Prophecies about Christ and the Anti Christ and Is He Alive Today

Hey, we’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith, your hosts of the Marriage After God podcast, where we desire to help you cultivate a marriage that chases boldly after God’s will together. And in today’s episode, we are going to talk about two very important people, one most important, the Christ. And we’ll also be discussing about the Antichrist because he comes up in prophecy. So we will be digging into that very soon.

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So after saying that intro, I want to go back and edit it, but we’ll just leave it. But when I said two important people, I feel like is that

Right? Well, they are important. They’re important in different ways. It’s like famous and infamous. We have Jesus Christ. They’re known, he’s important for the salvation of the world. He’s the most important figure that’s ever lived. And then the next one that we’re going to talk about in contrast to that is the important figure of the antichrist, this devilish figure that’s going to deceive many, that’s going to draw people away from Christ that’s going to hurt the

World. After I said it, I couldn’t reconcile it. So you’re like, thank you.

You’re like, is he important? Well, no, he is important, but in a bad way, in a negative way.

Well, before we jump into that, just a few life notes, things that have been going on in our life and just important to us.

So I think we have probably our most important news, the most exciting news we got to see and find out who our baby is,

Which we don’t have a name for yet, but we do know that it’s a girl.

It’s a little girl

And

You should tell her the funniest part about what she did for us while we

Were, yeah, right when we started the ultrasound, she gave us a thumbs up, which I have a picture of. It’s really cute, it’s pretty awesome. But when we told the kids, the majority of them thought boy, and maybe they thought that because I was convinced it was a boy. But Ededie screamed her head off. She was so excited.

They were all excited. Olive screamed just as loud. It was like, she’s like, it’s a boy. And then we said, girl, she’s like,

It’s a cow.

But what I love about it is, and I feel like this is pretty common, we often, we had a couple of boy names pretty close to nailed down and no girl names, which just is like,

I feel like every

Time,

Every single time it’s a girl.

I got to guess what it was. I was like, I don’t want you to tell me what it is. I want you to get there. And then, because you can barely tell what anything is in those little ultrasounds. And she’s like, okay, we’re right there. And I’m like, it’s a girl. And she looked at me and I’m like, Jennifer, where you see? I think

I still said No, I think it’s a boy. I

Was like, Nope, that’s totally a girl. So we’re really excited. I wanted a girl. I would’ve been fine with either one. Of course, now we need to get, I was very excited about having three girls and three boys

We’re going to even it up, but now we have to get on the name train and figure out what we’re going to name her.

Ed keeps calling her a specific name and it’s kind of growing on me. So we’ll see how that goes. All of got to name Truet. That was a special thing. So we’ll see how this goes with maybe our kids might have an influence on that, but we’ll

See. Well, speaking of names, and I find this a funny transition to talking about the Christ. One of my kids asked us recently if Christ is his last name.

Yeah, it’s Jesus Christ. That’s his last name.

I think it’s cute because I think if you grew up in the faith as a kid, you always ask that question. That’s a normal question.

I mean, it seems like because especially in the Bible, they kind of did names a little differently. We have surnames that we’ve kind of over the years, over the history of time from professions or however they came

Denoted who they

Were. We have our last names now, and it’s just a part of everyday life where it wasn’t necessarily that way,

Although a lot of people used ours,

They would’ve been called a name and then they would’ve used the father’s name to say of the Father’s house or of a location or of a profession. But that’s kind of what Jesus is. Christ is his title. So Christ would be means anointed one. So Jesus, the Anointed one or Jesus of Nazareth, that’s what we saw in the Bible also. But I don’t think he had a last name. We understand last names.

I just thought that was super cute.

But I did think that when I was a kid, I thought I was like, it’s Jesus Christ. Right? That’s his last name.

Last episode I mentioned a book that I was going to share with you guys, a resource that I found. I found it on Amazon. I usually go through an entire book before I share it as a resource. But because we’re in the midst of talking about Jesus and prophecy, and I had gotten this for the kids, I just thought I’ll share it with you guys, but it’s titled 30 Prophecies, one Story, how God’s Word Points to Jesus, and it’s by Paul Reynolds, and it’s a really easy read and it has some denoted points on each section.

I actually like the way they formatted. I’ve heard you read it, said cons couple

Times. It’s really nice, it flows.

I like

The way it goes. So it starts off with the prophecy from Old Testament. It talks about how Jesus was a part of fulfilling that

Show, the

Illustration. That’s good. It has illustrations. It has this thing called the Scarlet Thread, and it kind of talks about how Jesus is intertwined in all of this story. And then it has a little application of why is this important to us today and a prayer. So it’s just kind

Of cool. What I love about this is it shows that there’s people out there making resources about all sorts of things for your kids to help you disciple your children, to show them like, Hey, we don’t have to be afraid of prophecy in the Bible. We can actually understand it. We can just see how beautiful it is, which is why we’re doing this podcast.

And one more side note to go along with that whole, I usually go through a resource before I share it with you guys because we’re only on number three, so we’ve just barely started. So I don’t know what the content’s like, so fair warning there. But I do think it’s good that when we’re going through a resource, especially with our children, that we allow room and time for discussion because something might come up, and this has happened twice now with two different books that our son has questioned or even disagreed.

He’s like, I don’t know if I agree with

That, with the way that what they said. And we talk about it and it’s been really cool because on one side we all kind of disagreed with somebody. And then on the other side, we were able to figure out what they meant by what they were saying.

And I want to make a point on how that should be our role as parents, especially as fathers to be listening. What are we reading? Are we just going to blindly go through this and be like, yep, what this author said is going to go and is good to go and nothing needs to be adjusted and we don’t need to test it against the word of God. Everything should always be tested through the word of God because we’re humans and we’re going to create something. And in the author’s mind, they had no intention to deceive, but they wrote something a certain way and it comes off incorrectly, is perceived wrong, might lead your children to believe something wrong. So listening be like, Hey, we read this and what do you guys think about this? Do you think that lines up with what this says in the Bible and challenge those things, but we should also be doing this with ourselves.

All media, everything,

All media, whatever songs you’re listening to, whatever movies, TV shows, like asking questions like, Hey, do you like how that kid was being mean? Good things to be challenging

Ourselves on. Another reason why I’m bringing it up today again is because in today’s, well we did yesterday, but message, it’s about Jesus being related to EK who’s mentioned in the Old Testament. So I thought this was a perfect tie in and talking about who Jesus was. We’re going to be talking about Ek little bit and that title like you said, of the Christ and the Messiah and who he was, what he did and why that matters and how it ties into the Old Testament.

