Antichrist

Introduction. The word "anti" can mean either against (opposite to) or in place of (something). So, antichrist can mean "against Christ" in the sense of someone or some power who opposes Christ and his work. Or, it can mean "in the place of Christ" signifying a person or power who takes the place of Christ—a counterfeit Christ or a replacement Christ. The Bible identifies the antichrist in a number of ways, as follows.

Antichrist as "false christs"

Jesus himself declared that "false christs" will come in the last days.

• Matthew 24:5: For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.
• Matthew 24:23-26: Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

Antichrist as the "man of sin"

Paul declares that before the Second Coming there is going to be a rebellion, an apostasy, a great falling away from the faith, wherein a "man of sin" will be revealed.

• 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4: Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion [Or falling away] comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12: Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming; 9 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; 12 that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Antichrist as the "little horn"

Adventists teach (Who Is the Antichrist?) that the antichrist is the papacy, having the following identifying characteristics:

• "little horn" (Daniel 7:8). Small kingdom somewhere in Western Europe.
• A man as head speaking great things (Daniel 7:8). That is, the popes of the papacy throughout history.
• Uproot 3 kingdoms (Daniel 7:8). The papacy uprooting the three Arian nations: Ostrogoths, Vandals and Heruli. See Arian Christian nations and the Little Horn.
• Make war and persecute the saints (Daniel 7:21, 25). The Inquisition and Christian wars.
• Emerge from the pagan Roman Empire (Daniel 7:7, 8). The fourth kingdom being identified as the Roman Empire followed by the Roman Catholic Church.
• Rule for "a time and times and half a time" (Daniel 7:25). Identified as a period of 1,260 years, using a day-for-year principle, from 538 to 1798. See Understanding the 1,260-year Prophecy.
• "Change times and law" (Daniel 7:25). The Catholic Church dropped the 2nd commandment (against worshiping images) and splitting the 10th into two parts. It also claims to have changed the day of worship from the Jewish Saturday to the pagan Sunday.
• Blaspheme God (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5).

The papacy is an organization, whose representative is the Pope. However, it should be understood that it is the system (i.e. the organization) who is the antichrist, not an individual, given that popes come and go. It is the system that has taken on the prerogatives of God with its claims. If you want to be more specific, it is the Magisterium (the Pope and the bishops) of the Catholic Church which can properly be called the antichrist given the many divine claims it makes, such as:

• Its pope and the church are an infallible rule of faith, from which even the Bible draws its strength. To deny otherwise is heresy.
• It can change God's law.
• Its priests can forgive sins; can call down Christ from heaven in the Eucharist service.

Of course, Catholics have a (multifaceted) response to this which you can read here: Seventh-day Advenitsm.

Antichrist as "false apostles"

Paul warned of false apostles who preach another Jesus (i.e. an antichrist), or a different spirit (i.e. spirit of antichrist), or a different gospel.

• 2 Corinthians 11:4: For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you didn’t receive, or a different gospel, which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough.
• 2 Corinthians 11:13-15: For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

"masquerading as Christ’s apostles." Beware of those who declare themselves to be Christ's apostles yet preach a different Christ. See anti-Apostles under "Catholic Teachings."

Antichrist denying "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh"

The apostle John identifies the antichrist as men who deny that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh."

• 1 John 4:2-3: By this you know the spirit is from God: every spirit that confesses [G3670: declares, acknowledges] that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess [G3670: declares, acknowledges] Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
• 2 John 7: For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who do not confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh; this is the deceiver and the antichrist!

"Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." With Christians, it is not an issue of whether Jesus came in human form but, rather, whether he partook of our nature and to what extent. The Bible declares that the Son of God became like us "in every respect" (Hebrews 2:17), having the same flesh and blood, subject to death, and suffered when tempted.

• Hebrews 2:14-18: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Could Jesus have sinned? Trinitarians postulate that, although Jesus was tempted, he had no possibility of sinning, because he was divine (as the second person of the Trinity) and divinity cannot sin. Yet EGW tells us that "He could have sinned; He could have fallen."

• 13MR 18.1: Be careful, exceedingly careful as to how you dwell upon the human nature of Christ. Do not set Him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin. He is the second Adam. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being, without a taint of sin upon him; he was in the image of God. He could fall, and he did fall through transgressing. Because of sin, his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience. But Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. He took upon Himself human nature, and was tempted in all points as human nature is tempted. He could have sinned; He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity. He was assailed with temptations in the wilderness, as Adam was assailed with temptations in Eden.
• 6MR 111.1: I will try to answer this important question: As God He could not be tempted: but as a man He could be tempted, and that strongly, and could yield to the temptations. His human nature must pass through the same test and trial Adam and Eve passed through. His human nature was created; it did not even possess the angelic powers. It was human, identical with our own. He was passing over the ground where Adam fell. He was now where, if He endured the test and trial in behalf of the fallen race, He would redeem Adam's disgraceful failure and fall, in our own humanity.
• 11LtMs, Lt 106, 1896, par. 17: It was not a make believe humanity that Christ took upon Himself. He took human nature and lived human nature. Christ worked no miracles in His own behalf. He was compassed with infirmities, but His divine nature knew what was in man. He needed not that any should testify to Him of this. The Spirit was given Him without measure, for His mission on earth demanded this.

