Revelation speaks a literal Being (or Beast, which is often refered to as the Anti Christ in capital letters.)
"literal"? John says: "having seven heads and ten horns..." (13:1) "now the beast I saw was like a leopard, feet of a bear, and his mouth like a lion" (13:2) two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon (13:11) where unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the beast (16:13) "I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast" (17:3)
No where in Revelation is the term "Antichrist" used, thus there is no provision in Scripture for making the association - it is purely gratuitous fiction by those who love to change the Bible to suit their fantasies and vanity.
If you interpret these things as "literal" physical descriptions of an actual flesh and bone "Beast" and fail to recognize that this is symbolic then there really is no hope at all in you understanding Revelation.
So when folks speak of THE ANTI CHRIST(as opposed to one of many antichrists who are in the world already infested by that one Spirit of ANTICHRIST), they are using the terms interchangebly with THE BEAST, THE MAN OF SIN, THE SON OF PERDITION, all names of that One which will work with the False Prophet who performs false wonders in the presence of the Beast and causing the Image of the Beast to speak as though it were a man.
So the kings of the earth, their armies and all that took on the "mark of the Beast" will be literally slain by a literal sword coming out of the mouth of the rider of the white horse. Interesting visual imagery. I don't recall reading in Acts that our LORD ascended into heaven on a white horse.
Acts 1:11 - "This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
God of course has given over the world to delusion so that it becomes difficult to see thru the deceit of this “event”; though the Bible says many will and will be martyred for their faith in the REAL CHRIST!
I'm guessing that you have no idea how faith originates and how someone is saved (Ro 10:17) since all those who could evangelize are allegedly "raptured" to a cosmic party. Furthermore, do you have a role for the Holy Spirit other than allowing showmen to handle snakes on stage? The Scriptures teach that the Paraclete is the one who opens the Scriptures to the natural man (1 Cor 2:14), so is the Paraclete at the Wedding as part of the Holy Trinity or slumming it on Earth with the reprobates?
Also, you would gut the entire meaning out of 2 Peter 3:9 (Any "rapture" eschatology already rejects 2 Peter 3:10-13 so I wouldn't be surprised if you are comfortable with rubbing out that text) because the context of the passage is the Parousia and v9 would make zero sense if there was post-"Rapture" salvation. From a Reformed standpoint it makes perfect sense - God suffers through our wickedness until the last of the Elect is redeemed then He returns to judge the Earth.
As far as fantasies go, you have way to many inconsistencies, violence against sound doctrine and contradictions for this to even be a mildly interesting camp-fire story. I strongly suggest reading something other than "Left Behind" fiction to form the basis of your theological understanding.
As for the literal Being, know figuratively as THE BEAST...look at what Revelation says HE does to the 2 witnesses”Revelation 11:1-133And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
5And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
6These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
7And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
8And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
9And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
10And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
11And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
12And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. “
You also quoted Revelation 13 in pieces in an attempt to make it look like I was writing of a “literal beast”. If you had read the entire chapter and looked at it dispassionately, you would have understood that I was describing the AntiChrist system or “BEAST” governing system that was to be in power over all the world. Now whether or not you agree or disagree with me on interpretations, I am fully aware that Revelation uses figurative language to help folks get a handle on the complexities of the larger spiritual reality. Just because something appears to be written “symbolically” in the Bible, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it any less seriously.
This evil one with his evil false prophet minion are refered to literally as beasts in the sense that they regard their own instinctive thirst for power, unbridled by God’s spiritual morality, as the source of all truth. They rut about unbridled uttering blashemies and doing every evil their flesh desires to do causing/encouraging all men to rut about with them. The best way to understand the use of the term “beasts” in this context is to study what happened to Nebuchednezzar when he defied God by taking glory for himself that should have gone to God. God gave him over to senslessness, living as the animals lived, following what ever perverse bestial instincts that arose from his darkened heart. His nails grew long, his hair grew overlong and tangled. Only after 7 years(like a 7 year personal TRIBULATION) when ol’ Neb’s looked up toward heaven did God restore his sanity.
What happens to the world under the “Beast” system infested with the spirit of Antichrist in a Macro sense is what happened to Nebuchednezzar in the singular sense, occuring thru-out the entire world;occuring over the course of 7 years with God’s wrath falling increasingly heavy upon the world thru-out that time.
As for fantasies Theophilus, I suspect you would have been in that camp of the scribes at the time of Christ who put no stock in some future resurrection of the dead( it did “great violence” to the gospel of the Talmud and Mishna, to take such “nonsense literally and not “symbollically”)...only to be taken aback when it actually did happen.
Perhaps, would we have found you among the scoffers who proclaimed that Israel would never again be a nation just prior to 1948?( it was all supposed to be “symbolic and figurative” not to be taken “seriously”) and all those folks who believed in Israel’s re-emergence were just too full of “inconsistencies” “doing violence” to the gospel in believing “in such nonsense”?