After the reforms of Patriarch Nikon to the Russian Orthodox Church of 1652, a large number of Old Believers held that Peter the Great was the Antichrist, because of his treatment of the Orthodox Church.
Some believe that antichrists are those of whom John wrote—-teachers of false doctrines concerning Christ and his incarnation—-rather than a single individual.
The Antichrist will continue on for three and a half years following this, until he is finally defeated by Christ.
At some point—though not in the New Testament itself—the term antichrist was applied to a particular person, the "man of sin" or "son of perdition" mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
The Jewish practice of Gematria—in which letters are assigned numerical values—and other numerology techniques are used to calculate the numeric value of a name in attempts to confirm the identity of the Antichrist.
Christians also interpret Chapter's seven and eight of the Book of Daniel as a prophecy of the Antichrist.
In 1914, a woman believing the faith healer Rasputin was the Antichrist, stabbed him, cutting a large wound in his chest.
Some Catholics expected a son of Martin Luther to be the Antichrist, as his scion would be the son of an ex-priest and ex-nun.
Jerry Falwell told a pastors' conference in January 1999, in a sermon on the Second Coming, that the Antichrist was probably alive on earth, and certainly a Jewish male.
Various individuals in history have been identified as the supposed Antichrist.
The word anti can also be translated "as if," and thus antichrist can also mean someone who pretends to be a Messiah.
Ronald Reagan was thought by some to be the Antichrist after he, like John Paul II, recovered from a gunshot wound.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, called himself the Antichrist.
Both Jewish and Christian literature survives, referring to Emperor Nero as the Antichrist.
The early Protestant Reformers, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, Cotton Mather, and John Wesley, identified the Roman papacy as the Antichrist.
Both Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler were also identified by some as the Antichrist.
Some Protestant churches have made it an issue of faith to identify the Bishop of Rome and the papal system as the Antichrist.
Headed by Matthias Flacius, several Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg, known as the Centuriators of Magdeburg, wrote the 12-volume Magdeburg Centuries to discredit the papacy, including identifying the pope as the Antichrist.
Islam, in their view, is the false religion and of the Antichrist, otherwise known as the False Prophet.
Some of the Spiritual Franciscans considered the Emperor Frederick II a positive Antichrist who would clean the Church from riches and clergy.
The words antichrist and antichrists appear in only four verses in the Bible—in the epistles 1 John and 2 John.
Christians disagree on what will happen in the end times, and the role that antichrists or the Antichrist will play.
Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the immortal Count of Saint Germain is the Antichrist or somehow analogous to Lucifer.
The numbers 666 or 616 are associated with the Antichrist, according to Revelation 13:18.
Popular Christian author Tim LaHaye put forward the idea that the Antichrist may be a current or future Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Related ideas and references appear in various apocrypha, and a more complete portrait of the Antichrist has been built up gradually by Christian theologians and folk-religionists.
Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, a minister with a large Latin American following, claims not only to be God, but at the same time, the Antichrist.
Some Christians believe that the Antichrist will be assassinated half way through the Tribulation, but will be revived and Satan will dwell in him.
Antichrist is translated from the combination of two ancient Greek words ???? + ??????? (antн + khristos), which means anti "opposite" (of) khristos "anointed," therefore, "opposite of Christ."
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist or Anti-Christ is a powerful, evil leader who will arise in the Last Days in opposition to God and His church.