Q. Who is the antichrist?
A. The simple answer is we do not know. The Antichrist is a somewhat mysterious figure which finds explicit mention in the Epistles of St. John and is alluded to in the Pauline Epistles where he is referred to as the man of sin (or ‘wicked one’ or ‘lawless man,’ depending on the translation) and in the Book of Revelation. The Church does not have an official teaching regarding who the antichrist will be but does provide information regarding how they will be known.
The term antichrist implies a figure who appears to be a messiah, working various wonders and will offer humanity “an apparent solution to their problems at the cost of apostasy from the truth” (CCC 675). It is clear that they will present themselves as a religious figure who will take “his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:4). The antichrist will precede and indeed instigate the Final Revolt in which a great number of peoples throughout the world will follow the antichrist into apostasy.
After the antichrist is made known, “the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming” (2 Thess. 2:8). The Truth of Christ will prevail in the end and will be what overthrows the antichrist who will face his final and total defeat in the Second Coming of Christ.
While the Church holds the belief that there is one antichrist, there are “images” of the antichrist already at work in the world. “The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement… especially the ‘intrinsically perverse’ political form of a secular messianism” (CCC 676).
While it is easy to shake our heads and wonder at those who will be seduced by the lies of the antichrist, the reality is that we all of us allow ourselves to be seduced away from God every time we sin. We convince ourselves that we need to lie and gossip because it covers our own insecurities, or we need money and prestige to find our worth, or we need sexual sin because we are lonely or feel unloved. Every sin is an antichrist when we turn to it over Christ because we think it will fill whatever need exists in our life and Christ will not. When we replace God in the temple of our hearts with our sin and live our lives for it instead of God.
If we do not want to be seduced by the antichrist we need, with the grace of God, to reject the lie that we need our sin to live happy and fulfilled lives here and now. We need to recognize the truth that Christ is more than enough for us and is the only true source of our peace and joy. If we live our lives in this truth, then we will recognize the antichrist – should we be alive when they come – for what they are, a lie.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