So transition, let’s talk about Jesus and this figure that we see in the New Testament, a very mysterious figure, very short story in Genesis about Abraham meeting a man as Abraham’s along his journey and Eck, he’s, there’s many instances in the Old Testament where you see a figure and often it’ll be called the angel of the Lord. And this is a specific person that shows up in the Old Testament or we’ll see this story of melek, these instances where a human that God’s using and talking to and leading meets this mysterious being and we don’t really have much explanation of who they are.

So what do you mean by mysterious?

So this story in Genesis where Abraham after has a great battle. He meets a king, the king of Salem, it says, but doesn’t say who he is, where he came from. It just says his name and Abraham gives him tithes and it’s a very short story.

It does mention a title

That he’s, yeah, there’s the in parentheses it says this is a priest of the God most high, but that’s like a Holy Spirit inspired portion. It’s not like Abraham knew that when he met ak, but there’s other times where other prominent figures in the Bible met another. It would say the angel of the Lord, angel of the Lord, the angel which is specific. There’s also an angel of the Lord, but this specific character and then we have sadly the angel of death that goes over all of Israel during or Egypt during the first Passover. And all of these mysterious figures beings point to Christ and some even believe that they are actually pre-incarnate Christ. Before he came as a baby, before he came as a man to die and raise from the dead, he came in these specific instances. The man that wrestled with was it Jacob and put out his hip that man, it wasn’t just an angel, this was a specific, he said, Lord, bless me. This was Jesus. And so some that Melek was actually a pre-incarnate Christ. I don’t know that the Bible doesn’t say that mainly just like we’re going to talk about compares Jesus to this figure that Abraham paid tithes

To, and a lot more people would see melek as an archetype figure. Jesus an archetype

Of Jesus, a symbol. And one of the things we want to first talk about is this fact that Jesus was both king and priest and the only two people in that were king and priest was Ek and Jesus. So you have these direct correlations because the way the priesthood worked was the priests were to come out of the tribe of Levi. The Levites were not given a plot of land. The rest of Israel was given, they were given little pieces of land in all of the different territories. The kings did not come from the Levites. And so you have Jesus fulfilling not just the kingship, but also the priesthood in himself as the Christ as the Messiah.

And something that this book mentions is that Melek is also not of the tribe of Levi. It’s not born yet. It’s not created yet, created yet. There was no Levites. So the mention of his title of high priest also is from outside of that, which is another correlation.

But what’s amazing about this, and I just thought about this, is that all this stuff that the Jews were given that God gave them were types of something else like the Tabernacle temple, like we talked about last week. It’s actually a type of heaven or the church God with me. So in Hebrews it talks about the things that we see the substance now, which is in Christ, all the things in the past were shadows. So the substance was Christ and the light was shining a shadow in the past showing an image of what’s coming. And so that’s pretty cool, right? It’s so cool. So we have in Psalms King, David writes about his son, Solomon,

Which we talked about last episode also in bringing in a prophecy that you said shared about Solomon but was also about Christ.

And it goes back to that same template of a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment. And so in Psalm Psalm one 10, verse four, it says, the Lord has sworn and I will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of melek. So David is writing this PS Solomon about his son who’s about to become king and he’s going to hand over his throne, he’s going to hand over his authorities, he’s going to hand over all this stuff to his son Solomon, and he references Melek, but this is a messianic prophecy about the Christ because we find out later in the New Testament that Christ is after the order of Accusa

Death and he’s our high priest forever,

That David not knowing was a prophet. He was prophetic in his writings and the New Testament even points back to David being a prophet. Jesus even points to David being a prophet, which is really cool. David didn’t know this. He was writing this about his son and the Holy Spirit was inspiring him. So

Cool. Well let’s look at that reference in Hebrews. It’s Hebrews five, five through six. It says, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son today. I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of ek. Yeah,

So Hebrews is now pointing back to that David reference that David wrote and then also pointing back to Genesis where Abraham paid tithes to Ek such cool stuff. Hebrews seven, three goes on says He is without father or mother or genealogy. This is in reference to Ek and Hebrews. There’s several chapters that talks about Jesus being like Ek and in Hebrews the writer probably Paul is writing to the Jewish believers so

They would know what he’s

Talking about and he’s trying to tie their Jewish heritage and knowledge of the Old Testament and saying, look,

To turn a light bulb on

Who you have now is the substance of what you were told about then. So in Hebrew seven, three, he’s without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning or of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever. He’s talking about the supremacy of Jesus being a priest. He’s saying this priest, he’s not going to be like the priest of old who died and had to have a new person replace them. He’s not like a priest who has to atone for his own sins before he can atone for the sins of the nation. He’s a better priest and he lives forever. He has no beginning or end. And that’s what the reference in Hebrew seven is. That’s what the author is pointing out about Jesus, this Christ

So cool. Well, Jesus is our high priest and he is perfect and he is our mediator. He’s the one who goes before us before the Father, and he covers us in his righteousness and he deserves that title. He has that authority to do so.

Excuse me, the anointing that Christ hood was done by God himself, not by a prophet, not by someone else coming and pouring oil on his head. God himself poured out his spirit. When you see when he’s baptized, the dove comes down. God anoints him as priest forever anoints him also as king forever to do this ministry in the world of saving mankind. That was one of his roles as king and that’s one of the roles of a good king. The Old Testament talked about this also, a good king protects his people, saves his people from enemies, it secures his kingdom. That’s what a good king does. That’s the Christ. Now we’re going to in contrast,

Good transition,

Different kind of importance like we talked about earlier, the antichrist and someone would say this is the opposite of Jesus and in some ways yes, but not opposite in power, just opposite in effect. Opposite in who he literally being an ion to Christ. And so why don’t we discuss for a second, I think everyone listening has their own view of this antichrist or

Even upbringing or background

Based off of how we were raised. What was yours? Where did you get this, your view of the antichrist? It’s probably similar to mine a little bit, maybe.

Probably. I don’t remember too much. It being explained in church. Definitely referenced but not likes. I don’t remember deep dive teachings or anything like that. I definitely remember the left behind series. I think that hit me just at that age where

I was. I think a lot of people are saying our age is

Thinking left behind, left behind, which I’m not saying defines my theology or anything, but I do remember it kind of opening my eyes to this idea of, oh, you can look for someone like a person, like a specific person in our day and age. And that was followed up with conversations with different people in my life who were kind of on that same journey of thinking, oh, there’s going to be one antichrist and this is who he is and this is what he is going to do. And what about you?

