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Antichrist Is Coming!

1 John 2:18–27

I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. (1 John 2:26)

When I was in college, I had a crush on a girl named Janet. Crush is the right word only because my infatuation was grounded in junior-high unreality. I was totally interested in her, but she wasn’t overly interested in me. Yet the air I breathed as a college student was the air of everything-in-the-world-that-God-was-doing-revolved-around-my-life. I was certain that God was orchestrating events so that she would fall in love with me. The evidence was substantial. There were two signs! We both played varsity basketball. We both ended up living in campus houses next to each other.

But I needed a bigger and better sign than those two that God was indeed working to bring us together. So one day, I stood outside the dining hall and prayed, “Lord, let me know that Janet likes me. If she comes to eat in the next five minutes, I will know that you want me to continue pursuing her.” A minute passed; then two more; finally, and sure enough, she ran by, waved, and said, “Hi.” The God-ordained pursuit was on! The only detail that got in the way was her telling me months later, in passing, that she was engaged to a friend from home. Jeff something-or-another. I squeezed out the fleece and carried on.

The next girl about whom I wanted to know God’s view was Anna. Anna and I actually dated for a year. But I was uncertain whether I should marry her. So I came up with quite the test for God. This is not a joke, and I wish I could eye the reader to help you refrain from laughing at me. Here was the test: If Anna made me zucchini bread, I would know that she was the one. There you have it. Get to work, God! Well, God did get to work through my sinister friend Erik. Erik was the only soul I told about the zucchini-bread divination. Afterward and when alone, Erik couldn’t control his laughter. Or his tongue. He told Anna straight away. They both had a good laugh. And soon after—miraculously—the bread from heaven was sent. I learned months after Anna broke up with me about their devilish plot.

The church in Ephesus to which John was writing wasn’t into bad theology—you discern God’s will through waiting for freshly baked bread with a certain vegetable (or is it fruit?) in it—rather, the Ephesians were into false teaching. They were being lured into an anti-Messiah movement that was claiming something new and improved—“Jesus wasn’t really God’s last word to his people.” Those who had been “anointed” by the Holy Spirit were tempted to move from the Father’s revealed will by denying Jesus as the heavenly anointed Son come in the flesh. They were tempted to move out of the true Trinitarian church and into what they knew deep down was a false fellowship. John sounds the warning bell. Don’t listen to such lies!

Deceive, Deny, Depart

As we already know from our study of 1 John 1:1–2:17, John is a man of stark contrasts—light and darkness, love and hate. In 2:18–27 he adds truth and lies. Here he teaches the truth about the light of Jesus by setting before us a black backdrop of those who hate it. Here we encounter the apostate antichrists—those who deceive, deny, and depart.

In 1 John 2:26, John says, “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” These deceivers deceive through doctrinal denials. (We have arrived at the truth test.)

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. (1 John 2:21–23)

They deny that Jesus is “the Christ” (1 John 2:22), the long-awaited, Scripture-prophesied, and God-anointed Messiah. They deny that Jesus is “the Son” (vv. 22–23), the divine Son of the Father. These two lies—or, better, one lie with two closely related parts—constitute their anti-confession! This is “the supreme lie,” because, according to the apostolic account:

The Son is the expression of the Father—God made visible, God made known. To see the Son is to see the Father (John 14:8–10). He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), the express image of God’s substance and radiance of his glory (Heb 1:2–3).

Just as you cannot divide the human body vertically—slicing through the brain and leaving the heart on the left side—and live, so, too, you cannot divide the Father from the Son and the Son from the Father. Father, Son, and Spirit (the humble member of the Trinity, least often mentioned in John’s letters, whose job it is to lift up the Father and the Son) are one.

Now, while these deceivers weren’t precisely spouting the modern maxim that “even though we don’t believe the same things about Jesus, we still worship the same God,” the root error was the same. And such tolerance is intolerable to John. We are to love our enemies, but love does not tolerate terrible teaching. John calls such a deceiver and denier “liar” and “antichrist” (1 John 2:22).

