THE ANTICHRIST
By DR. ARTHUR PETRIE
The subject of the Antichrist has for ages been one of
absorbing interest to the people of God.
Quite a large place is given to the Antichrist in Scripture: Daniel
writes about him (Ch. 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 in his Book; Paul writes of him in Second Thessalonians (Ch. 2), and John writes concerning him in
his letters and in the Book of Revelation. The early church was well
instructed about this sinister person.
It is known that there are many types of Christ in the Bible,
but it is not so well known that there are also many types of the
Antichrist. In the Garden of Eden the
Lord said to Satan: I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed. Thy seed is the first reference to the Antichrist in the Bible. Antichrist is the very son of the Devil. What Paul said to Elymas, the sorcerer, may well
be said, of the Antichrist: O full of all guile and all villainy, thou son of
the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness (Acts
13: 10, A.V.) Moreover, as the true Messiah has many names
throughout the Scriptures, all of which are needed to fully describe Christ and
His work, so there are many names throughout the Scriptures for the Antichrist,
and all help to give the full picture of him and his opposition to Christ.
John is the only one who definitely calls him the
Antichrist, using
the article the each of the four times he names him.
Some of his other names are the little horn, the king, the prince that shall come, the man of sin, the son of
perdition, and the beast.
You will recall that one of the names of the Antichrist is the son of
perdition (2 Thess.
2: 3). Twice in the Book of Revelation he is said to
ascend
out of the bottomless pit (Rev. 11: 7; 17:
8). He is later to go into perdition (Cf. Rev. 17: 8 and 19: 20). Hence his name.
The great antagonist of our Lord Jesus Christ will not appear
on earth in person until after the emergence of the ten horns, the ten kings
mentioned in Daniel (7: 8, 24), And the ten
horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall
rise after them (v. 24).
The next verse tells of his doings, which agree with the words of Revelation (13: 5), and thereby show that the little horn
(Dan. 7: 8, 24) is the same as the beast
(Rev. 13: 5). Identification
of the two statements as referring to one and the same person cannot be
clearer.
Daniel is the great Old Testament exponent of this strange
character, and his writings give us much of the information we have about
him. A thoughtful reading of Daniel (Chs. 7, 8, 9,
11, 12) will show that he is to appear and act out his part on the
stage of history a short time before the
coming of the Son of Man to establish the Messianic Kingdom. His career on earth begins and ends some time after the fulfilment of First Thessalonians 4:
16, 17.
In attempting to show where we are in Gods prophetic plan in
reference to the Antichrist, I can only indicate the modern trend which is
paving the way for his coming and which will finally produce the full-blown
apostasy and the Antichrist himself.
The fulness of iniquity.
Daniel (8: 23, 25) speaks of this:- When the
transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and
understanding dark sentences, shall stand up ... and he shall destroy wonderfully, and
shall prosper, and practise, (and work with effect), and shall destroy the
mighty and the holy people. ... He shall also stand
up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. Second
Thessalonians (2: 8-12) speaks also of this same thing- that
apostasy and wickedness cause God to send the Antichrist - the Wicked One. And for this cause - (because they received not the love of the truth) - God shall send them strong delusion ... that they all might be damned.
Antichrist shall come as the just judgment of the Lord Almighty upon
those who thus paved his way and threw open the door
- The
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THE
AND REDUCED
BY ARCHBISHOP USSHER
The
In these times the
This tragical event I take to be
typified by the order to the Apostle John to measure the temple and the altar,
and leave the outer court (National Churches) to be trodden udder foot of the
Gentiles. The property of ministers will
be pillaged, the public worship insulted and vilified by these deserters of the
faith they once professed, who are not called apostate because they were never
earnest in their profession. Their
profession was nothing more than a compliance with fashion. When this general desertion
of the faith takes place, then will commence the sackcloth ministry of the
witnesses. There will be nothing
of splendour in the external appearance of these churches. They will have no support from Government, no
honours, no emoluments, no immunities, no authorities, but that which no
earthly power can take away, which they derived from Him who commissioned them
to be His witnesses.
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WORLD-WIDE PERSECUTION
The time is coming when true believers everywhere shall be
hated because of their identity with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall they deliver you up to be
afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my
names sake, said
Jesus (Matt. 24: 9). The present growing
hostility against true Christianity foreshadows the time when anti-Christ
forces that are in the world shall seek to destroy all believers of the one Faith.
