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- For the Friedrich Nietzsche book, see The Antichrist. For the Gorgoroth album, see Antichrist (album).
In Christian eschatology the Antichrist or anti-Christ has come
to mean a person, image of a person, or other
entity that is an embodiment of evil.
Antichrist is translated from the combination of two ancient Greek words αντί +
χριστος ('anti + khristos), which can mean
anti "opposite" (of) khristos "anointed" therefore "opposite of Christ" (the
meaning of christ as 'anointed one' having become secondary to its meaning as the honorific of
Jesus of Nazareth) or anti "as" (if) khristos "messiah" thus "in place of Christ".
An antichrist can be opposed to Christ by striving to be in the place of Christ. The term itself appears 5 times in
1 John and 2 John of the New
Testament — once in plural form and 4 times in the singular, and is popularly associated with the belief of a competing and
assumed evil entity opposed to Jesus of Nazareth.[1] The
term is also often applied to prophecies regarding a "Little horn" power in Daniel 7, and is used in conjunction with many
end times teachings.
New Testament
The words antichrist and antichrists appear only five times in the Bible — in the epistles 1 John and 2
John
- 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." (1
John 2:18, ESV)
- Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the anti-christ, he who denies the Father and the
Son. (1 John 2:22, ESV)
- And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of
anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1
John 4:3, ESV)
- Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the
deceiver and the anti-christ. (2
John 1:7, ESV.)
The understanding of one person being 'the' Anti-Christ appears to be combined in 1 John with the idea of a class of
persons. There, John speaks of "many anti-Christs" who embody the spirit of the anti-Christ 1
John 4:3). John wrote that, such an anti-Christ (or opponent of Christ) would deny: "that Jesus is the Christ"; "the Father
and the Son"; and would "not confess Jesus came in the flesh."
Some Christians identify a particular Antichrist as a "man of sin" or "son of perdition"
mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Others identify as being, or in
league with several figures in the Book of Revelation including the Dragon, the Beast, the False
Prophet, and the Whore of Babylon.
Matthew 24 warns of false Christs, and of deceivers who would appear claiming
falsely to be the returned Christ. (Matt. 24:5,24:24)
In the small apocalypse of Saint Paul, in
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, a "man of sin", "the son of perdition" is to
take over the temple of God, on the false pretense that he is God himself. Interestingly Antiochus Epiphanes, around 170 BC, commanded Jews to sacrifice pigs on the altar, four times a year on the Shabbat, in
tribute to him as the supreme god of the Seleucids.
Later texts and apocrypha
Related ideas and references appear in various apocrypha, and a more complete portrait of
the Antichrist has been built up gradually by Christian theologians and folk-religionists.
One such apocryphal text is the apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy falsely attributed to the
Tiburtine Sibyl. It purports to prophesy (although written after the fact—see
postdiction) the arrival of the Christian emperor, Constantine, beginning:
- "Then will arise a king of the Greeks whose name is Constans. He will be king of the
Romans and the Greeks. He will be tall of stature, of handsome appearance with shining face, and well put together in all parts
of his body..."
Millennialists and anti-Semites have relished the
document's suggestion that the Antichrist will be an Israelite: "At that time the Prince of Iniquity will arise from 'the
Tribe of Dan'."
This position is supported by several Biblical sources: 1) Genesis 49:17, which reads: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so
that its rider shall fall backward." However, it is probable this prophecy pertains to the fact that the Tribe of Dan
historically fell into idolatry during Biblical times, leading members of other Jewish tribes into idolatry, as well; and 2)
Revelation 7:1-8, which appears to show that none of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists will come from the Tribe
of Dan. However, there are other Biblical examples of tribes being absent from similar lists, without any iniquity being implied.
It is probable that such is the case here.
Jerry Falwell believed that the Antichrist would be of Jewish descent, basing their
claims on Daniel 11:37. This verse reads: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the
desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all".[2] Some [citation needed]hold that disregarding "... the desire of women ..." may indicate that the
Antichrist will be a celibate or a homosexual, however
in Jewish tradition, "... the desire of women ..." is to bear
children, so that Daniel describes the Antichrist's hatred towards his own children or his refusal
to have children of his own. Some read Jesus as hinting that the Antichrist would be Jewish by his
statement: "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive
him ..." John 5:43.
