These are interesting times as nothing can compare to the charged and pregnant atmosphere that surrounds us daily with the uncertainty of what might occur next in the scheme of things. The fluidity of the situation is so fearful that many are unhinged at the end of the age happening any time soon.
Under that climate, a friend called me up with questions about the prophetic and the doctrines of the last days. He desires to know about the rise of the Antichrist and the time of his coming to take authority over the entire inhabited earth.
Though these are eschatological subjects, after listening to his narratives on the issue, I discovered that his knowledge of the Antichrist is mixed up with conjectures and half-truth without nailing the subject in the right perspective and interpretation. His reasoning was a mixture of the popular religious concept and the false and unbiblical theories peddle by the secular world.
He was fixated on the doctrine of his church, that he refused to even consider what the Bible is clearly saying. Even after I tried to educate him on the person and system of the Antichrist. But the Bible is intolerant of public and personal opinion. The Bible is the best interpreter of herself if let alone to guide our understanding.
In this critical time, I am so surprised that many believers do not understand Bible prophecies, nor what they affirm having been led away from the truth by teachers and pastors who have infused their errors into the plain word of the Lord.
The word of God is truth and the authoritative standard for all beliefs and practices. The believer who faithfully accepts the plain word of God as contained in the Bible will be far from the error of the false and distorted teachings of the misled.
What then does the Bible teaches concerning the coming of the Antichrist and the system that shall be in place during his rule and reign over the nations. To answer these question one must refer to the Bible making sure all the biblical references be contextual and accurately used. It means the passages drawn from the Bible must be relevant to fully understand the subject as it concerns the spirit, personality, and the system of the Antichrist.
The Bible uses the word only twice in one book of the Bible. Besides, she describes the Antichrist in different form such as:
The spirit of the antichrist.
The antichrists in the church
The system of the antichrist
The person of the Antichrist
The spirit of the antichrist can be identified as the false spirits involved in the teaching of false doctrines concerning the coming of Christ in flesh according to the fourth chapter of the first epistles of John. It is understood as anyone or teaching that downsizes or diminishes the first coming of Christ in flesh. Such teaching originates under the instigation of that spirit of the antichrist. Therefore, the main characteristics of the spirit of the antichrist are these, they deny
The incarnation and virgin birth of Christ Jesus.
The blood sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This hinges on the consequence of His coming to destroy the devil and death. Because if Christ did not come flesh, then He did not die in flesh on the cross and rose again.
The second coming of Christ. If He did not die on the cross, then he was not buried and rose again and ascended to heaven. It means then He is not coming again in bodily form to rule reign over the earth.
These can also be described as the seducing spirits and the powers behind the doctrines of devils that Paul referred to in the third chapter of the first epistles to Timothy. The spirit of the antichrist is not new; it has been around since God created man. It was present when the serpent lured Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same spirit is behind all the Christ denying religion practiced in the world.
These class of spirits or teachers always engages in relegating the presence of the Lord Jesus among us to mere concepts and appearances without the reality of his coming in flesh. They ascribe His teachings to moral principles, abstractions, and ideals rather than the word of life with transformative power.
What does it mean to deny Christ came in the flesh? It means the denial of the finished redemptive works of Christ. It reduces the saving work of God to a concept. It makes the coming of Christ equal to an apparition or mere appearances. The spirit of the antichrist claims that Jesus did not come nor dwell in flesh by actually taking up human nature. Instead of Christ understood only as a person with a spiritual nature. Because the spirit denies the unity of the divine and human nature in one, Jesus. In short, the spirit focuses on Christ appearing as a spirit without a body. In that teaching, the coming of Christ becomes a gnostic idea rather than a true flesh and blood, spirit, body, and soul entity.
Presently, the same spirit is here in the world seeking ways to entrap the church in perpetuating false doctrines. The same spirit was present during the burial of the Christ Jesus our Lord. The focus is denying the resurrection, claiming that the Apostles stole His body. It is the devil and his principalities that have given the power and authority to the teaching demons to deceive the church after Christ ascended to heaven. The implication of the coming of the spirit of the antichrist is so vast since it seeks to distort every aspect of the person, works, and ministry of Christ Jesus. TO BE CONTINUED
