Who Is The Anti-Christ?

Alba 7-21-2024

WHO IS THE ANTI-CHRIST?

I John 2:18-23

Who is the Anti-Christ? Sorry, I can't tell you. Because I do not know! That may be disappointing to some of you who expected specific information. There are others who thought they knew the answer to that question. So we were told that various people must be that one. Among the suspects mentioned through the years have gone from Hitler to Henry Kissinger, and from Nero to the Pope.

I am unable to give you the name of anyone that wears that title. But I can give you a description of the person or persons that fit into that category. To be really honest, I can't even do that. All I can do is to share with you the description given in scripture. Which I will do.

The apostle John, who also gave us the Book of Revelation, gives us good information about what to look for, and what to look out for, when it comes to the subject of the anti-christ. In fact, John is the only one of the biblical writers who uses that name, and only in two of his letters.

There are other names in scripture that appear to refer to the same thing as what John is telling us. Names such as the Son of Perdition, Man of Sin, and the Lawless One. But today let's learn what the apostle John has to say about this subject. Would you all turn to I John 2:18-23. Here is what he says:

18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 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 they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

There are two other questions we should answer before asking, Who is the Anti-Christ? The first question is: What is meant by the term "Antichrist". To answer that we need to remember that the word Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Both Christ and Messiah mean “the anointed One”. Therefore an antichrist is anyone who opposes Jesus Christ as the Messiah: our prophet, priest, and king.

The second question is: What is the “last hour” that John speaks of here? That is a reference to being in the end times. The question about whether or not we are living in the end times is very easy to answer. The answer is yes. This is an absolute fact and there is no doubt about it. You see, the Bible teaches us that the end times began nearly two thousand years ago when Jesus Christ came to earth, and that these end times will continue until He returns to earth again. We do not know when that will be.

But if it was the last hour when John wrote those words, we could be in the last minutes, or the last seconds of these end times. Oh, it is time. Time to be ready, to know that your sins have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus, and that you will be welcomed into heaven as one of God's children. It is time!

Now back to the original question, who is this anti-christ that is spoken of here? The apostle John gives us some answers to that question. And he also is warning us so we can be aware and not taken by surprise concerning this subject. So the first answer with a warning is:

1. Beware, the Antichrist is already here and he is not one, but many. In verse eighteen John says, “you have heard that the Antichrist is coming”. And then he adds, “even now many antichrists have come”. John says of the antichrists of his day that they were those who did not continue with what the apostles were teaching. They had turned away from the ones who had first hand knowledge of Jesus Christ and were the reliable witnesses to His life and teaching. This means there were people even then who were promoting false teachings concerning the person of Jesus Christ, and were leading people astray from the truth found in the teaching of the apostles.