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MANY ANTICHRISTS vs THE ANTICHRIST POWER. Every single time I identify the papacy as the Antichrist power of Bible prophecy, somebody comes along quoting 1 John 2:18. "John said there are MANY antichrists!" Of course he did! I believe John. My question is, have you read what Daniel said? What about Paul? Have you studied the beast in Revelation 13? A lot of people have taken John's statement about many antichrists and assumed that it is referring to the end-time Antichrist Power. Suppose you have a preacher somewhere in the Bahamas teaching that Jesus never came in human flesh. Another preacher in America is telling people that Jesus isn't the Son of God. Somewhere else, a religious teacher is denying that Jesus is the Christ. According to John, these people are spreading the spirit of antichrist. They don't have to know one another, and they don't have to belong to the same church. They might not even be alive during the same century. What connects them is what they're teaching about Jesus. 1 John 2:18. "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." John was writing almost 2,000 years ago, and he said many antichrists were already present. In verse 19, he tells us that some of these people had actually come out of the Christian community. People who had been among the believers were back then spreading teachings that denied the truth about Christ. John then goes on to explain in verse 22 that whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ is antichrist. He warns about deceivers in 2 John 7, who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. These are the kinds of people John was talking about. A man can stand in a pulpit and preach falsehood about Jesus. He may influence twenty people, two hundred, or two million. His teachings can be antichrist in character. He doesn't need an army, a government or a throne to do so. Now, compare 1 John 2:18 with what Daniel says. The Antichrist Power. Daniel isn't just talking about somebody teaching false doctrine in a congregation. Daniel is describing a specific power that rises among kingdoms, gains authority, persecutes God's people, and attempts to interfere with God's law. This power lasts until the end of time. John's many antichrists could be individual deceivers spreading false teachings. The Antichrist Power is an organized religious entity that develops political authority and uses that authority to persuade the world to go against the true Word of God. A person can die after seventy years. This institution continued for centuries. Its leaders change, but its teachings, claims, doctrines and authority continue from one generation to another. How does THE BIBLE identify this POWER? Review Daniel 7. Daniel sees four beasts coming out of the sea. The Bible tells us these beasts represent kings or kingdoms. They represent Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The fourth beast represents Rome. This beast has ten horns, representing kingdoms that arise from it. Then Daniel sees something unusual. He sees another horn comes up among them. A little horn. Daniel tells us where this power comes from. He says it rises among the kingdoms connected with the fourth beast. That gives us a historical location, which tells us that we should be looking in the territory of the Roman Empire after its division. Daniel then tells us what this little horn does. Daniel says: 1. It speaks great words against the Most High. 2. It persecutes the saints. 3. It thinks to change times and laws. 4. It exercises power for a time, times, and the dividing of time. Why would God give us all that information? Because God wants us to recognize the power being described. If the police, for example, are looking for a particular man who robbed a store. They tell you he's tall, has a scar on his face, drives a red truck, and was last seen in a particular town. Would you point to the first tall man you see and say, "That's him"? You wouldn't. If you were smart, you would compare the other details. The same principle applies to prophecy. We have to examine where the power arises, when it arises, what kind of authority it exercises, what it does to God's people, and how its history fits the prophetic description. You cannot take one characteristic and ignore the others. Every characteristics Daniel describes, identify the papacy as the Antichrist Power. Revelation too, but we're talking about Daniel now, so let's remain in Daniel, for now. Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome gradually gained greater religious and political influence. Over time, the papacy became a powerful institution exercising authority far beyond the walls of a church. Popes influenced kings and governments. Papal institutions claimed authority in matters of faith and religious practice. Religious dissenters were persecuted, with the assistance of civil authorities. History records these things. Now compare that history with Daniel's description. 1. A religious power arising in the territory of Rome. 2. A power exercising political influence. 3. A power persecuting people over religious beliefs. 4. A power claiming extraordinary authority in religious matters. Daniel's statement about changing times and laws points to the papacy's claims concerning God's law, particularly the substitution of Sunday observance for the biblical seventh-day Sabbath. Weigh Daniel's wording very carefully. 