Smoodock's Blog

In 1John 2:18 John mentioned that antichrist would come in the last hour, i.e. the final season that must take place before Jesus’ return would occur and judgment commence. Proof that this was so was the fact that many anitchrists had arisen by the time John wrote his epistle. In the next verse John explains to his readers how antichrist had arisen (1John 2:19). Antichrist arose out from among the community of believers, and John is not the only one who claimed this would occur. Paul prophesied before he had been imprisoned that fierce and violent men would enter into the believing community for the purpose of harming those who trust in Christ, and even some of the leaders whom Paul had appointed would turn on the believing community in an effort to draw believers away from Christ to their doctrine (Acts 20:29-31).

Nevertheless, these men were not merely teaching erroneous doctrine that one might claim was similar to the truth. This was, evidently, not the case. For example, the Roman governors understood Paul’s religious beliefs were similar to that which the Jewish leaders taught, but Paul seemed to simply put a different spin on the same things all Jews believed and taught (cp. Acts 25:14-19). Even Paul, himself, claimed his doctrine offended no one (Acts 25:8), and he taught nothing but the things all Jews allow in the doctrinal system derived from the Law and the Prophets (Acts 26:4-8, 21-23).

Therefore, Judaism, which is recognized today as such, could not have existed in the first century AD prior to Jesus’ lifetime, nor is it derived from the Law and the Prophets, because Paul taught according to what Jews in the first century AD commonly believed, and even the Roman governors recognized the similarities. Rather, the Judaism that was developed after the crucifixion was a system of belief that was composed in an effort to directly oppose the Gospel. This is the only thing that permits Paul’s words to Agrippa to make sense (cp. Acts 26:4-23). Moreover, the Samaritan woman with whom Jesus spoke understood Messiah would be a teacher who would reveal new truth (John 4:25), and this is the clear understanding of Deuteronomy 18:15-19. He would be a Prophet like Moses, and Moses wasn’t just a military general. He gave the people the Law of God. Therefore, it should have been expected that when the Messiah would come, he, too, would give the people the word of God (Deuteronomy 18:19).

So, antichrist may have come out of the believing community of the first century AD, but it could not have been what was derived from the believing community or its Gospel, because it isn’t simply another way of looking at Christ and what he said and did. Rather, antichrist rejects Christ entirely, replacing him with something totally foreign to the Gospel. Therefore, the antichrists had to leave the believing community, for how could they stay? It would be impossible for one to preach Christ and reject Christ at the same time! So, that it might become clear to all that everyone who worships with the believing community is not **of** that community, the unbelieving Christ-rejecters (antichrists) left (1John 2:19). One can’t be a believer and an unbeliever at the same time.

John uses a play on words in 1John 2:18 and 20 in order to differentiate between antichrists and believers. The word antichrist (antichristos; G500), as I concluded in another study, is made up of two Greek words: anti (G474), meaning opposite or instead of, and christos (G5547), meaning anointed (one) or messiah. So, antichrist (G500) literally means opposed to or against the anointed (one). The word John uses in 1John 2:20, concerning the believer, is chrisma (G5545), meaning unction or anointing. The antichrists are against the Anointed One, but believers have an anointing from the Holy One, whereby “we know all things” (1John 2:20).

This, of course, doesn’t mean the believer suddenly becomes omniscient, because he has an anointing from God. This is not what the New Covenant writers were saying. Rather, it is as Paul explained in 1Corinthians 2:6-10, with the anointing of God comes the power or ability to understand all things that come from God. It conveys not the wisdom of this world, but the hidden wisdom of God. All the things of the world are understood by the spirit that is already in man, and in the same manner the things of God are understood, not by the ability of man’s wisdom, but through the power or ability of God’s spirit (1Corinthians 2:11) or as John puts it we have an unction or an anointing (1John 2:20), which is in the believer. Moreover, with this endowed unique understanding comes the ability to judge matters of the spirit (1Corinthians 2:13), but the natural man (the antichrist in John’s epistle) is unable to receive such things. Things of God are foolishness to him (1Corinthians 2:14). So, while it is possible for the anointed to judge all things according to the spiritual nature, it is not so for the antichrist, because by rejecting the Anointed One, he has rejected the anointing that would have made it possible for him to judge spiritual matters properly (cp. 1Corinthians 2:14-15).

Finally, it is through the anointing (1John 2:20) and the lack thereof, i.e. the rejection of the Anointed One and his anointed disciples (1John 2:18-20), that separation was made possible between believers and nonbelievers for the purpose of judgment at the end of the age (cp. Matthew 13:30, 39-43). There were those who rejected Jesus (1John 2:18) and those who received him and were anointed with him (1John 2:20; cp. Colossians 1:26-27). The one could not for long continue with the other. In due time separation must be made either by the antichrists, themselves (1John 2:18; cp. Mark 1:23-25), or by the believers, themselves (2Corinthians 6:17; cp. Revelation 18:4).