have so detested Cerinthus that he once fled a bathhouse when he found out Cerinthus was inside, yelling "Let us flee, lest the building fall down; for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside!" John is writing to warn us against the teaching of Cerinthus and those like him.
Where does antichrist come from?
From among us!
1 John 2:19; Romans 1:21-25
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
How easy it is to be deceived when we don’t believe the truth! When I took the eye test at school, I always passed. Not because I could see, but because I could strain my eyes until they watered. So the Gym teacher administering the test and didn’t really care to be doing it anyway would pass me along. When it got so bad that I could not read a blackboard less than 6 feet away and trees had no leaves, just fuzz, and road signs were to be guessed at, I broke down and got glasses! But until that point, I believed that everyone only saw fuzzy trees. My belief deceived me! I believed a lie!
These people John is referring to had chosen to believe a lie rather than the truth. In doing so, they had become counterfeit. Phoney. Deceptive.
The Apostle Paul addressed them this way in Romans 1:21-25:
Romans 1:21-25
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
One deception leads to another. Be careful what you believe lest you deny Christ in the process! Be careful who you believe lest you become caught up in their lie! Remember, sometimes you have to go so far as to fire your own grandmother lest you be led astray!
2 John 1:7
7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist
Antichrist = opposer of Christ
1 John 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:2-5; 1 John 2:18-23
John wants us to make sure what and whom we follow.
1 John 4:1-3
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
The word John uses for try or test means to examine closely. There are no benefits to sloppy thinking! Make sure that the teaching you follow lines up with the Word of the Living God! There also are no benefits to sloppy agape, where we just believe someone because they are nice or because they have been your friend or a friend of the family. Are they advancing the cause of Christ by what they say and do or are they promoting their own agenda?
Once again, the Apostle Paul said it this way:
2 Timothy 3:2-5
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Have nothing to do with such people.
So heed the words of John, the only one who used the term, “antichrist” and told us what it meant:
1 John 2:18-23 (New Century Version)
18 My dear children, these are the last days. You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming, and now many enemies of Christ are already here. This is how we know that these are the last days. 19 These enemies of Christ were in our fellowship, but they left us. They never really belonged to us; if they had been a part of us, they would have stayed with us. But they left, and this shows that none of them really belonged to us.
20 You have the gift that the Holy One gave you, so you all know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.
22 Who is the liar? It is the person who does not accept Jesus as the Christ. This is the enemy of Christ: the person who does not accept the Father and his Son.23 Whoever does not accept the Son does not have the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has the Father, too.
Questions we must ask ourselves and each other:
Who is Jesus?
Who is Jesus to you?
Have you accepted Jesus
as your Lord and Savior?
