Who Is the Antichrist?

* A recent horror film was entitled Antichrist.

* A popular music group named of the albums Antichrist Superstar. 

* Friedrich Nietzche, 19th-century philosopher, named one of his works the Antichrist.

* Kings and emperors in the Middle Ages often called their opponents antichrists. 

* Martin Luther, German Reformation leader, labeled Roman Catholic popes as antichrists.


Since the term "antichrist" has long been used as a label for everything from monarchs to movies, it is only natural to ask:  "Who is the antichrist? Does this term have anything to do with us today? Surely the logical place to begin when searching for  the identity of the antichrist is in the Bible, where the term appears five times. 

ANTICHRIST EXPOSED

The only Bible writer to use the word "antichrist" is the apostle John. How did he describe the antichrist? Note these words in the first letter bearing his name:  "Young children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many  antichrists have appeared, from which fact we know that it were not of our sort . . .Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son." - 1 John 2:18, 19, 22.

What do we learn from those words?  John mentioned "many antichrists," indicating that the antichrist is, not an individual, but a collective term. People or organizations making up  the antichrist spread lies, deny that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah, and try to distort the relationship between God  and His Son, Jesus Christ.   Those who make up the antichrist claim to be Christ or his representatives, but since "they went out from us," they deviated from true Bible teachings. Furthermore, this group  was present a the time when John wrote his letter, in "the last hour," presumably the end of the time of the apostles.

What else did John write regarding the antichrist?  Speaking about false prophets, he warned:  Every inspired statement that acknowledges Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh originates with God.  Furthermore, this is the antichrist's inspired  statement that you have heard was coming, and now it is already in the world." (1 John 4:2, 3)  Then, in his second letter, John reiterated this point:  "Many deceivers  have gone out into the world, those not acknowledging  Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." (2 John 7) Clearly, John understood the antichrist to be all who deliberately spread false religious deception about Jesus Christ and Jesus' teachings.  

Next time: Who Is the Antichrist? - "FALSE PROPHETS" AND "THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS" 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2015