No 6

(The Influence of Antichrist)

Several Bible commentators agree that the antichrist will appear once the Church has been raptured as described in 1 Thessalonians 4 : 16, 17 “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…..”. He will be a strong political leader with great charisma and very strong influence. He will form a worldwide government and will solve all the world’s problems regarding distribution of resources, hunger, conflicts between countries and the financial imbalance (the beast of Rev 13). He will align himself with the religious community as well and introduce the ecumenical church through associations such as the World Council of Churches or the National Councils of Churches (the false prophet in Rev 16 : 13). Everyone will believe that he is the Messiah, even the Jews. Big mistake!! Because that is when he will attempt to sit himself down in the restored temple in Jerusalem and declare that he is God – “..so that he as God sittith in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess 2 : 4b). It will take approximately seven years for him to accomplish all this relating to the 70^th week in the book of Daniel. However, his arrogance will not be tolerated by the One called Faithful and True who rides a white horse. Antichrist will be soundly defeated by Jesus Christ in His Second Coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Antichrist will be cast into the bottomless pit for 1000 years and will be released for a short while at the end of the 1000 year period (Rev 19 :11 to 20 : 10) to eventually end up in the lake of fire for eternity along with the beast and the false prophet who were already there since Rev 19 : 20. What should we all do as Christians in the meantime? Tell as many people as possible of what we know about our blessed hope and the saving power of Jesus Christ. Let’s get going!!!