This passage makes it hard, if not impossible, to avoid wondering if there are any excuses for not being Catholic. In clear, direct, unambiguous words, St. John tells us in 1 John, 2: 18-21
“Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared.”
The most important question for tens of millions of people: Are the vain inventors of schisms that are in opposition to The Church Jesus Founded among those whom St. John describes as the “many antichrists”? St. John continues:
“Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us.” It is hard to avoid thinking that someone who separates from The Church Jesus Founded is not described by “They went out from us, but they were not really of our number: if they had been, they would have remained with us.”
In fact, the Beloved Apostle continues to drive home that point: “Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.” Does the word “desertion” apply to those who, not truly knowing of The Church Jesus Founded, followed the inventors of schisms rather than His Church? The faithful do not desert The Church.
It is difficult to avoid concluding that those who began schisms are seen by St. John as “antichrists”. What of those who do not leave Jesus’ Church for the schisms? Of us, he says:
“But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.”
