Across the varied scenes
depicted by prophecy there falls the shadow of a figure at
once commanding and ominous. Under many different names like
the aliases of a criminal, his character and movements are
set before us. It is our intention to write a series of
papers concerning this one who will be the full embodiment of
human wickedness and the final manifestation of satanic
blasphemy. Many others have made reference to this mysterious
personage in their general expositions of prophecy, but so
far as our examination of the literature on this subject has
carried us (and we have endeavored to make it as thorough as
possible) there seem to have been very few attempts made to
furnish a complete delineation of this Prince of
Darkness. We do not know of any exhaustive treatment of the
subject, and for this reason, and also because there is no
little confusion in the minds of many concerning the
character and career of the coming Man of Sin, these papers
are not submitted to the attention of Bible students.
For upwards of twelve years we
have studied diligently and prayerfully what the Scriptures
teach about the Pseudo-Christ. The deeper we have carried
these studies, the more surprised we are at the prominent
place which is given in the Bible to this Son of Perdition.
There is an amazing wealth of detail which, when carefully
collected and arranged, supplies a vivid biography of the one
who is shortly to appear and take the government of the world
upon his shoulders. The very fact that the Holy Spirit has
caused so much to be written upon the subject at once denotes
its great importance. The prominence of the Antichrist
in the prophetic Scriptures will at once appear by a glance
at the references that follow.
The very first prophecy of the
Bible takes note of him, for in Gen. 3:15 direct reference is
made to the Serpent's "Seed". In exodus a
striking type of him is furnished in Pharaoh, the defier of
God; the one who cruelly treated His people; the one who by
ordering the destruction of all the male children, sought to
cut off Israel from being a nation; the one who met with such
a drastic end at the hands of the Lord. In the prophecy of
Balaam, the Antichrist is referred to under the name of
"Asshur" (Num. 24:22), - in future chapters
evidence will be given to prove that "Asshur" and
the Antichrist are one and the same person. There are many
other remarkable types of the Man of Sin to be found in the
historical books of the Old Testament, but these we pass by
now, as we shall devote a separate chapter to their
consideration.
In the book of Job he is
referred to as "the Crooked Serpent" (Job 26:13):
with this should be compared Isa. 27:1 where, as "the
Crooked Serpent", he is connected with the Dragon,
though distinguished from him. In the Psalms we find quite a
number of references to him; as "the Bloody and
Deceitful Man" (5:6); "the Wicked (One)"
(9:17); "the Man of the Earth" (10:18); the
"Mighty Man" (52:1); "the Adversary"
(74:10); "the Head over many countries" (110:6);
"the Evil Man" and "the Violent Man"
(140:1), etc., etc. Let the student give special attention to
Psalms 10, 52, and 55.
When we turn to the Prophets
there the references to this Monster of Iniquity are so
numerous that were we to cite all of them, even without
comment, it would take us quite beyond the proper bounds of
this introductory chapter. Only a few of the more prominent
ones can, therefore, be noticed.
Isaiah mentions him: first as
the "Assyrian", "the Rod" of God's
anger (10:5); then as "the Wicked" (11:4); then as
"the King of Babylon" (14:11-20 and cf 30:31-33);
and also as the "Spoiler" - Destroyer (16:4).
Jeremiah calls him "the Destroyer of the Gentiles"
(4:7); the "Enemy", the "Cruel One" and
"the Wicked" (30:14 and 23). Ezekiel refers to him
as the "Profane Wicked Prince of Israel" (21:25),
and again under the figure of the "Prince of Tyre"
(28:2-10), and also as "the chief Prince of Meshech and
Tubal" (38:2). Daniel gives a full delineation of his
character and furnished a complete outline of his career.
Hosea speaks of him as "the King of Princes"
(8:10), and as the "Merchant" in whose hand are
"the balances of deceit" and who "loveth to
oppress" (12:7). Joel describes him as the Head of the
Northern Army, who shall be overthrown because he
"magnified himself to do great things" (2:20). Amos
terms him the "Adversary" who shall break
Israel's strength and spoil her palaces (3:11). Micah
makes mention of him in the fifth chapter of his prophecy
(see v. 6). Nahum refers to him under the name of
"Belial (Heb.) and tells of his destruction (1:15).
Habakkuk speaks of him as "the Proud Man" who
"enlarged his desires as hell, and is as death, and
cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and
heapeth unto him all peoples" (2:5). Zechariah describes
him as "the Idol Shepherd" upon whom is pronounced
God's "woe", and upon whom descends His
judgment (11:17).