The Bride of Christ
will escape the snare through Rapture, but foolish
virgins left on the earth and others
who will refuse to worship the Beast or his image shall be killed (Matt. 25:
1-12; Rev. 6: 9; 13: 7). As awful as it is to suffer
torture and martyrdom, its wholesome purifying effect upon the soul has long
been recognized. The revival broken out
in parts of the South has been directly attributed to persecution. Even so, in the coming tribulation, many shall be
purified and made white and tried (Dan. 11:
33-35; 12: 10)
because of persecution. How much better it would be, however, for
people to purify themselves now that they may be counted worthy to escape all these things that
shall come to pass, and thus
be raptured into the presence of Christ.
‑ The Midnight Cry.
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IMPERIALISM AND COMMUNISM
By D. M. PANTON
A PHOTOGRAPH of the political
conditions of the closing age, taken several thousand years ago and never even beginning to be fulfilled until the last century,
is now becoming startlingly clear. There shall
be in it - the
group of world-nations in the last stage - of the strength of the iron* - the iron was the
* Iron is a symbol
of force - autocratic power which enforces discipline: so our Lord, when He
comes to tread the winepress of the fierceness of the
wrath of Almighty God. He shall
rule the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 19: 15).
Nationalism
and Democracy
The clay is defined as being the seed of men, that is, the
populace and it is described as miry, that is brittle, easily smashed,
unarmed. Democracies are one of the
wonders of the modern world: for example, in 1913
The Cominform
But the ultimate fruition is already becoming obvious. The Cominform is
set on the destruction of all nationalism, to achieve the
dictation of the proletariat; and so it evolves at last - as so signally
in Russia - in a fresh Imperialism, a handful of despots in the Kremlin. Lenin - true Communism - ends in Stalin -
pure Imperialism. Exactly so we shall
arrive at Antichrist.
Napoleon
In Napoleon we have already had a portrait of the Antichrist
so extraordinarily like the Lawless One that the coming of Antichrist is shorn
of all difficulty and made historically certain. (1) Our first fact about Napoleon is that he
bore one of the names of Antichrist. The
words
and
- Napoleon
- mean a lion of the thicket, and, speaking of the Antichrist, Jeremiah 4: 7, says:- A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations.
Apostasy
(2) Again, Napoleon was a birth out of a definite
apostasy. How complete an apostasy was
the French Revolution is revealed by one fact - the Republic, in order to wipe
out Christianity, changed the dating from anno domini to
the year of the Revolution: so that the year 1792 became the year 1 - the very thing foretold of Antichrist: he shall
think to change the times and the law (Dan. 7:
25). A similar apostasy is to give birth to
Antichrist. The day of
the Lord will not be except the falling away - the
apostasy come first, and the
man of sin be revealed (2 Thess. 2: 3).
The reason is obvious. Apostasy
breeds lawlessness; lawlessness breeds anarchy; anarchy compels the rise of a
great military dictator: the Iron will be required to master the seething
Clay. As Napoleon said in St. Helena,
when he saw
A
New God
(3) Again, Napoleons attitude to religion is extraordinarily
significant. The people must have a
religion, he said: this religion must be in the
hands of the government. It will be said
that I am a Papist. I am nothing. I was a Mohammedan in
A
New Messiah
(4) Perhaps the parallel is nowhere more startling than in
Napoleons plans - plans which, in the Antichrists hands, will be
achievements. Napoleon said;- This little
A
Roman
(5) One final parallel
is curiously significant. Napoleon was
not a Frenchman at all, but a Roman, an Italian; and it is even said - though
it has never been proved - that he was a blood-born descendant of the Caesars.
Napoleon made his little son king of the Romans,
a title, like the British Prince of Wales,
belonging to the heir of the
Messiah
So now dawns the golden future.
The apex of iniquity brings in the apex of glory. A stone was cut out without hands - an Empire that had no human origin
- which smote the image upon his feet - not on the legs, but on the feet - that were of
iron and clay - that
is, our own epoch - and brake them in pieces (ver. 34).
That the coming Divine Kingdom actually replaces the four successive
Empires of the world - Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome proves that this Millennial Kingdom, the thousand years reign of our Lord, is literally a
Kingdom on the [this]
earth. In the days of those kings - the days of desperate amalgamation
of imperialism and democracy - shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another
people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it
shall stand for ever.
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REFINING
By G. S. MONTGOMERY
EVERYTHING that may abide the
fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean (Num. 31: 23).
I have worked with gold and silver for years, and when
refining we put the metal into the furnace.
