04 - Antichrist
The Antichrist
131. Several times in the foregoing pages we have had occasion to mention the "Antichrist," and it is very desirable that we should form some definite idea as to who and what he is, and when he will appear. In paragraph 11, we saw that God had His special plan, and His special King, Jesus Christ. We also saw that Satan had his special anti-plan, and his special King, the Antichrist. The latter is not represented as standing in Christ’s stead, in any sense, as a vice-Christ; but as an unmitigated counterfeit, or a fraudulent misrepresentation of the True Christ Himself.
132. Jesus Christ is the True Friend of men, but they will not receive Him. The Antichrist, who will be the embodiment of worldly talent and accomplishments, will make himself out to be man’s true friend by bringing in superhuman aid to help him to resist God, He comes in his own name, and, he will be received.
133. He will be a man, just as Christ was a man; that is to say, he will be a very prominent personality. Christ was not a mere system, nor will His great opponent be so. It is true that John in his Epistles speaks of many Antichrists as then existing in the world (1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7); but he carefully distinguishes them from the Antichrist who was still in the future (1 John 2:18); and, in another place (1 John 4:3), further explains himself as meaning that these evil men had the spirit of the, Antichrist. Now the evil spirit, which opposes Christ and denies Him as coming in the flesh, has, of course, been manifested in men from the earliest times of our age. But, in 1 John 2:18, these many Antichrists are contrasted with a special individual, in whom their own characteristic will culminate.
134. If we consider them as individuals, there will be many points both of similarity and of contrast between the Antichrist and our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Christ was superhuman in virtue, so the Antichrist will be superhuman in vice, though, possibly, in covered and very attractive and respectable vice. The Christ represented God upon the earth, and was "the express image of His Person" (Hebrews 1:3); the Antichrist will represent Satan upon the earth (Revelation 13:2).
God gives all power and authority unto the Son (John 5:22-23); Satan gives his power to the Antichrist (Revelation 13:2).
Each of them is manifested for three and a half years, the Christ for salvation, the Antichrist for damnation (Revelation 13:5).
John 15:1-27. describes the Christ as the True Vine, the Tree of Life; Revelation 14:18-20 describes the Antichrist as the Vine of the Earth, or Tree of Death. The Good Shepherd is alluded to in Zechariah 11:7-14; the Idol Shepherd is also spoken of in the same chapter, Zechariah 11:15-17. In Matthew 4:8-10, the kingdoms of the earth are offered by Satan to the Christ, but He refuses them; in Revelation 13:2 and Revelation 7:1-17, the Antichrist is found to have accepted the same.
[Jesus] the Christ says:- "I am come in MY Father’s Name, and ye receive Me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43). The Christ comes down from heaven (John 3:13); the antichrist comes up from the Abyss, that is, from a prison [in the underworld of Hades/Sheol] of lost spirits [disembodied souls] (Revelation 17:8). The translation "bottomless pit" [found in the Authorised Version translation] is absurd.
Both the Christ and the Antichrist are raised from [the place of] the dead (Luke 24:34; Revelation 17:8). The Christ is "the Bright and the Morning Star" (Revelation 22:16); the Antichrist is [the son of] "Lucifer, Son of the Morning" (Isaiah 14:12). The Christ is "the Prince of princes" (Daniel 8:25); the Antichrist "the prince that shall come" (Daniel 9:26). The Christ is "the King in His beauty" (Isaiah 33:17); the Antichrist is "the Lawless One" (2 Thessalonians 2:8, R.V.). The Christ is "the Son of the Living God" (John 6:69); the Antichrist is "the Son of Perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The Christ is "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29); the Antichrist is "the Beast" (Revelation 19:20). The Christ is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6); the Antichrist is "the deceiver" (2 John 1:7). The Christ is "the Deliverer" (Romans 11:26) the Antichrist is "the oppressor" (Isaiah 14:4). The Christ is "the Righteous Branch" (Jeremiah 23:5) ; the Antichrist is "an abominable branch” (Isaiah 14:19). The Christ "humbled Himself" (Php 2:8); the Antichrist "exalteth himself" (2 Thessalonians 2:4). The Christ writes His Name in the foreheads of His followers (Revelation 3:12 and Revelation 22:4); while the Antichrist causes his name, or mark, to be written in the forehead, or hand, of his followers (Revelation 13:16).
135. The Antichrist is called by Daniel, "the prince that shall come" (Daniel 9:26). He is called by Paul, "the Man of Sin," "the Son of Perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
He is called by John, "The Beast" (Revelation 13:1-18.), and by Isaiah, "The Assyrian" (Isaiah 10:24).
All these descriptions allude to an individual, and not to a system, or to a line of individuals, like the Popes. We may be quite sure that the Antichrist is not intended to indicate the Pope, or the Papacy, for several reasons, and among them for the following:- No Pope has ever yet received power from ten kings in the way mentioned in Revelation 17:13. No ten kings have ever yet destroyed anything which could answer to the symbol of the Harlot, in order to hand over their power to the Pope (Revelation 17:16-17). No such ten kings as are described in Revelation 17:1-18. have ever yet arisen simultaneously. No Pope has ever yet worn the ten diadems of the earth as the Antichrist will (Revelation 17:17). No Pope has ever had a prophet such as we read of in Revelation 13:11-17. No image of a Pope has ever been made in order to be publicly and generally worshipped.
