The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins shows that there is still a large appetite for end-time books, even after the memory of a long history of failed predictions—from Oswald J. Smith (1889–1986), who in 1926 predicted that Mussolini was the dreaded antichrist to Edgar Whisenant who was emphatic that the rapture would take place in 1988. When 1988 came and went, Whisenant pointed to 1989. With the arrival of 1990, twenty-three reasons were offered into evidence for a 1993 rapture that never came. Still not shaken by his poor prophetic track record, Whisenant predicted earth’s destruction by nuclear fire in 1994. He continued to speculate into 1997 with similar results. Here’s what’s on the front cover of the 1927 edition of Smith’s Is the Antichrist at Hand? (also see Smith’s When Antichrist Reigns):

In 1934, Benito Mussolini sent his black-shirted Fascists down into defenseless Ethiopia and preachers all over the country got up in their pulpits and preached spellbinding sermons that had their congregations bulging at the eyes in astonishment about “Mussolini, the Anti-Christ,” and to prove their point they quoted from Daniel 11:43, which says, “And the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” Later, Benito, whimpering, was hung by his own countrymen, and preachers all over America had to toss their sermons into the scrap basket as unscriptural.

Ewing goes on to mention Hitler and how his storm troopers took Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, North Africa, and set up concentration camps where millions of Jews were killed in what has become the modern-day definition of a Holocaust. Once again, preachers ascended their pulpits and linked these events to Bible prophecy and assured the church-going public that Hitler was the antichrist. When the allies routed the Nazis and drove them out, sermons were once again tossed out or filed away to be revised at some future date hoping people’s memories had faded. Little has changed.

The Antidote to Antichrist Speculation: Biblical definition of Antichrist

1. The antichrist is a religious figure: “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22), and “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 7).

2. The word antichrist does not appear in the book of Revelation or in Daniel 9:24–27, even though the antichrist is suppose to be the main character of these passages.

3. There is no mention of a rebuilt temple Daniel 9 or in Revelation where supposedly antichrist is to take his seat. The temple was still standing when Paul described the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2). For a study of this overused and abused chapter, see my book Last Days Madness.

4. There is no mention of an antichrist making and/or breaking a covenant with the Jews.

5. Antichrists were alive in the first century because it was the “last hour,” the time before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (1 John 2:18). Speaking of antichrist, John wrote “For many deceivers have gone out into the world” (2 John 2:7).