Is There An Anti-Christ?

Q

Where in The Scriptures does God ever mention “the anti-Christ”? I have found no one who can answer that question. Every reference to anti-Christ or anti-Christs in the books of 1st and 2nd John are to the “spirit of anti-Christ”. Nowhere does God throw “the anti-Christ” into the lake of fire in the end. God destroys the beast, the false prophet and Satan, however nowhere in the Bible does God purge the earth/world of “the anti-Christ”. This has become a popular belief and a false teaching.

A

By some accounts there are over 40 references in the Bible to the one we know as the anti-Christ. Many of them make reference to him as the leader of forces opposed to God at the end of the age. None of them call him by this name, but it has become popular because of the references to the spirit of anti-Christ in John’s letters. He’s seen as the ultimate personification of this spirit. So while the name by which he’s traditionally known is not the best one scholars could have chosen by a long shot, the teaching about him is not a false teaching.