Who is anti-Christ in Revelation?

Answer 1

In the context of Revelation, the anti-Christ is a figure that rises in opposition to the teachings of God and he seems to begin his career as a political superpower, uniting nations and "putting down" kingdoms. He is described symbolically as a "Beast" in Revelation 13, and this might cause confusion because Revelation (the book that describes him the most clearly) doesn't actually call him "the anti-Christ."

Christians tend to use that term to describe him for a couple reasons. First, after he comes into great power as a ruler, he seems to want to achieve even greater status and set himself up to be worshiped. He is not just content to be a mighty dictator, but he wants to be the religious center of attention for the whole world (See Rev13:4-8).

In this way, he becomes the "anti-Christ," because he claims himself to be some kind of god, worthy to be worshiped by the whole Earth, even though Christ, who came without sin and died to give humans a way to redemption, deserves the title of "Christ", and a human being does not.

Last points: where does the scripture describe this man, this "beast," who will cause the whole world to pay attention to him get the name "anti-Christ"? In 1 John, the author warns followers of God that "...you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come" (1Jon2:18). The author also defines these anti-Christs as "whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist-denying the Father and the Son" (1Jon2:22). So we see that, even though there will be a great anti-Christ to come in the world's future, there are many people like him even now, and there were even people doing this in the day when 1 and 2 John were written, people who were coming to say "I am the promised savior."

Look at Matthew 24:4-5 where Jesus warns His disciples not to be deceived because "many" people will come in the "name" of Jesus, saying "I am the Messiah," and that many people will be deceived by these false Messiahs. Notice that Jesus specifically warns that liars will come saying "I am the Messiah." The word "Messiah" comes from the Hebrew word that translates "anointed," and if someone is "anointed" it means they're symbolically holy, worthy or blessed and set apart by God. The word "Christ" comes from the Greek version of "Messiah." Both these words are used to refer to the promised one, the person who is to "save" the world and deliver mankind from its problems. When we put "anti" in front of "Christ" it means that the anti-Christ is the opposite, or the opposer, to Christ, or the anti-Messiah, the one who opposes the savior of mankind. So we see logically that if someone comes and claims to be the savior, they're taking away this title from Jesus Christ, thus they are his "anti" or "opposite."