In the Wednesday Night Bible Study, we have been taking a look at various Scriptures related to end-time events. Most recently, we began taking note of what the Bible says about the anti-Christ.
One of the more popular myths about the anti-Christ is that he will be a very charismatic person; and, on the strength of his charisma, people will simply flock to him. In other words, the anti-Christ's personality will be the basis of his power to rule, control, and manipulate people.
The anti-Christ may very well turn out to be a likable, charismatic type. But that doesn't seem to be the most salient feature of his end-time attempt to take the Lord's place. The following possible end-time scenario will explain what I mean:
At some point in history near the end, there will be a peace treaty negotiated with Israel that guarantees her security in the land, possibly including the right to rebuild the Temple (Daniel 9:24-27). This treaty will be negotiated with Israel by a "Roman prince." Either this prince is the anti-Christ, or there will be some religious leader in Israel involved in the negotiations who turns out to be the anti-Christ (which way we go on this depends on whether we think the anti-Christ should be identified with the "beast out of the sea" or the "beast out of the earth" in Revelation 13). No matter what, we know that God himself will not be pleased with Israel making this treaty. The situation will be very similar to the one we read in Isaiah 29-32, where Israel makes an unauthorized, self-styled attempt to guarantee her own security through a treaty with Egypt. As a consequence, God begins the judgments known as "the seventieth seven" of Daniel, which is known in the New Testament as the Tribulation Period or "time of Jacob's trouble." This will involve judgments poured out on Israel and on the rest of the earth, designed to provoke Israel into repentance.
The judgments of the first half of the Tribulation period are effective. According to Revelation 7-8, many Jews and Gentiles repent and trust in the Lord Jesus as their Savior. But as the first half of the Tribulation winds down, the judgments intensify. Many people will refuse to repent. Keep in mind, they will know that it is God who is judging them. But they will refuse to repent anyway (see Revelation 9:20-21).
At the middle point of the Tribulation, the Roman prince who made the treaty with Israel will break it off, and he will desecrate the newly rebuilt Temple. This person, if he is the anti-Christ, or in cooperation with anti-Christ if he is not, will establish himself as a rival to God, someone powerful enough to stop the judgments and to overcome God, who will be said to be causing all those terrible things to happen.
Of course, the claim to be a rival to God is no small claim. As a way of substantiating his claim, the Devil will empower the anti-Christ to deceive and to perform "counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders...in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing" (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Keep in mind that the anti-Christ is tied to Satan himself. Satan believes he has the ability to rival God and defeat him. His offer through the anti-Christ may very well be something like: "Come join me! If we band together, we can overwhelm God and defeat him. We can take his place! We can be like him! God is not the only one with power...let me show you what I mean! You can have this power too, if you join me!"
In other words, the attractiveness of the anti-Christ may not turn out to be his personality, but rather his demonic bravado and displays of counterfeit power. These will be especially appealing to people who are being judged so severely and yet who are unwilling to repent. These people choose to fight against God rather than repent and submit to him through faith in Jesus. Consequently, Jesus returns at the end to "overthrow [the anti-Christ and his followers]...with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Here are some Scripture passages to consult on this topic:
Daniel 9:24-27; Revelation 6-19, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
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