By GARY ALLEY
July 2020
The Antichrist is like the Christ—well-known, but little understood. Throughout Western culture, antichrist is the assumed, ultimate epitome of evil, much in the same vein as Satan. For many 21st century Evangelicals, he is equated with Revelation’s Beast, a feared future destroyer whose march is only stopped by the heralded return of Christ. While Christians have longed to see Jesus’ face again, the identity of the Antichrist is an unknown variable in our end days expectations.
Though the New Testament does not name this false messiah, this has not stopped later Christian speculation—even self-confidence—in declaring a person or even a system as the “Antichrist.” Multiple individuals, typically hated rulers or foreign invaders, have been pegged as the Antichrist throughout Western history. Yet, the term “antichrist” is not found in the apocalyptic book of Revelation with all its cataclysmic contours. Surprisingly, the word, “antichrist” or “antichrists,” only appear in the Epistles of John which are known for their teaching on love.
Dear children, this is the last hour;
and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,
even now many antichrists have come.
This is how we know it is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.
For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us;
but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 1 John 2:18-19
Over 1,900 years ago, John declared that the world was living in the last days as some of Jesus’ followers began denying his identity—God’s Messiah come as a human.[1] John called these former members of his Christian communities, antichrists. The pejorative “antichrists” was fitting for those speaking against Jesus’ messianic identity, in contrast to “christ-ians” proclaiming Jesus as God’s anointed.[2] These deniers of Christ were rising up during a new generation of church leadership after Peter, James, and Paul, as well as most of Jesus’ eyewitnesses, had died.[3] John’s epistles, therefore, are a glimpse into the transition from the first century eyewitness community to a church that had never seen the historical Jesus.
That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked at and our hands have touched
—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 1 John 1:1
Perhaps, John was writing to a church with a large group of young impressionable believers,[4] still not mature enough to discern between Jesus’ God-man nature and encroaching gnostic teaching.[5] John proposed distinguishing between genuine teaching and similar, but counterfeit instruction, by testing one’s intimate knowledge of Jesus.
Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar,
and the truth is not in that person…he who claims to be in him should walk as he walked.
1 John 2:4,6
For his young communities, John not only sought an orthodoxy, or correct interpretation, of Jesus’ nature, he also demanded an orthopraxy, a correct way of living.
Now this is his commandment:
that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ
and love one another… 1 John 3:23
For John, these two attributes, what one believes and how one lives, were intrinsically tied together.[6]
This command to “love one another”, truly was an old commandment found in the Hebrew Scriptures.[7] In the first century, Jewish teachers, like Jesus,[8] were in agreement that loving others was foundational to the Torah (Law).[9] Paul also affirmed this by declaring,
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another,
for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.…
whatever other command there may be, they can be summed up in this one command:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Love does no harm to a neighbor.
Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Rom 13:8-10 [10]
Jesus even upped the ante by commanding and demonstrating love for one’s enemy.[11] This law or commandment of love was fundamental for Jesus’ early followers and a crucial reminder for John’s young community.[12]
John implies that breaking this law of love is “lawlessness” or sin.[13] A disciple of Jesus cannot continue to hate his neighbor which is to continue in sin. Again, John offers a test for how to differentiate between a true Christian and a false one,
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are:
Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child,
nor is anyone who does not love their brother. 1 John 3:10
John warns his communities that this law of love—loving your neighbor—is not optional. Followers of Jesus must love one another, if not, they continue in sin. John vehemently asserts his point by asking,
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother in need but has no pity on him,
how can the love of God be in that person? 1 John 3:17
In effect, the First Epistle of John was a litmus test for the church and its leaders to check their hearts, their motives, and their actions.[14] It was also a call to recognize the difference between the Spirit of God and the false spirits of the world deceiving the sheep.[15] These false prophets were antichrists, promoting themselves and not serving the ones in need. Obviously, John was aware of Jesus’ teaching on discerning between true and false prophets.
Watch out for false prophets.