In Islam
Antichrist is similar to the description of dajjal who will appear as a powerful and corrupt leader and Isa (Arabic name for
Jesus Christ) will kill him in an epic war near Jerusalem.
Expected role
Christian denominations disagree on what will happen in the end times, and the role that
Satan and the Antichrist will play. Among them are those who believe that the antichrists of whom
John wrote are instead a single individual and expect this one person to rise in the future. There is a consensus that sometime
prior to the expected return of Jesus, there will be a period of "trials and tribulations"
during which the Antichrist, inspired by Satan, will attempt to win supporters with great works,
and will silence anyone or make enemies of any country that refuses their allegiance (by refusing to "receive his mark" on their
foreheads or right hands). This "mark" is expected to be required to legally partake in commerce, as noted in Revelation 13:16,17 Some Christians believe that the Antichrist will be assassinated half way through the
Tribulation, being revived and indwelt by Satan. The Antichrist will continue on for three and a half years following
this.[3]
In this view, an event popularly termed the "White Throne Judgment" will take place, at which time both the living and the dead will be resurrected, some for everlasting life, and some for everlasting
death. All those who worship God through Jesus will be admitted to the presence of God; but everyone who would not repent of the
Antichrist will be thrown into the "lake of Fire". Finally, the "Dragon" (often interpreted as Satan), the "Beast" (often interpreted as the Antichrist) and the "false
prophet" (interpreted in many ways) who compels the world to worship the Beast, and all who received his mark (cast their
lot with him), will be thrown into a lake of fire together with death and Sheol. These views are based on controversial passages
in the Apocalypse of John, more commonly known as the Book of Revelation.
The Bible verse from chapter 8 of the Book of Daniel is seen as a prophecy of the Antichrist: "And in the latter time of their
kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand
up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise,
and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he
shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he
shall be broken without hand."[4]
In other views, the role is far less dramatic — the Antichrist is simply believed to be a group of individuals as well as
organizations, who, for their history of trying to deceive and stifle the faithful, are finally destroyed for all time by God on
the day of Armageddon. Gog and Magog are identified as the nations in the four corners of the
earth, and their attack is represented as an eschatological crisis after the Millennium, to be vanquished by divine
intervention.
Identity
The numbers 666 or 616[5] are associated with the
Antichrist, according to Revelation 13:18. Gematria and other numerology techniques are used to calculate the numeric value of a name in attempts to confirm the identity
of the Antichrist.
1st millennium
According to Bernard McGinn, in Christianity's early days the Antichrist was identified variously as spirit of heresy (by
Polycarp), the Roman empire (by Irenaeus), or the resurrected
Nero (by John Chrysostom).
Arnulf of Rheims wrote in A.D. 991, "What do you estimate this to be,
reverend fathers? When you see him sitting on a lofty throne glittering in purple and gold, what do you estimate this to be, I
say? Without a doubt, if he lacks love, and is only swelled up and lifted up, must he not be the Antichrist, 'sitting in the
temple of God, and also showing himself as God'”?[6]
2nd millennium
Similarly, another idea that began appearing early in the history of the Christian church is that the Antichrist will be an
apostate priest or Christian secular ruler, perhaps a Pope or other high leader of the Christian
church, or a pretender to the Papacy.
Some of the Spiritual Franciscans considered the Emperor Frederick II a positive Antichrist who would clean the Church from riches and clergy[7].
Some Protestant Churches have made it an issue of faith to identify the Bishop of Rome and the papal system as the Antichrist.
See, for example, the Smalcald Articles, Westminster Confession and the 1689
Baptist Confession of Faith; early Protestant Reformers, including Martin Luther,
John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, Cotton Mather, and John
Wesley, identified the Roman Papacy as the Antichrist [1]. Headed by Matthias Flacius, several Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg, known as the Centuriators of Magdeburg, wrote the 12-volume "Magdeburg Centuries" to discredit
the papacy, including identifying the pope as the Antichrist. Virtually all popes have been called the Antichrist by their
enemies, and many popes have applied this title of "Antichrist", "son of perdition", or "man of sin", to their enemies as well.
