Definition
The Antichrist (Greek: ἀντίχριστος, “against Christ” or “in place of Christ”) is in traditional eschatology a future end-time figure who persecutes God’s people, presents himself as God in the temple (2 Thess. 2:3-4), and is identified with the “beast” of Rev. 13 and the “prince” of Dan. 9:26-27 who breaks the covenant. His number is 666 (Rev. 13:18). The Antichrist is destroyed at the second coming by the breath of Christ’s mouth (2 Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19:20).
The term antichrist appears in the NT only in the Johannine epistles (1 John 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 John 7), where it denotes both a future end-time figure and a present spirit of error already at work.
Usage in the Corpus
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger connects the Antichrist to his treatment of Dan. 9:24-27 (the 70th week as future) and the number 666. Concerning the 70th week: “All four of these passages refer to the same person, and that person is not Christ, but the Antichrist.” The Antichrist makes a covenant with “many,” breaks it after 3.5 years, and causes sacrifice and oblation to cease. Bullinger ties the number 666 to the Greek letter Stigma (ς) and its symbolic connection with Egyptian mysteries — the expression χξς containing the first and last letters of Χριστος framing the serpent symbol. [Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Part I, Ch. I; Part II, Introduction]