The Antichrist and a Jerusalem Temple

Theories on who the antichrist is have been raised and debunked since the early days of the church.  Irenaeus (A.D. 120-202), a disciple of Polycarp (who was a disciple of John the Apostle) wrote much in refuting ideas being presented in his day.  Numerous people whose names measured up to the numerical 666 have come and gone yet the end has not come.  Several decades after the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed Irenaeus looked forward to another temple where the antichrist would reign for three and a half years.  Looking around us even in our day we can see the general definition of the antichrist present in many of our modern cults.

The preterist view presenting the notion that all, or at least most biblical prophecies have been fulfilled is a relatively modern cloud of deception that Christians run into today.  It leaves us with many unsolved questions however.  The early church in the second century, long after the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans, were still looking toward a temple on Mount Zion in the city of David where the Antichrist would reign for three years and six months in Jerusalem.  Fast forward a few centuries and Catholic replacement theology did away with these second century hopes until when in 1948 Israel raised the star of David as a reminder that there is yet something more to this parcel of land that everyone fights over.  While second century saints were still being moved by the spirit of prophecy and casting out demons most preterists will claim that all of that stopped with the apostolic age.

So while Jerusalem has been trampled underfoot by Gentiles for nearly two thousand years we still look forward to the return of Christ who will destroy the lawless one whom Paul describes as taking his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as God (2 Thess. 2:3-10) that scripture may be fulfilled.  Yet all the while there will be many around us that will reject the truth, "and for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness" (2 Thess. 2:11-12).  Our hope is in the one "whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets from ancient times" (Acts 3:21)