THE ANTICHRIST


****** W A R N
I N G *****

This text is prepared in response to a belief which arose in

the APOLOGETICS section that the Antichrist was not a real
person. It is the
contention of this paper that indeed he is
real and he will appear in human
history as just that. This is
not a discourse in apologetics, but an
interpretation of
scripture taken in its literal sense. It is for information

addressed to those who have a desire to know about this person.
Its "proof" is
in the scripture.

*************************

INTRODUCTION

The Antichrist is the name of a future personage who will
influence the
world in an a masterful and pernicious way. Some
have said that the biblical
references to him refer to an
institution, a spiritual environment, or to a
financial system.
While the Bible is full of symbols, even a cursory
examination of
the scriptures applicable to the Antichrist will reveal that he

is a man, not a symbol of an evil to come. The Bible gives a
clear outline of
this inauspicious person - something it would
not do if he were anything other
than a flesh and blood human
being.


THE PURPOSE OF THE ANTICHRIST

Why
the Antichrist? What is his purpose in history? Why
does he arrive on the
scene at this moment in human history? The
Bible is many things to many
people, but one of its purposes is
to outline human history. God is not
trapped within the realms
of time as He has always been the I AM of the Hebrew
scriptures -
something which we cannot fathom, but must accept if we are to

believe He is who He says He is. To discuss why evil exists is
outside the
scope of this paper, but if we are to read the Bible
with any degree of
literalism it is obvious evil is a prominent
factor in mankind and in the
Bible. A great spiritual battle
between Satan and God has raged since he fell
from Heaven and
Earth has been designated as the battleground. We read in

Genesis of the beginning encounter in that battle as man moved
into the arena,
and we see the promise of the coming One who
would eventually finish the war
with victory (Genesis 3:15) -
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between
your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will

strike his heel." The Antichrist is Satan's final attempt to win
the war. He
is also used by God as a focal point around whom the
evil will rally as the
world approaches Armageddon.


THE ORIGIN OF THE ANTICHRIST

There has
been much speculation regarding the origin of the
Antichrist and only a cursory
reference will be made here. Many
have felt he will come out of a revived
Europe, and with the
United States of Europe soon to be a reality, this has

strengthened their views. Some have believed he may come from
Syria, based on
scriptures from Isaiah and Micah. I tend to
support the first theory because
there is much more scripture
sustaining that argument.


THE WORLD AT THE TIME
OF THE ANTICHRIST

There is a great deal of scripture which gives a good

description of world at the time of the Antichrist. He will
arrive on the
scene at a time when the world will hail him as the
answer to the problems of a
troubled society. What will make the
world so quick to accept a virtual
dictator? Many have felt that
a war which comes close to reaching global
proportions may make
mankind realize that a one world government is all that
can
prevent a global holocaust. Others have thought that when the
believers
disappear at the time of the rapture, all of the
"negative thinkers" will at
last be gone and no longer will be in
the way of a humanistic utopia and unity
will be assured.
Whatever the cause, there is some restraining force which must
be
removed before the Antichrist can come upon the scene. That
moment is
controlled by God, since He is the author of all
events.

II Thessalonians
2:2-7 - "Concerning the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our being
gathered to him, we ask
you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or
alarmed
by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come
from
us, saying that the day of the Lord has already
come. Don't let anyone
deceive you in any way, for that
day will not come until the rebellion
occurs and the man
of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to

destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over
everything
that is called God or is worshiped, so that
he sets himself up in God's
temple, proclaiming himself
to be God. Don't you remember that when I was
with you I
used to tell you these things. And now you know what is

holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the
proper time. For
the secret power of lawlessness is
already at work; but the one who now
holds it back will
continue to do so till he is taken out of the way."


What is this "one who now holds it back" which will need to
be taken out of
the way? Many have said that it is the Holy
Spirit which will be removed from
the earth at the time of the
rapture of the church. This would leave evil in
the world
unopposed by the Spirit of God, so evil would then become rampant
and
cause the world of lawlessness and rebellion described as the
time of the end.
Theologically, I question this, although I used
to ascribe to that theory.
Rather, I believe the Holy Spirit
will still be on earth to guide and comfort
the "great multitude"
of Revelation 7:14 who will come to salvation out of the
great
tribulation. Regardless, the time of the Antichrist is
controlled by
God, and he will not come forth until the stage is
ready in God's plan.


