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“Antichrist” is one of the most loaded words in the Christian vocabulary, and it often gets used to fuel fear, speculation, and end-times obsession. We slow down and let 1 John 2:18–19 set the agenda instead. From the start, we’re honest about the context: a church community is fractured, people have left, and competing claims are being made about God, sin, obedience, love, and especially Jesus. John’s response is steady and pastoral: return to what’s foundational, walk in the light, tell the truth, obey Jesus, and love one another.
We also untangle what John actually means by “Antichrist.” In John’s letters, antichrist language isn’t about geopolitical predictions or identifying a single future villain. It’s Christological. Antichrist names whatever opposes, denies, or distorts the truth about Jesus Christ, including refusing to confess Jesus has come in the flesh. That’s why “they went out from us” matters: the issue isn’t merely changing churches, it’s what happened to Jesus in their teaching and their life.
Finally, we talk about “the last hour” and why it’s not a countdown clock. Drawing on the New Testament’s “already and not yet” vision and insights often highlighted by N. T. Wright, we explore how Jesus’ resurrection brings God’s future into the present. That kind of eschatology doesn’t make us less invested in the world; it makes us more faithful within it through creation care, love of neighbor, and resisting loyalties that compete with Christ. If this helped you, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review. What’s one end-times idea you’re ready to rethink?
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So, for all those who are listening online on the podcast, my name is Liz Swan. I am the community and care pastor here at Madison Church. We're so glad that you're here in our community. We're continuing the series calling Staying in the Light, a study in First John on truth, love, and faith after division. So throughout this series on 1 John, we have been listening to an older pastor, John, write to a church shaken by division. Some people have left and relationships have fractured. Competing claims are being made about God, sin, obedience, love, and especially Jesus. John's response has been consistent, perhaps even somewhat redundant for those of you following week to week. Return to what is foundational. Walk in the light. Tell the truth about yourself. Obey Jesus. Love one another, and walk as Jesus walked. Now, in today's passage, it'll be in 1 John chapter 2, verses 18 and 19, John names another dimension of the conflict. The people who left are not simply attending a new church somewhere else. Something has changed in what they believe and teach about Jesus. So John writes in chapter 2 of 1 John, verses 18 and 19. If you want to follow along in our house Bibles, 1 John is in the back of the Bible right before Revelation. On page 764, it reads, Children, it is the last hour. As you have heard, that Antichrist is coming. So now, many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us.
John uses one of the most loaded words in the Christian vocabulary, Antichrist. For many of us, that word immediately brings an entire end time system to mind. We think of the rapture, the tribulation, the mark of the beast, a charismatic global leader, one world government, and probably some version of left behind. Christians have spent generations trying to identify which Pope, president, dictator, political movement, or technology might finally reveal the Antichrist. Many of you probably won't be surprised to learn that most of that imagery does not come from John. John is not trying to make his church better at predicting the future. The first thing John does is complicate the popular idea of one mysterious future figure. His readers had heard that the Antichrist was coming, but John says that many Antichrists have already come. The word Antichrist itself appears only in John's letters, and John repeatedly tells us what he means by it. In 1 John 2, verse 22, the Antichrist is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ and denies the Father and the Son. In chapter 4, John speaks of the spirit of the Antichrist in connection with refusing to confess Jesus rightly. 2 John again speaks of many deceivers who deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. John's concern is not geopolitical or speculative, it is Christological. And Antichrist opposes, denies, or distorts the truth about Jesus Christ. That makes verse 19 especially significant. They went out from us. John is talking about people who had been part of the church community. As we mentioned almost weekly, we cannot reconstruct every detail of the theology with certainty, but the letter gives us clues. They seem to have claimed knowledge of God while minimizing sin, obedience, embodied love, and something central about who Jesus is. Their beliefs about Christ were beginning to produce a different kind of Christianity. Now, people leave churches for all kinds of reasons, including faithful ones. Someone can leave an institution and remain deeply rooted in Christ. Someone else can remain institutionally loyal while drifting far from the way of Jesus. The issue is not simply that they left. The issue is what happened to Jesus to this audience. John does not leave discernment up to personal preference. He repeatedly returns to what you have heard from the beginning. The standard is not whatever the version of Jesus feels most compelling to us. It is the apostolic witness about Jesus who came in the flesh, died, rose, and whose life is reflected in truth, confession, obedience, and love. This is the crisis John is trying to help his church navigate.
