DENOMINATIONAL DOCTRINES: “The Antichrist”

LIBERTY AND LOVE #120

Why do I have a picture of a fictional movie character in place for this article? Because Evangelicalism’s version of “The Antichrist” is as imaginary as Harry Potter. There has been so much fanciful speculation and fictional teaching about “the Antichrist” that sometimes it is hard to keep a moderate attitude in dealing with those who are so zealous for man-made doctrines. Many insist on reading 21st-century events into first century situations rather than reading the Bible devotionally for the principles they contain that will help us follow Jesus better and love him more.

Many draw lines of Christian fellowship over this doctrine. In other words, if you do not believe in their fictional antichrist, they do not consider you a saved person. Not that their consideration has anything to do with anybody’s salvation. They also like to frighten people. The more sensational the theory, the more books they sell. Think of the “Left Behind” series of books and movies. Think of how much money was made on that nonsense. So we should simply take a look at what the Bible says about it and base our views on that. And then try to help people see that man-made religion is obscuring the beautiful glory of Jesus Christ and causing people to focus on something other than him.

Considering the attention that some people give to their doctrines and beliefs about the “antichrist,” you would think that the New Testament is just filled with references to it. But the word is used four times, all by the Apostle John in two letters. And another interesting fact is that, even though John wrote the Book of Revelation, the word antichrist does not appear a single time in it.

Let’s look at every verse where the word is used and see if this is really all that difficult and dramatic.

“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. 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” (1 John 2:18, 19).

So believers were cognizant of the fact that antichrists would appear on the scene. This is in harmony with much that we see in the New Testament. Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, for example, in Matthew 7:15 warned of false prophets. Now that expression “last hour” is important, and it is imperative that we understand it in its proper context. He says “we know that it is the last hour.” So when John wrote these words, it was the last hour. Since the earth is still standing, it could not have been talking about the last hour of the planet. This is not dealing with the last days right before Jesus comes again. So knowing that the Bible talks about the last hour is good. But so also is being willing to ask the question, the last hour of what? Because it was the last hour 2,000 years ago.

This was not talking about a specific person even in the first century. This was a oppositional movement to Christianity, to the ways of the Lord. The way that John’s readers knew that it was the last hour is because ”many antichrists have come.” That speaks of a conglomerated effort to oppose the work of the apostles in establishing, solidifying and confirming the infant church.

The antichrists under consideration here had once been a part of the faith. They were not of demonic origin, they were believers who “went out from us.” You could argue that they were counterfeit Christians because he says “they were not of us,” but that could also just as easily mean that they were not “of us” at the time that they “went out.” They could have lost their faith and became antichrists who were not of the truth at the time John was writing these words.

“Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).

Now here we have John’s description of what an antichrist is. He is a liar who denies that Jesus is God’s anointed one and that he came in the flesh. This has to do with intentionally teaching false. This has to do with charlatans, false men, and liars who were intentionally teaching that Jesus was not who he claimed to be.

“And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:3).

How much simpler could it be? The antichrist was already in the world when John wrote these words. This is more of the same. Here is the root of all that John is talking about: the denial that Jesus has come in the flesh. This is not talking about someone who misunderstands something about Christ, but someone who intentionally denies him and his saving work in teaching others. This has nothing to do with a world ruler coming in the future. Nothing at all.This has nothing to do with a world ruler coming in the future. Nothing at all.

This horrible practice was already in place and occuring and being taught when John wrote these words. It was not something looming a long time in the future. John is actually writing to combat this grievous error of men and doctrine in this letter. He was not even specifically warning of something to come in the near future. He was fighting it right then as he wrote the letter.

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 1:7)

These were deceivers. They were not honest men. A false teacher that is worthy of condemnation is not somebody who just teaches something false. The character of the person is always tied to it. They were deceiving people by denying the fundamental fact of the gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Here again is that reference to Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This doctrine was a denial of not merely the gospel message in general, but the actual person of Christ directly. If you intentionally mess with the truth about Jesus, you are an antichrist. Some of these people teaching their human, denominational doctrines about “the Antichrist” to sell books are likely antichrists themselves.

So what do we learn about the antichrist if we let the one who used the word teach us about him? If we let the Bible interpret itself, what do we find? We find that this was a situation happening in the first century. It was a movement of opposition to the message of the apostles. It centered on the person and work of Christ. It was not a single person, it was a movement. And it was one of the ways that John and his readers knew that it was the last hour.

The Gnostic heresy was very prevalent at the time of the New Testament church and there is much about it we will probably never understand. But one of its basic principles was based on the idea that flesh is inherently evil. These antichrists actually had one thing right, but they stressed it to an extreme. They evidently knew and believed that Jesus is divine. This would explain why they were so opposed to John’s teachings because John wrote the gospel that emphasizes Christ’s deity more than any other. However, like all man-made religion is prone to do, they emphasized one aspect or one truth to the exclusion of another.

Since they taught that all matter and flesh is evil, they also taught that Jesus could not have been a real man like we are. His flesh could not have been real flesh. Therefore, one of the things we learn is that to intentionally go about deceiving people by denying either the divinity of Christ or the humanity of Christ means you are anti-Christ.

How do we know that they did it intentionally? Because they had the apostles who knew Jesus in the flesh and were all witnesses of his resurrection, and who saw him ascend back into heaven. Who would know better than they? The antichrists should have listened to the apostles, and if they were honest, they would have. But like all false teachers of this sort, they wanted the influence and the glory for themselves.

As far as how all of this relates to the present day, that can get tricky. Some people want to claim that someone who loves Jesus, but does not understand him the way that they do, cannot be saved. Evangelicals and Catholics are notorious for coming up with man-made lists of what someone has to believe about Jesus in order to be saved. John won’t provide much help in that regard here. Clearly, he is talking about people who knew better, left the faith and began to teach heresy about Christ that divided and confused people. This would hardly refer in any way to someone who loves Jesus as they understand him but is not fully aware of his divine or human nature. It is true that Jesus is both the Son of God and that he came in the flesh and therefore is human. But how much of that one has to understand or believe is not covered here. The main point we should know is that anyone who actively opposes Christ and the gospel is an antichrist.

Another thing is also certain. Many speculative and downright foolish doctrines have been concocted by grouping the antichrist of John’s letters with the beast of Revelation and the man of sin that Paul wrote about. Those are not the same entities, they do not describe the same person and they were dealing with three specific first century situations. We don’t know much at all about any of them, considering how much the first century readers would have known. But we don’t have to know anything about any of them in order to be saved. Love Jesus and follow him as best you understand him. That’s what it is all about.

Dewayne Dunaway