1. The little horn would think to change times and laws. A church can claim the authority to change God's commandments. That doesn't mean God has given it such authority. What about 1,260 Years? Daniel says this power would exercise its authority for a time, times, and the dividing of time. Revelation 13 gives us forty-two months. Using thirty days for a prophetic month, forty-two months equals 1,260 days. The day-year principle is applied to this symbolic time period, giving us 1,260 years. This period when calculated is AD 538 to 1798. The year 538 is associated in our prophetic interpretation with the establishment of papal supremacy following the removal of Ostrogothic opposition in Italy. In 1798, French forces entered Rome and took Pope Pius VI prisoner. Historians debate the significance of 538 as a precise beginning of papal supremacy, and other Christians interpret these prophecies differently. However, this historical period fit the prophetic description of the papal power. We're examining a system that developed and exercised influence over many centuries. How many individual false teachers from John's day lived for 1,260 years? Not a single one! Human beings don't live that long. A religious institution, however, can exist for that length of time and much longer. That helps explain why the prophetic Antichrist is a continuing power rather than simply one wicked individual. Now come out of Daniel and we go to Revelation 13. We are still on the same topic. REVELATION 13. John sees a beast rising out of the sea. This beast has features resembling the animals Daniel described. It has characteristics of a leopard, a bear, and a lion. Those animals should sound familiar because Daniel used them in his description of world kingdoms. Remember? Revelation is drawing upon the same prophetic imagery. The beast in Revelation 13: 1. Speaks blasphemies against God. 2. It makes war with the saints. 3. It exercises authority for forty-two months. Compare that with Daniel's little horn: 1. Both speak against God. 2. Both persecute God's people. 3. Both are associated with the same prophetic time period. The similarities are striking. Daniel's little horn and Revelation's sea beast are descriptions of the same papal power. I know that neither Daniel nor Revelation actually uses the word "Antichrist" when describing this powers. Daniel calls it a little horn. Revelation calls it a beast. Paul uses another name in 2 Thessalonians 2. He calls it the man of sin. We connect these descriptions through their characteristics and their opposition to God's authority. The Bible doesn't place all these passages together on one page and announce that they refer to the papacy. The identification comes through studying the prophecies together and comparing them with history. That is how prophecy is understood. PAUL'S INFORMATION Paul describes the man of sin, the son of perdition in 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4. He talks about a power that opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God or worshipped. Paul also says this power sits in the temple of God, presenting itself as God. Paul is describing the kind of religious authority that seems to embrace Christianity. In other words, this power doesn't reject Christianity from the outside. It claims a place of authority in matters belonging to God. Then Paul says in verse 7: "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work." Paul was writing in the first century. The mystery of iniquity had already started operating, yet Paul also said that it would develop fuller and greater and will be revealed later. As we have seen, false teachings and corrupt religious ambitions can begin long before they develop into an organized institution with political power. People don't wake up one morning and suddenly find a powerful religious empire standing over them. That's not how this works. These things develop. A teaching becomes accepted. Religious leaders gain influence, and traditions become established. Eventually, the institution gain the power to enforce what it teaches. History shows how dangerous that can become when religion and government are joined. ANOTHER POINT ABOUT THE WORD ANTICHRIST The Greek word is antichristos. The prefix anti can mean against or, in some contexts, in place of. People think the Antichrist is somebody who openly hates Jesus, curses His name, and tells the world to stop worshipping Him. That is why the majority of the world, as we speak, is living in deception. Satan isn't stupid. If the Antichrist shows that he openly hates Jesus, curses His name, and tells the world to stop worshipping Him, it would be fairly easy to recognize. However, opposition to Christ can be much more deceptive. Jesus warned about religious deception for a reason. He said in Matthew 7:21, that not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. A person can use the name of Jesus without faithfully representing Him. The Antichrist power includes this idea of claiming Christ's authority while departing from His Word. The papal system has historically claimed authority in religious matters that belongs to Christ and His Word. THE ANTICHRIST IS THE PAPACY. When I identify the papacy as the Antichrist power, I'm speaking about a religious system and its historical claims to authority. There are sincere Catholics who love Jesus and believe they are following Him faithfully. God is calling them out. He says in Revelation 18:4. "Come out of her, my people." God has people He recognizes as His own within the religious system He is calling them to leave. The same applies with any and every church, teaching and following doctrine the Bible does not teach. We have to be willing to test what we believe against Scripture. WHAT ABOUT THE FINAL ANTICHRIST? Some people have been taught that the Antichrist will be one man who suddenly appears just before Jesus returns. He will supposedly rule the world for a few years, deceive everybody, and then be destroyed when Christ comes. That interpretation is common in Christian circles. However, the Antichrist power has developed through history and it remains standing until the end. It doesn't wait until the final years of earth's history to exist. In Revelation 13, the sea beast suffers what is described as a deadly wound, and later that wound is healed. This wound happened in 1798, however, papal influence was restored and consistently gained power since then even when it seemed to be lying low, so to speak. The prophecy then moves toward a final conflict involving worship, religious authority, and coercion. BACK TO JOHN. John warned that many antichrists were already present in his day. Those people were spreading false teachings about Jesus. Daniel describes a power arising among the kingdoms associated with Rome. Revelation describes a religious and political power that persecutes God's people and becomes involved in the final conflict over worship. Paul describes the mystery of iniquity already working in his day, with a greater development still ahead. One false teacher can spread the spirit of antichrist. The prophetic Antichrist power is an organized religious and political system with a particular place in history and a particular role in the final conflict. That is the difference.