The Antichrist and Free Will

[Purple Knight]

The Antichrist and Free Will: What if he Doesn't Want the Job?

Question for debate: Does the antichrist have free will? Sub-question: If he does have free will, what if he doesn't want the job? What if, for whatever reason, he refuses to do what he has to do? Will another one be born until one accepts?

Is it possible for the antichrist to be good, if he chooses to be good?

Is the antichrist not a specific person, but a pool of potential candidates perhaps born around the right time?

[2timothy316]

Here is the Biblical answer.
Anti: Meaning opposite or opposed to
Christ: The Son of God

Anyone can be an antichrist. There is no singular antichrist.
"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. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either.​—1Jo 2:22, 23

Antichrists have been around since the time of John the Apostle.
"Young children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared, from which fact we know that it is the last hour." - 1 John 2:18

Do they have a choice to be opposed to Christ? Most certainly! Many are former Christians and they might still call themselves Christians.
"From among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves." - Acts 20:30
"They went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it might be shown that not all are of our sort." - 1 John 2:19

We are enticed by our own desires.
"But each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn sin, when it has been carried out, brings forth death." - James 1:14, 15

[1213]

The Antichrist and Free Will: What if he Doesn't Want the Job?

Question for debate: Does the antichrist have free will? Sub-question: If he does have free will, what if he doesn't want the job? What if, for whatever reason, he refuses to do what he has to do? Will another one be born until one accepts?

Is it possible for the antichrist to be good, if he chooses to be good?..

I believe it is possible and that he has free will and he wants to do what he does.

[Dimmesdale]

The Antichrist and Free Will: What if he Doesn't Want the Job?

Question for debate: Does the antichrist have free will? Sub-question: If he does have free will, what if he doesn't want the job? What if, for whatever reason, he refuses to do what he has to do? Will another one be born until one accepts?

Is it possible for the antichrist to be good, if he chooses to be good?

Is the antichrist not a specific person, but a pool of potential candidates perhaps born around the right time?

I think that the human will is free, yet controlled, in a given lifetime.

You can, for example, control, or charm, a snake with herbs and incense and flute-playing. The snake may be very impetuous, but if you provide sufficient conditioning, the snake will willingly limit the options it has in its purview of actions. So, instead of sliding into holes 1-30, you can limit it to holes 25-28. That's what happens to free will. Free will is absolute in its essential character, but as that absolute is funneled into a single lifetime, it spawns only a handful of "givens" - that is how destiny is formed. Another example is, if you have a dog, and you provide him 4 different meals (lamb, chicken, fish, venison) you keep his free will open. But if you give him (lamb, wheat, fish, grass), then his free will will only focus on the meat, not the plant foods.

God controls our free will, there is no doubt about it as far as I'm concerned. History is not random. It is random only to a point.

[Miles]

The Antichrist and Free Will: What if he Doesn't Want the Job?

Question for debate: Does the antichrist have free will? Sub-question: If he does have free will, what if he doesn't want the job? What if, for whatever reason, he refuses to do what he has to do? Will another one be born until one accepts?

Is it possible for the antichrist to be good, if he chooses to be good?

Is the antichrist not a specific person, but a pool of potential candidates perhaps born around the right time?

Absolutely nothing has a free will. Not me, you, god, or whatever antichrist you may concoct.


.

[onewithhim]

Here is the Biblical answer.
Anti: Meaning opposite or opposed to
Christ: The Son of God

Anyone can be an antichrist. There is no singular antichrist.
"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. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either.​—1Jo 2:22, 23

Antichrists have been around since the time of John the Apostle.
"Young children, it is the last hour, and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared, from which fact we know that it is the last hour." - 1 John 2:18

Do they have a choice to be opposed to Christ? Most certainly! Many are former Christians and they might still call themselves Christians.
"From among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves." - Acts 20:30
"They went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it might be shown that not all are of our sort." - 1 John 2:19

We are enticed by our own desires.
"But each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn sin, when it has been carried out, brings forth death." - James 1:14, 15

Yes, indeed. The "antichrist" is not an individual but, if you will, a frame of mind that is exhibited by those who are against Christ. As John said, there are MANY anti-christs and they have been around, as timothy said, for 2,000 years.

[William]

The Antichrist and Free Will: What if he Doesn't Want the Job?

Why call it 'free will'? Is there a non-free will?

