The Activity of the Antichrist
When the Antichrist comes on the scene, the next major event on the timeline is the Tribulation. After Christians have been raptured off of this earth to heaven with the Lord, the world will go through a terrible time called the Tribulation. This event goes by several names.
-Tribulation
-Daniel’s 70th Week
-Time of Jacob’s Trouble
-The Day of the LORD’S wrath
The book of Daniel tells us that this is a 7-year period of severe judgment. The Antichrist will come on the scene as a peacemaker and broker a covenant between Israel and her enemies, only to break the peace at the mid-point, and attempt to annihilate the nation of Israel. Revelation tells us that in the last half of the Tribulation, no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast or the number of his name in their foreheads or hands. Everyone will worship the Antichrist as “god” or be put to death. For those who take his mark and follow him, their eternity will be in the lake of fire. For those who oppose him, he will seek to hunt them down and kill them. The entire book of Revelation is dedicated to giving us details of this most terrible time. We refer to the last half of the Tribulation as the “great tribulation.” This is the way the Bible describes it, since its most intense judgments take place during the last 3 1⁄2 years.
Matthew 24 says that there has never been a time so terrible in the history of the world and that there will never again be a time to compare with it. Those who do not receive Jesus Christ as their Savior will miss the Rapture and those who miss the Rapture will likely go into the Tribulation to experience the wrath of God poured out on the earth.
Matthew 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor e v- er shall be.
After the 7 years of Tribulation, the Lord will return with his heavenly army and fight the Battle of Armageddon. This battle will also encompass the 10 nations that confederated with the Antichrist to exterminate Israel during the Tribulation. This is a 10-day event. The Bible says that the bloodshed will be so great that a river of blood the depth of the horse’s bridle will run through part of the land. The Lord will crush the enemies of Israel and deliver the believing remnant that has been hidden from the Antichrist during the Tribulation.
The Battle of Armageddon is located in hundreds of verses throughout your Bible. It is a huge event, for it introduces the arrival of the King of Kings - the Lord Jesus Christ. At this battle, the Antichrist and the False Prophet are cast into the lake of fire where they will spend eternity. The Antichrist and the people who join with him shall be destroyed at this battle.
At the Battle of Armageddon:
The Lord will return visibly
His heavenly army will return with Him He will deliver Israel from her enemies
He will destroy the 10-nation confederation
The blood runs to the horse’s bridles
The Antichrist and False Prophet are cast in the lake of fire
The book of Revelation discusses the events leading up to Armageddon. The 7-year period (Tribulation) sees the Antichrist rise to power and create an artificial peace between Israel and her enemies. The Tribulation, or Day of the Lord’s Wrath, will officially begin when Israel signs a treaty with the 10 nations around her. This signifies Israel’s “Last Days.” In order to complete the deception, the man of sin will put down 3 of the 10 nations, give the spoils to Israel and establish a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Then, the apostate element of Israel will resume their animal sacrifices, in view of their rejection of the sacrifice of Jesus. This is why the book of Hebrews warns against participating in the old sacrificial system; Jesus has already made the only sacrifice that can take away sins!
Hebrews10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
The “man of sin” will be unique. All but the believing remnant (little flock) will be deceived into thinking he is the long awaited Messiah. When this dispensation of grace is over, the final stage of the time schedule for God’s program with Israel will resume. When that time comes, if you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your all-sufficient Savior, then you will be left to endure the worst period of suffering in the history of the world.
Here are the main events on the Revelation timeline which will this order:
Tribulation (Revelation 4-18)
2ndAdvent/The Return of Jesus Christ (Revelation19)
Battle of Armageddon (Revelation19)
Satan Bound in Bottomless Pit Millennial Reign of Christ on Earth
The Last Great Battle
Satan cast into Lake of Fire
Great White Throne Judgment
THE ANTICHRIST
The Antichrist is the final world ruler before Jesus Christ returns up His kingdom on this earth. The Bible also calls him, the Assyrian.
Isaiah 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Notice the titles: “Assyrian” and “rod of mine anger”. He has many other names but there are three descriptive titles in identifying Daniel’s “coming prince.”
1. Man of sin
2. Son of Perdition – indwelled by Satan
3. Wicked
2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
As a man (the man of sin) and the “son of perdition” he will be the very embodiment of evil. There will be no limit to his wickedness.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Notice the conflict is between two seeds - the “seed of the woman” and the “seed of the serpent.” This is where this cosmic battle began. Next, let’s examine 6 characteristics of this man we call Antichrist that will help us get a picture of what he will be like. The word Antichrist implies a double meaning. We know that “anti” means “against” but it can also mean “instead of.” The Antichrist fits both of the descriptions at the same time. He is against Christ. At the same time, he seeks to set up a kingdom instead of Christ’s. This means that in the Bible we will find many things similar when comparing Jesus Christ and the Antichrist. This is the counterfeiting “instead of” attempt by the Antichrist to convince the world that he is the Messiah.
-Both claim deity
-Both have an army
-Both ride a white horse
-Both have a city that is a bride
-Both are crowned
-Both are accompanied by miracles and signs
We also find that they are opposite to each other. Here the “anti” takes the “against” attitude.
-Son of God vs. Son of Perdition
-The Holy One vs. The Lawless One
-The Mystery of Godliness vs. The Mystery of Iniquity-Seed of the woman vs. the seed of the serpent
-From Heaven vs. From Bottomless Pit
-The Good Shepherd vs. the Idol Shepherd
The point here is that the world will be deceived by the Antichrist.