Many whose names are not in the Book of Life certainly do not worship the Pope (Revelation 13:8).
136. We may, then, confidently state, that this terrible being has not yet appeared; and that, when he does so, there will be no mistake as to his identity. He will be pre-eminently accomplished, powerful, wealthy, and influential; the embodiment of talented wickedness and blasphemy, the personification of Satan, with a marvellous gift of attracting unregenerate men. He will, probably, arise in somewhat the same way as, and run a similar course to, the first Napoleon, who was, perhaps, his autotype.
137. In Revelation 17:7, the Beast is described as he that "hath the Seven Heads and the Ten Horns." Then, in Revelation 17:9-10, we are told, that these Seven Heads have two significations, one in reference to the Harlot, the other in connection with the Beast. For they represent the Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth, and also Seven Kings, of which the Antichrist is to be the eighth. The Seven Mountains point to the Seven Hills on which Rome is supposed to have been built.
138. They also represent Seven Kings, that is, Seven Emperors of the Roman Empire: of whom five had already died by violent deaths before John wrote. One was reigning at the time when the Apostle was in Patmos: the Seventh and Eighth had not yet come. Most probably those who had already fallen were Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Claudius, Caligula, and Nero. The Sixth was the then reigning Emperor Domitian. The Seventh was, not improbably, Napoleon the Great, who did "continue only for a short space."
139. The following is a very brief summary of the reasons for supposing Napoleon to have been the Seventh King*:- [* See Pember’s "Great Prophecies" (2nd or 3rd edition), pp. 153, 169.]
1st. . In 1806, Napoleon forced the Emperor Francis II. of Austria to relinquish the Imperial Crown, which had descended to the latter from Augustus.
2nd. . By so doing, he transferred the seat of the Imperial Roman Government to France, which is the mother of Socialism and Revolution.
3rd. Napoleon had a great ambition to resuscitate the Roman Empire, in just the way in which the Antichrist may be expected to do so.
4th. He made great advances to the Jews, and summoned the Sanhedrim to meet in Paris, which they did. This was the first meeting of the ancient Council for over seventeen hundred years. Such a gathering will very likely be convened by the Antichrist when he makes his "covenant" with the Jews. See paragraph 85.
5th. When he was in Egypt, he expressed his desire to make the people believe that he was the son of Jupiter Ammon; and he actually did proclaim himself to be "the Man of Destiny." He loved to be called "Your Providence," instead of "Your Majesty." He allowed his own name and that of Josephine to he blended with the Name, of God and placed over the Ark of the Covenant in the Council-chamber of the Sanhedrim. And, a little later, at a fete in Paris, he sat upon a throne, over which were inscribed the words, "I am that I am." These awful instances of blasphemy show, that he craved Divine worship, and would have accepted it, even as the previous Heads of the Beast had done, and as the Eighth King will do far more daringly than they all.
6th. The letters of his name - in the Greek language, and in the Dative case, which would signify "belonging," or, "devoted to Napoleon" -when taken as numerical figures and added together, exhibit the dread number 666.
7th. His emblems were, (1) the single-headed eagle, (2) the violet, and (3) the bee. The first of these represents the Roman Empire as one and undivided, such as it was in the days of the first Six Heads, and in contrast to its condition while divided into the Eastern and Western Empires, which is symbolized by the double-headed eagle. The colour of the violet indicates the Imperial purple. The Chaldean for "bee" has also the meaning of a "word," and may, perhaps, be intended to mark the bearer of the emblem as the Word of God; though in this case the God would really be Satan, the Anti-god; just as his "Word" will be the Antichrist.
140. The Eighth King is he who "was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the Abyss"; and he is, also, one "of the Seven" (Revelation 17:11). These particulars indicate, that he will be one of the Seven previous Kings raised from the dead; that one, indeed, whose deadly wound is said to have been healed in Revelation 13:3. Which of the Seven he will be, we cannot decide; there was, however, among the early Christians a general anticipation that he would be a reincarnation of Nero.
But, whatever name he may have borne in a previous existence, that name and his history will be known when he appears; for it will be the undoubted fact of his resurrection from the dead that will draw the whole world after him.
Yet, while the world admires and worships him, those who have pondered and prayed over the wonderful revelations of God will recognize in him the great Antichrist, the Beast, who is so soon to run his course, and then to be cast alive into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone (Revelation 19:19-21). See paragraph 247). And, in his destruction and its consequences, the destruction of all earthly power, the closing scene in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, will be fulfilled: the Stone will smite the great political Image upon the feet, and will grind it to powder.
141. In That Day the Lord Alone shall be exalted: the King of Glory, the Christ Himself, shall take possession of the earthly Kingdom which is His by right.