Do you feel that the Antichrist is Alive Today??

Where do you find a reference to "antichrist" specifically in Revelation? Are you referring to the beast with the number 666, the other beast, the false prophet or the enemy himself?

 

To answer the OP...it's really hard to say. With the conflicts in the middle east, he very well could be alive today.

 

I believe that he could be alive today. That's entirely possible, but it doesn't concern me if he is.

I guess if he is, that it means Christ's coming is sooner than some expect.

 

I've heard one theory that says that since Satan himself has know way of knowing when Jesus will return, that he prepares an Antichrist for each generation. If this is the case, then he is most certainly alive today.

 

1 John 2 - "many antiChrists have already come"

 

TaliOrlando,

bmerr here. I believe the references in Revelation you mentioned spoke of the Roman emperor Diocletian. The phrase "the antichrist" is not found in the Bible, to my knowledge.

The word "antichrist" is found only 4 or 5 times, all in 1st and 2nd John. It's always a term used for those who deny that Jesus is the Christ (1 Jn 3:22), and those who deny that Jesus is come inthe flesh (1 Jn 4:3; 2 Jn 7). The fact of these antichrists was an indication to the apostle John that he was in the last time (1 Jn 2:18).

I would recommend you not worry about "the Antichrist", which the Bible does not speak of, and concentrate on faithful obedience to the NT. We are in the last says, just as John was.

In Christ,

bmerr

 

==That is interesting since others, who are preterists, hold that the antichrist was Nero. Which is it?

==1John 2:18 references that John's readers have "heard that antichrist is coming". So while there were many antichrists in John's day, and while there are certainly many antichrists in our day, these are not antichrist. The antichrist, the one who is coming, is described in different ways. In Revelation he is described as a beast who gets his authority and power from the devil. In 2Thessalonians 2:1-12 the antichrist is known as "the man of lawlessness", and there are other descriptions of him in Scripture.

One reason I reject the idea that Nero (etc) was the antichrist is the fact of how the antichrist dies...

"Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the LORD will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming" 2Thess 2:8

"And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against HIm who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he decieved those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image; these two were thrown alive into the Lake of Fire which burns with brimstone" Rev 19:19-20

The antichrist will be destroyed at the coming of Christ. At that time he will be active on the earth, in fact he will probably be the main human ruler of the earth (Rev 13:7). Since Jesus did not return, the appearance of His coming, and thus bring an end to Nero or Diocletian they could not have been the antichrist.

==If a person belongs to Christ then I agree don't worry about the antichrist. Those who belong to the world will follow him and even worship him, but true believers will not be fooled.

Is the antichrist alive today? Maybe, maybe not.

 

Antichrists had to have been alive in the first century since John said "many antichrist have come" and that THIS is how they knew they were in the last day 1John 2:18.

And there has been antichrist in every age since.

 

My Seventh Day Adventist co-worker says that the beast of Rev. 13:1 is the papacy and the beast of Rev. 13:11 is the United States. However, I don't agree with that. I believe that the two beasts are individual men, as both are sent to the Lake of Fire in Rev. 19:20. I think an argument could be made that the beast of Rev. 13:11 may be the pope. I think that Satan has always had someone ready to be the beast of Rev. 13:1. Unfortunately, unlike the SDA's, we Baptists don't have a unified view of prophecy, and our pastors rarely preach on prophecy or any doctrinal topic these days, so it is not easy to counter my SDA co-worker's arguments.

 

#1. Preterists are wrong.
#2. There is no statement in scripture showing Nero to be THE antichrist
#3. 1 John 2:18 MANY antichrist had ALREADY come

 

Well I don't have any Seventh-day Adventst co-workers to compare that to -- but everyone I work with does!

Since I AM a Seventh-day Adventist.

The second beast of Rev 13 obtains world-wide domination in the last days.