AntiChrist?

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says the word translated "antichrist" means "an opponent of the messiah." The word may mean either an enemy of Christ or one who usurps Christ's name and rights. Jesus warned against "the false Christs" and "the false prophets" see Matthew 24:24.

 

Jesus and the Christ are separate issues see Acts 9:22 and Acts 17:2-3. As Caesar and Pharaoh were titles, the term Christ is a title not Jesus' last name.

 

In 1 John 4:3 John mentions that to refuse to confess both the deity and the humanity of Jesus is to promote the spirit of the antichrist. In 1 John 2:22 John says the liar mentioned in verse 21 is as the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Many false theories were being passed around at the time John wrote these letters. The Gnostics claimed that Jesus and Christ were two different persons; that Christ merely appeared to have flesh, but in reality did not; and that Jesus did not have divine origin. The affect was to deny Jesus' deity and the Christ's humanity.

 

In verse 18 and 22 the word antichrist is used to identify those who had the character and attributes of the great antichrist to come. The one who taught such things was promoting the same purpose and spirit as antichrist and therefore could have the same designation.

 

When Peter attempted to discourage Jesus from carrying out his mission Jesus called him Satan. See Matthew 16:21-23.  It was not Satan it was Peter promoting Satan's agenda rather than God's agenda. When one promotes the agenda of Satan he can be considered Satan or the same as if Satan was doing it; when one promotes the agenda of the antichrist he can be considered the antichrist or the same as if the Antichrist was doing it. By extension for one to do something to promote God's agenda would be the same as if God were doing it.  Christians claim they are the face of God to the world and the hands and feet of God to the world.

 

Apparently the coming of the Antichrist was an event generally expected by the Church. But John is more concerned with directing the attention of Christians to the antichristian forces already at work. He says teachers of erroneous views of the person of Christ, the Ebonites and Gnostics) are the antichrists.

 

My guess is the identity of the Antichrist is lost in the figurative language of Revelation and possibly Daniel. W.B.West Jr in his book "Revelation through First-Century Classes" believes the beast who made war on God's people for three and one-half years in Revelation 17 and Daniel 7, 8 was Nero and possibly the antichrist. While I do not know, I am confident the people to whom John wrote understood and they knew and therefore the antichrist came in their time.

 

I doubt that false Christs and false prophets exist today. If we go by the simplistic definition that anyone who teaches other than what the church of Christ teaches are false this or that we leave no room for honest error and at the same time declare ourselves perfect.