Q. "Is the antichrist here on earth now or is his presence in the near future?" I'm quite certain the antichrist is on the earth right now. One piece of evidence of the Bible is found in 1 John 2:18, in which the apostle writes, "Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists whereby we know it's the last time."
And so, even if 2,000 years ago, he says there are many antichrists, and there certainly are still many today. But you are probably wondering more, though, about the "main antichrist" that many people see in Revelation.
And my answer to that would also be yes. He is in the world today. Revelation 17 speaks about this beast power, and you can also read about him in Daniel 7:25 and Daniel 8. In fact, this beast power raises his head several times. In essence, he's been fighting God's peoplebut it is not just one man. Antichrist means "opposed to Christ," and there is an entire organization that will be behind this individual. Antichrist can also mean "in the place of Christ," so this person will declare himself as Christ on earth.
I also want to add that in the same way God took on the form of a man on earth to teach us the truth, Satan argues that he should be, in the same way, able to manifest himself to propogate his government. So I think at the very end, somehow, he's going to impersonate Christ or manifest himself or possess a person. But in some way he's going to have a visible spokesman here on the earth that will be a great deceiver.
We have a lesson on the antichrist that you can get by calling Amazing Facts or going online to our free resource library.