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18 The Antichrist Most Definitely Is Not a Person!

with, or just slightly before, the worst persecution the church would ever suffer, yet he shows great
concern for the time of the little horn in his future:

So we ought not to anticipate the counsel of God, but exercise patience and prayer that
we fall not on such times. We should not, however, refuse to believe that these things will
come to pass. For if the things which the prophet predicted in former times have not been
realized, then we need not look for these things. But if those former things did happen in
their proper seasons, as was foretold, then these things also shall certainly be fulfilled
(ibid.).

John Chrysostom. Chrysostom’s name means “golden mouth” -- indicating that he was a great or-
ator. Chrysostom’s time moves us ahead a little less than 100 years. He died in 408 A.D., placing his
death just two years before the first sacking of Rome.

His writings are preserved in “Homilies.” In “Homily IV” he left a commentary on II
Thessalonians 2:6-9. The passage on the man of sin -- which synchronizes with the little horn of
Daniel and the lamb-like beast of Revelation -- has already been commented on by most of the pre-
viously cited authors. However, Chrysostom’s comments regarding those who claim that the gifts
of the spirit were holding back the Antichrist, are interesting –

“What is that which withholds” and “why Paul expresses it so obscurely. What then is it that
hinders him [Antichrist] from being revealed? Some indeed say the grace of the Spirit, but others
the ROMAN EMPIRE, to whom I most of all accede. Because if he meant the Spirit, he would not
have spoken obscurely, but plainly, that, even now the grace of the Spirit, that is, the gifts, withhold
him. Otherwise he ought now to have come, if he was about to come when the gifts ceased; for they
have long since ceased!” (Chrysostom, Homily IV, 1).

This is an eye-opening comment on the presence of “spiritual gifts” in the church at the time
of Chrysostom -- or their non-existence to be exact! Clearly he is a believer in YEHOVAH’s Word
the Bible, and a believer in the gifts of the holy spirit. He knows that they have ceased and COULD
NOT be “that which hinders,” because they are no longer in the church, and the Roman Empire has
not yet fallen to allow the appearing of the man of sin. The use of the information about the fall of
the Roman Empire is further described as he goes on to explain why Paul spoke covertly about what
“withholds”:

Because he said this of the Roman Empire he naturally...speaks covertly and darkly. For he
did not wish to bring upon himself...useless dangers. For if he had said, that after...a while the Ro-
man Empire would be dissolved, they would immediately have even overwhelmed him as a pesti-
lent person, and all the [other] faithful as living and [seeking] this end.

Speaking of how long it might be till he comes, he said –

And he did not say it would be quickly, although he is [often] saying that [he is to come] --
but what? ‘That he may be revealed in his own season.’...(The mystery of iniquity already
works). He speaks [of] Nero as if he were a type of Antichrist....But he did not wish to
point him out plainly and this is not from cowardice, but instructing us not to bring upon

The Berean Voice July-August 2002