I kind of was raised in Calvary Chapels and if anyone knows anything about them, they’re very strong on, I think it’s eschatology the study of end times. And so I did grow up and I was heavily influenced in this idea of this antichrist, this one world figure that’s going to rise up and rule the world and cause people to take the mark of the bees like we are going to read about in Revelation. And so that shaped a big view of my understanding of the antichrist, but also just reading the Bible and then the left behind books and left behind movies, the movie. So in the generation I grew up and in the churches I was in, that was something that was talked about quite often. There was disbelief like, oh, one day the rist is going to take over and I still believe this, but now I believe it.

Not just because someone told me and it was a way of thinking, but because I’ve done my own study and research, and again you listeners, I want you guys to do your own study. You don’t have to just say, well, Aaron said, so I want you to know what the word God says and I want you to believe it and trust it and have faith in it. And so I’ve dug in, I mean we’ve been going through Revelation in our church for two and a half years now, and so I’ve had lots of time thinking about this. So I would say that’s what shaped it was first influence from the churches I was going to and the media, but then going into the word of God and challenging those things and what does the word actually say? Because

You see where it’s coming from

We’re going to talk about in a second is there’s two ideas around antichrist and we need to understand both of them and not just come to a conclusion without knowing what the word of God says. And so I want to talk about that a little bit.

Let’s dig in.

So this is what’s interesting is the word antichrist specifically this idea of antichrist, it only shows up four times in scripture,

Which isn’t really a lot.

No, you would think that it’s talked about all over the place, but it’s not. And it’s only talked about in one book it’s in, John wrote about it in first John and second John, sorry, two books, but two letters from John and it says it comes from the Greek word anti Cristo. It Christos, which is Greek essentially just means antichrist, but it means adversary of the Messiah. That’s literally the term. It’s someone who’s in opposition to the Messiah specifically.

So you’re right, it’s not opposite. It’s a specific

Type of, it’s

Opposing

Christ. And the Bible talks about it in two specific ways. It talks about it being a person, but it talks about it being a spirit. And we talked about this in the last years we did about words and the spirit of something. It’s an idea, it’s a posture, it’s a position, a belief. It’s a belief. And so I want to talk about those two things and make sure that we understand both of them because they’re both relevant. And so let’s go specifically to the references in one John about the antichrist. In one John 2 18 23 it says, children, it is the last hour and this is John encouraging the church to

Bolster

It. Yeah, be prepared. It is the last hour and as you heard that antichrist is coming and I looked up many versions and it doesn’t say the antichrist. It says that antichrist is coming, which it’s talking about something else. It’s not talking about just a person, but it’s talking about a spirit. So now many antichrist have come,

So that confirms what he’s saying. Yes,

Yeah. Therefore we know that is the last hour they went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us, they would’ve continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they’re all not of us, but you have been anointed by the holy one and you all know you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar? But he denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist. He who denies the father and the son. No one who denies the son has the Father. And whoever confesses the son has the father.

Real quick before you, because I know you’re about to go, which is good when you are reading and Paul’s talking about that you have knowledge and you have the spirit. I was just reminded that this is why we do a podcast. This is why we write books. This is why we’re on social media because we believe who Christ is and what he came and did and what he’s doing. And we want to share that knowledge. And I just got really encouraged that this is why we do what we do

And remind you listeners, if you believe in Jesus, that you also have that knowledge and that you could trust it and know it. The reason I read this whole section, by the way, is because I could easily take cherry pick scriptures and build my argument of why the antichrist a singular figure is coming. I could start off in that first verse and say, you have heard that the antichrist is coming now many antichrist have come, but this is the last hour. And could be like, look, he’s telling you the antichrist is coming, but this specific scripture is talking about a specific type of antichrist. He even points out, he’s like they were of us and then they went up from us to prove that they were never of us. He’s talking about a specific kind of person. This is not just a singular person in the future. He’s talking about people that have apostatized, people that were amongst them claim to be believers, walked in their midst, were part of the church, numbered among the members, and then have gone out and not just have gone out, but have a specific antichrist. Spirit are saying no, what they preach is false. Jesus is not the Messiah. He is not.

And that wasn’t just happening back then, but that’s been happening since then. It’s

Been happening since then, since Christ died and resurrected, there’s been antichrist. He even says, he’s like, now there’s many antichrist knowing that this is the last hour. And what he’s pointing at is that season from Christ going to be with the father of the resurrection till the coming of the Lord Jesus in the second coming.

So it’s not the

Last hour, he’s the last hour,

Right? That’s a long hour.

It’s a long hour. But what he’s saying is this is the season that the church is going to experience many antichrist because you couldn’t have antichrist before Christ was here.

There was no by definition, by

Definition. And so I am not afraid, and I don’t want you to be afraid to look at scripture as a whole and not take things out of context and be like, well, this isn’t just saying that there’s an antichrist specific. It’s talking about a type of person, A person who is, and it even says here, denies the father and the Son a liar who denies about Jesus. We’re going to get in that in a second. So we see that because it did mention that antichrist is coming and many have come into the world. So it’s talking about two different things. But at the same time, pointing out specifically who he’s talking about is those people within the church that have apostatized left the church and not just like, oh, we don’t believe that anymore. But if specifically like, no, we’re now opposed to that and we’re going to make other people be opposed to it as well. So I just want to make that clear. So in one John chapter four, we see that one of the ways we can, so one John chapter four tells us how we can be testing the spirit. And we talked about this in the words series, and one of the ways to test the Antichrist spirit is about those, how they confess. Do they confess Jesus or not? Do they admit to acknowledging who Christ is truthfully or not?

Or are they denying it

Or they deny? Yeah. Jesus isn’t the Messiah, Jesus isn’t real. Jesus didn’t live, or

Maybe he was God but not man or he was man, but not God. Separat.

They’re not acknowledging truly fully who Jesus is.

We had a conversation with our kids about that. We were driving somewhere, and I think it was Wyatt, one of the boys said that he was mixed, that he was half Jesus, half God, half man, half God. And I was like, Nope. We told him, we said, this is a miracle and it’s supernatural. But he was a hundred percent both man and God.

Yeah. It wasn’t like 50 50. He wasn’t like a hybrid. He was both equally. And they’re like, how? And I’m like, I don’t know. I have no idea. But he was, yeah. So one John four, three, it says, in every spirit that does not confess that Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. So again, pointing back to the idea that it’s not just a specific person coming in the future. This is a spirit that people can indwell that

You mentioned earlier. You said, I’m not afraid. I don’t want you to be afraid in talking about this knowledge right about who he is or trusting what the word says too. But do you think that those receiving this letter from John, it made them fearful or afraid or not

Knowing? I think these warnings were good because the church would be, and even today the church, let’s just, oh, let’s involve that person, that person. When someone’s totally in opposition to Christ and say, well, they just need to be loved longer. The Bible tells us in many places, certain people to avoid certain people to put away from us, certain people to not even in letting in your home. And it specifically comes to things like this antichrist spirit coming with a different message, coming with a different, Jesus says, don’t even welcome him. And so the warnings for the church were like, Hey, yes, be loving, be inclusive. Do all of these things that Christ has done, but be aware these things exist.

