The meaning of the English word Christ is “anointed or messiah.” It is derived from the Old English Crīst, from the Latin Christus, and originally from the Greek Khristos (ancient Greek: Χριστός, Christós), a noun use of an adjective meaning ‘anointed,’ from khriein ‘anoint,’ translating Hebrew māšīaḥ ‘Messiah.’

The meaning of the word anti is to be against. A person who is opposed to something, such as a group, policy, proposal, or practice. In the bible, the Antichrist could be considered to be against the Christian church, its policies or practices.

Many of the Church fathers and Saints such as St. Irenaeus, St. Jerome, St. Hippolytus, St. Ambrose, St. Bede, St. Gregory the Great, Theodoret, Aretas of Caesarea, and many others said he will be of the tribe of Dan, and that the Antichrist will be a Jew. Aretas, St. Bede, Haymo, and St. Anselm affirm that for this reason the tribe of Dan is not numbered among the tribe who are sealed in the Apocalypse.

You will find that the actual name “Antichrist” is only spoken about by the Apostle John a few times in the bible via the verses John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3, and 2 John 7. He tells us that there are “many Antichrists” who will appear between the time of Christ’s first and Second Coming, but there will be one great antichrist who will rise to power during the end times, or “last hour.”

He will deny that Jesus is the Christ. He will deny both God the Father and God the Son. He will be a liar and a deceiver. The Apostle John tells us in the bible, “the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” He also states, “in the end, at the last hour, there will be one great antichrist that is a liar and a deceiver who will rise to power.”

I have found that there is only “one group of people called liars” in the bible under Titus 1:12; “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons,” and they are also called “wicked beasts and idle bellies.”

who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,…

The great Gnostic Epimenides, a native of Knossus in Crete is said to be the original author of this line. To the Spartans, he was the chief shaman of their people, who was not only a seer, poet and advisor, but he was also a prophet who specialized in searching the past for truth. Ovid called “mendax Creta”, lying Crete. Hence, to “cretize”, is to lie; which to the church is a sin which makes a man a heretic and more like the devil. The Ethiopic version, instead of Crete, or Cretians, reads “hypocrites”. Other characters of them, from the same Heathen poet, follow, evil beasts: slow bellies; by evil beasts are meant beasts of prey, savage and mischievous ones.

Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome who had said the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan and would rebuild the Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in order to reign from it. He identified the Antichrist with the Beast out of the Earth from the book of Revelation. By the beast, then, coming up out of the earth, he means the kingdom of Antichrist; and by the two horns he means him and the false prophet after him. And in speaking of “horns like a lamb,” he means that he will make himself like the Son of God, and set himself forward as king. And the terms, “it spoke like a dragon,” mean that he is a deceiver, and not truthful.(Wikipedia)

Hippolytus also also said this about the antichrist;

“Now as our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also God, was prophesied of under the figure of a lion, on account of his royalty and glory, in the same way have the scriptures also beforehand spoken of Antichrist as a lion, on account of his tyranny and violence. For the deceiver seeks to liken himself in all things to the Son of God. Christ is a lion, so Antichrist is also a lion. Christ is a king, so Antichrist is also a king. The Savior was manifested as a lamb, so he too in like manner will appear as a lamb without; within he is a wolf. The Savior came into the world in the circumcision [i.e., the Jewish race], and he will come in the same manner. . . . The Savior raised up and showed his holy flesh like a temple, and he will raise a temple of stone in Jerusalem” (The Antichrist 6 [A.D. 200]).

This is a great clue to who the antichrist is that was left to us by Hippolytus. The symbol of the lion is connected to the Tribe of Judah which happens to be the tribe in which Jesus was descended. This same tribe it appears that the Antichrist will also be descended from. A tribe that is also connected to a mountain on Crete called Mount Ida which is mentioned by the Jewish-Roman historian, 1st century Jewish-Roman historian, Josephus Flavius in his book, “The Works of Flavius Josephus.” Joseph essentially calls them the Jud or Jews who are the Tribe of Judah or the Judeans (Idameans) of Mount Ida from the Holy Island of Crete.

Crete is also home of the “Man of Sin” who was known as Attis, Atys, Attes (Ancient Greek: Ἄττις or Ἄττης). The name Attis signifies “The Sinner,” and according to Herodotus , he was known as the son of the god. The Cretans are said to be the oldest race in Asia Minor who worshiped Attys as the “only begotten son,” as a savior.

The story of Attis coincides with the story of Jesus who died for our sins. Both Jesus and Attis were saviors and can be connected to Crete.

“The man of sin, the son of perdition, who must first be revealed before the Lord comes, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; and who is to sit in the temple of God and boast himself as being God. . . . According indeed to our view, he is Antichrist; as it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and by the apostle John, who says that ‘already many false prophets have gone out into the world,’ the forerunners of Antichrist, who deny that Christ is come in the flesh, and do not acknowledge Jesus, meaning in God the Creator” (Against Marcion 5:16 [A.D. 210]).

These Antichrist teachings all point to Crete.

The Cretans were called liars, evil beasts and also connected with the Tribe of Judah. The pagan mythology of the sinner who we know as Attis had also originated on Crete which is the original homeland of the first Jews, and the Gnostics who are all well-known to have been persecuted by the Romans, the Catholic and Byzantine Church for thousands of years. They are considered to be heretics and apostates who were both against and adversaries to a centralized religion of the church with the Jewish-Roman savior named Jesus Christ. A people who had denied Jesus as their savior, and were also against the church.

Crete may in fact be the true land of the first Jews and Antichrists. Hence, the Cretans were the first antichrists who we may look to in search of the man of sin and lawlessness who may be the future antichrist. The Cretans were not only called evil beasts and liars, they could also be called the false prophets who were described by Saint John in Revelation 13:11-15, and also referred to as the “second beast” (Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10).

Ancient history, and biblical teachings validate that the Cretans were at one time, the most powerful nation on earth until the Romans had sieged the island of Crete and destroyed their Temple at Knossos. It is well know that the church thereafter had severely persecuted their main adversaries who were the original Cretan Gnostics and the Jews of Mount Ida for centuries.

Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) wrote “it is uncertain in what temple [the Antichrist] shall sit, whether in that ruin of the temple which was built by Solomon, or in the Church.”

The ruin of this true temple I believe to be on Crete which is original home of ancient Israel. In order for this biblical prophecy to take place, the original home of the ancient Israelites with their temple and the ten Tribes of Crete must be restored.

The Father of English History and Doctor of the Church, Saint Bede had said this: “Not only are they driven from the Church, but they also fight against the Church itself, with the heathen as their allies, for three years and a-half. It is not that they only trample upon it then in the time of the Antichrist; but that in that time all the body of the wicked, “in whom the ministry of iniquity already works,” is joined as it were, to its own head.”

Moe

Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.