New Testament (about 1180), from the 12th-century
Hortus deliciarum Whether the New Testament contains an individual Antichrist is disputed. The Greek term
antikhristos originates in 1 John. 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. The concept of an
antikhristos is not found in Jewish writings in the period 500 BC–50 AD. However,
Bernard McGinn conjectures that the concept may have been generated by the frustration of Jews subject to often-capricious
Seleucid or
Roman rule, who found the nebulous Jewish idea of a
Satan who is more of an opposing angel of God in the
heavenly court insufficiently humanised and personalised to be a satisfactory incarnation of evil and threat. 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. Consequently, attention for an individual Antichrist figure focuses on the second chapter of
2 Thessalonians. However, the term "antichrist" is never used in this passage: The latter of these passages is also the primary scriptural source concerning the
Katechon, the "one who now restrains" the coming of the Antichrist. The identity of this person, if it is a person, is mysterious and the subject of debate. 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
Gospels: The only one of the late 1st-/early 2nd-century
Apostolic Fathers to use the term is
Polycarp (), who warned the
Philippians that everyone who preached false doctrine was an antichrist. His use of the term
Antichrist follows that of the New Testament in not identifying a single personal Antichrist, but a class of people.
Irenaeus (2nd century AD – c. 202) wrote
Against Heresies to refute the teachings of the
Gnostics. In Book V of
Against Heresies he addresses the figure of the Antichrist referring to him as the "recapitulation of
apostasy and rebellion." He uses "
666", the
Number of the Beast from Revelation 13:18, to
numerologically decode several possible names. Some names that he loosely proposed were "Teitan", "Evanthos", "Lateinos" ("Latin" or pertaining to the
Roman Empire). In his
exegesis of
Daniel 7:21, he stated that the ten horns of the beast will be the Roman Empire divided into ten kingdoms before the Antichrist's arrival. Additionally, he stated that the antichrist would be of the tribe of Dan, evoking Jeremiah 8:16. However, his readings of the Antichrist were more in broader theological terms rather than within a historical context. The non-canonical
Ascension of Isaiah presents a detailed exposition of the Antichrist as
Belial and
Nero.
Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD) held that the Roman Empire was the restraining force written about by
Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7–8. The
fall of the Western Roman Empire and the disintegration of the ten provinces of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms were to make way for the Antichrist.
Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – c. 236) held that the Antichrist would come from the
tribe of Dan and would
rebuild the Jewish temple on the
Temple Mount in order to reign from it. He identified the Antichrist with the Beast out of the Earth from the book of Revelation.
Origen (185–254) refuted
Celsus' view of the Antichrist. Origen, using scriptural citations from
Daniel, Paul, and the
Gospels argued:
Post-Nicene Christianity (1375). The label reads: "Antichrist. He will be raised in Goraym of Galilea, and at the age of thirty he will start to preach in Jerusalem; contrary to the truth, he will proclaim that he is Christ, the living son of God. It is said that he will rebuild the Temple."
Cyril of Jerusalem, in the mid-4th century, delivered his 15th
catechetical lecture about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, in which he also lectures about the Antichrist, who will reign as the ruler of the world for three and a half years, before he is killed by Jesus Christ at the end of his three-and-a-half-year reign, shortly after which the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will happen.
Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 298–373) wrote that
Arius of Alexandria is to be associated with the Antichrist, saying, "And ever since [the Council of Nicaea] has Arius's error been reckoned for a heresy more than ordinary, being known as Christ's foe, and harbinger of [the] Antichrist." As part of his prediction that the world would end before 400 CE,
Martin of Tours (c. 336 - 397) wrote that "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power."
John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) warned against speculating about the Antichrist, saying, "Let us not therefore enquire into these things". He preached that by knowing Paul's description of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians, Christians would avoid deception.
Jerome (c. 347–420) warned that those substituting false interpretations for the actual meaning of scripture belonged to the "synagogue of the Antichrist". "He that is not of Christ is of Antichrist", he wrote to
Pope Damasus I. He believed that "the mystery of lawlessness" written about by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 was already in action when "every one chatters about his views." To Jerome, the power restraining this mystery of lawlessness was the Roman Empire, but as it fell this restraining force was removed. He warned a noble woman of
Gaul: In his
Commentary on Daniel, Jerome noted, "Let us not follow the opinion of some commentators and suppose him to be either the Devil or some demon, but rather, one of the human race, in whom Satan will wholly take up his residence in bodily form." Instead of rebuilding the Jewish Temple to reign from, Jerome thought the Antichrist sat in God's Temple inasmuch as he made "himself out to be like God." He refuted
Porphyry's idea that the "little horn" mentioned in Daniel chapter 7 was
Antiochus IV Epiphanes by noting that the "little horn" is defeated by an eternal, universal ruler, right before the final judgment. Instead, he advocated that the "little horn" was the Antichrist: Circa 380, an apocalyptic pseudo-prophecy
falsely attributed to the
Tiburtine Sibyl describes Constantine as victorious over
Gog and Magog. Later on, it predicts:
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote "it is uncertain in what temple [the Antichrist] shall sit, whether in that ruin of the temple which was built by Solomon, or in the Church."