THE
PERSONALITY OF THE ANTICHRIST

By searching the scriptures, we can paint a
mosaic of the
personality of this end time figure. A troubled society
produces
the atmosphere for a dictator, and his personality will draw most
of
the people of the world to him. We are told in Daniel that he
will be a master
of intrigue, he will succeed in whatever he
does, he will be completely wicked
and "stern-faced", and he will
destroy many:

Daniel 8:23-25 - "In the
latter part of their reign,
when rebels have become completely wicked, a
stern-faced
king, a master of intrigue, will arise. He will become

very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause
astounding
devastation and will succeed in whatever he
does. He will destroy the
mighty men and the holy
people.
He will cause deceit to prosper, and
he will consider
himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy

many and take his stand against the Prince of princes.
Yet he will be
destroyed, but not by human power."


However, it must be understood that
when this man appears,
he will not appear "stern-faced" at the beginning. He
will
appear the opposite - a man of peace, love, and concern for the
world.
His emergence will be that of a benevolent dictator, with
the unity of mankind
most likely being his theme. He will appear
as the Savior who is promised or
vaguely imagined in all
confessions and traditions, who will judge according to
the
measure of worldly people. Everything about this great deceiver
will be so
good, reasonable, and acceptable that one will have to
have very good reason
and a lot of courage to remain calm and
negative about him against all public
opinion and against a
whirlwind of enthusiasm. He will be the epitome of
deception
and his machinations will not be realized by the world until his

reign is half completed. It is difficult to not compare him with
Hitler,
another dictator of our time. When he first came to
power, he so mesmerized
the people of his time and country that
they literally worshipped him. William
Shirer, author of The
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich wrote, "Today, as far as
the
vast majority of his fellow-countrymen are concerned, he (Hitler)
has
reached a pinnacle never before achieved by a German ruler.
He has become -
even before his death - a myth, a legend, almost
a god..."
He will
acknowledge no god other than the material ones:
Daniel 11:37,38 - "He will
show no regard for the gods of his
fathers or for the one desired by women, nor
will he regard any
god, but will exalt himself above them. Instead of them, he
will
honor a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his fathers he will
honor with
gold and silver, with precious stones and costly
gifts." He will be boastful:
Daniel 7:8 - "While I was thinking
about the horns, there before me was
another horn, a little one,
which came up among them; and three of the first
horns were
uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and
a
mouth that spoke boastfully." As Daniel 11:37 states, "He will
exalt himself
above all other people and values."


THE ACTIONS OF THE ANTICHRIST

He
will appear during a time of a great falling away from
traditional Judaeo-
Christian values and religion, a period of
rebellion from these beliefs: II
Thessalonians 2:3 - "Don't let
anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will
not come until
the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed,
the
man doomed to destruction." A worldwide religious system, not
based on
these Judaeo-Christian values, will permeate the entire
world during this time,
and the Antichrist will initially take
advantage of it. Revelation 17
describes this false religious
entity.
The beginning of the seven year
tribulation period spoken of
throughout both the Hebrew writings and the New
Testament in
initiated when the Antichrist makes a covenant or treaty with the

nation of Israel: Daniel 9:27 - "He will confirm a covenant with
many for one
'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an
end to sacrifice and
offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he
will set up an abomination that
causes desolation, until the end
that is decreed is poured out on him." The
Living Bible states
this verse in this manner: "This king will make a seven-
year
treaty with the people, but after half that time, he will break
his pledge
and stop the Jews from all their sacrifices and their
offerings. Then, as a
climax to all his terrible deeds, the
Enemy shall utterly defile the sanctuary
of God."
At the midpoint of this time, the Antichrist will reveal his
true
personality and plans. He will commit the "abomination of
desolation" spoken
of by Daniel and by Jesus as he sits himself
in the Temple in Jerusalem and
demands worship as God:

Daniel 9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many
for one
'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end
to
sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple]
he will set up an
abomination that causes desolation,
until the end that is decreed is
poured out on him.

Daniel 11:31 "His armed forces will rise up to

desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily
sacrifice.
Then they will set up the abomination that
causes desolation.

Daniel
12:11 "From the time that the daily sacrifice is
abolished and the
abomination that causes desolation is
set up, there will be 1,290 days.


Matthew 24:15 "So when you see standing in the holy
place 'the
abomination that causes desolation,' spoken
of through the prophet
Daniel--let the reader
understand-

Mark 13:14 "When you see 'the
abomination that causes
desolation' standing where it does not belong--let
the
reader understand--then let those who are in Judea flee
to the
mountains.

