The Antichrist, the Temptation of Jesus, and Christian Nationalism
Some thoughts on 1 John and the identity of the Antichrist
Alright everybody, this will be my last post on 1 John for awhile. What a fun book! For your convenience, my friend Corri made an archive page on her blog of all of our posts: https://fearlessandjoyful.com/1-john/.
In this article, we’ll be talking about an idea that I alluded to several times in 1 John: the identity of the Antichrist. Personally, I think this is something we must get right, not because we’ll go to hell if we miss it, but because it has huge implications for how we view Christian history, and more importantly, how we answer some critical issues facing the church today, namely the conversation surrounding Christian nationalism.
Let’s hop in. As usual, this post will unlock early Tuesday morning central time.
Two Identifiers of the Antichrist
In 1 John (and in 2 and 3 John), there are two ways to identify who is a true believer and who is an imposter: (1) open confession that Jesus is the Christ and (2) sacrificial love for those who God loves, which is everyone, including one’s enemies (1 John 2:2).
The Antichrist, then, is the one who (1) publicly denies that Jesus is the Christ and (2) hates the one who Jesus loves, which is anyone. Specifically John writes,
Who is the falsifier if not the denier who says “Yēsous isn’t the Christos”? This is the Anti-Christos, the denier of the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. The one who openly agrees about the Son has the Father. —1 John 2:22–23, all quotes from 1 John will be from the Second Testament by Scot McKnight
Notice the argument of the passage above: if one denies the Son then they don’t have the Father. Apparently, these “Anti-Christoses” (plural, see verse 18) were trying to hang onto allegiance to the Father while denying Jesus, but why? Specifically, these were ex-Christians, not simply a Jewish person who had faith in the Father but never had faith in Jesus (1 John 2:19). As to the why, that’s the purpose of this article.
Denying that Jesus is the Christ
The first major identifier of the Antichristos or the Antichristoses is a denial of Jesus as the Christ.
Throughout 1 John, the expression “falsifier” is used in connection with this denial. It shows up in the following passages and perhaps more:
The one who says that “I have known him” and who doesn’t observe his orders is a falsifier, and the Truth isn’t in this person, 1 John 2:4
I did not write to you because you don’t know the Truth but because you know it and every falsehood isn’t from the Truth. Who is the falsifier if not the denier who says “Yēsous isn’t the Christos”? This is the Anti-Christos, the denier of the Father and the Son. 1 John 2:21–22
I wrote these things to you about the ones deceiving you. You: the charism that you received from him remains in you, and you have no need that someone teach you. But as his charism teaches you about all things—and it’s true and it isn’t a falsifier—just as it taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:26–27
In this you know God’s Spirit: Every spirit that openly agrees that Yēsous Christos has come in flesh is from God, and every spirit that doesn’t openly agree about Yēsous isn’t from God. This is the spirit of the Anti-Christos, which you have heard comes, and now is already in the Kosmos. 1 John 4:2–3
The one who trusts in God’s Son has the witness in oneself, the one who doesn’t trust in God has made him a falsifier because one has not trusted in the witness that God has witnessed about his Son. 1 John 5:10
Hatred or Absence of Love
The second major sign that someone was of the Antichristos was the presence of hatred or the absence of love, which are the same thing in John’s mind. He covers the sins of both hateful action and intentional inaction:
Everyone who hates one’s sibling is a human-killer, and you know that every human-killer doesn’t have Era Life remaining in oneself. In this we have known love, that he placed his self for us, and we ought to place our selves for the siblings. Whoever has Kosmos’s life and observes one’s sibling having need and shuts one’s empathies from the person—how does God’s love remain in the person? Children, don’t love in word or tongue but in work and truth. 1 John 3:15–18
There are more passages I could show, but the ones about love or the absence of love are a bit more obvious than the falsifier passages. Instead, let’s continue to develop both of these ideas, starting with this theme of being a ‘falsifier.’
Jesus’s Temptation Embodied and His Prediction Realized
To really understand what I see in 1 John, or at least I think I see, then we need to spend some time examining a few interesting things that happened with Jesus. Since I have written and lectured on these themes in the past, I’ll speak more in breadcrumbs here.
Jesus’s Temptation Embodied
The Temptation of Jesus in Matthew
We are probably all familiar with the story of Jesus’s temptation found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. It’s also found in Mark, but the accounts in Luke and Matthew will do for now. In Matthew, the order of the temptation is changed. Luke, who apparently was attempting to write more chronologically than Matthew, has the temptation of receiving the kingdoms of the inhabited earth by bowing down to Satan as the second temptation while Matthew has it as the last.
I think Matthew changes his order to make a theological point about the nature of the kingdom since that is a major theme of his gospel account.
