Many today are wondering about the identity of the Antichrist. Who is he, and when will he appear? Horrifying events are occurring more and more often in America and throughout much of the professedly “Christian” Western world. Truly awful, Satan-inspired tragedies with increasing ferocity continue to strike humanity. The “Antichrist” is directly behind many of these events!
After September 11, 2001, many began to wonder if Osama bin Laden was the prophesied end-time “Antichrist”? A decade earlier, some suspected that it might have been Saddam Hussein, and before that, suspicion fell on Mikhail Gorbachev. In more recent years, people have claimed that this mantle of evil falls on Barak Obama. Even today, some consider Adolf Hitler the personification of the Antichrist. Surrounded by all this confusion, can we really know? Can it be proved from the Bible who “Antichrist” really is and when he will appear?
Historically, most Protestant theologians of past generations assumed that the pope of Rome was the “Antichrist.” In fact, the primary founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, declared on August 18, 1520, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist” (Le Roy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2, p. 256).
Later, John Calvin, founder of what became the Presbyterian church, stated in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, “Some persons think us too severe and censorious, when we call the Roman pontiff, Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak, and whose language we adopt. . . I shall briefly shew that they (Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy” (p. 149).
Without naming names, and by using figurative language, the Bible makes it clear who this ancient power, the Antichrist, really is.
The apostle Paul warned in his day, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [of Christ’s return] will not come unless the falling away [from the truth] comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition . . . For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7–8).
Shortly before Christ’s return, the Antichrist system will be headed by a figure called the “man of sin,” the “son of perdition”, or the “lawless one.” This system, which will perform powerful signs and “lying wonders” to deceive the whole world, is described elsewhere in Scripture as the great, miracle-working “false prophet” (Revelation 13:13; 19:20) and as Babylon the Great (Revelation 17).
Jesus Himself warned, “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4–5).
Because the Antichrist comes in a Christian disguise, most people unthinkingly assume that the Antichrist is Christian. Having “Christ” stamped on the outside of the package doesn’t mean that Christ approves of what is on the inside. This mass deception about the Antichrist is so widespread and so believable because many of its principles “look good” on the surface. Instead, it is false Christianity disguised as the real thing in order to deceive those who fail to study their Bibles.
In Revelation 17, the last day Antichrist, is called Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots (Revelation 17:5). She is said to sit ‘on many waters’ (Revelation 17:1). ‘Waters’ are a symbol of “peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (Revelation 17:15). In other words, in the last days, she will sit on (control), the great sea of humanity. Antichrist is also described in Revelation 13 as a beast rising out of the sea, that is, from among many people groups.
A ‘woman’ in Bible prophecy is a symbol of a church. Either a pure church (Revelation 12:1 and 2 Corinthians 11:2) or an impure church such as this harlot woman clothed in purple, scarlet, and fine gold, who commits spiritual adultery with the kings (political leaders) of the world (Revelation 17:1-5). To commit adultery or fornication with kings is for a professedly Christian church or churches to join with the power of the state to enforce her religious laws. It is a persecuting church-state alliance.
This Antichrist political system, disguised as a church, has caused the deaths of untold millions in the past, and many more will die at her hand in the future (Revelation 17:6 and Revelation 13:7, 15). She is destined to dramatically change the lives of all those living in the end times. This harlot continues to exist right up to the Second Coming of Christ, for God’s word describes “ten horns” or ten political powers (Revelation 17:12) that will arise just before He comes: “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful . . . And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (Revelation 17:14, 16).
So, when will this Antichrist appear? He is already here, and has been around for a long, long time in various disguises. The original Antichrist was Satan himself, who, disguised as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, deceived Eve into disobeying an explicit command of God. Since then, he has worked through various powerful world governments, and especially through church-state alliances, to persecute faithful children of God whose only crime is the desire to be obedient to the Word of God (Revelation 14:12).
To identify the last great Antichrist system which will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ, look for these indicators:
- An amalgamation of Christian churches aggressively pushing for a union with the state powers to enact religious laws. The reasons will seem reasonable and good but always remember that force is the last resort of every false religion. It is a sign that these churches have lost the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ never compels anyone to believe in Him. He invites, ‘Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government.
- When religion rules the state, you can only look for persecution to follow. Man’s rules and laws change with the wind. What is legal one day is illegal the next. God’s law is written in stone and never changes (Exodus 31:18, 32:16; 34:1). Religious laws and persecution of minorities are a sure sign of the antichrist.
- Antichrist, Babylon the Great, will appear at first as a great “peacemaker” and “benefactor” of humanity. Before long, he will begin performing miracles—even bringing fire down from heaven (Revelation 13:13).
- The ruling head of this union of apostate ‘Christian’ churches will demand worship by enforcing his mark, his sign of authority, upon the world. This mark will involve a forced compliance to the changes he has blasphemously made to God’s law, with the Sabbath being the central issue. Jesus warned His followers, that just before He comes the second time, “they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). But we need not fear. Christ’s last words to His faithful followers were, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28: 20). The faithful are never left alone without the support, strength, and comfort of heaven.
In his well-documented book A Woman Rides the Beast (pp. 243–244), author Dave Hunt describes what the “woman” did for hundreds of years during the Middle Ages:
Roman Catholicism became “the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen. . . commanding the throne (the ruling powers) to impose the Christian (Catholic) religion on all its subjects. Innocent III murdered far more Christians in one afternoon . . . than any Roman emperor did in his entire reign.”
Will Durant writes candidly: “Compared with the persecution of heresy in Europe from 1227 to 1492, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first three centuries after Christ was a mild and humane procedure. Making every allowance required by a historian and permitted to a Christian, we must rank the Inquisition, along with the wars and persecutions of our time, as among the darkest blots on the record of mankind, revealing a ferocity unknown in any beast.”
“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues’” (Revelation 18:3–4).
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