From the perspective of the theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church, how should Christians react to a political leader who fights the Antichrist?

Question

Suppose the Antichrist has arrived, and there is a political leader who tries to destroy him, while knowing that he is the Antichrist.

I heard an opinion that such a political leader should be considered an enemy of Christians, as his attempt to destroy the Antichrist basically means attempt to prevent the Second Coming of Christ.

From the perspective of Eastern Orthodox theology, is this opinion valid?

Answer 1

I think there are several problems with this reasoning:

1. There is no way of anyone to know if the specific person would be an Antichrist, so that alone makes this situation impossible:

   Mark 13:32 No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

2. There is really no specific knowledge on how exactly the end of the world would look like besides it will be sudden and unexpected.

   Matthew 24:27-28 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

   That also suggests that the Antichrist (assuming that Antichrist will be a person, not a belief or some spiritual phenomenon) will come when the humanity will be so demoralized ("carcass") that it will happily and willingly accept Antichrist ("vulture"), so the best way to prevent Antichrist from coming would be to lead a good life and hold on to morality.

   You can also compare that to "10 just in Sodom". As long as there is a critical mass of people that are "good" (not necessarily believe in Christ, just act with love and altruism towards others, maintain moral values, etc), that alone will create an opposition enough to make Antichrist appearing impossible (as it would be impossible for Antichrist to get enough popular support to assume power).

   That being said, when the Antichrist will appear, that person will have strong society support, so I think there will be no leader that would openly oppose him/her.

3. Antichrist has no power over God. Eastern Orthodoxy assumes that God is almighty, so no human actions can delay or affect the Second Coming in any way, which also makes the situation you described impossible.

4. Matthew 10:28

   And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

   Mark 12:17

   Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

   This means that from the christian perspective, physical destruction means nothing and does not affect the afterlife and spiritual life, so "fighting with the sword" against the Antichrist would yield no result. We know nothing about the Antichrist, we do not even know if that would be a physical person or just some kind of false belief most of the humanity will subscribe to.

5. Matthew 16:26

   For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

   The dominance over the world and struggling for power with Antichrist over the material world is a foreign concept to Christianity overall. The only thing that matter to a christian is taking care of ones spiritual life, so I think based on that the situation you described does not adhere to theology.

6. Matthew 6:34

   Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

   The Bible suggests that we should not concern ourselves with matters that are out of our reach and provides only a minimal or vague information about the Antichrist and the end of the world. Instead it focuses on Christ and immediate matters in the spiritual life. So this suggests that we should not try to find specific answers to such questions because we will either not find them or they are not relevant to our spiritual life besides what is openly and clearly given to us. This tells us that we will likely never know the definitive answers about the Second Coming until it happens and we should just focus on maintaining a good life (in a moral sense).

To sum up, I think you asked a logical question, but I think according to the Bible this situation just would not occur and the assumption that physical struggle would resolve anything is wrong as the only thing that matters is taking responsibility of ones life and maintaining morals and values.