The Antichrist.

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Addendum

The Antichrist

The prefix “anti” is used to describe a person or organization that is against, or opposes, or counterfeits something.  So an “anti” Christ would be a person or organization that is against, opposes, or counterfeits Christ.  In the Bible, the term antichrist is not found in the book of Revelation.  Here are some verses where you will find this term.

“…just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared…”  1 John 2:18  John, the same John who wrote Revelation, says there were antichrists in his time so this term is not limited to one person at the end of time, as many seem to believe.

“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?  This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”  1 John 2:22  Here we see that an antichrist is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and therefore an antichrist is one who denies God the Father and Son.

“…every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”  1 John 4:3  Even in John’s day there were people who said Jesus was just a man, or just a good man, or just a prophet.  They denied then, and millions deny today, that Jesus is from God.

As you can see, there have been antichrists for 2000 years.  There is no reason to use the term in any special way or as referring to any special person in our study of end time events.

Addendum

Prophecy uses symbolic language to refer to literal things and people.  Here is a list of what we covered in this chapter.  Also, see Appendix 2 for a more detailed explanation of these symbols and their meanings.

SYMBOL

MEANING

King of North/                          United States of America

Lamb from Earth

King of South/                           Radical Islamists

Egypt

False Prophet                             US Protestant Leader

Image of Beast                           Unification of Political, Protestant and Catholic Powers

Mark of Beast                             Compliance with Demands of Image of Beast

Babylon the Great                       False Church, Jezebel, Catholicism

Revelation: Probation Closes.

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Probation Closed

“But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them (the two witnesses, the two olive trees, the Holy Spirit and Jesus), and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.  And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.”  Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.  And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.  The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.”  Rev. 11:11-14

The three and one half years have passed.  Those who received the mark of the beast, whether his name or his number, are locked in with their choice and tremble with great fear.  The Holy Spirit and Jesus stop working and leave the earth on its own.

In Chapter 12 of the book of John a voice came out of heaven and spoke to Jesus.  In verse 29 it says, “So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.””   Just as some who were standing around Jesus knew they had heard a voice while others thought it was simply thunder, so too when probation closes at the end of time on this earth.  Some will know that the Holy Spirit has left this earth and that Jesus has stopped interceding for us, while others will not have a clue.

Will you know when probation closes?  Will you be sealed by God or will you have received the mark of the beast?  Probation is going to close and we must make a choice as to what side we will be on.

  

Revelation: The Third Angel's Message.

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The Third Angel's Message:

“Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger…”” “Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.  And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.””  Rev. 14:9, 10, 13

          “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” Rev. 18:4, 5

          Time is up for Babylon, for the beast and its image, for the dragon Satan.  God has withdrawn from them and is calling those who still have the chance for salvation to come out and join Jesus’ true followers and receive the seal of God: to obey only God’s commandments and to trust only in Jesus for salvation. 

Probation is almost closed and the choice must be made by every person left alive on the earth: will they join God or will they join Satan, will they be saved or will they participate in the judgment plagues God is about to send on the earth?

Revelation: The First and Second Angels' Messages.

The Three Angel’s Messages.

First Angel:  

            “And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of water.””  Rev. 14:6, 7

            This first angel’s message states that the gospel has been preached to the whole world; in chapter one of this book we saw that we are already very close to seeing the gospel spread to the entire world.

This first angel also warns the world to worship God, the creator.  Notice once again that God is referred to as the Creator.  This is significant in that it points out one of the things the earth needs to be reminded of one last time. Times and laws were changed by man, not by God, and the law having to do with time and that also contains God’s title as our creator is the law regarding the Sabbath (see chapter five of this book).  Therefore, one way in which we worship God is by honoring his authorship of everything when we keep holy His Sabbath day—Saturday.

Second Angel:   

“And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.””  Rev. 14:8

          We saw in chapter four of this book that “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots…” (Rev. 17:5) was Jezebel, the false church. 

What does it mean that she is the mother of harlots?  Well, if harlots are impure women, and women in prophecy refer to churches, the harlot daughters of Babylon the great would be false churches joined with the mother of all false churches.  Protestantism united with Catholicism.

          The second Angel’s message is repeated in more detail in Revelation 18.

          “…“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!  She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”  Rev. 18:2, 3

          The Holy Spirit is not working in Babylon; demons and unclean spirits are.  Politicians and business people were working with her and becoming powerful and rich by doing so.  But the religious war is going badly (one third of mankind is dead) and Babylon is being destroyed.  Revelation 18:9-19 describes the despair and mourning coming from those who followed Babylon and have seen their world collapse.

Revelation: The Third Woe.

The Third Woe: Persecution - Probation Closes.

