Not a lot. It is a term not frequently found in the Bible nor in United Methodist doctrinal standards.
Let’s review how the four documents that make up the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church address it.
The Articles of Religion and the Confession of Faith make no mention of it at all.
The Standard Sermons (1-52 in Thomas Jackson's numbering) use the term “antichrist” exactly twice and in the same sermon—to refer to 18th century rationalist Christian teachers who denied the possibility of “receiving the holy God and being sensible of it.” Such denial, Charles Wesley wrote in “Awake, Thou That Sleepest,” (Sermon 3), is “that spirit of antichrist… He is Antichrist whoever denies the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.” There is no mention in the Standard Sermons at all of “The Antichrist” as a figure yet to come as Christ’s adversary before Christ’s return.
John Wesley addresses the term antichrist in greater detail in his Notes on the New Testament as commentary on the 4 verses where it appears in I John and II John.
I John 2:18 (NRSVUE)
18 Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.
Wesley:
My little children, it is the last time - The last dispensation of grace, that which is to continue to the end of time, is begun. Ye have heard that antichrist cometh - Under the term antichrist, or the spirit of antichrist, he includes all false teachers and enemies to the truth; yea, whatever doctrines or men are contrary to Christ. It seems to have been long after this that the name of antichrist was appropriated to that grand adversary of Christ, "the man of sin," (2 Thess 2:3). Antichrist, in St. John's sense, that is, antichristianism, has been spreading from his time till now; and will do so, till that great adversary arises, and is destroyed by Christ's coming.
I John 2:22 (NRSVUE)
22 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.
Wesley:
Who is that liar - Who is guilty of that lying, but he who denies that truth which is the sum of all Christianity? That Jesus is the Christ; that he is the Son of God; that he came in the flesh, is one undivided truth. and he that denies any part of this, in effect denies the whole. He is antichrist - And the spirit of antichrist, who in denying the Son denies the Father also.
I John 4:3 (NRSVUE)
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
Ye have heard - From our Lord and us, that it cometh.
2 John 7 (NRSVUE)
7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!
Wesley:
Carefully keep what ye have heard from the beginning, for many seducers are entered into the world, who confess not Jesus Christ that came in the flesh - Who disbelieve either his prophetic, or priestly, or kingly office. Whosoever does this is the seducer - From God. And the antichrist - Fighting against Christ.
In every case, John Wesley notes, the writer’s use of the term “antichrist” or “the antichrist” refers not to a singular individual, but to all who reject the teaching that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that he came in the flesh. While Wesley notes and affirms here his belief in a “man of sin” yet to come as a “grand adversary to Christ,” he also notes that application of the term “Antichrist’ to that particular person was a development that took place long after the writings of the Bible were composed. This is not how the Bible itself uses “antichrist.”
So, what do United Methodists have to say about “The Antichrist” as that title commonly appears in some Christian circles? The Bible uses “antichrist” or “the Antichrist” to point to the rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus and individuals who openly reject him, not to a particular evil forerunner of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Burton Edwards is Lead for Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.
