The Antichrist Revealed!

At least once a week I receive an email from a fellow Christian urging me to reject Obama as a presidential candidate on the grounds that he has been identified by the "Book of Revelations" as the antichrist. About once a week I mutter aloud in shock horror at the possibility or electing the antichrist president! A few samplings:

>> According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The
>> anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who
>> will Deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a
>> MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people
>> will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world
>> peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it
>> OBAMA??

> > According to The Book of Revelations:
> >
> > The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent,
> > who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have
> > a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people
> > will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace,
> > and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.
> >
> > And Now:
> > For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of all times the People
> > of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the
> > face of the Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of
> > America .. A Male of Muslim descent who is the most
> > extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an
> > extremist) and in his 40's.

A few brief items of note before delving deeper into the subject:

• The Bible does not contain a book of Revelations. It is Revelation. Singular.
• The book of Revelation (singular) does not explicitly mention "antichrist". Go ahead and search; it's not there. Apocalyptic foreshadowing (the beast, the dragon, etc..) to be sure; the word "antichrist" - not to be found.
• While you're at it, search for "Muslim" and "Obama" in the text. Cogitate at length on the results.
• Not to be a nitpicker (haha), but seriously - if you're going to forward an email - remove the ">>>>" signs before so doing. Seriously!

Moving right along, is Obama really *the* Antichrist (capital A)? Are there more than one? Should we be spending time trying to determine AC's identity by matching the events of the Revelation with current events? The answer to the last question at least is a resounding "No"! In my reading for this posting, I came across several excellent articles from Monergism.com worth sharing. In a piece (oddly) titled "Prophecy makes strange bedfellows: On the history of identifying the antichrist", Stephen J. Nicholas writes this concerning the word "antichrist":

"Only John in his epistles employs the term, four times in the singular (1 John 2:18; 2:22; 4:3; and 2 John 7) and once in the plural (1 John 2:18)"

From this, Nicholas outlines the importance of the word's plurality; "antichrists" - in addition to making the case that John was referring to "a spirit of antichrist already present in the world"

"Further, John identifies antichrist for the reader as the ones who denies the deity of Christ. Thus [1 John] 2:22 reads, "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist the one who denies the father and the son." In 4:3 John adds that every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God: "this is the spirit of antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world." 2 John 7 states the matter directly: "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." John provides a singular criterion for identifying antichrists: a heretical Christology." [emphasis added]

Even the "leaky dispensationalist", John MacArthur cedes this point:

"But even though the concept is, in the Bible, that this is one man, still the word "Antichrist" is much broader than any one man. Antichrist is not so much a person, a man, as it is a principle. And it is the principle of evil which is hostile to and actually opposed to God. It is the principle of anti-God, of anti-Christ. And it can be incarnated in men. And there have been such men in every generation who have been open and blatant and wicked opponents of God and Christ, or they have been subtly trying to replace the truth of God, trying to replace the Christ of God with their own deceit."

Nichols article continues with an interesting survey of the antichrist in history; various popes (indeed all of Romanism), King George, "Mussolini, Hitler, Ronald Wilson Reagan (whose name contains three words of six letters each and who almost moved to a 666 street address), Elvis, JFK, FDR, Henry Kissinger, Gorbachev (who has an uncanny birthmark on his forehead), Moshe Dayan, Anwar el-Sadat, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and Saddam Hussein" have all been identified as the antichrist.

Plurality indeed!

Nichols concludes with this telling line:

"Naming the antichrist probably reveals more about the person naming than anything. In some instances naming reveals a person's interpretation of texts or theology. In others, the naming has more to do with one's sociological or political views. Was Gorbachev, for instance, an enemy of orthodox Christology as much as he was a threat to Americanism? One might rightly query as to the theological motivations behind naming Henry Kissinger, JFK, and FDR. Robert Fuller observes the tendency to demonize one's enemy and, as his study reveals, the label of antichrist becomes quite a convenient tool."

In the frenzy leading to the elections, American Christians would do well to heed Polycarp's (John's disciple) words:

"For whoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist"; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word that has been handed down to us from the beginning; "watching unto prayer," and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation."

Amen.