I am speaking what I was taught...and ask for scriptures to disprove it. If you read my threads properly..you would have read I am not sure what I believe....Now on the anti-christ....In the future there will be a "ruler" who will take over the entire world and who will carry out a horrific persecution of saints and the nation of Israel. The Bible refers to this ruler as "the man of lawlessness," "the antichrist," "the beast," and so on: "After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He [the future ruler] will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." (Daniel 9:26-27) "The king [the future ruler] will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all." (Daniel 11:36-37) "Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming[/b]. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10) "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour." (1 John 2:18) "And the dragon [the devil, see Revelation 20:2] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast [the future ruler] coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?" The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world." (Revelation 13:1-8)In 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 (above) and Revelation 13:1-8 (above) we can see that this future ruler will be controlled by the devil, and the name that we usually use for this ruler is "the Antichrist." As we will see, the Antichrist will proclaim himself to be God, and he will take over the world for the final three and a half years before the Second Coming of Christ. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was monotheistic, meaning that the Jews believed in one God. The Gentile nations, on the other hand, believed in many pagan gods. In Daniel 11:36-37 (above), we see that the Antichrist will show no regard for "the gods of his fathers." The word "gods" is plural in the Hebrew in that passage, and this is an indication that the Antichrist will be a Gentile (not a Jew). In addition, Revelation 13:1-8 (above) describes the Antichrist coming out of "the sea," which often represents the Gentile nations in Biblical symbology. For example, an angel told the apostle John that "the waters" which John saw were "peoples, multitudes, nations and languages" (Revelation 17:15), which is a reference to the Gentile nations (not to the single nation of Israel). Also, the prophet Daniel was given a vision in which "Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea" (Daniel 7:3), and Daniel was told that "The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth" (Daniel 7:17). Again, this describes four Gentile kingdoms, not the single nation of Israel. This evidence indicates that the Antichrist will be a Gentile. In addition, the Antichrist will somehow be of Roman origin. Daniel 9:26-27 (above) says that "The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary." In the context of that verse, "the ruler who will come" is the Antichrist, and that verse says that the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple ("the sanctuary") will be destroyed by the people from whom the future Antichrist will come. In 70 A.D., the Romans attacked the city of Jerusalem (see the Historical Highlights at Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs ) and destroyed the Jewish temple (which has never been rebuilt), which means that the Romans are "the people" from whom the future Antichrist will come. Therefore, the Antichrist is likely to be a Gentile of Roman origin.