Who is the antichrist?, New Christian Course

Who is the Antichrist?

It is quite likely you have heard of ‘the antichrist’, ‘the mark of the beast’, ‘666’, ‘the apocalypse’ and ‘Armageddon’. These terms have been used in books and movies about ‘the end of the world’. These ideas have been borrowed from the Bible, however, they are twisted and woven into fictional stories.

The Bible does contain important information about the end of this age and these passages of scripture are commonly referred to as ‘end-time’ prophecies. We have already examined one of those prophecies – Matthew 24, see A Brief History of Time and Its End. The other major passages include certain chapters in Daniel and the book of Revelation. There are other (minor) prophecies contained in many other books about the future God has planned for the world. In fact, the term “antichrist” does not appear in any of the major end-time prophecies. It is used only by the apostle John in two of his letters. Information contained in other passages of scripture are interpreted as relating to the antichrist.

“Antichrist” can mean not only “against Christ” but also “to stand in the place of Christ”. Martin Luther identified the papacy (the term used for the office of the Catholic pope) as the antichrist at the time of the Reformation. The Pope is called the ‘Vicar of Christ (or God)’ which literally means one who is a substitute for, or who stands in the place of, Christ on this earth. This title in Latin, “VICARIVS FILII DEI” appears on the Pope’s coronation crown and has a numerical value of exactly 666.[9][10] Many Popes have claimed to be God – see box below. Other titles claimed by the Pope are ‘Lord of Lords’, ‘King of Kings’ and ‘Prince of Peace’ – all titles ascribed in the Bible to the Lord Jesus Christ. Martin Luther said “We are not the first ones who applied the anti-christian kingdom of the Papacy: this many great men have dared to do so many years before us and that frankly and openly under the greatest persecution. The Papacy is the Antichrist”.

Pope Nicholas I (858-867) declared that “…the appellation [which means title] of God had been confirmed by Constantine on the Pope, who, being God, cannot be judged by man.”
Pope Boniface VIII in 1302 wrote “The Roman Pontiff judges all men, but is judged by no one … I have the authority of the King of Kings. I am all in all and above all … Wherefore, if those things that I do be said not to be done of man but of God, what can you make me but God?”
Blasphemous statements are not only reserved for the Popes during the period of the papacy’s political power. Pope Leo XIII in 1894 claimed “We hold the place of Almighty God on earth.” His successor, Pius X, boasted “The Pope … is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh.” In turn Pius XI said in 1922 “You know that I am the Holy Father, the representative of God on earth, the Vicar of Christ, which means that I am God on the earth.”

This is fulfilment of the prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (God’s temple is the church not a physical temple in Jerusalem – 2Corinthians 6:16 “For we are the temple of the living God.”)

The Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church is called by many ‘Christian’ but that is far from the truth – it is a cult like the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses.

Catholicism preaches a false gospel – salvation is through works (the sacraments) and not through faith in Christ alone.

It presents a false Christ – the eucharist, where magically the body and the blood of ‘Jesus’ appear, transformed from the wafer and the wine.

It practices a false baptism – only those who submit to the Pope and are baptised into the Catholic Church (not Christ) are declared saved (provided, of course, if they live past infancy into adulthood that they dutifully perform the sacraments).

It believes in a false ‘scriptures’ – the Catholic Church defines the ‘Word of God’ to be the Bible together with the ‘Traditions’ of the church. (The Traditions are completely antagonistic to the Bible and form the basic directives for most of the corrupt practices Catholics.)

It operates under the control of a false priesthood – the Papacy, archbishops, bishops and priests who stand between God and the people.

It worships a false Godhead – the Catholic Church deifies Mary; they worship and pray to her, declaring her to be the Mother of God, a title never found in the Scriptures, thereby making her equal to God.

All of the reformers that followed Luther held the same view. In fact, it was one of two key doctrines that caused many nations to break from the control of the papacy (the other was that the Catholic Eucharist did not physically create the actual body and blood of Jesus – that was a false Jesus). The whole vast body of eminent Bible scholars from the 14th to 19th centuries, taught that the Pope was the antichrist. John Wesley declared:

“The Pope is in an emphatical sense the Man of Sin (the Antichrist), as he increases in all manner of sin above measure. And he is too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers, destroyed innumerable souls, and will himself perish everlastingly”.

It remained the dominant view of Protestant Christian leaders from Peter Waldo (1170-1184) through to H. Grattan Guinness (1835 – 1910).

