Last Things: The Antichrist

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/antichristmp3/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p>Scriptures</p><ul><li>Where the word antichrist appears:<ul><li>1 John 2:18</li><li>1 John 2:22</li><li>1 John 4:3</li><li>2 John 7</li></ul></li><li>Passages that do not mention antichrist but which are popularly understood to refer to him:<ul><li>2 Thessalonians 2<ul><li>Appears to be a Roman emperor, one with the arrogance of Caligula, Nero, or Domitian.</li><li>Stands as a warning for <i>all</i> generations.</li><li>No mention of "antichrist."</li></ul></li><li>Revelation 13<ul><li>Whereas the "number" of the Beast is 666, the apocalypse never identifies the Beast (Rome the false religious power) with an antichrist.</li><li>Applies in immediate context to the persecuting Roman Empire.</li><li>That antichrist is a figure who would be worshipped is a second century construction. This notion was never part of the apostolic doctrine.</li></ul></li></ul></li><li>The specific truth denied by the opponents of the faith is the <i>incarnation</i>.<ul><li>The heretics in view were <i>Docetists,</i> a variety of Gnostics who denied that Jesus (God) came in the flesh; rather, he <i>appeared </i>(Greek <i>dokein </i>= appear) to come in a body. These heretics were active in the late first century, at the time 1 and 2 John were written.</li><li>They held that the physical world is evil, and therefore...</li><li>They denied that God came to us in a body.</li></ul></li></ul><p>Conclusions</p><ul><li>Antichrist was <i>already </i>present even in the first century, although those rejecting the incarnation are still among us (e.g. theological liberals who deny Jesus was God, but rather a guru whose God-consciousness inspired others).</li><li>The antichrist is not a <i>single </i>person; contradicts 1 John 2:18.<ul><li>Popular guesses: Hitler, Muhammad, the Pope.</li><li>There have been, and presumably will be, <i>many</i> antichrists.</li><li>Antichrist lives in thos