That’s awesome. Whenever we go to make notes for a podcast episode, we always ask the question, what message are we giving to you guys? What is it that is most important and that we want to flesh out in the midst of being able to share with you? And I think this is it for today because you look at, and there’s so many different angles and ways you can talk about the antichrist or the spirit of the antichrist. And I think you just nailed what the importance is for us today and why it’s relevant for us to know these things and to be aware for the same reason why it was important for them to receive John’s letter back then.

And it’s dangerous for us as believers if we just blindly receive everyone in our life, especially if they’re going to be coming and trying to give the opposite message, not unintentionally, but an intentional, the spirit of the antichrist. That’s what I’m trying to get

At. It’s discernment because we also know that we are supposed to be loving and full of grace and welcome people and hospitality and all these evangelical

And

All the things. Yes. And we should be sharing the gospel, but we should also have discernment when it comes to influence and family and just that kind of being protective of

I’m not going to let someone around my kids that’s going to go out of their way to try and influence them away from Christ. It’s one thing to be around people who don’t believe. It’s a whole nother thing. If someone’s going to try and kneel down to my child and say, what you believe is false, Jesus doesn’t exist. I’m going to be very protective of that,

Which may not come in that exact form, but man, man, we so many different ways we’re bombarded with that exact message everywhere. And so parents especially, we need to be on guard fighting for our children.

And that’s what John is doing for the church. Yeah. So second John one, seven, this is the third reference or the fourth reference to the antichrist. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, flesh, such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. So there’s the spirit of the antichrist and then there’s the antichrist. There is two, and we’re going to get into that prominent ideas with this antichrist figure. There was a group of people I met when I was in Africa, and do you remember it in the bus? Oh, you were there, right? Yeah,

I think I know

What you’re talking about. And it was a long bus ride and we’re in this little teeny bus and they were nice people, loving people. I

Was going to super joyful. And they

All had, they found out we were Christians,

They all had musical instruments and they were loud and playing and

I think, wasn’t it worship music or local worship music? But we got into a big long discussion with them about who Jesus was. And they adamantly believed that Jesus never came in the flesh, that he was not a fleshly figure, that he was only spirit. And this is a viewpoint that many believers, believers had in the Old Testament too, or in the New Testament in the early church was like, oh, no, Jesus wasn’t of the flesh ever because the flesh is bad. He was only spirit. But this right here tells us that two John, for many deceivers have gone on into this world, those who do not confess, that Jesus Christ came in the flesh

Very specific.

There’s reasons Jesus did certain things when he resurrected, when he met with the disciples afterwards, just a little side note, Thomas, and he says, Thomas feel Thomas touched his flesh with a hole in his flesh. And then Jesus also he said, give me something to eat. Why would someone who’s just a spirit eat anything He did that it wasn’t not just that he was hungry. It was to make a point that no one can ever argue biblically that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh. He did come in the flesh. He ate food, he was touched, he was even held. He was all sorts of things. So I just remember that story because there are people that don’t believe Jesus came in the flesh. So other people will say that Jesus came, but that he was not God. Still others will say that Jesus was just a good man or a good teacher.

This is probably the view of many people these days. And actually more and more people are saying, no, Jesus didn’t even exist, even though he’s historically not just biblically recorded, but in other documents he absolutely existed. But some will say he was an angel and not a man at all. Some other Christian religions, some Christian cults say that he was an angel and others will deny that he actually existed at all. Like I said, these are all spirit of the antichrist. They’re anti Jesus. They may agree with one part of him, but not all of him, but to be in Christ, we have to receive all of Him every a bit that scripture says about him, the antichrist opposes the truth of him and opposes him directly. Those that walk in him receive all of it.

When you said receive all of it, I had this image of the priest that has to go in and eat all the show bread. You can’t anybody

Eat all it, eat all of it. Those the, I wanted to give those the things that people say about Jesus that is the spirit of the antichrist. But now we’re going to talk about, because we just read all the verses about the antichrist and none of them gave any solid foundational understanding of like, oh, an antichrist is coming. There’s

No bullet pointed list of check out that guy.

And that’s what’s so interesting about this, and this is why some people don’t believe that there is going to be a specific antichrist. They say, well, look right here where it talks about the antichrist. It’s not pointing to a specific figure, it’s pointing to a spirit of an antichrist. But do we think that the Bible talks about an antichrist in other ways? Yeah, of course it does, because people wouldn’t just come up with that out of nowhere. It came from the Bible, the other places in the Bible that it talks about this figure that’s coming, doesn’t use the word antichrist, especially in the Old Testament because there was no Christ yet.

But based off the things that it’s talking about

And things to look toward anti,

It’s alluded to that he is an antichrist.

Daniel chapter seven, verse 25, this passage speaks of a little horn and that’s going to speak against the most high and persecute the saints of the most high and tend to change the times and the laws. That’s a lot of power that this little horn, horn often meaning authority, authority or power. So this little horn, this little authority that’s on this beast in Daniel is going to be against the most high. We just read what’s the spirit of the antichrist speaks against the

Most high opposition

And even specifically persecuting the saints. That’s a direct I’m against the church. I’m against those that are the Messiahs, those that are gods.

This prophecy in Daniel has not been fulfilled yet

Again, it has been some people believe like, oh, it’s been fulfilled. It’s not happening again. Yeah, we’ve talked about this. There’s a near and a far fulfillment of many prophecies In the Old Testament, it was necessary because how do you prove Daniel was a prophet? If the thing hasn’t happened yet, but things have happened. There was a figure in those times that matched this little horn, but it was so localized. It did not match globally what it also talked about. But there is going to be, and we read in Revelation a global fulfillment of this, a full world encompassing fulfillment of these prophecies. Daniel 7 25. In Daniel nine, when we talked about this last episode, there’s the Daniel 70 week prophecy and the 69 weeks of the prophecy, which is 69 weeks of years,

Just like one hour 400 news or the last hour is

A big season. The Bible often uses smaller timeframes to represent larger timeframes. And so in Daniel 9 27, the prophecy talks says this, it says, and he shall make a strong covenant, and we’ll talk about that in a second actually who he is. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. So one week is seven years, so for seven years and for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the deciliter.

