Today we're going to look at one of the most
fascinating and yet controversial subjects that refer to the last times, and that's the
question of the identity of the Antichrist. And in fact it even begs the question when
we talk about the Antichrist because one of the questions that we encounter with respect
to this idea of antichrist is, "Is there one Antichrist or are there many antichrists. Is antichrist singular or plural?" A second question we encounter is, "Is the
Antichrist a person or an institution?" And an even more important question is, the
New Testament speaks of the Antichrist in John's epistles, and in Paul's letters he
speaks of the man of sin or the man of lawlessness, and in the book of Revelation John tells us
about the beast who's known by the number 666. Now, again, are we dealing three different
subjects: the man of sin, the Antichrist, and the beast? Or are all three of these concepts inter-connected
and interrelated converging on one identity? Now, those are some of the questions we'll
look at in addition to the $64,000 question, and that is, who is the Antichrist or what
is the Antichrist and how are we expected to recognize it or him? Now, as I say, there's fascination in the
world and in fact, sometimes preoccupation with the concept of the Antichrist it's a
common feature of interest in the world of the occult. We saw the film smash hit 'Rosemary's Baby,'
which was linked to this concept of the Antichrist and the popular prophetess or seerest of the
twentieth century, Jean Dixon, prophesied several years ago that the Antichrist has
already been born, and as I speak is currently maturing into adulthood and will soon make
himself known publicly. So those are some of the things that we encounter
when we're looking at this question of the Antichrist. And the first thing I want to do is look at
what the New Testament says specifically about the Antichrist, because the only place we
really find out anything directly about antichrist in those terms is in the first epistle of
John. And so let's look at 1 John, chapter 2 beginning
at verse 18. John writes these words: "Little children,
it is the last hour." Notice the timeframe reference that is used
here by John. "Little children, it is the last hour, and
as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. Even now many antichrists have come by which
we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of
us, for if they had been of us they would have continued with us, but they went out
that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us." Now, obviously in this context John is speaking
of many antichrists who already have come, and he's describing antichrists (plural here),
in terms of those who have committed the sin of apostasy, those who had once professed
faith in Christ, but then left the Christian community and repudiated their confession. And so here, John links antichrist with apostasy. In chapter 4, beginning at verse 1, John gives
us more information where he says, "Beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits
whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of antichrist which
you heard was coming and is now already in the world." Now, he talks about the coming of the Antichrist;
he speaks of many antichrists, and he talks about the spirit of the Antichrist who is
coming but who is already in the world. So one thing is clear. In John's description of antichrist, that
in his idea of antichrist he's talking about something that represented a clear and present
danger to the first century church. Now, let's take a couple of minutes to look
at the term 'antichrist.' What is significant is the use of the term
'anti' which comes directly from the Greek 'anti,' which has two distinct meanings in
the Greek language. Usually, and that is most frequently the term
'anti' means 'against.' But sometimes the prefix 'anti' in Greek means
'in place of.' Now, if it merely means anti then the Antichrist
is defined in terms of his opposition to Christ. He is one who is against Christ. The term, if used in its secondary sense of
anti, would be somebody who subverts or seeks to replace Christ as a false substitute. He is a supplanter, a false Messiah. Now, we don't necessarily have to choose between
these two possible meanings or renderings of the term anti in Greek, because anyone
obviously who sought to supplant the true office of Christ as a false Messiah, as a
false Christ, would by the same actions be working against Christ. And so the idea is suggested here that the
Antichrist is one who both works against Christ and tries to become a substitute for Christ,
that is, is a false god or a false messiah. Now, in addition to John's teaching specifically
using the language of antichrist, we have the teaching of the Apostle Paul in his writings
to the Thessalonian Christians in 1 Thessalonians -- I'm sorry, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 4 -- we
have it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 -- I'll get it -- chapter 2, verses 3-11. Let's look at this text if we may. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-11. Paul begins by saying, "Let no one deceive
you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the
man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that
is called God or that is worshiped. So that he sits as God in the temple of God
showing himself that he is God. Do you remember that when I was still with
you I told you these things and now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed
in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already
at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until
he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed whom
the world will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness
of his coming. And the coming of the lawless one is according
to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous
deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that
they might be saved. For this reason God will send them a strong
delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not
believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Now, again the context in which Paul talks
about this mystery of iniquity or the mystery of lawlessness, the man of sin, the son of
perdition, is in response to trouble that was brewing in the Thessalonican community
that Paul speaks of at the beginning of 2 Thessalonians when he says, I don't want you
people to be upset by reports that allegedly have come from me. Somebody's been circulating in the church
false rumors that have allegedly come from Paul, and one of those false rumors was that
the Christ had already come. And Paul is now writing to correct that misapprehension,
and reminds them of what he had said to them formerly when he was in their midst that certain
things had to take place before the coming of Jesus. Now, obviously they were expecting a very
quick appearance of Jesus and some had actually been convinced that or had heard the rumor
that He had returned. Paul says not yet, because before that takes
place we have to have the appearance of this man of lawlessness and so on. Now, let's look at it again. "That day will not come unless the falling
away comes first." And now he's referring to an apostasy. That's what it means to fall away, a repudiation
of true faith. Now, remember the difference between paganism
and apostasy. A pagan is one who is an unbeliever who has
never made a profession of faith. An apostate is someone who makes a profession