Some Catholics expected a son of Martin Luther to be the Antichrist, as his scion would be
the son of an ex-priest and ex-nun.
The Lutheran Churches of the Reformation [2], the Concordia Lutheran Conference [3], the
Church of the Lutheran Confession [4], and the Illinois
Lutheran Conference [5] all hold to Brief Statement. In 1959 the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) formally issued its "Statement on the
Antichrist", a doctrinal statement that declared, "we reaffirm the statement of the
Lutheran Confessions, that 'the Pope is the very Antichrist'". "WELS Statement on the Antichrist".
After the reforms of Patriarch Nikon to the Russian Orthodox Church of 1652 a large number of Old
Believers held that tzar Peter the Great was the Antichrist [6], because of his treatment of
the Orthodox Church, namely separating church from state, requiring clergyman to conform to the standards of all Russian
civilians (shaved beards, being fluent in French), and requiring them to pay state taxes. In 1914 ,
a woman believing the faith healer Rasputin was the Antichrist, for his supposedly evil
influences over the tzar and tzarina, stabbed him, cutting a large wound in his chest. He fully recovered.
Preterists look to an early antichrist. The Roman emperor beginning with Nero, sometimes
together with the four emperors who succeeded him in the year following his
suicide, until the elevation of Nero's general Vespasian to emperor, have been interpreted
from very early times, either alone or collectively as the Beast of the Apocalypse. This is supported by some numerological
interpretations.
In this tumultuous period, superstitious fear and mob violence grew against Christians, and the Roman wars against the Jews
intensified (AD 66–70), ending with the destruction of the Temple in AD
70 under the command of general Titus (later emperor), and the
slaughter of the Jews who were living at Jerusalem. According to tradition, Nero ordered the
crucifixion of St. Peter and the beheading of Saint
Paul. Both Jewish and Christian literature survives, referring to Emperor Nero as the Antichrist. A more detailed
description of this Preterist interpretation can be found in the entry on the Book of Revelation.
Paul of Tarsus has been theorized by some Muslims and others (notably English
political radical Jeremy Bentham) to have fulfilled the role of the Antichrist within the
chronicles of the New Testament of the Bible itself [citation needed]. This theory is premised on an idea that the original teachings of Christ were distorted by Paul,
rather than elaborated upon or revealed to Paul by Christ.
Widespread Protestant identification of the Papacy as the Antichrist persisted until
the early-1900s when the Scofield Reference Bible was published by
Cyrus Scofield. Prior to the Scofield Bible, with few exceptions, the Protestant
confessions of faith declared the Papacy as the Antichrist. Westminster Confession of Faith:
- 25.6. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head
thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and
all that is called God; whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
(Col. 1:18; Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 2:2-9)
In response to the identification of the Papacy as Antichrist, the modern view of Futurism (Christian eschatology), a product of the Counter-Reformation, was advanced beginning in the 16th century. This theory was developed by a
Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera in his 1585
treatise on the Apocalypse of John entitled In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli,
& Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarij. This view was then codified by St.
Bellarmine, who gives in full the Catholic theory set forth by the Greek and Latin Fathers, of a personal Antichrist to
come just before the end of the world and to be accepted by the Jews and enthroned in the temple at
Jerusalem—thus endeavoring to dispose of the exposition which saw Antichrist in
the pope. Bellarmine's interpretation, in modified form, is now accepted by most premillennial dispensationalists. [7]. The Leader of the Free
Presbyterian Church, Ian Paisley, loudly denounced the then Pope, Pope John Paul II as the Antichrist when the pontiff was giving a
speech at a sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 1988, when Paisley was an MEP
Contemporary Identification
Contemporary, conservative, Confessional Lutherans still hold that the pope is the
Antichrist, insisting that this article of faith is part of a quia rather than quatenus subscription to the
Book of Concord. In 1932, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) adopted A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal
Position of the Missouri Synod. Statement 43, Of the Antichrist:
43. As to the Antichrist we teach that the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures concerning the Antichrist, 2 Thess.
