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Bible Encyclopedias
Antichrist
The Catholic Encyclopedia
or (Greek Antichristos).
In composition anti has different meanings: antibasileus denotes a king who fills an interregnum; antistrategos, a propraetor; anthoupatos, a proconsul; in Homer antitheos denotes one resembling a god in power and beauty, while in other works it stands for a hostile god. Following mere analogy one might interpret antichristos as denoting one resembling Christ in appearance and power; but it is safer to define the word according to its biblical and ecclesiastical usage.
Biblical meaning of the word
The word Antichrist occurs only in the Johannine Epistles; but there are so-called real parallelisms to these occurrences in the Apocalypse, in the Pauline Epistles, and less explicit ones in the Gospels and the Book of Daniel.
In the Johannine epistles
St. John supposes in his Epistles that the early Christians are acquainted with the teaching concerning the coming of Antichrist. "You have heard that Antichrist cometh" (1 John 2:18); "This is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh" (1 John 4:3). Though the Apostle speaks of several Antichrists, he distinguishes between the many and the one principal agent: "Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists" (1 John 2:18). Again, the writer outlines the character and work of Antichrist: "They went out from us, but they were not of us" (1 John 2:19); "Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denies the Father, and the Son" (1 John 2:22); "And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God; and this is Antichrist" (1 John 4:3); "For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a seducer and an Antichrist" (2 John 7). Also the time, the Apostle places the coming of Antichrist at "the last hour" (1 John 2:18); again he maintains that "he is now already in the world" (1 John 4:3).
In the Apocalypse
Nearly all commentators find Antichrist mentioned in the Apocalypse, but they do not agree as to the particular chapter of the Book in which the mention occurs. Some point to the "beast" of 11:7, others to the "red dragon" of Chapter 12, others again to the beast "having seven heads and ten horns" of 13, ff., while many scholars identify Antichrist with the beast which had "two horns, like a lamb" and spoke "as a dragon" (13:11, ff.), or with the scarlet-coloured beast "having seven heads and ten horns" (17), or, finally, with Satan "loosed out of his prison," and seducing the nations (20:7, ff.). A detailed discussion of the reasons for and against each of these opinions would be out of place here.
In the Pauline epistles
St. John supposes that the doctrine concerning the coming of Antichrist is already known to his readers; many commentators believe that it had become known in the Church through the writings of St. Paul. St. John urged against the heretics of his time that those who denied the mystery of the Incarnation were faint images of the future great Antichrist. The latter is described more fully in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, ff., 7-10. In the Church of Thessalonica disturbances had occurred on account of the belief that the second coming of Jesus Christ was imminent. This impression was owing partly to a misunderstanding of 1 Thessalonians 4:15, ff., partly to the machinations of deceivers. It was with a view of remedying these disorders that St. Paul wrote his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, inserting especially 2:3-10. The Pauline doctrine is this: "the day of the Lord" will be preceded by "a revolt", and the revelation of the "man of sin." The latter will sit in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God; he will work signs and lying wonders by the power of Satan; he will seduce those who received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; but the Lord Jesus shall kill him with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming. As to the time, "the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way." Briefly, the "day of the Lord" will be preceded by the "man of sin" known in the Johannine Epistles as Antichrist; the "man of sin" is preceded by "a revolt," or a great apostasy; this apostasy is the outcome of the "mystery of iniquity" which already "worketh", and which, according to St. John, shows itself here and there by faint types of Antichrist. The Apostle gives three stages in the evolution of evil: the leaven of iniquity, the great apostasy, and the man of sin. But he adds a clause calculated to determine the time of the main event more accurately; he describes something first as a thing (to datechon), then as a person (ho katechon), preventing the occurrence of the main event: "Only he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way." We can here only enumerate the principal opinions as to the meaning of this clause without discussing their value: Before leaving