Why is this important? It is important because of what can be said of Jesus' accomplishments. Was Jesus' mission simply to fulfill some requirement of God or did he also come to provide a remedial, restorative "pattern" for us? In EGW's words:

• 5T 235.3: Jesus took upon Himself man's nature, that He might leave a pattern for humanity, complete, perfect. He proposes to make us like Himself, true in every purpose, feeling, and thought—true in heart, soul, and life. This is Christianity. Our fallen nature must be purified, ennobled, consecrated by obedience to the truth. Christian faith will never harmonize with worldly principles; Christian integrity is opposed to all deception and pretense. The man who cherishes the most of Christ's love in the soul, who reflects the Saviour's image most perfectly, is in the sight of God the truest, most noble, most honorable man upon the earth.
• GCB February 25, 1895, Art. A, par. 6: Christ took humanity with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man with the possibility of yielding to temptation, and he relied upon divine power to keep him.
• 7LtMs, Ms 1, 1892, par. 23: Bear in mind that Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give to His human nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity. His imputed grace and power He gives to all who receive Him by faith. The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same obedience that is required of man.
• 16MR 181.4: Christ's perfect humanity is the same that man may have through connection with Christ. As God, Christ could not be tempted any more than He was not tempted from His allegiance in heaven. But as Christ humbled Himself to the nature of man, He could be tempted.

We can conclude that Christ came to this earth, with the same flesh as us humans and that He took upon Himself the infirmities of a degenerate humanity which had been weakened by four thousand years of sin and yet He lived a victorious life free from sin in his humanity. He did this to demonstrate that we (having the same nature) can indeed overcome in our sinful/fallen flesh as Christ overcame; He did not accomplish this by having some super human nature. Recognition of these evidence should lead us to confess that Jesus Christ did indeed come in the flesh.

Further reading

• The anti-Gospel.
• A Question of Sonship.

Appendix

The following is derived from the article Trinity in Adventism.

1. Composite God. "One God" is a composite entity and thereby denies God the Father as the Only True God. See John 17:3, "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." And, 1 Corinthians 8:6, "yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."
2. Unbegottenism. Denies the "begottenness" of the Son of God and regards it as volunteerism or metaphor or arbitrarily interchangeable role play. Thus, when the Father said of Jesus that he was His Son, the Father really did not literally mean what He said. Thus, SDA trinitarians overtly teach unbegottenism. That is, they say that the pre-incarnate Son of God was not begotten. The terms "Father," "Son," "Firstborn," "Only begotten," "Begotten," all become figurative and metaphorical in meaning.
3. Obfuscates the spirit. Denies or obfuscates the spirit of the Father and Son (Romans 8:9-11). However, if the Father has a spirit and the Son has a spirit--and they are "holy" spirits--then does the Holy Spirit have a spirit and is that spirit holy? What logically follows is that all three have holy spirits, then there are in fact four holy spirits! But, if the Holy Spirit is to do the work of Jesus' spirit, then it denigrates Christ's divinity. Furthermore, this undermines the full scope of Christ’s mediatorial ministry by affectively making two intercessors and two mediators.
4. Denies one source of life. Denies one source of life since all three divine entities have independent sources of life. See DA 21.2 which declares the Father as the source of life ("through the beloved Son, the Father's life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all").
5. Denies the Incarnation. It denies that Christ's death was a full and complete death. If Christ is divine, then only his humanity must have died. The original divine life therefore was untouched. In that case, none of the Three, as they originally existed, actually died. The inherent life of the Second Person of the Trinity (Jesus) was never in jeopardy. He faced no real, eternal risk to His life (contrary to Inspiration). And if Jesus had His own separate divine life, His mortal humanity would need to be detached from His own immortal divinity in order to be able to die. But this would defeat the whole purpose of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the key to the atonement. It wasn’t just about Jesus becoming human. In the Incarnation, divinity was mysteriously blended with humanity {6MR 112.3}. It is that blending of the two natures that makes His death efficacious. A divine life in human flesh unites man with God. Only thus can atonement be made. But to divide Jesus at the cross into two separate natures negates the effect of the Incarnation.
6. An extra-biblical test of fellowship. Makes extra-biblical propositions a test of fellowship. The doctrine of the trinity is a synthesis, not an explicit teaching of the Bible. Yet it is a primary test of faith and reason for disfellowship.

References

• Jesus Christ is Come in our Flesh.
• Martin Luther's Views on the Antichrist.