First, let me say this is not an in-depth and comprehensive study on the whole anti-christ topic. There are many great Adventist resources if you are looking for that right now. The goal of this study is two-fold: first that we understand why knowing the true identify of anti-christ is so that we will not be deceived and second to understand that there are several different names used in the Bible to identify the "power" or organization that is most often referred to as the anti-christ.
The key texts and relevant idea from each for study this week are:
- 1 John 2:18 - anti-christ already exists
- 1 John 2:19 - they went out from among us (the church)
- 2 Thes 2:3 - Paul warns of a falling away from simplicity of gospel. Falling away here in the original language is "to be divorced from"
- 2 Thes 2:3 - the name used is "son of perdition" and the only other time this term is used is for Judas (see Luke 22:3 and John 17:12)
- 2 thes 2:7 - is already at work, term used is "lawless one"
- 2 Thes 2:4 - exalts himself above God, sit in temple of God, shows himself as God
To summarize the various terms used for this "power" are:
- Anti-christ
- Son of perdition
- Beast (see Revelation)
- Lawless one
Another important thing to note in reading these texts and in the full context of the writing, is the warning against being deceived. Remember that satan is hard at work to deceive the world and to draw our attention away from what Scripture actually says. There are a lot of false teaching in Christian churches today about the anti-christ.
The homework assignment is to read all these texts and the surrounding texts to gain a perspective on the context of each. We will discuss more about who the anti-christ is in the next lesson.
Reference for this week if you want to do some outside study is to listen to Steve Wohlberg and his series on the Antichrist Chronicles http://whitehorsemedia.com/broadcasts/?p=v
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