-
- Many believe 'The Antichrist' predicted
by the Apostle John's startling Revelation vision is strictly a New Testament
prophecy. The fact of the matter is, the final man of evil is detailed
to exacting proportions throughout the Prophets, of both Old and New Testaments
of the Bible. Getting a clear view of this coming evil ruler is paramount
to recognizing him when he does arrive on the scene. His deception will
be through peace and flattery, according to the prophets and a time of
testing will come upon the world.
-
- To skeptics, The Antichrist is merely
an allegorical symbol, a type of metaphor for all human evil, or early
christian propoganda spoken against insane kings of Rome such as Nero and
Titus. But there is clearly no wisdom in such views, considering that the
Hebrew prophets who spoke of the Messiah and the history of Israel were
fulfilled to the literal letter, and these same prophets speak of this
final evil king and his empire in equally literal detail and profundity.
Between both Old and New Testaments, there is agreement: This is a man.
-
- Considering this fact, the world is best
served to heed the words of the prophets whose track record is shockingly
precise. To understand the coming Antichrist, one must first have a grasp
of the Christ whom he will oppose, both prophetically and spiritually,
and in doing this also see the strength of the prophets and their words.
-
- A Glimpse Into The Prophetic
Accuracies Of The Messiah
- One of the main themes of Hebrew prophecy
is The Messiah, the arrival of a human being imbued with direct anointing
from the creator God, and one who would bring peace, justice and an eternal
government of righteousness upon the earth. This Messiah (or "Deliverer")
would be both a suffering servant and an empowered, everlasting king. A
man and yet an immortal. These two views confused many in history who awaited
his arrival. How could Messiah be both lowly servant and immortal king?
How could he live forever if also killed? Many awaited two Messiahs rather
than one, or blindly dismissed him as allegory, despite the fact that the
prophets were clear that there would be a single individual who would be
Messiah, accomplishing both endeavors.
-
- This Messiah would not only free the
people of Israel from oppressions which had haunted them for centuries
since the time of Egypt, but he was also a promised king and deliverer
to the entire world, "a light unto the gentiles," whose just
government, spiritual light, loving kindness and eternal truth would literally
(and supernaturally) reform the earth and humanity to golden perfection
forever. The prophets of old told of a Messiah who would bring heaven to
earth and the abode of God among people.
-
- The accuracy of the Old Testament prophets
regarding The Messiah defies all odds and forces mankind to reconsider
its unspiritual, humanistic view of the universe.
- Signs & Fulfillment
-
- An early prophecy was given regarding
his place of birth:
-
- (OT) Micah 5:2 (God speaking)
- "But as for you, Bethlehem, though
you are seen as little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall
he come forth for Me, he that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth
have been from ancient past, even from the days of eternity."
-
- His manner of birth would be quite shocking...
he would be born of a virgin, a girl who had never had sex with a man:
-
- (OT) Isaiah 7:14
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
-
- (This is not much of a 'sign' if this
passage merely means a young girl will have a baby, as many who deny the
virgin birth contend)
-
- Likewise, his name and title was established
early on by the prophets to be of divine & supernatural origin:
-
- (OT) Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
-
- Simultaneous to his grandeur and spiritual
authority, the prophets saw this Messiah suffering greatly as a means to
a propitiary (substitutional) sacrifice for sins (something that was typified
in the Pascal Lamb of Sacrifice given to the Hebrews when enslaved in Egypt,
and by its blood the Angel of Death 'passed over' the houses of those who
had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost):
-
- (OT) Isaiah 53:1-8
"Who has believed our report? ... he has no special outward appearance;
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and
we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we considered him stricken, even smitten of God and afflicted. But
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes (whippings)
we are healed.... He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth in defense: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he did not open his mouth. He
was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall speak for his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living"
-
- Clearly, this Messiah would be born in
a lowly estate, not be a person of great esteem or attractiveness and would
be imprisoned and eventually killed in a brutal way. But the prophets make
it clear, he is not merely human... his name declared that he was of unique
origins, even that of God himself. This Messiah would triumph over death.
