Warning against Antichrists

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.^(A)

³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus^[a] is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.^(A)

⁷ Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!^(A)

²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?^[a] This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

²⁴ For false messiahs^[a] and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.^(A)

⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’^[a] and they will lead many astray.

Testing the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.^(A)

³ For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires^{(A) 4} and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

Godlessness in the Last Days

3 You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. ² For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,^{(A) 3} unfeeling, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good,^{(B) 4} treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,^{(C) 5} holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! ⁶ For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate immature women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires,^(D)

False Asceticism

4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later^[a] times some will renounce^[b] the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,^{(A) 2} through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. ³ They forbid marriage and abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.^(B)