The Real Christ and the Antichrist

The Spirit of Antichrist

The term, "Spirit of Antichrist", used by John, refers to the teaching of the antichrists. They were false prophets. What they said about their false Christ was not from the Holy Spirit. It was the work of a false spirit.

The many Antichrists are to be identified by their false teaching and the sinful behaviour which it condoned.

John's identification of the first century Antichrists shows us what we should look for to identify other Antichrists who we will find in the continuing history of the church. For our purposes we can condense what John says to four significant marks which reveal the Spirit of Antichrist at work in all ages of the church, including that in which we live now.

Mark #1 - The Name (click for more)

John gave the name "Antichrist" to those in his day who fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus. It should not surprise us, therefore, to find that this name is actually used by men who continue to fulfil the prophecy.

Mark #2 - The Christ Who is not Really a Man (click for more)

Heretical opinions about a Jesus who was not completely a man continued to invade the church. As we shall see later, one of these man made opinions eventually gained such supremacy that it became the test of Orthodoxy in most of the church.

Mark #3 - The Persecuting Church (click for more)

The third mark of Antichrist is hatred for the followers of the real Christ.

This hostility dates back to the beginning of time, when Cain murdered his brother "because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous" (1 John 3:12).

This third mark of the Antichrist is clearly visible in the recorded history of the church which, in the name of the false Christ it serves, has persecuted and murdered those it calls "heretics".

Mark #4 - Continuing in Sin (click for more)

This is THE MARK which, more than any other, identifies the false Christianity of "Antichrist".

Those first century Antichrists claimed to be Christian, but in reality they had substituted a counterfeit Christianity in place of the real thing. Their heretical theology about the nature of Jesus was certainly a problem, but that was only a symptom of a deeper sickness of the human spirit. The real problem was that they were unwilling to hear the uncompromising call to repentance which is a non-negotiable condition of the Gospel of the real Christ. Instead, they had invented a different Christ who allowed them to ignore His teaching, or explain it away. With this false Christ, they could remain comfortable with the lie that they could continue in sin and still be saved.

By Allon Maxwell