It was contended throughout the Hebrew prophets that the Holy One of God
would not see the decay of death:
-
- (OT) Psalm 16: 10 (Speaking of God's work)
".. neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption, O' Lord."
-
- This was also demonstrated symbolically
many times in the life of prophets, such as Jonah, who when swallowed by
a great whale was 3 days later vomited up ( (OT) Jonah 1:17 "Now
the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in
the belly of the fish three days and three nights."). Likewise, The
Messiah would be entombed three days and three nights, and then rise from
the dead, glorified, incorruptible, deified man forever as High Priest
and reigning as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Despite the legion
of soldiers posted around the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth... he arose (the
account of which appears not only in the Bible, but in historic documents
of the period, such as the personal letters of Pontias Pilate to Herod
Antipas and Augustus Caesar).
-
- These prophesies were fulfilled exactly
and to the letter by one man in history, roughly 2000 years ago: Jesus
of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet and teacher who claimed to be the Son of
God. And beyond even these incredible prophesies about his life, some written
more than 800 years before his birth, the prophet Daniel was told by God
precisely WHEN this Messiah would arrive:
-
- (OT) Daniel 9: 24-17
"Seventy weeks (of years) are determined upon thy people and upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Know therefore and understand: that from the going forth of the decree
to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince comes, it
shall shall be seven weeks...and Messiah shall be cut off (killed), but
not for himself..."
-
- That decree was signed by Persian King
Artaxerses Longanimus in 444 B.C., freeing the captive Jews to return and
rebuild Jerusalem. The clock of prophecy was activated. Seventy weeks of
years in Jewish reckoning of time was to elapse (490 years, each week represents
seven years, seventy weeks represents 490 years. A prophetic year represents
360 days), and then The Messiah would appear. And it came to pass. Jesus
of Nazareth fulfilled yet another highly specific prophecy simultaneously
with this one, and was heralded as King by the people as he entered Jerusalem,
precisely to the year predicted by the prophet Daniel:
-
- (OT) Zachariah 9:9
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout (in triumph) O daughter
of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed
with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal
of a donkey."
-
- (NT) Luke 19:35
"... and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus
thereon. And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when
he approaches, even at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude
of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for
all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, 'Blessed be the King that
cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.'
And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, 'Rabbi,
rebuke your disciples.' And he answered and said unto them, 'I tell you,
if these should be quiet, the stones themselves would immediately begin
to shout."
-
- The Son of Perdition: Antichrist
- (OT) Daniel 8:23
"...a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark teachings,
shall arise. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and
he shall destroy to a magnificent degree, and shall prosper, and practice,
and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy
also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify
himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand
up against the Prince of princes (Jesus Christ); but he shall be destroyed
without [human] hands."
-
- The Antichrist has many titles: Son of
Periditon, Man of Sin, Man of Lawlessness, The Prince of Destruction/Abomination,
The Beast. In both Old and New Testament prophecies, he is specifically
regarded as a man with certain characteristics and identifiable features.
Daniel gives details regarding him which read like a newspaper expose on
a mysterious foreign dictator:
-
-
- (OT) Daniel 11:36
"And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself,
and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak outrageous things
against the God of gods, and shall prosper until the indignation is accomplished:
for that which as been determined shall come to pass. Neither shall he
regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any
god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate he shall
(secretly) honor a god of forces: and a god whom his fathers never knew,
(to these) he will worship with gold, and silver, and with precious stones,
and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in his fortresses with a strange
god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause
them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain."
-
- Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, also
prophesied about this same evil king to come:
-
- (NT) 2 Thessalonians 2:3
".. that man of sin [will be] revealed, the son of perdition; Who
opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped;
so that he as God sits in the temple of God, displaying himself as if being
God... for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work in the world:
only he who now restrains (the coming of The Antichrist) will do so, until
he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy
with the brightness of his coming: Destroying him, whose coming is in harmony
with the working of Satan with all power and signs and false miracles,
and with all deception of unrighteousness in them that perish; because
they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."
