What a graphic of prophecy! Why is the antichrist only the antichrist for the Kind of Israel time? Is there another one that follows?
Jeff, the person is the Antichrist only for the time he is the King of Israel because the term "christ" means anointed, coming from a greek word christos, which in turn was greek for the jewish word for "messiah", which the hebrew word means anointed.
The term anointed applied to kings and priests. The "Lord's anointed" in the old testament meant someone that God Himself specifically picked.
"the" messiah is a narrowed down form of the general anointed term to mean the promised great King of Israel descended from King David, to lead Israel and the world into the messianic age of peace and safety around the world.
In John 4, Jesus was talking to the woman at the well. Which in that verse the connection is made between Christ and messiah.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus was/is the rightful King of Israel messiah but the Jews rejected him as their king.
Jesus in John 5:43 said that although he came in the name of the Lord (to be their king - implied), they would accept another coming in his own name. i.e. someone that God did not send to be their king. A reference to the Antichrist.
"Anti" is a prefix meaning "instead of" and/or "against". In the case of the Antichrist, the person will be King of Israel, instead of Jesus, and also against Jesus.
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There have only been three Kings of Israel when it was a united nation before breaking up into the northern and southern kingdom following Solomon's death.
After Solomon's death.....
The northern kingdom was the northern ten tribes who decided to breakaway under Jeroboam, one of Solomon's officials in the government. They retained the name of Israel, also called Ephraim.
The southern kingdom was the southern two tribes, which went by the name of Judah. They were under Rehoboam, Solomon's actual son.
The book of Kings in the old testament is about the kings during the break up period.
In Ezekiel 37, there is the prophecy about the two kingdoms being reunited as one nation again. That is what has happened in the current nation of Israel over there. Ezekiel 37 also indicates that the reunited nation would have one king over them - a reference to the messiah to sit on David's throne (i.e. king over united Israel). So that is what the Jews are looking for.
Their big mistake will be in thinking the little horn person coming from the EU is their messiah. That person will be anointed the King of Israel - but coming in his own name - and thus becomes the Antichrist when it happens.
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Later on, about 3 years into his reign, he betrays the Jews by going into the temple, sitting claiming to be have achieved God-hood. That ends his time as the Antichrist, as the Jews will reject him as continuing as their King of Israel.
Revealed to be the man of sin, the person's next move is to become the beast, falling back on his EU background, which the ten EU leaders will hand the EU over to him to be dictator - for the final 42 months before Jesus returns.