The temptations of Jesus, I think, are not meant to reflect any kind of personal need or egotistical desire of Jesus. Even though Jesus had fasted and would undoubtedly want bread, I think the first temptation has more to do with Israel’s hunger, who Jesus identified with through his baptism (a baptism of national repentance). The temptation to throw himself off of the temple during the feast to win hundreds of thousands of followers in an instant was more about his people than his own ego. And the temptation to bow down before Satan to secure the kingdoms of the world was more of freeing his oppressed people than wearing an earthly crown for himself.
But what does it mean to bow down before Satan? Is this simply some kind of vain attempt by the Devil to get Jesus to worship him instead of God, or is it more than that? Or to word it in a different way, what connection is there between receiving the kingdoms of the world and worshipping Satan?
Well, first let's think about what Jesus saw. We have a mountain near us where you can see multiple states at one time, but if you were to travel to a mountain from which you could see multiple countries, you still wouldn’t be able to see to the other side of the world. Not only is no mountain high enough, but it is physically impossible because of the curvature of the earth.
So, what does Jesus see from this mountain? I think he sees the land of his people, the land promised to Abraham long ago. The temptation, then, is to be the kind of king Israel wanted but didn’t need, a king that would continue the cycle of violence and win back Israel from the Romans.
With Jesus’s refusal of the offer of Satan, he launches out on a campaign, not of violence, but of healing, peacemaking, and preaching about love of enemies, all of which compose the ethics of the new empire of God. When we reach the climax of the gospel story, Jesus tells his disciples plainly that he is going to die. Peter, shortly after confessing that Jesus is the Christ, rebukes Jesus for suggesting such a thing.
What does Jesus say?
Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things. Matthew 16:23
The tempter has returned, but he came back through Peter. Peter, as we know, thought he could prevent the death of Jesus by drawing the sword. Jesus’s rebuke of Peter and refusal of his help led to Peter fleeing the garden and then denying Jesus three times, which is very similar to the very things we’re discussing in 1 John.
The Temptation of Jesus in John
It’s interesting to me that John doesn’t contain an account of the temptation of Jesus like the Synoptic Gospels. But I think it does show up, just with community or corporate element emphasized.
As the Passover approached, a large crowd gathered to listen to Jesus. As the crowd grew hungry, the disciples wondered how they might find food. Jesus, as you know, miraculously fed this huge crowd. In Mark’s account, which is also in the sixth chapter, Jesus had the men sit down in groups of fifties and hundreds, which must have looked like a gathering army to any onlookers.
This large-scale public miracle is reminiscent of the feeding of the people in the wilderness, and it also reminds me of both the first and second temptations in Matthew’s temptation account: (1) miraculous feeding and (2) very public miracle.
After responding to something that happens next, which I’ll come back to, Jesus has to explain that he is offering a different kind of bread. After all, as he told the Devil, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus's words, he says, are Spirit and are Life (John 6:63).
But what made Jesus say all of this? Notice how the people reacted to this feeding:
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. John 6:14–15
Do you see, then, how the first two temptations in Matthew 4 leads into the third. If you sustain the people through a miraculous feeding and you demonstrate your calling through public miracles, instead of the Messianic secret in Mark (“Go and tell no one”), then what comes next is only natural: they want to make you king. In the Exodus, is this not exactly what happened? Moses fed the people and gave them water by the power of God. He performed many public miracles. What was the goal of all of this? To organize and sustain an army that could conquer the promised land.
So is anyone surprised when the people try to make Jesus a king by force?
Yet, as he did with the Devil and with Peter, he refused.
Jesus Before His Death
As Jesus approached the cross, the possibility of a violent revolution came to his mind again in light of Peter’s actions coupled with the accusations of the priests and elders of the people. Here are two quotations from the last hours of Jesus’s life, one from Matthew and the other from John:
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” Matthew 26:52–53
Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36
The temptation is back. Jesus could easily call the angels. Jesus could easily convince his followers to fight as other contemporary revolutionaries had done, but Jesus refuses. He goes to his death without defending himself.
Jesus’s Prediction Realized
Now that we’ve done this fun but lengthy work of showing the inner struggle of Jesus which came from compassion for his people, we turn to predictions Jesus made in Matthew 24. I’ll list them here and the comment on them afterwards:
False Messiahs and Wars
Jesus answered them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs. Matthew 24:4–8
Betrayal and Hatred
“Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:9–12
We Have Found the Messiah!
Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’—do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look! He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look! He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. Matthew 24:23–26
False Messiahs and Wars
See the headings above the passages for reference.
The false Messiahs that would become apparent would lead many astray, but in what way? The next line is key: you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. In the first century, many violent revolutionaries claimed to be some great figure, perhaps the Messiah, and ended up dying for their cause. Gamaliel recounted some of these to his fellow leaders in Acts 5:
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. Then he said to them, “Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him, but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.” Acts 5:34–37
These different figures attempted to lead rebellions against Rome to recover Jerusalem for Israel, but all of them fell. As the Jewish revolt neared, more of these violent ones would try to gain a footing among the people, but their end was destruction as well.
