Antichrist

An antichrist is here. Actually several.

Before you get too stirred up about this, remember that antichrists were around in John’s time too (1 John 4:3). John also explained how antichrists can be recognised. Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah is an antichrist.

Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22).

The person who denies that Jesus is the Christ is the antichrist. The Greek word “Christos” means “anointed one”. It is the word used in the Greek version of the Old Testament for the Messiah, who was to come. Put bluntly, John is saying,

Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah is an anti-Messiah.

The great irony is that the people who are preaching about a coming antichrist, are actually denying that Jesus was a full blown Messiah. They admit that his death paid the penalty for our sins, but they deny that he rules the world now. They deny that he completed defeated the devil. They believe that Jesus was confused, when he taught that the Holy Spirit would bring in the Kingdom of God. The implication of their teaching is Jesus was just half a Messiah, and will not be a full Messiah until he comes and sorts things out again. Jesus might become a Messiah in the future, but currently he is only half a messiah.

Many end-times teachers believe in the antichrist, but this means that Jesus is not yet the Messiah. This makes them antichrists, because they are denying that Jesus is the Messiah now.