So this 70 week prophecy is often referenced, especially in the Calver Chapel movement, this idea of like, oh, this points to a seven year tribulation because 69 weeks has already been taking place. So 430, so one years that all led up to the coming of Jesus. But there’s still this last week, the seven days, the seven years of this prophecy that hasn’t been fulfilled yet. And they believe that this is going to be fulfilled in revelation about the end times about this one coming, who’s going to make a covenant and who’s going to become the deciliter?

Well, they also believe that because since the destruction of the temple in 70 ad, there hasn’t been sacrifices regularly happening. And so in order for that second part that says for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice an offering, there has to be a beginning third temple, a starting of the sacrifices again. So that’s where they get

That. So they look at this and then they look at revelation and they say, oh, revelation is a fulfillment of this prophecy. And I believe revelation is, but I have a view that slightly differs. If you read this, it says, and he shall make a strong covenant just before this in verse 26 and 25, it talks about one coming to put an end to sin,

Which can only be one person,

It can only be one person. And then it goes in 27 and it says, he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week and for a half of the week, and he shall put an end to sacrifice and offerings. If you take that scripture and separate it from the next verse after it or the next part after it. That can be totally connected to what Jesus did when he came. He

Ended all

Sacrifice forever. He literally ended sacrifices forever. He was the final sacrifice.

There didn’t need to be anymore.

And what is the covenant that’s made with Minnie,

His covenant with us

Of his blood? He says, this is the covenant of my blood. When he sat with his disciples and he said, take this cup for it’s a new covenant in my blood. And so I actually believe that the first half of this week, three and a half years was taking place in the three and a half years of Jesus’s ministry that when he died on the cross, he made a covenant with the world with those who believe in him. He says, if you believe in me, you’ll not perish. And he put an end to sacrifices and offerings by his final sacrifice. This is the story of the gospel, that he’s the final sacrifice. He’s the only sacrifice necessary. He’s the only one that was capable of ending it. Now, revelation over and over again, and we’ve been going through revelation in church talks about a three and a half year period over and over again. It never says seven years. It just says three and a half

Years, three in different ways. It says three

And a half years. So some people take, then they add ’em together like, oh, this three and a half years and that three and a half years and we put ’em together, and that’s seven years. But I think if it was going to be seven years, the Bible would’ve said that. And Revelation says, three and a half years, and I believe this three and a half years takes place in this second part of this verse. And on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate. It almost sounds like it’s talking about two different people. Here’s the one who makes covenant and puts offerings. And

Then

There’s, there’s one that’s coming on the wings of abomination, which the decreed end is poured out on the desolate in Matthew 24 15. Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation as spoken in Daniel, and we see this as connected to the antichrist. So Jesus points out there’s this abomination that’s caused the desolation who does go into the temple, and we’re going to talk about the third temple in another episode, but that temple doesn’t exist yet. So no antichrist yet, no figure, no third temple yet. So those things haven’t happened yet. So those things are waiting to happen in this last three and a half years that’s going to take place in Revelation. That’s my point on that. My take on this. Maybe you’ll read it yourself and go see

Real quick side note, because there are probably people listening who grew up like us and heard the seven years over and over and over again. And I used

To believe that until I dug into it personally.

So now that you’ve done that and you have a little bit different perspective, I just want to bring this up because we are talking about prophecy in this whole series. What does it mean for the believer who has a different take on prophecy or interpret something differently? Is there a negative impact on that? And to follow that up, how do Christians communicate if they believe about different things and how it’s going to turn out and still maintain relationship

As long as, again, as long as our understandings of prophecy, especially prophecy, that’s not yet fulfilled because we don’t know. We don’t know exactly how that’s going to play out. I believe that what the scripture says will be played out whether I understand how or not exactly.

And as long as it doesn’t get in the way of our Christian abiding with Christ, are we walking with each other still in love and patience and kindness, walking in the fruits of the spirit, walking in the definition of love? I think that’s okay. There’s going to be many different views if you think it’s a seven year tribulation or not, if you think we’re going to be raptured before this period or not if you think a rapture is even going to happen or not. Now, I think how we view prophecy does change how we understand Jesus, and we should be very careful of that, and we should make sure that our view of prophecy doesn’t morph who Christ is and what he says about himself and what the Bible says about him. So as long as it doesn’t mess with the salve issues, as long as it doesn’t manipulate those and change those, then I think it’s okay. But I do think we should dig into the word and see what it actually says and not just conclude because someone told us,

Well, and we can go years thinking a certain way and then change, and that’s okay too. But being willing to even dive back in and do research and look at it I think is important for any subject in life. I

Think the way we do this, I just had this picture, if you imagine a mold, it’s like sitting on the table, it’s solid steel or titanium, whatever you want, it’s got a shape in it, and we’re the clay, and you just set it on that. And the softer that clay is, the more it’ll fit into that mold and it’ll eventually be shaped by the mold. And we need to look at ourselves the same way in scripture that scripture is the mold and we must become soft. That, and it takes time. It takes our life of surrender to God and walking with him and being in his word that over time we will fit into his mold and not try and get the mold to fit the clay. And I think that should be our heart posture totally. That we don’t just say, no, this is my stance. I am this and I’m going to believe that no matter what, I’m going to translate all scripture through my way of thinking or

This is my way of thinking. And I believe all people should

Have that way of thinking. And I will always encourage you, go to the word of God. If you have a viewpoint, go challenge your own viewpoint and say, where does the Bible say this? And that’s what I did. I actually got in. I’m like, it actually doesn’t say this. It doesn’t say what I thought it said, but you should do that for yourself.

So I have this part of me that likes to try and reconcile things, and I feel like I bring this up in conversation with you, Erin, a lot in just different parts of my life. I’m like, I am having a hard time. I need to reconcile this thing, otherwise I just get consumed by it. But I sometimes wrestle with how cryptic the Bible can be and why doesn’t it just say what it means? Or even the way Jesus talked. It was like, okay, so how I reconcile it prophecy specifically and why people have different interpretations is because there’s some strategy to what God’s doing. And I think if he is more cryptic, it would be harder for the enemy to not saying that the enemy could come against him, but

Well, this is a true thing. We have an enemy that does know. But if you realize there was all the prophecy in the Old Testament about, and even God telling Satan himself, I’m going to crush your head with her seed, and yet he comes and thinks he’s had victory and tempted and getting Judas to give up Jesus. And it was all part of God’s prayer. It was all part of his brain.

