Difference between revisions of "Antichrist"

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The Antichrist in Premillennialism^[1] will persecute faithful Christians during the Tribulation.

Etymology

The word Antichrist comes from the Greek αντί-χριστος (anti-khristos), meaning opposite of Christ. The Greek word anti can also mean 'instead of' or "equal to, like" so that the phrase can also be interpreted as meaning in place of, or like, Christ so while opposing Christ the antichrist will try to appear to be like Christ. Some Christians believe that the use in John refers to a single being that will appear in the End Times. This view is most commonly found among premillennialist Christians. In modern useage, the term is usually used to refer to one who is pure evil.

The Antichrist in the Bible

The following verses are the only verses which directly use the word Antichrist (KJV)

I John 2:18 'as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists'

I John 2:22 'Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieith the Father and the Son.'

I John 4:3 'And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

2 John 7: 'For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.'

Based on the lack of direct references, some Christians argue that the Bible refers only to a generalized concept of Antichrist, applicable to anybody who is 'against Christ', not to a particular person. Moreover, such 'antichrists' were already present in the world nearly two thousand years ago. Other Christian, such as the Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations, have argued that these verses mainly prefigure the actual Antichrist and that one can see a single unifying Antichrist figure with the proper exegetical methods if one looks at the books of Daniel and Revelations.^[2] So while there is a spirit of antichrist, there is also one Antichrist who is to come.

The Antichrist is often associated with, and in some interpretations considered equivalent to, the Beast of Revelation or the Man of Sin referenced in II Thessalonians 2:3.

Islam

Islamic theology also teaches of an antichrist-like figure known as Dajjal^[3]

America as the Seat of Antichrist

America as the "Seat of Antichrist" ipso facto the leader of the West, namely, the President of the United States, as the Antichrist, with his nation as the ultimate Beast Nation or Babylon the Great - the great end times' commercial citadel spoken of in Revelation 18, has increasingly become the topic of conversation around the prophetic tables, not only in America, but increasingly throughout the world. A simple search for "Obama as the Antichrist" will generate scores of blogs, books, magazine articles, etc. America's fascination of this elusive, but ever-forecasted personage to appear in the "Latter Days" (according to Christians who hold to a Futurism eschatolog)^[4] appears to be an integral part of Americana.

The seat of Antichrist as the USA is not a new interpretation among Christians, even among those who profess no faith. The United States in Bible Prophecy as the two-horned beast in Revelation 13:11-17 (i.e., the second beast of Revelation 13:1 who supports the Beast (i.e., the Antichrist) was propounded in 1859 by Frances Rolleston who authored a work titled Notes on the Apocalypse, as Explained by the Hebrew Scriptures: The Place in Prophecy of America and Australia Being Pointed Out.^[5] Seventh-day Adventist Church expositor Uriah Smith in 1884 authored a text entitled The United States in the Light of Prophecy; or, An Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17^[6] Smith was insistent that America was the beast of Revelation 13:11-17. However, it was not until 1968 when Dr. S. Franklin Logsdon, Sr. Pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois, who suggested that the USA was Babylon the Great.^[7] Jack Van Impe^[8] in The Great Escape^[9] indicts America as the fulfillment of Jeremiah 50-51^[10] and Revelation 18:1-24. In one of the more exhaustive indictments against America as the seat of Antichrist, R. A. Coombes, in America, the Babylon: America’s Destiny Foretold in Biblical Prophecy^[11] presents thirty-three identifying markers which he claims identify America as the Babylon of the End Times, the seat of Antichrist; also, Coombes lists sixty-six points in another segment of his text (pp. 182-86) in which New York City is the perfect bastion of Babylon the Great.

Mark Hitchcock, in his 2009 text, The Late Great United States, What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days^[12] rejects the eschatologists who suggest that America is Mystery, Babylon the Great (Revelation 17:5) and claims, instead, that modern-day Iraq is the literal Babylon the Great of the latter days (pp. 17-21). Scores of authors now flood the American apocalyptic marketplace with America’s role in Bible prophecy and most tie in the final Antichrist as the leader of that proposition.^[13] Those Evangelicals who dispute America’s role as the Babylon of the Last Days, and as the seat of Antichrist, have been resisted by the likes of John Walvoord^[14] of Dallas Theological Seminary^[15], R. L. Hymers, Jr. of the Los Angeles Baptist Tabernacle.^[16] and Tim LaHaye^[17] of the famed Left Behind Series.

