Who are the Anti-Christs?

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Who are the Antichrists?

At 1 John 2:22, the Apostle says:

‘Yes, this is the Antichrist: They are those who deny both the Father and the Son!’

Why did John write this?

By the end of the 1st Century CE. At that time, there were some people in the Christian congregations (probably traditionalist Jews) that were apparently denying that Jesus was the Son of God.

So at 1 John 2:23, John went on to say:

‘Whoever denies the Son [also denies] the Father.’

So it was these people (those who had denied the Son) that John was calling the ‘Antichrists.’

Why did he use that term?

For a ‘Christian’ to deny Jesus amounted to an unforgivable sin against God’s Holy Breath, because it testified to who Jesus was. Therefore, this was a very serious matter.

In fact, it was so serious that John wrote to Christians and told them not to even talk to such people – to treat them as though they were dead – because what they were saying condemned them.

Will the ‘Anti-Christ’ only appear in the last days?

In modern times, it is popularly believed that the Antichrist is a single person, group, or entity that will only show up in the last days. However, this idea is proven false by the words of 1 John 2:18, 19, which read:

‘Young children;
It is the last hour.
And as you’ve heard, the Antichrist is coming, for there are already many Antichrists… and that’s how we know it’s the last hour.
They left us because they weren’t like us;
For if they had been like us, they would still be with us, and this is what proves that they aren’t like us.’

John identified such ones again, in the same way, at 2 John 1:7:

‘Many have strayed [back] into the world and won’t admit that Jesus the Anointed One came in the flesh.
And these that have strayed are the Antichrists.’

Therefore, ‘Antichrists’ have walked the earth for almost 2,000 years. Popular beliefs about the coming of some future evil ‘Antichrist’ reflect a lack of Bible reading; it has no basis in scripture.