Just

Interesting things. We do have to recognize that God does have an intention for the spirit realm, for all these spiritual creatures just like he has

For us, things that I do not

Understand, that we don’t understand. And so I think also a big portion of it is it requires us to, I keep pointing it up, there’s a book on the table. It’s not even the Bible,

But your Bible was sitting there.

I moved it. My Bible was sitting there. I keep pointing to what I’m thinking as a Bible. It’s not a Bible, but God wants us to rely on each other. He wants us to be in his word and then rely on each other that we’re doing this together because his word intends that He desires that we be knitted together in his word, in truth and in unity. So there isn’t possible one person who gets to say, I have the authority on the word of God, that all his people can be authority on the word of God, and that we need to rely on each other and be iron being against iron being shaped into what the word says,

Which I think has been something that humans have wrestled with throughout history of idolizing authority of scripture and saying, oh, we must follow this person or that person and what they believe. And we even see it in culture today of maybe a little lackadaisical attitude toward understanding scripture because they rely so much on their pastor or priest or whoever’s guiding them.

I would agree with that. And I think God wants us each as individuals and as a whole to be mature, knowledgeable in the truth. Like Paul often said, I pray that you would grow in the knowledge of Christ.

Well, what a gift that we have such accessibility to the Bible, to the word.

Okay, so one of the most, that was a really good little

Encouragement. Yeah,

I want to go to the scripture that’s probably most referenced when it comes to the forming of our image of the antichrist and what he’s going to do. And again, it doesn’t even mention the word antichrist, which is so interesting. Second Thessalonians starting in chapter two, verse one. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, so often the antichrist is connected to the second coming of Jesus,

That timeframe,

The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him. So this is where many believers who believe in the rapture get their idea of the rapture is right here. We ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way for that day. So first of all, the day of the Lord is the, so there’s two things. There’s the coming of the Lord Jesus and the day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord is more like the judgment.

The day of the Lord is what we read about in revelation of God coming and doing, judging the world and bringing this big period of tribulation, the coming of the Lord Jesus. They’re different things. So he’s saying, don’t be deceived. If someone says, oh, that day’s already come, it hasn’t come, says that day for that day will not come. That day will not come the day of the Lord. The things that we read about in Revelation will not come unless two things happen. The rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed. The son of destruction, remember the son of destruction partition the words that are used about this man unless the lawless is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object or

Worship, which is an anti-Christ,

It opposes. But this is not just opposing Jesus directly. He’s opposing all so-called Gods all religions. This is very different than just the anti-Christ spirit.

That’s interesting. I’ve never noted that it’s against all even different religions.

No, this one, again, this is not just the spirit of antichrist. This is one coming in the spirit of antichrist directly by the power of Satan himself raises

Himself

Up and he raises himself up against all forms of worship. No, no, no. You’re not going to get to worship Allah. You’re not going to get to worship Buddha. You’re not going to get to worship. I am. Which is exactly what our Jesus says. He’s opposed against all gods. He wants only himself worshiped. And so this man wants to be him.

He’s duplicating, replicating,

Yeah, taking. He’s copywriting, copywriting. No, not copywriting. What’s it? Plagiarizing. Plagiarizing. So he opposes and exhausts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God again. There

Needs to be a temple.

There’s no temple yet. So this man cannot be revealed

And

Or cannot exist in a world where this third temple doesn’t exist.

So that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And the man of lawlessness of lawlessness is revealed, meaning there’s knowledge to what he’s doing.

Well, yeah, I was going to

Get to that second, and at the same time, he takes a seat in a temple. What? Temple? Yeah,

No, I want to make note. It doesn’t say that he has to take the seat in the temple.

It says he exalts himself against every so-called God so that he takes his seat.

No, it says, unless. This is what I want to get at with this specific scripture because we can get confused on what it’s saying. The two things that need to take place is the rebellion and the lawless is revealed. Then it goes into describing who the lawless one is. So he’s the son of destruction. He opposes himself and he will set himself up so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. It’s not saying that that must take place,

It’s just leading to

It. He’s saying that that man will do this.

Interesting.

And then he says, do you not remember that when I was still with you? I told you these things and what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time,

Which should we just denote?

We will get to it, but I think this is, we’re in the time,

But do you want to talk about what is restraining him now?

Oh yeah. So it says, and you know that what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time for the mystery of lawless is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. And then it says, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and all false signs and wonders. This is exactly describing the man that we hear about in Revelation that Jesus comes and with the word of his mouth, kills and sends him into the lake of fire. We just did this a few weeks ago at church. We talked about this.

So who is the one who’s restraining him?

Many believe that the one restraining him is the Holy Spirit. So it says, and so I believe most believers for the history of the church are like, oh, the Holy Spirit’s restraining him.

So then it says, until the one restraining him is out of the way, and this is kind of where we get the theology or eschatology, the church being taken, that the church taken away is taken away before this time. Because without the church, the Holy Spirit will not be in dwelt,

Right? Yeah. God wouldn’t take the Holy Spirit from his people. So the idea

Is the people is going with him. Yeah,

Yeah. Deductive reasoning would say, well, if us being gathered to him and the one being taken away is the Holy Spirit, then the church goes with the spirit. That’s where that deductive reasoning comes from. This is the verse where some believers think that we will be here during the great tribulation because you just did like, oh, it says that he’ll have to be in the temple. So if the temple doesn’t exist yet and he’s not in there, so if that happens in the middle of Revelation, the tribulation, then the church must be here because we’ll see that. And that’s where many people get that view. But like I said, that’s not what’s being said in Second Thessalonians. It’s not saying that in order for the second coming to happen, in order for us to be gathered with Jesus that this lawless one has to sit in the temple.

All it says is that the aposty, the great falling away needs to take place and the lawless one needs to be revealed. And so that’s the second part I want to talk about. This is the revealing part, but the first part is apostasy or rebellion. This is a reference to the great falling away and all you listeners, all you have to do is be on social media for half a day and you will see or be on the news a believer, a longtime believer, deconstructing, that’s the term being used now, deconstructionism, I’m deconstructing my faith.

It’s used in a positive way as far as this is my journey,

And I was once this way and now I’m follow you this way. It’s very similar to when people become born again sharing this testimony of like, I was once this way and now I’m saved. And you have this opposite taking place. I was once a believer in Jesus, but now I’m enlightened. My eyes have been opened and I realize that was wrong.

I’ve even seen even seen Instagram reels of someone talking about how they were a Christian their whole life, and then the light came on for them and now they do witchcraft, but with Jesus, and it’s,

Yeah, it’s

Very concerning.

