Growing up in evangelical churches I've run into many people who speculate on who the antichrist is or will be. Recently a friend showed me some youtube videos that made the case that Barack Obama was the antichrist.I'm no expert at biblical prophecies, I haven't focused much on trying to figure stuff like this out... it usually just makes my head spin.
But I thought I should at least look at what our Scriptures say about the antichrist.
I discovered there are only 4 occurrences of the word antichrist in the Bible.
1 John 2:18 (NIV)
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.1 John 2:22 (NIV)
Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.1 John 4:3 (NIV)
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.2 John 1:7 (NIV)
Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
A few things to note here:
- John was talking to people during his time, saying "this is the last hour"
- There was more than one antichrist during the days of John. Note the plural antichrists in the first verse, and the word 'many' in the last one.
- The word antichrist supposedly can mean 'false messiah' or 'false anointed one'
- John labels people antichrist anyone who is trying to deceive others to believe Jesus was not Christ and did not come in the flesh.
There's likely many false christ's in our day as well... but from these verses there is no indication that we are to be waiting, watching and speculating about a unique antichrist in our day.
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