"This is the last hour". Now this was written almost two thousand years ago, so clearly we are not mean to take this in a literal chronological sense. What it means is that we are in the final phase of history. The work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the sending of the Holy Spirit marked the time when people are being saved. It means we are in a crucial phase.
The antichrist is a very popular term in films and various nonsense that is put about on the web. It is actually a term that is little used in the Bible (in fact only by John). Literally it means one who opposes Christ. So there is actually little need here to interpret it in wildly apocalyptic terms. All he means is that there are many who are offering alternatives to Christ as the way of salvation. Some of them had started off in the church, but had then gone away.
We know the truth and have an anointing from the Holy One. This may strike some as arrogant, but we need to be confident in the truth of the gospel. The gnostic type teachings would have tried to make the believers think that they were lacking something, lacking some "secret knowledge". John was writing to them to reaffirm the truth, to encourage them to have confidence in the truth.
The antichrist is the one who denies the Son. And anyone who denies the Son is also denying God the Father.
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