I literally just saw one that, and she’s like, I was once a Christian, now I’m a yoga spiritualist. And this is what the spirit of the antichrist and the apostasy, it’s not just people not believing any longer for generations like, oh, I used to believe that stuff. I don’t believe that anymore. That’s one thing. No, this apostasy, this is much different. This is an evangelical anti-Christian perspective. They’re promoting it. I was once Christian, but now I know the truth.

Even saying, follow

Me and I want to share it with you, and I want you to believe the same thing. I want you to stop believing in that false thing. And when you start believing this new thing,

Which is so interesting, when you think about technology and just the evolution of social media and the,

Oh, everyone could be an evangelist, which could be good,

But everyone is, that’s what I’m saying is it’s just,

And we’re seeing this more and more. There’s so many, especially it’s happening. It’s probably happening with people you don’t even know, but big names, big believers that have written books and had churches and there were pastors and they’re coming out and they’re taking up a new pulpit, an antichrist pulpit. And so this is the apostasy, and we’re literally watching it unfold right now in a major way and it’s spreading. And there’s people that claim to be believers that claim to know Christ and love him and walk with him, wrote worship songs and wrote books telling Christians how to live their lives and walk are now like, Nope, that’s false. Even reality, Jesus doesn’t exist. Jesus isn’t real. The Bible’s false and not just walking away from it privately but are publicly. They’re taking the same ministry they had as a believer and using it and doing the same ministry, but as a antichrist. And that’s when you talk

About the great falling away too, and just that great influence that people have in when they share what their journey has been.

But what’s even more dangerous is we have churches who have pastors who still want to be in that role and teach Antichrist doctrine. They’re sitting there and saying, the Bibles, God’s not actually against this and this god’s for that. What that says, that actually is not what it means. What it really means is, and they’re sitting in the pulpit redefining it, and they’re redefining the Bible and they’re not even preaching from the Bible. They’re putting it away and they’re preaching in church, claiming to be a pastor or a priest or whatever you want to call them, and preaching antichrist doctrine. And so we’re in the midst. That would’ve never happened.

I’ll say this, it doesn’t look like hundred years ago. Antichrist spirit it, I don’t want to say deceptive, but sounds good. You know what I mean? Feels Well, there’s going to

Be many people that surround themselves with teachers that are going to tell them what they want to hear,

Saying it’s not always so easy to point out.

So we are seeing that take place right now. I truly believe. No, I know for a fact because you can’t argue with it. The Aposty is beginning now. I don’t know if it’s the great Aposty yet. I don’t know if we’re at a stage yet that it’s like, wow, this is mass

Hysteria. I mean, I feel like we’re getting pretty close to that just in the last two, three years. You see more

And more, and like you said with social media, it’s so easy to see it. But you know what? I just want to do a quick encouragement along with these big names that were of the faith and are falling away and are izing and are actually preaching against. You have big names, people that you would say that person will never give their life to Christ.

Oh yeah.

Or turning their heart to Jesus. Yeah, pretty cool. And are using their platforms to proclaim him. Are they doing it perfectly? Absolutely not. So they actually know that. But you see, you’re like, how could that person fall away? And then there’s these people that are like, how could that person ever believe? And they

Believe so even though

It’s so amazing that the spirit of God’s moving in people.

So even with something like the great falling away, there is still ministry being done. The holy Spirit’s still working.

The kingdom of heaven is still moving forward. And so we don’t need to look at and be like, oh, woe was us. No praise God that the plasticizer are showing themselves to be who they are. And it should bear warning for us that we be careful the kind of people we follow and we look at their lives well,

And that we’re filling our minds and hearts with the word of God so that we know how to discern what’s true.

I mean, sorry, I didn’t, but

Yes, I agree. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now that we’re all on the same page,

In my mind, I was transitioning. It’s okay. And you were still talking, so I’m sorry about that. Okay, so the second thing that needs to take place. So I believe that the first thing’s beginning, the second thing that needs to take place before the coming, the Lord, before the rapture, if you believe in that, I believe in it before the tribulation, before the third temple, before these things like fully boom, there is the lawless one needs to be revealed. Now, a common understanding of this, and I think it’s a misunderstanding, is that the lawless one will be like this. Antichrist will be in charge. Like, oh, there’s the antichrist. He’s

In charge. One world, one world

Ruler, one world government. If you believe that, then yes, the church has to be in the right and the smack D, middle of the great tribulation because if the antichrist is here and he’s in charge, then we must be right there being threatened with the mark of the beast. But it’s not saying that in two Thessalonians that says that all that needs to take place is the revealing of the lawless one, the one who will be the world leader.

So is it saying that that person needs to be revealed as a specific or just that the lawlessness of that person is revealed?

I think the lawless won. It says not the lawlessness, the lawless won. I think what it means to be read, you

Could just go back, sorry, just go back and reread it.

It says not to be quick. It says, let no one deceive you for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, which I believe is happening. And then it says, and the man of lawlessness is revealed. Those are the two things. And then it goes on to explain what that man of lawlessness is

And will do. So what does it mean by revealed?

Revealed simply means to be made known. So what I’m imagining that’s going to look like is somehow he’s going to come on the scene. There’s going to be this, here’s this great man who’s doing this great thing. And the church will know. The church is like, oh, that person’s the antichrist. That person’s the antichrist. We’ve pointed our fingers at many people, many leaders, many presidents, and said, that must be it. But there’s been no unanimous in the spirit, like, oh my gosh, that person. And I do believe that for the true believer, the ones who are in the word of God, the ones who are abiding with Christ, the ones who are into what? With the Holy Spirit, there’s going to be a, oh, there he is. We see it, and it’s not going to be secret. This is going to be a well-known person. The whole world will know him. It will not just be this one person who’s done this one little thing. So I believe that all that needs to take place is that this man needs to be made known. It doesn’t mean he’s yet taken the spot. It doesn’t mean that he’s made world peace. It doesn’t mean that he’s going to sit in the temple yet, but that he will.

And of course, when you read the revelation and we learn about the beast like we talked about in Daniel, but there’s the beast and Revelation gets his authority from the devil himself, and he comes on the scene to rule and cause people to take his mark and to worship him. Let’s just read it. Let me read that Revelation 13, one through

Two, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads with 10 di dems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bears, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.

So this image in Revelation, this is a spiritual image that God is revealing to John about this man. And all of these descriptions perfectly matched Daniel’s description of the beast, but in a different way. Daniel’s description was, and it’s even explained to him that these different beasts were different, nations different. But in Revelation, the one beast has all the attributes of all those past rulers, all those past nations. And this is going to be the same denoting, his global authority, his global power, and that in this one leader represent all of those antichrist spirits from the past. And he comes out of the water and says that the dragon gives him his power and his throne and great authority. And so this antichrist, this leader, this beast is who Second Thessalonians is talking about who first and second John is referring to is going to have this main spirit of, and so like I said, many people think like, oh, in order for that, the second coming to happen, this piece needs to rise up the rising out of the sea.