-
- In both the prophecies of Daniel (OT)
and John the Revelator (NT), this final evil king, associated with ten
rulers whom give their power and allegiance to him, is very short-lived,
as is his empire of destruction and bloodshed:
-
- (OT) Daniel 7:24
"And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:
and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first,
and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against
the most High God, and shall wear down the saints of the Highest One, and
think to make changes in times and laws: and they shall be given into his
hand for three and one half years. But the judgment shall sit, and they
shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."
-
- (NT) Revelation 17:10
"And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other
is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue only for a short time."
-
- The Seven Headed Beast
- The Revelation, like Daniel, contains
symbolisms of beasts which represent spiritual, historic and prophetic
realities. Without understanding the prophets as a whole, and especially
Daniel, the beasts of Revelation can be confusing to many. In this case,
however, using Daniel as a key to see the meaning of the vision, the beasts
are clarified; and in addition to this, in both the prophecy of Daniel
and of John, an angelic being of God explains the visions and symbols for
them (and for us).
-
- Daniel is shown 4 beasts, representing
empires from his day forward in time: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and
Rome. John, the New Testament revelator, is shown a seven headed beast
which encompasses all of the empires to have oppressed Israel from before
the time of Daniel to the far future (See graphic below); Egypt, Assyria,
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and, like Daniel, a king arising in
the last days of the Roman power. The two prophecies align perfectly, as
Daniel sees the final evil empire as Rome, but in two forms, one strong
(ancient Rome, which killed Messiah) and one short-lived and weak (the
final empire of The Antichrist). Likewise, John sees that five of the evil
kings behind these empires are already dead in his day, one remains in
John's time, and one is yet to come...
- (NT) Revelation 17:10
"And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other
is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue only for a short time.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is an eighth, and is of the
seven, and goes into destruction. And the ten horns which you saw are ten
kings, which have not at this time received a kingdom; but receive power
as kings for one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give
their power and strength unto the beast."
-
- In Daniels vision of Rome, he sees it
in two parts, one strong and one weak. In a dream given to King Nebuchadnezzar
(which Daniel interprets), he is shown the same 4 empires in the form of
a statue made of various metals, and defines each metal part of the statue
as an empire, from Babylon forward. Rome, the last empire, are the legs
of iron, but the feet are a mix of iron and clay (note also the ten horns
are represented here in ten toes). The strong Rome is clearly defined as
that which kills the Messiah, as shown earlier in Daniel. The second part
of it unites with ten kings of the earth to wrestle power which it does
not have, devoted to a single king to rule all. Daniel sees in a vision
that this evil ruler will rise up and remove three kings of the ten, leaving
seven. Now, one could easily confuse this seven remaining with the seven
kings the angel mentions in the vision of John, but the ten horns are consistent
in both Daniel and the Revelation as distinct and separate from the seven
kings of the seven headed beast (see graphic above). In order to avoid
this confusion, another mystery is unveiled regarding the seven headed
beast which has exclusively to it the 'ten horns'.
-
- John is mystified by something he cannot
comprehend in the vision; a woman, dressed in royal attire, riding the
back of the great seven headed beast with ten horns and ten crowns. She
is called MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT: MOTHER OF WHORES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH. Quite a title! She is the ultimate evil religious manifestation
the world has ever known. She is describes as being drunk with the blood
of saints and having a cup filled with abominations, with which she intoxicates
the entire world. Her abominations are spiritual/religious in nature, by
definition of her traditional position in prophetic symbolism. Throughout
the prophecies of the OT, the people of God is regarded symbolically as
a female. When described as lovely and virginal, she is pure and holy.
When described as a harlot, she is falling away from her holiness and 'screwing
around with the world' and its evil ways. She is supposed to be faithful
to her one husband ... in this sense, God.
As this example was used many times in the OT prophets to exhort the people
of God to leave behind its evil ways and return to God, it is a glaring
symbol here in the Revelation vision of John. Notice the exact connection
between the OT prophet and the NT prophet regarding her:
-
- (OT) Jeremiah 51:6
"Babylon has been like a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, which
made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore
the nations are demented. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed... forsake
her... for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the
skies."