So God puts us into the furnace of affliction and of great fiery trial. If we realised just what God is doing,
instead of running away from these trials we would welcome them and say, 0 Lord, this is just what I needed! And we would praise God for everything. The Lord your God proveth
you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your soul (Deut. 13: 3). He is proving us,
getting ready for eternity. We are here
only a moment of time. Why should we
allow these troubles to be so real? God
is teaching us and disciplining us. If we do not become overcomers we cannot reign with Him, so do not mind the trials, for they will
come more and more. The time is short
and He is getting His Bride ready. There is a little company of saints who have
made up their minds to go through with Him whatever it costs.
He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as
gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness
(Mal. 3: 3). There we have
it again so clearly. We are going right
into the furnace, but God sits down, as it were, to watch us. It is a remarkable thing that when you are
refining gold or silver, along toward the close you always sit down and watch
it, intensifying the heat; but you watch it until it is done and immediately,
when it throws out that rainbow colour, you take it out. God cannot take us out until He sees the
perfect form of Jesus in us. He says, Every mans
work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire; and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is (1 Cor. 3: 13).
I see some of the choicest saints going through awful trials,
but they are becoming enriched through the ordeal. The Lord revealed to me,
when a brother was going through a trial, that it was for an enlarged ministry,
and when I saw and heard him again I said, Praise God! Do you think that God, who has numbered the
hairs of our heads, would let the devil touch one of His children so that it
would not mean blessing later? It means
an enlarged ministry for the afflicted ones in the days to come, if Jesus
tarries.
Thou 0 God, hast proved us: Thou hast
tried us, as silver is tried (Ps. 66: 10). We went through
fire, and through water: but Thou broughtest us out
into a wealthy place (Ps. 66: 12).
It is wonderful if a trail can bring us closer to Him, or make us more
like Him. What does it matter if you
have much or nothing in this world? We
have God, and having Him, we possess all things. We need only food and raiment.
When thou walkest through the fire,
thou shalt not be burned (Is. 43: 2).
After all, it is not a particle of the gold
that is burned. The fire will take away
only the dross and you will be more like Jesus.
Let some of these truths grip you today.
These trials are for enlargement.
As William Law, one of the
greatest teachers, says, If we could see the purpose
God has in these trials, we would run to meet them. But instead of that, we run away from them,
but God brings us to the place where we will say, - Lord,
I thank Thee for this fiery trial; forgive me that I thought it a strange thing.
- Triumphs of Faith.
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WILL OUR PLANET BE INVADED FROM
ANOTHER PLANET?
By Wm. F.
BEIRNES
That some worldly minded people believe in the possibility of
an invasion of our planet from another world was demonstrated a few years ago
when Orson Wells broadcast his famous play, The War
of the Worlds. The play was so
realistic that thousands of people, tuning in late, became panic-stricken. At least one person died of heart failure
beside his radio. Others, in their haste
to find a place of safety, stumbled and fell, receiving broken bones. Roads were crowded with thousands of
motorists fleeing to the mountains where they thought to find some degree of
security. The telephone switchboards
suddenly became swamped with calls to police headquarters for
instructions. People prayed to God in
wild excitement. One young man rushed
into a restaurant where the writer was billed to take his meals during an
evangelistic campaign, and with his face as pale as death, announced that the
world was coming to an end. He then
dropped to his knees, and at the top of his voice prayed to God to save his
soul. Another old sinner, known to the
writer, gathered his family together for prayer after having sent for a
minister of the Gospel to help them to get right with God before the fatal hour
should strike. He confessed that at that
time he prayed louder and more earnestly than he had ever prayed before in his
life. This strange reaction may have
been brought about, though unconsciously, by the reading of comic strips, such
as Buck Rogers. But whether or not this
was a contributing factor, the people, not knowing that it was only a play,
believed that our earth was actually being invaded by warring hordes from
another planet. The question naturally
arises, is such an invasion possible?
Inhabitants of Another World Have Visited the Earth.
The first account of such a visitation is found in Genesis 18: 2.
Three strangers stood before Abrahams front gate, and upon being
discovered were invited in to rest and to partake of refreshment. They accepted the invitation, and after washing
their hands and feet, partook of the repast set before them, consisting of veal
steak, hot biscuits, butter and milk.
Two of these same visitors came to Lot in
The Bible clearly reveals that the Earth Shall Be Invaded by
Countless Hordes from two
different and distant worlds. The
invaders are sworn enemies of each other.
Both represent two vastly different spheres of influence, one of them
having established its fifth column all over the earth in preparation for the
coming fierce struggle for permanent possession. At the first attack occurring some months
after the [Pre-Tribulation] Rapture, panic will seize the inhabitants of the
earth because of the great danger from which there will be no escape. Unlike Orson Wells play, this will be the real thing. The first invaders are described by the Revelator as having the appearance of horses with the faces
of men. Their hair is as the hair of
women, and on their heads are crowns like gold.