Who is the antichrist? John’s antichrist is a Christological rebel. In 2 John 7, we read: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” First John 4:2–3 states, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” Then in our passage we read in 1 John 2:22: “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,” and in verse 18, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.”

Do you know how many times the title antichrist is used in the Bible? You just read them all! It is not one hundred times or even ten times; it is only four times. To put that into perspective, the name Silas is mentioned three times as much (12 times) and the title Christ is used over a hundred times as much (524 times)! The small number of references, however, does not mean that the antichrists in the world are not a force to be reckoned with, or that the coming antichrist is not perhaps the same powerful and diabolical figure as “the beast” in Revelation 13:1–10 and “the man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. In “the last hour” (1 John 2:18)—the period between Pentecost and the Parousia—the church is under siege. From Cerinthus in the second century to Joseph Smith in the nineteenth, from the earliest Arians to the Jehovah’s Witnesses today, we fight the antichrists. Jews deny Jesus as the Christ, Muslims deny Jesus as the Son, and Christians should not be offended to see those two major religions under the antichrist category or to say that we must “fight” a real spiritual battle with them. The enemy is obvious (we are not on the lookout for an emerging secret society or mysterious political figure) but not easily overcome.

As John relays in 1 John 2:19, some have been captured and led away:

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.

Here we are told about the false teachers’ departure, which is our third D—deceive, deny, and depart. John speaks of a schism within the church. Any division within Christ’s visible church is sad, but this one, John reassures those who remain, is necessary and even beneficial to the overall health of the body. The cancer has removed itself. The rats have left the ship. For notice the contrast made with the words they (6×) and us (5×). “Believers belong; deniers depart” is how Simon Kistemaker summarizes this verse. Believers (the us) belong (remain in the apostolic community); deniers (the they) depart (leave the communion of the saints). The apostate antichrists, who were once members of the visible church, seceded from it: “They went out from us.” Their secession only revealed their true nature. They departed because they had never been united to Christ through a Spirit-wrought living and enduring faith.

We should be discouraged if people leave our fellowship after being with us for years because the church is not meeting their needs, because their favorite hymns are not sung often enough, because the sermons are too long, or because of some other superficial reason. And we should weep over gullible but genuine Christians who temporarily leave the apostolic fellowship because they are deceived. But we should not grieve for the church when wolves come in and steal wolves. True sheep abide in the Good Shepherd; true sheep stay safely within the gates of the apostolic testimony. Put differently, the anointed abide in the Anointed.

Those Anointed Abide in the Anointed

Set against the darkness of the antichrists—those who deceive, deny, and depart—we have the anointed who abide in the Anointed. As it happens, the D-words highlight the actions of the apostates who opposed Jesus as Christ, so the A-words illuminate the action of the remnant who acknowledge Jesus as Christ. These two A-words dominate John’s call to Christians. The word anoint (anointed, anointing) is used three times, and the word abide is used five times (six times if we were to include 1 John 2:28). But it is not the word count that matters so much as the message, namely, that Christians abide in the Anointed One by means of their anointing.

The Greek word Christos means “anointed,” also translated “Christ,” as in “Jesus the Christ” or “Christians” (Christianous, Acts 11:26). In 1 John 2:20, when John is transitioning from those who are antichristos in verses 18–19, he uses this play on words. He writes, “But you have been anointed [chrisma].” Later in verse 27, he speaks of “the anointing [chrisma] that you received.” Our God-given anointing (chrisma) enables our true confession of Jesus as the Christ (Christos). To be a Christian is to be christened into Christ. The Heidelberg Catechism, one of the great documents of the Protestant Reformation, answers question 32, “Why are you called a Christian?,” by saying, “Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterwards to reign with Christ over all creation and all eternity.”

It has become commonplace to use the word anointed in ways that are foreign to its usage in Scripture. For example, we might call preachers, sermons, songs, or worship services anointed. Popular usage speaks of a person or event in which there is an awareness of God’s power or presence. In the Bible, however, to anoint someone has to do with setting a person apart for a special purpose. Such anointing was the privilege of the chosen few—priests, prophets, and kings. These offices were fulfilled by Christ, and now this priestly, prophetic, and kingly anointing has been bestowed on all who confess that Jesus is the Christ who “has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2).

