What does it mean that many antichrists have come (1 John 2:18)?

The name ἀντίχριστος signifies an opposer of Christ. It is used only by John in his first and second epistles, though those opposed to Christ are referred to by others under different names. It is important to distinguish between an antichrist and the antichrist. John says, "as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists;" whereas "he is the antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." 1 John 2:18, 22. He is the consummation of the many antichrists. To deny Jesus Christ come in the flesh is the spirit or power of the antichrist, but it eventuates in a departure from the special revelation of Christianity: 'they went out from us.' 1 John 2:19; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 7. Now this clears the ground at once of much that has obscured the subject. For instance, many have concluded that Popery is the antichrist, and have searched no farther into the question, whereas the above passage refutes this conclusion, for Popery does not deny the Father and the Son; and, in Revelation 17, 18, Popery is pointed out as quite distinct from 'the false prophet,' which is another name for the antichrist. It is fully granted that Popery is anti-christian, and a Christ-dishonouring and soul-deceiving system; but where God has made a distinction we must also do so. Besides Popery there were and there are many antichrists, which, whatever their pretensions, are the enemies of Christ, opposers of the truth, and deceivers of man.

The babes knew the Father. They had the Spirit of sonship. Nothing less than this could be included in Christianity, for, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” All who are Christ’s have His Spirit, and by Him the love of God fills the heart, and in this way He witnesses with our spirits that we are the children of God. These may not have known the Father’s world, as the fathers, and, in knowing Him that is from the beginning, neither were they strong like the young men, and able to hold the field in spite of the fierce onslaughts of the wicked one, but they knew the Father, and in abiding in the light of the Father’s love, they would in a little while arrive at maturity. They are informed that it is the last time, or hour. An hour with John is a period of time, characterized by a certain event, which may be good or evil. He speaks in the gospel of the hour of life-giving (John 5:25), of resurrection (5:28), of the hour being come for His glorification (12:23), of a woman’s hour being come when she is in travail (16:21), and here he says it is the last hour. There was nothing more to be waited for except the coming of Christ, for the evil had been now fully developed; the antichrists were present. When the antichrist comes, it will not be any fresh development, for already there had come many antichrists, and by this, he says, we know it is the last hour. When the antichrist himself comes, there will be no room for the many antichrists, but as he is to be the great masterpiece of Satan, and the end to which all the activities of the devil tend, he has today many of the same kind though of less spiritual power. This is what proves the last hour to have come, because when antichrist arises, there is nothing to look for but the appearing of Christ, who shall consume the antichrist with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess. 2:18). These antichrists had gone out from the apostles, and from those who were standing for the truth, and were causing their hateful influence to be felt where the apostles were not present to withstand them. They did not now acknowledge the apostles, nor the Christ whom they served, though once they had done so, for they had evidently at one time made a profession of faith in Christ. The devil whom they served and whose children they were, had been able to introduce them into the sphere of the profession of Christianity; but now they had gone out on lines of their own, and whatever name they may have given themselves, they denied boldly all that was the truth and life of Christianity. Had they been real believers they would have remained in the fellowship of the apostles, but their apostasy proved they never had part or lot in the matter. They denied Jesus was the Christ, and thus proved themselves liars. They denied the Father and the Son, and thus proved themselves antichrists. But the babes had the unction from the Holy One, and Christ became to them a means by which everything was tested. Jesus must be confessed to be the Christ. This was a very simple test indeed. He who denies Jesus to be the Christ, is a liar; and the babes knew that no lie was of the truth. Nothing that these deceivers said was to be listened to; they were detected and exposed and judged out of their own mouths. They were liars all of them. They were not like people who had never mixed among Christians, nor made any profession of belief in the glad tidings, for, as we have here, they had attached themselves to believers, had been in the Christian assembly, under the power of the ministry of the Spirit, and now they had broken loose from all that was of God, and were spending their energies in denying that Jesus was the Christ, and in denying the Father and the Son. They do not seem to have presented anything as a substitute for Christianity, they spent their time denying the truth. They may have spoken of the Christ, but if they did, they affirmed that Jesus was not He. They may also have spoken of the Father, the boast of the Jew was, “we have one Father, even God,” and it is common enough to hear men speak of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, while denying absolutely the Father and the Son. To confess the Father and the Son, is to admit that the world is in rebellion against God, and that the devil is prince and god of it, and that its judgment is certain, and also that man after the flesh is not in any relationship with God. But whoever denies the Son has not the Father either, whereas he who confesses the Son has the Father also.

Every lie of the devil is in some way aimed at the truth concerning the Christ of God. He is no mean marksman, and even when he appears to be directing his shots at the outer rings of the target he is calculating on a rebound action which will ultimately land them fairly on to the bulls-eye. In the Apostle's day he aimed at the centre openly. The antichrists boldly denied that Jesus was the Christ: they denied the Father and the Son. In our day some of them are still doing this. Many more however hardly do this; they introduce teachings of a more subtle kind, not so harmful on the surface but ultimately leading to just the same denials, whereby the centre of the target is hit.

