Who is the Antichrist?

The Modern-day Antichrist Delusion

The modern church’s view of the Antichrist, is that of a man who is the embodiment of pure evil, who sometime soon, just before the supposed bodily return of Jesus Christ, would come on the scene to take over the Christian church and rule the world.

As a result, every king, pope, religious leader, president, and prime minister over the years has been earnestly designated as the Antichrist by the Modern Church.

The Apostolic teaching about the Antichrist is very clear

However, when we look at what the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles concerning the Antichrist, it becomes easy to extricate ourselves from this antichrist wild goose chase.

The Apostle John used the term ‘Antichrist’ exclusively.
The word ‘Antichrist’ is from two Greek words – ‘anti’ and ‘kristos.’ The word ‘anti’ translates as ‘instead of’ or ‘in the place of,’ denoting a substitution or replacement of the real thing.

And the word ‘kristos’ being the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Massiach’ or the English transliteration ‘Messiah’, which means the anointed, the ‘Christ.’

So the word ‘Antichrist’ really describes a substitution, or replacement of Christ, replacing him with something or someone else.

The Apostles showed that the Antichrist was not a single individual

However, the way that the word is used by John, showed that the Antichrist was a doctrinal movement (a group of people holding a common belief and goal) based on a teaching, doctrine, or belief that arose in John’s time, among the remnant. This movement opposed the belief that Jesus was the Christ, and the Son of the living God.

John wrote, “who is the liar except he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who is denying the Father and the Son.” (1John 2:22)
John used the present tense in defining the Antichrist, indicating that this was a present reality in his time.
Further, the Antichrist was not an individual, but anyone who was teaching and believing the Antichrist doctrine.
As a result, John indicated that those who held to this belief were the Antichrist.

The Antichrist would oppose the belief in Jesus Christ, in the Apostles’ time

Another doctrine of the Antichrist was that Jesus was not the Son of God manifested as a human being.

The apostle wrote, “every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, is not from God and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard of, that it is coming, and now it is in the world already.” (1 John 4:3)

The Apostolic Church was expecting the Antichrist

From the apostle’s words, we can see that the church in John’s time knew about the coming of the Antichrist. John was confirming to them, that what the apostles had warned them about, had come to pass. John testified that the Antichrist was “in the world already.” It had come in his time.
He further wrote, “many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the Antichrist!” (2 John 1:7)

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We can extricate ourselves from the modern-day Antichrist delusion

Clearly, the teaching of the Apostles was never that the Antichrist would be a single evil world ruler who would manifest thousands of years away from their time.
Their teaching was that there was an imminent apostate movement that would (and did) arise within the church in their time, which would recant the fundamental beliefs of the Christians.

Therefore the coming of the Antichrist has already happened, 2000 years ago.
There is no need for us to remain caught up in the modern-day Antichrist wild goose chase!