The Antichrist and the Second Advent

On Antichrist

The following is taken from St. John's commentary on the Gospel of St John v:43*

"I am come in My Father's name and you do not receive Me; if another shall come in his own name, him you will received

DO YOU SEE that He everywhere declares that He has been "sent", that judgment has been committed to Him by the Father, that He can do nothing of Himself, in order that He may cut off all excuse of their unfairness? But who is it that he says shall come "in his own name"? He is alluding here to Antichrist and giving an indisputable proof of their unfairness. "For if as loving God you persecute Me, much more ought this to have taken place in the case of Antichrist. For he will neither say that he is sent by the Father, nor that he cometh according to His will [i.e. the will of the Father], but in everything to the contrary, seizing like a tyrant what does not belong to him, and asserting that he is the very God over all, as Paul says, 'Exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, showing himself that he is God' 2 Thess. ii:4 This is to 'come in his own name'. I do not do this, but am come in the name of My Father..." That they received not One who said that He was sent by God, was a sufficient proof that they did not love God; but now from the contrary of this fact, from their being about to receive Antichrist, He shows their shamelessness. For when they received not One Who states that He was sent by God, and are about to worship one who does not know Him, and who says that he is God over all, it is clear that persecution proceeds from malice and from hating God. On this account He puts two reasons for His words; the first the kinder one, "that you may be saved" v:34 and, "that you may have life" v:40; and when they would have mocked at Him, He puts the other which was more striking, showing that even though His hearers should not believe, yet that God was wont always to do His own works. Now Paul, speaking concerning Antichrist said prophetically, "God shall send them strong delusion, that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thess.ii: 11, 12

The following is taken from St. John's commentary on Heb. xiii: 8,9**

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines."

In these words, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever," "yesterday" means all the time that is past: "today," the present: "for ever," the endless which is to come. That is to say: You have heard of a High Priest, but not an High Priest who fails. He is always the same. As though there were some who said, 'He is not, another will come,' he says this, that He who was "yesterday and today," is "the same also for ever." For even now the Jews say, that another will come; and having deprived themselves of Him that is will fall into the hands of Antichrist.

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* Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIV, pp. 148, Eerdman Ed.
** Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIV, pp. 515, Eerdman Ed.