the Pauline doctrine of Antichrist, we may ask ourselves, whence did the Apostle derive his teaching? Here again we meet with various answers. After studying the picture of Antichrist in St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians, one easily recognizes the "man of sin" in Daniel 7:8, 11, 20, 21, where the Prophet describes the "little horn." A type of Antichrist is found in Daniel 8:8 sqq., 23, sqq., 11:21-45, in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes. Many commentators have found more or less clear allusions to Antichrist in the coming of false Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:6, 22; Luke 21:8), in the "abomination of desolation", and in the one that "shall come in his own name" (John 5:43). Bousset believes that there was among the Jews a fully developed legend of Antichrist, which was accepted and amplified by Christians; and that this legend diverges from and contradicts in important points the conceptions found in the Apocalypse. We do not believe that Bousset has fully proved his opinion; his view as to the Christian development of the concept of Antichrist does not exceed the merits of an ingenious theory. We need not here enter upon an investigation of Gunkel's work, in which he traces back the idea of Antichrist to the primeval dragon of Œthe deep; this view deserves no more attention than the rest of the author's mythological fancies. What then is the true ecclesiastical concept of Antichrist? Francisco Suárez maintains that it is of faith that Antichrist is an individual person, a signal enemy of Christ. This excludes the contention of those who explain Antichrist either as the whole collection of those who oppose Jesus Christ, or as the Papacy. The Waldensian and Albigensian heretics, as well as Wyclif and Hus, called the Pope by the name of Antichrist; but the expression was only a metaphor in their case. It was only after the time of the Reformation that the name was applied to the Pope in its proper sense. It then passed practically into the creed of the Lutherans, and has been seriously defended by them as late as 1861 in the "Zeitschrift für lutherische Theologie". The change from the true Church into the reign of Antichrist is said to have taken place between 19 February and 10 November, A.D. 607, when Pope Boniface III obtained from the Greek emperor Newton, the title "Head of All the Churches" for the Roman Church. An appeal was made to Apocalypse 13:8, in confirmation of this date, and it was calculated from Apocalypse 11:3, that the end of the world might be expected in A.D. 1866. Cardinal Bellarmine refuted this error both from an exegetical and historical point of view in "De Rom. Pont.", III. The individual person of Antichrist will not be a demon, as some of the ancient writers believed; nor will he be the person of the devil incarnated in the human nature of Antichrist. He will be a human person, perhaps of Jewish extraction, if the explanation of Genesis 49:17, together with that of Dan's omission in the catalogue of the tribes, as found in the Apocalypse, be correct. It must be kept in mind that extra-Scriptural tradition furnishes us no revealed supplement to the Biblical data concerning Antichrist. While these latter are sufficient to make the believer recognize the "man of sin" at the time of his coming, the lack of any additional reliable revelation should put us on our guard against the daydreams of the Irvingites, the Mormons, and other recent proclaimers of new revelations. It may not be out of place to draw the reader's attention to two dissertations by the late Cardinal Newman on the subject of Antichrist. The one is entitled "The Patristic Idea of Antichrist"; it considers successively his time, religion, city, and persecution. It formed the eighty-third number of the "Tracts for the Times." The other dissertation bears the title "The Protestant Idea of Antichrist." In order to understand the significance of the Cardinal's essays on the question of the Antichrist, it must be kept in mind that a variety of opinions sprang up in course of time concerning the nature of this opponent of Christianity. After this general survey of the Protestant views concerning the Antichrist, we shall be able to appreciate some of Cardinal Newman's critical remarks on the question. IRENAEUS, Adveresus Haer., IV, 26; ADSO (PSEUDO-RABANUS MAURUS), De ortu, vitâ et moribus Antichristi, P.L., CI, 1289-98); BELLARMINE, De Rom. Pont., III; NEWMAN, The Patristic Idea of Antichrist, No. 83 of Tracts for the Times, republished in Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects (London, New York, and Bombay 1897).
In the evangelists and Daniel
Antichrist in ecclesiastical language
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Obstat, Nihil. Lafort, Remy, Censor. Entry for 'Antichrist'. The Catholic Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/a/antichrist.html. Robert Appleton Company. New York. 1914.
