ANTICHRIST

 

There is a very unusual condition developing in our world today that

brings us face to face with some unusual Bible prophecy that we need to

consider as we think about what may become of our future. Many times as

we read the Bible, we are amazed at the accurate picture that is given

to us through the scriptures. There is a picture that is described in

the word of God that is very unusual and it has to do with a figure that

is going to appear on the scene in years to come. That figure will be

the Antichrist.

Strange as it may seem, people have different and strange ideas about

the Antichrist just like they have different ideas about the devil. Some

people feel that the devil appears in horns and with a pitchfork in his

hands and a long tail. On the other hand, if you read the Bible you will

notice that the devil appears often as an angel of light with a spirit

of deception. In connection with this Antichrist, we will recognize that

his appearance will not be so terrible that everybody will be afraid of

him, but contrariwise this figure that will come on the scene of world

history will be an unusual figure. His picture is described in the

Bible.

I would like to say to you as I bring you this message today that there

has been a prophecy made by a certain woman who has told us that in the

year past there has come on the scene in a birth a man who will dominate

the world. It is possible that this person of the Antichrist could be

living in our hour. It is possible, because there is every indication

that the way our world is going we are heading into a strange experience

where a leadership of one man will dominate the world.

In Revelation 13:3 it declares, “And I saw one of his heads as it were

wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world

wondered after the beast.” The word “Antichrist” itself is an ugly word,

an expression that has haunted students of theology for centuries. But

the Lord Himself referred to the Antichrist and spoke of his coming. In

St. John 5:43 He said, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me

not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” The

Apostle Paul said Antichrist would come and he described the event in

strong language in II Thessalonians, Chapter 2. The Apostle John also

foretold the appearance of the Antichrist. “Little Children, it is the

last time: and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are

there many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (I

John 2:18).

Inspired men prophesied in unmistakable language of the coming of the

supreme man of sin. When he appears he will defy the living God and

every moral and spiritual belief of mankind. Our world today is rapidly

getting ready for the coming of the Antichrist. People are being

conditioned emotionally, spiritually, morally, economically, and

politically for his appearing. Society is beginning to clamor for

Satan’s man of destiny. When he appears on the scene he will be welcomed

with open arms. He will come to his own and be received by his own. No

man in history has ever fully represented the popular conception of life

as this man will represent it. Neither will any one in the future

compare with him. He will not seem strange to the masses, for they will

be in a frame of mind to receive him. Antichrist will in fact, seem to

be the outward reflection of the soul and spirit of the people of his

time. Unquestionably, the stage is now being set for his appearing. The

world is preparing for Antichrist.

Antichrist will be history’s outstanding matinee idol. He will be a

favorite with the people beyond all imagination. According to Revelation

13, his acclaim will exceed anything Hitler ever enjoyed in Germany. It

will excel the popularity of great men in the past, such as Alexander

the Great. It will excel the adulation of modern day motion picture

stars. Antichrist will appear on radio and television every day before

world-wide audiences, being praised and extolled in language fitting

only for a God. Newspapers will carry glowing reports of the idol of the

masses. He will be called the “Man of the millennium.” No man in history

will have ever been so popular. Antichrist will be history’s greatest

party man.

I refer you to Matthew 24 and Luke 17 where Jesus states that before His

return the earth would be as it was in Noah’s day. People would be

eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, and we have

come to that day. The world is having one big party. As we consider some

of the conditions that are now a part of our generation, we are noticing

the tremendous amounts of alcoholic consumption that is taking place

amongst people of all types and kinds. We have come to the time of Noah

again, a time when the world has given itself to eating excessively,

drinking excessively, and to sexual excesses.

When Antichrist comes he will throw bigger parties than Belshazzar, who

invited 1000 of his lords to one great feast. The man of sin will

entertain with greater feasts than Herod who feasted with his lords and

who had John the Baptist decapitated. The world will love the

Antichrist. He will be just like all other gluttons, dashing from party

to party, eating and drinking as he goes. Being a party man, he will

dance all night, drink strong liquor, eat rich foods. Any person who

speaks against him will be cursed. The world will say, “How dare you

speak against this man whom everybody likes.” Antichrist will spend one

million dollars a night for a big party and all the world will wander

after him.

Antichrist will be history’s shrewdest politician. He will draft a plan

for 1000 years of peace and prosperity. He will promise many promises in

connection with individual prosperity. You talk about two cars in every

garage; he will give two women to every man. He will break every decent

law of morality and permit a licentiousness to reign and rule in our

world. Oh, how the world will love this man-a smart and clever man.

Newspapers and television commentators will praise his genius,

acclaiming him as the perfect politician. He will have power on earth

and in space, because he will be filled with the power of the devil. He

will be demon inspired.

I would like to refer you to Daniel 8:25, “And through his policy also

he shall cause craft to prosper…” In other words, he will bring world

wide prosperities such as the nations have never known. “…and he shall

magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many.”

Antichrist will promote peace programs unparalleled in history. The

United States, the common market of Europe, the groupings of Asia will

all come under the control of this one man, and no one, not one person,

will be able to stand up against him.

