Nero As The Anti-Christ

Q. On TV I was watching a show about the book of Revelation.  The show said that some people think that 666 was in reference to King Nero because Nero’s name added up in a certain Hebrew alphabet to 666.  And also that during that time that Nero was referred to as “the beast.”  Could you explain why this is incorrect and just coincidence?

A. The opinion that Nero was the anti-Christ is held by some who hold to the Preterist view, which at its heart believes that all Bible prophecy has been fulfilled in history.

Nero was one of the clearest models of the anti-Christ that history provides, probably exceeded only by Antiochus Epiphanes.  But the clear fact is that before he could get a statue of himself actually placed in the Temple he died and his order to do so was rendered null and void.  This alone disqualifies him from being the anti-Christ.

Some Preterists claim that the Roman eagle, which was mounted on a wall at the entrance to the Temple, fulfilled the requirements of the Abomination of Desolation prophecy. But the Jews of the day didn’t think so, and neither do most scholars today.

Of all the views of the End Times, the Preterist view is perhaps the most difficult to reconcile with a literal understanding of the Bible.