The term “antichrist” or “antichrists” appears five times in Scripture. All of these are found in the epistles of John. It appears four times in the first and once in the second epistle.

Let us begin by examining the meaning of the word in the original Greek, and then look at how it is used by the apostle John in his writings. The Greek word is “antichristos.” This is made up of two Greek words, “anti” which means instead of, as a substitute for, or something in place of something else, and “christos” which means Messiah or Christ. John uses the term antichristos or antichrist to refer to someone or something that is “instead of” or “in place of” or substituted for the Christ. The Christ referred to here is Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.

Now, let us examine the context of the passages where John uses this term. I John 2:18 says, “It is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming.” John speaks of an antichrist that is coming, referring to that spoken of by the Lord in Matthew 24:5. In the same verse, however, he speaks of antichrists, plural, that had already appeared. He says, “Even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

John is speaking here of two different things. The first is the antichrist that, at the end times, will set himself up as Christ and attempt to have all people worship him. The second, the antichrists, refers to those that were among the Christians and had attempted to set themselves up as being above the common believers, in place of Christ. It is this group of people, these “antichrists” upon which we want to focus. Here we see them going out and teaching their rebellious ideas, having been rejected by the church.

In 1 John 4:1-3, John exhorts the Christians to “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.” He says that these false prophets that have gone out have the spirit of antichrist “which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” Again, John indicates that these antichrists exist and are already in the world.

This leads us to Revelation 2:6, where the Lord writes to the church at Ephesus, which many believe represents the early first century church. He says to it: “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

The Greek word translated Nicolaitans comes from two Greek words. The first is ‘nikos’ which means conquest or conquerors. The second is ‘laos’ which means the people. The Nicolaitans were conquerors of the people.

They were those in the first century church that were attempting to set themselves apart from and above the rest of the believers as a special class. Just as we saw in I John, these conquerors of the people, not being accepted by the church and allowed to carry out this divisive practice, went out into the world, with this spirit of antichrist, spreading their false teaching.

Jude writes in his letter to the believers, urging the brothers to contend earnestly for the faith. “Contend” here means to enter into an arena and do battle publicly, fighting whole-heartedly for the faith.

Certain persons had crept in unnoticed into the fellowship of the believers, denying the Lordship of our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, setting themselves up above and apart from the other believers, in the place reserved for Christ alone. Jude charges the believers to withstand them openly. The brothers were urged to do battle with them publicly and not to sit idly by and allow these persons to steal away the faith once delivered to the saints.

In verse 11 Jude refers to these people as having “gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” The “way of Cain” refers to Genesis chapter 4 where Cain attempts to worship God in his own way, disregarding the way that God had set forth. These false teachers set up their own form of worship, focused on the leadership of man, rather than the Lordship of Christ.

The “error of Balaam” refers to Numbers 22:1-25:9, where Balaam, because of his love for honor and money, was willing to go, contrary to God’s instruction, to the high places of Baal and prophecy. It was because of Balaam’s counsel that the daughters of Midian were able to cause the sons of Israel to defect from the Lord (Numbers 31:16). In the same way, these false teachers Jude refers to are flattering people for their own advantage because they love money and honor. For pay, they pretend to serve God, while actually causing the children of God to defect from Him, just as Balaam did.

The “rebellion of Korah” refers to Numbers 16 where Korah and all his company spurned the Lord and His authority, Moses and Aaron. They felt that they were naturally qualified to lead the people and minister to the Lord. Jude identifies these false teachers as “mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the spirit” (Jude 1:18-19).

These are the ones that despise God’s authority, Jesus Christ, the head of the body. They are willing to divide the body of Christ, so they might have their own little kingdom to rule over. Their desire for power is so great that they care more for that, than for the oneness of the body for which Christ died.

These false teachers, that Jude urges the brothers to contend with, are those that have crept into the church unnoticed. They have turned the grace of God into an opportunity to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, lusting after position, honor, money, and power. They speak arrogantly, flattering people, in order to gain an advantage over them. They are willing to do anything in order to have a little kingdom of their own, even to the destruction of the body of Christ.

Now we must go back to the book of Revelation 2:14-15, where the Lord is writing to the church in Pergamum. He says he has a few things against them because they “have some who hold the teaching of Balaam” and some “who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” These teachings had come into the church and were in danger of being accepted by the church.

The Lord commands the church to repent, lest He come and make war against them. Here we have people in the church who have not only come into the church and begun the practice of taking money for the service they perform and setting themselves up apart from the common people in the church as a special class, but they have begun teaching this apostasy in the church as accepted doctrine.

Thus the clergy system is fully born, and the apostasy of the church is assured, for the people in the church have begun to accept man as their head, instead of, or in place of, Christ. Now the antichrists have not just gone out from the church, as John had warned, but now they have crept back into the church and set themselves up in the church. They have done this because, as Jude says, they are “devoid of the spirit.”

They have no confidence in Christ being able to govern the church by means of His Spirit leading and directing each member of the body. Rather, their confidence is in the flesh, in the ability of man to govern, guide, direct and control the church of God, especially through them. They have replaced Christ as the head of the church here on earth. They have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Paul tells Timothy to avoid such men (2 Timothy 3:1-7). Instead of focusing on being followers of Christ, they focus on being leaders of men.

Taking the place of Christ as head of the church is an extremely serious matter. In Luke 22:24-27, after breaking the bread and drinking the wine of the last supper with His disciples, Jesus spoke to them of this very thing. A dispute arose among the disciples as to which of them would be greatest. The Lord rebuked them saying that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over their subjects, but with the disciples it must not be so. Rather, the greatest was to be as if he were the youngest, and the leader, as a servant, as the least or the lowest.

What is the situation today? Certain people have set themselves up as separate, apart from, and above, the common people in some churches to rule over them? They have taken the place of Christ, ruling by their own authority, controlling, manipulating, directing, and lording it over the common believers? Jeremiah 5:31 records these words: “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and My people love to have it so!” How long will these churches tolerate these antichrists in their midst? How long until these simple believers of our Lord say, “Enough, we want no king but Jesus!”?

Let us go back to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 8, where, in verse 5, the children of Israel came to Samuel saying: “We want a king over us just like the nations.” Samuel was offended and went to God. God told Samuel in verse 7: “Listen to the people because they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” God then told Samuel to go to the people and tell them what this king would do to them when he would rule over them.

This king would take their sons and daughters and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. They will do his plowing and harvesting and make his weapons of war. They will make perfume for him, cook and bake for him. He will take the best of their fields, vineyards and seed, and give them to his servants. He will take their servants and use them for his work. He will take the best of their flocks and they themselves will become his servants. Then the Lord said to the children of Israel in 1 Samuel 8:18: “Then you will cry out in that day because of the king you have taken for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

God is calling for His people to come out of the apostate, fallen, worldly religious system. He is calling them to come unto Himself and be separate, and be His people, ruled over by His king, Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.

As we come to the King of kings and Lord of lords, let us come as those esteeming one another as better than ourselves, submitting ourselves joyfully to one another, not any lording it over another. May we be those that hold fast the Head, Jesus our Lord, alone (Colossians 2:18-19).

Writings By Jon von Ernst

The Lord of All Things Series - A Trilogy of Truth 
Books in this series:
Book 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom
Book 2- The Victorious Christian
Book 3 - Walking in the Light  -  Following in His Steps

*- Audio of these books are available free of charge at thepureword.net.