Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"The Antichrist - Spirit, Person, or More?"
September 11th, 2006 - ?? Service

THE ANTICHRIST - SPIRIT, PERSON, OR MORE?
TEXT: ET AL
INTRO:
Few images of evil pervade our culture as does the one invoked by the mentioning of the antichrist. Darker than the real life Adolph Hitler, more insidious than the fantasy Darth Vader, the antichrist seems to be Hitler, Vader, Count Dracula, the Grim Reaper, and more all rolled into one.

Then when a few spoons of theology and biblical-size dimensions are added you really have one bad dude! I don't say this in a factious attitude but to highlight how factious we can become in thinking about and addressing a Biblical truth such as this.

Let's begin with the word antichrist, then proceed to the background provided by the OT, look at what the NT presents to us and then being better informed biblically we will be better postured for the Holy Spirit to speak to us in a transformational way.

I. ANTICHRIST.
1. The word 'antichrist' is only given to us in the Holy Spirit inspired writings of Apostle John. It is used five times. As a compound word it's prefix, anti-, means as much "in the place of" as it means "against" which our use of anti- in English most often means. Many word scholars think that when used to refer to a person, the two can be combined in the way it is used in the Bible to communicate "one who by assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Christ." It would be like switching or substituting something or someone for Christ so as to defeat Christ in opposition. ILLU: In "Man in the Iron Mask" the good twin was substituted for the bad twin so as to overcome the bad twin's rule over France.

2. When thinking about the word "antichrist" we need to make a distinction from the term "false Christ". While antichrist is opposition to Christ so much as to deny the existence of Christ, false Christ does not deny the existence of Christ but trades on the claim of being the true Christ. A false Christ would not deny the existence of Christ as he trades in the truth of Christ but presents himself as the one who fulfills the role of the Messiah.

3. These two are similar. The great difference is in strategy. False Christs would not want to dismantle a belief in Christ for if no one believed in a Christ, then they would not believe in them. Antichrist, by substituting himself for Christ, is actually denying that there really is a Christ. ILLU: Think as a child for a moment. At Christmas, we see many Santa Clauses. Every child believes that there is a Santa! The men who portray Santa do not want the belief in Santa to die out for then they would have no seasonal employment. They market themselves on this belief. They are false Santas. But parents providing gifts under the tree is not a false Santa but an anti-santa. While in reality every child eventually awakens to what is going on, for the sake of this illustration, let's assume that parents are out to destroy the belief in Santa, they oppose Santa and everything about him. So they tell their children, "You think there is a Santa? No! I am Santa! I provide all those bikes, games, toys and clothes. There never was a Santa." They are not merely false Santas but anti-Santas.

4. Antichrist wants Christ to be annihilated. Antichrist so opposes and hates Christ that it attempts to substitute itself for Christ like a parent substitutes himself for Santa in order to destroy Santa and belief in Santa.

II. OT BACKGROUND
1. The OT does not provide a full picture of antichrist any more than it provides a full picture of Christ. It does provide the material for a picture to be developed, however. The first material is simply that of opposition to God. Judges records wicked men or people called in some translations the "sons of Belial" (Jg, 19:22). Wicked people were associated with idolatry (Deut. 13:13), sodomy and rape (Jg. 19:22, 20:13), drunkenness (1 Sam. 1:16), sacrilege and disregard for God (1 Sam. 2:17; 2:12), disrespect for authority (1 Sam. 10:27), perjury (1 Kings 21:10), and evil speech (Pro. 6:22).

2. This opposition to God was not only on a personal level but a national level as well. Isaiah preached to Babylon (Isa. 14) and Ezekiel to Tyre (Ez. 28) as two nations that in their ordered government and resulting society were anti-God or YWHW.

3. Most shaping of the ideas of the antichrist are passages in Daniel. Using symbolic images, Daniel writes of one who is defeated by God in chapter 7. Then of one in chapter 8 who opposes the Prince of princes but is defeated. Many scholars see that chapter 8 prophesies of a real person, Antiochus Epiphanes, a foreign ruler who set up an altar to Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple in 175-164 BC. Then chapter 11 presents a king who seems the personification of evil. These passages provide material for the antichrist that is one who opposes God through conflict with God's people even and he exalts himself to the position of deity (11:36-39). The images of Daniel maybe enigmatic but they certainly provide evidence to consider that the antichrist is not only opposition to God but that opposition is embodied in someone.

4. Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed a pig on his Zeus altar henceforth being a hated person by the Jews. Herod the Great had personality traits that reminded the Jews of Antiochus. Also, Caligula in 37-41 AD who wanted to set up a statue of himself in the Jerusalem Temple. All of this provides a background to what the NT presents of the antichrist.

III. NT PRESENTATION
1. No one writes more openly about the antichrist than does Apostle John. He actually gives us the term antichrist. Apostle John points out the spiritual elements and the spiritual lie which is the foundation upon which the antichrist stands. By the Holy Spirit we know through John that a spirit of antichrist is present in the world. This attitude, not a spirit entity, is identified through erroneous teaching that denies the true and full incarnation of Jesus Christ claiming that He only appeared to have a body or He was actually only a man, not fully divine. It is the refusal to acknowledge Jesus Christ. (1 John 2:22, 4:3, 2 John 7). Then in Revelation, John picks up the materials of the OT, especially Daniel, and sketches a portrait of the antichrist that is still in coded language. But it is certain that the antichrist does oppose Christ and God's people.

2. Jesus warned the disciples of false Christs and more narrowly of recalling Daniel's prophecy of an abomination of desolation occurring at the hands of some individual. This sketches the portrait of the antichrist as more a personality.

3. Apostle Paul is carried along by the Holy Spirit as he writes and uses the terms "man of lawlessness" and "the lawless one" to show the contempt of law the antichrist will have. Furthermore, 2 Thess 2:4. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Paul expands 2 Thess 2:9-10. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. Paul clearly writes of the antichrist being a person but one who is the culmination of a power of lawlessness already at work in the world but undisclosed for all to yet see. 2 Thess 2:6-7. And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

IV. SPIRIT, PERSON, BOTH?
1. The great question of the antichrist is two-fold. Is the antichrist a spirit or attitude or is the antichrist a person? Then if the antichrist is a person, which person is he?

2. The Early Church Fathers believed that the antichrist was a person. They were not sure if he would be a political or a religious leader. Over the centuries, those who believe the antichrist to be a man have swayed between the two types sometimes seeing him as an emperor of Rome or a Pope of Catholicism. In more recent times the antichrist has been believed by some to be Adolph Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, or others because of the unspeakable evil that these men perpetrated.

3. Some have seen the antichrist not at all personified but only as an attitude. This attitude or spirit is one of opposition to God, disregard and disrespect for Him. It is not identifiable with a nation, a person, or an institution. Those who believe this view the language in the Bible as vocabulary describing the spiritual warfare between Christ and satan.

4. So which is it? It is both; for Apostle John and Apostle Paul complement not compete with each other in their writing of the antichrist. Present in our world and society, as we worship tonight, is an attitude that opposes Christ. It shows in our economics, entertainment, government policies and laws. It is an attitude of refusing to acknowledge Christ. It denies and seeks to refute the truth that Jesus Christ came into our world to redeem us.
5. While there are foreshadowings of the antichrist as John wrote of those who in his day were antichrists in their teachings, there is also one yet to come. This person will be as described by Paul. READ 2 THESS. 2:1-12. While John wrote of a spirit of antichrist he too understood the antichrist to one day be a person. This person arises out of the mass of humanity that opposes God READ REV. 13:1-4. He blasphemes God and is given universal authority READ 13:5-8.

6. What more is there of this antichrist?
· He does not appear until it is God's time for him to come on the scene of God's redemptive plan - 2 Thess. 2:6 "he may be revealed at the proper time." All things happen on God's time table and no one else's!
· The antichrist is destined to doom - REV. 19:19-20. The enemies of God will not prevail!
· The antichrist is defeated by the Word of God - 2 Thess 2: 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

CONCL:
What do we gain from knowing of the antichrist in these terms tonight?
1. A prism with which to understand the world - opposition to God in Jesus Christ is the attitude of humanity and of individual hearts. Don't expect co-workers to support your Bible study or prayer time - they didn't Daniel's! Remember that your loved one must be rescued from their rebellion. This helps guard against cynicism toward sinners.

2. A priority for life - look for Christ not the antichrist. In events, creation, and Bible study, a believer is to be looking for Jesus Christ. Where did you see the glory of Christ this week? Watch for the finger prints of God this next week.

3. A promise to hold to - Christ the Lamb triumphs over evil in its most intense. God does not seal His victory until satan has done his worse. When evil has reached its zenith, God plays out His hand of victory. As in premillennialism - there is no change of venue for God to win - so here, the defeat of evil is when evil throws its best punch and nothing is in reserve. Political forces, military might, financial power, religious authority, and societal strongholds embodied in the antichrist all fall down to the Lamb on the Throne!