Who is the Antichrist? What Does the Bible Actually Say?

The word "Antichrist" only appears four times in the entire Bible. 

These passages and only these passages describe the Antichrist. 

These four scriptures explicitly reveal that the term Antichrist referred to all those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.... These scriptures reveal that the Antichrist came in the first century.

Please prayerfully consider all four scriptures as I present them... so that you will not be deceived... as I was deceived. In all likelihood, most of what you think that you know about the Antichrist is pure speculation... without proof from the written word of God...  So, please pray now that you may not be deceived...

Pause for Prayer

First Scripture About the Antichrist 

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don't confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist." 2 John 1:7

The word Antichrist is formed by adding the prefix anti, meaning opposed, to the word Christ. So, the word Antichrist means opposed to Christ. In reference to Christ, the Antichrist refers to those who are OPPOSED TO CHRIST. This scripture was written in the first century. It plainly states that the antichrist was present at that time, in the first century. This scripture also reveals that the Antichrist is not one person, but, instead, "those who don't confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh". Other scriptures which explicitly describe the Antichrist will reinforce this truth. 

A politician may describe another political party as "the opposition". By this term, the politician does not mean that "the opposition" is composed of only one person. To the contrary, by the use of the term "the opposition" the politician uses a word in the singular to describe a multitude of people. So it is also with the term Antichrist. As far as Christians are concerned, the Antichrist is a word in the singular which describes the many who do not confess Christ. 

So, everyone who does not confess Christ is... the Antichrist.

This is the express statement of scripture. The other scriptures will reinforce this truth.

Second Scripture About the Antichrist

"Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit who doesn't confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already" (1 John 4:1-3).

This scripture was also written in the first century. It plainly states that "the spirit of the antichrist" was present at that time, in the first century ("Now it is in the world already"). This scripture also reveals that the Antichrist is not one person, but, instead, "every spirit who doesn't confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh"... "is the spirit of the Antichrist".

Verse three reveals that the recipients of this letter had heard that "the spirit of the Antichrist... comes"... So they evidently had a prophecy which we don't have a written copy of which stated that the spirit of the Antichrist will come... and this letter reveals that it "is already in the world"... that it had already come in the first century.

Third  and Fourth Scriptures About the Antichrist

"Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ 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 they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:18-19,  ASV). 

"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" (1 John 2:22).

These scriptures were written in the first century. Here in these scriptures we see that they had heard that the Antichrist was coming (2:18). The first scripture, 2 John 1:17, revealed that the Antichrist had come in the first century. And 1 John 2:18-19 above reveals that many antichrists were present when 1 John was written. John says that the antichrists "went out from us" (1 John 2:19 above). In other words, they were in the church and left the church. Those antichrists who left the church denied that Jesus was the Christ (the Messiah). So, there were those in the church who denied that Jesus was the Messiah, and left the church. 1 John 2:18 states that the appearance of these antichrists showed that they were in "the last hour".

So, we have the record of 1 John 2:18-22, that there was a prophecy that the Antichrist would come, that many antichrists would appear, that this appearing of many antichrists would indicate that they were in the "last hour". I will repeat the passages for your convenience:

"Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ 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 they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:18-19,  ASV). 

"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" (1 John 2:22).

So, you can see the record of 1 John 2:18-22, that there was a prophecy that the Antichrist would come, that many antichrists would appear, that this appearing of many antichrists would indicate that they were in the "last hour". But we don't have the actual prophecy in any of our scriptures. 1 John 2:18-22 refers to this prophecy, at least to parts of it... as also does 1 John 4:1-3 (the second scripture). But we don't have a written copy of the actual "last hour" prophecy... so we can't be certain that it didn't contain additional prophetic elements which are not contained in our Bible.

So, what is the "last hour"? Well, we don't have a scripture to explain this. It would have been in the prophecy which we do not have. While we can't know what the "last hour" is, we can examine a few possibilities. We must understand them only as possibilities. 

What is the Last Hour?

We can not know the answer to this question. But we can examine some possibilities. You have already seen all four scriptures which speak of the Antichrist. And none of the four scriptures answer this question. 

The four scriptures above are all in the New Testament of the Bible. And the New Testament was originally written in Greek. The phrase "last hour" is an English translation of the Greek phrase "eschate hora". Eshcate means last. Hora means hour. No other scripture in the New Testament contains the phrase "eschate hora". This phrase is only found in 1 John 2:18 above. Almost all popular English translations translate this phrase as "last hour" (NASB, ESV, NIV, NKJV, RSV, JUB, HCSB, NLT, AMP, ASV, NET ). But some translate the phrase as "end times" (WEB) or "last time" (KJV). While these two translations differ slightly in how they translate "eschate hora", there is only one verse in the entire New Testament which contains this Greek phrase, 1 John 2:18. 

The question is... what does "eschate hora" mean? In English terminology... what does "the last hour" mean?

