Parakaleo
Puritan Board Sophomore
In preaching through 1 John, I've made my people aware of the various theories surrounding the antichrist figure. Some say Nero, the pope, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, Obama, etc. However, I've taught that the Reformed, amillennial understanding allows the antichrist figure to be a human embodiment of the enemy of Christ throughout different ages (like saying "the pope in Rome" is the antichrist, without reference to a particular pontiff). The antichrist, as I've understood the texts, is a prominent person, a man of lawlessness, that sets himself up against the Lord's Anointed and His people in any age.
That got me thinking about what the Lord says in Exodus 17 about Amalek:
This sounds quite a lot like the NT antichrist figure. Though Amalek is defeated, the Lord will have war with him from generation to generation. Not that Amalek himself will survive for generations to come, but the Lord will have war with the human embodiment of Amalek in all ages. This, to me, fits well with the lack of specificity associated with the NT antichrist figure (even though John says he "is now in the world already", 1 Jn. 4:3). He is Amalek.
That got me thinking about what the Lord says in Exodus 17 about Amalek:
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
This sounds quite a lot like the NT antichrist figure. Though Amalek is defeated, the Lord will have war with him from generation to generation. Not that Amalek himself will survive for generations to come, but the Lord will have war with the human embodiment of Amalek in all ages. This, to me, fits well with the lack of specificity associated with the NT antichrist figure (even though John says he "is now in the world already", 1 Jn. 4:3). He is Amalek.