The prefix “anti” can mean counterfeit or against, but most importantly, it means “in place of.” Hence, willful opposition to Christ by enemies such as the Roman emperor Nero and others were “anti-Christ” activity. However, those who substitute their own methods for Christ’s methods are the more dangerous anti-Christs.
The body of Christ is composed of spirit-begotten or spirit anointed true Christians. Their head is Jesus:
Colossians 1:18 (NKJV), “And He (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church,…”
1 Corinthians 12:12, 27 (NKJV), 12 “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. … 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
There is also a structure to the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:18, 28 (NKJV), 18 “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. … 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.”
The counterfeit antichrist of the greatest danger is a structured body as well. The Roman Catholic Church (not the people) calls the Pope its head. Then come the body members: Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, etc. Pope Boniface VIII decreed: “We declare, say, define, pronounce it necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.” Pope Innocent III said, “The pope holds the place of the true God…” Innocent and Jacobatius stated that “the pope can do nearly all that God can do…” In 1870, an Ecumenical Council in Rome decreed the Pope’s ex cathedra utterances to be infallible. The Roman church set its own doctrines in place of God’s word, the Bible, as the standard. Papacy even made it a crime to read the Bible.
Among counterfeit doctrines, the Mass, which is a fresh slaying of Jesus on the “altar,” is substituted for Jesus’s one time death on the cross as man’s ransom. Hebrews 7:27 (NKJV), 27 “who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” Hebrews 10:10 (NKJV), “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Any religion or person who is against God’s Son, God’s word, His plan, and His principles is an antichrist in spirit. 1 John 2:22 (CSB), “Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist…” Historically, some religious leaders declared themselves to be the Messiah, but those declarations always proved false.
The great Antichrist system of the Roman Catholic Church is still present, we should not be looking for a future “man of sin.”