Since I believe in the pre-Tribulation rapture, I believe that the Anti-Christ will be revealed after born-again believers are taken out of the earth. He will be an extremely charismatic, captivating individual who will come to power on a peace platform. He negotiates a peace contract between Israel and the rest of the world that will ostensibly be for seven years but actually only lasts for three and a half years before the "kings of the north" march on Israel for the purpose of destroying her.
Since the prophetic clock began ticking when Israel became a nation, and the prophecies for the time just before the return of the true Christ are now occurring, I believe the Anti-Christ is alive and well and waiting to take his place on the world stage.
It's conceivable to me--probable, even--that the puppet masters running things behind the scenes globally toward a global government now and for the last many decades . . . who have divided the world up into 10 regions to supercede national boundaries . . .
these puppet masters are from the old Roman empire. The 10 regions they have divided the world up in could conceivably be the 10 nation confederacy.
We shall see.
BTW, I won't lose my faith if the AC appears before the Rapture.
Hope he doesn't.