Meet the Antichrist
How the story of Hanukkah reveals the identity of Antichrist
The New Testament cryptically warns about a devious character called “antichrist.” He’s a favorite villain in end-times teachings, works of fiction about the end of days, and even Hollywood movies.
During the Reformation Era, Protestants nominated the pope for the title. In every generation, some villain receives the honor of being singled out as a candidate for the antichrist. So far, no one has managed to fill the role. History has given us many false false messiahs (which, despite the double negative, somehow doesn’t add up to a real messiah). Amid all this confusion, the original teachings about the real antichrist were lost.
Who did the apostles have in mind when they warned us about a coming antichrist?
A close look at the subject reveals that the antichrist has his roots in the story of Hanukkah.
Real Christ vs. Antichrist
The Greek word that our English Bibles render as “Christ” (christos) means “anointed one.” It translates the title Messiah (Mashiach), a Jewish term that means “anointed one.” The Jewish community applied the title to the much-anticipated Jewish king from the line of David spoken of in biblical prophecies. The Messiah is supposed to be God’s agent to redeem Israel, reestablish the Davidic monarchy, turn Israel back to God’s Law, and usher in the utopian Messianic Era.
The term “antichrist” (antichristos) is more ambiguous. The Greek prefix “anti” (ἀντί) can mean “against” and “in opposition,” but it also can imply a substitute who acts “in place of.” It’s not clear if the antichrist should be understood as someone working against the Messiah or someone masquerading as the Messiah. It might be both.
Pretenders claiming to fulfill biblical prophecies about the Messiah were not uncommon in New Testament times. In the days of the apostles, revolutionary leaders arose, making messianic claims to bolster their campaigns against Rome. Jesus told his disciples that they should anticipate false messiahs: “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray” (Matthew 24:4–5).
Many revolutionaries and religious leaders made that claim in the turbulent years that followed his warnings. The most famous out of the batch was a leader in the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome. Rabbi Akiva declared Shimon bar Kosiva to be King Messiah. Revolutionaries gathered around him and applied the words of the messianic prophecy in Numbers 24:17 to their new leader. They renamed him “Bar Kochba,” which means “Son of the Star.”
Antichrist Is Coming
In addition to these ordinary false messiahs, the disciples of Jesus seem to have anticipated a particular servant of Satan who would come masquerading as the Messiah—not just another antichrist but “the antichrist.” This guy, whoever he might be, isn’t merely a messianic pretender claiming to be the fulfillment of biblical prophecy; the antichrist is a diabolical villain acting on Satan’s behalf to make war against God’s people.
The Apostle John distinguished between your regular, run-of-the-mill false messiahs and the quintessential false messiah: “As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18). In other words, there are plenty of false messiahs already acting in the capacity of antichrist, but there’s still one specific baddie that’s destined to come at the end.
Paul referred to this same shadowy end-times character as the “man of lawlessness” and “son of destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:2–8). He is called “the beast” in Revelation 13. In language reminiscent of those warnings, a late first-century collection of apostolic teachings warns that at the end of days, before the coming of the Messiah, “lawlessness” will increase, and a “world-deceiver” will arise to mislead the world with signs and wonders:
For when lawlessness increases, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then the world-deceiver shall appear as Son of God, and he shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. (Didache 16.4)
John’s disciples had already “heard that antichrist is coming.” Likewise, Paul’s disciples knew that the Messiah would not arrive until an apostasy had taken place and “the man of lawlessness” had been revealed:
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the [apostasy] comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? (2 Thessalonians 2:3–5)
Paul felt the concern over the coming of the antichrist so urgently that it’s one of the first things he taught his new disciples in Thessalonica. He provided several specific criteria they could use to identify the culprit. To qualify as the antichrist, the candidate had to be someone claiming to be divine, demanding to be worshiped as a god, and taking occupation of God’s Temple in Jerusalem. Moreover, Paul said that the “mystery of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) would be at work in the “man of lawlessness.” In other words, the antichrist won’t be an advocate for the observance of God’s Torah.
Abomination of Desolation
The warnings about the antichrist go back to something Jesus said when his disciples asked him, “What will be the sign of your coming?” (Matthew 24:3). He warned his disciples to watch for “the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be” (Mark 13:14), that is, “the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (Matthew 24:15). He told the disciples not to look for him until they saw the abomination of desolation in the Temple. He didn’t need to explain the idea further. The disciples immediately knew what he was talking about because they knew the story of Hanukkah.
