Prophecy Makes Strange Bedfellows: On The History Of Identifying The Antichrist -- By: Stephen J. Nichols

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 44:1 (Mar 2001)
Article: Prophecy Makes Strange Bedfellows: On The History Of Identifying The Antichrist
Author: Stephen J. Nichols


Prophecy Makes Strange Bedfellows:
On The History Of Identifying The Antichrist

Stephen J. Nichols*

[* Stephen J. Nichols is associate professor of church history and theology at Lancaster Bible College, 901 Eden Road, Lancaster, PA 17601.]

In the history of American literature, perhaps no two stranger bedfellows exist than Herman Melville’s naïve but adventurous Ishmael and the skillful harpooner but strangely tattooed, and, one might add, cannibalistic, Queequeg. Upon barely observing Queequeg’s decorated body, the skull he is unable to sell, and the harpoon which never left his side, in the dark of the room, Ishmael, fearing for his life, mutters, “Yes it’s just as I thought, he’s a terrible bedfellow.” That is, no stranger bedfellows, until one considers a particular point of prophetic interpretation, namely, identifying the antichrist. What do the eschatologies of J. Dwight Pentecost and John Calvin have in common? Hal Lindsey and Jonathan Edwards? Increase Mather and Arno C. Gaebelein? On the one hand, the answer is not much. Such different eschatologies, nonetheless, yield a rather surprising connection. All of these, as well as a host of others, identify the Pope as the antichrist.

Not only is this commonality strange given the different theological perspectives and hermeneutics of these figures, it also confounds understanding given the distance—chronological, geographical, and sociological—between them. I suppose one can conclude that in light of the similar exegetical conclusion in spite of such theological, hermeneutical, and other differences, this is a clear case of the text triumphing over tradition, interpretation trumping theology. In other words, if these interpreters understand the antichrist to be the Pope, then, goes the logic, they are right. I might propose a different way to interpret this data. The point is, the whole task of identifying the antichrist, which has a long and cornucopian history indeed, is a misdirected quest. The text never calls upon us to identify the antichrist. In fact, some have argued that to impose such a construct as the antichrist upon the text is unwarranted. This isolated issue serves to highlight the danger of allowing sociological factors to govern our understanding of texts in general and prophetic texts in particular. As the Church enters the new millennium perhaps such cautions are especially in order. Below follows a brief and selective survey of the history of identifying the antichrist, with an emphasis on the predominant, sometimes called the Protestant interpretation, viz. of the pope as antichrist. Some conclusions

concerning this enterprise and apocalyptic speculations and prophetic inte...

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