Gregory of Tours claimed that the antichrist would place his image to be worshipped in the temple in Jerusalem, he would assert himself to be Christ and would call for Christians to undergo circumcision.
Pope Gregory I wrote to the
Byzantine Emperor Maurice in A.D. 597, concerning the titles of bishops, "I say with confidence that whoever calls or desires to call himself 'universal priest' in self-exaltation of himself is a precursor of the Antichrist." By the end of the tenth century,
Adso of Montier-en-Der, a Benedictine monk, compiled a biography of Antichrist based on a variety of exegetical and Sibylline sources; his account became one of the best-known descriptions of Antichrist in the Middle Ages.
De Antichristo libri undecim, published by
Tomàs Maluenda in 1604, is considered the most complete treatise on the subject.
Pre-Reformation Western Church accusers showing the Antichrist, 1498
Arnulf, bishop of
Orléans, disagreed with the policies and morals of
Pope John XV. He expressed his views while presiding over the
Council of Reims in A.D. 991. Arnulf accused John XV of being the Antichrist while also using the
2 Thessalonians passage about the "
man of lawlessness" (or "lawless one"), saying: "Surely, if he is empty of charity and filled with vain knowledge and lifted up, he is Antichrist sitting in God's temple and showing himself as God." This incident is history's earliest record of anyone identifying a pope with the Antichrist (see
Christian Historicism).
Pope Gregory VII (c. 1015 or 1029–1085), struggled against, in his own words, "a robber of temples, a perjurer against the Holy Roman Church, notorious throughout the whole Roman world for the basest of crimes, namely,
Wilbert, plunderer of the holy church of
Ravenna, Antichrist, and arch-
heretic." Cardinal
Benno, on the opposite side of the
Investiture Controversy, wrote long descriptions of abuses committed by Gregory VII, including
necromancy,
torture of a former friend upon a bed of nails, commissioning an attempted assassination, executions without trials, unjust
excommunication, doubting the
real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and even burning it. Benno held that Gregory VII was "either a member of Antichrist, or Antichrist himself." Eberhard II von Truchsees,
Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1241, denounced
Pope Gregory IX at the Council of
Regensburg as "that man of perdition, whom they call Antichrist, who in his extravagant boasting says, I am God, I cannot err." He argued that the ten kingdoms that the Antichrist is involved with were the "Turks, Greeks, Egyptians, Africans, Spaniards, French, English, Germans, Sicilians, and Italians who now occupy the provinces of Rome." He held that the papacy was the "little horn" of Daniel 7:8:
Protestant Reformation , commissioned by
Martin Luther. Title: Kissing the Pope's Feet. German peasants respond to a papal bull of
Pope Paul III. Caption reads: "Don't frighten us Pope, with your ban, and don't be such a furious man. Otherwise we shall turn around and show you our rears." , from Luther's 1521
Passionary of the Christ and Antichrist. The
Pope as the Antichrist, signing and selling
indulgences.
Protestant Reformers, including
John Wycliffe,
Martin Luther,
John Calvin,
Thomas Cranmer,
John Thomas,
John Knox,
Roger Williams,
Cotton Mather, and
John Wesley, as well as most
Protestants of the 16th–18th centuries, felt that the
Early Church had been led into the
Great Apostasy by the
Papacy and identified the
Pope with the Antichrist. Luther declared that not just a pope from time to time was Antichrist, but the
Papacy was Antichrist because they were "the representatives of an institution opposed to Christ". Calvin argued that "The name Antichrist does not designate a single individual, but a single kingdom which extends throughout many generations", saying that both
Muhammad and the Catholic popes were "antichrists".The
Centuriators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars in
Magdeburg headed by
Matthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volume
Magdeburg Centuries to
discredit the Catholic Church and lead other Christians to recognize the Pope as the Antichrist. So, rather than expecting a single Antichrist to rule the earth during a future
Tribulation period, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers saw the Antichrist as a present feature in the world of their time, fulfilled in the Papacy.
Irenaeus wrote in
Against Heresies about the coming of the Antichrist: "This Antichrist shall ... devastate all things ... But then, the Lord will come from Heaven on the clouds ... for the righteous".
Tertullian looking to the Antichrist wrote: "He is to sit in the temple of God, and boast himself as being god. In our view, he is Antichrist as taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies; and especially by the
Apostle John, who says that 'already many false-prophets are gone out into the world' as the fore-runners of Antichrist".
Hippolytus of Rome in his
Treatise on Christ and Antichrist wrote: "As Daniel also says (in the words) 'I considered the Beast, and look! There were ten horns behind it—among which shall rise another (horn), an offshoot, and shall pluck up by the roots the three (that were) before it.' And under this, was signified none other than Antichrist."
