Who's In Charge?-Antichrist & False Prophet

Welcome to this week's entry on The Mixblog! We're glad you stopped to take a look. We've been discussing The End Times at The Mix on Tuesday nights, starting a couple of weeks ago with a discussion on the rapture (the event that will start the sequence of events that we call "the end times"...see the Oct 22 Mixblog entry). This week we started talking about some of the things that will take place after the rapture...specifically, who is going to be in charge? If God takes Christians home to be with Him, then that will leave mass chaos on the earth. With the salt removed (as Jesus referred to Christians as 'salt of the earth')...the rotting will begin soon after. And a major player in the entire "end times" course of events will be the being known in the Bible as The Antichrist.

The Antichrist is basically exactly what it sounds like...someone who will be the exact opposite of Jesus Christ in every way. It's important for us to stop for a second and remember who Satan is and where he came from. The Bible tells us that Satan used to be a beautiful angel named Lucifer (check out Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 for more on Lucifer). Lucifer became prideful and was thrown out of heaven by God Himself. He wanted to be like God...and he still wants to be like God. Satan wants to be worshipped and revered and admired because of the pride that still exists in him. And all of that pride and the desire to be like God will come rushing out during the end times within the being known as the Antichrist. Check out the comparison below between the Antichrist and Jesus:

The Bible describes in the verses below who the Antichrist is and what he will do. His main purpose is of course to try to take the place of Christ and set himself up as "lord" over the post-rapture earth. And of course he has a destiny but it isn't good!

• 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12



• Revelation 13:1-8
  

Referred to in the book of Revelation as "the beast out of the sea", the Antichrist will experience a rise to power. He will unite the world under his authority in 3 main ways: governally, economically and religiously...one world government, one world system of economics and one world religion. He will set himself up as the head of all that happens during the years after the rapture. Ultimately, the Bible seems to indicate in the verses above that the Antichrist will be fatally wounded (just like Jesus) and will resurrect (again, just like Jesus). After his resurrection, he will become inhabited by Satan himself and will perform all kinds of counterfeit signs, miracles and wonders...ultimately demanding the worship of every inhabitant of the earth and forcing them to do so.

During this time he will also have a sidekick...every "bad guy" needs a sidekick! The Bible calls this 'sidekick' the False Prophet or the beast out of the earth. He will basically be the enforcer and his job will be to ensure that all that the Antichrist seeks to accomplish will happen. You can read more about the False Prophet here.

As described in the verses linked to above, this False Prophet will also ensure that every inhabitant on the earth will worship the Antichrist by forcing everyone to receive a mark of some kind to establish their allegiance to the Antichrist. This mark will somehow involve the number 666, according to scripture. Anyone who receives the mark, will have chosen allegiance to the Antichrist and ultimately to Satan. If anyone refuses the mark, they will not be able to buy or sell or function in society and will eventually be killed. Again, Satan's main concern is that he be worshipped...even if it isn't genuine!

Ultimately, the Bible tells us that the Antichrist, the False Prophet and even Satan himself will be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:19-20). But up until that time, the Antichrist will be a major focus of everything that happens on the earth in the years following the rapture. As we look at these years (referred to as 'The Tribulation') over the next couple of weeks, the Antichrist will be discussed a lot more.

Even today, there are many things that happen on a regular basis that seem to lead towards the time of the Antichrist. The adaptation of the euro (European money that has been adapted by 16 countries so far to try to unify the economics in Europe), the growing of the power of the United Nations (a form of world-wide government) and the establishment of councils and organizations like The World Council of Religious Leaders (a group consisting of leaders from many of the worlds most prominent religions) seem to fit right in with what the Bible says will eventually happen. The World Council of Religious Leaders is very intriguing as its stated purpose is to "form a community of different world religions in order to establish peace and mutual understanding" and to promote "human values shared by all religious traditions and by uniting the human community for times of world prayer and meditation." (From the World Council of Religious Leaders website.) Even their logo, displayed here, shows the "unifying of world religions into one".

The most important thing for us to remember is that right now, WE STILL HAVE A CHOICE!! We can personally choose Jesus on our own accord. Someday, we won't have a choice anymore!

Hope you can check out The Mixblog next week as we begin to discuss The Tribulation Period. See you next week!

-Bob