Who Was - or - Is the Antichrist?

Who Was the Antichrist?

Very debated subject:

My mission is not trying to convert or debate anyone. Just sharing my view. Some will disagree but please be kind in the comments and respectful to others. Thank you!

Many Christians have been taught to combine the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, and the beast into one future world dictator. But the Bible never combines these figures. When each passage is allowed to speak within its own historical setting, a much different picture emerges.

The Antichrist and early Gnostic teaching

The word antichrist appears only in the letters of John. It never appears in Daniel, Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians, or Revelation.

So who was John talking about? John did not describe a future political ruler who would take over the world one day in the future.

He actually identified antichrists as false teachers already operating during his lifetime:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

1 John 2:18

So who was John referring to and when was he talking about? Time and audience relevance. Notice John’s language: “even now.” These antichrists were not thousands of years away. They were already present, and their appearance proved that John and his readers were living in “the last time” the closing period of the Old Covenant age.

John then tells us exactly how to identify them:

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

1 John 2:22

These teachers had apparently once associated with the Christian community but had departed from the apostolic faith:

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

1 John 2:19

This is not referring to someone who left your church. Their teaching appears to have contained what scholars often call early Gnostic or Docetic tendencies. Not Mature Gnosticism which developed more fully later, so we should be careful with the label. Nevertheless, these teachers seemingly divided the spiritual from the physical. Since they considered physical matter corrupt, they denied that the divine Christ had truly come in human flesh. Some may have taught that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body or that “the Christ” temporarily rested upon the human Jesus.

Docetism was common in John’s letters was the belief that Jesus only appeared to be physically human and did not truly possess a human body or genuinely suffer and die.

John directly confronted that error:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

1 John 4:3

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

2 John 7

According to John, an antichrist was anyone opposing the true identity of Christ, particularly those denying that Jesus was the Christ who genuinely came in the flesh. There were many antichrists, not merely one future Antichrist. “Anti” Against-Christ.

Now let’s focus on the man of sin and son of perdition

Paul never called this figure “the Antichrist.” That connection is commonly assumed, but the Bible does not make it. Paul called him the “man of sin,” the “lawless one,” and the “son of perdition.”

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2 Thessalonians 2:3–4

A strong first-century candidate for this description is John of Gischala, also called John Levi of Gischala. We must understand the historical setting. Historical Hermeneutics

During this time John became one of the most ruthless leaders of the Jewish revolt against Rome. After escaping from Gischala, he entered Jerusalem and gained influence through deception. He pretended to support Ananus, the former high priest who was attempting to remove the violent Zealots from the Temple. John secretly betrayed Ananus’ plans and helped persuade the Zealots to summon the Idumeans into Jerusalem.

The result was horrifying. The Idumeans and Zealots slaughtered thousands. Ananus and Jesus son of Gamala both former high priests. They were murdered, and their bodies were thrown out without burial. This is what Paul was referring to not some future “so called” Antichrist sitting in a physical temple.

To be historically precise, Josephus does not say that John Levi personally struck the fatal blow. John’s treachery, however, helped create the circumstances that brought the Idumeans into Jerusalem and led to the priests’ deaths.

Josephus records 8,500 people killed in and around the outer Temple during that single nighttime massacre by the Idumeans. John eventually established his headquarters in the Temple itself. His faction turned the sanctuary into a military fortress, shed blood within its courts, disrupted worship, and used sacred property for the war. His followers even entered the Temple with concealed weapons and attacked another faction while worshipers were present.

According to Josephus, John’s men consumed the sacred wine and oil that had been dedicated to God even killing many priest. The Temple had been designed as the seat of God’s covenantal presence, yet John Levi occupied it as a tyrant, placed his own authority above its holiness, and treated its sacred things as though they belonged to him. That makes Paul’s description remarkably appropriate:

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2 Thessalonians 2:4

Josephus described John Levi as deeply impious, lawless, deceitful, murderous, and hardened against God. His rise occurred during the very rebellion that culminated in the Day of the Lord against Jerusalem.

Paul also said the lawless one would be destroyed at Christ’s coming:

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

2 Thessalonians 2:8

John’s power disappeared when Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed in AD 70. He hid underground during the Roman conquest, eventually surrendered, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His kingdom of terror ended in the judgment that Jesus and the apostles had warned was soon approaching.

Now the beast of Revelation:

The beast of Revelation is another figure commonly called “the Antichrist,” but Revelation never uses that word. The beast rising from the sea represents imperial Rome, embodied particularly in the emperor Nero Caesar. In biblical prophecy, beasts commonly represent kingdoms and their rulers. Daniel used the same imagery:

These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.

Daniel 7:17

Revelation describes a beast with seven heads:

And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come.

Revelation 17:9–10

Rome was famously associated with seven hills. The seven heads also represented a succession of Roman rulers and the woman was no doubtably Jerusalem. The beast was therefore both the Roman imperial power and a particular emperor who embodied that power.

John gives his readers a number by which the beast could be identified:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Revelation 13:18

Using Hebrew letters as numbers, Neron Caesar totals 666. An early manuscript variation reads 616, which corresponds to the Latinized spelling Nero Caesar. Both numbers point toward Nero.

Nero Caesar” was a Latin name, but the calculation producing 666 uses Hebrew gematria where Hebrew letters functioning as numbers. This fit Nero perfectly. Nero’s character also matched the beastly imagery. He murdered members of his own family, including his mother and wife.

According to the ancient Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius, Nero’s wife Poppaea Sabina was pregnant when he kicked her during an angry outburst, causing her death in AD 65. This is also debated because some historians were very hostile towards Nero because of his evil acts. Nevertheless, he was an evil man.

He also heavily persecuted Christians brutally, blaming them for the great fire of Rome. Peter and Paul are traditionally believed to have died during his reign and this is only scratching the surface on how brutally evil he was.

The beast was given authority for forty-two months:

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Revelation 13:5

Nero’s organized persecution of Christians is commonly dated from approximately late AD 64 until his death in June AD 68 roughly three and a half years.

Let’s stop combining what Scripture distinguishes:

The biblical picture is much clearer when we stop forcing different passages into one future supervillain: this is Eisegesis.

John’s antichrists were first-century false teachers who denied the true Christ, particularly His genuine coming in the flesh.

Paul’s man of sin and son of perdition may be historically identified with John of Gischala, the lawless tyrant who occupied and desecrated the Temple during Jerusalem’s rebellion.

Revelation’s sea beast represented Roman imperial power, especially as embodied in Nero Caesar. Each belonged to the first-century world of the original audience. John did not say, two thousand years from now the Antichrist will arrive. He said:

And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and EVEN NOW already is it in the world.

1 John 4:3

The future Antichrist commonly preached today is created by stitching together passages from different writers, addressed to different audiences, describing different enemies. Scripture never performs that stitching but the modern prophecy system absolutely does.

Search this out see for yourselves and see what you find out.