October 21, 2026 | Be Connected
Warning Against Antichrists
Scripture: 1 John 2:18-23(NIV)
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.
Devotional
Who is the antichrist? There are scores of sermons, books and movies about this topic. Nearly all of them point to the end times when Christ comes back.
But this passage is talking about something different. John is describing the difference between being pro-Christ and anti-Christ. Indeed, he says the antichrist is anyone who denies that Jesus is the anointed Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
Apparently, these false teachers had once been part of the church. They were welcomed, invited to the table, encouraged to grow in their faith and knowledge. But something got the best of them. Gullibility? Boredom? Arrogance? Power? We don’t know. But their teaching opposed the straightforward truths about the identity and work of Jesus.
John doesn’t seem to be pointing to an apocalyptic figure at the end of the age. Rather he is pointing out many antichrists who were leading people astray. These insiders are often more dangerous than outsiders. Here are a few things we can do to filter what is true from what is false.
Does this line up with Scripture? It’s always good to see what the rest of the Bible says about a particular teaching or idea.
Does this line up with other truths of the faith? We should measure a teaching with what the Church has believed for the past two thousand years.
Does this person’s life line up with Godly teachers? If the person teaching something strange is living a questionable lifestyle, beware!
Does this make sense to me as I ask God? Spend time praying that the Lord would reveal truth to you through His Holy Spirit.
Paul warned Timothy, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
