Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

1 John 2:18 says, "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour."

To me, this indicates that there is an "anti-Christ" orientation that is capable of dwelling within and being exhibited by multiple individuals. However, I believe that the Bible (including even the above verse) also indicates that there will be one particular human being who will be the very embodiment of that orientation, and who will arise in connection with events leading directly to the close of the present age. (For example, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 speaks of "the man of sin" who will proclaim himself to be God.)

January 29 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Grant Abbott Supporter Child of Father, Follower of Son, Student of Spirit

The term "Anti-Christ" is anything or any person that refutes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and universal saviour of the world. The Anti-Christ is against the Christian faith because it refutes the entire gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament.

The Jewish faith is Anti-Christ because Jews refuse to believe and accept that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and saviour of the world. Many Jews became believers in Jesus Christ. Some of them insisted that practices from the Jewish faith, such as circumcision, not eating meat with blood in it, etc... were necessary for the Christian's salvation. These beliefs were all Anti-Christ. Jesus warned the seven churches in Revelation to beware of the deceptive practices of the Jews who belonged to the Synagogue of Satan.

The apostle John in this letter is warning the churches that he oversees that Anti-Christs have already come into the church as false teachers to lead the Christians astray. John says "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world (1 John 4;1-3).

The Christian faith teaches that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, who became a human being to be our substitute, to die on a cross, to pay the penalty for the sin of the whole world. Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven retaining this duel identity. Jesus is fully-God and fully-man. Most of the false teachings seeking to infiltrate the early church were refuting these truths - Jesus wasn't God or Jesus wasn't a human being, or Jesus was inferior to God, etc... Jesus warned the churches in the book of Revelation about the false teachings of the Nicolaitans, whom he hated.

Jesus is also the eternal Word of God and every revelation of truth given by God in the bible is about Jesus, as he declared "I am the way, the truth and the life". So every human philosophy that denies the revelation of truth in the bible is Anti-Christ. The theory of evolution is Anti-Christ because it refutes the creation account of the bible. Many political philosophies are Anti-Christ because they elevate human beings to positions of "kings", "presidents" "dictators", etc... who take the place of God in our lives. Economic philosophies, like communism, socialism and capitalism can be Anti-Christ when they lead us to trust in government or ourselves for security and protection instead of trusting in God. Humanist philosophies can be Anti-Christ when they refute the Moral Authority of the bible to decide right and wrong, such as moral relativism.

But the Scripture is clear that a specific person will emerge in the end times who will be the singular Anti-Christ who will seize power over the whole world and everything he does will be against everything that Jesus Christ stands for. Revelation chapters 12 & 13 describe the emergence of this person who will be possessed by Satan. The activity of this Man of Lawlessness is described in detail in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.

v4 - He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

v7 - For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 

This secret power of lawlessness is the "Culture of this World" controlled by Satan and his evil spiritual forces. This World Power is Anti-Christ and includes all the political, economic and philosophical belief systems that oppose everything in the bible revealed by Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

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