Both the all old and the New Testament tell us that something is coming in the future, in fact someone is coming in the future, who is destined to rule the world, but for a limited time only.
I want to invite you today to take your Bible, turn to 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, as we examine one of the most amazing passages about the coming of how this unusual person known as the Beast, The Antichrist, Man of Sin and Son of Perdition.
In Paul's 2nd letter to the Thessalonians chapter 2: 3 he says,“ let no one deceive you by any means of that day in the return of Christ to judge the world at the Battle of Armageddon etc, will not come except there come a falling away first, and then the man of sin, the lawless one, be revealed, the son of perdition”. Then he begins to describe this person, and he begins by “explaining” the “Revelation of the Antichrist”.
In fact, if you read this in the original Greek text, the word is the very same word for the word for “Apocalypse” of the “Revelation of Jesus Christ” which is in the book of the Revelation. The very same term is used here in the “Revelation of the Antichrist”.
He is “revealed” in this passage, in that “he 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, showing himself that he is God”. We begin to see clearly something about the revealing of his identity, and the rebellion that is in his heart , as he begins to rebel against the God of the Bible, the God of Heaven, and he rebels against everything that God stands for the laws of God, the principles of God, and the teaching of God. It’s this rebellion that causes him to oppose God and then exalt himself.
It is when people do not really believe in the God of the Bible, they end up making a God out of themselves. They become God, they decide that they are going to run world by themselves, “me and myself”, and “I am going to make all of my decisions to run my life”. And a person that “self-centered”, that “self focused”, this is “the kind of person that Satan will ultimately indwell and empower” to be the final world ruler in the end times.
The rebellion of the Antichrist will cause him to go to the temple of God and insist that he even be worshiped as God. Now that statement alone tells us that in the last days when the Antichrist is revealed, there must be a Jewish temple. There is no Jewish Temple today, but there are synagogues all over the world, some of them are even called temples and such and such, but they're not Biblical temples or places where the Jewish priesthood are serving and making sacrifices, besides, the first and second temples were destroyed long ago by the Babylonians and the Romans. This is apparently a third Temple that is yet to be rebuilt in the future by the Jewish people. In addition, when we look at all of the passages about the Antichrist, and we discover that eventually he will double-cross the nation of Israel, break his covenant and treaty with Israel according to Daniel the ninth chapter. Then he will then enter the temple that has been rebuilt in the future, sit down in the temple, and the claim that he's God, and demand that the world worship him as God, this one that is revealed, this one who is rebellious, this one who is “restrained” by the power of the holy spirit. Scripture goes on to say in verse six of this passage, “now you know what”, it's a neutral something, that is doing the “withholding” or “restraining”, that he might be “revealed” in his time, and there's that term again of the “Apocalypse”.
The revelation of the Antichrist cannot come yet, as long as “something” is restraining him and holding him back. Now he goes on to say in verse seven, that the mystery of inequity and of lawlessness is already at work in the world. Paul was saying that back in the first century, and has been at work all these centuries, but he says, but he speaks of a “something” who lets or restrains, and will continue to restraining until he “it” is taken out of a way. The only “thing” of that kind that qualifies to be “something” so powerful so as to be able to do this, and yet indeed a be a “sometning”, is that of the Holy Spirit of God. God is the only person in the whole universe powerful enough to restrain the rise of the Antichrist being revealed and then rising to power before it is time for him to do so.And God himself is the person that is “restraining” the arrival of the Antichrist. The passage goes on to explain the resource of the Antichrist is Satan himself. It says that once the “restrainer” is removed, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, that it withdraws his empowerment of the charge. Then, verse eight says that wicked one will be “revealed”, whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him who is coming is after the working of Satan.
In other words, the power behind the Beast is Satan who is described in the book of Revelation as the Dragon. Now you have these powerful symbolic pictures of the book of the revelation concerning the Dragon, how the dragon empowers the Beast and ultimately the controls the woman, who is destined to pervert the world in the last days.
The reminder in Scripture, is there is an ominous world leader coming in the future:
Who is he?
When will he come?
Where will he come from?
What will he be like?
What will he do?
As we have already seen, the character and the nature of the Antichrist the Beast that will rise in the last days. Notice again this revelation and how he is revealed in the word of God, in that he is revealed ultimately by the permission of God, and also by the empowerment of Satan himself.
