Accordingly, the apostle urged his fellow Christians: “Beloved ones, do not believe every inspired expression, but test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God, because many false prophets have gone forth into the world.”—1 John 4:1.
Jesus too warned against deceivers, or false prophets, saying: “[They] come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits [or, works] you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:15, 16) Was Jesus also warning his followers against the figurative antichrist? How can we identify the antichrist?
Jesus warned his followers that the world in general would hate them. He said: “People will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name. And many false prophets will arise and mislead many.”—Matthew 24:9, 11.
Because Jesus’ disciples are persecuted “on account of [Jesus’] name,” the persecutors are clearly antichrist, against Christ. The “false prophets,” some of whom were once Christians, are also in that category. (2 John 7) These “many antichrists,” wrote John, “went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us.”—1 John 2:18, 19.
The words of both Jesus and John plainly indicate that the antichrist is not a single person but is made up of many individual antichrists.
Revelation 13:5-8 declares, “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”
