Blog
“Are You the Antichrist?”
Categories: Bulletin Articles, M. W. Bassford
The title is kinda clickbaity, I admit. However, I claim 1 John 2:22 as my justification. The Holy Spirit uses the definite article, and who am I to argue grammar with the Holy Spirit?
Mention of the antichrist these days directs the minds of many religious people toward the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. As always whenever there are wars and rumors of wars, they become convinced that the end times are upon us and start trying to map current events against the apocalyptic imagery of Biblical prophecy. Surely the ten horns of the beast are ten Russian oligarchs, and its seven heads are the seven branches of the Russian armed forces, amirite?
One of the favorite passages of these enthusiasts is one of the least favorite passages of careful Bible students, the description of the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2. Candidly, I have no idea who the man of lawlessness is, and there is no Scriptural way to tell. However, this does not deter them from applying the passage to their least favorite world figure, which could be anybody from the pope to Vladimir Putin.
Somewhere along the way, this baleful character got mixed up with the Johannine antichrist. Nowadays, if you mention the antichrist to somebody, they probably will envision a boy with a demonic grin and eyes that glow red. He’s the capital-A Antichrist!
However, the true nature of the antichrist is much different and more straightforward. John tells us plainly in the abovementioned verse that the antichrist is anyone who denies the Father and the Son. You don’t have to be conceived at a witches’ Sabbath in the dark of night to qualify; you only have to be anti-Christ. John notes in v. 18 that there are many such people.
We can be one of them. Like the apostates of v. 19, we can reveal ourselves as antichrists by going out from the people of God. It’s tough to argue that you have not denied Christ when you have detached yourself from His body!
However, on the terms of v. 22, we can keep showing up and be the antichrist anyway. If we deny God when we aren’t assembled, the things we say for a few hours a week don’t count for much.
The number of ways we can end up in this trap is limited only by the ingenuity of the devil. Confessing that Jesus is the Christ is a consequential statement. It means that we claim Him as our Lord and maintain that He ought to be everybody else’s Lord too.
What, then, when His Lordship is not evident in our words? We downplay His control over our lives because we don’t want our worldly friends to think we’re Bible-thumpers. We tell them that they’re just fine outside His church because we don’t want to start an uncomfortable conversation. That isn’t exactly pro-Christ behavior!
So too, we become the antichrist when we deny Him with our actions. If Jesus is Lord, we must live like it. If we don’t, we reject His Lordship, and those around us will hear our denial loud and clear.
The antichrist isn’t a trope for Christian-ish horror movies or wild-eyed would-be prophets. It’s a sober warning for us. We are responsible daily for lifting up the name of God. When we do the opposite, John wants us to understand the seriousness of the step we have taken.