The Catholic Church set up a Counter-Reformation movement to oppose Luther and the Protestants, led by the Jesuits (an education and military order within the Catholic Church). The belief that the antichrist was the pope was spreading rapidly and countries began to break away from the control of the Catholic Church. Two Jesuits came up with different stories about the antichrist to oppose the teaching of the Protestant reformers. Jesuit theologian Luis de Alcasar presented the idea that the prophecies concerning antichrist had been fulfilled centuries before in the Roman Emperor Nero – it is called the Praeterist view. Another Jesuit theologian Francisco Ribera offered the obvious alternative that the antichrist was some future ruler – this is called the Futurist view. According to this view antichrist would be a single evil person who would rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and made the ruler of the entire world.

The traditional view of the reformers has become known as the Historicist view. It was the commonly accepted system of interpretation of end-time prophecies amongst the Protestant churches up until the turn of the 20^th century. Unfortunately, most Protestant churches today have absolutely no knowledge of the Historicist view. Most Protestant Bible colleges have adopted the Futurist view as the ‘true’ interpretation of the end-time prophecies. Consequently, present-day church leaders have only been taught this view, and this is what is communicated to church members. (A best-selling book by Hal Lindsay, The Late Great Planet Earth, and the best-selling book/DVD series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind, have further popularised the futurist view in recent times.)

(See A-Historicists-Approach-To-The-Major-Endtime-Prophecies-Of-The-Bible-2021 )

The ecumenical movement endeavours to unite all so-called ‘Christian’ churches – Catholic and Protestant – claiming we all believe the same Bible and believe in the same Jesus. This is a lie. It is essentially an attempt to bring the Protestant churches back under control of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church will not alter any of its teachings but wants the Protestant Churches to change their doctrines to permit this reunification. The Historicist view had to be driven out of the Protestant churches in order for the ecumenical movement to have any chance of succeeding.

To fully explore the end-time prophecies of the Bible and explain the Historicist interpretation and contrast the Praeterist and Futurist views is a book in itself.[11] We are going to examine just one, but vital, passage of scripture from the book of Daniel.

Daniel’s ‘Seventieth Week’

The book of Daniel, written around 540-530BC, contains remarkable prophecy that includes the foretelling of the rise and fall of (then) future world empires and gives a specific time for the (first) coming of Jesus. The Jesuit Ribera took a verse from the passage that determines the date that Christ would appear on the earth – referred to as Daniel’s “seventieth week” – and said it related to a future ruler, the antichrist not Christ. The whole system of the Futurists’ teaching rests upon the foundation of this pernicious interpretation of Daniel’s ‘seventieth week’. Futurists believe that this week is a period of seven years which occurs right at the end of the age. All of their understanding of Matthew 24, the Book of Revelation and other end-time prophecies, fit within or around the context of this special seven year period. However, careful examination of the Daniel’s prophecy reveals a very different interpretation – the way in which Historicists understand – upon which the whole Futurist view comes crashing down.

Daniel 9

1 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—

2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

The Kingdom of Judah had been taken into captivity out of the land of Israel by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar.[12] The city of Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed. Daniel was one of the Israelites that was deported to Babylon. He was selected to be trained and serve as a high-ranking public servant for the King. Daniel understood from the book of Jeremiah that Judah’s time in captivity was drawing to an end and that they would return to the land of Israel (see Jeremiah 23:11-12; 29:10). The reason for their return was to rebuild the temple, and to prepare the way for the Messiah who would usher in the New Covenant. So, Daniel prayed (v4-19) seeking God for Judah’s future, and God sent the angel Gabriel with the answer:

4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame — the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill— 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:

24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

In end-time Bible prophecies, the Historicist approach interprets a day to be a year; generally, Futurists also use this rule. (This rule is confirmed by history which aligns perfectly with fulfilled Biblical prophecy on this basis.) “Seventy sevens” = 70 x 7 = 490 years based on the year-for-a-day rule “are decreed” is translated from the Hebrew “chathak” which literally means “severed” or “cut-off”.

Now, Judah and Israel were both under God’s “seven times” judgement (Leviticus 26:18). Seven times = 7 x 360 = 2,520 years.[13] Starting in 604BC when Jerusalem was taken into captivity by King Nebuchednezzar, the 2,520 year punishment ceased in 1917AD, the very year that the British General Allenby liberated Jerusalem from the Turks during the 1^st World War, and Jews were subsequently permitted to return to the land of Palestine.

Therefore, this 490 years was a special period of grace taken out of the seven times judgement. For what purpose? To permit the coming of the Messiah: v24 contains six statements that clearly and unmistakably refer to the saving work of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. To “anoint the most holy” refers to Jesus the Messiah. The title “Messiah” (Old Testament Hebrew) and “Christ” (New Testament Greek) are the same and mean “the Anointed One”. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit at the river Jordan. After his temptation in the wilderness he returned and proclaimed “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19). Thus, he announced the beginning of his ministry. The Messiah had come.

