The False Prophet:
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;
and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,
and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast,
whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come
down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast;
saying to them that dwell on the earth,
that they should make an image to the beast,
which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast,
that the image of the beast should both speak,
and cause that as many as would not
worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand,
or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,
or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:
for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:11
Ding ding ding. We have a winner.
The above discussion is arguing semantics but the spirit of the passages to me indicate an actual entity. I suppose at the end when the beast is revealed it will matter little whether he is called the antichrist or the man of lawlessness or the beast out of the earth or simply Obama (toungue in cheek).