Biblical Definition Of

ANTICHRIST

Towards the end of the first century, certain false teachers denied that Jesus Christ was fully divine and fully human. In doing so they denied a basic fact of the Christian faith, and so showed themselves to be enemies of Christ. The name that the Bible gives to people who show such opposition to Christ is antichrist (1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7).

The spirit of antichrist is always in the world and has shown itself in many ways and in many people down the ages. It will have its last and most violent expression in the final great rebellion against God immediately before the return of Christ (1 John 2:18; cf. Ps 2:2-3; Dan 9:27; 11:36-39; Matt 24:15-21). More specifically, it seems that it will express itself in the leader of that rebellion, one who is variously known as the antichrist, the man of sin, the man of lawlessness and the wicked one.

Empowered by Satan, this last great antichrist will recognize no authority, Christian or otherwise, apart from his own, and will put himself in the place of God as the sole controller of the human race. He is probably the one whom the book of Revelation symbolizes by the beast with seven heads and ten horns (2 Thess 2:3-4,9-10; Rev 13:1-10). He is destined to perish in judgment at the return of Jesus Christ, and is therefore called also ‘the son of perishing’ (2 Thess 2:3,8; Rev 19:20).