Roads, I certainly didn't mean to suggest that a seemingly nice person such as yourself despises prophecy by saying that, only that "prophecy" includes spiritual propositions based on God's Word as well as predictions of the future, and that according to Paul we should be ready to listen to what people claim is of God and then test it with His Word.We've already discussed, and you seemed to agree, that knowing the gospel alone will be sufficient in identifying any antichrist through his message. I certainly don't plan on worshiping anyone but God, or following someone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah (which is how the scriptures instruct us on how to identify any antichrist, as we've already discussed). I have read the various new testament descriptions of the antichrist and his mark. Are these insufficient descriptions?
I don't "despise" prophecy, friend (especially not in the context it's used in the 1 Thess verse you quoted from), I simply find myself less capable than you of discerning the meaning of this particular prophecy. You seem to be suggesting that interpreting this particular prophecy correctly reveals some particular commands and the nature of "true faith" that aren't discussed elsewhere in scripture? I don't consider God's commands or my faith any less essential that you do, I expect, and you certainly seem passionate about them. I simply utterly fail at seeing what this prophecy has to do with those things.
The Gospel is not the Word of God in it's entirety. Christian character, lifestyle, duty, and knowledge of the devices of Satan are all ideas that are considered the "meat" that follows after the Gospel "milk" which we first receive. What lead Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, Jerome, Huss, Zwingle, and the whole of worldwide Protestantism without exception from the earliest times until just about 100 years ago that Rome was the Antichrist was the "meat" of the Word. The Council of Trent was convened with the sole purpose of finding a way to stamp out Protestantism and from that the Jesuits were born. Jesuit Futurism which is so popular among Protestants today has succeeded in accomplishing what that 300 year old idea set out to do in the beginning. It just took a little while for Protestants to become complacent and vulnerable to deception, which is always the case when ease and comfort move in to occupy the place where persecution and uncertainty once did.