2020REV-27 - Q&A-07 - COVID, Vaccinations, & The Mark Of The Beast

The spirit of the antichrist is everywhere (1 Jn 2:18). There are antichrists all around us. They live around us, live with us, work beside us, teach us, protect, entertain, and serve us. They come to church, they are involved in government, medicine, sports, politics, education, and religion (1 John 2:22). Any misrepresentation of Christ is an antichrist (2 John 1:7).

But just the word antichrist, and we think of this solitary monster, this massively powerful anti-God, indeed anti-Christ individual who is the last and greatest enemy that the gospel will ever know. But you've got to extend your thinking beyond that because in verse 18 it says it is true, you have heard it right "that antichrist is coming," – that final one – "even now, however, many antichrists have arisen." says John. You don't have to wait to run into Antichrist, the only Antichrist is not the one that's coming at the end of human history. In fact, there are many antichrists right now.
They are, in fact, everywhere. Some of them are here tonight in this place. They're in your homes, in some cases, in your schools. They're at your work place. They ride with you on the airplane. They ride with you on the bus. They talk to you in the neighborhood. They're involved in every aspect of human life, education, government, medicine, entertainment, religion. They're everywhere, these antichrists. How are we to identify them? Go down to verse 22. How do we know when we've run into an antichrist?
Verse 22, "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist." Anybody is antichrist who denies that Jesus is the Messiah. Bound up in that word Christ, of course, the Hebrew equivale