The Arrival of the Antichrist
“The Man of Sin Revealed”
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
After the rapture of the Church, the Antichrist will be revealed and become the leader of The New World Order.
- His priority will be to establish a peace agreement between the Jews and the Arabs regarding the land of Israel, by allowing the Jews to rebuild their temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This treaty will start the seven-year Tribulation known as Jacob’s trouble.
- Midway of those seven years, the Antichrist will enter the Jewish temple, desecrate it, remove all images of God, replace them with an image of himself and demand to be worshipped as God.
- He will turn against the Jews, and lead the world to war against them. The war will begin over the control of the city of Jerusalem, but it will end with the return of Jesus Christ to establish His Kingdom on earth. This time, Jesus will not come as the Lamb to be slaughtered, but as the Lord to be honored.
As Jesus touches down upon the Mount of Olives, He will destroy His imposter; the Antichrist, and his armies.
- Coming behind Jesus will be His Kingdom saints; those He ransomed and redeemed with His blood, and raptured by His grace, returning with Him to rule and to reign on this earth for 1,000 years.
- That’s why the Apostle Paul told the Christians in Thessalonica not to be “shaken in mind or troubled in spirit” regarding “end-time events.”
- Biblical prophecy is not to scare anyone, but to prepare everyone for those events God has ordained to occur in the future.
- The proclamation of Biblical prophecy is simply the revealing of God’s plan to create His Kingdom upon this earth, inhabited by human and spiritual beings, and ruled by the eternal God-Man, Jesus Christ.
1. God’s Plan to Develop His Kingdom – Isaiah 46:9-10– “I am God, there is no other; declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done; My purpose will be established, I will accomplish My good pleasure.”
God’s eternal purpose has always been: “to gather into one kingdom all things that are in heaven and on earth and put them under the authority of Jesus Christ.”
- God’s desire is to have a family of people who will love Him as Adam and Eve loved Him before the fall, respect Him as the Source, as well as the Sustainer of all life, and recognize that their intimate relationship with Him is the true meaning of life.
- When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven,” we are affirming God’s eternal purpose for this world and for every life that has lived on it or will ever live on it.
The Scriptures reveal how God dealt with mankind during the different periods of history to achieve His goal of that everlasting kingdom. These seven dispensations of time are:
- The dispensation of Innocence – Adam and Eve in the Garden until they were expelled because of sin.
- The dispensation of conscience – from Adam and Eve to the flood – what man will become if left to his free will and conscience.
- The dispensation of human government – God destroyed life on earth with a flood, saving only one family to restart the human race. He established rules to deter man from committing crimes against his neighbors and dispersed the people into different languages, nations and cultures.
- The dispensation of Promise – began with the call of Abraham and ended with the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. God began His nation through the seed of Abraham, with the promise that through him, the Savior, as well as His Kingdom, would come.
- The dispensation of the Law – from the exodus to 70 years after the death of Christ as God dealt with the Jewish nation through the Mosaic Law, including temple worship directed by priests and God’s Word being spoken to the people through the prophets.
- The dispensation of grace – began on the day of Pentecost and will end the day of the rapture of the Church. It includes Jews and Gentiles as God builds His kingdom from every tongue, tribe and nation.
- The dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ – begins with the return of Jesus Christ to the earth and ends with the Great White Throne Judgment, when Satan is bound. Jerusalem will be the Capital City of the World, and the Word of God will spread from Jerusalem to the whole world.
2. Satan’s Goal to Destroy God’s Kingdom – Isaiah 14:12-14 – “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, thou hast said, I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, I will ascend above the clouds: I will be like the most-High.”
During each of the seven dispensations, Satan continued his attack upon God, the Kingdom of God, and the people God called to be a part of His kingdom.
- In the dispensation of Innocence – Satan persuaded Eve and then Adam to rebel against God as he had, and to question God’s love by twisting God’s Word just enough to get them to believe if they disobeyed God they could become “like God.” Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden and forced to live the rest of their lives in a sin-cursed world. Their greatest loss was their dominion over the earth, and Satan was able to obtain it, which is why the world is in such a mess as it is today.
- In the dispensation of Conscience – Satan tried to corrupt mankind, pollute the bloodline, and prevent the birth of the Messiah by forcing the “sons of God” to mate with the “daughters of men” to produce a demon-human race of people called the Nephilim, who would be unredeemable and make the “seed of the woman” unnecessary. God saw the pure wickedness of man, and He cleansed the whole earth.
- In the dispensation of Human Government – Satan entered the heart of Ham’s son, Nimrod, who led the people to try to make a name for themselves by building a tower to reach the heavens, and he would have, had God not confounded their language and scattered them over the whole earth. Satan’s tactics never change – fill men’s hearts with pride, leaving God aside, and then glorifying himself.
- In the dispensation of Promise – Satan attempted to pollute the bloodline of the Messiah by impressing Sarah to allow Abraham to father a child by her handmaid, Hagar. However, Ishmael’s seed was not the chosen of God; Isaac’s was.
- In the dispensation of Law – Satan tried to destroy the bloodline of the Messiah by killing the male children when Moses was born, and by killing certain kings and the sons of other kings to cut off the Royal bloodline. Satan tried twice to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth. Herod had all baby boys, 2-years of age and under killed, hoping to kill the Messiah. The people in Jesus’ hometown tried to push Him off a cliff. Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world without going to the cross if He would bow before him. Peter wanted Jesus to avoid the cross. The religious leaders attempted to kill Jesus before He could get to the cross. The Romans hung Him on a cross and sealed the tomb to prevent Him from being resurrected.
- We are living in the dispensation of grace – Satan knows this is his final hour. Even though he knows he cannot destroy anyone who is truly born again, he is using every conceivable approach to distract, deter, discourage, and defeat those who belong to Christ. He is using false preachers, teachers, and believers to lead people away from the truth and embrace the lie. Soon, Satan will appear as an angelic being, even posing as Christ, and many will bow to worship him.
- In the dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom – Satan will be bound, Jesus will be the Ruler of the world, and His followers will reign with Him. Even though the world will be filled with His glory and peace, there will be those who, at the end of 1,000 years, will choose Satan over God and be cast into the lake of fire with him, forever.