Other peculiarities mentioned are teeth like those of lions,
breastplates of iron, and wings that make a great noise like the sound of many
chariots, that is, artillery running to battle.
In their tails are stingers like those of scorpions, and with their
tails they attack and injure men. Those
thus wounded will suffer severe pain as if struck by a scorpion. For five months men will be plagued in this
manner, and they will not be able to die, for death will flee from them. If they try to take their own lives they will
only add to their torment. John also
heard the name of the leader of these invading hordes, which in the Hebrew
tongue is Abaddon and in the Greek, Apollyon.
Following the retreat of these attackers, the second invasion
will commence. It will consist of an
army of two hundred million cavalry men.
Their fiery steeds have heads like lions, tails like serpents, and
breastplates of fire, jacinth, and brimstone.
Nothing can withstand them. By
these, one third of the earths population will be killed, the invasion lasting
exactly thirteen months, one day, and one hour.
What indescribable consternation will be created among all
people when this literal visible cavalry from the infernal regions lines up for
attack. Watch
that double line of hideous horses and horsemen as they speed over the open
countryside, setting everything on fire.
As these fire-belching steeds press on with deafening sound, the whole
landscape is quickly turned into a blazing inferno. The waving fields of grain so sorely needed,
hay stacks, houses and barns, go up in smoke.
People hurriedly get into their automobiles to flee for safety. Highways
are jammed till progress is slow and painful.
Men and women alike scream in terror as they go. Many die of heart
failure; others are trampled under foot or crushed by moving vehicles. Still the horrible invaders from another
world gain on their enemies, the enemies of God, whose
dying wails are quickly silenced by these flame throwers. Their charred bodies are left behind as this Satanic battalion reorganizes for an attack on another
sector of the worlds many battle fronts.
The slain are not lamented, neither gathered nor buried. No news reporter will be able to give a more
vivid account of this War of the Worlds than
this which was given by revelation to John the Beloved on the Isle of Patmos approximately 1900 years ago. These two invasions come from the Bottomless
Pit,* but another invasion, greater than the
first, will come as a complete surprise from another direction even before this
last army has finished its mission.
There is not only war on earth
at this time, but there is war in the
Heavenlies. Michael with his angelic
hosts fights against the devil, who is the acknowledged Prince of the
Power of the Air, and against the infernal hordes of darkness under his command. The struggle is short, ending in victory for Michael, and in the casting out of the devil and all his
myriads of angels into the earth where they are to be confined for three and
one half years. I hear the Apocalyptic angel cry, Woe to the inhabiters of the earth
and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
[* That is, presumably from that lower part of Hades
/ Sheol in the underworld of the souls
of the dead; and before the time of the Resurrection of some; when our
Lord Jesus Christ will, at the end of the Great Tribulation, return to this
earth and establish His Millennial Kingdom here. - Ed.]
This earth shall be invaded by two armies from the Bottomless
Pit, and two from the heavenly regions.
The first two will be as real and as literal as any army that ever
fought on the battle fields of the world.
The third may or may not be visible; nevertheless their wrath and power
will be felt on earth. The fourth and
final invasion will be witnessed by all kindreds and tribes, and will strike
the utmost terror to the hearts of men.
It will be D-Day for the Godless nations of earth.
This last invasion from the regions of
heaven is thus described:-
I have commanded my sanctified
ones. I have also called my mighty ones
for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations
gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the
host of the battle. They come from a far
country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his
indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it
shall come as a destruction from the Almighty (Isaiah
13: 3-6).
At this time the Antichrist will be in his field commanders
quarters in the
[* Presumably this refers to those
saints of God accounted worthy to escape, the
End Times; who kept His word of prophecy, and persevered under trial of their
faith in His Word: these only are those who will be translated into heaven, before
the Great Tribulation under the Antichrist will set in. See Luke 21:
24-36; Rev. 3: 10. - Ed.]
John describes the scene in these
words:-
And I saw
heaven opened, and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge
and make war. His eyes were as a flame
of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no
man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a
vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed
him upon white horses clothed in fine
linen, white and clean. And out of
his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS
(Revelation 19: 11-16).
