Anti-Christ Speculation

The American evangelical tradition I grew up in greatly enjoyed the sport of anti-Christ speculation: my extended family perhaps more than most. At family get-togethers, some aunt or female cousin could usually be counted on to tell us an exciting new theory about who anti-Christ would be, and the signs of his imminent appearance that were currently being fulfilled. (It was never one of the male relatives that was onto a new theory, that I can remember, though they would add their opinions to the discussion).

It was always a given that the Catholic Church was teamed up with anti-Christ, of course. The Beast on which the Whore sits has seven heads, which Revelation 17 tells us are seven mountains, and Rome sits on seven hills. But the great fun was figuring out who was anti-Christ himself, the great human leader who would deceive all the world to follow him.

The first time I remember hearing the speculation, John Kennedy was President, and the new theory was that he was anti-Christ. For one thing, he was Catholic, which clearly put him in anti-Christ's camp. He was also a popular...as anti-Christ would be. When he was killed by being shot in the head, speculation was rampant, because the beast was slain by being wounded in the head...then healed ! That was the miracle that would persuade the whole world to follow after him.

Would Kennedy be resurrected by satan ? Or was he even really dead ? One of the supermarket tabloids (though probably not as a contribution to Christian eschatology) published a cover-photo of Jackie Onassis on a Greek beach with a man whose head was wrapped in a towel. Maybe Jackie married Onassis, the speculation went, so the badly-wounded Kennedy could be hidden on a private Greek island until he healed, then revealed to the world !

And for the next 50 years, the speculation continued: surprisingly, almost all of it centered on American Democratic politicians. Even Jimmy Carter was suspect. All that talk about him being deeply Christian: after all, wasn't anti-Christ's ploy to deceive believers by claiming to be a Christian ? And mightn't even Jimmy Carter's initials show that he was trying to present himself as Jesus Christ returned ?

Henry Kissinger was the only exception I remember to the politics of my relatives' speculation. He was not really a politician: bur he was a European, and a Jew, as they understood scripture to say anti-Christ would be. Surprisingly, nobody speculated that Richard Nixon, Kissinger's Republican politician-master, was anti-Christ; even though he certainly would have fit most people's definition of an evil political leader.

Our Sunday School class is currently studying I John 2, which comprises 3 of the 5 times "anti-Christ" is so-named in scripture. It strikes me that John's teaching there (vv. 18ff) undercuts speculation about the identity of the future anti-Christ, with its insistence that anti-Christ's spirit is already abroad in the world: "...just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared" (I John 2:18).

John states that fact again in Chapter 4, verse 3: "...this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." He re-affirms it again in II John 1:7, "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." (II Thessalonians 2:7 likewise says about "...the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction...;" whom I take to be anti-Christ; that “...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 that lawless one will be revealed...")

It's easy to miss the import of this fact if we understand "anti-Christ" superficially. Probably most Christians take "anti-Christ" as simply meaning "against Christ." By definition, that's the essence of all non-Christian religions (and of unbelief): so the take-away to John's teaching that anti-Christ is here, now, is often simply that the world will always be awash in non-Christian religions, and unbelief. As true as that is, it's hardly a deep operative spiritual insight.

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and Vine's Expository Dictionary (two solid study-aids I consider indispensable in understanding all that the Bible's words are saying) both emphasize an additional aspect of the Greek "anti-:" that it means "against" with the sense "in place of" (Strong's), or "instead of" (Vine's). Vine's gloss says that "anti-" in Greek "...can mean either against Christ or instead of Christ, or perhaps, combining the two, 'one who, assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Christ' (Westcott)." (In this, anti-Christ is much like the false Christ, pseudochristos, Jesus warns against in Matthew 24:24 and Mark 13:22: who, Vine's says, "...does not deny the existence of Christ, ...[but] trades upon the expectation of [Christ's] appearance, affirming that he is the Christ.")

"Christ" means "Messiah:" God's Anointed One. False teachings about Christ always manifest the spirit of anti-Christ: but it's important to recognize there are varieties of those false teachings. (In opposition to the unity in TRUTH of our God, His Son, and the Spirit, doesn't satan always fill the earth with varieties of lies ?) Unbelief simply says, "There is no Christ." Non-Christian religions say, "There is a Christ, but Jesus is not him." John is teaching about the most deceptive, and most seductive, manifestation of anti-Christ's spirit: the one which says, "There is a Christ...and I AM him."

