The Mystery of the Antichrist

The notoriety of the term "antichrist," used as a derogatory eponym hurled by competing Popes at one another, led Roman Catholic and Protestant Reformers, especially in the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, to study the Scriptures in order to pinpoint the Scriptural identification of this formidable person.

The Roman Catholic Reformer of the fourteenth century, John Wycliffe, the rector of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, England, upon hearing in 1378 that two prelates were contesting the right to be recognized as the valid Pope, threw all caution to the wind in declaring,

It was a statement fraught with fearful peril, but Wycliffe died of natural causes. His bones were later disinterred and burned by indignant clerics who no doubt hoped that God was treating his soul in a similar fashion. Many a martyr would have preferred Wycliffe’s form of "martyrdom" to his own.

A thorough study of Scripture indicates that only four references to the antichrist are to be found in the entire Scripture, three in the first epistle of John and one in the second. It is instructive to read these references.

These passages indicated to the Reformers that the antichrist would possess the following characteristics:

The Reformers recognized that such criteria could validly be applied to men of every generation. Thus they searched the Scriptures for further clues to this mystery.

Some obtained a few pointers from their spiritual ancestors, especially the early church fathers who had carefully sifted Scripture to form conclusions which not only were regarded as treasonous during the era of the Roman Empire, but which endangered their very existence.

One such man was Tertullian who was born in 155 and died in 222, more than two centuries prior to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Tertullian spoke of the future dismantling of the Roman Empire—

At the time Tertullian revealed his perceptive insights into Scripture, Rome ruled supreme, an apparently impregnable empire. Tertullian’s conclusions were a bold statement of belief, one which no doubt met with the scorn of many of his contemporaries. But later Bible students pondered his prediction. "To which ten nations was he referring and from where did he obtain this concept in Scripture?" they asked. That the Roman Empire had collapsed centuries before these later reformers read Tertullian’s work, could not be doubted. They had the benefit of hindsight. This added credibility to Tertullian’s other predictions.

As the Book of Daniel was studied, the minds of thinking Reformers were turned to the prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7. There appeared that number ten, ten toes in Daniel 2 and ten horns in Daniel 7. Further they discovered ten horns mentioned in both Revelation 13 and in Revelation chapter 17. Could these ten toes and ten horns symbolize the ten nations of Europe into which the Roman Empire divided and to which Tertullian so many centuries earlier insightfully alluded?

In his book, Unfolding Daniel’s Prophecies, theologian and historian, Roy Allan Anderson identified the ten nations of western Europe into which Imperial Rome was decimated.

Scripture presents the fascinating story of a dream which King Nebu-chadnezzar had about the year 602 b.c. He was at the zenith of his power, having conquered much of the Middle East and defeated Egypt. The king of Babylon was impressed that this was no ordinary dream. Yet two impediments to his understanding its import presented themselves; he had completely forgotten the subject matter of the dream, and his wise men—the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans, were quite unable to reconstruct the dream for him. Despite the dire penalties threatened by the king for failure on the part of these men to meet his unreasonable demand, the king’s frustration was not alleviated and he proceeded to implement his threat:

The dream was elucidated only when four young Jewish princes, captives in Babylon, sought to God for wisdom. Their spokesman, Daniel, boldly stated to this mighty potentate that God would reveal the dream and its interpretation to them. The Bible describes the circumstances succinctly:

Giving God the entire credit, Daniel revealed the content of the king’s dream, recalling it to his memory. This encouraged Nebuchadnezzar to believe that the God of heaven could also accurately interpret his dream. Daniel reminded the king that he had seen a great image with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, abdomen and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet a curious mixture of iron and clay. This entire chapter, Daniel 2, is worthy of reading.

That this image was symbolic, was manifestly made known to the king during the presentation of the interpretation by Daniel. "Thou art this head of gold," Daniel explained (ch. 2:38). Further explanation clearly revealed that the various metals represented nations.

Thus four succeeding nations were represented, each ruling vast swathes of land, the fourth being the strongest of the quartet. To identify these four empires presents little difficulty. Daniel had identified Babylon as the first. History attested to the identity of the subsequent three. Indeed the Bible identified the second and third kingdoms specifically by name—Medo-Persia and Greece (Daniel 8:20, 21) in a complementary prophecy.

In 539 b.c. Babylon was overthrown by the Medo-Persian Empire. This latter Empire fell in 331 b.c. to the Greek forces under Alexander the Great, precisely as Scripture had foretold. But the question remained, What was the fourth kingdom of iron? Historians supply the answer. In 168 b.c. Rome overthrew the Hellenistic kingdoms; the Greek Empire had met its master.

Thus plainly Imperial Rome was the fourth kingdom designated in the prophecy as the legs of iron. It was the ruling empire throughout Christ’s lifetime and for over four centuries to follow. It is without doubt that as Tertullian, himself a citizen of the Roman Empire, studied this prophecy he recognized that this apparently impregnable Empire would divide into ten kingdoms, as symbolized by the ten toes of the image. Those kingdoms have been identified. Today they represent the major nations of western Europe—the Germans (Alemanni), the English (Anglo-Saxons), the Swiss (Burgundians), the French (Franks), the Portuguese (Suevi), the Italians (Lombards) and the Spanish (Visigoths).

But there is a matter of conjecture: where today do we locate in Europe the other three nations—the Heruli, Ostrogoths and Vandals? This question will be answered in the following chapters.

A further question remains: upon what Scripture did Tertullian base his claim that antichrist would arise out of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire? This question requires further study of the second fascinating prophecy recorded in the book of Daniel, chapter 7.