-
- And when Babylon THE GREAT falls ...
-
- (NT) Revelation 18:2
"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great
is fallen, is fallen... For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath
of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication
with her... And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, 'Come out of
her, my people, that you may not be partakers of her sins, and that you
not receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and
God has remembered her lawlessness."
-
- So, the prophecy shows an evil religious
empire riding on top of the seven headed beast with ten horns, which represents
the kings and kingdoms of evil on earth from the time of Egypt to the end
of the age. She sits on top of their history, in the fullness of time,
carried along by its momentum. At the end there is union between the historic
evil and the religious evil in a united power, along with ten kings/rulers
of the earth... all behind one man. The Whore is used by these rulers to
fulfill their objective, and then she is destroyed by them.
This evil leader will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god
or object of worship, and specifically speak blasphemies against the God
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and will make war against the people who call
themselves by Christ's name:
-
- (OT) Daniel 7:20
"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed
against them; Until the Ancient of days (God) came, and judgment was given
to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed
the kingdom."
-
- (NT) Revelation 13:6
"And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his
name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given
unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was
given to him over all races, and languages, and nations. And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him, whose names have not been written in
the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world....
And he causes 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, unless he 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 and sixty six."
-
- (NT) Matthew 24:21 (Jesus speaking of the time of the end)
"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be again. And
unless those days were cut short, there should no human life left on earth:
but for the sake of the Elect, those days have been cut short. Then if
any man shall say to you, 'Come, The Christ is here', or 'there,' do not
believe it. For there will arise false Christs, and false prophets, and
shall show great signs and miracles; so much so that, if it were possible,
they could even deceive the very Elect (The chosen of God). Remember, I
have told you in advance. So, if they shall say to you, 'Look, he is in
the desert,' do not go; or 'Come, he is in this place over here,' do not
believe it. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and flashes far
into the west; so shall be the coming of the Messiah."
-
- (NT) Matthew 24:30 (Jesus speaking)
"And then shall appear the sign of the Messiah in the sky: and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Messiah
coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory."
-
-
- The Last Days
-
- It is believed by many that this Antichrist
will be a man who receives a fatal head wound and miraculously revives,
however this is not expressly stated in the prophecies of Daniel or John.
Rather, John sees that one of the seven heads (the seven evil kings/kingdoms
of history) receives "the wound of the sword and yet lived" and
because of this the world would marvel. The wound of the sword should be
interpreted by common prophetic metaphor to mean the stroke of war, death
impacted by execution or battle. This seems more parallel with Daniel's
mysterious Rome in two acts, than a personal resurrection display on the
part of the Antichrist himself (though that is certainly possible). The
'man' Antichrist is 'of the seven' heads, but 'is an eighth' king himself,
according to the angel in the Revelation. This means that the king seen
as the 7th will be succeeded by this brief Son of Perdition, the final
wicked one. However, some believe the distinction between his 7th and the
8th is locked in the mystery of his own Satanic resurrection. It would
certainly be prime opportunity for him to make his claims of being 'God.'
It's clear from the prophets... anything is possible. Ultimately, however,
the Beast is more the overview symbol of the historic empires which persecuted
the people of God, from Egypt to the present. The Roman kingdom did indeed
receive the stroke of the sword, and yet lived, even rising from the grave
and claiming itself 'The Holy Roman Empire.' So the mystery is played out
nonetheless and another enigma flourishes in the words of the prophets
even to this day. As for the mystery of the ten kings, they could be ten
world leaders or ten leaders of a collective power. At this time, many
look to the rise of the European Economic Community (EEC) as a potential
giant in the world, presently with 13 leaders/members. It it possible there
will be a figurehead arise among them who will literally be 'king of Europe'
and dominate the scene (Prince Charles once applied for this status and
was rejected by the Community). Time will tell. But we do know from the
prophets that Europe will be the spawning ground of the final dictator,
with Rome as the centerpiece. After his exploits and terror, those left
in the world will be astonished that this particular man was the great
'beast' of the Apocalypse:
-
- (OT) Isaiah 14:15
- "They that see you shall narrowly
look upon you, and consider you, saying, 'Is this the man that made the
earth tremble, that shook mighty kingdoms? Is this him that made the world
into a wilderness, and destroyed its cities?"