John is NOT writing to make us fearful of anti-Christ's deception. The whole point of his letter, after all, is that God's Spirit is manifest in actions, and that the contrary spirit manifests itself likewise, as in lies and hatred. Those who walk in the Spirit need not fear being deceived: "...you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know" (I John 2:20). To all who will receive the Spirit and His guiding wisdom, the working of the spirit of anti-Christ is "obvious" in the devil's children (I John 3:10): the spirit of ant-Christ is even more obvious incarnate in satan's false Christ.

John's teaching also undercuts speculation about who is that anti-Christ, by giving us specifics by which we can recognize his spirit. My relatives were on the right track, looking for deeper understanding of the details scripture gives us about anti-Christ. But they probably missed the mark by focusing on elements whose meaning God has hidden; beasts from the sea, heads that are mountains, and horns that are kings. Those details leave a lot of room for speculative interpretation: which was, of course, the "fun" of the "Identify anti-Christ" parlor-game (and also ego-boosting when, in your own estimation, you could figure out God's puzzle).

I have no doubt whatever that all those symbols have absolute spiritual meaning. And no doubt that the Spirit of God will reveal their meanings, to those who are attuned to Him, at whatever time He chooses. But I don't perceive that this is the time He's chosen. So I'll focus on the details God has made plain to us for now.

There are specific simple facts John tells us by which we can, and should, recognize the present spirit of anti-Christ in its actions. Indeed, if we can't recognize the actions of that spirit already manifest in the world, it's doubtful we'll be able to recognize it incarnate in "...the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan..." (II Thessalonians 2), when he arrives (even if we flatter ourselves we've figured out what all of Revelation's horns, beasts, and heads mean).

John tells us first that those walking in the spirit of anti-Christ "went out from us" (v. 19) It's logical, of course, that the spirit of anti -Christ has to derive from Christ: "anti-" only makes sense as opposition to what already exists. Dependent opposition to Christ requires intimate knowledge of Christ: as the demon in Acts 19 said to the sons of Sceva, "I know Jesus..." The most hurtful rejection can only come from intimate friends, as with Judas. The opposition of those who "go out from us" after having been among us, reject Christ more deeply than any others can.

That fact alone undercuts much widespread speculation in the American Church. The Church' current p.c., for example, is that Islam is the great manifestation of anti-Christ's spirit in the world. But Islam did not "go out from us:" despite Muhammad's use of Christian folklore, concepts and terminology in some parts of the Koran, Islam did not originate in the Church. The same could be said of Hinduism, Buddhism, paganism, Shintoism, animism, etc.

John tells us further that the spirit of anti-Christ "denies the Father and the Son" (v. 22). This fact would certainly apply to all those non-Christian religions (and to generic unbelief), since John goes on to say that "whoever denies the Son does not have the Father" (v. 23). By definition, all non-Christian religions "deny the Son."

But the spirit of anti-Christ is one which denies Father and Son after having known Father and Son: after having been among us, supposedly a Christian, hearing the Bible's true teaching. The greatest deception of the spirit of anti-Christ is that it uses that knowledge to deny Father and Son; in the meaning of Greek "anti," by offering a seemingly-Christian "Father" and "Son" who are "in place of" or "instead of" the Jesus Christ of the Bible and His Father.

The spirit of anti-Christ is behind all non-Christian religions, and all unbelief. But at present, the religion which most closely matches I John 2's description is Mormonism.

It went out from Christianity: but claims to be "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

Its Prophet in 1998 decreed that Mormonism's "Christ" is not the Bible's Jesus Christ, Son of God:

"The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. He, together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages." (http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/31188/Crown-of-gospel-is-upon-our-heads.html)

Denying the Son as above, Mormonism also denies the Father, teaching he is Adam, a glorified man. The "different gospel" (II Corinthians 11:4) taught in their "bible" is that Mormons too can become gods of their own worlds: that "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be."

I don't know if the incarnate anti-Christ will come from Mormonism or not: that's something God alone knows. But in the clear and simple specifics I John 2 teaches about the presence of anti-Christ's spirit already in the world, that spirit is particularly prevalent in Mormonism.