Anti-Christ and the End Times

Suave, well bred, intelligent, engaging, charismatic, what do these words have in common with my discussion on the anti-christ? Because I believe that in order for people to believe in the lie of the anti-christ he is certainly not going to come in the form of a person wearing black, with red, glowing eyes, smelling of sulfur and accompanied with some evil music playing wherever he goes. He will likely be those things I have described at the beginning. Sort of a devil wears prada kind of guy who will likely be on the covers of Time Magazine right along side GQ!

Some of the titles he has been referred to are the man of sin, the son of perdition, the little horn, the wicked one, the prince who is to come, the one who makes desolate, and the beast, just to name a few that the anti christ will answer to.

If you google the word anti-christ, you will likely get back more than 5 million pages of information as well as Hollywood's take on so many of those movies detailing his life and even the music industry as well. Marilyn Manson dedicated an entire album to the anti-christ.

If Satan ever had a son, it would be the anti-christ. The only person to ever come so close has been Judas Iscariot, who sold out Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver.

Back in 1970's a poll was taken and 49% of people believed in the anti-christ. In Newsweek in 1999, the same poll revealed that 19% of people believe that the anti-christ is alive right now.

January 17, 2007, a group of scientists have decided to move the doomsday clock ahead to more minutes now putting the end of the world at 5 minutes to midnight. These are not uneducated people, most are noble prize winners and couple that with the knowledge that 27,000 nuclear weapons are in the hands of not only the super power nations but in rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.

In keeping with my previous posts on when all these events will take place and my belief in pre-tribulation of the church, here is more evidence that I believe that this can't happen until the church is raptured first.

2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 - "For the secret power of the 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. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrown with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. "

This is why I believe that the anti-christ can't come until the rapture of the church. That restraining force or the one who now holds it back, is referring to the Holy Spirit through the church, or the godly women and men of our church.

The lawless one will be the anti-christ. So we, as Christians, should continue to look for Jesus and not get so completely consumed with trying to figure out just who the anti-christ is. There is even a website devoted on trying to figure out just who the antichrist is. We need to refocus on efforts on looking to God for the answers instead of what man thinks.

Another reason I believe in pre-tribulation rapture of the church is based on scripture that keeps Christians free from tribulations as a reward. Not to be confused with personal tribulations of our own trials and sufferings.
Philippians 3:10 "I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it." This refers to the personal sufferings, we as believers will all face each day until we die.

Yet if you look back at history you will see that God when he pours out His judgement, his people have been spared. He never pours out His wrath on His people which is what the Great Tribulation will be. It will be 7 years of God's judgement on this Earth.

2 Peter 2:9 "if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.^c]">[c] ¹⁰This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature^d]">[d] and despise authority."

Yet before this scripture reference above we have the story of Noah and Lot who were godly men that we spared before God poured out His wrath on not only the world, through the flood, but the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God reserves His judgment for the unjust not the just.

In the book of Revelation Chapter 6 beginning in verse one, we hear the descriptions of the 4 horsemen and the wrath that each of them brings.

The one who sits on the white horse has been confused by so many as being Jesus Christ, but it is the anti-christ. It is similar because that is how he will deceive the world, coming to us like the Christ and Messiah. The word anti- means against or instead of.
Matthew 24: 4 "Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name claiming, I am the Christ, and will deceive many."

Thus he is the pale version of the real thing. He will come to confuse and deceive many. He will come as a man of peace. He will succeed where others have failed. There have been numerous attempts of getting a peace agreement signed with warring countries but all of them have failed. Yet his accomplishments in this will be so grand that many will call him the new Christ or Messiah.

Even Jews living in the world today, don't believe that Jesus was/is the Messiah. They believe that he will come as a man of peae, and help the Jewish people rebuild their temple, and bring about a peace agreement to their land. They honestly don't care if we call him the anti-christ or God. All the Jews want is peace in their land.

This anti-christ will make all the previous world dictators like, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Hussein, and others, like mild to the acts he will commit against the world and the people in it. Just as Hitler came to deceive so many and was elected head of Germany, so the anti-christ will deceive the whole world with his plans and his ways.

More to come on where America plays a part in all this End of the World and Armageddon plans for our future, tomorrow!