Secondly, we have seen his rebellion. Whereby, he literally goes to the temple of God and claim that he is God, and demands that the world worship him as God. And, then we have seen the restraint of the Spirit of God, who withholds him, and keeps him from coming to power, even now.
People are always afraid this person or that person is going to be the Antichrist, or it usually is famous and well-known international individual, international leader, President of the United States or whatever, and it never turns out to be that person. Even many today claim that person to be Barak Obama, but it is not. Why? Because, Satan cannot empower anybody to be the Antichrist until after the removal of the restrainer, and that has not yet occurred.
Once the restrainer is removed, then Satan indwells this person, it is then Satan chooses the candidate to be the Antichrist. So, that means in all essence, that there is no Antichrist on the scene today, not even right now.
There may be the Antichrist like individuals, but those are Antichrist like attitudes, and do not mean that those people are the Antichrist, not at all.(1) Hitler, who wants to exterminate the Jews.
(2) Stalin, who hates Christians and wants to exterminate them.
(3) It may be some Muslim extremists somewhere out there who are mad the rest of the world.
The Bible gives us a “very clear picture” of this individual, and lets us know that he can only come to power:
(1) By the permission of God
(2) When the restrainer is removed
Again, mark that down in your Bibles, 2 Thessalonians 2, and make sure you understand that passage of scripture, as it is one of the most important in the identification of the Antichrist.
(1) The Antichrist may be alive and well today.
(2) He may be moving into power somewhere in the world.
(3) He may already be in power somewhere in the world, but he cannot become empowered by Satan to become the Antichrist until after the removal of the restrainer.
(4) When he does come to power, his religion is one of the deception. And, of course his resource is none other than Satan himself, and his attitude he has that the world must follow me and my believes my ideas in my concepts.
Now, turn to the 13th Chapter of Revelation. Notice again in Revelation 13, It says this “and I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea”. The Sea is the symbol of humanity.
So, this Beast is a “human” that is coming out that “humanity of the world”. Having seven heads, and ten horns, which are identified in the book of Revelation as Satan himself, and on his heads the names of blasphemy. Then he describes this individual as though he had the power (in verse two) of a leopard, a bear, and a lion, but it is the dragon (Satan) is the one that will ultimately empower him.
John is using symbolism out of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, this symbol of the Lion, the Bear, and the leopard, are the Gentile world Powers that would come to rule in the future that Daniel had predicted. Now John in the book of Revelation in the New Testament says the Antichrist is the epitome of all of that. He is the final culmination of the great gentile world rulership of the last days.
He is coming from the Western world. He is a gentile leader and then as scripture says, unusually, in verse 3, “for a I saw one of his heads as though that it were wounded to death”, notice “as though it were”. It isn't clear whether he is dead or not ,“as though it were wounded to death” , and then “his deadly wound was healed”, and then all the world wondered after the Beast and they worshiped the dragon saying, “Who is like the Beast, who can do war with it?”
Many have argued for years if this really is an individual?
Is this an attempted assassination on the Antichrist?
Is this the Antichrist's system that seems to die and then revive again?
The Antichrist isn’t assassinated, and he doesn't have multiple heads. It says “one of his heads was wounded”. He does not have seven heads, in that you kill one of them, no it sounds more like it's a “part of his system” that is destroyed. There appears to be “a kind of destruction”, and yet there is “a resurrection” if you will of this Antichrist. Not to Satan can resurrect the dead, the idea is used symbolically in the passage. It is probably a part of the Empire of the Antichrist that appears to die out, and then revive again?
Now, if indeed the Final Kingdom and Empire of biblical prophecy is the “Roman Empire”, and the Roman Empire ceased to be, and yet the prediction is, it would revive again in the last days. Then the reunification of Europe today in the form of the European Union, this ought to attract our attention.
The very fact that the European Union was established in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome, and calls ultimately for the “city of Rome” to be the capital of the new Europe, if this is true, then this will be resurrection if you will, the revival and restoration of the Beast.
Then this would be the kingdom by which the Antichrist would emerge from, coming out of Europe to ultimately rule the World.
What will happen when he comes?
What will he do?
Who will oppose him?
This will be discussed in Part 2
Elijah Returns
