The Antichrist

Throughout church history, certain Christians have been looking to identify the Antichrist in their lifetime.  They remained so convinced that Christ's return has to come in their lifetime, so the Antichrist has to be among them.  The thinking would go, the world is so terrible, the end must be soon.

To that end, a list of the proposed Antichrist candidates have included Yassar Arafat, the “Beast” super computer of the European Union, Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, Mikhail Gorbachev, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Benito Mussolini, Nero, Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson, David Rockefeller, Anwar Sadat, Saddam Hussein, Willy Brandt, Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, and perhaps, most recently here in America, Barack Obama.

For eight years, we heard of how awful Barack Obama was.  That he was the Antichrist out to take away all Christian freedoms.  The fear of the things he would do.  Particular attention was paid to the near religious fervor that his political rallies had.  The "church" seeing how "those darn atheists" could be deluded by the Antichrist.

And then, nothing really happened.  He was so evil, but now, not so much.  We can still complain about him, but he's not the Antichrist.  We move on.

And that got me to thinking, are we truly going to recognize the Antichrist when he comes?

Benjamin Corey apparently has been wondering the same thing.  In his article on Formerly Fundie he works through the biblical prophecies regarding the Antichrist and points to how they can reach a startling conclusion - our current President Trump.

There's a definite thread here.  Look at the way President Trump has been able to delude parts of the church.  To persuade them into following and supporting him.  

Look at the prophecies:

• The Antichrist will be the leader of a nation that is a military superpower with the ability to trample and crush the entire earth.  - Daniel 7:23
• The Antichrist will be a man who is exceptionally arrogant and will be known for giving boastful speeches. - Daniel 7:8; Revelation 13:5
• The Antichrist will be someone known for making a lot of public threats against people. - Revelation 13:2, Daniel 7:4
• The Antichrist will come from among 7 tall “hills” that each act as a “head.” - Revelation 13:1, Ch. 17 
• The Antichrist will cause people all over the globe to be filled with wonder and “follow” him. - Revelation 13:3
• The Antichrist will be a political outsider with despicable character and a contemptuous personality who wins an election that no one expects him to win. - Daniel 11:21
• The Antichrist will give speeches where he speaks “great things” and then about things that are even “greater.” - Daniel 7:20
• The Antichrist comes to power through collusion with a secret alliance who uses disinformation to help him win - even though he has a minority number of supporters. - Daniel 11:23
• The Antichrist’s rise to power will seem like a miracle that God performed, tricking people into following Satan instead of God without even noticing. - 2 Thessalonians 2:9
• As president, the Antichrist will immediately find ways to make himself and his friends richer - and he will do it in a way that no president had ever done before. - Daniel 11:24
• Once in power the Antichrist will reveal that his heart wants to make alterations to the “appointed times” that are in current laws. - Daniel 7:25
• The Antichrist will make fake news popular and will be a chronic liar.  His followers will believe his delusions because they hate the truth. - Daniel 8:25, 2 Thessalonians 2:10
• The Antichrist will reward those who are completely loyal with powerful positions and lucrative real estate deals. - Daniel 11:39b
• The Bible says that we’ll be able to spot the Antichrist because he will give an arrogant public speech in the middle of his first term where he boasts of “great things” but also uses God’s name as a curse in the same speech. - Revelation 13:5-6
• The Antichrist will draw strong support from many Christians as if they are willfully blind and outright delusional. - Matthew 24:24, 2nd Thessalonians 2:10
• The Antichrist will spend his first term in office having an ongoing feud with the leadership of the nation on his southern border. - Daniel 11:25
• The Antichrist will be so angry at the king to his south that he will decide to intentionally inflict harm on that ethnic group in retaliation. - Daniel 11:28, Zechariah 11:16-17
• The Antichrist will be furious over “rumors and reports” that come from the east and north, and will fly into fits of rage as the reports surface. - Daniel 11:44
• The Antichrist will appear to receive a wound he can’t recover from, but will survive to put down the first attempts to remove him from office. - Revelation 13:3
• The Antichrist will have the nation’s most powerful religious leader influencing the country for him.  This leader will try to convince Christians that the Antichrist is “God’s pick” and that we need to support him. - Revelation 13:11-12
• The Antichrist will see himself as being above everyone else, as if he had no need for God.  He will eventually elevated himself as the God and King of Israel. - 2nd Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 17
• The Antichrist will worship the god of board walls.  - Daniel 11:37-38
• The Antichrist’s most devoted followers will wear a sign of their allegiance to him on their foreheads. - Revelation 13
• But the people who truly know God and remain faithful, will firmly “resist” him. - Daniel 11:32

With Corey's analysis, there is a definite through line that can be drawn from each of these prophecies to President Trump.  It's fairly convincing and somewhat disconcerting.