Nor is it only in the Old
Testament that we meet with this fearful character. Our Lord
Himself spoke of him as the one who should "come in his
own name", and who would be "received" by
Israel (John 5:43). The apostle Paul gives us a full length
picture of him in 2 Thess. 2, where he is denominated
"that Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition", who coming
shall be "after the working of Satan with all power and
signs and lying wonders". The apostle John mentions him
by name, and declares that he will deny both the Father and
the Son (1 John 2:22). While in the Apocalypse, the last book
in the Bible, all these lines of prophecy are found to
converge in "the Beast" who shall ultimately be
cast, together with the False Prophet, into the lake of fire,
there to be joined a thousand years later by the Devil
himself, to suffer for ever and ever in that fire specially
"prepared" by God.
The appearing of the
Antichrist is a most appalling and momentous subject, and in
the past, many well-meaning writers have deprived this
impending event of much of its terror and meaning, by
confusing some of the antichrists that have already appeared
at various intervals on the stage of human history, with that
mysterious being who will tower high above all the sons of
Belial, being no less than Satan's counterfeit and
opposer of the Christ of God, who is infinitely exalted above
all the sons of God. It promotes the interests of Satan to
keep the world in ignorance of the coming Super-man, and
there can be no doubt that he is the one who is responsible
for the general neglect in the study of this subject, and the
author, too, of the conflicting testimony which is being
given out by those who speak and write concerning it.
There have been three
principal schools among the interpreters of the prophecies
pertaining to the Antichrist. The first have applied these
prophecies to persons of the past, to men who have been in
their graves for many centuries. The second have given these
prophecies a present application, finding their fulfillment
in the Papacy which still exists. While the third give them a
future application, and look for their fulfillment in a
terrible being who is yet to be manifested. Now, widely
divergent as are these several views, the writer is assured
there is an element of truth in each of them. Many, if not
the great majority of the prophecies - not only those
pertaining to the Antichrist, but to other prominent objects
of prediction - have at least a twofold, and frequently a
threefold fulfillment. They have a local and immediate
fulfillment: they have a continual and gradual fulfillment:
and they have a final and exhaustive fulfillment.
In the second chapter of his
first epistle the apostle John declares, "Little
children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that
Antichrist shall come, even now are there many
antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time"
(v. 18). In strict harmony with this, the apostle Paul
affirmed that the "mystery of iniquity" was
"already" at work in his day (2 Thess. 2:7).
This need not surprise us, for many centuries before the
apostles, the wise man declared, "The thing that hath
been, is that which shall be; and that which
is done is that which shall be done: and there is
no new thing under the sun" (Ecc. 1:9). History works in
cycles, but as each cycle is completed we are carried nearer
the goal and consummation of history. There have been, then,
and there exist today, many antichrists, but these are only
so many forecasts and foreshadowings of the one who is yet to
appear. But it is of first importance that we should
distinguish clearly between an antichrist and the
Antichrist. As we have said, there have already been many
antichrists, but the appearing of the Antichrist is yet
future.
The first school of
interpreters referred to above, have lighted upon Antiochus
Epiphanes as the one who fulfills the prophecies respecting
the Antichrist. As far back as the days of Josephus (see his
"Antiquities") this view found ardent advocates.
Appeal was made to the title he assumed (Epiphanes
signifying "Illustrious"); to his opposition
against the worship of Jehovah; to his remarkable military
achievements; to his diplomatic intrigues; to his defiling of
the Temple; to his sacrificing of a pig in the holy of
holies; to his setting up of an image; and to his cruel
treatment of the Jews. But there are many conclusive reasons
to prove that Antiochus Epiphanes could not possibly be the
Antichrist, though undoubtedly he was, in several respects, a
striking type of him, inasmuch as he foreshadowed many of the
very things which this coming Monster will do. It is
sufficient to point out that Antiochus Epiphanes had been in
his grave for more than a hundred years when the apostle
wrote 2 Thess. 2.
Another striking character who
has been singled out by those who believe that the Antichrist
has already appeared and finished his course, is Nero. And
here again there are, admittedly, many striking resemblances
between the type and the antitype. In his office of emperor
of the Romans; in his awful impiety; in his consuming
egotism, in his bloodthirsty nature; and in his ferocious and
fiendish persecution of the people of God, we discover some
of the very lineaments which will be characteristic of the
Wicked One. But again it will be found that this man of
infamous memory, Nero, did nothing more than foreshadow that
one who shall far exceed him in satanic malignity. Positive
proof that Nero was not the Antichrist is to be found in the
fact that he was in his grave before John wrote the
thirteenth chapter of the Revelation.
The second school of
interpreters, to whom reference has been made above, apply
the prophecies concerning the Antichrist to the papal system,
and see in the succession of the popes the fac-simile of the
Man of Sin. Attention is called to Rome's hatred of the
Gospel of God' grace; to her mongrel combination of
political and ecclesiastical rule; to her arrogant claims and
tyrannical anathemas upon all who dare to oppose them; to her
subtlety, her intrigues, her broken pledges; and last, but
not least, to her unspeakable martyrdom of those who have
withstood her. The pope, we are reminded, has usurped the
place and prerogatives of the Son of God, and his arrogance,
his impiety, his claims to infallibility, his demand for
personal worship, all tally exactly with what is postulated
of the Son of Perdition. Antichristian, Roman Catholicism
unquestionably is, yet, even this monstrous system of evil
falls short of that which shall yet be headed by the Beast.
