What happens in your mind when someone says, “antichrist”? I bet you imagine things like plagues, fire, destruction, torment, warning. Those premonitions are warranted; the writings of John having gone far in crafting that type of imagery.1 Look now at the first verse of this lesson.
18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18–ESV)
When you read verse 18 that demon-driven specter of evil known from the Book of Revelation likely comes to mind. That, however, is not how John’s readers would have perceived it as the Book of Revelation followed these letters2. What the readership would have been familiar with were the words of Jesus Christ himself. Let us consider some of those now. [Read more…] about 1 John 2:18-19: Clarity comes from continuance