The Antichrist, or the Man of Sin, is the one who will bring back the Roman Empire and be a world dictator at the times of the end. He will rule just as Nebuchadnezzar did 2,500 years ago, as the most powerful man in the world, only the Antichrist’s reign will be global. The Antichrist is also described in Revelation 13 as the Beast from the sea, though indeed throughout the Bible there are some thirty five descriptions of this man.

The Antichrist will rule the earth during the eschatological Tribulation Period for a period of three and a half years. Revelation 13:7 gives a short description of the man, saying:

“And it was given to it to war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given to it over every tribe and tongue and nation.”

He is also similarly described in the Book of Daniel 7:25,

“And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and plot to change times and laws. And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and one-half time [3.5 years].”

The brief character description of the Antichrist given here, as him speaking out against God, is also confirmed in Revelation 13:5-6,

“And a mouth speaking great things was given to it, and blasphemies. And authority was given to it to continue forty-two months. And it opened its mouth in blasphemy toward God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and those dwelling in Heaven.”

The Antichrist is clearly a blasphemer. Indeed, one of the characteristics of the Antichrist is that he is ‘against Christ,’ thus one of the meanings of his name. The other meaning, is to ‘imitate Christ.” The Antichrist is both against Jesus Christ, while at the same time he is an blasphemous imitator of Jesus Christ.

It is also said of the Antichrist in Daniel 7:25 that he “shall persecute the saints of the Most High” and for us, that means both Christians and the Jews. Again this is confirmed in Revelation 12:13-17 where John records that the Antichrist “went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Then as Daniel says in Daniel 7:26, the Antichrist’s short but horrendously brutal and despotic reign will end as God’s judgement on him falls: “But the judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his rulership, to cut off and to destroy until the end.” Revelation 19:11-21 confirms this, and as the end of the Antichrist arrives, so too does the end of “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21-24). The times of the Gentiles (non-Jews) is a period of time which many Bible teachers see as effectively starting with Nebuchadnezzar and ending with the return of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the last 2,500 years of history, there have been many Antichrists, of whom Antiochus Epiphanes is one of only a few pre-Christ candidates and is described by scholars as being a type of Antichrist. Indeed, Epiphanes was specifically predicted by Daniel the prophet, and fulfilled many of the prophecies which the real Antichrist will repeat. Other characters in history who have been branded as Antichrists are the Roman Emperor Nero, The Pope (Just about every pope has been given the title of Antichrist), Charlemagne, Napoleon, Aleister Crowley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ronald Wilson Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev and to bring the list up to date with some living candidates: Bill Gates, Prince Charles of Wales, Jacques Chirac and finally Barack Obama. (Ref-1) Many of these names have done no apparent wrong or been dictators, but are seen to have clear links to the 666 Mark of the Beast.

I believe the reality of this spurious list is that perhaps only Antiochus Epiphanes fulfils the Biblical requirements of the Antichrist as his persecution of the Jews in Israel, out did Hitler.

When we look at the Antichrist from a Christian perspective, we tend to think only as far as the references to him in the Book of Revelation, as supported by the Book of Daniel. Interestingly however, there is much more about the Antichrist spread throughout the rest of the Bible, of which most of us are ignorant. The Antichrist is not therefore a figment of the prophetic imaginations of either John of Patmos, or of the Prophet Daniel, but a warning from God on the realities still to befall man.

As Daniel 11:36 says of the Antichrist “… the king shall do according to his will.” A clear statement that this tyrant will be strongly self willed. A complete contrast to the real Christ who is characterised in John 5:30 as He says:

“I can do nothing of My own self. As I hear, I judge, and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of the Father who has sent Me.”

Daniel 11:36 continues, saying, “And he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the fury is fulfilled.” As Barnes says of marvellous things, “The Hebrew word נפלאות nı̂pelâ’ôth would properly denote things wonderful, or fitted to excite astonishment; things that are unusual and extraordinary: and the meaning here is, that the things spoken would be so impious and atrocious – so amazing and wonderful for their wickedness, as to produce amazement.” Again, how unlike Jesus is this description, for Paul says of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-8,

“For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Daniel says (as above) that the Antichrist “magnified himself above every God”, while Paul, in Second Thessalonians 2:4 says of him that he “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God.” John of Patmos adds to this, saying in Revelation 13:8 “… all dwelling on the earth will worship it, those whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world.”

Note clearly, John says here that all dwelling on the earth will worship the Antichrist. To achieve this, there needs to be a one-world-religion and to put that in place there needs to be a one-world-government, all under the auspices of a new one-world-order.

This is one of the reasons Satan pursues humanism among mankind, for humanism undermine the desire to submit to God, instead submitting to ourselves as we make ourselves our own gods, subservient, if humanists could all but see it, subservient to Satan. Paul in Romans 8:7-8 explains this saying “because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they who are in the flesh cannot please God.” There is clear cause and effect here. The unrepentant carnal minds of mankind will turn en masse to the Antichrist as they seek to fulfil the lusts of their flesh and the desires of their hearts. And, as Daniel 11:36 says they “shall prosper until the fury is fulfilled.”

The Antichrist, as Second Thessalonians 2:4 and Revelation 13:4 say, will accept worship and lead the world to worship Satan as he rules the world. Yes, the Antichrist will be the world’s first global dictator. As the Antichrist and Satan rule, it will be a time of unmitigated suffering on earth, a time predicted 2,000 years ago in Revelation 12:12,

“Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and those tabernacling in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and in the sea! For the Devil came down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a little time.”

Satan will make the most of this short opportunity to destroy mankind, for he know that it will all end, when Jesus Christ returns.

The following compilation is taken from Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology by J. Dwight Pentecost (p. 334) and The Antichrist: A Study of Satan’s Christ by Arthur W. Pink (pp. 59-75) and comprises most of the Bible names applicable to the Antichrist:

The Bloody and the Deceitful Man	Psalm 5:6
The Wicked One	Psalm 10:2-4
The Man of the Earth	Psalm 10:18
The Mighty Man	Psalm 52:1
The Enemy	Psalm 55:3
The Adversary	Psalm 74:8-10
The Head of Many Countries (sic)	Psalm 111:6
The Violent Man	Psalm 140:1
The Assyrian	Isaiah 10:5-12
The King of Babylon	Isaiah 14:2
The Sun of the Morning (sic)	Isaiah 14:12
The Spoiler	Isaiah 16:4-5
	Jeremiah 6:26
The Nail	Isaiah 22:25
The Branch of the Terrible Ones	Isaiah 25:5
The Profane wicked Prince of Israel	Ezekiel 21:25-27
The Little Horn	Daniel 7:8
The King of Fierce Countenance	Daniel 8:23
The Prince that Shall Come	Daniel 9:26
The Desolator	Daniel 9:27
The Vile Person	Daniel 11:21
The Wilful King	Daniel 11:36
The Idol Shepherd	Zechariah 11:16-17
The Man of Sin	2 Thessalonians 2:3
The Son of Perdition	2 Thessalonians 2:3
The Lawless One	2 Thessalonians 2:8
The Abomination of Desolation	Matthew 24:15
The One Coming in His Own Name	John 5:43
The Antichrist	1 John 2:22
The Angels of the bottomless Pit (sic)	Revelation 9:11
The Beast	Revelation 11:7
	Revelation 13:1