We shall devote a separate chapter to a careful comparison of
the papacy with the prophecies which describe the character
and career of the Antichrist.
The third school of
interpreters believe that the prophecies relating to the
Lawless One have not yet received their fulfillment, and
cannot do so until this present Day of Salvation has run its
course. The Holy Spirit of God, whose presence here now
prevents the final outworking of the Mystery of Iniquity,
must be removed from these scenes before Satan can bring
forth his Masterpiece of deception and opposition to God.
Many are the scriptures which teach plainly that the
manifestation of the Antichrist is yet future, and these will
come before us in our future studies. For the moment we must
continue urging upon our readers the importance of this
subject and the timeliness of our present inquiry.
The study of Antichrist is not
merely one of interest to those who love the sensational, but
it is of vital importance to a right understanding of
dispensational truth. A true conception of the predictions
which regard the Man of Sin is imperatively necessary for an
adequate examination of that vast territory of unfulfilled
prophecy. A single passage of scripture will establish this.
If the reader will turn to the beginning of 2 Thess. 2 he
will find that the saints in Thessalonica had been waiting
for the coming of God's Son from heaven, because they had
been taught to expect their gathering together unto Him
before God launches His judgments upon the world, which will
distinguish the "Day of the Lord". But their faith
had been shaken and their hope disturbed. Certain ones had
erroneously informed them that "that day" had
arrived, and therefore, their expectation of being caught up
to meet the Lord in the air had been disappointed. It was to
relieve the distress of these believers, and to repudiate the
errors of those who had disturbed them, that, moved by the
Holy Spirit, the apostle wrote his second epistle to the
Thessalonian church.
"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, showing
himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet
with you I told you these things? And now ye know what
withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the
mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now
letteth (hindereth) will let, until He be taken our of the
way. And then shall that Wicked One be revealed, whom the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him whose
coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
might believe a lie: That they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:1-12).
We have quoted this passage at
length to show that the Day of the Lord cannot come until
after the Rapture (v. 1), after the Apostasy (v. 3), and
after the appearing of the Man of Sin (v. 3), whose character
and career here briefly but graphically sketched. The
Antichrist is to run his career of unparalleled wickedness
after all Christians have been removed from these scenes, for
it it under him, as their leader, that all the hosts of
ungodliness shall muster to meet their doom by the summary
judgment of God. Has then, the Wicked One been revealed? or
must we still say, as the apostle said in his day, that while
the "mystery of iniquity" is even now working,
there is something "withholding" (restraining),
that he should be revealed "in his time"? The vital
importance of the answer which is given to these questions
will further appear when we connect with this description of
the Antichrist given in 2 Thess. 2 the other prophecies which
reveal the exact length of time within which his course must
be accomplished. Our reason for saying this is because the
majority of the prophecies yet unfulfilled are to be
fulfilled during the time that the Antichrist is the central
figure upon earth. Moreover, the destruction of the
Antichrist and his forces will be the grand finale in the
age-long conflict between the Serpent and the woman's
Seed, as He returns to set up His kingdom.
The dominant view which has
been held by Protestants since the time of the Reformation is
that the many predictions relating to the Antichrist
describe, instead, the rise, progress, and doom of the
papacy. This mistake has led to others, and given rise to the
scheme of prophetic interpretation which has prevailed
throughout Christendom. When the predictions concerning the
Man of Sin were allegorized, consistency required that all
associated and collateral predictions should also be
allegorized, and especially those which relate to his doom,
and the kingdom which is to be established on the overthrow
of his power. When the period of his predicted course was
made to measure the whole duration of the papal system, it
naturally followed that the predictions of the associated
events should be applied to the history of Europe from
the time that the Bishop of Rome became recognized as the
head of the Western Churches.
It was, really, this mistake
of Luther and his contemporaries in applying to Rome the
prophecies concerning the Antichrist which is responsible, we
believe, for the whole modern system of post-millennialism.
The Reformers were satisfied that the Papacy had received its
death blow, and though it lingered on, the Protestants of the
sixteenth century were confident it could never recover.
Believing that the doom of the Roman hierarchy was sealed,
that the kingdom of Satan was rocking on its foundations, and
that a brief interval would witness a complete overthrow,
they at once seized upon the prophecies which announced the
setting up of the kingdom of Christ as immediately following
the destruction of the Antichrist, and applied them to
Protestantism. It is true that some of them did not seem to
fit very well, but human ingenuity soon found a way to
overcome these difficulties. The obstacle presented by those
prophecies that announced the immediate setting up of
Christ's kingdom, following the overthrow and destruction
of Satan's, was surmounted by an appeal to the analogy
furnished in the overthrow of Satan's kingdom - if this
was a tedious process, a gradual thing which required time to
complete, why not so with the other? If the rapidly waning
power of the papacy was sufficient to guarantee its ultimate
extermination, why should not the progress of the Reformation
presage the ultimate conquering of the world for Christ!
