May 19, 2025
Antichrist! The all-time end-time villain! But what if he is not end-time? What if he is very alive and active today?
In the second century, the Christian writer Irenaeus saw Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and 2 Thessalonians 2 as predicting the same great enemy of God. From his day to ours, believers have commonly combined these three texts under the single term “Antichrist.”
But how can we know who he will be or has been? For me, the clearest, strongest, identifying marks are his connections to Rome and to Christ’s church.
Fact One – Roman Connection
1 – Though applications vary widely, most believers find solid reasons for believing that the ten-horned beasts of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17 apply in some way to Rome.
2 – John predicted a future (to him) ten-fold division of the Roman Empire: “The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet” (Rev. 17:12). This was fulfilled in 476 A.D., when Imperial Rome fell before ten invading barbarian tribes.
3 – According to Daniel 7, the little horn (Antichrist) would overcome some of those ten horns. Thus, the Antichrist was predicted to be a development of Rome after 476 A.D.
Fact Two – Church Connection
1 – In 2 Thess. 2:3-4 Paul predicts that “the man of sin… sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.”
2 – “Temple of God?” For 1,000 years, God’s temple was situated in Jerusalem. But the last time that physical building was called “God’s” was when “Jesus entered into the temple of God and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple… He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer…”‘” (Matt. 21:12-13).
3 – When Jesus died, God supernaturally demonstrated that He was done with that temple by ripping the temple veil in two from top to bottom. From that day onward, Scripture never refers to the physical temple in Jerusalem as God’s house or temple.
4 – Speaking to and about Christians, the NT says:
1 Cor. 3:16: “you are God’s temple.”
2 Cor. 6:16: “you are a temple of the living God.”
Heb. 3:6: “Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house.”
1 Tim. 3:15: “God’s house, which is the church of the living God.”
Fact Three: Apostate Church
The prediction is about one who comes and “sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God” (2 Thess. 2:4). After Jesus’ death, as we have seen, the temple of God is His church. This prophecy thus predicts a desecration of the true church, which is why the first word in 2 Thess. 2 to describe the “Antichrist” is: “falling away,” “rebellion,” or “apostasy,” depending on your version (2:3).
A “falling away” predicts a departure from the true church, while claiming to be the true church. “The” falling away predicts the major apostasy in history. Connect “the” fallen church to a development in Rome after the Empire fell, and you realize that “the” Antichrist is not someone to be waited for in the future, but rather he has already been present for centuries.
Digging Deeper
In this Insight, I have attempted to present the chief facts as briefly and clearly as possible. For more detailed studies, click here for the Topic Index, then scroll down to Book of Revelation, and click on Roman Connection, Antichrist, or 666 (or just click on these links below).