1 John 2:18-29 NKJV
18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
Adding to the trouble we’ve already considered (the tugging of the world, sinful flesh and the devil)—mockers, plus the apostate who appear as if they were the Church and lead many astray—St. John now tells of the Antichrist, and that many like him had already come! He warns briefly, but thoroughly enough for us to recognize them.
What reveals and characterizes the Antichrist, and the antichrists, is that they are deniers of God the Son and His saving work. There are those who, John says, went out from the Church, looking like the Church, but not being the Church. Among these are those who deny that Jesus is God the Son, a distinct Person from God the Father, but of the same Substance. The Athanasian Creed was traditionally confessed on all major festivals of the Church Year to prevent us from falling into the ways of these ancient heretics or their modern counterparts who so blatantly deny the deity of Christ.
More pernicious, though, are those antichrists who are not so blatant, outwardly confessing Jesus to be true God, but confounding His work. These cloaked evil-doers tempt us to look to something other than His atonement for the world’s sins as our salvation—whether directing our faith to our experience of His blessings or miraculous power, to our feelings of holiness or closeness to Him and the Church, or seeking assurance of our election through our works or service. The great Antichrist who enthrones himself over God, though, demands our faith to be in our works (or those of the saints) as supplementing Jesus’ payment for our salvation. He demands allegiance to himself, and condemns salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (2 Thess. 2:3-4,7-10).
Rejoice, dear confessional Lutherans! Thanks to God working through Luther you have God’s preserved truth and are free from the Antichrist and the antichrists! Let us pray: O Holy Spirit, sanctify and keep us in the true faith, transforming us by and conforming us to Your holy Word!