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1 John 4:3 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist,[11] of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. Antichrist equals anti (“Instead of or “against”) Christ. An antichrist is literally a person, group, organization, and government that works in opposition to Jesus Christ ad his people. Persons who deny that Jesus is truly the Messiah. (1 John 2:22) All who deny that Jesus is the divine Son of God. (1 John 2:22; John 10:36; Luke 9:35) Apostates, of course, are the antichrist because they stand off from the truth. (1 John 2:18-19) Those who oppose Christ’s true followers. (John 15:20-21) Persons, organization, and even nations that oppose Christ or that themselves falsely claim they are the Christ, the Messiah. – Psalm 2:2; Revelation 17:3, 12-14; 19:11-21; Matthew 24:24.

Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
The antichrists are in opposition to Jesus Christ.
For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones.
If they persecuted me [Jesus], they would also persecute you.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, workers of lawlessness.

This is the spirit of the antichrist. In a little more detail. Antichrist: (ἀντίχριστος antichristos) The term “Antichrist,” occurs in the NT five times. From those five times, we gather this entity is “against” (i.e., denies Christ) or “instead of” (i.e., false Christs) Jesus Christ. Many antichrists began back in the apostle John’s day and will continue up until Jesus’ second coming. (1 John 2:18) The antichrist is referred to as a number of individuals taken together, i.e., collectively. (2 John 1;7) Persons who deny Jesus Christ are the antichrist. (1 John 2:22) All who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ as the One and Only Son of God is the antichrist. (1 John 2:22; John 10:36; Lu 9:35) Some antichrists are apostates who left the faith and are now in opposition to the truth. (1 John 2:18-19) Those who oppose the true followers of Jesus are the antichrist. (John 15:20-21) Antichrists are individuals or nations opposing Jesus or trying to supplant his kingly authority. – Ps. 2:2; Matt. 24:24; Rev. 17:3, 12-14; 19:11-21.

Of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already. First John was written in the last years of the first century, about 98 C.E., and yet John says that there were antichrists already in the world during his day. The signs of antichrists in John’s day let him know it was the last hour. Many have the characteristics it was predicted that antichrists would have; as explained above, many deny that Jesus is the Messiah or deny that he has come in the flesh. If they maintained that Jesus was an impostor and not the true Messiah, or if they admitted that the Messiah had come, they affirmed that he had come in appearance only and not really come in the flesh; this was the spirit of the antichrist. John says that there were many such persons, in fact, in his time. It would seem from this that John did not refer to a single individual or to a succession of individuals who should come previous to the winding up of the affairs of the world, as Paul did (2 Thess. 2:2) but that he understood that there might be many at the same time who would evince the spirit of antichrist. Both he and Paul, however, refer to the expectation that before the coming of the Savior to judge the world, there would be prominent adversaries of the Christian religion and that the end would not come until such adversaries appeared on a grand scale. Paul goes more into detail and describes the characteristics of the great apostasy more at length (2 Thess. 2:2; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1) John says not that the appearance of these persons indicated that the end of the world was near, but that they had such characteristics as to show that they were living in the last days. Paul so describes them to show that the end of the world was not to be immediately expected; John, without referring to that point, says that there were enough of that character to prove that the last days had come, though he does not say how long it would continue.