The Antichrist

The Apostle John is the only Bible writer to use the terms antichrist and last hour. The antichrist leads an army of demons and men to fight and devastate God’s Church! Everyone on Earth needs to hear and understand this message, because it leads to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

“Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18; Revised Standard Version). The antichrist taking control of God’s Church—95 percent of the brethren—is a sign that we’re in the last hour. Other antichrists follow this main antichrist in revolt and rebellion against God. You can and should prove this! (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

John wrote this warning with tremendous urgency because he didn’t realize that what the Church in his day was going through was only a type of the rebellion in this end time. He thought his message applied mainly to his time, but it’s really mainly for us!

How could one man who fights directly against Christ ever seize power over God’s own Church? This was only possible because God allowed it as punishment for His people’s disobedience. Here we have the greatest crisis in the world because 50 percent of these Laodicean rebels will lose their salvation. That’s thousands and thousands of people!

The antichrist is the number one tool of Satan the devil! “They went out from us, but they were not of us …” (1 John 2:19). This wicked man and his rebel followers were enemies within God’s own Church but never truly “of us”—never part of God’s loyal elect! We must be aware of when this happened. Only God’s little flock holds on to His precious truth.

John was the disciple closest to Christ (John 13:23). Only John lived into old age and died a natural death, whereas all the other apostles were martyred. Christ spent more time with John because He knew that John would live much longer and witness a lot more betrayal inside the Church. He let John know what was going on.

“I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21). Knowing the truth is different from living it and having the truth live in you! John corrected the brethren for not loving the truth enough to protect it, despite knowing better.

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (verse 22). The antichrist rejects the God Family!

“Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also” (verse 23). God’s people lost the God Family vision—the good news of the coming Kingdom, or Family, of God that will administer the government of God as the Bride of Christ in the wonderful World Tomorrow! We will share David’s throne with Christ! Only the firstfruits receive such an awesome opportunity.

“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father” (verse 24). God’s people in John’s day and in this end time didn’t continue living by the God Family vision. The antichrist inside the Church, led strongly by the devil in a way that others simply aren’t, yielded himself to the devil and fought so vehemently against Christ.

God commands His little flock to expose the antichrist and to warn about what has happened to the Church. If God’s own Church has been destroyed, where does that leave the rest of the world?

“These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you” (verse 26). The antichrist and others who joined him in the same spirit seduced God’s people away from God! Nothing is more serious than that in this seventh and final Laodicean Church era! Only 5 percent of the people still cling to God.

Antiochus

The Prophet Daniel gives more insight into the antichrist but uses a different name: Antiochus. Can Satan destroy a church or even multiple countries? Yes, he can. He has.

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4). God told Daniel, This message is not for your time but for the end time!

The Bible as History says of the ancient Antiochus Epiphanes: “Israel had been spared none of the horror and ignominy which could befall a nation. But never before, neither under the Assyrians nor under the Babylonians, had it received such a blow as the edict issued by Antiochus Epiphanes by which he hoped to crush and destroy the faith of Israel.” Likewise, the end-time Antiochus in God’s Church has destroyed the faith of God’s people!

“And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land” (Daniel 8:9). Any Bible commentary will tell you this is referring to Antiochus Epiphanes. Observing what he did to ancient Israel tells us what the end-time Antiochus would do in God’s Church, which is spiritual Israel.

“And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them” (verse 10). The rsv reads “the host of the stars.” God’s own people are helped by many stars, or angels of God (Revelation 1:20)—if they desire help. Satan and Antiochus “stamped” on the stars only because God’s people rebelled and lost His protection! They lacked faith and became spiritually lukewarm—or worse.

Strong’s Concordance defines host this way: “a mass of persons, especially organized for war; soldiers, armies.” A host can refer to an army of demons, angels or men. God’s army is angels and loyal saints; Satan’s army is demons and rebel saints. The rebels actually fight for Satan inside God’s own Church! Talk about devastation!

Satan won the war with 95 percent of God’s people. Can you pinpoint where this occurred in the end time? Study my free booklet Daniel—Unsealed at Last! and my son’s free book Raising the Ruins for a detailed explanation.

‘And I Daniel Fainted’

“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire” (Revelation 10:1). This is a mighty, radiant, fiery angel of God! We need God’s angelic army on our side to fight back against Satan’s army! With God, we always win; without God, we always lose.

Satan the devil causes the nations to tremble! (Isaiah 14:16). That’s real power! But who today believes in the existence of a devil? Who believes in an awesome God far more powerful than Satan?

“Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down” (Daniel 8:11). The end-time Antiochus inside the Church stopped God’s work. He personally confronted and fought the prince of the host, or Christ Himself!

“And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered” (verse 12). Antiochus and his satanic army defeated God’s people because of transgression—sin! Antiochus cast God’s truth to the ground!

All of this is written in military terms. This is war. But God’s angels can’t help the people when they don’t have faith, which is always crushed by sin.

Only an antichrist, or Antiochus, would have the gall to stand up and fight Jesus Christ. He even succeeded in stopping God’s work for several years. God’s loyal people cried out for His work to be restored (verse 13), and God answered that it would be in 2,300 evening and morning sacrifices, or 1,150 days (verse 14). This has been fulfilled to the exact day, as my booklet on Daniel will prove to you.

“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (verses 23-25). This is another Antiochus. He understands dark sentences because he’s also empowered by the devil, the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). Satan has deceived all mankind (Revelation 12:9). He has power, but it’s trivial compared to God’s power.

Antiochus will destroy God’s rebellious people, and 50 percent will repent and sacrifice their lives to enter the God Family. The good news is, when this Antiochus fights Christ, he will be broken. The Holy Roman Empire that he leads will be smashed forever when Christ returns to rule with a rod of iron, bringing peace and happiness and joy to everyone on Earth.

This vision of the future overwhelmed Daniel. “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it” (Daniel 8:27). Are we astonished by this vision like Daniel was? We should be motivated, moved and stirred by seeing Christ’s return. We all want the blessings of abundance that Christ will bring, but are we willing to do what’s necessary to receive them?