I know there is an 'against one's will' but therein, it has been shown it is unnecessary to add the word 'free' as if 'against one's free will' was somehow different as a position...

Question for debate: Does the antichrist have free will?

The difficulty I have in answering the question is that Christians have presented the argument that the anti-Christ is an individual as well as an attitude.
This can be said of the Christ [X] as well - presented as both an individual and an attitude.

Perhaps the thing to examine is both individual and attitude. Do either possess 'will'? Or are they both simply that which create the will?

Sub-question: If he does have free will, what if he doesn't want the job? What if, for whatever reason, he refuses to do what he has to do? Will another one be born until one accepts?

What if Jonah didn't accept the job? Or Judas? Or Pilate? Or Jesus?

Do the characters in an authors story get to decide that they no longer want to be those characters?

Is it possible for the antichrist to be good, if he chooses to be good?

Did the Serpent think it was doing good and that the god in the garden was being unfair?

Is the antichrist not a specific person, but a pool of potential candidates perhaps born around the right time?

Ah - because the author has created his characters to think that they make their own decisions, so they can decide not to play out the role originally written for them? Thus their 'will' is 'free' but the storyline will continue as the author wants it to, because there are any number of candidates for the role?

All great stories [at least the ones we know of] have the antagonist and this role is specific to sorting and herding and creating bastions. That is why I created the thread "The Doctrine of Satan" because it appears to me that the Bible is an outline of the story of human beings in relation to Satan. "God" is simply a false image portrayed as 'true' and Satan can be heard in the shadows of the image, accusing and casting doubt into the minds of human characters...the result being an external war manifested because of an internal struggle to understand ones self in the midst of it all.

[JehovahsWitness]

The difficulty I have in answering the question is that Christians have presented the argument that the anti-Christ is an individual as well as an attitude.

The official Jehovah's Witness position is as follows:


source: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1001077018

We do not believe individuals or those individuals that make up such groups /organisations are denied their free will. And it is for that reason biblically those that act knowingly and unrepentantly will be duly judged by the Almighty.




JW


FURTHER READING : Who Is the Antichrist?
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines ... ntichrist/


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RELIGION, BABYLON THE GREAT and ...THE ANTICHRIST/ MAN OF LAWLESSNESS

[William]

So it 'may' refer to a so-called - 'False Christ' which of course in turn explains adequately why there are so many 'true' Christians pointing fingers at so many 'false' Christians.

Perhaps in that - Christianity itself might refer to the anti-Christ(s). As a collective organization [under the name Christian].

Another great reason not to join any of them. Just in case...

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

Of course, the other argument is that any who don't deny that Jesus is "The Christ", regardless of what denomination they derive from within the various branches of Christianity, are thus pro-Christ.

But this would have us questioning then as to why they hate on one another. Surely that must be considered a form of denying Jesus is the Christ and denying that The Father is the only one who is permitted to Judge. ["Duly judged by the Almighty" as it were...] for we see clearly the evidence that these would rather spend their time crossing swords instead of carrying their crosses.

Until they all can sort out that oxymoron, one is best not to pay too much attention to their claims and look for truth elsewhere.

[PinSeeker]

The difficulty I have in answering the question is that Christians have presented the argument that the anti-Christ is an individual as well as an attitude.

The official Jehovah's Witness position is as follows:


source: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1001077018

We do not believe individuals or those individuals that make up such groups /organisations are denied their free will. And it is for that reason biblically those that act knowingly and unrepentantly will be duly judged by the Almighty.

I would put it thusly:

1.) As far as humanity is concerned, yes, all people, organizations, or groups that falsely claim to represent Christ or claim to be the Messiah or that oppose Christ and his disciples can properly be called antichrists.

2.) However, there is one Antichrist, and that is Satan himself. A common tactic of Satan is to imitate or counterfeit the things of God in order to make himself appear to be like God. What is commonly referred to as the “unholy trinity,” described vividly in Revelation 12 and 13, is no exception. God exists in three Persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). Their counterparts in the unholy trinity -- again, as described in Revelation 12 and 13, are Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet. We see this unholy trinity again in Revelation 20. This would be consistent with the following from John:
.

"(1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, (3) and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already." [1 John 4:1-3]

.
We know from these verses (particularly 2 and 3) that there is a singular Antichrist, and individuals (even many individuals) can have his spirit.

So, both are true.

Grace and peace to all.