The ancient writer Tertullian wrote that Christians were anointed with holy oil during their baptism as a sign that the same Holy Spirit that descended upon Jesus at his baptism has now come upon Christ’s disciples. John is likely not referring to water baptism; he is speaking of Spirit-baptism. We have been “anointed by the Holy One” (1 John 2:20). God is called the “Holy One” in the Old Testament (e.g., Ps. 71:22), and Jesus receives the same title in the New Testament (e.g., Rev. 3:7). It is most likely, however, that “the Holy One” here references the Holy Spirit. What John says here is similar to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:21–22: “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

This “anointing,” then, has little to do with whether or not the presence or power of God exudes from us. Rather, it has to do with the Spirit, who leads us into all truth. The anointing, in this context, is more cognitive than expressive. As 1 John 2:20 begins, “But you have been anointed by the Holy One,” so it ends “and you all have knowledge.” Verse 27 similarly ties the anointing to truth-thinking and -teaching: “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.” This verse does not mean that Christians automatically understand astrophysics. It also does not imply that we should fire the pastor and cancel all Sunday school classes, for after all, John—as a God-appointed teacher (cf. Eph. 4:12)—is instructing the church in this very verse. Rather, it means that Christians who are indwelt by the Jesus-sent Spirit do not need anyone to teach them anything new or beyond what they learned about the basics of Christianity from the apostles “from the beginning” (1 John 2:24). Colin Kruse summarizes Johann Michl’s work on the Spirit as guarantor of the right faith:

He argues … that an awareness of the truth is given to the whole church, including those who hold the teaching office and the congregation of the faithful. These stand in an organic union and complement one another. The general faith consciousness of the members and the proclamation of the teachers, through the power of the Holy Spirit, lead to an infallible possession of the truth to which it bears witness without error.

When we recite the Apostles’ Creed in church, we should see it as an external defense mechanism against heresies. For example, if for years you have recited, “I believe in Jesus Christ,” who on “the third day … rose again from the dead,” and then some antichrist—for example, the professor emeritus of the German Higher Critics Divinity School—comes on the History Channel and denies that claim, the heresy alarm goes off. That’s wrong! The anointing, by contrast, is our internal defense mechanism. It is personal God-given knowledge that helps us to discern truth from error. As William Tyndale stated, “Ye are not anointed with oil in your bodies, but with the Spirit of Christ in your souls; which Spirit teacheth you all truth in Christ, and maketh you to judge what is a lie, and what truth, and to know Christ from antichrist.”

Christian, “you have been anointed by the Holy One” (1 John 2:20). It is by means of that divine anointing that we are called to “abide in him” (v. 27). A few years ago, I set aside one week to read through the whole New Testament. I did this to get a better understanding of and feel for the basic rhythm and themes of God’s Word. In doing this, I found that every book of the New Testament was filled with this idea of abiding, commonly called perseverance—or, in Reformed circles, perseverance of the saints. For example, in his earthly ministry Jesus spoke of perseverance. He said, “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). Moreover, in his heavenly ministry, the exalted Christ issues the same call. In Revelation 3:11, he says to the church then and now, “I am coming soon. Hold fast [to] what you have.” The apostle John teaches much the same here. Five times he calls us to “abide” or “remain” (menō)—or, put thematically, “to endure.”

“Endurance is the hall-mark of the saved” is how John Stott correctly summarizes this section. It is not enough to say that we once believed; it is necessary that we continue to believe. “It is not enough merely to have heard and assented to the message in time past. The message must continue to be present and active” in our lives.¹⁴ “Future and final perseverance is the ultimate test of genuine participation in the life of Christ.” If one does not abide in him, it is a sure sign that one has not been anointed. For those anointed by the Spirit abide in Christ and the truth.

