Scripture:  2 Thessalonians chapter 2

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A fascinating text of Scripture in this chapter, one that presents to us a man who is known by the title Antichrist.

The most fiendish, the most wicked, the most powerfully destructive human ever to walk the earth is a man that the Bible calls Antichrist.

He will be the culmination of all those who hate God and all those who hate Jesus Christ. He will be the combination, really, and the culmination of all Satanic false prophets, false teachers, false Christs. He will be all wrapped up into one all the hypocritical liars who claim to be spokesmen for God but spoke under the energy of seducing spirits the doctrines of demons. This Antichrist is the theme of Paul's writing.

 

In verse 3 he introduces him under the title "the man of lawlessness," and then calls him, "the son of destruction." And then down in verse 8 he calls him "that lawless one." And then in verse 9 he calls him, "the coming one in accord with the activity of Satan." The man of lawlessness or the man of sin, the son of destruction or the son of perdition, the lawless one, the coming one who functions in accord with Satan, all these are titles, if you will, of the one we know as Antichrist.

 

This is a person, a singular person. But the spirit of Antichrist, or the attitude, is in the world even now.

Every individual in this world who under the power and influence of Satan attempts to thwart the work of God, attempts to thwart the work of Christ, attempts to attack the work of Christ or God, attempts to oppose it or to counterfeit it, has the spirit of Antichrist.

 

Scripture 1 John:

Here we find the term Antichrist is used. John in his first epistle second chapter and verse 18 says, "Children, it is the last hour."

By that he means it is the Messianic era since the coming of Christ. "It is the last hour and just as you have heard that Antichrist is coming..."
Now there is the individual Antichrist who is coming. "Even now many antichrists have arisen." So there is a culminating individual but until that individual there will be many who have the spirit of Antichrist.
Verse 22, "Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son." There he is saying that anyone who would deny the deity of Christ, anyone who would deny the connection between the Father and the Son is Antichrist. Chapter 4 verse 3, "Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist." The Antichrist is an individual, a God-denying, Christ-denying, counterfeit, religious leader who while hating Christ, while denying Christ, himself purports to be the Christ. But until he comes there are many like him who have his spirit.

 

In John's second epistle, 2 John verse 7, he says, "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; this is the deceiver and the Antichrist."

So you can see here that while there is one ultimate culminating man of sin, man of lawlessness, son of perdition, son of destruction, lawless one, one final, culminating coming one in the power of Satan, the final Antichrist, there are many antichrists, many with the spirit of Antichrist throughout the history of the world.

The one who comes in final form will be far worse than any other, worse than the worst of men, worse than the abominators; worse than Antiochus Epiphanes, who slaughtered a pig in the Holy of Holies in the temple, his way of blaspheming God; worse than Adolph Hitler who mocked God, blasphemed God, operated with mediums and demons, spoke in a voice not even his own and attempted to rub out the Jews; worse than any combination of Antiochus and Hitler will be this final Antichrist. He makes Saddam Hussein pale in comparison.

 

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