The Return of the King of Kings Part 12

                “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.  It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling, the residue with its feet.  It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
                “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.  And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.”
                Daniel 7:7-8
               
                “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.  Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.”
                Daniel 7:35
 
                “Then I stood on the sand of the sea.  And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.  Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.  The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
                “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed.  And all the world marveled and followed the beast.  So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
                “And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.  Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
                “It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.  And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.  All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
                Revelation 13:1-8
 
These visions by Daniel and John describe the future leader that is commonly called The Antichrist.  Daniel sees him as a tiny horn rising up in the final ten-nation world empire.  John sees him as the ten-horned beast in its entirety, the culmination of the pagan world empires into one final Satanic empire led by an individual possessing supernaturally evil powers.
 
These visions tell us some key things about The Antichrist.  He will come from the final ten-nation empire.  Previous passages lead us to believe that this empire is some kind of revived Roman Empire. We are also told that this leader will blaspheme the name of God.  We already know that the ten-nation empire will have a pagan religious system.  However, I think that it will quickly evolve into a unified Messianic religion centered on the prophetic teachings of Judaism, Islam, and what I believe will be an apostate Catholic Church.  This will also draw in New Age believers so that the entire world, having been rocked by the bizarre mass disappearance of the Rapture and the unfolding disasters of the Tribulation, will be seeking a single supernatural leader to usher in an age of peace.
 
The Antichrist will be that leader.  He will become famous by brokering a peace treaty with Israel and its enemies as Daniel describes:
 
                “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.  And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
                Daniel 9:27
 
One week in prophetic terms is 7 years.  It refers to the final 7 years of the prophetic timeline for Israel that God had revealed to Daniel.  A change occurs in the leader who brokers this seven-year treaty at exactly the mid-point of the treaty.  In an act of blasphemy, he desecrates the Jewish temple and declares himself to be God.  It is at this point that he turns not only against the Jews, but on any others who refuse to worship him.
 
                “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.  And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
                “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.  And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.  He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
                “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom.  Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
                Revelation 13:11-18
 
As I described in a previous post, I believe this second beast, or false prophet, will be an apostate Pope.  He will declare The Antichrist to be the Messianic leader all the religions have been waiting for and as such he will declare him to be God.  Satan will give this false prophet supernatural abilities to perform miracles in the name of The Antichrist.  What you see is Satan setting up his own unholy trinity with himself as the Father, The Antichrist as the Son who comes to reign on earth, and the false prophet who takes on a role similar to the Holy Spirit.
 
We can already see the technological developments that are in place to create the oppressive world that John describes.  A lifelike robot or deep fake AI image could become the image of the beast.  A switch to total electronic banking could make it so only those with an approved computer chip or “mark” can buy or sell.
 
Much has been made about trying to decipher The Antichrist’s identity using the code 666.  Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters have numeric values tied to them.  Over the years many have tried to come up with combinations that would reveal the name of The Antichrist.  Among the most popular is using the Hebrew conversion to come up with Nero Caesar.  The infamous Roman Emperor was indeed evil and a great persecutor of Christians.  It is possible that The Antichrist claims to be a reincarnation of Nero, hence the reference to the deadly wound that was healed.  However, it is probably more likely that The Antichrist will have his own unique name whose numeric values will add up to 666 in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew.
 
I don’t think our time as Christians is best served trying to chase down various alpha-numeric calculations to try to prove that The Antichrist is some contemporary figure of whom we are suspicious for whatever reason.  Nothing we can do will stop his rise to power, as it has been ordained by God to fulfill his purposes.  Indeed, both Daniel and John reveal that he will be allowed to reign in a state of blasphemy for three and half years.  Daniel describes it two ways.  First as the saints be given over to his hand for “a time, and times, and half a time” with time meaning one year – so one year, plus two years, plus half a year equaling three and a half years.  He also describes The Antichrist launching his campaign of abomination at the exact midpoint of the seven-year covenant, which would leave three and a half years in his reign.  John says that the beast will reign forty-two months, which equals three and a half years.
 
I don’t expect any current Christians will actually see the emergence of The Antichrist.  I do believe he is alive and working his way into a position of power even now due to the convergence of other prophetic events.  However, I don’t think he will reach the point of definitive identification until after the Rapture.
 
So rather than get caught up in trying to figure out the identity of The Antichrist or deciphering which ten nations will comprise the final world empire, let us focus on the remarkable convergence of prophetic events that is taking place.
 
1.        Israel has been reborn and the generation that saw this rebirth will not die off until Jesus returns.  In biblical terms, that generation has at most 9 years left.
2.       The Gospel has been spread throughout the entire world.
3.       The remnants of the Roman Empire exist today in the modern EU, although some kind of reorganization must take place to create a ten-nation kingdom.
4.       There has been a world-wide focus on creating a peace deal between Israel and her neighboring countries.  I expect such a deal to be signed no later than 2021, since it must be for seven years and the generational prophecy related to Israel runs out in 2028.  The Anti-Christ will be the one brokering this deal and he will be from the ten-nation final world kingdom.
5.       The conditions that existed in the days of Noah are very much part of our current world.  We have lost focus on God.  Most of us are willfully blind to the convergence of prophetic events leading to the coming wrath of God.   Our wickedness is great – from the evil of abortion to our embrace of all manner of sexual perversion.  And we are playing God by redefining marriage and gender and manipulating the genetic code.
                                                              
Jesus said that no person would know the day or hour of his arrival, but we would know the signs that his coming is drawing near.  We are now seeing such signs.  It is important that we Christians spend whatever time we have left spreading the Gospel to the lost, so that they too may share our hope and rejoice at the return of the King of Kings.
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