Too many people are very curious to know the identity of the Anti-Christ the Bible talks about. However they are less discerning of the “anti-christs” all around them.

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore 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 it might become plain that they all are not of us.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us--eternal life.

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. 1 John 2:18-27

Early in the epistle, John has  highlighted a conflict between:

He expects the believer to walk in light, in love and finally in truth. This fits well with the kind an integrative vision of Christian life that the apostle has. In this letter he promotes a balanced spirituality where devotion of the heart, holiness of our outward behavior and the rightness of our thinking about God, Sin, and Christ make an unbreakable union. The American theologian author and former chaplain both to Harvard and Stanford universities once said” No vital Christianity is possible without these three things: Inner devotion, outer life of obedience and intellectual life rationality.” Elton Trueblood.

Today part of Scripture will emphasize the latter part of this quote. John hammers the need to be anchored in the truth as we approach the day when the Son of God is going to be revealed fully.

John uses two words to signal the seriousness of our time: Last Hour and the Antichrist(s). Paul has already done the same thing in his 2nd epistle to Timothy, when he supervised the same churches as John is writing to.  Read 2 Tim 3:1-5; 4:1-4. Let’s dig a little bit these two words.

LAST HOUR.

John had anticipated it in v.8…the darkness is dissipating, the true light is appearing. God is doing a new thing in the world.

The Old Testament prepared the way for the work of Christ and since His resurrection and ascension; history is only the preparation for the end.

“A CHRISTIANITY THAT IS NOT ESCHATOLOGICAL IS NOT CHRISTIANITY. »Karl Barth

The concept of Last times in the Old Testament:

This concept meant that God will intervene decisively to: save, judge and reign (Isa 2:2-4; 13:9; Jer 33:15-16; Hosea 3:4-5

The Old Testament promised things that will take place in the last days.

The faithful Israelites looked forward to the day of the fulfillment of these promises: Luke 2:25; 3:15; 12:35-38). However, many were disappointed for God's plan unfolds according to its timing and there is always something God keeps to Himself: Dan 12:4; Matt 24:36)

The concept of Last times in the New Testament:

The coming of Jesus marked the arrival of the end times. His message centers on the kingdom. His acts of power reveal presence of the kingdom. He 1:1-3; Mt 12:28

The portrait of Christ in the Old Testament was complicated.  It is difficult to reconcile in Jesus all the pieces of the puzzle. Even Jean Baptiste was perplexed. From the data of Old Testament, Christ’s portrait has two main facets: in His first coming He will die to save and give first fruits of the Spirit to those who believe in Him.  But in His Second Coming, He will come to judge and reign to bring full salvation.

The writers of the New Testament said there is a sense in which that we already live in the last days: Acts 2:16-17; 1Cor 10:11; Heb 1:1-2; 9:26; 1Pi 1:20. John writes in the same perspective

Nevertheless this present evil Age continues. The tension will even grow stronger. The cloud will get darker. Persecutions will get fiercer, deception of Satan more active as we approach the Day of His second coming. Paul in his two epistles to Thessalonians and John in His book of Revelation have much to say about this.

But Christ comes back, he will put his rebellion to an end. Even death will be destroyed as the last enemy (2Cor 4:16; 5:2-4; 15:26.). He will transform creation to house our glorified bodies. In the meantime there is an eschatological tension.

ANTICHRIST

This name is only explicitly named here throughout the Bible: 1Jn 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2Jn 7

It describes at least three things:

A spirit in the world since Gen 3 that opposes God's plan. Satan declared war on God.

Secondly the spirit of false teachings, prophets, religions that embody this spirit.

And finally a person who will lead the last rebellion against Christ.

People of all ages have been too preoccupied with identifying the Antichrist as the enigmatic figure of the end times. Sometimes this curiosity has blinded us from identifying those who have his spirit around us.

Different attempts throughout history to identify THE antichrist:

John has much to say about the Antichrist as an individual in his book of Revelation but here he prefers to dwell on the second meaning. He points out three characteristics of the antichrists:

How to stand against it :  We should ABIDE in the WORD and be led by the SPIRIT and WALK in holiness.