-
- Since the time of Rome's awesome power
of conquest in ancient times over most of the known world, crushing all
in its path, being unlike any which came before it as Daniel foretold,
to the strange and mysterious re-birth of the empire under seemingly 'christian'
rulership in a marriage of church and state called the 'Holy Roman Empire,'
Rome remains the focus of end times prophecy. In its own right, through
several centuries of bloodshed in the name of religion and conquest under
the moniker of 'holiness,' it establishes a broad base of history as the
final kingdom of mystery and evil to come upon the world according to Daniel
and John, before the advent of the Kingdom of God, established by the bodily
return of the resurrected Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Neither Daniel nor John leave room for another after it, only a brief rebirth
of Roman power united by ten world leaders focused on the agenda of a single
ruthless dictator for a period of three and one half years.
-
- Several times in history since the prophets
have spoken, events have seemingly played themselves out in mock representation
of the prophetic devices of the last days and the kingdom of evil. From
Antiochus Epiphanes, who sacked Jerusalem and entered the holy temple,
erecting a statue of the pagan god Zeus, demanding its worship and slaughtering
a pig upon the holy altar, to Adolf Hilter's most ferocious attempts to
usher in a millennium of Nazi power in complete world domination, and the
spectacle of mass slaughter of the jews. Time and time again, it appears
something attempts to rise up, only to fade away, bringing to mind the
words of the Apostle Paul:
-
- (NT) 2 Thessalonians 2:3
"Let no man deceive you by any means: for The Day of the Lord*
shall not come, until first there is a falling away [from the faith], and
then that man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that
he as God sits in the temple of God, displaying himself as if being God...
for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work in the world: only
he who now restrains will do so, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord will consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming."
-
- It is clear that the plan and purpose
of God withholds this monstrous being from taking power until the time
foreordained, in the same way that Jesus says the days of the end have
been cut short in destiny, for otherwise there would be no life left on
planet earth. Each of the kings shown in the prophecies of Daniel and John
was an attempt by the power of evil to rise up and overcome the world,
each head of the beast a blasphemous element of a hydra seeking worldly
power, conquering it for the dark forces and sealing the fate of humanity
in a godless, darkened world. And each time, it has been squelched, overpowered
or dissolved. Most collapsed from within by the weight of their own evil
and corruption. But the lingering empire structure remains. The global
tyranny of evil has never passed, and one day it will be organized, rallied
and empowered at the right time by one diabolical human being, whose allegiance
is to Satan and to self.
-
- Jesus makes a striking prophetic statement
in the Gospels, giving a clue to the time of the end. He says "Now
learn a parable of the fig tree; When its branch is still tender, and puts
forth leaves, you know that summer is near: So likewise, when ye shall
see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Truly I say
unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
-
- What generation was he speaking of? Daniel
saw the time of Rome as a collapsed event, seemingly swift from the time
of Messiah, to the coming evil king, to the establishment of the eternal
kingdom of God on earth. It is clear from the prophets time can play serious
tricks on mankind, as Jesus was crucified and raised roughly 2000 years
ago and much of the 'end times' prophetic elements have not been fulfilled
as yet. Scripture explains this gap as 'the time of the gentiles' when
the message of Christ would be taken into all parts of the earth. But what
is more uncanny for us today is Jesus' parable of the fig tree, for throughout
Old Testament scripture, ISRAEL is symbolically the fig tree. After Titus
of Rome in 70 A.D. had Jerusalem plowed and destroyed (As Daniel and Jesus'
both prophesied), the Jews were scattered into all the world. There was
no Israel, only Palestine, overrun by Gentiles and Arabs. Then miraculously
in 1948, on the heels of Adolf Hitler's genocidal reign of terror, The
British government which possessed Palestine as a holding made it possible
for Jews to flee to their native homeland, establishing later by the United
Nations charter "The State of Israel," a Jewish sovereign. National
Israel was reborn. The fig tree had bloomed in the desert. In 1968, the
Israeli army battled the Egyptians for rightful title and ownership of
the City of King David, Jerusalem ... and in eight days conquered the Egyptian
armies and reclaimed their ancient capitol. The prophets were being fulfilled
yet again, and this time in an age when the seemingly peculiar predictions
of both Old and New Testament prophecies could easily come to pass; nuclear
devastation, a global government and a New World Order, the sun and moon
blotted out by black smoke, cancerous plagues sweeping across the world
along with death and war and famine... the four horesemen of the Apocalypse
and the battle of Armageddon. The generation which sees all the things
Jesus speaks of will not pass until all things are fulfilled (of the prophets).
