18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.REFLECTIONSWritten by Thom BransdonToday’s passage talks about the antichrist. We learn that there are actually many antichrists, that they have already been coming and that their existence is a sign of the last hour. Verse 19 tells us that these antichrists come from among the believers and have left the church, that they were never really part of it, as evidenced by then having left the church. Contrasted against these antichrists are the believers, who all ‘know the truth’. That truth is seen in Verse 22, that Jesus is the Christ. He is the one way to the Father. An antichrist, we’re told is someone who rejects that truth and denies Christ. Christ spoke of these antichrists in Mark 13:22, warning the apostles that false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive at the end times. There are many in our world who have parted from the truth that Jesus is Lord in favour of false teaching, who make themselves important and tell lies in order to deny Christ and the gospel message.I find this passage very heartening in a time when false teaching and denial of the Gospel is so visible in our world. We have been gifted the truth through God’s mercy, and have been given discernment through the Spirit. We have nothing to fear from any antichrists and their lies. The fact that so many antichrists have come is actually evidence that Christ has finished his work, that the last hour has come and that He is returning soon to reign in Glory!ABOUT THE AUTHORThom is a member of our Fairfield Morning Service.