The spirit of antichrist

“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.” 1 John 2:18
Did you know that the word ‘antichrist’ does not appear even once in the book of Revelation? (The future leader commonly known as ‘the Antichrist’ is called ‘the beast’ there.) Yet John, who wrote that book as well as this epistle, uses the word ‘antichrist’ five times in this epistle, to refer to something a little different than we usually use the word.
We can easily understand what ‘antichrist’ means – ‘anti’, opposed to, Christ. Consider today how many people are actively, vocally denying Christ. Stephen Hawking makes the news yet again for saying that we don’t need God to create the universe. Even from within the church, people in leadership positions are denying the creation of the world, a literal man Adam (and therefore a literal Fall), the inspiration of the prophets (and indeed the whole word of God), the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and the list goes on. How these people can still call themselves ‘Christians’ when they deny all the foundational tenets of our faith, I don’t know. But John tells us why this is: a rise in this opposition to Christ will come, during the last days. We are seeing it today. This is how we know it is the last hour.