THE LAST HOUR

In 1 John 1:18 John writes, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know it is the last hour.”

This verse tells us several things:

• John is speaking to those who are in the church
• The church is in the last hour
• There is coming a main antichrist
• His coming will be sometime during the last hour
• Many other antichrists had already arisen at the time John wrote this
• Because of the rising of these other antichrists John’s readers knew they
were in the last hour

From verse 22 we learn what an antichrist is. They are liars, denying that Jesus is the Christ. They deny the Father as well as the Son. (This will ultimately characterize the main antichrist also.)

From verse 19 we learn antichrists leave the church because they were not really of the church. Those who are really of the church will remain and will not deny the Father or the Son.

John tells his children in verse 24 to let the truth remain in them, the truth which they heard from the beginning. If the truth remains in them, and they do not deny the Father or the Son, then they also will abide in the Son and the Father.

When does the last hour end? At what point will antichrists no longer go out from the church?

I think we find the answer in verse 28, the last hour ends at the Lord’s coming: “And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

Paul told the believers in the church at Thessalonica that the Lord’s coming and our gathering will not happen before the man of lawlessness is revealed and he exalts himself in the temple as God. Paul is giving the church something very specific for which to watch and it regarded blasphemous activity by the main antichrist.

If the last hour ends at the coming of Christ, when the church is gathered, and if the main antichrist comes during the last hour, the church will be here for his arrival. And we know many will deny Christ when the main antichrist is revealed, choosing to take the mark of the main antichrist.

Antichrist is coming and there is a generation of believers in the church that will be here for his arrival…