You should read the article and see how each of these fall into place.  There are facts in there that 

But ultimately, do I think Trump is the Antichrist?

No.

For one, too many people dislike him.

In reality, the prophecies are like Rorschach tests - we see in them what we want to find.  Corey is able to pull some connections together, but there are some real stretches in there as well.

What we should do is remember that the Antichrist will come to deceive us all.  That he will be able to persuade and to draw to him many that would be considered faithful.  That he's not coming in opposition to the church, at least not initially.  

We should learn from the reasons why we have identified people as the Antichrist in the past.  That they may lead political rallies that look like Billy Graham Crusades.  And that they will be able to seduce men and women of the church with political power, putting aside character and morality for position.

Perhaps then, we can recognize him and resist him when he actually arrives.

Rapture

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

1 Thessalonians 4:17

The rapture of the church is one of the most debated concepts in any discussion of Revelation.  While there is no specific chapter or verse that specifically mention a rapture, there are a handful of verses that can lead to the interpretation of a time where believers are "caught up" or raptured in the air.  The general accepted idea of the rapture is that there will be a time in the future where the trumpet will sound and all believers, both living and dead, will be called up in the air to meet with Christ, thus physically uniting Christ and the Church and removing the Church from the world. 

The main question regarding the rapture is usually one of timing. When exactly does the rapture occur with regard to the other events of the Revelation.  One of the most widely held beliefs is in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture. This means that the rapture would occur at the beginning of a seven year period of great turmoil called the tribulation, followed by the millennial rule of Christ, all before the ultimate final judgment.  First proposed and popularized by John Nelson Darby in 1827, this is the view of most Evangelicals.  This particular view has been further popularized by the Left Behind series, as it is the main view of the rapture where the events of Revelation start with a great disappearance of all the believers.  Great for dramatic tension.

In our journey through Revelation, our pastor touched the first verse of chapter four which can lend to this interpretation of the rapture.  "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.  And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'"  In this passage, John seems to be referring to a separate event from the initial vision in chapter one.  In chapter one, John heard the voice like a trumpet, turned around and started seeing the visions of Jesus and the seven churches and seven spirits.  Here John hears the voice again, the sound of a trumpet calling him up to heaven.  This interpretation goes that this sound of a trumpet is the one that will call up the believers to heaven prior the the events of the tribulation unfolding ("what must take place after this").

There are many other interpretations of when and whether the rapture will occur.  Ultimately, it is a mystery and a non-essential for a believer.  There is room for disagreement and lively discussion among believers, because there are only passing references to it in scripture.  At the end of the day, when the rapture occurs is the least interesting question about the rapture.

The more interesting question, the more cutting question about the rapture is the one that is most often unaddressed.  From the beginning of Stonepoint's series on Revelation, we've had a motto for the undertaking of this study.  "Don't be mesmerized by Jesus' second coming if you're not going to tell people about His first coming."  The question relating to the rapture is similar.  The pastor discussed how after the rapture of the church, the world would see what happens when the influence of the church and the Spirit of God are removed.  I agree that the world will be dark indeed when the influence of the Spirit of God is removed, but I wonder about the church.

If your church disappeared today, would the community even notice?  Would anyone other than the members notice if your church just stopping meeting tomorrow?  Would the influence of the church be missed?

Even worse, has the church been such a damaging presence that the community would be better off without it?  Has the church hurt so many people that it has done more harm than good?

These are the tough questions.  It is wonderful to know where you stand on when and if the rapture will occur as described.  To be prepared for that future day.  But it's more important to be a beneficial influence on your community.  To be the salt and light to the world around you. 

Don't wait so expectantly for a rapture that you miss being a servant today.

