"Antichrist"

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Contrary to common assumption, and to many ignorant teachings, the "antichrist" is never mentioned a single time in the entire Book of Revelation! The only mention of "antichrist" is by the disciple John in his Epistles.

John writes, "It is the last hour. And just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now, there have come to be many antichrists; this is how we know that it is the last hour." (1 Jn 2:18) And "Who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one that denies the Father and the Son." (1 Jn.2:22) And, "For many deceivers have gone forth into the world, persons not confessing Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." (2 Jn. 7) So, here, we have a crystal-clear definition of what and who an "antichrist" is. It is not a "bionic" ruler of a multi-nation kingdom of the future. This is a totally non-Biblical usage and definition. Instead, the Bible itself speaks of antichrist as simply defined as its name implies, "against Christ."

For an antichrist was any person in the first century who denied that Jesus was the incarnation of Christ. And there was not one, but "many"
Biblical antichrists. And the "antichrist" convinced early Christians that they were living in the "lastt hour," or at the end of the world.

But antichrist was never one special person. Instead, it identified a group or class of people who shared a skepticism, an unbelief, in the nature of Jesus as the Christ. There have, of course, been many antichrists since; entire political groups have been atheistic, and thus, antichrist. Any person, even a good person, can be an "antichrist" in ignorance. So, the "antichrist," working in darkness, is not the "puppet of satan" that "he" is often presented to be.

The notorious "antichrist" is not a historical person or ruler. Nowhere is this even indicated in the Bible. This is just a part of the massive amount of superstition that has developed around the "science-fiction" scenarios of Revelation promoted by modern preachers.

Revelation is an "allegory." This means that it is a symbolic account, which means that the characters and objects described in Revelation all represent something else. Revelation is the story of our personal spiritual development, from alienation to unity. The angels, crowds, armies, beasts, etc. all are representative or symbolic of parts of our own minds. The events are not about the world, and Revelation has nothing to do with geopolitics and the struggles between nations. For it is not about the outside world at all. Revelation has nothing to do with the "end of time," "last days," or "end of the world" (another phrase never found a single time in the whole book).

This cannot all be explained in an email. It takes a book to explain all of this. I have written this book. It is called The Apocalypse of Love: Mystical Symbolism in Revelation. It takes over four hundred pages to explain this complex document in some detail.

If you would like a copy, just let me know your snailmail address, and one will be put in the mail for you this week.
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