Many folks seem to be looking for an end-time figure who would rule the world for a short time, and this political figure would set up a deal with the Jews and later betray them. It would look like he would make peace, but in the end terrible destruction eventually takes place. They have several names for this political person: the Beast, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition and even Antichrist, because he is supposed to also persecute Christians. What about these things; are they true? No, they are actually false conceptions. I have already written about the Beast and about the Man of Sin, who is also the Son of Perdition. At this time I intend to address the name Antichrist.
Actually John is the only one who specifically writes about Antichrist, and, each time he mentions the name, it is found in one of his epistles. It is not found in the Book of Revelation at all! Paul also addresses “Antichrist” but using different language, but this is understood to refer to Antichrist only because of how John describes it. Notice what John says:
1 John 2:18-22 KJV 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.
John told his readers that the last days were upon them, because many antichrists have already appeared. They were told that antichrist would come, but who or what is it? John tells us in verse-19 that “they”—that is, the “many antichrists” of verse-18—went out from the body of believers. Apparently, a group split off from the church, or there were several men planted in various local churches who had ultimately split off or were expelled by the local churches. John tells us that these people were not believers to begin with (v.19). These “antichrists” are such, because they deny Jesus is the Christ (v. 22), and, in so doing, they deny both the Father and the Son. John labels these men liars, and what they preach is not the truth (1John 2:21-22).
In chapter four of his epistle John writes about spirits, but he is not referring to spirit beings. He is speaking of the kind of spirit that dwells in man—the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error (1John 4:6). Those who are controlled by the spirit of truth will believe the Gospel, but those who are controlled by the spirit of error will reject the Gospel. Paul discusses the difference between these two spirits in 1Corinthians 2. Notice:
1 Corinthians 2:11-14 KJV For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (12) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Notice, according to the type of spirit that teaches a person, that spirit determines what that person is able to learn. No one who doesn’t have the spirit of God indwelling them is able to discern spiritual matters. The natural man or the carnal man is simply unable to teach himself things about God, nor is he able to be taught of God by those who understand spiritual things. With this in mind, Let’s look at what John has this to say:
1 John 4:1-3 KJV 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.
Here John explains that false prophets simply have the spirit of error (cf. 1John 4:6). They have gone out into the world from the church of God (1John 2:19), but they were never believers. How are we able to discern a false prophet? John tells us that he will not “confess that Jesus is come in the flesh…” (1John 4:3). What does this mean? Is John referring to the Incarnation when he writes this? Is he speaking of confession with the mouth or confession by the fruits of one’s life? John tells us in 1John 4:1 that we shouldn’t believe every spirit but the spirits must be tried in order to tell whether or not they are of God. If all that is meant that one is actually denying in words that Jesus is come in the flesh, then why would we need to “try” those words? They are clear enough. Therefore, John must have a person’s example in mind. Is what he is doing or teaching confessing that Jesus is come in the flesh? Furthermore, it would also be very clear in the words used, if a person was denying the Incarnation. Either Jesus came in the flesh or he did not! John is not speaking of Gnosticism. Antichrist is not Gnosticism, though Gnosticism is **an** antichrist. Antichrist is anyone who denies by his example that Jesus is today, i.e. in our present day, coming in **our** flesh.
Remember, Jesus promised that both he and the Father would dwell in us (John 17). Does this simply mean that we can know a false prophet, if he actually states that Jesus doesn’t indwell us? Well, yes, but I don’t think John is referring to this type of confession. John is referring to the confession of works. Does the false prophet teach in a manner that allows Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah? Does he preach that Jesus will bear fruit in and through us, or does he preach that our righteousness is determined by how closely we obey the Law? In other words, John is saying that the spirit of error that denies Christ is the spirit of works that ultimately claims we are made righteous by the Law. The spirit of truth, however, is that Jesus is our Righteousness. We are righteous, because he indwells us and bears this fruit through us, because he is our life. Jesus never sinned and neither will we, if we continually abide in Jesus, our Savior. If we abide in our old man (Adam, the flesh or carnal man), then we will bear his fruit of unrighteousness, even if we struggle to to be obedient. Only by abiding in Jesus are we able to live righteously.
According to John, Antichrist is a spirit. It is like the spirit of iniquity or the spirit of lawlessness. It is neither a spirit being nor does it refer to a future individual who would be the embodiment of all evil. It is simply the spirit that denies the power of Christ to bear fruit in and through us. It teaches us to do the work ourselves rather than wait for the Spirit of Christ to bear out in us the fruits of his life that indwells us.
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