Interlude: What is the Antichrist?

Meaning Broader than What We Assume

Before we go too much further into John’s Apocalypse, I’d like to pause and do a historical study of the concept Antichrist.  The Greek word “Christ” and the Hebrew word “Messiah” both mean “anointed one.”  The prefix “anti-” means against or opposite.  Thus, literally the word Antichrist means “that which is against (or opposite) Christ.”  In one sense, anything or anyone which is in agreement with sin is an antichrist.  When I choose sin instead of God’s ways, I am literally an antichrist to all those people that my sins effects.

As for the concept of what the Antichrist means …

• Most ancient mythology has an idea where the creator god struggles against the antithesis of what they represent. 
• Many of those mythologies represent the antithesis of the creator god as a dragon. 
• From a Christian perspective, some think of Satan as an antichrist.  In one sense, this does make sense.  Jesus Christ is the one who draws all mankind to God and Satan is the one who draws all people away from God. 
• While this is correct from a particular understanding of the language, I personally believe that when the Scriptures speak of an antichrist (and especially the Antichrist) it speaks about a person of human origin.

The first time in recorded Jewish history that the word antichrist was applied to a specific person is in the case of a Greek named Antiochus Epiphanes IV.  In his control over Jerusalem, he outlawed owning a copy of Jewish law and he made it illegal to be circumcised.  It was a law punishable by death, and it was a law that was specifically geared towards eradicating the Jewish people from the face of the earth.  Obviously, he was an anti-messiah, or in the Greek language we would say an antichrist.

There is very little mention of the Antichrist in the New Testament. 

• In 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12, Paul speaks of the man of sin, who will come and lead people away from God. 
• 1 & 2 John are the only places in the New Testament where the actual word antichrist appears (it does not even appear in Revelation).  1 John 2:18 speaks of the Antichrist to come, although he acknowledges that many antichrists have already come.  1 John 2:22 says that anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.  1 John 4:3 says that anyone who doesn’t believe Jesus came from God is an antichrist.  2 John 1:7 says that anyone who denies Christ is an antichrist.  All of these statements are understood to be true simply by definition.  That which opposes God opposes Christ and therefore is an antichrist. 
• Even in Revelation, the antichrist for John’s contemporary context is largely the Roman Empire.

In all cases, it is improper and uninformed to speak of the coming “antichrist” as if there is only one grand person who is against Christ.  There may indeed be the big grand-daddy of all antichrists to come and such a person may deserve the title “The Antichrist,” but such a follower of sin would be only the worst out of a long line of antichrists.  This is not to say that the fundamental concept of the Antichrist is in any way wrong.  Rather, it is actually quite proper thinking.  It makes perfect sense that as the world falls more and more into sin that those who embody sin the most would rise in power and popularity. 

The important part of this discussion is the realization that anyone who leads us away from Christ is an antichrist; and we should be watchful against all who would lead us away from God.