That generation is now.
-
- One Old Testament prophecy speaks of
a bizarre plague sent by God upon the warring factions who gather in battle
in the holy land at the end:
-
- (OT) Zechariah 14:12
"And this will be the plague which the Lord will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will dissolve away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes will dissolve away in their
sockets, and their tongue will dissolve away in their mouth. And it shall
come to pass in that day, that a great terror from the Lord shall be upon
them all; and each man and his neighbor shall be turned against one another
in struggle."
-
- Before the atomic bomb such a prophecy
seemed too strange to count as literal. Now we see precisely what the prophet
foretells for our times, even noting the immense terror and disorder that
will come upon people when that hour arrives upon the earth. As Jesus said:
-
- (NT) Luke 21:25
- "And there shall be signs in the
sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress among
nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing
them for fear, for awaiting those things which are coming on the earth:
for the powers of heaven shall be shaken."
-
- Obviously, the material on The Antichrist
is voluminous can cannot be completely addressed in a short article. But
the main emphasis here is to familiarize one with the pattern of his behavior,
his intent and purposes, his personal character, his unique role in history
and to give a general but precise discourse on the elements of the prophets
in relation to the final evil ruler of the world. His reign will be short,
but he will destroy to degrees never before achieved in human history.
Despite those days being cut short, as Jesus said, the Revelation vision
tells us that the destruction which will come upon the earth by reason
of this one man and those who support him will almost extinguish life on
earth. But then, as Daniel and all the other prophets proclaim, his is
the last evil empire and it will be followed by the Kingdom of God on earth
and everlasting peace and truth. The lion will lie down the with lamb.
War will come to an end forever. Healing will be brought to all nations
and the scourge of evil will be removed from the earth. And the earth itself
will be cleansed. Considering the weight of evidence from the prophets
of old, and their words being fulfilled to the letter in empires and kingdoms,
and personally in Jesus of Nazareth, how much surer are Jesus' own words
of the end, and the words of his Apostles to whom the same spirit of prophecy
was given?
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- (NT) Revelation 11:18
"And the nations were angry, and the wrath of God is come, and the
time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou should give
reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear
thy name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth."
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- *note: 'The
Day of the Lord' in this passage is speaking of the Second Coming of Christ
to the earth, as anticipated by Paul and the other Apostles. However, the
term 'Day of the Lord' also applies to the entire scenario Paul presents,
which is both the Second Coming, the revelation of The Antichrist and
the resulting confrontation between Christ and Antichrist. As revealed
in Old Testament scripture, the Day of the Lord is the time of God's vengeance
upon evil which comes in fire and most profoundly in the battle of Armageddon,
when the armies of the final one-world state lead by Antichrist will converge
in the valley of Megiddo, north of Jerusalem, preparing to attack the city.
It is at this moment that the prophets agree, the Lord himself will appear
and take vengeance, destroying Antichrist himself, and then going forth
in battle, in flaming fire, against the armies gathered. The prophecy of
Isaiah in the OT contains perhaps the most detailed descriptions of the
battle of Armageddon.
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