Misconceptions About Anti-Christ

I have been interested in end time prophecy since I was a kid. However, what I have found over my many years of studying and reading about it is, that no one actually knows what it all means. I have read and studied all the different positions concerning the end time, and all the theories about who the anti Christ might be, and about how the events will unfold.

Here is an article by Peter Goodgame, who has an interesting take on the identity of the anti-Christ. It’s as good a guess as any of the others I have heard. In fact I think it makes a lot of sense. We’ll have to wait an see how it all plays out. So here it is, Peter Goodgame’s..

Common Misconceptions Concerning the Antichrist

The Antichrist could be alive today!

Not true. The Antichrist is a figure from the past who is currently dead. His corpse is on the earth, but his soul is held in the Abyss–the bottomless pit which is the deepest part of Hell.

Consider Revelation 17:7-11, which explains the nature of the seven heads of Satan. These heads are seven kings. When the book of Revelation was written five of these kings had already died, one of them was alive, and the seventh was yet to come (17:10). The Antichrist is described as a king who “…was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit…” (17:8). Again we are told that he is the “beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition” (17:11). In other words, the Antichrist once existed in the past, but he will come again when his soul ascends out of Hell to re-inhabit his body. He “was” in that he once lived on the earth, but he “is not” because he is now dead. But he will one day ascend out of the Abyss and be alive again, briefly, before he passes on into perdition (destruction).

There are only seven kings because there are only seven heads (also see Revelation 13:1), but there are eight appearances of these kings, which simply means that one of these kings has to appear twice. When he appears alive again to the world it will be because of his resurrection. This future resurrection of an ancient corpse will cause the world to be astonished!

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads… And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” (Rev 13:1,3)

“The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” (Rev 17:8)

At some point after the Antichrist appears on the scene and begins to take power over the earth he will be killed (or at least appear to be killed), suffering from a fatal head wound.

This is a misconception. The future rule of the Antichrist will come to an end only when he is thrown alive into the Lake of Fire which takes place at the end of the Tribulation as shown in Rev. 19:20. The “fatal wound” that is referred to twice in Revelation 13, however, is something that happened long ago in the past. It was the cause of the Antichrist’s first death, a long time ago.

The cause of this original death was not necessarily a “head wound.” Yes a dead head is shown being raised to life in Rev. 13:3, but this “head” represents a “king” as explained in Revelation 17:10. All we know about this wound is that it was fatal and that it was caused by a sword (Rev. 13:14). The Antichrist is an ancient king who was “slain by the sword” long ago, and one day in the future he will be raised to life again after his soul rises out of the Abyss and is reunited with his ancient preserved corpse.

At the precise midpoint of the 70th Week the Antichrist will be resurrected (or appear to be resurrected), to the great astonishment of the entire world!

Not true. The Antichrist will not come on the world scene as some present-day monarch (Prince Charles), or as a politician (President of the UN or EU), or as a prophet (the Muslim Mahdi), and then suffer from an assassination attempt, rising to life again at the midpoint of the 70th Week Tribulation period. The truth is, the Antichrist has already suffered from his fatal “wound by the sword” and he will begin his end-times career only after he is raised from the dead. The idea that he is resurrected at the midpoint of the 70th Week Tribulation comes from a misreading of Revelation 11:7,

“And when they [the Two Witnesses] shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”

This text tells us that the Antichrist himself will kill the Two Witnesses, which does occur at the midpoint of the 70th Week, but it does not tell us that the resurrection of the Antichrist takes place at this time as well. You see, there are three Beasts described in Revelation: the Beast from the Sea (13:1), the Beast from the Abyss (17:8), and the Beast from the Earth (13:11). The text above is simply specifying that it is the Antichrist himself (the beast that comes out of the bottomless pit), who will kill the Two Witnesses.

So when will the Antichrist be resurrected? Well, if he is dead right now, and his soul is locked in the Abyss, then he can’t be resurrected until the Abyss is opened, which happens at the fifth Trumpet of Revelation. Furthermore, the 70th Week Covenant of Daniel 9:27 cannot begin until the Antichrist is raised to life again, because it is a covenant made between the Antichrist and the leaders of Israel. This covenant is also referred to in Isaiah 28:15-21 where it is named the “Covenant with Death and Hell.” This makes perfect sense because the leaders of Israel will be coming into agreement with a figure who has demonstrated his authority over Death and Hell by rising out of the Abyss and coming to life again.

The resurrection of the Antichrist cannot occur at the midpoint of the 70th Week, but must come prior to the 70th Week Covenant, because it is the resurrected Antichrist himself who initiates it!

The revealing of the Antichrist will take place at the midpoint of the 70th Week when the Man of Sin will be indwelt by Satan himself.

This is another misconception. Some prophecy scholars teach that Israel and the world will not know the true identity of the Antichrist until he takes his seat as God in the rebuilt Temple at the midpoint of the 70th Week. At this time, they teach, the body of the Antichrist will be “indwelt” by a demonic or satanic “spirit” that comes out of the Abyss.

First of all, it is not “spirit possession” that causes the world to wonder and be astonished as shown in both Revelation 13:3 and 17:8. The Antichrist was possessed by Satan from the very beginning, as he is the literal son of Satan, so he does not need to be “spirit possessed” again to fulfill his role. It is not spirit possession that causes the world to wonder, but resurrection! Spirit possession is an invisible event, whereas the resurrection of an ancient corpse would truly cause the world to be awestruck, especially if this corpse is first found and put on display as a significant archaeological discovery. But again (see above), this does not take place at the midpoint of the 70th Week, but prior to the beginning of the 70th Week Covenant.

Secondly, the revealing of the Antichrist is an event that should not be connected with the mid-point of the 70th Week, which sometimes happens from a misreading of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4,

“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”

Some prophecy scholars teach that the Antichrist will be revealed when he takes his seat as God in the Temple. Yet Paul is not saying that. He is simply saying that the Antichrist will be revealed before the Day of the Lord, after which he will then go on to take his seat as God in the Temple. The Day of the Lord begins within the sixth Seal, so the revealing of the Antichrist must take place before the sixth Seal. The resurrection of the Antichrist then takes place at the fifth Trumpet, after which the 70th Week Covenant is initiated, and then the Antichrist breaks the covenant at the midpoint of the 70th Week when he takes his seat as God in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem.

Some scholars argue that the revealing, the resurrection, and the triumph of the Antichrist all take place at the same time at the midpoint, but I believe that they are all separate events occurring at separate times. The revealing of the Antichrist will merely be the discovery of the corpse of the Antichrist, which will soon happen just as Jesus predicted, in a secret chamber out in the desert (Matt. 24:26). When Jesus comes back He will be revealed from Heaven as the Living God who once was dead, and every eye will see Him, whereas the Antichrist will be revealed as the corpse of a dead god, who once was alive, and only a select few will gather to honor and observe him. He will be viewed as a corpse, but eventually that corpse will come alive again, to the world’s amazed astonishment!

Peter Goodgame
December 30, 2012
www.redmoonrising.com

Does this timeline appear to have irreconcilable flaws?
Perhaps you have been convinced by the Pre-Wrath view.

Click here where I try to resolve the issues:

The Red Moon Rapture compared to the Pre-Wrath Rapture