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.