I hate to do this on Christmas Eve, but since this is my 666th post on this blog, I decided that I needed to post on the Antichrist. What do we know about the Antichrist? When I returned to church in my early 20′s, I attended a church that had a very complex and detailed understanding of the end times. Aside from planning out the timeline of the rapture, tribulation and millennium, they had much to say about the Antichrist. I assumed that the Bible had many details about the identity and activity of an individual described as the Antichrist.
The truth is that things are a bit more complicated. There is very little specifically about someone called the Antichrist. What happens is that three passages about an individual described in three different ways are combined to put together the popular understanding of the Antichrist.
“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 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.” (1 John 2:18–22 ESV)
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:2–3 ESV)
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7 ESV)
These three parts of John’s letters will be treated as one passage as they are used in a similar way. These are the only verses that use the word ‘antichrist.’ What we see is that the emphasis by far is not some end time figure but on the activity of people in the present. Heretics, especially those who deny that Jesus has come in the flesh, are antichrists. John seems to be responding to some proto-gnostics of docetists who believed that Jesus was pure spirit and did not have a real human body. These people were present and causing trouble at the time these letters were written. Of course 1 John 2:18 does speak of some anticipation of the coming of an antichrist. But it is not at all clear what is meant by that. This could simply be what Jesus predicted about the appearing of false teachers. There definitely is not enough information here to apply the antichrist as a title for a major end time figure.
“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 ESV)
This passage is much more clear in its connection to the end times. Paul is addressing the concerns of the Thessalonians with regard to missing the second coming. Paul reassures them that there are some important things that must happen first. One of these is the appearance of the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction. But who is this? And how does he sit in the temple of God if it is destroyed? Will the temple be rebuilt? Paul does not address these questions. Paul’s focus is on the reassurance that the second coming is not something that can be accidentally missed as it will be accompanied by some other dramatic events.
“And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” (Revelation 13:1–18 ESV)
Most of what people say about the Antichrist is really based on the beast of Revelation. It should be noticed that there is not one beast here, but two. The beast is some power that opposes God. In the context of Revelation, this beast is based on the Roman Emperor. In fact the number 666, far from being a way to calculate the name of some future Antichrist, is probably a code for Nero, a Roman Emperor known for persecuting Christians.
So what do we know about the Antichrist? Not much. We certainly do not have enough information to be predicting what present or future individual will be involved in end time persecution of the church. What we do know is that there are powers that oppose God. Those powers are present now, especially in terms of heretical teaching. Those powers will increase and will become more intense as we near he return of Jesus. Perhaps that will be manifest as one specific person who opposes God. Until then, we should focus on confronting the spirit of antichrist that is already active and has been active as long as the church has been around.
