antichrist, Antichrist

[In A.S. Antecrist, Anticrist; Sw., Dan., Dut., & Ger. Antichrist; Fr. Ante christ; Sp. & Port. Ante chris to; Ital. Anti cris to; Lat. Antichrist us. From Gr. ' Αντίχριστος (Αntichristos): ἀντί (anti) instead of, or against (see Trench's Synonyms of the New Testament, pp. 115-120); Χριστός ( Christos ) = Christ.] 1. Gen.: Any one who denies the Father and the Son; or who will not confe that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; or who, leaving the Church, pretends to be the Christ (or Me iah), and thus becomes a rival and enemy of Jesus, the true Christ, as in the following examples. "He is antichrist , that denieth the Father and the Son."-1 John ii. 22. "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confe not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist ."-2 John 7. "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. They went out from us, but they were not of us "-1 John ii. 18, 19; compare with Matt. xxiv. 3-5, Mark xiii. 1-5, Luke xxi. 5-8. 2. Spec. One who should pre-eminently stand forth as the antagonist of Christ, and should be a sufficiently prominent personage to become the theme of prophecy or if ἀντί ( anti ) be held to mean instead of [see etymology], then the characteristic of Antichrist will be a super ce ion of Christ, not an avowed antagonism to him. If, when St. John says, "Ye have heard that antichrist shall come," he refers to the rival and opponent of God described by St. Paul in 2 The . ii., then Antichrist is to be identified as the "man of sin," "the son of perdition, and that Wicked," of verses 3, 8. Many Protestant controversial writers, from Luther downwards, have applied the name Antichrist in this specific sense to the Papacy. (See the example from Bishop Hall, as a specimen of a multitude more scattered over the whole extent of English and Scotch theological literature.) " Antichrist , which was conceived in the primitive times, saw the light in Boniface the Third, and was grown to his stature and άκμη in Gregory the Seventh."-Bp. Hall: Hon, of the Marr. Clergy , 8, § 6.