Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the end times.
Here he calls antichrist "spirits" and "false prophets" who deny that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." As John writes, the spirit of antichrist, which characterized these false teachers, is "even now already...in the world." In 2 John 1:7, John confirms who "antichrist" is: "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." From all of the above, it seems reasonable to conclude that "antichrist" is a Cerinthian Gnostic who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh. "Antichrist" simply stands for all these deceivers and false prophets who were leading people away from the truth that Jesus was "God manifest in the flesh." The words of Barclay might be fitting here: