Antichrist

===New Testament===
Whether the New Testament contains an individual Antichrist is disputed. The Greek term ''antikhristos'' originates in 1 John.<ref>{{cite book |last=Horbury |first=William |title=Messianism Among Jews and Christians: Biblical and Historical Studies |date=2003 |publisher=[[A&C Black]] |isbn=978-0567088086 |location=London, England |page=333 |language=en-uk |quote=Against this background it can be seen that the technical Greek term ''antichristos'', although it is known only from Christian … ''Antichristos'' first occurs in the Johannine epistles, and it is not used by other Greek Jewish or early Christian writings ... |author-link=William Horbury}}</ref> The similar term ''pseudokhristos'' ("False Messiah") is also first found in the [[New Testament]], but never used by [[Josephus]] in his accounts of various false messiahs.<ref name=pseudochrist>{{cite book|first=Ulrich|last=Mauser|title=The Gospel of Peace: A Scriptural Message for Today's World|date=1992|page=70|quote=From Josephus's writings we collect, first of all, without much critical comment, some statements showing the close affinity of the … nowhere in his extensive accounts of the Jewish–Roman war uses the word "pseudo-Christ" (pseudochristos).}}</ref> The concept of an ''antikhristos'' is not found in Jewish writings in the period 500 BC–50 AD.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sacred texts: Judaism |url=https://www.bl.uk/works/sacred-texts-judaism |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423093412/https://www.bl.uk/works/sacred-texts-judaism |archive-date=April 23, 2023}}</ref> However, [[Bernard McGinn (theologian)|Bernard McGinn]] conjectures that the concept may have been generated by the frustration of Jews subject to often-capricious [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] or [[Roman Judaea|Roman rule]], who found the nebulous Jewish idea of a [[Satan]] who is more of an opposing angel of God in the [[Throne of God|heavenly court]] insufficiently humanised and personalised to be a satisfactory incarnation of evil and threat.{{sfn|Cabinet|2001}}{{unreliable source?|date=August 2018}}

The five uses of the term "antichrist" or "antichrists" in the [[Johannine epistles]] do not clearly present a single latter-day individual Antichrist. The articles "the deceiver" or "the antichrist" are usually seen as marking out a certain category of persons, rather than an individual.<ref>{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Yarbrough|title=1–3 John|publisher=[[Baker Publishing Group|Baker Academic]]|location=Ada, Michigan|isbn=978-0801026874|page=344|date=2008|quote=The articles in front of "deceiver" (ὁ πλάνος, ''ho planos'') and "antichrist" (ὁ ἀντίχριστος, ''ho antikhristos'') should be seen as marking out a certain category of persons (Wallace 1996: 227–230). This is a common Johannine usage (1 John 2:23)}}</ref>
{{blockquote|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 [[New Revised Standard Version|NRSV]] (1989)}}

{{blockquote|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 NRSV (1989)}}

{{blockquote|By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 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 that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.|1 John 4:2–3 NRSV (1989)}}

{{blockquote|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 NRSV (1989)}}

Consequently, attention for an individual Antichrist figure focuses on the second chapter of [[2 Thessalonians]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Jeffrey Alan David|last1=Weima|author-link1=Jeffrey A. D. Weima|first2=Stanley E.|last2=Porter|author-link2=Stanley E. Porter|title=Annotated Bibliography of 1 & 2 Thessalonians|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|location=Leiden, Netherlands|page=263|date=1998|quote=(2) Does the New Testament support the notion of an individual Antichrist in whom all the anti-Christian strife of all ages will be concentrated? 2 Thess 2 answers the second question in the affirmative: an individual Antichrist will bring evil to its ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Anthony A.|last=Hoekma|author-link=Anthony A. Hoekema|title=The Bible and the Future|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|page=[https://archive.org/details/biblefuture0000hoek/page/159 159]|date=1979|isbn=978-0802808516|quote=Whereas [[Berkouwer]] states, "There is no reason to posit with certainty on the basis of the New Testament that the antichrist ... 2. particularly his statements about the "restrainer," compel us to believe that there will be a future, individual antichrist.|url=https://archive.org/details/biblefuture0000hoek/page/159}}</ref> However, the term "antichrist" is never used in this passage:

{{blockquote|As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God.|2 Thessalonians 2:1–4 NRSV (1989)}}

{{blockquote|For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.|2 Thessalonians 2:7–10 NRSV (1989)}}

Although the word "antichrist" (Greek ''antikhristos'') is used only in the Epistles of John, the similar word "pseudochrist" (Greek ''pseudokhristos'', meaning "false messiah") is used by Jesus in the [[Gospel]]s:<ref name=pseudochrist/>

{{blockquote|For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.|Matthew 24:24 and Mark 13:22 NRSV (1989)}}