What does 1 John 2:18 mean?
This verse begins a new section, extending through verse 27, focused on warning against "antichrists." These are not the same as the end-times figure mentioned in the book of Revelation. John begins with the preface, "Children, it is the last hour." He considered his time as part of the "last hour" or end times. Though the end times are hotly debated today, it is clear the apostles believed they lived in some sense of "the end times," starting after the ascension of Jesus.John's reason for referring to the current time as "the last hour" was the emergence of so many of these antichrists. John had personally encountered those who were against Christ, teaching against the true gospel and character of Jesus. John is the only writer to mention the word antichrist, defining an antichrist as "he who denies the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:22), does not confess Jesus (1 John 4:3), and does not confess Jesus as coming in the flesh (2 John 1:7).