Hi Clay.  I agree with you.  There is a huge difference in having the spirit of the Antichrist and actually being Satan in the form of a man.   

 

• John in his letter of 1 John 2:18.  "Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour."  It is far likelier, in my opinion, that the current President of the USA, Barak Obama, is "AN" anti-christ, instead of "THE" anti-christ, just as many other evil men were 'anti-christs' over the ages, even in John's day.  Still - there is a final Beast coming, as John writes. His identity questions will be answered when he issues the "mark."  Revelation 13:16.  "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads:...".  That will put an end to the discussion.
  

Personally, I always thought he would be a Gentile.   However, Dr. Dave Reagan, Lamb & Lion Ministries, attended a conference a few years back and got the following/differing opinions on just who the antichrist could be.   Question was "could the Antichrist be a Jew"?  

 

• Phillip Goodman.  I do. I believe that he could, but I don't think the Bible tells us. The evidence is not strong enough.  There is a passage in Daniel 11:37 that says he will reject the god or the gods of his fathers. The language is not strong enough in there from the original language to let us know whether it is a plural or a singular. And, that is the primary passage that most people go to say that perhaps he is a Jew. Because if it is the god of his father, it is a very similar phrase we find all over the Old Testament. It is used of the Jews. Yet, that also could be a Muslim, so the evidence is not strong enough in the Bible really to tell us what his origination is in terms of a religious origin.
  
• Don Perkins.  He could be, and my reasons for that is 2 Thessalonians 2, where the Scripture tells us that when the Antichrist comes into the Temple he will literally go into the Temple as God. Which the Temple would be in Jerusalem and he would be worshipped there as God. Now for that fact I believe that the Antichrist could be a Jew. I believe that Israel could literally worship him as a Jewish Messiah. Now, I know that goes a little different against other people's views or whatever, but I do believe that could very well be the case. He could be a Jew.
  
• Todd Strandberg.  I think he probably will be a Jew or it is highly likely, because the Antichrist is going to be a replacement for Christ, so he probably will be very much a mirror of Christ. Maybe the same age he will be. He will probably have to be Jewish, because the Jews won't accept someone who is not Jewish as Messiah, so I believe it very strongly. They are going to make lots of mistakes by accepting him as their Messiah. So, they might go beyond accepting someone who is not. They should accept him. The only reason they should accept him is because he is a Jew.
  
• Daymond Duck.  No, I don't think the Antichrist will be a Jew.  First, let's deal with a couple controversial passages on this issue concerning the Antichrist in Daniel 11:37. You can go to the King James Version of the Bible and there you will read that it says, "Neither shall he regard the god of his father." You can go to the New International Version or other translations and they will read neither shall he regard the gods (plural) of his fathers. Now, those who think the word is god singular, they say the Antichrist will come out of a monotheistic religion and he will probably be a Jew. Those who think the correct translation is gods plural say he will come out of a polytheistic religion and he will be a Gentile. Now, I am not enough an expert to settle whether it should it should be "god" or "gods." That has gone on for a long time, and I don't know anyone that has ever settled it.
  
• Don McGee.  I do not believe that he will be a Jew, basically, for some of the same reasons he will not be a Muslim. Antichrist is going to be a man that is going to demand or command world-wide attention. For a Jew to be in that position would be a very, very long shot. But, if you take someone who comes from the European community, specifically with the credentials that a lot of those people have, he will be in a position automatically to be accepted by the entire world. Just like the Antichrist will probably not be a Muslim because of a religious connotation, so too will the Antichrist not be a person associated with any type of religion except the one he is going to institute for himself.
  
• Nathan Jones.  I don't. If you go to Revelation 13, it talks about the Beast that comes out of the sea. And typically, throughout the Bible, anything that is related to the sea is an outside nation from Israel. It is a Gentile nation. And, if you go to Revelation 13, it talks about a second beast, and I think this is the one we are talking about in that the False Prophet very well could be a Jew because he is the beast that comes from the land, and the land is always a reference for Israel. So, no, I do not think the Antichrist will be a Jew.
  
• Arnold Fruchtenbaum.  Now again, the passages in Daniel 9:26-27 specifies that he will be of the same ethnic identity as the people who destroyed the city and the Temple. And, in AD 70, it was the Romans that did so, which is why he has to be not only a Gentile, but a Gentile specifically of Roman origin.
  
• Al Gist.  No, I don't believe that he will be a Jew. I believe that when he makes his covenant with Israel that he will be speaking to a Jewish leader, probably the man who will end up being the False Prophet, and I do not believe that he will be a Jew. Some people believe this because they think he will claim to be the Jewish Messiah. But, I don't find enough biblical support to accept that. I believe that he will be an apostate Gentile, just like the Caesars of the Roman Empire. He will claim to be God, but he will be an apostate Gentile. I don't think he will be a Jew.
  
• Mark Hitchcock.  I think the biblical evidence is that the Antichrist will be a Gentile. He is going, according to Daniel, to lead the final great Gentile world empire, which seems inconsistent for a Jew to be the leader of the final great Gentile world empire. All the other empires in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, the leaders of those were all Gentiles. Also, he is going to mercilessly persecute the Jewish people, which seems strange to me for a Jewish person to be persecuting his own people. Also, in Daniel 8, the only clear type of Antichrist in the Bible is Antiochus Epiphanes who was a Gentile, Syrian. And, also in the book of Revelation 13, this beast, this Antichrist figure rises out of the sea. In Revelation 17:15, it tells us the sea is representative of the nations. So, for those reasons, to me it seems clear that the Antichrist is going to be a Gentile.
  
• Ed Hindson.  No, absolutely not! I don't think the Antichrist is Jewish. I think the Antichrist, first of all, is a person who makes a treaty with the Jews. It isn't likely a Jew would make a treaty with the Jews. He is a leader of Gentile nations, if we can understand the prophecy in Daniel 9 correctly. If he is the leader of the revived Roman Empire - the leader that comes out of Europe - it is not likely that he is Jewish. He is, first of all an unbeliever, so it doesn't matter what his nationality is. He is not a believer. He does not regard the gods of his fathers or the gods of any faith system at all. He is what we call an atheist and an unbeliever who really ultimately thinks he is God. And, he will go to the Temple in Israel claiming to be God and demand the world worship him as God. So, in a sense, he is theocentric in the wrong sense in that he thinks he is God and everybody should worship him.
  
• Ray Gano.  I actually believe that the Antichrist will be of Hebrew descendent - Hebrew blood - but also practice the Muslim religion, and I use Daniel 11:37 to illustrate this. It talks in there that he shall not regard the god of his fathers in this phrase"god of his fathers," which is always associated to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In fact, this statement "god of his fathers" is only used five times in Scripture. In every time it is associated to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So I look at that.

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