WhatChristiansNeedToKnow. Who Is The Beast? The beast combines features from four beasts (Dan. 7:1-8, 17-27) and represents idolatrous kingdoms. The beast could also represent the Antichrist. Now several antichrists are mentioned by John in his letters (1 John 2:18, 2 John 1:7). But there is a difference between antichrists (small “a”) and the Antichrist (capital “A”). The antichrist (small “a”) is anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ and is God as John says in 2 John 1:7, “I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” And in 1 John 2:18, “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.” Since there are “many antichrists” coming, this means that this is not the antichrist John mentions in Revelation 13. This is understood to be true because many antichrists had already come in John’s day (2 John 2:18). The Antichrist has also been called the “man of lawlessness” or sin and is mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11 where he speaks of the last days just before Christ‘s return, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness [sin] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God [see Revelation 13:4 & 8]. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 1and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” The “one who now holds it back” I believe is the Holy Spirit and the Spirit must be taken out of the way, with what most believe will be the church’s rapture, before the man of sin (or the Antichrist) is revealed. Satan is the power behind this beast which could be an end-times ruler of evil and darkness (Rev 13:2). This beast will have such power that he will control the world’s market and the ability for anyone to purchase or sell anything (Rev 13:17).
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 21:35:48 +0000
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