Is he the son of Satan? Is he going to come into the world like Jesus did? Should we be worried? (Cause I sort of am.) Are there scriptures that go into detail about this?
There are a lot of possible answers to the question, because it depends on which biblical texts one believes to be relevant in talking about the antichrist.
First, let's talk about the name "antichrist", as one can guess from the name alone it means "against Christ". Further, in the Bible the word "antichrist" is used in only two books of the Bible, in 1 and 2 John, it is founded four times in 1 John, and once in 2 John.
In the letters of John he talks about heretics who came out of the church, and he calls them "antichrists",
"
Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour." - 1 John 2:18
"
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son." - 1 John 2:22
"
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard is coming; and now it is already in the world." - 1 John 4:3
"
Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist." - 2 John 1:7
This is every mention of the word "antichrist" in the Bible.
So how do people have so many different ideas about what the antichrist is? It's because there are lots of places in the Bible that some have interpreted to be referring to an individual who is against (anti) Christ. So, for example, some people see that the "man of sin" which St. Paul mentions in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as referring to a future antichrist figure; likewise many see in the beast from the sea in the Apocalypse of St. John (Revelation ch. 13 specifically) a reference to this same future antichrist figure. Some also interpret the king of the north mentioned in the book of Daniel as referring to the same.
But notice I say some, in fact one can say many. But there simply isn't a consensus. Debate over this has been going on pretty much the entire history of Christianity. Generally, though again there is no consensus here, it is believed that there will be a figure, a person, who will show up at some point who will be the final, end of days antichrist figure. Beyond that, even among those who agree on this there is little agreement or consensus about him.
So, mostly, talk about "The Antichrist" consists on highly speculative, debateable interpretations of certain passages of Scripture, and
a lot of conjecture.
And then there's Hollywood's Antichrist, which is the whole child of Satan angle. But that's just Hollywood being Hollywood, and it's a premise that makes for a possible good vs. evil story line.
So, this boils down to basically mean that if you go into a room and ask 10 people to describe everything they believe about the antichrist, chances are you'll get 10 different answers.
-CryptoLutheran