The sea represents the nations, the world. He’s going to come out of the world. It is going to be a person that’s going to come out of the nations and we’re going to be like, oh, he’s not necessarily even from Israel because there’s other images that represent Israel, but it’s going to be a man that rises up and he’s going to be revealed. And it doesn’t mean that he’s being in power for the second coming to take place for the beginning of the tribulation period to take place. He just needs to be made known. And to be honest, if you look at any political campaign that ever takes place, like right now, there’s in the race for president, there’s men that have stepped up to run for presidency that I’ve never heard of before. And they knew they weren’t going to win, but the only reason they ran was so that they would put their name on the stage and boom, now they’re in the public limelight.

Now they’re known now next presidency, they have a much better likelihood of becoming president. You don’t just step on, be like, well, I’m the president. No a process. Why would this be any different? This man that’s going to come up and take rule. He’s got to show up in an initial way, make himself known, do this great thing over here, do this, make this thing cause peace over in this situation, fix this solution problem over here. Be like, man, that guy’s awesome. And he’s taking care of things. So he does not need to be the world leader right away. And that actually doesn’t make any sense in the sense of any way we’ve ever seen world leaders come on the stage. So even talking about really nasty leaders, Hitler, he came, he wrote a book, he came on, he was doing all sorts of cool things early on to make himself known and then became who he was.

And it would make sense that the great falling away has to happen first because there has to be deception enough for people to accept or even allow for this man of lawlessness to continue in what he’s doing.

Yeah, and I agree. I think just so that we know, and again, I want you to dig in the stuff yourself. You might have your own preconceived notions based off what you’ve heard and what you’ve read, but I want you to dig back through and look at what it’s saying. I don’t think the Bible contradicts itself ever actually know for a fact it doesn’t. And so when it’s saying that these two things need to take place, I believe it that there’s going to be a great following away and that the man we will be made known whether he’s in charge or not, and then he will become in charge. But I don’t believe we’ll be here for that. That’s my take on this.

So you do believe that he could be alive today

Based off of what I’m seeing in the world based off what I know of the word of God, based off of the falling way that’s starting to take place. I believe for sure he’s alive. I don’t think we know who he is yet, but he’s alive. He’s in the world somewhere. I believe that by the time, maybe he’s a teenager, maybe he’s a young adult, I believe he’ll probably be, if I take the symbology and take how much he wants to be a counterfeiter, he’ll probably be around the age of 30 when he comes onto the scene.

Jesus did. He was 30. And to be like Jesus and think about this, we’re all looking at the President. They’re so old. We’re like, oh my gosh, these guys are so old. And everyone’s looking for a young hip with it. Leader that knows us and understands our generation. I’m saying are, I’m like 40 now, but the young generation, they’re looking for people that understand them. And so it would have to be someone currently from those ranks. And again, I think he wants to be like Jesus, not as in be like Jesus. He wants to mimic and replace Jesus. So I think he’ll probably be, the Bible doesn’t say, but he’ll probably be around 30 when he comes onto the scene. And now here’s the thing, three and a half years would put him at 33. And so that gives us the three and a half years of him coming into being like, oh, boom. Now he’s doing this thing like Jesus being raised up. He’s going to want to raise himself up against all Gods and put himself sit on the throne and do the opposite of what Jesus did. Jesus died and he’s going to want to sit on the throne inside of the temple, which is what Jesus got to do because he died. He sits on God’s throne. So anyways, I’m throwing a bunch of stuff out

There.

I think true believers are going to recognize him. I don’t think we need to be afraid. I don’t think we’re going to be deceived as long as we’re abiding with Christ and being in his word, we won’t be deceived.

I think fear comes in when there’s a lack of understanding, but the more you dig into scripture and you receive it, there’s comfort and confidence in knowing what’s going to happen so that when you see it, you go, okay, well, I know what’s next.

We can be comforted by these things. The Bible actually tells us when we hear about these things that we’re to be encouraged. So why would be encouraged if it’s a fearful thing that we’re going to be, we can be encouraged by these things. Well, how

Cool is it that God gave us the knowledge that He made these things known? Whether we

Fully, he told us beforehand, whether

We fully grasp it or not. I think prophecy is a really incredible gift.

It’s an amazing gift. So just to reiterate the two things that the antichrist are, first of all, it’s the opposite. It’s opposed to Christ. It’s a spirit in which people are not just like, oh, I don’t believe, but are actively opposed to Christ. I don’t believe what the Bible says about Jesus. I don’t believe who Jesus said he was. And then it’s also absolutely going to be a person that fully indwells the spirit of antichrist in its fullness, literally getting his authority from Satan himself. And so I believe the Bible clearly makes those two points and that they can’t be, I mean, you could try and refute them, but I believe the Bible makes it pretty irrefutable that those two things are going to take place. Any more thoughts on that?

No, I think it was a really good and heavy conversation, and I think we’re leaving our listeners with a lot to discuss and hopefully dig into themselves.

I really do. I hope they open the word of God. Go to first and second Thessalonians, go to Revelation. Go to Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah. You can find all these places where it talks about Jesus coming back, the return of the Messiah and the Antichrist and the Wallace

One. It’s a really awesome part of his story, and we should know his story,

And it’s still being written, which is so cool, and we get to be a part of it.

Okay, why don’t you pray?

Okay, Lord, we love you and we thank you that your word reveals to us beforehand what’s going to take place. And that though we may not fully understand God, we can trust that your holy spirit’s in us guiding us, teaching us all things, revealing to us the truth. And I pray for all of our listeners, Lord, that they would not take the things that we talked about today and have fear in the hearts God, but that you would replace any fear with such peace and excitement for God, what you’re doing, and God, that we would also see the urgency of sharing the truth with those that we love, sharing the truth with our neighbors, sharing the truth with anyone who asks, because we know that the time is coming short, the day is drawing near Lord, that we are going to be with you forever and we’re going to meet you.

And the things that Revelation talks about, God, that you’ve revealed in your word that’s going to take place can be avoided by putting our trust in Jesus Christ. And so we love you, and we thank you for what he did for us, that through his death and resurrection, God, we not only have salvation from our sin here on earth and the powers of death, father God, but we have eternal life in Him. We love you, and we thank you in Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. We love you all and we thank you for taking this journey with us. We have a few more episodes on this topic of prophecy and scripture about Jesus, and we look forward to having you next time.