What does the Bible say about the Antichrist?

What is the Antichrist?

There is not a specific person with the title “The Antichrist” in the entire Bible. Instead, the term "antichrist" is used in the Bible to refer to anybody who opposes Christ. This is often surprising for people to hear, since popular conceptions of the Antichrist are of a single figure of supreme evil who will oppose God. This idea is more a result of popular fiction over the last hundred years, like Damien in the Omen series, Nicolae Carpathia in Left Behind, or Randall Flagg in Stephen King’s The Stand. These kinds of stories popularized the idea that “the antichrist” is the title of a specific, singular figure – often the incarnate son of Satan in the same way that Jesus is the incarnate son of God. But these kinds of portrayals are clumsy and misleading. The idea of a particular figure appearing at the end of history is a combination of many different passages in the Bible, and have been interpreted differently over the centuries in relation to the end of the world, what theologians call “eschatology” or “the end times”.

Antichrist Bible verses

Only four verses in the entire Bible explicitly use the word “antichrist”, all of which are in the writings of the apostle John. The references are as follows (NKJV):

• 1 John 2:18: "Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour."

• 1 John 2:22: "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son."

• 1 John 4:3: "and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world."

• 2 John 1:7: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist."

In these passages, John says an antichrist is someone who:

1. Denies that Jesus is the Christ, and therefore also denies the rest of the Trinity

2. Denies that Christ has “come in the flesh”, IE that Christ had a real human body

3. Is a deceiver

John also indicates that there is more than one antichrist, or that being an antichrist is something that anyone can become if he denies deity of Christ. As for relation to the “end times”, only one verse discusses this, 1 John 2:18, in which St. John explains that the antichrist is both coming and has already come, indeed, that several have already come, and that the arrival of these antichrists means that “it is the last hour”.

If we were to take only these verses, we could conclude that the antichrist is really a general term for anyone who opposes Christ. Specifically, an antichrist is someone who opposes the truth of Christ’s deity and incarnation by denying it or deceiving others about it. One of John’s concern in these letters is about staying faithful to Christ and not being led astray by false teachers and immoral actions. Even though he references “the last hour”, he does not really elaborate on what the last hour means.

Other Bible verses traditionally seen as the Antichrist

Though an antichrist is only specifically mentioned in 1 and 2 John, several other passages in the Bible have traditionally been associated with the idea of an antichrist. These passages usually talk about someone who comes at the end of history to oppose Christ and threaten the world:

The “Antichrist” in the Book of Daniel

The prophecies of Daniel include multiple descriptions of a powerful, wicked king who shall one day rise up and take control over the world – including over religious life, doing things that Daniel describes as wicked and “abominations”, and that he will persecute “the saints” (Daniel 7:25, 8:23, 9:27, 11:31, 11:26, 12:11). But the term "antichrist" is never used.

The "Antichrist" in Matthew and Mark

Jesus makes direct reference to the above passages in Daniel, warning people about the things that will happen in those days and telling the people to flee Judea when they see the signs (Matt 24:11-17; Mark 13:12-18). Jesus both mentions that there will be “many false prophets” that they will “rise up and deceive many” (Matt 24:11), in keeping with St. John’s description of the many antichrists and deceivers. He reiterates warnings from the Book of Daniel about a single, powerful ruler of particular wickedness. But Christ also never uses the word "antichrist".

The "Antichrist" in 2 Thessalonians

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, St. Paul also writes about a wicked ruler who, like the figure described in Daniel, will set himself up as a rival to God. St. Paul describes him as a “lawless” man, who will “exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped” even to the point of setting himself in God’s temple and proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thess 2:4). St. Paul describes the time that this will occur and the sequence of events briefly, but vaguely:

“Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 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. 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”

2 Thess 2:5-12 (NIV)

Given that St. Paul describes Christ coming and overthrowing this ruler, it makes sense that this passages has been interpreted as describing the events of the “end times”. But Paul never uses the word "antichrist".

