Another section of the Bible that seems to have Christianity mistakenly on the lookout for a single "super villain" of the end times is the Johannine Epistles. There are four specific scriptures that mention the coming antichrist. Before we dissect these references, however, we should understand a few technical things: first, the word "antichrist" (ἀντίχριστος/antichristos) can simply mean against (ἀντί/anti) christ (χριστός/christos). However, a more nuanced way to interpret it could be "instead of the anointed one," as "χριστός/christos" literally translates to anointed one.
Second, often times in ancient Greek writings, the pronouns and articles are insinuated, as in 1 John 2:18, but more on that later.
And third, "ὁ ἀντίχριστος" (ho antichristos) in some of these scriptures is expressed in the same manner as "ὁ ἄνθρωπος" (ho anthropos), which essentially translates to "mankind." (Read more on that here!) If John wanted to indicate a specific individual, he would likely have used "οὗτος" (houtos, "this"), as "ὁ" (ho, "the") didn’t carry the same weight in indication that it does in English. In fact, “the” would commonly be placed in front of people’s names (e.g. “the Jesus” or “the Peter”), thereby significantly diminishing the importance of its presence. It seems a little silly, and I don’t know if they spoke that way, but they wrote that way. But I digress..
Let's get to it! We'll examine the context of these scriptures to see if we can garner any additional insight into what they support.
We will take them in reverse order, starting with 2 John 1:7, which reads, "I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist." Well, this certainly doesn't seem to be referring to a single person at all. It clearly states "many deceivers" and "any such person." So any person who denies Jesus is an antichrist? Sounds fair... let's move on.
1 John 4:3 states, "But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." This is a little more complex, I suppose. It says the spirit of "the antichrist," singular. But then it says that it's coming and is already there. So this fellow must be pretty old... And it says "spirit," so was he a ghost first? No, it quite clearly says "every spirit," expressing a similar sentiment to 2 John 1:7.
So then, we will move on to 1 John 2:22: "Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son." Okay, I'm getting kind of bored now. Clearly John is articulating the same concept: that the expression of the metaphysical, motivational force that encourages the denial of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the Son of God makes a person an antichrist. Phew! Why didn't he just say that? I guess he actually did. He quite plainly said "whoever denies." I'm pretty sure one of them cut me off and flipped the bird on my way to the museum with my family the other day. I swear I didn't even do anything...
Okay, our last one is 1 John 2:18, which says, "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour." This is interesting. Though John does say many antichrists have come, he clearly says "the antichrist" is coming. Maybe this is the guy, right? Let's step back a bit farther and see what else we can see...
If we examine the Greek phrase in this text, we can find some additional clarity. It reads, "καὶ καθὼς ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἀντίχριστος ἔρχεται," transliterated, "kai kathōs ēkousate hoti antichristos erchetai." We can break that down as follows:
kai - and
kathōs - as, just as
ēkousate - you have heard
hoti - that
antichristos - antichrist
erchetai - is coming
Notice anything? There's no definite article. No "the". At the very most it was implied. At the very least it was simply absent. Conversely, 1 John 4:3 states, "καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου," in which "τοῦ" works as the definite article "of the." Though we've already established that in that verse John referred to a motivating spirit, not an individual human.
From this analysis it seems quite clear, at least to me, that John’s intent was to inform us of a "spirit" of denial of Jesus and God, not the impending arrival of a singular false messiah. I urge you to open your Bible and read through these epistles in their entirety, it won't take long. It appears that John was offering advice on how to walk in the spirit with Jesus, rather than against him.
Thank you for reading and God bless!