Interesting question: "will the antichrist understand whó is and what he is doing?"
Well, we all know that satan ( I refuse to give his name a capital..) is very proud of his own  beauty, intelligence and what more, but that he still is ALWAYS imitating the ONE, Who is G.od over all creation, so over him too.
Antichrist will be a human being, totally posessed by satan;
satan incarnate, so to say.
Yeshoe'a, our Lord and Saviour, knew at the age of 12, as the Word states, that He hád to be about His Father's business.
But only when He was baptized, at age 30, the Holy Spirit came over Him and filled Him and so the Word totally was amongst us in the flesh.
I think it's very likely that antichrist will feel attracted to evil from a very early age, like Yeshoe'a was always very close to the Father.  Maybe satan's future assistent is, today, one of the many New Age 'magicians', or a popular politician or a charismatic theologian with an uncanny amount of spiritual influence... Who knows..
Then the Rapture is there...
The Holy Spirit, together with the true church, disappears from the earth  ( may it be soon!) and nothing and nobody can hold back the forces of darkness then.
Only thén satan will be in a position to totally incarnate himself into a human person, who is willing to be used by him.
I remember reading about Adolf Hitler, who once stood in the palace Schönbrunn in Vienna, looking at that spear about which was said that it had pierced the side of our Lord after he died on the cross.
Through the ages people had told the story that this spear was able to give a person enormous power: power from G.od ór from satan. But anyway: with that power you could conquer a lot of countries and become a very mighty man.
The young Hitler then dedicated himself to the devil and asked him to come into his life and history has proven that this is exactly what has happened... Inferno covered the world and especially attacked  G.d's very own people, the people of Israel, the earthly brothers and sisters of the Messiah.
We all have seen pictures of Adolf Hitler: a rather small, not very impressing person but then, whenever he started one of his speeches, he seemed to grow and grow and every man and woman who was not born again came irresistibly under his dark, magnetic influence. Listening to one of  these hysterical 'sermons' on tape, you start to pray immediately: Father, protect me.. and deliver us from evil!
But alas... hell is very attractive to not-saved people!
So, it is very possible that antichrist is allready among us, in private 'playing with darkness' already, but that he does not know who is going to fill him and use him before long.
As for us: we'll be in the House of the Father with the many mansions, before that time arrives.
Maranatha... come soon Yeshoe'a !
 
Shalom to all you Doves,
 
Gielah Qara'