Who is the antichrist? Final Summary

The following is a summary of Biblical prophecies relating to the revealing of the antichrist and the “beast” of Revelation 13.

From “End Time Delusions”:
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What we see depends mainly on what we look for. –Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913)

The Bible’s prophecies about the antichrist are similar to a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. While it’s important to carefully examine the individual pieces, it’s really best to put them all together and look at the whole thing. When we do, just like a developing photograph in a darkroom, the emerging picture becomes clearer and clearer. This is what we find:

Putting the pieces together from Daniel 7

1. Daniel dreamed of four great beasts representing four successive ancient world kingdoms (vs. 4-7, 23)
2. These kingdoms were the nations of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.
3. The fourth beast, the Roman Empire, had ten horns (vs. 7), representing the division of the Western Roman Empire into ten smaller nations after 476 A.D. (the classical date for the fall of Rome).
4. Growing up “among” the ten horns (vs. 8) and rising up immediately “after” them (vs. 24) would be a little horn (vs. 8) which represents the antichrist.
5. This little horn would have “eyes like the eyes of a man” (vs. 8), “a mouth speaking pompous words” (vs. 8), and would make “war against the saints” (vs. 21) in Christian history. This horn would continue until the end of time (vs. 21-22).

Putting the pieces together from 2 Thessalonians 2

1. The antichrist would rise as a result of a tremendous falling away (vs. 3) in the Church before Jesus Christ returns to gather the faithful (vs. 1).
2. Paul called this antichrist, “the man of sin” (vs. 3), “the son of perdition” (vs. 3), “the mystery of lawlessness” (vs. 7) and “that wicked” (vs. 8 KJV).
3. This “mystery of lawlessness” was already working in Paul’s day (vs. 7), yet it was being restrained (vs. 5-7) by the Caesars of the Roman Empire.
4. After this restraint was removed (Rome fell in 476 A.D.), the antichrist would be revealed (vs. 7-8).
5. This antichrist would take his seat inside “the temple of God” (vs. 4), which is the Church (see 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21).
6. He will operate until the bright, visible, glorious return of our Lord (vs. 8).
7. When Jesus Christ comes, He will destroy the antichrist and gather His faithful people who have not “fallen away” from the truth of His Word (vs. 1,3,8,10-12).

Putting the pieces together from Revelation 13

1. The antichrist is also called “the beast” (vs. 2).
2. This “beast” is the same thing as the “little horn” in Daniel 7.
3. Just like the little horn, this beast would have “a mouth speaking great things” (vs. 5) and would “make war with the saints” (vs. 7).
4. A beast in prophecy represents a powerful “kingdom on earth” (see Daniel 7:23).
5. This beast will eventually have worldwide influence and control (vs. 8).
6. This beast will continue until the end of time (see Revelation 19:20).

The Bible reveals a few more pieces to this antichrist puzzle, but this is enough for now. So what are we looking for when it comes to the real antichrist of prophecy?

In a nutshell, we are looking for an antichrist that was starting to work in the time of Paul, but was being restrained by the Roman Empire. It would grow in strength in the wake of a massive “falling away” from Jesus inside the Christian Church and would be “revealed” unrestrained after the Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D. It would be centered somewhere in Western Europe, would become self-exalting and would even usurp the authority of God inside His temple – that is, within Christianity. An actual “kingdom”, it would nevertheless have “eyes like the eyes of a man” (being man-led and man-centered), make large claims for itself, have “a mouth speaking great things”, become persecuting and deadly, making “war against the saints”. It would continue throughout Christian history and achieve global influence in the end times, yet finally be destroyed by the sin-consuming brightness of our Lord Jesus Christ when He returns.

Those are the facts from Scripture. Is such an antichrist here now? You are about to discover irrefutable proof that for over four hundred years the unanimous testimony of well-respected Protestant scholars, historians and burnt-to-ashes martyrs has been, “Most definitely!”
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Have you put the pieces together? It gets better….the Bible reveals much about the times we’re living in if we’d only listen and pray........