At this juncture, the mid-point of the seven-year
tribulation,
the true tribulation events begin. Until now, the
prior three and a half years
have been very calm. Now the final
half begins - what is known in the Bible as
the "Wrath of God",
or the "Day of the Lord". Our God is a merciful, kind God
who
gives every man every chance to repent and change his heart if it
does not
conform to the Word of God. However, the Word is full
of warnings regarding
the consequences of not following God's
commandment to do so. God, although He
is merciful, will not
allow those with sinful hearts to enter into His Kingdom.
As a
result, there will be a point in time when it will be too late
for them:
II Thessalonians 2:10-12 - "And in every sort of evil
that deceives those who
are perishing. They perish because they
refused to love the truth and so be
saved. For this reason God
sends them a powerful delusion so that they will
believe the lie.
And so that all will be condemned who have not believed the
truth
but have delighted in wickedness."


THE ANTICHRIST AND THE TRIBULATION


At this point in human history, the Tribulation begins - a
period so
unparalleled in destruction that if Jesus should not
return, mankind would
cease to exist: Matthew 24:21,22 -"For
then there will be great distress,
unequaled from the beginning
of the world until now--and never to be equaled.
If those days
had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake
of
the elect those days will be shortened.", Jeremiah 30:7 - "How
awful that
day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time
of trouble for Jacob, but
he will be saved out of it.", Daniel
12:1 - "At that time Michael, the great
prince who protects your
people, will arise. There will be a time of distress
such as has
not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at
that
time your people--everyone whose name is found written in
the book--will be
delivered.", Ezekiel 30:3 - "For the day is
near, the day of the LORD is near--
a day of clouds, a time of
doom for the nations.", Joel 2:31 - "The sun will be
turned to
darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and

dreadful day of the LORD."
The dreadful results of the tribulation are
graphically
portrayed in the Book of Revelation and will not be described in

detail here. There are many good books which can go into detail
for those
interested, but the end result is the loss of billions
of lives through famine,
war, and natural disasters. Using the
numbers given in Revelation applied to
the population of the
earth today, this would result in the loss of four
billion lives
- truly a horrible picture.
The Antichrist will persecute
the Jews and the Christians
who will turn to Christ during that period. There
will be some
left at the beginning of the Tribulation who refuse to worship
the
beast and receive his number. These were mentioned in the
beginning of this
discussion. According to Revelation, an untold
number will accept Christ
during this time and receive
persecution from the Antichrist and his followers
- persecution
even unto death. As the end draws near, Jesus will return as He

promised, swiftly taking care of the Antichrist and his cohorts:
Revelation
19:19,20 - "Then I saw the beast (the Antichrist) and
the kings of the earth
and their armies gathered together to make
war against the rider on the horse
and his. But the beast was
captured, and with him the false prophet who had
performed the
miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded

those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his
image. The two
of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of
burning sulfur."
What
began before the worlds were formed is finally
finished, except for a footnote
1000 years later (Rev 20:7).
Human history has ended. Good has triumphed over
evil, in spite
of the goals, plans, and conspiracies of men. The other gods of

this age and previous ages have fallen, and the true Lord reigns
as every knee
bows to acknowledge him as the true KING OF KINGS
AND LORD OF LORDS.



FOOTNOTES AND COMMENTS

I am aware that there are many different
interpretations of
end time prophecy, and I do not pretend to have all the
correct
answers. Even among members of mainline (and not so mainline)

Christian denominations, heated discussions and arguments can
arise when one
discusses his own pet eschatological views. This
can be destructive, divisive,
and completely unrewarding. This
should not occur, since one's own view of end
time prophecy will
not have an effect on his eternal destiny nor will it effect
how
he treats his fellow man. We are not called to argue, but to
love the Lord
with all our soul and to treat our fellow man as we
would like to be treated.
As noted at the beginning, this is
submitted for informational reasons only -
if you don't ascribe
to this view, that's fine. It's probably not entirely
correct,
anyway. I hope it will, however, cause interest in the field of

eschatology because the signs are very strong that human history
may be
reaching its zenith and thus its end. Jesus commanded us
to be aware of the
signs of His coming. Those signs are shouting
to be heard and understood,
beginning with the rebirth of Israel
in our generation, continuing with the
control of Jerusalem by
the Jews in 1967, proceeding with the exodus of Russian
Jews to
Israel this year, and possibly advancing with the present Iraq
conflict
regarding end time prophecies about Babylon (see
PROPH.NEW in LIB 2 if you're
interested in this information).


Rixter
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080

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