The Anti-Christ: It's Here Already Fool!

Jim's got a nice bit on the continued and incorrect use of the term "anti-Christ".

The antichrist isn’t coming. The antichrist, has come, is here now, and will continue to come as long as history itself continues. Hence, the silly and ignorant politicization of the term is evidence of both poor reading skills, poor exegetical skills, and poor theological skills. And those who contribute to the nonsense by referring to one particular individual as ‘THE Antichrist’ are adding to the pool of ignorance on the subject.

Talk of Antichrist: Such Nonsense « Dr Jim West.

"Ante" here has the sense of alongside of.  It is something parallel to Christ, but not Christ.  It looks like Christ but is not.  Often it is assumed that the writer of John 1-3 is the same John who wrote the gospel and Revelation.  It is just not clear if we can make that judgment.  In fact this letter was most likely written in the Johannine tradition and may not have even been one writer (Brown's commentary is certainly the best resource here).

For the author of 1 John "anti-Christ" is a clear referent to the "other gospels" to which the epistle refers.  As with other letters, like Colossians, the concern is about what Christianity looks like in a pluralistic world with many gods that ask for one's favor.  As with the Hebrew bible, the issue always comes back to idolatry.  Forms of distortion at the time promoted a Jesus who did not raise from the dead, who was not really a human being, a ghost, etc.  Looking at specific ways that the local mystery cults understood Jesus are surely instructive here.

The real spirit of the anti-Christ is in areas like the so-called gospels of "health and wealth", "God Hates Fags", Starbucks in church, Benny Hinn's airplane, and so on.  The irony is, of course, that many of these so-called gospels are the same ones that promote the assertion that the anti-Christ is some kind of "man" – still often to rise from Russia, which is no longer the USSR.

So follow John's further advice and "test the spirits".  Love God, love your neighbor, and be rooted in the resurrection of Christ which testifies to the love of God.

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