Antichrist teaching

This author had a clear warning against paying attention to those who say that Jesus was not a flesh-and-blood person.  Thus, from the time that this epistle was first written, there must have been those Christians who had a Docetic Christology.  They believed that the human person of Jesus was actually a pure spirit.  The doctrine of Docetism had made inroads among the followers of Jesus in the latter half of the first century.  Some said that Jesus never assumed human flesh, but only had the appearance of a human.  They were scandalized that God would soil himself by associating so closely with human matter. Others said that Christ was raised as a spirit only, and did not experience a bodily resurrection.  In this epistle, John condemned this doctrine in no uncertain terms with the statement that such people who taught like this were antichrists.  The term antichrist was only used in 1 John and 2 John in all the New Testament canonical writings.

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