The
Identity
of the
Biblical ANTICHRIST
REVEALED
...
For a little over 100 years, many professing Christians have thought the identity of antichrist was a "mystery". The only real mystery though is how anyone can be familiar with their Bible and NOT know the identity of antichrist! The Bible never refers to antichrist as a "mystery". It plainly identifies antichrist.
Here are all the Bible passages about antichrist:
1st John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1st John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1st John 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2nd John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist
.
That's it! Four verses, all in John's epistles. Let's see if we can follow the Scriptures to identify the BIBLICAL antichrist. Because let's be honest, Hal Lindsey's antichrist or TBN's antichrist or Tim Cohen's antichrist or Hollywood's antichrist are irrelevant. The only thing that matters here is the Biblical antichrist.
1. The Christians in John's circle of influence had been told that something called "antichrist" was coming.
2. When John wrote to them, he plainly said that many antichrists HAD ALREADY ARRIVED. So, the "coming antichrist" had already showed up in the latter part of the 1st century AD. The coming of antichrist heralded the last time, and John said it was already the last time, in the latter part of the 1st century AD, proven by the arrival of the many antichrists.
3. John said there were MANY antichrists. There is no "singular antichrist" or "THE Antichrist" according to the Bible. Rather, there are MANY antichrists. So antichrist is not a single individual, but
many individuals.
4. ANYONE who denies that Jesus is the Christ is antichrist. This means all Jews, atheists, and anyone else who denies that Jesus is in fact the Christ are the BIBLICAL ANTICHRISTS.
5. When ANY person prophesies, or speaks "under the anointing", or teaches, and yet
denies that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is speaking from the spirit of antichrist. Which means the person so speaking is in fact the Biblical antichrist.
6. The "antichrist that should come" in the first passage is defined in the third passage as the "spirit of antichrist" speaking through these antichrist teachers. So the antichrist that the early Christians had been told was to come is NOT some individual person, but a SPIRIT that would propagate via Christ-denying DOCTRINE. The "coming antichrist" is "the spirit of antichrist", not some individual world leader or persona.
7. That spirit of antichrist, that antichrist to come, was ALREADY loose,
had already arrived, when John wrote his epistle toward the end of the 1st century AD. Anyone today claiming "antichrist is soon to make his appearance" is Biblically illiterate, or else teaching heresy, because the APOSTLE already declared 2000 years ago that antichrist had arrived.
8. Those who do not confess Jesus Christ is come in the flesh are deceivers and antichrists. There are many of them already in the world, therefore antichrist is both plural, and already present on the scene, and has been for 2000 years.
9. What does it mean to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? Many think this is some kind of antidote to some weird gnostic teaching that Jesus only appeared to be human, or only seemed to be material and "in the flesh". But is that the case?
While it is true that anyone claiming Jesus Christ did not come "in the flesh" as a bona fide human being is obviously a heretic, and likely antichrist, yet that is not what John actually said. He is talking about those who AT THE TIME do not confess that Jesus Christ IS come in the flesh. Now think about it: Jesus Christ DID (or "was") come in the flesh, in consideration of the incarnation and His earthly life and ministry. But John is not talking PAST tense, but PRESENT tense!
What does it mean that, PRESENTLY, Jesus Christ IS (presently) "come in the flesh"? It means that Jesus Christ IS PRESENTLY "arrived" or "on the scene" IN THE FLESH. Consider that Jesus Christ did not incarnate. Rather, GOD incarnated. The term Christ means the Anointed One, it is a title applied to Jesus in recognition of His role both as son of David and heir to the throne, and His role as Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The term Christ implies that incarnation HAS ALREADY HAPPENED. The MAN did not incarnate, that doesn't even make any sense. To incarnate means someone who is NOT human becomes human. So the very name Jesus Christ includes within itself the idea of God incarnating in flesh. So how does a MAN (who is ALREADY in the flesh) then COME IN THE FLESH?
John is referring to the identity of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is JESUS CHRIST COME IN THE FLESH. That is to say, the Holy Ghost who is presently PRESENT in the Church is none other than JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF. John is not talking about some doctrine concerning the PAST, but about the PRESENT. The only way Jesus Christ (you know, the Man From Galilee, the Son of God, the Son of David) can NOW BE COME IN THE FLESH is by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Because the Holy Ghost in you is CHRIST IN YOU. It is Jesus Christ "incarnated" IN YOUR FLESH, your human nature. You as a flesh and blood person having within you the very presence of JESUS CHRIST, that is what being indwelled by the Holy Ghost is all about.
John's teaching essentially identifies not only all atheist, Jewish, and other non-Christian teachers as deceivers and antichrists, but also
anyone who denies that the Holy Ghost is in reality JESUS CHRIST. Sad news for trinitarians and other "-initarians". Anyone who teaches that Christians receive the indwelling of someone or something else other than Jesus Christ Himself (like those who teach that Jesus is only in Heaven while we get a third person of some divine squad coming to dwell in us) is a deceiver and an antichrist.
So, from all this, can we say King Charles, or Obama, or Trump, or what's-his-name the King of Spain, or Gorbachev, or some other popularly known figure is "antichrist"? I don't know. Is the person a teacher that teaches Jesus is not the Christ? Is he a teacher that denies Jesus Christ is currently in the flesh of His people? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. In any event, the Bible identifies antichrist, and using the Bible we can identify exactly who antichrist is. Or rather, who the antichrists ARE, because again, the Bible teaches MULTIPLE ANTICHRISTS.