In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we find 4 decrees issued by the Persian kings permitting the Jews to return to Palestine and to rebuild Jerusalem. The principal decree was made by Artaxerxes in 457 BC. This prophecy thus foretells the time of the appearance of the Messiah. After “seven sevens and sixty-two sevens” = 69 x 7 or 483 years.[14] 483 years after 457 BC brings us to 27AD, which was the time that Jesus was baptised at the river Jordan. Jesus declared “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand…” (Mark 1: 14-15). The reference to “times of trouble” is aptly demonstrated in the records of Ezra and Nehemiah, where both men faced opposition to their work (see especially Nehemiah 4).

26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

“…the Anointed One will be cut off” refers to the crucifixion of Jesus. Isaiah uses the same language about the Messiah in 53:8 “for he was cut off out of the land for the living…” The “people” are the Roman armies which destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple in 70AD. The Roman General who led these armies was Titus. He was the “ruler” (or “prince” KJV) that will come”. Titus was the son of the Roman Emperor Vespasian which made him a Roman prince and heir to the Roman Empire throne.

Daniel’s prophecy begins with the command to rebuild the city and the temple, and it ends with its destruction in 70AD. The Roman armies ravaged the entire city, sweeping all away in a bloody flood, and utterly destroyed the temple. “War will continue to the end” refers to the war against the Jews from 66-70AD. In the end, Jerusalem was left totally desolate.

27 (NIV footnote translation) He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And one who causes desolation will come upon the pinnacle of the abomina(tion) until the end that is decreed is poured out on the desolate.[15]

“He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven”. The “He” refers to the Messiah, who was to confirm or ratify the terms of the covenant for “one seven” = seven years.

In the middle of the “seven” when Jesus suffers and dies, he overturns the Old Covenant putting an “end to sacrifice and offering”. When Jesus cried out on the cross “It is finished!” (John 19:30) the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom (Mark 15:37-38). The Old Covenant was now made null and void being replaced by the New Covenant. Old Testament sacrifices were no longer required and they finally ceased in practice, when the temple was destroyed by the Roman armies, in 70AD.

(The Futurist view says it is the future antichrist who fulfils this prophecy, not Christ. It is this verse which Ribera plucked out and transported way into the distant future. This is needless and wrong. Following the plain chronology, without twisting the scriptures that give no indication to do otherwise, this “seven” should immediately follow the “sixty-two ‘sevens’” All of the Futurist’s teaching is founded upon this particular idea of the fulfilment of this ‘seven’.)

This ‘seven’ is usually referred to as ‘Daniel’s 70^th week’ (the first ‘seven’ plus ‘sixty-two sevens’ equals 69. Thus, the last ‘seven’ is the 70^th.) It is easily understood to relate to the time of Christ. It began with the baptism of Jesus in 27AD and concluded in 34AD with the stoning of Stephen – a total of seven years. Up until the time of Stephen’s death the New Testament had been offered to the Jewish nation, and his death – the death of the first Christian martyr – at the hands of the Jewish leaders marked their final rejection. Now persecution broke out upon the church, and the gospel began to spread to other (Gentile) nations.

The last part of the verse predicts the judgement of God upon the Jews, Jerusalem, the Temple and the land for the rejection of the New Covenant. The “one” again points to Jesus, who will make Jerusalem and the land desolate until the consummation of the appointed time, at the end of the age. During the time of the desolation, there would be an overspreading of the area with abominations or foreign powers with their strange armies and pagan practices of worship.

Jesus warned in Matthew 24:15-16

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel– let the reader understand– then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”

Luke 21:20-24 enlarges upon this:

“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

Jesus was alerting his faithful followers to the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy, warning them to flee. It was recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus that the Christians had fled the city before its final siege by the Roman armies under the command of Titus.

Just before his crucifixion Jesus lamented over Jerusalem and said “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).

Finally, “the times of the Gentiles” ended in 1917. Jerusalem was liberated from Muslim control and the land of Israel came under English jurisdiction. In 1948, the people of Israel was declared to be a nation with the right to possess the land and in 1967 (a 50-year Jubilee period from 1917), Jerusalem was handed by the British back to the Jews. It is truly remarkable that a remnant of the Jewish nation was sustained as a distinct people group, scattered throughout the world, for almost 2000 years without a claim to their own home land. It is a sure sign for us that Christ’s return is drawing near.