2:3-12; 1 John 2:18, have been fulfilled in the Pope of Rome and his dominion. All the features of the Antichrist as drawn in
these prophecies, including the most abominable and horrible ones, for example, that the Antichrist "as God sitteth in the temple
of God," 2 Thess. 2:4; that he anathematizes the very heart of the Gospel of Christ, that is, the doctrine of the forgiveness
of sins by grace alone, for Christ's sake alone, through faith alone, without any merit or worthiness in man (Rom.
3:20-28; Gal. 2:16); that he recognizes only those as members of the Christian Church who bow to his authority; and that, like
a deluge, he had inundated the whole Church with his antichristian doctrines till God revealed him through the Reformation --
these very features are the outstanding characteristics of the Papacy. (Cf. Smalcald Articles, Triglot, p. 515,
Paragraphs 39-41; p. 401, Paragraph 45; M. pp. 336, 258.) Hence we subscribe to the statement of our Confessions that the
Pope is "the very Antichrist." (Smalcald Articles, Triglot, p. 475, Paragraph 10; M., p. 308.) [8]
Revelation 13 contains a description of the Antichrist:
1. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon
his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."
2. "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a
lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."
3. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the
beast."
4. "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the
beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and
two months."
6. "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in
heaven."
7. "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations."
8 ."And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world." (as per the King James Bible)
Some theorists attribute the wounding and resurgence in the third verse to the papacy, referring to General Louis Berthier's capture of Pope Pius VI in 1798 , and
the pope's subsequent death in 1799 . Instead of reducing the power of the papacy, however, it grew
and became the most influential political and religious power in the world. As another example, Gerard Bodson claims in his book "Cracking the Apocalypse Code"
that this line refers to the defeat of Germany in World War I and its recovery under the Nazis. Germany is named as one of the
heads of the beast (the other heads representing the other members of the Axis Powers:
Italy, Japan, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary).
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, put forward the
idea that the Antichrist may be the Secretary-General of the
United Nations. LaHaye and Thomas Ice, have also
suggested that the rise of militant Islam in the 21st century is a possible sign of the End Times. Islam in their view is the
false religion and of the Antichrist, otherwise known as the False Prophet, although
Muslims also believe in the false Messiah, known as
Messiah Dajjal.
While the Antichrist is not mentioned by any name or title in the Qur'an[8], Muslims believe that the false messiah or "Maseeh Dajjal" in Arabic (also called) " Awar Dajjal" and
"The One Eyed Liar") will come to earth with great power and that true and faithful Muslims will stand up against him and will be
the false messiah's sole enemy, until the return of Jesus Christ (which is the last sign mentioned in the Qur'an.
Jerry Falwell told a pastors' conference in January 1999
in a sermon on the Second Coming that the Antichrist was probably alive on earth, and
certainly a Jewish male [9]. He subsequently clarified that "[t]his is simply historic and prophetic orthodox Christian doctrine" and
had no anti-Semitic roots.
Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the immortal Count of Saint Germain is the
Antichrist or somehow analogous to Lucifer.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, called himself the Antichrist. He
even went as far as to write a book called The Antichrist. In his famous
first book, The Birth of Tragedy, he wrote: "As a philologist and man of
words, I baptized it, taking some liberties (for who knew the correct name for the Antichrist?), after the name of a Greek god: I
called it the Dionysian."
José Luis de Jesús Miranda, a minister with a large Latin American
following, claims not only to be God, but at the same time, the Antichrist. He claims that the Bible is mistranslated and that it
really states that the Antichrist is Jesus Christ's replacement on Earth. De Jesus also preaches that sin and the devil do not
exist and heaven can be found on Earth. He also has 666 tattooed on multiple places
on his body.
In addition, certain occultists have proclaimed themselves to be the Antichrist, including John
Whiteside Parsons. The Antichrist is a popular archetype for villainous behavior.
Fiction
-
The Antichrist is a popular archetype for villainous behavior, with various Antichrists being explored in fiction.
Notes
Bibliography
- Of Antichrist and His Ruin, John Bunyan, Diggory
Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1846857294
- The Antichrist Martin Luther, Diggory Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1846858048
External links
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