In his e-book Antichrist - Reflections on the Desolator^[18] Doug Krieger asserts that The Antichrist is not a Jew, the Pope, Islam nor a New-Age figure. Antichrist will be (according to Krieger) the leader of the West and the "protector of the Jews in a regathered Israel" - it is this figure who will make a "defense pact" to defend Israel's majority for seven years but, like other Biblical Futurists, will break his covenant with Israel and declare himself as "God, in the temple of God" (II Thessalonians 2:4). Also, Antichrist receives the Biblical entitlement of the Beast in the middle of Daniel's final 70th Week. This is accomplished when Antichrist receives "a wound in his head" - his body will then be entered into by Satan himself who will parody the resurrection of Jesus; thereafter, he is entitled the Beast. Therefore, Satan will not only desecrate a rebuilt Third Temple by declaring himself as God in the Temple of God but he will desecrate the Antichrist's body (i.e., the "temple of man") and, as "Satan entered into Judas" to betray Jesus, he will enter into Antichrist - both Judas and Antichrist are entitled The Son of Perdition (John 17:12; II Thessalonians 2:3).

Titles of the Antichrist

Arthur Pink^[19] and Doug Krieger,^[20] as well as many, especially Premillenial^[21] Evangelicals,^[22] extrapolate titles of the End Times Antichrist from both Testaments of the Bible; to name but a few:

1. The Antichrist- I John

2. The Man of Sin – II Thess.

3. The Lawless One – II Thess.

4. The Beast – Rev. 11:7

5. The Bloody and Deceitful Man – Psalm 5:6

6. The Wicked One – II Thess.

7. The Man of the Earth – Psalm 10:18

8. The Mighty Man – Psalm 52:1

9. The Enemy – Psalm 55:3

10.The Adversary – Psalm 74:8-10

11.The Head Over Many Countries – Psalm 110:6

12.The Violent Man – Psalm 140:1

13.The Assyrian – Isa. 10:5-12

14.The King of Babylon – Isa. 14:4

15.The Son of the Morning – Isa. 14:12

16.The Abominable Branch – Isa. 14:19

17.The Spoiler – Isa. 16:4

18.The Nail – Isa. 22:25

19.The Branch of the Terrible Ones – Ezk. 21:25-27

20.The King of Tyre – Ezk. 28:12

21.The Little (i.e., "Younger") Horn – Daniel 7:8

22.The Head Over Many Countries- Psalm 110:6

23.The Coming Prince – Dan. 9:26

24.The Vile (or Despicable) Person – Dan. 11:21

25.The Willful King – Dan. 11:3 and Dan. 11:36

26.The Idol Shepherd – Zech. 11:16-17

27.The Angel of the Bottomless Pit – Rev. 9:11

28.The Son of Perdition – II Thess.

29.The Desolator – Daniel 9:27

30.The Abomination of Desolation – Daniel 11:31 and Daniel 12:11

31.God of Fortresses – Daniel 11:38

See Also

• 2300 Day Prophecy of Daniel 8
• Abomination of Desolation
• Apocalypse
• Armageddon
• Book of Daniel
• Book of Revelation
• Eschatology
• End times
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
• Last Judgment
• Millenarianism
• Oracle of Damascus
• Preterism
• Postmillennialism
• The Rapture
• Third Temple
• Two Witnesses

Resources

• Cruden, A., Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments (Lutterworth, 1930)
• The Holy Bible (King James Version)
• The New English Bible (Oxford & Cambridge University Presses, 1970)
• The New Jerusalem Bible (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1990)
• Peake, A.S., Commentary on the Bible (Nelson, 1962)
• Young, R., Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible (Lutterworth, 1939)

Notes and references