The letters of John are the only resources in the Bible where the term antichrist is referenced.
Of the five times where antichrist or antichrists is used, four of them are in First John (2:18, 22), with the remainder found in Second John (verse 7).
Some key observations are worth noting when identifying just who or what the antichrist is.
But before looking at them, a word needs to be said about the term antichrist.
Antichrist Defined
The prefix anti when attached to a noun, like Christ, could mean one of two things, or possibly even both: substitute or hostile.
In other words, the Antichrist will try to imitate the real Christ, as even Jesus warned when he told his disciples, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray” (Matt. 24:5, 24).
Or, the Antichrist will act in a hostile manner towards everything relative to God, including Christians, as the apostle Paul wrote, “who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess 2:4 cf. Dan. 11:35).
Given the cunning and destructive nature of the Antichrist found later in the Book of Revelation, he is going to be a composite of both understandings of the prefix anti.
Antichrist Observed
That said, the first observation John makes about the antichrist is that it was rumored to be “coming” since the days of the early establishment of the church.
John alerted Christians that such an expectation was an indication that “the last hour” was upon them (1Jn 2:18).
Second, the antichrist which John initially addresses is not necessarily a person, given the lack of specificity, which would include the absence of the definite articular in the first reference to antichrist.
Instead, the antichrist seems to represent a principle or possibly an attitude that was not only coming, but prevalent in many who shared in the imitation of and hostility towards orthodox Christianity.
Third, many antichrists were already present, which shifts from principle or attitude to individual beings.
Again, there is a lack of specificity, even though the “many antichrists” that had already come were apparently a part of the early church, since John indicates that, “They went out from us” (1 Jn 2:19).
The falling away or apostasy addressed previously would be consistent with this antichristian identification.
Fourth, antichrists and the Antichrist are liars who propagate a telltale lie.
John’s use of the definite article means he has someone or something specific in mind, as far as the lie is concerned.
It’s not just that the antichrists have an air about them that involves the quality of continuous falsehoods, deceptions, and rejections of what is real.
It’s that they share a very specific “lie” that makes them easily identifiable when talking about the things of God and Christ.
Fifth, the antichrist is a denier of Jesus as the Christ or Messiah, which is the lie described previously.
Such a rejection would include a denial that Jesus is the Savior, since the Messiah is directly associated with God as the Savior his people (Isa. 43:3; 49:26; 60:16).
Moreover, since Yahweh (the LORD) is the Jewish moshia, then the Messiah would be God.
Since Jesus is the Lord and LORD is a translation of the Hebrew name for God (i.e. יהוה or Yahweh), then Jesus is God or Yahweh (cf. John 1:23).
Six, the antichrist will not only deny that Jesus is the Christ, but will deny the Father, as well.
John does not explain what the denial of the Father entails, only that it is associated with a refusal to accept the Messianic office of Jesus.
To deny the Father is to deny the Son and vice versa; a person cannot have one without the other.
Antichrist Then
Probably the most prolific of the antichrists that lived during Paul and John’s day was the Roman emperor Nero.
Of course, Nero died long before John wrote his letters, but that does not rule out the fact that he was alive when John first ministered.
Nevertheless, Nero was the ruler who, although he started out on the right foot, soon diverged into a tyrannical despot that later despised Christians, including Paul, whom he had put to death by beheading.
Nero’s despotic rule, however, did not end with Jews and Christians.
As Nero’s eccentricities grew, so did his paranoia, which led him to execute several family members, as well as Roman generals and senators, whom he thought were out to wrest his rule from him.
Eventually, after setting fire to Rome and failing to place the blame squarely upon the Christians, who were subsequently executed in a variety of horrid ways, Nero committed suicide in 68 A.D.
Antichrist Today
As it was in the nascent days of the Christian church, so it is today, but with more antichrists to choose from.
The largest group of antichrist adherents today are found with the religion of Islam, although Roman Catholicism comes in a close second.
While the average Muslim pays all kinds of lip service to Jesus as another prophet like Muhammad, there is not one Muslim worth his salt that will acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah.
In fact, it is an affront to a Muslim to make such a confession, since the Muslim antichrist knows that if Jesus is the Christ, then, as mentioned above, that equates him with God.
The Muslim concept of God is such an isolated figure, completely impersonal, and unapproachable thing that to equate it with the imminent personal and approachable person of Jesus is unconscionable.
It would be an act of blasphemy, which is ironic, given all the blasphemy the Muslim antichrist believes about Jesus, which includes not only a denial of his sonship, messiahship, and his deity, but that he died on a Roman cross to pay humanity’s sin debt to God and that only through him may salvation may be eternally enjoyed.
Other contemporary antichrists with large followings today would be the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Oneness Pentecostals, all of whom, again, pay lip service to a Christ, but not thee Christ.
They do this by either rejecting the full meaning of the name Jesus or his office as Christ, both of which point to his deity, or they do it by refusal to obey his commandments, one of which is to believe in him, as they would God, if they truly believed in or trusted God for their eternal welfare in the first place.
Jesus’ question to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” becomes all the more relevant today when discussing just who Jesus is with those who are members of an antichristian religion.
Because there are literally thousands of Jesus’s in existence, most of which are figments of people’s lost or heretical imaginations, and all of which fit the description of an antichrist.
If an answer is given that Jesus is not the Christ, nor that he was God incarnate, then the person giving the response is not only following “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:4), that person is part of the antichrist attitude or system that is either actively trying to imitate a follower of Jesus or is simply someone hostile toward him.
All that needs to take place is to ask the right questions.
