Who is the Antichrist?
By Bryan Gibson
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Is it some notorious figure from the past? Someone like Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin? How about Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi ruler who was executed back in 2006? Or could it be someone alive today, someone like George W. Bush? Don’t laugh, because at one time, there was a website (bushisantichrist.com) that supposedly offered scriptural evidence that George W. Bush is the antichrist. No doubt there are dozens of web sites today providing what they call evidence of particular notorious individuals. I think we all understand the reason that this is being done.
Instead of engaging in a lot of wild speculation, let’s go to the Bible to see if we can find out if it answers the question.
First, let’s make sure we make a distinction between an antichrist and the false Christs that Jesus warned about in Matthew 24:5; 24:24, and in Mark 13:22 ...
Mark 13:21-22
21 And then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ; or, Lo, there; believe (it) not:
22 for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, the elect.
The elect here refers to faithful Christians.
An antichrist opposes and denies Christ, while false Christs pretend to be Christ.
Here are the few passages in the Bible that speak of an antichrist. Please read them carefully and you will see that they answer our question.
I John 2: 18
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” [Note the present tense.]
1 John 4:2-3
By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
2 John 1:7
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Here are three conclusions we can draw from the above passages:
1. Instead of looking for one person to label THE antichrist, we need to understand that there are many antichrists. Some of them had already appeared on the scene when John wrote his epistle, and there is no reason to doubt that there are many with us still today.
2. An antichrist is anyone who denies that Christ has come in the flesh, who contends therefore that Jesus is not the Christ. He may not realize it, but in doing so, he has denied both the Father and the Son.
3. In the days that john was writing there were Gnostics who actually denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. You might do some research on that. But this is just an example of a false teaching. It can be generalized in principle to infer that anyone who is pressing a false teaching is denying both the Father and the Son, as we will show below.
Now, here’s the scary part. We could confess that Jesus is the Christ, but still be anti (opposed to) Christ—by either teaching something opposed to the doctrine of Christ, or going beyond what Christ has given us (see 2 John 1:9 below). This can easily be seen by reading the next few verses after the passages cited above. For example, we cited 1 John 4:2-3, but keep reading through verse 6:
1 John 4:6
We [apostles—BG] are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
The apostles were spokesmen for Christ, so to teach anything different from what they taught is to go against Christ. We also cited 2 John 1:7, but keep reading down to verse 9:
2 John 1:9
Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.”
We must stay within the boundaries of His teaching—to do otherwise is anti-Christ. So we need to be very careful. We may be looking all around for antichrists, not realizing that the person we see in the mirror is one, too.
Note: we put this article on BibleThought.net with articles on demons and occult, but not because antichrists are demons or part of occult practices (although some of them most certainly are). We did this because this word is so often associated in the populist religion movement as being almost exclusively demonic. We hope this article clears that misconception up.
What are the conditions of salvation given by Jesus?
Return to Demons and Occult Page
Instead of engaging in a lot of wild speculation, let’s go to the Bible to see if we can find out if it answers the question.
First, let’s make sure we make a distinction between an antichrist and the false Christs that Jesus warned about in Matthew 24:5; 24:24, and in Mark 13:22 ...
Mark 13:21-22
21 And then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ; or, Lo, there; believe (it) not:
22 for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, the elect.
The elect here refers to faithful Christians.
An antichrist opposes and denies Christ, while false Christs pretend to be Christ.
Here are the few passages in the Bible that speak of an antichrist. Please read them carefully and you will see that they answer our question.
I John 2: 18
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” [Note the present tense.]
1 John 4:2-3
By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
2 John 1:7
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Here are three conclusions we can draw from the above passages:
1. Instead of looking for one person to label THE antichrist, we need to understand that there are many antichrists. Some of them had already appeared on the scene when John wrote his epistle, and there is no reason to doubt that there are many with us still today.
2. An antichrist is anyone who denies that Christ has come in the flesh, who contends therefore that Jesus is not the Christ. He may not realize it, but in doing so, he has denied both the Father and the Son.
3. In the days that john was writing there were Gnostics who actually denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. You might do some research on that. But this is just an example of a false teaching. It can be generalized in principle to infer that anyone who is pressing a false teaching is denying both the Father and the Son, as we will show below.
Now, here’s the scary part. We could confess that Jesus is the Christ, but still be anti (opposed to) Christ—by either teaching something opposed to the doctrine of Christ, or going beyond what Christ has given us (see 2 John 1:9 below). This can easily be seen by reading the next few verses after the passages cited above. For example, we cited 1 John 4:2-3, but keep reading through verse 6:
1 John 4:6
We [apostles—BG] are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
The apostles were spokesmen for Christ, so to teach anything different from what they taught is to go against Christ. We also cited 2 John 1:7, but keep reading down to verse 9:
2 John 1:9
Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.”
We must stay within the boundaries of His teaching—to do otherwise is anti-Christ. So we need to be very careful. We may be looking all around for antichrists, not realizing that the person we see in the mirror is one, too.
Note: we put this article on BibleThought.net with articles on demons and occult, but not because antichrists are demons or part of occult practices (although some of them most certainly are). We did this because this word is so often associated in the populist religion movement as being almost exclusively demonic. We hope this article clears that misconception up.
What are the conditions of salvation given by Jesus?
Return to Demons and Occult Page