Revelation

"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near."

Revelation 1:3

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Our church is currently going through a Sunday morning summer study/sermon series on the Revelation of John.  It is an under-preached and under-studied book of the Bible, though interest in the book is always very high.

When our pastor started the series, he polled the congregation asking how many people had previously heard a sermon series on the book, fully expecting very little to affirm that they had heard such a series in the past.

Jamie and I had to smile, as though we may not have heard a specific sermon series, we have led a couple of Bible studies on the book, both in depth and very long lasting (perhaps a little too long).

Revelation is a very interesting book to read and to study.  Largely because of the symbolism, but I think also because of expectations.  There are certain beliefs as to what the Revelation contains that are not exactly true.  For example, most of the "signs of the times" that people are looking for in order to be able to determine when Jesus will come again are not in Revelation.  Those are in Daniel, in Isaiah, and in the Gospels.  Revelation is very much focused on that specific period of the apocalypse (or uncovering).

It's also very revealing to discover just how much the entirety of the book is focused on Israel and the surrounding region.  Put another way, it is heartening and humbling to know that America is not mentioned in the book in any way, shape, or form.  Very humbling when you consider that there is no guarantee America will exist in any meaningful way when the events of the Revelation occur.

What amazed me is how much the Revelation seems both historic and prophetic.  How it is very much tied to the destruction of Jerusalem, Nero, and other first century Jewish history.  And how the events can also seem cyclical, repeating throughout history in some form or another.  Little "a" antichrists leading to a final capital "A" Antichrist.

I am very much looking forward to continuing through this series.  To seeing what new information I can learn from former study.  It's the only book in the Bible with a promise regarding the reading of its words.

So, please do not let any preconceived notions or expectations prevent you from reading and studying this book.  It is worth the read and research.  And there are plenty of commentaries and resources available to help with any questions that you may have.   Don't be afraid to ask any that you may have here.  I may not know the answer, but I'll definitely help track one down.

I Didn't Remember That Before

Last night, we decided to watch a musical with the family.  It's kind of part of our summer movie series at home (just a little early).  Last year we had our Epic Summer focusing on multi-part epics: The Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc.  This year will be Summer Stock, a movie musical series.

We let Avalyn pick the movie, out of about three choices.  And she chose The Wizard of Oz.  She loves this movie.  And we do too of course.  It's a classic for a reason.

Last night, though, I noticed something I had never seen before.  When the group starts out to go get the Witch's broom after seeing the Wizard, they are all carrying weapons.  This I knew and the other weapon choices all fit.  What I had never noticed before is that the Scarecrow is carrying a gun.  Go ahead and check, it's there.

This isn't an instance of something that only became visible with HD, like being able to clearly tell it is a bird not the hanging Munchkin rumor.  The weapon is very visible and prominent in the Scarecrow's hands in several scenes.  It is just something I never noticed before until last night.

This happens every so often.  A missed line, a detail noticed in the background. But it is always fun when it happens in something that is so well known.  So well watched.

This happened to us the other night with the story of Moses as well.  We are reading the Big Picture Interactive Bible Storybook to Avalyn for a second time through and noticed a small bit in the story of Moses that stuck out like never before.

"Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside her.  She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.  When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying.  She took pity on him and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews' children.'"  Exodus 2:5-6 (ESV)

I had forgotten that Pharaoh's daughter specifically noted that Moses was a Hebrew baby.  Note this occurs after Pharaoh has already ordered that all Hebrew male babies should be killed.  By taking in Moses, Pharaoh's daughter is specifically disobeying the direct order of her father.  Her compassion put her in direct conflict with her family and with the law of the land.

We do not know what happens between Pharaoh and his daughter after this point, beyond knowing that Moses is raised in the palace, with Moses' mother as a nursemaid.  It raises interesting questions, though.  Did this action by Pharaoh's daughter create an enmity between Moses and the eventual Pharaoh of the Exodus?  Did this continue and further the mistreatment of the Hebrew people at the hands of the Egyptians?  Though we have no other information in the narrative, this one detail sets the stage for much family drama.

The more you read the Scripture, the more these details can jump out at you, even in the most familiar passages.  This process is the revelation of God.  What revelation have you experienced lately?