Spirit of the Antichrist

John wrote:

By this you know the Spirit of God:

  • Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and
  • every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

— 1 John 4:2-3 (NKJV)

Out of context this seems to imply that everyone who deny the incarnation of Jesus Christ has the spirit of the Antichrist.

The letter of John should not have been divided up in chapters. Unfortuantely I cannot quote the entire leter here, so I will highlight only a few important aspects:

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

  • Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father;
  • the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

As for you, let that which you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. — 1 John 2:22-24 (LSB)

Tip

As John stated, "abide in the Son/Father" language means to hear (obey).

Now with this context read John again:

... And by this we will know that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him the Father - 1 John 3:1 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He gave a commandment to us. And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave us. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God:

  • every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and
  • every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

  • They are from the world: therefore they speak as from the world, and the world hears them.
  • We are from God: The one who knows God hears us;

the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

— 1 John 3:19 - 4:6 (LSB)

In plain English, according to John, this is how "we will know that we are of the truth" (having the Spirit of God):

Personal Test

When someone with God's Spirit hear God's commandments (given by Christ) the test come with their free will choice:

  • When they obey: Then God's Spirit will "assure" them
  • When they disobey: Then God's Spirit will "condemn" them

This is because God's Spirit knows all things and we can use this as evidence that we "abide in Him" (obeyed Him) in righteousness.

Testing Another Party

Other persons could be tested by their confession:

  • Those who confess the Son (Jesus Christ) has the Father also.
  • Those who denies the son (Jesus Christ) denies the Father also.

This is because the Son is the Father's representitive.

However, in John's life-time there was an ancient belief that Christ was divine but not genuinely human, called Docetism. The term comes from the Greek word dokeō (δοκέω), meaning “to seem” or “to appear.” Docetism taught that Jesus only appeared to have a physical human body, suffer, and die, rather than experiencing these things as a genuine human being. This belief appeared in various forms in early Christianity, particularly during the second century, although related ideas may have existed earlier.

This is evident from scriptures like:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. — 1 John 1:1-3 (LSB)

A similiar narrative like John 1 is presented here. God's Word of Life "manifested" which means God kept His word (promise). Note how John repeatedly mention that they physically heard, seen and touched Jesus Christ. John want to make sure his audience clearly understood that Jesus was genuinely human.

Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that bear witness:

  1. the Spirit and
  2. the water and
  3. the blood;

and the three are in agreement.

— 1 John 5:5-8 (LSB)

With this passage John made it clear that Jesus Christ was really born as like any ordinary human being in water and blood and also refer to God's Spirit to further strenghten the witness.

Note

Some associate this scripture with repentance, baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit, but in this context it more likely was used as plain evidence that Jesus was a genuinely human.

In the context of 1 John 4:2-3, an obvious test would be to check if they confess that "Christ come in flesh" (born like any other human). John was not affirming concious preexistance. Instead John was saying that those follow Docetism (rejecting that Jesus was a genuine human) are being deceived by the spirit of the antichrist.

Warning

Today we have a similiar situation. Like the Docetians, the Trinitarians belief Jesus Christ was divine, although they also acknowledge his a simultaneous human nature. This makes them guilty of claiming that Jesus Christ was not a genuine human, because no other genuine human has a divine and human nature simultaneously.