I think there will be (or has been) a specific man/woman or even institution which will be The Anti-Christ, i.e. the person who will try to totally displace Jesus Christ- people like Nero or Muhammad are often seen as historical candidates for these figures.
However I am open to the very likely possibility that the Anti-Christ will not come alone, there will be many different agents/events which contribute to his ascendency- perhaps the long line of heretics are all Anti-Christs. (Muhammad, Luther and your Joseph Smith I would all include in that list.)
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. [1 John 2:18]
[edit] note the Wiki page on Antichrist discuss the one Antichrist and the many antichrists who will operate around him. So...my opinion is very Catholic.
in fact some people even think that obama is a likely candidate because he has such a wide following of people and takes such a liberal stance on everything.
I find it quite impossible, considering the metaphorical and symbolic nature of Revelations, that the anti-Christ is one specific person. It is more likely a reference to things like "Babylon" which was a general reference to evil people or an evil state of mind. In fact, "the anti-Christ" should be almost completely interchangeable with "Babylon."
Also, we have a scripture in our Book of Mormon that groups almost all churches into one church and it is referred to as the "great whore.' It's pretty harsh.
1 Nephi 14:10-12
"10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.
11 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over ball the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.
12 And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw."
Then it goes on to talk about religion being the cause of many wars and warring contentions and masked evil.
We don't teach about that very much.
So I can see exactly why you would view any church other than the original church (don't be smart asses, you know what I mean by original) as part of the anti-Christ problem. However, in LDS defense, I would think that Mormons have exalted Christ to a holy and sacred position even more precious and holy than any other religion. We even gave Him His own full God status. We also believe he is the savior for all God's children, from all planets in our universe. If anything, we've made Christ an even more holy and exalted Redeemer.
Hmm, could that simply be a group of people...and then many groups of people? An atheist who seeks to destroy Christ as much as he or she can would be an anti-Christ to the max, wouldn't you agree?
I don't think the anti-Christ has to be pure evil, either. They could just be an average Joe. I think humans have far less influence from God or Satan than everyone thinks. I think that we are rarely tempted and rarely assisted by Satan and God, respectively.
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Last edited by dadudemon on Feb 16th, 2009 at 03:24 PM
To my knowledge, none of those characters has ever tried to replace a religious figure. So my original point stands. The article claims that they are a form of the anti-christ because they are christ-like. For your argument to be valid, they would actually have to be offering an alternative to Jesus. They are not. They're just good guys trying to save the day.
This argument could be valid, though only from a Christian perspective, and only if they were trying to offer a religious alternative to an established religion. As it stands, the original article, and your subsequent defense of it, are just silly.
Gender: Male Location: Southern Oregon,
Looking at you.
I think it is more of a case of don't think about anything but Jesus. In that way of thinking, anything can be a type of antichrist. Having a beer could be a type of antichrist. Having dinner could be a type of antichrist. It is a form of extremistic thinking.
he might take it to an extreme that most religious people don't...
but the concept of idolatry is certainly not extreme, especially given that each one of us knows someone who would care more about Comics or movies than they do about their lord and savior
Gender: Male Location: Southern Oregon,
Looking at you.
Have you considered the possibility that the antichrist will not be? In other words, Could the antichrist be a propaganda tool made up by the early church?
KMC Community Forums
Feb 16th, 2009 03:38 AM
FER TEA!!
Wouldn't that be a person?