There is another phrase in this passage that catches the attention of scholars. It is the last hour. John wrote that phrase nearly 2,000 years ago. If the last hour means that John believed the universe would end within a few years, then we have an obvious problem. John was wrong. But the only work that only works if we assume John is giving us a countdown. At Pentecost, Peter says Joel's prophecy about the last days. Hebrews says God has spoken in these last days through the Son. Paul tells the Corinthians that the ends of the ages have come upon them. These writers believe something decisive has happened in Jesus. This is where prolific scholar and theologian N. T. Wright is especially helpful. The resurrection of Jesus changes the Christian understanding of time because something Israel expected God to do at the end of the age has happened in the middle of history. The future has broken into the present. Jesus has risen, but death still exists. God's kingdom has been inaugurated, but it has not yet come in its fullness. New creation has begun, while creation still groans and waits for renewal. This is what Christians often mean by the already and the not yet. So when John says it is the last hour, he means that history has entered its decisive stage because Jesus has come. If you're still not sure, listen to how John's own logic confirms this. Many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. This understanding we're presenting today fits the larger arc of scripture. The Bible begins with a good creation, fractured by sin, and moves toward God, restoring what has been broken. Israel's prophets anticipate a day when God will defeat evil, bring justice, restore his people, and renew creation. Jesus arrives, announcing that the kingdom of God has come near. Then he dies and rises. Paul calls Christ the first fruits of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. His resurrection is not an isolated miracle, it is the beginning of what God intends to do for creation itself. Romans 8 describes creation waiting for liberation. And revelation ends not with the abandonment of the world, but with a new heaven and a new earth, God dwelling with humanity, death defeated, and the declaration, see, I am making all things new. That is why the popular idea that the Christian hope is primarily escape. It can distort the larger biblical picture. The hope of scripture is resurrection and renewal. Jesus' resurrection begins that future, and his return will bring it to completion. That brings us to this important point for today's eschatology. Eschatology shapes our discipleship, how we view the end times. And maybe as Stephen has mentioned to some of you and to me, he was ordained in the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world at the youngest age that they allowed it to happen. And as he's told me or talked about, and I myself, I've struggled with this verbiage about the end times. But something that NT Wright mentions that may be helpful to you, as to me, NT Wright shows how important good eschatology is, especially with our discipleship.
If God's future is resurrection and renewal rather than abandonment, then we cannot treat this world as disposable. Or we can't see our life here as a waiting room for something to come in the future. The future God promises gives weight to the present. Creation care matters to God because God has not given up on creation. Local politics or schools, neighborhoods, housing, poverty, justice, and the ordinary life of a city matter because loving our neighbor happens somewhere concrete. We do not have to confuse the kingdom of God with any political party or image or imagine that we can build heaven on earth. But neither can we shrug at what happens here because we assume everything is just gonna burn away anyway. Where can I tell the truth? Practice love, care for what God has made, seek the good of my neighbor, resist loyalties that compete with Christ, and remain rooted when others move in a different direction. Eschatology should not make us less invested in the world. Christian hope should make us more faithful within it. For many Christians, the last days become a story about anxiety. Who is this antichrist? How close are we to the end? What signs are we missing? John turns our attention somewhere else. The last hour has begun because Christ has come, resurrection happened, and God's future has already entered the present. We are not to attempt to decode every threat. We are to know Christ well enough to recognize what opposes him and to remain faithful when everything around us changes.
