⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed,^(A) whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth^(B) and destroy by the splendor of his coming.^{(C) 9} The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan^(D) works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders^(E) that serve the lie, ¹⁰ and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.^(F) They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.^(G)

Warnings Against Denying the Son

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour;^(A) and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,^(B) even now many antichrists have come.^(C) This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us,^(D) but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.^(E)

²⁰ But you have an anointing^(F) from the Holy One,^(G) and all of you know the truth.^{[a](H) 21} I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it^(I) and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.^(J)

³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,^(A) which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.^(B)

⁷ I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ^(A) as coming in the flesh,^(B) have gone out into the world.^(C) Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.^(D)