Gary DeMar on Antichrist

I am really, really enjoying Gary DeMar’s new book, which I posted about last week. It is a healthy antidote to the “last days madness” in our world today. He continues to situate the Bible in its original context, paying close attention to the original audience and the time indicators (when present) in the text. Here are two quotes in which he discusses the antichrist (or antichrists):

​Antichrist is simply any belief system that disputes the fundamental teachings of Christianity, beginning with the person of Christ. These antichrists are “religious” figures. The antichrist, contrary to much present-day speculation, is not a political figure, no matter how anti- (against) Christ he might be. The modern manufactured composite antichrist is not the antichrist of 1 and 2 John: “Putting it all together, we can see that Antichrist is a description of both the system of apostasy and individual apostates. In other words, antichrist was the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that a time of great apostasy would come, when ‘many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many’ (Matt. 24:10-11)” (quoting David Chilton, Paradise Restored, 111).

These false prophets in Matt. 24 were first century false prophets that arose and led people astray before the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.

​He continues on the next (kindle) page:

[W]hether there was to be only one or many antichrists, John made it clear that “it is the last hour” for those who first read his letters (1 John 2:18). How do we know this? John said, “Even now many antichrists have arisen.” And in case you did not get his point, he repeated it: “From this we know that it is the last hour.” John did not describe a period of time thousands of years in the future. It was the “last hour” for his contemporaries. Keep in mind that Jesus had told His disciples years before, John among them, that their generation would see the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem (Matt. 24:1-34). John, writing close to the time when this prophecy was to be fulfilled, described its fulfillment in the rise of “many antichrists,” that is, many who preach and teach a false religious system, the denial that Jesus had come in the flesh (2 John 7). The apostle’s knowledge about coming antichrists was probably taken from Matthew 24:24: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”

​What have you heard about the antichrist? Does it agree with DeMar?

DeMar, Gary. The Antichrist, Beasts, the Man of Lawlessness, and 666. Powder Springs, GA: American Vision. 2025, p. 61-62 (kindle)