Antichrist?

Dave_L

Many different views exist throughout Christendom about the Antichrist. Many believe he is also the “man of sin” Paul speaks of. How do you view this character? Is he past, present or yet to come? My present belief is that he exists any time a totalitarian government demands obedience over God’s word. We see this throughout history, especially in Nero and the Papacy.

And I believe we saw the Mark most recently in America when the Obama administration began persecuting Christians who would not take part in homosexual weddings. In my understanding, they did not receive the Mark by refusing to comply, and as a result could not buy or sell. While all who backed the laws did.

I understand the Mark of the Beast or number as a symbol. Not so much the number of any single man, but as man’s number. Where people who place man above God wear it and those who place God above man do not.
Any thoughts appreciated.

reformed

@Dave_L said:
Many different views exist throughout Christendom about the Antichrist. Many believe he is also the “man of sin” Paul speaks of. How do you view this character? Is he past, present or yet to come? My present belief is that he exists any time a totalitarian government demands obedience over God’s word. We see this throughout history, especially in Nero and the Papacy.

Future/Present. Satan takes on bodily form and or posesses someone.

And I believe we saw the Mark most recently in America when the Obama administration began persecuting Christians who would not take part in homosexual weddings. In my understanding, they did not receive the Mark by refusing to comply, and as a result could not buy or sell. While all who backed the laws did.

I don't think there is any evidence for this.

I understand the Mark of the Beast or number as a symbol. Not so much the number of any single man, but as man’s number. Where people who place man above God wear it and those who place God above man do not.
Any thoughts appreciated.

I agree it is a symbol.

Dave_L

@reformed said:

@Dave_L said:
Many different views exist throughout Christendom about the Antichrist. Many believe he is also the “man of sin” Paul speaks of. How do you view this character? Is he past, present or yet to come? My present belief is that he exists any time a totalitarian government demands obedience over God’s word. We see this throughout history, especially in Nero and the Papacy.

Future/Present. Satan takes on bodily form and or posesses someone.

I think this happens throughout history. The Papacy including today. Many antichrist world rulers throughout history including Islam.

And I believe we saw the Mark most recently in America when the Obama administration began persecuting Christians who would not take part in homosexual weddings. In my understanding, they did not receive the Mark by refusing to comply, and as a result could not buy or sell. While all who backed the laws did.

I don't think there is any evidence for this.

I don't think Obama is the Antichrist perse. But anti christian laws are taking over. If the mark is the number of man, and not the number of a certain man, then we can easily see this throughout history.

I understand the Mark of the Beast or number as a symbol. Not so much the number of any single man, but as man’s number. Where people who place man above God wear it and those who place God above man do not.
Any thoughts appreciated.

I agree it is a symbol.

People who place man's laws above God's laws when put to the test, wear the symbolic mark in their foreheads. Just as the 144,000 wear the symbolic name of the lamb in their's.

GaoLu

I think (?) that "antichrist" is a description more than a name, although there certainly seems to be an individual with that description in Rev. There are actually many antichrists. Those who are against Christ in a variety of ways are antichrist or have a spirit of antichrist. Discerning this does not seem difficult.

reformed

@GaoLu said:
I think (?) that "antichrist" is a description more than a name, although there certainly seems to be an individual with that description in Rev. There are actually many antichrists. Those who are against Christ in a variety of ways are antichrist or have a spirit of antichrist. Discerning this does not seem difficult.

This is a good point, I guess it depends on what you mean when you are referring to antichrist?

Dave_L

@reformed said:

@GaoLu said:
I think (?) that "antichrist" is a description more than a name, although there certainly seems to be an individual with that description in Rev. There are actually many antichrists. Those who are against Christ in a variety of ways are antichrist or have a spirit of antichrist. Discerning this does not seem difficult.

This is a good point, I guess it depends on what you mean when you are referring to antichrist?

Antichrist = "in place of Christ" (think Papacy). Or it means "against Christ" (think Islam).

Dave_L

Here's something that might interest you. It comes from Augustine's City of God. He speaks of 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

[Man of sin/Antichrist] “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in [as] the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4)

Instead of the man of sin sitting in the temple of God, he would sit as the temple of God. Which of course is what the Papacy claims for itself.

Augustine said:

"Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read, not “in the temple of God,” but “for” or “as the temple of God,” as if he himself were the temple of God, the Church.1405"

Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Depending on which dictionary you use, it is possible to translate it this way.