Athanasius of Alexandria clearly hold to the historical view in his many writings; in
The Deposition of Arius, he wrote: "I addressed the letter to Arius and his fellows, exhorting them to renounce his impiety.... There have gone forth in this diocese at this time certain lawless men—enemies of Christ—teaching an apostasy which one may justly suspect and designate as a forerunner of Antichrist".
Jerome wrote: "Says the apostle [Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians], 'Unless the Roman Empire should first be desolated, and antichrist proceed, Christ will not come.'" He also identifies the
little horn of and which "He shall speak as if he were God." Some
Franciscans had considered the Emperor
Frederick II a positive Antichrist who would purify the Catholic Church from opulence, riches and clergy.
Historicist interpretations of Book of Revelation usually included the identification of one or more of the following: • the Antichrist (
1 and
2 John); • the
Beast of
Revelation 13; • the
Man of Sin, or Man of Lawlessness, of
2 Thessalonians 2 (); • the "Little horn" of
Daniel 7 and
8; • The
Abomination of desolation of
Daniel 9,
11, and
12; and • the
Whore of Babylon of
Revelation 17. The Protestant Reformers tended to hold the belief that the Antichrist power would be revealed so that everyone would comprehend and recognize that the Pope is the real, true Antichrist and not the vicar of Christ. Doctrinal works of literature published by the
Lutherans, the
Reformed Churches, the
Presbyterians, the
Baptists, the
Anabaptists, and the
Methodists contain references to the Pope as the Antichrist, including the
Smalcald Articles, Article 4 (1537), the
Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope written by
Philip Melanchthon (1537), the
Westminster Confession, Article 25.6 (1646), and the
1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Article 26.4. In 1754,
John Wesley published his
Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, which is currently a Doctrinal Standard of the
United Methodist Church. In his notes on the
Book of Revelation (chapter 13), he commented: "The whole succession of Popes from
Gregory VII are undoubtedly Antichrists. Yet this hinders not, but that the last Pope in this succession will be more eminently the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, adding to that of his predecessors a peculiar degree of wickedness from the bottomless pit." The identification of the Pope with the Antichrist was so ingrained in the
Reformation Era, that Luther himself stated it repeatedly: and,
John Calvin similarly wrote:
John Knox wrote on the Pope:
Thomas Cranmer on the Antichrist wrote:
John Wesley, speaking of the identity given in the Bible of the Antichrist, wrote:
Roger Williams wrote about the Pope: The identification of the Roman Catholic Church as the apostate power written of in the Bible as the Antichrist became evident to many as the Reformation began, including
John Wycliffe, who was well known throughout Europe for his opposition to the
doctrine and practices of the Catholic Church, which he believed had clearly deviated from the original teachings of the early Church and to be contrary to the Bible. Wycliffe himself tells (
Sermones, III. 199) how he concluded that there was a great contrast between what the Church was and what it ought to be, and saw the necessity for reform. Along with John Hus, they had started the inclination toward ecclesiastical reforms of the Catholic Church. When the Swiss Reformer
Huldrych Zwingli became the pastor of the
Grossmünster in
Zurich (1518) he began to preach ideas on reforming the Catholic Church. Zwingli, who was a Catholic priest before he became a Reformer, often referred to the Pope as the Antichrist. He wrote: "I know that in it works the might and power of the Devil, that is, of the Antichrist". The English Reformer
William Tyndale held that while the Roman Catholic realms of that age were the empire of Antichrist, any religious organization that distorted the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments also showed the work of Antichrist. In his treatise
The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, he expressly rejected the established Church teaching that looked to the future for an Antichrist to rise up, and he taught that Antichrist is a present spiritual force that will be with us until the end of the age under different religious disguises from time to time. Tyndale's translation of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, concerning the "Man of Lawlessness" reflected his understanding, but was significantly amended by later revisers, including the
King James Bible committee, which followed the
Vulgate more closely. In 1973, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops'
Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the USA National Committee of the
Lutheran World Federation in the official
Catholic–Lutheran dialogue officially signed an agreement on
Papal Primacy and the Universal Church, including this passage: In 1988
Ian Paisley,
Evangelical minister and founder of the
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, made headlines in an infamous manner by accusing
Pope John Paul II as the Antichrist during one of the pope's speeches before the European Parliament, which at the time Paisley was member. His accusation, and the reactions of both Pope John Paul II and other members of the European Parliament, was recorded on video. The
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod states about the Pope and the Catholic Church: and the
Seventh-day Adventists.
Counter-Reformation In the
Counter-Reformation, the views of
Preterism and
Futurism were advanced by Catholic Jesuits beginning in the 16th century in response to the identification of the Papacy as Antichrist. These were rival methods of prophetic interpretation: the futurist and the preterist systems both are in conflict with the historicist method of interpretation. Historically, preterists and non-preterists have agreed that the Jesuit
Luis de Alcasar (1554–1613) wrote the first systematic preterist exposition of prophecy—
Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi (published in 1614)—during the
Counter-Reformation. ==Christian views==