1 JOHN 2:18  Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.

            19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.

            20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

            21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

            22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
 

1 JOHN 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

            2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

            3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
 

2 JOHN 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

 … As you can see, John pretty well defines what he means by “antichrist” within the context of his letters. It isn’t one specific bad guy. Notice in that first passage John says “even now [in the first century] many antichrists have arisen.” Who is antichrist? “The one who denies the Father and the Son” (1 Jn. 2:22). “False prophets” who deny “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (1 Jn. 4:1-3, 2 Jn. 1:7).

There are many people today who are happy to give Jesus credit as having been a good man, a rabbi, or even a prophet. But, they say, he just wasn’t the Messiah, or he certainly wasn’t God in the flesh. Jesus’ own statements make no allowance for that position.
 

JOHN 4:25 The [Samaritan] woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."

            26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
 

JOHN 8:57 The Jews therefore said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"

            58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." [Here Jesus is referring to His eternal nature, that which characterizes God, and which God used as a name for Himself in Exodus 3:14. There He told Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”]

Jesus’ meaning here was not lost on His Jewish audience. They quickly took up stones to pummel Him to death, the traditional punishment for blasphemy. Jesus was selective about when and to whom He revealed His true nature, but this does not prove a reluctant acceptance on His part to take up the mantle of Messiah. It simply shows that He would determine what kind of Messiah He would be to Israel. He would claim His throne on His terms. He would not bring them bread and circuses, but a cross of redemption (read John 6).

Jesus was what He claimed to be or He was either a con man or a lunatic. There is no middle ground, and there can be no middle ground on how we receive Him. If we deny that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, then we have the spirit of antichrist.
 

            SOURCES

            All Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard version, unless otherwise noted.

            Wayne Jackson, “Alan Dershowitz, Jesus Christ, and Logic,” Christian Courier, February 8, 1999.

            Leon Morris, Reflections on the Gospel of John (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers), 344.