of faith and then later repudiates that profession of faith. That is, an apostate can only be someone who
is within the covenant community, within the visible church. Benjamin Warfield is convinced that in this
text Paul is not talking about an apostasy that will take place at the end of history
in the manifestation of wickedness and moral decline within the Christian church. He's talking about the apostasy of the Jews
in the first century, which was a major problem that is recounted in the New Testament. Christ came to His own; His own received Him
not. Paul had this tremendous ongoing burden for
his own kinsmen according to the flesh, Israel. The author of Hebrews warns that current generation
of Jewish people about the dire danger of neglecting the great salvation that had come. And so the apostasy of the Jews or the apostasy
of the Israel -- of Israel is tied to that generation of Jews who rejected the Messiah
that had appeared in their midst. And that would indicate a great falling away. But then Paul goes on to say, "That day will
not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of
perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. Now, one of the reasons why biblical scholars
and commentators believe that Paul is here describing the same thing that John is talking
about in his letter with respect to the term antichrist, because Paul describes the man
of sin in two basic ways. He first of all opposes Christ. He is against Christ. He is antichrist. And second of all, he exalts himself above
all that is God and claims the right to be worshiped and so on. So, that in this case the man of sin or the
man of lawlessness is one who is antichrist in both senses of the word anti that I spelled
out a few moments ago. Well, what else does Paul say about the anti
-- or the man of lawlessness? That "He exalts himself above all that is
called God or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself
that he is God." Now, here he describes the man of lawlessness
as actually being seated in the temple. Now, if those words are to be taken literally
then you have one of two options. Either this occurred while the Herodian temple
was still standing, or it must refer to a future event that will require the rebuilding
of the temple. That's why many people today, particularly
among Dispensationalists believe that there will be because there must be not only the
restoration of the Jews to the land of Palestine, but the reconstruction of the temple and the
reinstitution of the sacrificial system for the final appearance of antichrist to take
place as he literally is seated in the temple. This business about desecrating the religion
of Israel and the temple of God also links Paul's description of the man of lawlessness
to Jesus' Olivet Discourse when Jesus talked about the abomination of desolation, which
was linked to one who would commit some kind of serious form of blasphemous sacrilege which
Jesus also spoke of in terms of the signs that He predicted in the Olivet Discourse. Now, then Paul goes on to say, "Do you not
remember that when I was still with you I told you these things and now you know what
is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already
at work." Now, just as John talks about the Antichrist
being already in the world and already working, so Paul in his description of the man of lawlessness,
this mysterious person as being presently already at work. But he says that in the present situation
this man of lawlessness is being held in restraint. Now, one of the great mysteries of the New
Testament is not only the identity of the man of lawlessness or the identity of the
Antichrist, but the question of the identity of the one who restrains or the restrainer. Now, one of the most fascinating -- and I
think frankly bizarre arguments that Dispensational scholars bring for their view of the pre-tribulation
rapture -- the view that the church will be taken out of the world before the last tribulation. The arguments I've read have gone like this
-- that the only one who really can operate as the restrainer of evil in this world is
the Holy Spirit. So, the first assumption is that the restrainer
of the 2 chapter of Thessalonians -- or the first -- second chapter of 2 Thessalonians
is the Holy Spirit. And then the speculation goes like this. Since the Holy Spirit indwells Christians,
the only way the Holy Spirit could be taken away, the only way the full restraining power
of the Holy Spirit could be removed from the planet would be you'd have to remove every
Christian from the planet. So they see this as a sort of disguised teaching
of the pre-tribulation rapture, which I think is really unwarranted speculation. We don't know who the restrainer is. It may simply be the restraints of God who
restrains evil. But, since he speaks in specific terms of
an individual some have suggested -- or an institution with the restraining power here
is an institution like the Roman government, or some scholars have suggested that the one
who was actively restraining the man of lawlessness at this point in time was Paul himself. And that again is speculation, because we
don't know what it is that's restraining or who it is that's restraining the man of lawlessness. All we are told is that, "He who now restrains
will continue to restrain until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed
whom the world will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness
of his coming." Now, he goes on to say, "The coming of the
lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all powers, signs and lying wonders
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the
love of the truth that they may be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong
delusion," etc. Now, here it seems to suggest that the man
of lawlessness will be endowed with supernatural powers, giving lying signs and wonders and
will be working in concert with Satan. Now, these elements of the description of
the man of lawlessness who is already at work here correspond in a remarkable fashion with
the description that we get of the beast of Revelation whose mark is the mark 666. So, what I'm going to do in our next lecture
is to focus attention on the beast of the book of Revelation, and -- but before I do
that let me suggest to you that the preliminary study that we have done indicates strongly,
I believe, and I would say the majority report in historic Christian scholarship is that
the figure of the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, and the beast in the book of Revelation all
refer to one and the same thing. So that whatever light we can learn from the
Antichrist will teach us something about the man of lawlessness. Conversely whatever we can discern about the
meaning of the man of lawlessness will tell us something about the Antichrist, and again,
whatever we learn about the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness will shed light on our
understanding of the mysterious beast who is introduced to us in the apocalyptic literature
of the book of Revelation. And again we are left with still with the
question person or institution? Is this something that happened in the first
century once and for all, or was there some archetypal manifestation of this person or
institution in the first century, but we can expect a fuller manifestation later on in
history? These are some of the questions that remain
on the table as we wrestle with the meaning of antichrist.