To meet this surprise attack the Antichrist will issue new
orders for his troops to change their positions for a counter attack against
the celestial figure on the white horse and his [angelic] army. The
ensuing conflict will be sharp and decisive, for the Beast, commonly called the
Antichrist, together with the False Prophet that wrought miracles before him,
will be quickly captured and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with
brimstone. Daniel gives the same account as follows:- I beheld till the beast was slain and
his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
It may be observed that Daniels and Johns accounts of the same battle
and its outcome are identical, although written over six hundred years
apart. John tells us that the blood of
those on the losing side, the enemies of Christ, will flow like a river for two
hundred miles, reaching to the heights of the horses bridles.
The kingdoms of this world shall then become the kingdoms of our Lord and of all those - [adjudged as overcomers, who were faithful and true to His revealed word] - who fight on His side. Victory to them is certain because that
victory was assured at
- The Midnight Cry.
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7
CHASTISEMENT
There is hope
in a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again (Job. 14: 7).
I remember years ago just such a crisis presented itself in my
own life. By gentle and persuasive means
the Holy Spirit was urging me to yield to God certain things which I dreaded to
let go. Deep in my heart of hearts was
the desire to be wholly consecrated to the Lord, but some of the pleasures and
ambitions of earth hindered me, and my soul responded to the Lord in some such
strain as this:- If necessary, Lord, wrest these things out of my
poor clinging hands, but nevertheless I shall cling to them as long as I may. My faithful Saviour waited in His love,
digging and fertilizing by gentle providences until I compelled Him by my
continued obstinacy to cut down the tree. By awful and
prolonged physical suffering (from which I was at length only delivered in
answer to the prayer of faith) and by sharp mental and spiritual conflicts, was
the pruning accomplished, and then the new hope was manifested and the tender branch sprang up.
- CARRIE
JUDD
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PAROUSIA AND EPIPHANY
By MICHAEL
P. BAXTER
A deeply important point to notice in regard to ante-tribulation
rapture, or ascension, is that so far from removing from earth all true Christians, it will only remove a
small proportion of them, while
the great majority of them will be left behind on earth to confront the terrors
of the great tribulation, as a
chastisement for their backsliding and Laodicean unwatchfulness and indifference
in regard to the prospect of the immediate personal coming of Christ. Yet, being true Christians, they will be
finally saved. This is principally shewn
in the prophecies in the twelfth and fourteenth of Revelation.
It is a matter of great consequence to distinguish between the
parousia or actual presence of Christ in the atmospheric heavens
at the first stage of His coming, and the epiphaneia or visible
manifestation of that presence to the world years later at its second stage. A significant distinction is apparently
observed in Scripture in the use of these terms - the word parousia occurring
twenty-four times, and the expression epiphaneia six
times in the New Testament. The
difference between these two words may thus be explained. The moon may sometimes
have risen on a cloudy night above the horizon for five hours, and yet not be
visible because of interposing dark clouds which shut it out from our view;
nevertheless there is during those five hours an actual (although invisible)
presence or parousia of the moon in
the ethereal heavens: and when at last the intervening clouds are suddenly
withdrawn, the lunar orb becomes at once visible to every upturned eye; this is
the epiphaneia, or open manifestation of its previous parousia or presence.
Similarly, there will be the parousia or
bodily Presence of the Lord Jesus in the ethereal heavens when He descends
from heaven into the air, before the epiphaneia, or open manifestation of that parousia to the world at large, by the
withdrawal of the intervening clouds of concealment which will have
intermediately shrouded Him from the observation of mortal man.
Various predictions intimate that watchful Christians shall be
kept out of and escape the final
direful season of Tribulation, and that they may expect redemption even when it
begins to come to pass.
Because thou hast kept the word of My patience (that is, the injunction patiently to wait for My Coming), I also will keep thee from
the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that
dwell upon the earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before
the Son of man. When these things BEGIN
to come to pass, then look up ...
But a most distinct narrative of the two separate stages in
Christs coming is given in the twelfth and fourteenth chapters of Revelation,
which demand attentive consideration. In
the fourteenth chapter we are plainly told that two separate companies of Christians
are to be taken up to heaven at Christs coming, and that a considerable
interval is to elapse between the removal of each of
those companies. The first company is
called the Firstfruits, and consists of
a company of watchful Christians, who are taken to heaven before the three and a
half years of Great Tribulation; but the second company is called the Harvest, being much more
numerous than the firstfruits, and is caught up to heaven after the three and a
half years.
Compare verses 4 and 15 in Rev. 14. The 144,000
Jews in Rev.
7 are an entirely
different company from the 144,000 in Rev. 14. The seventh chapter
company are entirely Jews caught up after the Tribulation, but the fourteenth chapter company are
chiefly Gentiles, and are caught up before the Tribulation. In no sense can Jews be called Firstfruits.
- The Prophetic News.
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