More than a century and a half earlier (167 BCE), King Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the Temple of God and attempted to stomp out observance of God’s Law among the Jewish people. He put a stop to the daily sacrifices and defiled the Temple by setting up an idol of Zeus in the holy place. He had the idol made in his own image, thereby exalting “himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” He ordered swine sacrificed to the idol on the altar of the LORD. The writer of 1 Maccabees calls the idol “the abomination of desolation,” a term he borrowed from Daniel 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11:
He set up the Abomination of Desolation upon the altar and built idol altars throughout the cities of Judea on every side … they sacrificed upon the idol altar, which was upon the altar of God. (1 Maccabees 1:54–59)
The Prophet Daniel had predicted it all. He predicted that the villainous king would “appear and profane the temple and fortress, and … take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate” (Daniel 11:31). His predictions came to fruition in the days of Judah Maccabee and the Hanukkah Revolt.
By instructing his disciples to watch for a repeat appearance of “the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place,” Jesus implied that the things that had happened in the past were going to happen again. He alluded to a second line of prophecy in the book of Daniel that speaks of a second abomination of desolation (see Daniel 9) before the end of days. The Gospel of Mark adds a parenthetical exhortation, urging us to pay careful attention: “Let the reader understand” (Mark 13:14). At the very least, we should understand that the antichrist will, in some way, reprise the role of Antiochus Epiphanes.
When the warnings about the coming antichrist are read in the context of the Hanukkah story, the meaning of Yeshua’s words becomes clear. He warned his disciples to beware of a future despotic ruler like Antiochus who would attempt to abolish the Torah, promote himself as divine, and erect an idol in God’s house. Since those days, there have been some legitimate candidates competing for the title—all of them Roman emperors—but no one has quite fulfilled all the criteria. Disciples of Yeshua are still watching.
Man of Lawlessness
Paul says that the Messiah will not come before a great apostasy occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed. He referred to the apostasy that occurred in the days of the Maccabees—a falling away from the Torah. Jesus said, “Lawlessness will be increased, [and] the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
The wicked Antiochus Epiphanes could rightly be called the “man of lawlessness.” Not only did he defile the Temple and set up the abomination of desolation in the holy place, but he also imposed a universal Hellenization effort intended to assimilate the Jewish people. In other words, he imposed a time of apostasy:
The king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people and that each should give up his customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. (1 Maccabees 1:41–43)
Not everyone “gladly adopted his religion.” Antiochus had to issue decrees and edicts specifically targeting Judaism and the observance of the Torah. Under his decrees, “lawlessness” increased:
The king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid whole burnt offerings and sacrifice and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and feasts, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances. “Whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.” (1 Maccabees 1:44–50)
Devout Jews who refused to eat unclean food were put to death. Women who defied the king by circumcising their sons were punished by being put to death with their sons hung from their necks. “They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die” (1 Maccabees 1:63). Antiochus really was a bad guy.
Mystery of Lawlessness
“As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.” Paul warned his disciples that the mystery of lawlessness behind the man of lawlessness was already at work. If that was the case in the days of the apostles, how much more so in the days since then. Ironically, the decrees promulgated by wicked King Antiochus sound suspiciously similar to the fundamental dogmas of replacement theology, which teach that Jesus came to do away with the Law. Consider the decrees King Antiochus levied against the Jewish people:
You shall give up Jewish customs
You shall worship idols
You shall profane the Sabbath and holy days
You shall leave your sons uncircumcised
You shall eat unclean foods
You shall forget the Torah
Most of those edicts specifically target Jewish identity. Their similarity to basic church assumptions about the Torah illustrates how the spirit of the antichrist is at work in the world and even within the church through the teachings of replacement theology. We should be wary of religious leaders proclaiming the cancellation of the Torah and the abolishment of God’s laws.
That’s why it’s especially important for Messianic Jews to celebrate Hanukkah and to use the occasion to remember their covenantal obligations to God’s Law as Jews. Anyone who teaches Jews to do otherwise is in danger of working for the wrong Christ.
PS
The concept of “lawlessness” has nuanced meanings, depending on how you interpret the word ‘law’. In the new covenant, the Greek word for ‘law’ is ‘nomos’, and nomos which a dictionary defines as “the body of law governing human behavior”. NAS Word Usage - Total: 196
Anything established, anything received by usage, a custom, a law, a command
of any law whatsoever
a law or rule producing a state approved of God 1a
by the observance of which is approved of God
1. a precept or injunction
2. the rule of action prescribed by reason
2. of the Mosaic law, and referring, acc. to the context. either to the volume of the law or to its contents
3. the Christian religion: the law demanding faith, the moral instruction given by Christ, esp. the precept concerning love
(“Torah’ is not ‘law’; the correct interpretattion of ‘Torah’ is 'teaching' or 'instruction'.)
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