Paradise Restored

The Rise of Antichrist 113
ing that the day of judgment was already upon them. Paul
reminded the Christians of what he had explained before:
Let no one deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy
comes first . . . (2 Thess. 2:3).
By the end of the age, however, as John was writing his letters,
the Great Apostasy –the spirit of antichrist, of which the
Lord had foretold – was a reality.
Jude, who wrote one of the very last New Testament books,
leaves us in no doubt about this issue. Issuing strong condemnations
of the heretics who had invaded the church and were attempting
to draw Christians away from the orthodox faith (Jude
1-16), he reminds his readers that they had been warned of this
very thing:
But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were
spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that they were saying to you, “In the last time there shall be
mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts .“ These are the
ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit
(Jude 17-19).
Jude clearly regards the warnings about the “mockers” as
referring to the heretics of his own day — meaning that his own
day was the period of “the last time.” Like John, he knew that
the rapid multiplying of these false brethren was a sign of the
End. Antichrist had arrived, and it was now the Last Hour.