Antichrist

(opponent of Christ) (1 John 2:18, 19, 22). In the broad sense, by this name is meant anyone who does not confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and rejects His teaching. Such are all false teachers, of whom there were already many in the days of the apostles (1 John 2:8 [as given]; 4:1–3); but in the proper and narrower sense, by the name Antichrist is meant a particular person, an especially wicked man, who, before the second coming of the Lord to earth, will oppose Christ and try to destroy Christianity, but will instead himself perish in a terrible manner.

The Lord Jesus will slay him with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming. His personal qualities and actions are clearly depicted by the Apostle Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (2:8), and in Revelation by John (13:2–10 [as given]). Some have applied the word “antichrist” to the Roman pope, others to Mohammed, and some, finally, even to Napoleon I.