Here are some possibilities for the meaning of "the last hour" (eschate hora):

• The second coming of Christ.
• The coming of the "Man of Sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:3)
• The coming of the beast, 666 (Revelation 13:18)
• The destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Israel's religious system (the Law)

Some believe that the man of sin and 666 came shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. For them, the man of sin, 666 and the destruction of Jerusalem occurred at roughly the same time, with all three being parts of one rolling event. So, the "last hour" is easy to apply to all three. The Greek words from which "last hour" is translated can mean a short season, as I will explain later. So, if 1 John and 2 John were written shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Israel's religious system in 70 AD, then the "last hour" can easily be understood as referring to that event.

But for those who believe that the man of sin and 666 have not yet come, the phrase "last hour" is a problem. The problem with this view is that the Greek word hora, typically translated as hour, is not used in the Bible to indicate a two-thousand year period. Those who think that the "last hour" refers to the second coming of Christ have the same problem. Two-thousand years is much to long for the word "hour", even if used figuratively. The word is most often used to indicate sixty minutes.  Of the 106 occurrences of the word hora in the Bible, a few times it is used figuratively to indicate a short season, as in months or maybe a few years, but not thousands of years (1 Corinthians 4:11, 2 Thessalonians 2:17, Philippians 1:15, Revelation 3:10). With so much evidence of how hora is used in the Bible, we can not reasonably understand it to indicate thousands of years.

That leaves us with the fourth possibility;

• The destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Israel's religious system (the Law)

This occurred in 70 AD, when Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem as Jesus prophesied and destroyed the city and the temple, bringing an end to the sacrificial system. 

So, assuming that John wrote his words about the antichrists in the months or years prior to 70 AD, the passage makes good sense.

"Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ 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 they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:18-19,  ASV). 

Some commentators guess that 1 John and 2 John were written before 70 AD and some guess that it was written after 70 AD. There is nothing in these books to prove one date or the other. To claim that the books were written after the destruction of Jerusalem, and therefore "last hour" could not refer to that event, would be to elevate a speculation to the status of fact. 

The destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Israel's religious system is the best possibility for what John meant by the "last hour". It is also excellent evidence that the book was written shortly before 70 AD. To assert that the writer of 1 John incorrectly thought that the second coming of Christ would occur in the writer's life time and that the writer put the writer's incorrect thoughts into 1 John is to assert that scripture has errors. Depending on the heart attitude and knowledge of one asserting that view, this view could be blasphemy... forgivable blasphemy in my opinion, but blaspheme. Click here to learn about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin... and the difference between forgivable blaspheme and unforgivable blaspheme.

How Did They Know That it Was the Last Hour?

"Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ 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 they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:18-19,  ASV). 

Apparently, there was a prophesy which they had heard. We do not have it in any other scriptures. So, it must have been recorded in one of the lost letters. Perhaps the lost letter which was mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9. But according to the prophesy of 1 John 2:18-19, when there were "many antichrists", that was the sign of the "last hour". But, if everyone who denied that Jesus is the Christ was the antichrist, there would have been many antichrists from the time of Christ's ministry, long before 1 John was written.

"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" (1 John 2:22).

Possibly there were additional criteria for identifying the antichrists, criteria which were included in the lost prophecy... but currently unknown to us. Perhaps the additional criteria is mentioned in 1 John 2:19: 

"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 they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1John 2:19). 

So, the antichrists were in the church and came out of the church. Possibly this is one of the lost criteria for identifying the antichrists... that antichrists are those within the church, who deny that Jesus is the Christ.

Summary

All of the scriptures which mention the antichrist, explicitly reveal that the term antichrist referred to all those who do not confess that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh (non Christians). The scriptures also reveal that the antichrist came in the first century. There were apparently additional criteria which were included in lost scriptures... Criteria which we can not prove. Possibly the lost scriptures indicated that the antichrists would be in the churches, and that the presence of "many antichrists" coming out of the churches would be the sign of the "last hour" for the Old Testament Law of Moses to be practiced by the nation of Israel.

The Law of Moses, contained in the Old Testament, was intended to be replaced by the New Covenant... as scripture tells us. Click here to read more on this. So, it should be of no surprise, that the temple was destroyed so that sacrifices could not be made according to the Law of Moses.

666... The Man of Sin... The False Prophet

Is there anything in the Bible which indicates that the beast of Revelation, called 666, is the antichrist? How about the false prophet from Revelation or the man of sin from 2 Thessalonians 2:3. What about those mentioned in the book of Daniel whom some claim are the antichrist? If they denied that Jesus was the Messiah, that he had come in the flesh, then, like many millions of others, they would be antichrists. The beast, false prophet, man of sin and etc would be major rather than minor antichrists... but still, one of many antichrists.

But there is no scripture to my knowledge to prove that there is one, single, great antichrist or that any of those characters are THE ANTICHRIST.