Jesus’s followers were to take up their cross and follow Jesus by not getting caught up in the physical conflict and instead focus on preaching the way of peace through the gospel. Blessed are the peacemakers!
Betrayal and Hatred
As John wrote, the Christians weren’t to be stunned if the Kosmos hated them (1 John 3:13). And some of the Christian community would apparently fall away, betray each other, and hate each other, themes John also covers. He calls this “exiting into the Kosmos” (2 John 7).
These false prophets would lead many astray into a path of lawlessness. As we will notice in John (and as we saw in earlier editions of this series), this lawlessness was not general rule-breaking, but was characterized by a denial of Jesus as the Christ and a hatred of others.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul tells the Thessalonians to not be deceived because there was a coming revolt when the “man of lawlessness” would be revealed. This revolt, I think, refers to the very violent revolution of which Jesus predicted.
We Have Found the Messiah!
Finding the Messiah means rejecting the true Messiah. As they invited each other into their homes or out into the wilderness to conspire against Rome, the Christians should be wise enough to not get caught up into the fervor.
This would lead to their sure death despite the grandiose claims of these false (or anti) christs.
In Luke 19, Jesus warned,
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” Luke 19:41–44
John Saw These Things Happening in His Congregations
As John ministered to his congregations, he saw these events play out in real time. Lawlessness was increasing. People were abandoning and betraying the Christian community. False christs and false prophets were deceiving many. Notice the following texts:
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3:4
Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us, for if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. 1 John 2:18–19
Human-Killers and Children of the Accuser
To bring this series to an end, let’s focus on one last passage from 1 John 3. I’ll quote it here:
The one who does sin is of the Accuser, because the Accuser sins from the beginning. For this God’s Son became apparent: to loosen the Accuser’s works. Everyone who has been given life from God doesn’t do sin because his seed remains in him and is unable to sin because the person has been given life from God. In this God’s children and the Accuser’s children are apparent: everyone who doesn’t do rightness isn’t from God—and the one who doesn’t love one’s sibling.
Because this is the announcement that you heard from the beginning, that we love one another, not as Kaïn, who was of the Evil One and slayed his brother. For what reason did he slay him? Because his [works]1 were evil but his brother’s works were right. Don’t be stunned, siblings, if the Kosmos hates you. We know that we have shifted from Death into Life because we love the siblings. The one who doesn’t love remains in Death. Everyone who hates one’s sibling is a human-killer, and you know that every human-killer doesn’t have Era Life remaining in oneself. 1 John 3:8–15
This is a lengthy text, but I think it is worth quoting.
In the first section, a comparison is made between the “Accuser’s” children and God’s children. The difference between the two groups is that one sins the sin that is toward Death and the other doesn’t (see this article). In short, the difference lies in one group living a life of love while the other group’s hatred is made manifest in lawlessness and denial of Christ, as in Matthew 24. This lawlessness, again, is not general naughtiness, but it is specifically getting involved in the Jewish revolt against Rome.
The Accuser sinned “from the beginning,” which, if we let John explain this himself consisted of two things: lying and murder, which are the two major indicators of the Antichristos in John. In John 8, John records Jesus’s words,
You are of the father-Accuser and you want to do your ‘father’s’ desires. That one was a human-killer from the beginning and was not standing in the Truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks falsehoods, he speaks from himself, because he is a false speaker and its father. John 8:44
In the second section of this lengthy passage from 1 John 3, those who love and have faith in Christ remain in Life while those who don’t abide in Death. It’s these two qualities that distinguish between those who have Era-life and those who don’t. Even though others might claim to be sons of liberty, they were in actuality wells without water (2 Peter 2:16).
Like Peter’s temporary setback in Matthew 26, upon hearing of the mighty works of Jesus, these joined themselves to the followers of the Way, but when they realized the nonviolent nature of the kingdom, they publicly denied Jesus and a turned to a life of hatred. They became human-killers and children of the Accuser.
Conclusion and Application
While John was addressing a specific circumstance in his time, his words were preserved to warn us of this path of violence. Christians throughout the years, from Constantine to Columbus, have used the gospel of Jesus and the institution of the church to commit violent acts and establish Christianity as the state religion. Instead of being peacemakers, they became servants of destruction. Instead of laying down their lives, they became human-killers. And while I am not the judge of their souls, I do think they serve as important warnings for us today.
As Brian Zahnd recently tweeted, “The separation of church and state may or not be necessary for a healthy state, but it is absolutely necessary for a healthy church.”
Establishing Christianity through violent means is never justified, even if the “end” seems to “ justify the means.” The Way of the cross requires us to lay down our lives. Even though Jesus could have theoretically done untold good in establishing his own empire in the usual way, he chose the path of nonviolence for a reason, and even if we don’t understand the ins and outs of that reason, especially in times of distress, he chose that path and we should too if we are to be his followers.
McKnight’s translation says “words,” but I contacted him to ask about this point, and he said it is a misprint. It was meant to be “works”.