Because he was diametrically opposed to the perfectly good human being, Jesus Christ, the Antichrist was the epitome of wickedness.

Christians came to think that Jesus Christ was God's Son, and they believed that the Antichrist was Satan's Son. Jesus was conceived by a virgin. As a result, the Antichrist would be born to a woman who pretended to be a virgin but was actually adulterous. The Antichrist is Satan in the flesh, just as Christ was God in the flesh.

Only three verses in the Christian New Testament reference the Antichrist, all of which are found in John's letters (I John 2.18-27, I John 4.1-6, 2 John 7). They imply that the end of the world could occur at any time.

Over the first several centuries of the Christian tradition, early Church scholars began to pore over a variety of other Biblical characters, finding references to the Antichrist in them: the "abomination of desolation" in Daniel and Matthew's books; "the man of lawlessness" and "the son of perdition" in Paul's letter.

The number 666 is mentioned in the book of Revelation as "the beast from the land" and "the beast from the sea."