            “And it was given to him (the US religious power, the false prophet) to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”  Rev. 13:15

 

Here we have reached what we had been warned about: a repetition of the persecutions experienced by the Thyatira and Sardis churches.  Remember in chapter five of this book that these churches were represented by two lamp stands along with the two olive trees of the Holy Spirit and Jesus?  They witnessed and were persecuted for 1260 years from 538 CE to 1798 CE.  Well, if we go back to Revelation 11, we see in verse seven that the beast who had his wound healed and came out of the abyss (see the previous section of this chapter entitled “Resurrection of the Beast”) makes war, overcomes, and kills these witnesses.  But how can that be?  Thyatira and Sardis are church eras that existed long ago.  Yes, that is true, but the Holy Spirit and Jesus (the two olive trees) are still in this world working with and for true believers, witnessing to the truth, and calling for all who will to accept salvation. 

“And their (the two witnesses, the two olive trees, the Holy Spirit and Jesus) dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city…Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.  And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.”  Revelation 11:8-10

The persecutions will be widespread and will last for three and one half years (3 ½ days, see Appendix 2).  The start time for this period could be when the beast regains power, when the laws are passed requiring everyone to obey the image of the beast, or it could be another event.  We cannot know.  But during this time the beast, its image, and the false prophet will appear to have complete control over the Christian world.  The work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus will have been nullified and replaced with man-made rules and religions. The torment of a guilty conscience, the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, submission to the will of Jesus seem to have been eliminated and this will lead to great rejoicing by those bearing the mark of the beast. 

The passing of a death sentence against those followers of  God who refuse to receive the mark of the beast, ushers in the closing hours of probation.  Those of us who refuse to follow the false prophet and become part of the image of the beast (the combination of religious denominations and political powers) will be persecuted and some will be killed.  Why?  Because the religious war with the radical Muslims has killed one third of the world’s population, and the other five trumpet judgments are making life on earth a living hell.  It will be thought that God has turned his back on the Western Christian world and the only way to regain his His favor is to act perfectly, according to apostate Protestantism’s definition of perfection.  The best and easiest way they can see to do this is to pass laws enforcing compliance with whatever laws they consider of great importance. 

Once again we see works and deeds being substituted for simple faith in Jesus’ righteousness.  Our duty is to God first and foremost, so when these so-called religious laws are passed we must compare them to what God has said in his Bible.  “To the law and to the testimony!  If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” Is. 8:20  Trust in Jesus and obey him; do not trust in man-made laws or in any good deed you can perform.

Revelation: The Sixth Trumpet.

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Sixth Trumpet:  Religious War, 1/3 of Man Killed.

“Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice…” Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”  And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.  The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.  And this is how I saw in the vision…the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.  A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.  The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols…and they did not repent of their murders nor of the sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” 

          Here we see that angels are holding back a war that will originate from the Middle East, where the Euphrates River is. 

But when the sixth trumpet sounds, the angels will back off and a world war will erupt.  We can see right now in world events that the Middle East has and is a place of trouble.  Israel and its neighbors have fought for decades, and now the West and radical Muslims are fighting and it is going to get worse.  The three plagues of fire, smoke and brimstone that kill one third of mankind can easily be seen as nuclear devastation.

World War III is right around the corner.  The king of the North (the US) and the king of the South (radical Islam) are already in conflict; it is just a matter of time before it escalates and the sixth trumpet is fulfilled.

Revelation: 666 & The Mark of the Beast.

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Mark of the Beast: Name or 666

          Revelation 14:9 says, “If anyone worships the beast or his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand….”  We see that the mark comes from worshipping the beast or his image.

          “And he (the United States) causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who had the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom.  Let him who had understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”  Rev. 13:16-18

          It says here in the part of Revelation 13 that describes the United States that the mark of the beast is either his name or the number of his name and those who refuse to worship the beast or his image will not be able to buy or sell.

          We saw in the last chapter of this book that for every true and good thing from God, Satan has a counterfeit: God has a church, Satan has a church; God has a Sabbath, Satan has a Sabbath; God marks his believers, Satan marks his believers.  And just as we saw in the last chapter that the seal of God is not a visible mark, so too the mark of the beast will not be a visible mark or stamp.  The mark of the beast on the forehead represents those who are unwaveringly committed to following the false prophet and the beast and its image.  They are “named” among the most faithful and radical followers of the beast.

 The mark of the beast on the hand represents those who follow along simply because it is easier than fighting and dying for God’s truth.  They act a good part and are simply “numbered” among the throngs of those who follow the beast for the sake of convenience. 

We know that true and good things from God are counterfeited by Satan.  You have probably already noticed that God uses the number seven a lot when describing true and holy things (seventh day Sabbath, seven days of creation, seven churches, seven judgments, etc), so a close counterfeit, signifying those things that are untrue or unholy, would be the number six.  That is all the number 666 probably means. 

No sane or half intelligent person would willingly use, or allow to be used, an identification as obvious as the number 666.  Satan and his followers are much smarter than that.  We will be able to recognize the false prophet by his actions and words; a number is irrelevant.