Brother, why did you capitalize the term "antichrist"? I set my NKJV aside when I noticed that the term was selectively capitalized, illustrating the influence of doctrine on that version. There was only upper case in the Koine Greek and thus there is no selective capitalization of that term in the KJV. There's been no shortage looking for a future end-time boogieman ever since the first century. While Preterists chalk it up to being Nero, or guesswork around some other 1st century individual, which suggests it is over and done with.
There's good reason those "extra-biblical Early Church Teachings" were not canonized. There was also no shortage of those in the 1st century, that expected Jesus' Second Coming in their day, but He didn't. Regarding your presumption, I would be pretty comfortable offering you assurance that church members have turned on their own flocks, in every century since the 1st century.
One can root around the ECFs and find traces of most any heresy one wants to believe. Like Irenaeus' association with what
developed into mariology and also his alluding to a 7-year period in his
future and "The" "Antichrist". However Darby's eschatological scheme isn't associated with the Christian era church until Darby.
Dr. Harry Ironside: ".....
until brought to the fore through the writings and the preaching and teaching of a distinguished ex-clergyman, Mr. J. N. Darby, in the early part of the last century,
it is scarcely to be found in a single book or sermon throughout a period of sixteen hundred years! If any doubt this statement, let them search, as the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre- and post-Nicene; the theological treatises of the scholastic divines; Roman Catholic writers of all shades of thought; the literature of the Reformation; the sermons and expositions of the Puritans; and the general theological works of the day.
He will find "the mystery" conspicuous by its absence."http://www.christianeschatology.com/futurism_dispensationalism.htm#history_of_futurismHowever the Didache is not holy writ. Let alone that the ECFs did not have nearly 2,000 years of Christian era history and fulfilled Bible prophecy to look back on. Within that history and from scripture, today we can positively identify without any speculation whatsoever, 1.5 billion antichrists in the world today
as an article of their faith in THE false prophet Muhammad.
I believe the boogieman idea may have been the sort of misunderstanding that was exactly what John was trying to dispel in his historically-later 1 John verses. The following verse is sometimes believed to suggest an individual past or future "The" "Antichrist:
1 John 2:18
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.Does the above verse really even make sense, if the first use of the term antichrist were supposed to be an individual person as "The" "Antichrist", when six words later we learn there are many antichrists? Unless of course the verse is saying something like "You have heard people rumor that an individual antichrist is coming, but can't you see that even now there are already many antichrists in the world?"
This is the only verse of the 4 verses that contain the term, that is generally construed to indicate a single individual as such. Let's develop our understanding through an adjacent hermeneutic, that seems to reveal exactly how to understand this verse perfectly, by looking to the following verse that also uses the term antichrist in a singular fashion:
1 John 4:3
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.You can see the singular "that", "spirit", "it" in this sentence and singular "antichrist", just like the singular "antichrist" in 1 John 2:18. The translators gave us a little extra push in 1 John 4:3 by inserting the word [spirit] a second time, further clarifying that the spirit of antichrist is this singular entity. As in, "ye have heard that the spirit of antichrist would come, but it's already here!" Now look at how this makes 1 John 2:18 make perfect sense if, when you get to the first use of term antichrist, you simply understand it to be a reference to THE SPIRIT OF antichrist:
John 2:18
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that {the spirit of}
antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.I'm not rewriting the verse, but only demonstrating how it can easily be understood, to in my opinion make far more sense than contradicting a single entity with "many" in the same breath. Finally look also at how beautifully parallel these two verse snippets are:
"
ye have heard that antichrist shall come"
"
ye have heard that it should come"
Poof! End time boogieman up in smoke. How can the idea of this dude even survive scripture, unless one throws hermeneutics right out the window and stuffs him into Revelation 13? Let alone it makes the historical succession of 8 kings/beasts be kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom...... boogieman.
http://www.beholdthebeast.com/johns_eight_beasts.htm#maps_8_beastsIf it were not for the antagonist, we wouldn't be left with much fiction, and Hollywood would be out of business. We're all inclined to search the horizon for a boogieman to fear. What monster movie watching kid, didn't later take a flying leap into his bed, so that whatever was under it wouldn't grab his ankles? It's in our nature.
Is it beyond imagining, that the reason the enemy put the idea of an individual "The" "Antichrist" into the church, was specifically to blind it to the eventual 1.5 billion Muslim antichrists, who are today picking up the torches and pitchforks right alongside Christians, to chase after Muhammad's imagined one-eyed boogieman of some future someday?
Did the church focusing on an individual, past or future, remove the term from the Christian vocabulary and thereby deprive us from being able to casually refer to atheists and Muslims as antichrists? I can tell you from experience in witnessing them squirm, that even atheists find it a very convicting label to wear. Try an online chat with one while casually substituting the term antichrist for atheist.
How can we even doubt it was the work of the enemy, in light of such as the horrific blindness it in part produces, as in the example of interfaith pluralism that you yourself put in this forum?
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=4309.0But just try taking their "left behind" boogieman away from futurists in a Christian forum! You may be left with the impression that they are more looking forward to his coming than that of Jesus Christ. Particularly teenage Christians.
Another reason to doubt an end-time boogieman is that Muhammad pirated the idea, and proclaimed there would be one too. Some Christians actually cite that to reinforce their belief in one, without realizing they are thereby crediting Muhammad with divinely inspired prophecy. As you know it is often pretty safe to presume the
opposite when it comes to Islam!
Regarding "that man of sin" and "even him" in 2Thess, we explore that pretty thoroughly in another thread:
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=415.0We could speculate about the future all day long, without resolution, until it is fulfilled. Whether the futurists fantasies of computer chips in hands or helicopters as locusts. This is why as some before us, I personally don't see much point in speculation about the future, particularly when we have so much fulfilled prophecy to consider now that we may well be in Daniel's "time of the end".
http://www.beholdthebeast.com/traditional_framework.htm#fulfilled_prophecy
