Beware of Antichrists

18 Children, it is [the] last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is [the] last hour.19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But [their departure] made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

20 You, however, have [an] anointing from the Holy [One], and you know all things.[fn]21 I have not written to you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth.22 Who is the liar, if [it is] not the [one who] denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son.23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father.[fn]