What is the reasoning that leads Evangelicals (or others) to believe attempting to determine if a prominent figure is the Antichrist is acceptable?

I am only interested in the Evangelical/Protestant or other reformist denominations and sects who come to the conclusion that (insert something from revelation here) is (insert modern person/place/thing here) despite this process repeatedly having failed for the couple hundred years. This is the other side of the "coin" of my other question here . Instead of answering what is the basis of the practice. I'm asking for a kind of reconciling of the logical contradiction of persisting in the practice. Here are some modern examples of people that Christians have "identified the Antichrist" from revelation: The Popes of rome, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Gorbachev, Oliver Cromwell, Vladimir Lenin, Saddam Hussein, Trump, ... and I'm sure in 4-12 years there will be another new one. Here is an example of an event: Chernobyl = Wormwood/Absinth (Revelation 8) Here is an example of a technology: Digital currency from the Chinese/European/etc is easily combined with implanted chips... (oh no, mark of the beast and the inability to buy and sell) --- #### How do they keep their conviction of faith despite being repeatedly disproven by reality? Do they just ignore history? "It never worked before, but I've got it right"? > At a time when more and more people feel the need, because of the profound crisis affecting mankind, to deal with eschatological events as described in the Apocalypse of Saint John the Theologian, as well as those things revealed by the Grace of God to the Prophets, the Fathers of the Church and contemporary saintly elders like Elder Paisios, **we must especially stand with the view of Elder Porphyrios, and decode why such a great Saint of our time, while knowing with precision and detail everything that we are living and where things come from, avoided talking about these things.** (Hieromonk George Kaufsokalyvites ) And so I note at the end here the observation that when the Orthodox Church speaks about the end times and about the second coming, **it is always a hopeful message.** (And consistent, etc)