The book makes for creative fiction, but it is not about the antichrist. To get our bearings, we need to see where the Bible mentions the antichrist. However, it does show up in letters attributed to John. These letters speak to churches facing dire circumstances: a number of members now deny that Jesus was fully human on earth and have left community. This lack of proper belief in Jesus is so damaging that the author declares those who left the community are outside of the faith.
They do not know or follow Jesus. In 1 John, correct Christology is not limited to theoretical ideas; belief always leads to action. The Christians who left community no longer value the embodied community of the church. They no longer value the reality of the incarnation.
They do not live according to love. Instead of being deceived by those who have left, this community is called to remember that God is love.
Jesus brings true life to those who believe and follow after him. Following Jesus always requires genuine believers to love one another 1 John The love of God is self-giving and communal, wanting the best for humanity: life through Jesus 1 John The truth of who Jesus is comes through divine anointing 1 John , The genuine believers who have remained in community have this anointing; they know who Jesus is and are reminded to let this truth live in them.
It is easy to grab on to caricatures like the fictional Carpathia, but that leaves us looking for someone resembling a Marvel comic villain. The reality is more subtle: the antichrists come from within our church community. Their teaching devalues the reality of Jesus full humanity and full divinity joined together. How odd, then, that when one appears, they have lost the religious sensibility to recognise him.
Yet I think it appropriate that reasonable people of faith begin to refer to Trump as antichrist. Since many of those supporters are family, friends, college classmates, and others, I thought it best to refrain from such epithets and attempted to make reasonable arguments on behalf of a different kind of Christianity and politics than the one that gained ascendancy with Trump.
Recent events, however, have led me to conclude that such a strategy leads us nowhere, especially when it comes to the war Trump and his allies are waging on black America. The necessity to stand with black neighbours against the current injustices that repeat old patterns requires something different.
Of course, they are poor readers of Scripture, and for that reason we should not concede it to them. They look to Revelation for a specific person and event that gives them power over their enemies and support for their friends — an odd theology for those who supposedly follow a crucified Christ.
The antichrist is a single person who will emerge at the end of time. In an actualizing interpretation, the symbols do not convey precise information but refer to a repeating symbol. The antichrist is not a single person but a political pattern that repeats itself by taking on power to oppress the poor and the just. It can be found in Antiochus IV Epiphanes or Nero, rulers of yesterday, today, and most likely tomorrow. The pattern that repeats itself differs, but a few things remain constant — power is glorified and used to oppress the righteous; brutal and vicious men are freed to wreak their vengeance; resentment, grievance, and fear cause people to turn to the brutal and follow them.
The faithful can be identified by their unwillingness to bow the knee to their brutality. Calling Trump an antichrist may give him too much credit. He is, after all, more of a carnival huckster who has turned the US presidency into a reality show sponsored by one continuous infomercial, but he is a carnival huckster who has the power of the US military at his command.
When this is all over, when the smoke from the tear gas or whatever chemical agent used has cleared, American Christianity will stand condemned for following the beast. An actualizing interpretation of Revelation gives us a political theology that might, we can only pray, prevent the likes of Hagee, Jeffress, Pompeo, Pence, Barr, and others from misleading so many in the future. John makes it very clear that anyone who opposes Jesus Christ is an Antichrist. If we take John at face value, there are billions of Antichrists.
Tradition has it that a specific wicked antagonist will arise someday and do battle with Jesus Christ after a second coming takes place.
There will be no second coming of Jesus Christ, in my opinion. There will be no great future battle at Armageddon. When Jesus was crucified, it was said that he would make his second coming before many in that generation died. He came, he taught, and it is up to us to live out his teachings — not watch and wait for his return. John the Apostle warned that there will be an individual Antichrist, but also that this spirit now works in some people as well.
My understanding of Scripture is that the church will be taken to be with Christ in Heaven before the Antichrist comes to power as a world-wide dictator. But even during this dark time, some people will be saved, refusing to worship the Antichrist, and turning to Jesus. Every year at this time, my wife and I celebrate a convergence of events. We were both born on March 6, so we also chose the date to get married. This convergence of has provided our friends with enough fodder for humorous warnings of a possible divine omen.
I assure them that I have checked the scalps of my children and have found no tattoos or birthmarks for which the world should be worried. But Christians are especially divided on this issue of Antichrist. The Reformers thought that the Pope was the Antichrist.
Good question. Hitler, Stalin and Nero were all Antichrists. Will there be others? Will there be a last one that eclipses them all?
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