The entire scriptural teaching on antichrist is found exclusively in 1 & 2 John, which is solely where I derrive my interpretation on antichrist from.
I do not use scriptures that teach about something other than antichrist, and then go and apply the Biblical term "antichrist" to it, when i can find no scriptural instruction to do so... for when we do that, we can make it mean whatever we want it to mean.
John taught explicitly about what Antichrist is in his 1st and 2nd epistles, and any definition we insert that is not found in that EXPLICIT Biblical teaching
ON antichrist, is not,
nor ever can be, a
Biblical definition
OF antichrist.
Antichrist is
nowhere mentioned in 2 Thessalonians. Not even once.
Where does scripture teach you that Paul's man of Sin/Son of Perdition and Antichrist of 1 & 2 John are the same individual Human Being?
"21 for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be."
Comparing scripture with scripture quickly demonstrates this usage of "ever was nor ever shall be":
Scripture tells us in
1 Kings 3:12 that there was "no king like Solomon before or after him." Such statements are then repeated in
2 Kings 18:5-6 of Hezekiah and in
2 Kings 23:25 of Josiah. Obviously, they can't all be the greatest King there ever was nor ever shall be. (And, of course, Jesus Christ surpasses even Solomon -- Matt. 12:42).
Furthermore, this same Old Testament idea of "never will be again" is employed of various judgments that have already been fulfilled such as locusts in Egypt (Ex. 10:12-15; cf.
Joel 1:1-4), a cry in Egypt (Ex. 11:6), and judgment upon O.T. Israel (Ez. 5:9;
Joel 2:2).
The Ezekiel 5:9 passage is especially instructive to us, for it states that the Babylonian conquest of Israel (sixth-century BC) would be the greatest judgment God had ever brought upon a nation, past or future. Therefore, we recognize that the expression "ever was/nor ever shall be" is a common Hebraic idiom, used time and again
as hyperbole, ON PURPOSE, by the Prophets of God in the sacred pages of Holy scripture.
St. Luke's account of this great tribulation reads as follows:
"These are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people." (
Luke 21:22-23)
Without question, Jesus promised his apostles that they would live to see Israel's great tribulation ("great distress in the land and wrath upon this people") and all those things come to pass in their generation (
Matthew 24:33-34;
Luke 21:31-32).
Even so, AD 66-70 was the greatest Day-of-the-Lord event in Israel's history, and was, unquestionably, the one Christ's followers spoke of mere decades before it transpired. This was the same Day of the Lord concerning which the apostles stated they would remain alive unto its passing (1 Thess 5:2-4,23; Phil 1:6,10; Heb 10:25,36-39; 1 Cor 1:7-8; 1 Cor 5:5).
Due to the covenantal significance of the event, that Day of the Lord's vengeance (cf. Luke 21:20-22; Isa 61:2; Jer 46:10) can never be repeated.
That bears repeating.
Due to the covenantal significance of the event, that Day of the Lord's vengeance (cf. Luke 21:20-22; Isa 61:2; Jer 46:10) can never be repeated. NEVER.
There can be
no equal to the level of devastation millions of Messiah-rejecting Jews endured as they were violently excommunicated out of covenant with God (Matt 21:40-45;
Acts 3:22-24).