In fact, the only book of Scripture that uses the term "Antichrist," 1 John, says that there are "many Antichrists even now" (1 Jn 2:18). That was almost 2000 years ago! Second Thessalonians 2 speaks of a "man of sin," but does not use the term "Antichrist," nor does it say anything about him coming from Europe.
Reading B. B. Warfield's article on Antichrist (in his Selected Shorter Writings) many many years ago, cured me of trying to shoehorn what I was reading in the Bible into the Hal Lindsay/Late Grate Planet Earth pop dispensational mold.
Tradition dating back to the early Church Fathers speaks of a final Antichrist preceding the second Coming, but it's not there on the surface of the Scriptural texts.
Worth a look, is Rev. Kim Riddlebarger's Man of Sin. My recollection it goes back even to a pre-Christian Jewish tradition of an anti-messiah.