The Antichrist, when he appears, will be the full and perfect denial of the Father and the Son. He will "magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods." (Dan. 11:36), and this prediction is amplified in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. The "many antichrists" who have preceded him all run on similar lines. Their denials relate more particularly to the Son who has been manifested on earth, and they may profess that they have nothing to say as to the Father or against Him. Such a profession is unavailing. To deny the Son is to deny the Father. To confess the Son is to have the Father also. Though distinct in person They are one in the Godhead, and he who has the Anointing (the Holy Spirit), who also is one with Them in the Godhead, knows this right well, and is not likely to be deceived on the point.

Here it is the solemn announcement that the last hour is come. "Little children, it is the last hour." How this must have sounded in their souls and made them wonder! Many think that such truth is not at all the right food for babes. It is much to be wished that Christians would read their Bible, and not only read but in all simple confidence believe it. What they will find there puts an end to these human thoughts and theories. "Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now are come many antichrists." This stamps it as the "last hour." No evil is so flagrant as antichrist. It is direct, personal, antagonism to the Lord. He may imitate the Lord Jesus, yet to oppose Him; he may claim what belongs only to God, but to exalt himself and deny God. Certainly it is the worst and most audacious of all evil against Himself; "and even now are come many antichrists." There are many antichrists in London, as throughout Christendom; and they preach and teach there with crowds to hear them, who have no suspicion that they listen not to Christianity but to anti-christianity. The reason that real Christians take all this lightly is that the Bible is so little pondered with the Spirit of God working in them.

There are in this epistle two words both translated "little children." The one used in 1 John 2:12 and 28, is simply "children," embracing all believers, since all are children of God. The other used in 1 John 2:13 and 18, is really, "babes," the beginners in the Christian life. These are the ones who are told that it is "the last time;" that is, the last epoch, in the last days of which the Antichrist will appear, so that already men of antichristian character were at work.

It is the last time. There are many Antichrists. That is a solemn thing. God's patience, how wonderful! As long as there is a soul to win, God's patience goes on bearing with wickedness and corruption; but many Antichrists are come in. It is often thought to be something requiring depth of knowledge. No; little children are told of it; it is a common truth. Antichrist was to come in; but that before he comes there are many Antichrists, and they might seduce them - there is danger. The Antichrist is to come, who will deny both the Father and the Son.

221 We saw that the babes in Christ knew the Father, and now we find further that these very babes have the divine unction, so that they will be able to judge through divine knowledge. He is pressing upon them their own competence, not as others, in themselves, but as taught of God, to avoid all snares. It is the subtlety of Satan, and therefore he warns the little ones more against it. "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son." Here he gives us the full character of the antichrist. There were many antichrists, because the spirit of it had come in. Here it is the full character of it. It takes a certain Jewish character, denying Jesus to be the Christ; and it is opposed to Christianity, denying the Father and the Son.

In verses 22 and 23 we have a picture of the antichrists of John's day and a prophecy of antichristianity down to the end of the age when the great opposer will appear in a person, the personal antichrist. "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father. He who confesseth the Son hath the Father also." Antichristianity is the denial that Jesus is the Christ. It includes every denial of the person of the Lord Jesus, the denial that He is the Son of God come into the flesh, His virgin birth and that He was sent by the Father. Such denials were prominent in John's lifetime. Gnosticism was troubling the Church. They denied the Messiahship, and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Other systems were present in embryo, known later by the name of Arianism, etc. Denying the Son they denied the Father also.

These are important statements for our own days, the last days of the present age. What began in the days when the Holy Spirit penned this Epistle is now full-grown in the world. It is all about us in various forms throughout the professing church, only with this difference, the apostates in the beginning were more honest than the apostates in our times. They were in the professing church and when they began their denials they went out, separated themselves from the true Church.

While antichristian doctrine expresses itself in varied forms, yet its detection is easy even for the inexperienced babe. There are two lines along which the opposition developed against Christianity moves. The antichrists, whatever the special form in which they assert their tenets, either deny that Jesus is the Christ — the Jewish form of unbelief — or else deny the distinctive Christian revelation — that of the Father and the Son (ver. 22). Undoubtedly the Antichrist himself, when he comes, will do both. He will adopt the Jewish opposition to Jesus, denying that He is the Christ, and to this will unite the denial of the Father and the Son. Both forms of error exist to-day and are widely current. They characterize the apostasy as now developing. The Antichrist will find them ready for his hand; he will appropriate them and expand them, for he will not only deny that Jesus is the Christ, but claim to be Christ himself. And to this claim he will add another: he will exalt himself by claiming to be God. The Father is not now professedly and openly denied. It is quite the fashion to talk of the fatherhood of God. In every system of error the claim is made that they have the Father. This the apostle will not admit if they deny the Son (ver. 23). He that denies the Son hath not the Father. Only those who acknowledge the Son have the Father.

The obstacle to the truth, then, is far wider and deeper than any party question of polemical divinity; though no doubt, as some few of the futurists have been swayed by the (perhaps unconscious) desire of palliating popery, so many of the historicalists no less by their scarce too strong abhorrence of that soul-enslaving and idolatrous system. They seem both to have forgotten the maxim which the apostle John impresses on the little children, or the very babes of God's family: "As ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now are there arisen many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour" {1 John 2:18}. The futurists think only of the coming antichrist, the historical school are absorbed with the many antichrists. The Christian should not forget, on the one hand, that even now there are many antichrists in being (antiquity being the worst possible disproof of opposition to Christ); on the other, that a great personal antagonist of the Lord is surely coming, of which the many that have been and are should be regarded as signs and precursors, rather than as the fulfillment.