Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/713

ANTICHRIST. AN'TICHRIST ( Gk.' Ain'vp'crof, Antichi-istos; from ai'W, aiiti, against + Xf)inT6<;, Cliristos, Christ). A name whit-li occurs only in the Epistles of .lohn, hut which, in all likelihood. desii;nates the final New Testament form of a popular belief, whose rise is to be found in later .Judaism aiid which was appropriated with vari- ous modifications by biblical writers.

Its source is a question of some debate. Most probably, however, it lay in the popular convic- tions aroused by the constant announcement of the divine purpose to punish Israel'* sin by piving lier into the hands of heathen nations, but to recover her by force from their power when her spiritual discipline had been accomplislied. Tlie repeated carrying- out of this policy, even in earlier .lewish history, evidently impressed the popular mind with the idea of an essential oppo- sition between the heathen nations and the people of (iod, the final outcome of which was yet in the future, but must be in favor of the chosen peoi)le. Such an impression may have been aided by the instinctive natural beliefs in the struggle of darkness with light and chaos with order (Hossuet) ; but. in view of tlu> above uni(iue line of revelation and experience peculiar to the .Jew- ish [jcople, it is quite gratuitous to make such general beliefs the definite so.urce of such a dis- tinctive popular conviction.

As the later revelation emphasized the element of punishment to be administered to the heathen nations by announcing that (iod would not only recover his people when their discipline was finished, but would chastise the nations for any attempt on their part to overreach the discipli- nary mission given them, the popular idea of the hostility of the nations to the people of God was naturally increased. The primary form of this popular conception is evidently rised by Ezekiel as a basis for his prophecy concerning the consummation of Israel's restoration, in which he describes the nations of the world as assembled under the leadershij) of "Gog of the land of Magog'' for final battle against Israel (Ezekiel xxxviii. xxxix: see also Zechariah xii to xiv. where the prophet foretells the gathering together of all the nations of the earth to fight against .Jerusalem, and the Lord's going forth in turn to fight against them I.

In the experience of the Jews under Antiochus Ei)iphanes, however, the popular conception of this struggle made a distinct advance, in which the opposition was concentrated in a single per- sonage, and all idea of disciplinary mission to- ward Israel was lost sight of in the conviction of an'inhevent enmity against the people of God. This secondary form appears in the eschatological prophecies of the Maccabean Hook of Daniel (Daniel Hi to ix, xi, xii, in which are given the vision of the beast with the ten horns, triumphed over by the ".Vucient of Days," and the vision of the goat with the horn between the eyes who warred against the holy city but was finally him- self destroyed).

Naturally, as the idea of a personal Messiah increased in definiteness, this popular belief in a personal adversary would grow stronger, es- pecially when we consider the long-continued influence on Jewish thought of the Daniel proph- ecies. We can believe, therefore, though the Jewish apocryphal literature antedating the Christian era does not distinctly show it. that the conception of an Antimessiah was more or less current in Judaism before the rise of Christian- ity. This Antimessianic conception is appro- priated by New Testament writers, with modifications due to the newer revelations of truth in the Gospel and apostolic times, particularly those which substituted the spir- itual for the national idea of the king- dom of God. and so emphasized the signifi- cant distinction between righteousness and sin. So we see Paul's statement concerning the advent and mission of the Man of .Sin and his final de- struction by Christ (II. Thessalonians ii : 1-12: "For the day of the Lord will not come, except . . . the Man of Sin be revealed,, . . who oppos- eth and exalteth himself against all that is called God . . . whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth . . . whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and Ij'ing wonders . . . and deceit of unrighteousness") , where, however, in the deceiv- ing character of his mission, there is brought out a new idea — an idea which is frequently ajiplied by Paul to those who opposed him and his gos- pel (Acts XX : 30: II. Corinthians xi : 13: I. Timothy iv : 1, 2). So also wc see the various fonns of statement in the Book of Revelation regarding the Beast and the Dragon (compare Revelation xi to xiii, xvi, xix. .x.x, in which we are told of "the beast that eometh up out of the abyss," who overcomes "the two witnesses," and of the "red dragon having seven heads and ten horns," warring against the wouuin and her child and destroyed by ilichael and his angels; also of the "beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads," ministered to by the "beast coming out of the earth," with "two horns like unto a lamb," and finding his identification in the mystical number "six hun- dred and sixty and six"). The idea of the deceiving mission of the adversary, however, is in this book specifically pictured in the separate figure of the False Prophet, "who wrought signs wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast" (Revelation xvi : 13, xix : 20, XX : 10. though compare also xii : 9 and xiji : 14 for the same charac teristics in the Dragon and the Beast). In this figure there is a return to the earlier personal idea of the .Anti- messiah. and. at the same time, an advance to the final New Testament form found in the Johannine Epistles, where the teaching of false doctrines is personified in the term Antichrist (I. John ii : 18. 22: iv : 1-3: ".Many false prophets are gone out into the world . . . Every spirit which confesseth not .Jesus . . . this is the spirit of Antichrist:" II. John 7: "This is the deceiver and the Antichrist'' ).

This Antimessianic conception is dearlyappropriated by Jesus as a form for his eschatological statements regarding those who shall appear in opposition to his cause (Mark xiii : .5. G: ".Many shall come in my name, saying, 'I am he:' and shall lead many astray:" see also verses 21, 22: "There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, the elect''). In these statements Jesus seems, in the term "false." to have distinctly introduced a new idea, which does not appear to have been present in the popular beliefs, Tliis would, however, have been quickly intelligible to those of his hearers who recalled the false prophets of Jewish history, whose ability to deceive the false Christs were to reproduce. From the tradition of Jesus' words may have come the idea of falseness in Paul's statement