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Focus on the Future - 4

Job Description of the Antichrist

The antichrist may not be your favorite topic for discussion or study. In fact, I hope not! We would rather talk about Jesus. Yet Christ Himself warned that in the last days the devil would be incredibly cunning in his deadly delusions. So maybe you and I had better have a talk today about the antichrist.

Many Christians look for the antichrist to be a really mean guy. One who demands that you stop worshiping God and worship him instead. But tell me. How would that be a deception for anyone who even remotely respects Christian faith? Frankly, one would have to be totally ignorant about Christianity to be fooled by anybody who comes to us cursing the name of Jesus Christ. So the devil would be smart to follow a different strategy for entrapping believers. Something more subtle.

Like this, perhaps: Suppose the antichrist is a trusted leader in Christianity who pretends to honor Jesus. The proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing! Like Judas the betrayer instead of some kind of atheist.

Judas, you know, was a prototype of the antichrist. Yes, he betrayed Jesus—but he did it with a kiss. His strategy was so successful that fellow disciples suspected nothing of his treachery, not even at their last supper with him. Now suppose Judas had blasphemed Christ and built a huge monument in Jerusalem’s temple to idolize himself. Would his fellow disciples have been fooled? Disgusted, yes. But not deceived.

Perhaps you’re thinking: Okay. I can see that an antichrist with a Christian face could fool a lot of people. But isn’t the antichrist supposed to openly attack Christianity?

Not necessarily. Let’s analyze the word antichrist. It obviously comes from two words: “anti” and “christ.” The Greek word translated anti can mean either "against" or "instead of." So the antichrist power is not necessarily a clone of the late Communist leader Stalin, trying to burn down your church and send you off to a Soviet-style gulag. Instead, the antichrist might show up as the nicest guy in town, even saying “God bless you!” He might have a “Jesus loves you!” bumper sticker on his car. He’ll pretend to build up the church while quietly undermining the cause of Christ. That’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing Jesus warned about.

So the devil has a choice to make between job descriptions for his antichrist: a hate-spewing atheist or Judas-style church leader. We don’t need to guess which option the enemy will exercise. Christ’s warned His disciples: "Take heed that no one deceives YOU.” Matthew 24 verse 3. You–a believer! A deacon, a pastor, a Sunday school teacher. Beware! The purpose of the antichrist is to deceive the saints. The devil already has everybody else.

I hope by now I have your attention about the deceptions of the antichrist. Now let’s zero in on his identity. What can we know and when can we know it?

God has given seven identifiers of the antichrist in one powerful Bible passage. Let’s read 2nd Thessalonians 2 verses 3 and 4: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

This "man of sin," by the way, is understood by Christians everywhere as a symbol of the antichrist power. Here are his major identifiers, from the passage we just read:

1) Deception. Once again we hear that word in association with earth’s last days. The devil knows he can’t stop Jesus from returning. So he invents deceptions to confuse sincere believers who are excited about Bible prophecy.

2) The antichrist operates in the temple of God. Not a temple like God’s. He’s got a corner office in God’s own temple. So don’t look for a counterfeit anti-Christian temple in Jerusalem.

So where is this temple and when will it be built? We discover this in identifier number three:

3) God’s temple on this earth is His people. Paul told the Christian church: “You are the temple of God.” 1st Corinthians 3 verse 16. Verse 9 adds: “You are God’s building.” So the temple of God in which the antichrist operates is the Christian church. Remember God’s temple down here is not a building in Jerusalem or anywhere else. Yes, there is a temple in heaven which we’ll talk about next week. That’s another subject. Down here, the temple of God in which the antichrist functions is the Christian church, the body of Christ.

Here is one more evidence that the antichrist expresses himself in Judas-type Christian leadership. Our next key identifier confirms this:

4) The antichrist arises out of apostasy. The New Testament Greek word is apostasia, which means “falling away from truth.” Truth is beloved by God and hated by the devil. The Bible says that the “church of the living God” is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1st Timothy 3 verse 15. So apostasy is a backsliding from truth within the church–not an attack from outside Christianity. The apostle Paul predicted this in a speech to church leaders: “From among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” Acts 20 verse 30.

What type of “perverse things”? We get a clue from the word sin in the term, “man of sin.” It means lawlessness. So the antichrist church leadership will undermine God’s commandments with false teachings of its own that masquerade as Bible truth. That watchword again is apostasy. The antichrist is in the apostasy business.

The next point is huge:

5) The antichristian power will emerge within the church before the rapture! How do we know? The passage we’re looking at speaks of “that Day.” And which day is this? Notice verse 1: the day of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him.” “Our” refers to the saints, the church, to whom Paul is writing his epistle. So “our gathering together to Christ” is His second coming for His church. This is what the Bible says will not happen until after the antichrist does his business.

God knew His people would get confused on this particular point. So long ago He anticipated there would be a theory that the antichrist would not appear until after Christ’s coming. That’s why He warned us emphatically on this point: “Let no man deceive you by any means.” This would include sermons, books, and movies—whatever.

So then, the antichrist arrives before Christ comes for His people. Do we know how long before?

6) Paul makes a stunning revelation in verse 7: "The mystery of lawlessness is already at work." Already in the first century, seeds of apostasy were sprouting. Even as the New Testament was written, the antichrist power was silently operating within the church. We noticed how the apostle Paul warned about this. So did the disciple Peter: “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.” That’s in 2nd Peter 2 verse 1.

Let’s trace this further by examining a particular term in the passage we’re focusing on. That term is:“mystery of lawlessness.” Mystery! Evidently the antichrist involves a conspiracy process including more than one single person. It is a group of Christian leaders—actually a succession of leaders. Working over time, they cause a gradual “falling away” from truth in undermining God’s commandments. The antichrist mystery develops throughout the long centuries until making a final, personal expression just before Christ’s coming.

We see this in our final key identifier:

7) The return of Jesus to gather His church will destroy the antichrist power. Listen to this from 2nd Thessalonians 2, verses 8 through 10: “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

So immediately before Christ comes for His saints, we will see the ultimate expression of the antichrist. He will be a satanic miracle worker—perhaps the devil himself in human flesh. We can only speculate about what this miracle-working antichrist will look like. But one thing we can know for sure: This satanic personage will not openly oppose Christ but masquerade as Him. My friend, if you forget everything else we talked about today, please remember this. Deception is the key to understanding the antichrist. Spiritual deception. Christian deception. Instead of denying or attacking Christianity, the antichrist will sabotage the faith with “lying wonders”–spectacular miracles in the name of Jesus. He will not try to take your Bible away. Instead, he will tempt you to misinterpret it. Ignore it. Downplay its truth. The ultimate goal of apostasy is lawlessness–some cleverly contrived violation of God’s Ten Commandments.

One more thought. Remember that the antichrist will be a religious deceiver, not a political leader. He will not care whether you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. He wants your soul, not your vote.

Well, maybe the truth on this subject has startled you. No doubt your head is spinning from all we’ve talked about today. Don’t worry! Breathe deeply and don’t give up! God will help you sort things out as we continue these Bible studies in our Focus on the Future series.