The Antichrist: His Portrait and History – Chapter II. True Meaning Of The Term.

Continued from Chapter I. Meaning of the Term

Now, from all the preceding, we see at once how to interpret Ho antichristos, composed of the high official name Ho Christos and the prefix anti, and thus forming the Divinely revealed title of that great special adversary of Christ and His Church, of whose coming future and direful doings the prophetic Scriptures give so many and such awful warnings; and revealed, too, at the very time when the official arrangements made by Augustus, and their Greek titles, were in full play in the Roman world. It is obvious from the above lists and facts that the true etymological and literal, as well as conventional, sense of this official Greek title, The Antichrist, can be no other than this: The pretended, self- styled divinely-appointed Pro-Christ, Vice-Christ, Substitute-Christ, Vicartal-Christ or Vicar-of-Christ, as also the Rival- Christ, the Aper (Someone who copies the words or behavior of another.) of Christ, the Antagonist of Christ, he who, having no sense of, nor relish nor heart for, the things of Christ, is the enemy and adversary of Christ—the usurper, conscious or unconscious, in Christ’s name, of Christ’s place, prerogatives, offices, titles and functions in the professing visible Church. Thus, doubtless, it includes all the characteristics in the threefold list, not excepting that of the spiritual Commander-in-Chief of all Anti-christian forces.

It should be remembered that Christ is said to have given Himself as an anti lutron (Greek meaning substitute. 1 Tim. ii. 6; Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45.) —a substitute or ransom in the stead of all—which shows what the Scriptural view of anti is. Neither Scriptural nor classic usage requires us to give another sense to this word, and to restrict it to one who openly, avowedly, and by force, opposes Christ or seats himself in some literal shrine made by man. For apostolic usage does not restrict the word naos to any literal shrine; and Paul—who alone employs the word, in 2 Thessalonians ii. 4, of the Antichrist—constantly applies it, in a spiritual or metaphorical sense, to the professing Christian body. (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; vi. 19; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph. ii. 21.) So that consistency and sanctified common sense demand alike the application of the word naos to the professing Christian body, and of the word antichristos—to a false substitute, and therefore a disguised opponent, of Christ—a veiled enemy, not an open one.

The cogency is more evident when the Scriptural use of the word blasphemia, (Rev. xiii. 5-7) blasphemy,-is taken into account, for that term is invariably applied to religious impiety, never to religious opprobrium or foul language. Thus, in John 10:33: “We stone Thee for blasphemy; because Thou, being a man, makest Thyself equal with God.” This was the charge on which the High Priest condemned Christ. (Matt. xxvi. 64, 65) Compare also “He blasphemeth; for who can forgive sins, but God only?” (Matt. ix 3)

There are some twenty-five passages in the Acts of the Apostles where the Jewish Temple is called hieron, but not a single one where it is called naos>, nor is there one in any Epistle where it bears this name. The naos tou Theou, in the mouth of an Apostle, speaking to Gentile Christians concerning the future, could not mean the Jewish Temple. It could only mean the Christian Church. As the appellation, “Son of Perdition,” ties the meaning down to some professor of Christianity, so the word “blasphemy” equally restricts the sense to religious profanity. Thus these three loops and taches (buttons) concur in pointing to a false Christian, and negate completely any idea of Atheism.

As previously pointed out, a “wild beast” (Dan. vii. 3; Rev. xiv. 9, xiii. 2, 4, xvii. 11, xi. 7, xiii. 1) in prophecy is invariably the symbol, emblem, or sign, of a Gentile, heathen power. To this rule there is no exception. Hence it is obvious that, in prophecy, as the head” (Rev. xiii. 1, xvii. 9, 11) or “little horn” (Dan, vii. 8, 20) of a “wild beast” must be of like nature or origin, the eighth head, or “the beast,” as it is called, or the Antichrist, is necessarily of Gentile, heathen origin and nature —not Jewish.

Thus “the Antichrist” of prophecy is a false Christian, a veiled enemy of Christ, of heathen origin. He is also not only the outcome of the Great Apostasy,(2 Thess. ii. 6) but its consummated Head, its Apostolic Head, its False Apostle (2 Cor. xi. 13) or “Son of Perdition.” And, besides, he is ho anomos,(2 Thess. ii. 8) the lawless one, or the prime leader of the “mystery of anomia” (2 Thess, ii. 7) which was at work in apostolic days—some secret, religious, Satanically inspired (2 Thess. ii. 9; Rev. xvii. 5-7) apostasy from primitive truth, then working inwardly, but subsequently to burst forth into full power and to “reveal” the “Man of the Sin” in the plenitude of “deceivableness” and “strong delusion,” of “blasphemy” and of persecuting proclivities. Augustine said: “If John had said, ‘If any man sin I will pray for him’ . . . who would tolerate it of faithful Christians? Who not view him rather as Antichrist than an Apostle? ”

Continued in The Antichrist: His Portrait and History – Chapter III. Characteristics.