If, as it seemed clear to the
Reformers, the papacy was the Man of Sin, and St. Peter's
was the "temple" in which he usurped the place and
prerogatives of Christ, then, this premise established, all
the other conclusions connected with their scheme of
prophetic interpretation must logically follow. To establish
the premise was the first thing to be done, and once the
theory became a settled conviction it was no difficult thing
to find scriptures which appeared to confirm their view. The
principal difficulty in the way was to dispose of the
predictions which limited the final stage of Antichrist's
career to forty-two months, or twelve hundred sixty days.
This was accomplished by what is known as the
"year-day" theory, which regards each of the 1260
days as "prophetic days", that is, as 1260 years,
and thus sufficient room was afforded to allow for the
protracted history of Roman Catholicism.
Without entering into further
details, it is evident at once that, if this allegorical
interpretation of the prophecies regarding Antichrist can be
proven erroneous, then the whole post-millennial and
"historical" schemes of interpretation fall to the
ground, and thousands of the voluminous expositions of
prophecy which have been issued during the past three hundred
and fifty years are set aside as ingenious but baseless
speculations. This, of itself, is sufficient to demonstrate
the importance of our present inquiry.
Not only is the
importance of our subject denoted by the prominent place
given to it in the Word of God, and not only is its value
established by the fact that a correct understanding of the
person of Antichrist is one of the chief keys to the right
interpretation of the many prophecies which yet await their
fulfillment, but the timeliness of this inquiry is discovered
by noting that the Holy Spirit has connected the appearing of
the Antichrist with the Apostasy: "Let no man deceive
you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away (the Apostasy) first, and that Man of Sin
be revealed, the Son of Perdition" (2 Thess. 2:3). These
two things are here joined together, and if it can be shown
that the Apostasy is already far advanced, then we may be
certain that the manifestation of the Man of Sin cannot be
far distant.
There is little need for us to
make a lengthy digression here and give a selection from the
abundance of evidence to hand, which shows that the Apostasy
is already far advanced. The great majority of those whom we
are addressing have already had their eyes opened by God to
discern the Christ-dishonoring conditions which exist on
almost every side. It will be enough to barely mention the
gathering of the "tares" into bundles, which is
taking place before our eyes; the rapid spread of Spiritism,
with its "seducing spirits and doctrines of
demons", and the significant and solemn fact that
thousands of those who are ensnared by it are those who have
departed from the formal profession of the faith (1 Tim.
4:1); the "form of godliness" which still exists,
but which alas! in the vast majority of instances
"denies its power "; the alarming development and
growth of Roman Catholicism in this land, and the lethargic
indifference to this by most of those who bear the name of
Christ; the denial of every cardinal doctrine of the faith
once delivered to the saints, which is now heard in countless
pulpits of every denomination; the "scoffing" which
is invariably met with by those who teach the imminent return
of the Lord Jesus; and the Lacodicean spirit which is now the
very atmosphere of Christendom, and from which few, if any,
of the Lord's own people are entirely free - these, and a
dozen others which might be mentioned, are the proofs which
convince us that the time must be very near at hand when the
Divine Hinderer shall be removed, and when satan shall bring
forth his Son to head the final revolt against God, ere the
Lord Jesus returns to this earth and sets up His kingdom.
This then, shows the need of a prayerful examination of what
God has revealed of those things "which must shortly
come to pass". The very fact that the time when
Satan's Masterpiece shall appear is rapidly drawing
nearer, supplies further evidence of the importance and
timeliness of our present inquiry.
The practical value of these
preliminary considerations should at once be apparent. What
we have written in connection with this incarnation of Satan
who is shortly to appear, is not the product of a disordered
imagination but the subject of Divine revelation. The warning
given that the appearing of the Antichrist cannot be far
distant springs not from the fears of an alarmist, but is
required by the Signs of the Times which, in the light of
Scripture, are fraught with significant meaning to all whose
senses are exercised to discern both good and evil. The many
proofs that the manifestation of the Man of Sin is an event
of the near future are so many calls to God's own
children to be ready for the Return of the Saviour, for
before the Son of Perdition can be revealed the Lord Himself
must first descend into the air and catch away from these
scenes, unto Himself, His own blood-bought people. Therefore,
it behooves each one of us to make "our calling and
election sure", and to heed that urgent admonition of
the Saviour "Let your loins be girded about, and your
lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for
their Lord" (Luke 12:35, 36).