The only actual occurrences of the word "antichrist" in the Bible are found in John's letters.

"By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, {3} and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already." (1 John 4:2-3)

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist." (2 John 1:7)

According to the inspired words of John, everyone who does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came "in the flesh" is a member of antichrist! John wrote these words because there were people in his day claiming that Jesus was a spirit who only used a body for 33 years and then discarded the body when he died¹. Tragically, there are still people today who believe and teach that Jesus was a pre-existing spirit who took on a body for his life on earth and then left the body when it was killed. The apostle John says that this is antichrist teaching because it separates Jesus from his body and teaches that Jesus did not really come "in the flesh'', since according to these people, he could exist without the body.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus was born of a human mother, with God as his father (Luke 1:34,35; 2 John 3). Because his mother was human, Jesus inherited a nature like ours which can be tempted to sin (Matthew 4:4, Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:15), and like everyone since the days of Adam he inherited mortality (Romans 5:12-14). The body of Jesus was exactly like ours and he could no more leave his body than we can leave our own. When the body of Jesus died, Jesus himself died and remained dead for three days (Acts 2:23-32; Matthew 16:21). After that, Jesus (including his body) was resurrected and his body was changed to flesh and spirit instead of flesh and blood (Luke 24:36-43; Acts 2:24,32). Jesus himself said after his resurrection:

"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." (Luke 24:39)

In this way, the Bible explains to us that Jesus Christ did actually come "in the flesh". God warns us in his Word that to separate Jesus from his flesh is deadly wrong, for this is the teaching of antichrist.

Notice how the Bible uses "antichrist" to describe anyone who does not teach that Jesus Christ really came "in the flesh''. There actually is no such thing in the Bible as one "future Antichrist", because antichrists were already in existence during John's day and many more arose during the following centuries. Antichrists are also in existence NOW since there are many false prophets today who do not teach that Jesus Christ came "in the flesh". Therefore, it is completely unbiblical to speak of one "future Antichrist" and this alone should teach us to beware of the "future Antichrist" theory.

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