For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.

Senses of anti in Greek

• against
• in place of (2 Cor 11)

Occurrences of "antichrist(s)" in Bible

• Not in Revelation!
• Only in the letters of John
  • 1 John 2:18, 4:3
  • 2 John 7

Who were the antichrist?

• They are people, not a person.
• They'd left the church. Yet not all who wander are the antichrist!
• They denied the incarnation. Probably these people had been deceived by a false teaching called Docetism.
• Polycarp (69-155 AD)  warned the Philippians that everyone who preached false doctrine was an antichrist. Yet this seems to go beyond the biblical meaning of the term, which concerns God becoming flesh, and no other doctrine. In later centuries, Christian writers began to identify the Antichrist with specific individuals.

What about 2 John?

• There is still a problem.
• Notice v.7, which may be easiest verse to share with others who are looking for a definition of the term.

What about 3 John?

• Here there's no mention of antichrist.
• Diotrephes the narcissist (in 3 John 9) may not deny the incarnation, but...
• The enemy doesn't necessarily reject the gospel - at least not visibly. Heretics come in two shapes.
  • Those who deny fundamental doctrines. This is a later sense of heretic.
  • Those who create factions (haireseis, in Greek) -- the original sense.
  • Both senses entail something false.

Conclusions

• Antichrist means denying the central teaching of Christianity: that God became flesh.
• Virtually everything you hear about the Antichrist these days is rubbish.
• Let's make sure we aren't the antichrist! Appreciate the incarnation!
• Let's also be sure we don't go the way of Diotrephes. Be humble; stay unified; stay connected.
• For more, please hear the podcast on Antichrist in the Last Things series at this website.

Next: Jude--Lordship or License?