I think the Antichrist is on the world stage now, he's just not in his final position. I think there will be several of them.
Jesus said,"Discern the Signs of the times."
We can't know the exact time and date but ever since 9/11 I have had a feeling that the end period was started.
Jesus was talking about the signs concerning the destruction of the Temple, that occurred in 70 AD in the first Jewish-Roman War and the siege by Titus.
As far as antichrists though, St. John says there are many antichrists. There have been antichrists throughout history; the ones he spoke of in his epistles, however, were certain Gnostic or Proto-Gnostic heretics, specifically the Docetists and Cerinthians.
The Docetists get their name from the Greek word dokeo meaning "to seem", as they taught that Jesus only "seemed" to be human, but wasn't actually human at all, but was in fact a kind of divine apparition, a phantasm. The ancient heretic Cerinthus, who gives his name to the Cerinthians, taught that the Christ was a spiritual entity that entered into and took posession of the body and mind of the human named Jesus, having entered Jesus at Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist, and then abandoning Jesus on the cross. These, therefore, denied that Jesus is the Christ, and that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. So as John writes, they "went out from us, but they were not of us" (1 John 2:19).
Such antichrists have been around since the beginning, because the spirit of antichrist--all which opposes Jesus Christ--is heresy. And there are false teachers, false prophets, heretics proclaiming false doctrines which are against Christ. So we are warned of false teachers, false prophets, false christs. Which is why the Apostles in their writings consistently exhort us to cling to the true faith, to receive the word which came from them--which came from Christ Himself--and to not give our ears to those who would seek to seduce the Faithful with words which "tickle the ears".
As far as the "end times", the Apostles in their writings tell us that we have been living in the end, the last days, since the time Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. So the last two thousand years have been the last days, the "end times". Because this is the time after Christ has defeated sin, death, hell, and the devil, having ascended and taken His seat at the right hand of God the Father having been given all power, authority, and dominion. So we are in the crossroads between that which is falling, the old order of death; and the new which is in Christ and that future world we look forward to. The dying gasps of a fallen kingdom, collapsed and collapsing in ruin.
The devil is bound and defeated, his kingdom is fallen, and because of this he knows his time is short and doom is sure, and so he may rage and rage like a wounded, frightened animal; but we know that Christ has the victory, and our life is secure in Him. So as we see the death gasps of a dying kingdom of darkness, things will indeed continue to look ugly. But we look forward, to that day Christ returns, in glory, and the dead are raised up to that live everlasting, when God renews and restores all things. World without end, and God will be all-in-all.
-CryptoLutheran
