In simple terms both Torm1 and weasleface are correct.
But wait....what about this idea.....
"The prime mover in the events that will march man into World War III will be the Anti-Christ...a terrible personification of evil who will work more wholesale havoc than any other human being in the history of the world."
Many denominational preachers and other premillennialists have done well in convincing a religious, but biblically illiterate, "Christian" community that the antichrist is a person "as described above" who will torment the world and hasten the start of the terrible Battle of Armageddon. LOL
Let us see what the Bible says about the antichrist and see if it matches the above.
The words "Antichrist" and "Antichrists" appear only five times in the Bible
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Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour" (I John 2:18).
This passage tells us that antichrist is coming in the last hour; i.e. the last hour or dispensation began on Pentecost (Acts 2), all those that denied Christ during this time were antichrists as well as those in the future from that time until the end of the world.
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Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son" (I John 2:22).
This passage gives us the answer to the age old question, The text here says
the antichrist is anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is the Messiah or the Son of God. "
And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world" (I John 4:3).
There is little to doubt about who is meant in this verse, surely the Gnostics which surely were many during the early period of the church after Pentecost are intended here. Correct me if I am wrong but the Gnostics were a religious group that denied the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, they believed that Divinity could not reside in flesh and blood because of the physical body ability to decay and go back to dust.
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For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (II John 7).
In this verse we have a further description of antichrist, antichrist is one who denies that Jesus Christ is the Messiah [i.e. Divine]. This is a good description of the Gnostic religious philosophy and they are surely included in this description.
Seems like when most people discuss the antichrist they confine their discussions to wild misunderstandings of the imagery in the book of Revelation--a book that never uses the term!
It is also interesting to note the differences between the premillennialist's description of the antichrist and the Bible's description.
(1) According to the Bible there were many antichrists, not just one.
(2) Those antichrists already existed in John's day, as opposed to being yet future to us.
(3) These antichrists were false teachers in the church, not political dictators.
(4) Anyone that denies that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the son of God, and/or that he came in the flesh can rightly be called "antichrist".