Go read Evan Curry’s blog now!
Evan Curry just blogged a one-two punch with "Sola Scriptura: thoughts on the Eastern Orthodox view" and "Will the Antichrist be an actual person?"
Evan’s Antichrist post points out the immediate, obvious, and literal interpretation of antichrist in John’s writings (which include his gospel, the epistles, and his Apocalypse). How ironic that the "literal" interpretation of the antichrist espoused by dispensationalists is completely figurative? Very, in case you were wondering.
The antichrist post is particularly timely for those that follow the
daily lectionary since it is passing through 1 John as we speak.
Evan has previously guest posted on Everyday Liturgy concerning the question: "Is Sola Scriptura a Help or Heresy?
Thanks, EL. I do, often, read the Bible literally, but if (and I believe N.T. Wright says this in “The Last Word”) the correct reading is a metaphorical one, then, a literal reading of such texts should be metaphorical, and I think that’s what we have here with my interpretation of the Antichrist.
In some ways, I think we feel the Antichrist must be an actual person in the future so then we have something to do with our Christian lives, with which many have become bored since we often paint an individualistic, inward-focused Christianity. I mean, why do anything else like help the poor, be missional, etc., when the Antichrist is on the rise? I’m not saying you can’t be missional and take the Antichrist as a real person, but I think seeing the Antichrist as an actual person (and writing books and making movies about him) is more “fun” though not accurate.