JOHN’S EPISTOLARY ESCHATOLOGY With the New Testament authors in general, John’s epistolary eschatology may be characterized as simple “eschatological dualism.” He teaches his readers, on the one hand, that the “true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8), that Christians already “have passed out of death into [eternal] life” (1 John 3:14), and that they were living in the “last hour,” as evidenced by the fact that “even now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18; see also 4:3b, where John declares