The “Antichrist” in the Book of Revelation

All of these passages are usually read together with the general content of the Book of Revelation (also known as John’s Apocalypse). The Revelation is the last book of the Bible, authored by the same St. John who authored the letters where the antichrists are described. St. John records a vision he’s had that is generally interpreted as a description of the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. In this vision there are various descriptions of powerful enemies of Christ who, by all accounts (wickedness, deception, rule of the world) fit the description St. John gives in his letters of what an antichrist does, as well as the figures in Daniel and Paul. These passages seem to describe specific figures who oppose Christ that will appear in some form in the future, seemingly at the end of history. But like St. Paul and Jesus, John does not use the word "antichrist".

The Antichrist and the Roman Empire

Early Christians sometimes took all of the above passages, put them together, and used them to describe events of their time. St. Iranaeus is one of the earliest interpreters, writing in the A.D. 200s, and he links the above passages (Against Heresies, book V, chapters 25-30). However, it seems St. Iranaeus was mostly talking about the end of the Roman empire, which would fall several centuries later, though this does not preclude him talking about both the fall of Rome as well as the end of history.

Antichrists in Christian history

The end of history is not the only time in which antichrists were thought to appear. Christians have used the general image of an antichrist to describe many different figures throughout history. Various heretics, world rulers, and pagans leaders have been identified as antichrists. A famous example is from the fourth century when St. Athanasius calls the heretical bishop Arius an antichrist for teaching that Jesus was not God himself by merely created by God. In the medieval period, a monk named Jocahim of Fiore first articulated the idea that there were successive antichrists throughout history, such as Emperor Nero, the Muslim prophet Muhammad, and the sultan Saladin.

After the rise of denominations within Christianity (A.D. 1500 and onward), “antichrist” was a frequent condemnation used by those who had opposing theologies, as when Protestants like Martin Luther called the Catholic Popes antichrists during the Reformation.

The Antichrist as an abstract concept of poetry

Even without siding with a particular interpretation of the end times, there are a few things we can say for certain. First, the word “antichrist” is only mentioned explicitly in John’s epistles, and is described in more general terms, i.e., as a type of person who simply opposes Christ. There is not a specific single figure with the title “The Antichrist” in the entire Bible. St. John talks about antichrists in the plural, more as a type of person rather than one specific person.

However, many depictions in the Biblical canon do discuss a singular figure who is wicked, powerful, and opposes Christ specifically. These figures fit John’s description of an antichrist, and the early Christians made this association. They thought that of all these different descriptions in the Bible were describing the same event that would take place at some future point in history.

Whether or not the events described in these visions and prophecies have already happened has been a matter of discussion among Christian thinkers. There are good reasons to believe that these authors were predicting things that – by our present-day perspective – have already happened, such as the collapse of the Roman empire. However, this doesn’t mean that such predictions can’t also be about an ultimate collapse of all worldly empires with the final return of Christ. This is because ancient Christians did not think of prophecy in the Bible as having one single message that simply needed to be “de-coded”. They understood that a prophecy was capable of having multiple meanings that could all be true at the same time. Daniel’s prophecies, therefore, could be about the fall of the pagan empires of his own day, and about the Roman rulers and the fall of the Roman empire in Christ’s day, as well as the ultimate fall of the devil’s rule of the world at the end of history.

What about this mysterious end of history? For now, it’s difficult to say. Though Christians have been discussing how and when Christ will return for thousands of years, the matter remains disputed and Christians do not have a consensus about it. But this should not be that surprising, for Christ himself says, “but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36, NKJV).

Future reading

• Writing by St. Iranaeus

  • 1 and 2 John

  • The Book of Daniel

  • 2 Thessalonians

  • John’s Apocalypse (The Book of Revelation)

  • Against Heresies, Book V (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm)

• Writing by St. Athanasius, namely Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse 1, chapters 1 and 4 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/28161.htm)