As important as it is to emphasize and celebrate how people get into the kingdom, we ought to be just as emphatic and celebratory when people remain under Christ’s lordship for life! Who rejoices in the runner who starts the marathon but does not finish the marathon? We must “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). With a “great cloud of witnesses” cheering us on, we are to start and finish well. We are to swerve from those on one side who hold out the poison of false religion and those on the other side who offer an easy alternative route through the worldly neighborhoods of Idolatry and Immorality (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1–13; 1 John 2:15–17). Instead, we are to keep to the middle way as we hold fast to the confession (cf. Heb. 4:14) of Jesus as Christ and Son of God.

We all know someone who has left the church. We all know someone who has shipwrecked his faith. Do you fear doing the same? Most of us don’t. In the closing line of his poem “A Hymn to God the Father,” John Donne wrote:

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun

My last thread, I shall perish on the shore.

It is difficult to know whether Donne’s “sin” is that he fears that he will fail Christ or that Christ will fail him. If the latter, it is indeed a sinful anxiety, for Christ will never fail us (“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand,” John 10:28; cf. 6:36–40). But if the former, then Donne’s “sin of fear” might at times be a virtue, for as Hebrews 4:1 states: “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” Do you have a healthy fear of being stranded on the shore of this fallen and passing-away world? I hope we all do. But I also hope—a hope that is more in line with the apostle John’s thinking here—that we are of good cheer because we know that perseverance is possible because God is with us. We remain in the race because the Spirit abides in us. God is the author and perfecter of our salvation. The Holy One who saved us is also the One who is saving us and will save us. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own strength, running shoes, or energy packets—to paraphrase a well-known proverb (Prov. 3:5). God’s sovereign and inseparable love in Christ (Rom. 8:38–39) will guard us until the end (2 Tim. 1:12; cf. 1 Peter 1:3–5). Because of God’s unchanging character, unwavering promises, and enduring power, we can be assured that God will bring his saving work in us to completion (Phil. 1:6). The Lord who has effectually called us into saving faith will preserve his persevering saints.

Those anointed abide in the Anointed. Know it. Believe it. Live it. Rest assured in it.

An Alternative Outline

For years I have met with my interns on Monday afternoons, and we have discussed the Bible passage that I will preach on. I ask them to come prepared with comments and questions. I try to come prepared with a homiletical outline. Because of the timing of our Missions Sunday, we had two weeks to tackle this text. Both weeks I came with different outlines. I scratched the first and just preached the second: the three Ds (deceive, deny, and depart) and the two As (anoint and abide). Nevertheless, there was one point from the first sermon online that was not emphasized in the second. It was what would have been my second point. The first point was “Don’t be deceived,” the third point was “Abide in him,” and the second point was “Believe in the promise of eternal life.” I will end this chapter with that important point.

First John 2:18 begins: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.” Verse 25 reads, “And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” We live, as John lived, in “the last hour.” Again, that phrase does not literally mean the final sixty minutes of world history, or John would not have penned the phrase in the first place. Who writes a letter about the last hour, knowing that it would not get to its recipients in an hour? The phrase means the time between Jesus’ giving of the Spirit at Pentecost and his return at the end of the world (Acts 2:17; cf. 1 Peter 1:20). Between those points in time, we live in a fallen and frightening world. It is crawling with the lusts of the flesh and eyes and heart. It is filled with those who oppose or try to take the place of King Jesus. One way to survive in such a world is to have an otherworldly vision. The word last in 1 John 2:18 is eschatē, from which we get words such as eschatological. We live in the “last hour” or “last days.” And because “the time has been shortened” (1 Cor. 7:29 nasb), to borrow a phrase from Paul, we should not dream of our earthly continuance—as though we will live here forever! Rather, we should abide in the Lord until we go to be with the Lord, or he comes down to be with us in final judgment and salvation. The time is at hand! We live every hour in the last hour. What would you do if you knew that Jesus was returning today? Would you think differently? Would you live differently? Live that way now!

Related to that eschatological vision is “the promise that he made to us—eternal life” (1 John 2:25). In my church, I know five people who have cancer, one who had heart surgery, two who are confined to wheel^[1]

^[1] O’Donnell, D. S. (2015). 1-3 John. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (1st ed., pp. 78–88). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.