(cf. 2 Thess. 2:1-10) The idea of anti-Christ or anti-Messiah is a biblical principle that runs all through the Bible. Genesis 3:15 has the first mention of it, “the serpent is going to bruise the Messiah’s heel, and the Messiah will crush that serpent’s head”. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10 is the most definitive and the most difficult passage in the New Testament about the spirit of the antiChrist being personified in the end times. There are some allusions to the Old Testament that are mostly done in apocalyptic language. Even though if you look at verse 5 of 2nd Thessalonians 2 you’ll see the reason why it is so difficult to interpret that. Paul was basing his writing on what he had already orally said to this church and so he just makes allusions to his previous teachings and the people of Thessalonica just understand like that, but we have no idea of the oral background Paul made, and that’s what makes it difficult to understand. Nonetheless, one thing is crystal clear in verse 3 of 2 Thessalonians 2 that the revealing (unveiling) of the person of the antiChrist will precede the “parousia” (2nd Coming), and the final convention of the saints. The revealing of the person of the antiChrist; the great apostasy (cf. Matt. 24:1-13; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1ff. and 2 Thess. 2:3ff); the great tribulation (cf. Matt. 24:21-22, 29-31); gospel being preached to all nations (cf. Matt. 24:24); and the salvation of the full number of Gentiles and Jews (cf. Rom. 11:11-36) are the predicted events that must occur before the 2nd Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, these events have to be balanced by His “any moment” (imminent) return, because the whole subject of the return of Christ is presented in the Bible in a dialectical tension. The Bible is an ancient Near Eastern book that presents most truths in paradoxical (dialectical) pairs. One of these truths does not eliminate or contradict the other. We must accept all Biblical truths because all are divinely inspired.

#anti-christ