Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the end times.
He further states, "When we read what he says, we can see that he did not think of antichrist as one single individual figure. He rather thought of antichrist as a power of falsehood speaking in and through the false teachers" (76). Some equate "antichrist" with the "false Christs" of Matthew 24:24, but these are pseudo-Christs and not necessarily anti-Christs. They are pretending substitutes rather than adversaries. Others believe that the "man of sin" in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 is the antichrist, but the features of antichrist that John details are not present in that context. The "man of sin" sets himself up "as God...in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." This reference is unlike the antichrist who overtly denies the incarnation of Christ.