Antichrist

I remember so much talk about the antichrist when I was growing up. He was to be a key player in end times scenarios. However, I started to get skeptical when I discovered that the only place such a person is mentioned is in John's letters, referring to someone who denied that Jesus was the Messiah (Christ). And there were multiple antichrists.

In my study of what Jesus's Messiahship really meant (largely from NT Wright's work), it seems that he was the one who was the last great prophet to warn Israel of her impending doom. As Messiah, of course, he was Israel's king, but he offered a stark warning, and then he even bore his people's punishment on the cross. He offered the whole nation forgiveness from sin and return from exile in the sense of the absence of God's tangible presence. However, his warning was of what felt like a much more devastating exile: destruction of the entire countryside, including the holy city of Jerusalem and its temple.

If Jesus's first-level purpose before salvation of the world and restoration of creation was to warn people of imminent punishment, exactly in the spirit of Jeremiah, then who would be the antichrist? Paul sets the stage in 1 Thessalonians: "Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape" (NIV). It's those people saying, "There's nothing to worry about! What? There was a prophet who said to repent? Nah." They are the ones contravening the Messiah's prophecy. They are the ones deceiving their loved ones into dying a horrible death at the hands of the Romans rather than listening to Jesus's warning to "run for the hills!"

I always thought John's letters were a bit rambly and circumlocutory. Now I see that his letters really intended to use circumlocution: "the use of many words where fewer would do, esp. in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive." There's an apocalyptic feel to the way he says, "Don't entertain people who come to town saying that this Jesus stuff is bunk and that we need to placate the Romans, because Romans will be Romans. You must live in love by serving the real King of the world, Jesus." Oh, that's a message the ruling powers don't like to hear, and you have to be careful how you say it.