Daniel 2:31-43 presents the vision of a gigantic image which represents

Gentile rule. The Antichrist will unite the iron and the clay of

Daniel’s vision. He will conclude the drama of human history. The iron

and the clay speak of dictatorship and democracy. He will unite the East

and the West and be all things to all men. New emerging nations will

follow him; old nations will cling to him. He will seem to be the only

human being who has an answer to all problems. He will be the shrewdest

politician the world has ever known and if anyone speaks against him his

followers will want that person isolated or even killed, and yet he will

speak openly against our God and our Saviour.

Furthermore, the Antichrist will lead the world’s gay life. He will sink

into the deep morass of sexual sins, ungodly acts, severe wickedness.

Jesus said, “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat,

they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the

same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from

heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when

the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

In Daniel 11:37, it is corroborated in connection with this man. The

Bible says the Antichrist will neither “…regard the God of his

fathers, nor the desire of women…” This strange man will lead the

world in lewdness and in moral filth. The world will like this. It will

praise him for being so brazen in his sin, for being so uninhibited in

order that they may adorn the sins or the licentiousness of the age.

I might warn you as I speak to you in this message, that homosexuality

is moving through the world like an avalanche. God hates it almost more

than any other sin. Already some very outstanding people in government

are cursed with the evil thing.

According to Revelation 13:13, the Antichrist will promote fortune

telling, palm reading, crystal gazing, and all kinds of astrology. The

evil people whom he sponsors in this wickedness will declare him to be

supernatural. They will say that the lines in his hands, that his very

signature, and that the stars in heaven prove he is supernatural. They

will swear he is the one that the world has looked for so many thousands

of years. The masses will turn to the evils of witchcrafts. The devil’s

power will be strong throughout the whole world because the Antichrist

will be a spiritist.

Even though he is a spiritist in religious confessions, he will be an

ecumenical leader making alliances with all church groups, and he will

be hailed by all the religious groups as the one who fits perfectly the

leadership needed to bring unity among the different religions. He will

feel free to worship in a Jewish synagogue, to say mass in a Catholic

church, to bow down in a Mohammedan temple toward the west, or to go to a Buddish temple and pray to Buddah. He will boast, “I am all things to

all people.” This is the kind of a world that we are moving in today.

Yet, my friends, when God’s judgments shall come, the masses of humanity

will see the truth. They will know that this Antichrist individual is

from Satan. The beautiful emblem he has been to them, the gorgeous mark

that he has put upon their bodies will be found to be an instrument of

hell. They will discover the Antichrist is in reality an antagonist of

Jesus Christ. But it will be too late. The Bible declares that everyone

who takes the mark of the Antichrist will be doomed. This is actually a

resume of what is going to happen upon this earth.

I am going to urge you to decide now whether to follow Jesus or the ways

of this world. The Antichrist is the devil’s answer to God. The Lord

Almighty produced the Saviour of the world. The devil will produce the

Antichrist. He is the devil’s saviour of the world. We must decide which

Saviour we want.

Those who refuse to obey the Antichrist will lose their jobs; they will

not be able to purchase food. Their friends will hate them. They will

say, “Don’t you know the whole world has waited for this man?” The world

will be swept by the tides of iniquity. Only a few will be capable of

resisting him, and this will cost them martyrdom.

I ask you today, as we consider the importance of this hour, to prepare

now so you will escape the darkest hour the world has ever known-an hour

when the Antichrist will lead the fortunes of men. World conditions are

getting worse. There will be war throughout the world, hatred among

nations, famine, plagues, pestilence, and anarchy. It will be dangerous

to go into the streets. This monster will rise on the horizon towering

above humanity and saying, “Follow me.” As you look at the scripture and

consider the text, “…all the world wondered after the beast.” Only

those covered with the blood of Jesus will escape tribulation judgment.

The world is getting ready for the Antichrist, but we are getting ready

for heaven. We are getting ready for the coming of Jesus, and our prayer

is “Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

Let me say this in the few moments I have left to draw your attention to

the Lord. Wouldn’t it be a shame to hear a message like this and then

fall for the Antichrist when he comes and be swept away with the tide?

Wouldn’t it be a shame? People in Africa do not know this truth. They

may never hear a message like this. The Antichrist will sweep them away.

People in Communist China behind the bamboo curtain do not know what you know now. They will be swept away. The people of Russia do not know this that you have heard and they will be swept away. But you and I know the Bible. We have been warned.

If there was ever a time in the history of all the experience of

religion, we must fight sin, we must fight Satan, we must be ready, for

in such an hour as we think not, Jesus Christ will come. The trumpet of

God shall sound and we who are ready shall meet the Lord in the air to

be forever with Him-forever and ever and ever. We can say with John the

Divine, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

As you consider what I have brought to your attention in this message, I

am urging that Jesus Christ is the answer to this condition that shall

exist in the late times of the world, We must prepare our hearts to meet

the dark avalanche of sin that is sweeping over our horizon. What have

you done with Jesus Christ today? Have you rejected the mercies of this

wonderful Redeemer or have you passed by the opportunity of a lifetime?

Consider Jesus Christ. He is the great author of our faith. He is the

Saviour of our life and the Saviour of our future.

(The above material was published by Harvestime, St. Louis, MO.)