Revelation 13:11 (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. 12 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. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of 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.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
2 Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The miracles that are performed go a long way to convincing people that the Antichrist is who he says he is, but there is more behind the deception than that. When we see the characteristics of the “beast” then we understand why everyone in general will rush to take the mark. They will believe The Lie.
The Antichrist will be an intellectual genius: Daniel 8:23 , Ezekiel 28:3
The Ezekiel 28 prophecy is directed at the “prince of Tyrus” who pictures the Antichrist and the “King of Tyrus,” which pictures Satan, who indwells the Antichrist. Ezekiel 28:3 is directed at the Antichrist, showing his great wisdom.
The Antichrist will be a captivating speaker: Daniel 11:36, Revelation 13:5
Here is an amazing point. The Antichrist will represent himself as the true Messiah, but he will not hide the fact that he is against the God of Heaven! He will speak openly against God. The world is moving toward a place where they will readily accept this new message, for it is what they wanted all along. The Antichrist will convince them that it is possible to throw off the constraints of God and live without Him. He knows where Jesus Christ will come to the earth and he will have the armies of the world gathered there to oppose Christ and His heavenly army.
The Antichrist will be a powerful man
The Antichrist will control the world’s economy
The Antichrist will be a military leader
The Antichrist will build a one-world religion around him
There are 3 principal schools of thought concerning the prophecies that relate to the Antichrist. The first applies these prophecies to people of the past, to men who have been in their graves for many centuries. The second gives these prophecies a present application, finding their fulfillment in the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. And the third gives them a future application, and looks for their fulfillment by a man who is yet to be revealed. It is this third view which the author holds to. The prophecies concerning the Antichrist have not yet been fulfilled. And they cannot be fulfilled until this present dispensation of grace has run its course. The Holy Spirit now prevents the final outworking of the Mystery of Iniquity and must be removed before the Son of Perdition can be revealed. The Antichrist is not a system of evil or an Anti-christian organization. Instead we are speaking of a single, individual person who has yet to appear. Therefore, the Antichrist is yet future as of the writing of this book. This Antichrist’s kingdom is outlined for us in Daniel 2 which lists the Gentile world empires in succession.
1) Head of Gold- Kingdom of Babylon; more specifically King Nebuchadnezzar (70 years).
2) Chest & arms of Silver- the Medo-Persian Empire (49 yrs/7 weeks).
3) The belly & thighs of Brass- the Grecian Empire (434 yrs/62 weeks).
Unlike Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, Alexander is not specifically mentioned by name in the Scripture. However, he is mentioned by another title- the rough goat. This period runs through the days of the Messiah.
Daniel 8:20-21 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. (You can go back to vv. 3-7 and insert the Medes and Persia for the ram with the two horns) 21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
4) The legs of Iron- Most bible scholars believe this refers to the Roman Empire. However, this nation is not specifically named in the Bible even though it was the next of the Empire nations to rule. Instead, this was the Greco-Roman Empire which eventually split into 2 “legs” of the kingdom under Ptolemy and Seleucus after Alexander the Great.
5) The feet of Iron & Clay- This is the 10-nation confederacy of the antichrist kingdom. Although this kingdom is yet future, this is what is coming next!
THE ACTIVITY OF THE ANTICHRIST
There are two names given in 2 Thessalonians that seem to outline the two distinct activities of the Antichrist. One of those being that he is attempting to pass himself off as Jesus Christ. The other being that his is an adversary of Jesus Christ and Israel.
At this present time, the mystery of iniquity is being held back from coming to its completion by the presence of the One New Man (Eph. 2:15), which will result in the revealing of the man - the Antichrist. This present dispensation of grace ends with the Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13, aka Rapture). The man of sin will not be revealed until after the believers in Jesus Christ have been removed.
The book of Daniel outlines the events that lead up to the Antichrist’s appearance, before Daniel’s 70th Week begins. We know this since he will be the one who confirms the covenant with Israel. Although the Antichrist will start out small from a governmental standpoint, he will quickly rise to be a world power.
In 1957, Henry Spaak, Belgium’s most prominent politician declared:
“We do not want another committee: we have too many already. What is needed is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man and, be he god or devil, we will receive him.”
He will make an unusual appearance to the world when he ascends out of the Bottomless Pit, which we will not discuss here. Since the Antichrist is going to pass himself off as the Messiah to the Jewish people, it would make sense for him to make a “grand entry” at Jerusalem like Christ. Once he is in Jerusalem, he will pose as Christ to Israel, as the “Prince of Peace.” But then the “Red Horse” of the Apocalypse makes his entrance and peace is taken from the earth. When the Antichrist comes to power, there will be 10 horns who have the “power” of kings already in place. He will overthrow 3 of these and the remaining 7 will make obeisance to the Antichrist.
Revelation 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
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.
These 10 horns are pictured by the 10 toes (of iron and clay) in Daniel 2. These 10 rise out of the 4th kingdom of Daniel’s image (Zech. 6:1). These 10 have been the subject of Scripture from the beginning. Cross reference Genesis 15 and Psalm 83.
This article is an excerpt from my book “Alien Agenda: The Return of the Nephilim” which is now available in its 2nd edition in color and now on Kindle.
Other Recommended Reading:
The Assyrian: Satan, His Christ & the Return of the Shadow of Degrees by David Winston Busch, Amazon.com
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