Question: Is it not true that there were already many separate antichrists...?

Question: Is it not true that there were already many separate antichrists in the time of John? Why, then, do you (and so many others!) continue to claim that “the antichrist” is yet to come?

Response: We appreciate what you had to say about there already being, in John’s day, many antichrists. That does not do away with the fact, however, that the Antichrist (note the uppercase spelling) is yet to come. Surely the man of sin, or the wicked one of 2 Thessalonians 2, is yet to come, for of him it says, “Whom the Lord will destroy with the brightness of His coming....” This is a definite person who obviously has not yet come and who must be upon earth for the Second Coming to take place, because one purpose of Christ’s return to this earth is to destroy this man, whom I believe to be the Antichrist, for whom all the previous antichrists have been preparing the way.