They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
By their fruit you will recognize them…
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name
and in your name drive out demons
and in your name perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly,
‘I never knew you. Away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’ Matt 7:15-16, 21-23
Matthew’s false prophets or “workers of lawlessness” have broken the law of love, by not caring for the sheep but devouring them like ravenous wolves instead. This “lawlessness” among the flock was a sign of the end that provoked John to write his letter with such urgency.[16]
In our world, truth can be colored by self-interest. John saw this worldview blurring and diluting the radical calling of the Church—loving others, especially its enemies. Instead, he was witnessing the Body of Messiah conforming to worldly norms and falling in love with its own lusts.[17] For all the worry within today’s Western Church about apocalyptic political tyranny, Jesus and the early church never considered persecution as something to be feared. After Roman political power unjustly crucified Jesus, after his resurrection, Jesus did not ask for vengeance or revolution; Jesus only asked of the Church, “If you love me, then feed my sheep.” As imperial Rome tried stomping out the early church decades later, John asked of the Church, “if you truly know Jesus, then act like Jesus—love his sheep.”
John’s first epistle demonstrates the difference between God’s truth and impersonations. John’s concern was not with the pagan outside the Church but with the manipulative counterfeit follower within. As the Church’s memory of Jesus was fading with the last eyewitnesses, the fruit of God’s Spirit within Jesus’ followers was crucial for the Church’s continued calling in a world besieged by “bread and circuses.” Jesus’ “law of love” was the measuring rod that separated faithful followers from self-serving antichrists. The grand conspiracy of the last days is simple, yet truly diabolical—a stubborn, self-deception within the Church that justifies personal hate as righteous love.
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,
and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold… Matt 24:10-12, 24
[1] 1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7
[2] Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Pet 4:16
[3] John’s epistles are thought by many scholars to have been written in the late 80’s and early 90’s. According to tradition, Peter, James, and Paul were martyred in the 60’s.
[4] 1 John 2:12-14
[5] In gnostic thought, “Christ is a spiritual, divine being from the Father's realm who comes to the world to reveal the Father and the true identity of the spiritual ones, the Gnostics. Christ did not become incarnate or suffer on the cross. Instead, he either merely seemed to be human or temporarily inhabited a human being named "Jesus." Gnosticism Unmasked, D. Jeffrey Bingham. Christianity Today. From Christian History and Biography, Issue 96: The Gnostic Hunger for Secret Knowledge, 2007. “Gnostics and proto-orthodox Christians shared some terminology. Initially, they were hard to distinguish from each other.” Gnosticism, Wikipedia. Perkins, Pheme (2005), "Gnosticism: Gnosticism as a Christian heresy", in Jones, Lindsay (ed.), MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion, MacMillan, pp. 3529–3530.
[6] Another example is James 2:14-26.
[7] “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Lev 19:18. It is an “old commandment”= 1 John 2:7; 2 John 5
[8] “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Deut 6:5).’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18).’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mt 22:37-40
[9] For example, Rabbi Hillel: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it (b. Shabbat 31a).” Rabbi Akiva: “‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ This is the great principal of the Torah (Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 30b:1).”
[10] Also Gal 5:14, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.””
[11] “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Mt 5:43-45a
[12] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35. “And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.” 2 John 5
[13] 1 John 3:4-10
[14] 1 John 3:18-19
[15] 1 John 4:1-3
[16] “The ‘law’ for the author [of the First Epistle of John] is the law of love, as given by Jesus in the new commandment of John 13:34-35. This is the command to love one’s brother, a major theme of 1 John and the one specific sin in the entire letter which the opponents are charged with (3:17). Since the author has already labeled the opponents “antichrists” in 2:18, it may well be that he sees in their iniquitous behavior of withdrawing from the community and refusing to love the brethren a foreshadowing of the apocalyptic iniquity of the end times (cf. 2 Thess 2:3-8).” NET Bible Study Note 19 from 1 John 3:4
[17] 1 John 2:15-17