Antichrists: "those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh"

Friday, September 11, 2009, 7:15 AM

Deeds of the Antichrist (Luca Signorelli, c.1501, Orvieto Cathedral, detail).

The word αντιχριστος (antichristos - G500, "antichrist"), in the Greek language, is used only 5 times, and all of them in the Epistles of John.

Let's examine the relevant verses:

[1] Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour. (1Jo 2:18)
[2] Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son. (1Jo 2:22)
[3] ... but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.(1Jo 4:3)
[4] For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist! (2Jo 1:7)
[emphasis MdS]

In what exactly consists being "antichrist"? We can say (in agreement with 1Jo 2:22) that an "antichrist" is one "who denies that Jesus is the Christ" (that is the Messiah), and that should be enough, as even the etymology of the word "anti-Christ" suggests: αντι (anti) = "against". But then why (again, according to 1Jo 2:22) we read "and thus denies the Father and the Son". Why "thus"? What is the connection between ...

[2a] "denying that Jesus is the Christ"

and

[2b] "denying the Father and the Son"

Shouldn't [2a] be enough, as definition of "antichrist"? If not, why not?
And what does [2b], "denying the Father and the Son", mean, anyway?
The only way to answer these questions, who is "the antichrist" and what exactly is the "the spirit of the antichrist", is to examine the above four verses, exactly as they appear in their sequence.
[1] 1Jo 2:18 is a warning: it says that "the antichrist is coming" and says that the "symptom" is that "many antichrists have appeared", but does NOT explain who "the antichrist" is and what "the spirit of the antichrist" is about.
[2] 1Jo 2:22 is more specific: it says, essentially that "who denies that Jesus is the Christ" is "the liar", and that would seem enough as a definition, but then, immediately after, we find a puzzling addition: "the antichrist" is "the person who denies the Father and the Son". What has "denying the Father and the Son" got to do with "denying that Jesus is the Christ" (the Messiah)? Can it be meant in a trinitarian sense? This would not only be anachronistic, but also it would be most confusing: what is the connection between Jesus being the Christ (the Messiah) and him being the "Son of the Father"? And if "Son" is NOT meant in a trinitarian sense, is it meant in a metaphoric sense, like in Luke 3:38 ("... Adam, the son of God")? Or is it meant in the sense of the high dignity of the Anointed King of God, like in Psalm 2:7 ("He [the Lord] said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”")? None of this seems sufficient to account for the specific expression "denies the Father and the Son".
[3] 1Jo 4:3, funnily enough, seems even less clear than 1Jo 2:22, because it simply says that "every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" and that this is "the spirit of the antichrist". It doesn't not even say "Jesus Christ" or "Jesus the Christ", nor does it refer to "denying the Father and the Son", like the previous verse. But the key to the full understanding of 1Jo 4:3 is (quite obviously, actually) to read it in conjunction with the verse immediately preceding it:

₂ By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God, 4:3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.(1Jo 4:2-3 - emphasis MdS)

So here, for the first time, we find, in positive terms, what is the right "confession" about Jesus: NOT ONLY that he is the Christ (the Messiah), BUT ALSO that "Jesus is the Christ who has come in the flesh".
This expression is fundamental for two reasons:

[3.1] It affirms, against the spreading of the docetic "doctrine" of "christian" Gnosticism, that Jesus, while having divine nature, has ALSO a full human nature, that he is naturally "born of a woman", that his physical body is NOT an illusion but a real, natural body, like that of any human being, actually, as he was a man (not a woman or an androgynous, or a sexless being), of any man. It is almost certain that this (docetism) was precisely the heresy, nay the apostasy of some members of John's community, that ultimately led them to abandoning the community (1Jo 2:19), because their belief system about Jesus (original? mutated?) is incompatible with Christianity.

[3.2] It is a key to explaining the expression "denying the Father and the Son": NOT in the trinitarian sense, BUT in the plain sense that Jesus is, literally, the Son of YHWH God, the One and Only, the Father Almighty, "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary", exactly as the Apostles' Creed says, on the firm ground of the Gospel of Luke:

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

[4] 2Jo 1:7 solemnly and synthetically reaffirms what is said at 1Jo 4:2-3: "those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh", "such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist".

In conclusion:

The antichrist is he who does NOT confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, viz. that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the Son of God, in the plain sense that Jesus is, literally, the Son of YHWH God, the One and Only, the Father Almighty, "come in the flesh", that is "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary".