Anti-Christ I

You should take note that the word Christ is of pagan origin given to us by Catholicism, but for the sake of the reader I will use the term Anti-Christ so as not to confuse them. The spirit of Anti-Yashua is indeed alive and well in our modern

time of pagan influenced churches who oppose truth at every turn.

There probably is no greater foundation stone to the futurist seven year tribulation theory than that of the Anti-Christ. We have taken Revelations imagery and compared to the prophets and have shown the true identity of the 70 TH Week, Wormwood, Winepress, Vine and Vineyard, The Great Whore, 1290 and 1335 days, and so on. I will take about three articles and dedicate them to the scriptural truth about what and who is Anti-Christ and the number 666. We need to understand what the Bible really says. The answer will surprise you. Enjoy as we begin.

Many popular writers have speculated about this term, usually failing to regard its usage in Scripture. In the first place, consider a fact which will undoubtedly shock some people: the word "Anti-Christ" never occurs in the Book of Revelation. Not once!

Yet the term is routinely used by modern Christian teachers as a synonym for "the Beast" of Revelation 13. We covered who the beast really was with the seven heads and ten horns. A beast always refers to a nation in almost all instances unless used in a literal sense, like a lion came upon Samson and he slew the beast.

A further error teaches that "the Anti-Christ" is a specific individual; connected to this is the notion that "he" is someone who will make his appearance toward the end of the world. Both of these ideas, like the first, are contradicted by the New Testament.

In fact, the only occurrences of the term Anti-Christ are in the following verses from the letters of the Apostle John:

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that Anti-Christ is coming, even now MANY ANTI-CHRISTS have arisen; from this we know that [it is the last hour].

THEY WENT OUT FROM US, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have REMAINED with us; but they went out, in order that it may be shown that they all are not of us .

Who is the liar but the one who denies that Yashua is the Messiah? This is the Anti-Christ, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. . . . These things I have written to you [concerning those] who are trying to deceive you. (IJohn 2:18-19, 22-23, 26).

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false

prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: EVERY SPIRIT THAT CONFESSES THAT YASHUA HAS COME IN

THE FLESH is from God; and every spirit that does not confess that Yashua has come in the flesh is not from

God; and this is the spirit of the Anti-Christ, of which you have heard that it is coming, and [NOW] it is

ALREADY in the world.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge YASHUA AS COMING IN

THE FLESH. This is the deceiver and the Anti-Christ. Watch yourselves, that [we] might not lose what [we]

have accomplished, but that [we] may receive a full reward.

The texts quoted above comprise all the Bible passages that mention the word Anti-Christ, and from them we

can draw several important conclusions:

First, the Ekklesia had already been warned about the coming of Anti-Christ (1st John 2:18; 4:3).

Second, there was not just one, but "many Anti-Christ’s" (1st John 2:18). The term Anti-Christ, therefore,

cannot be simply a designation of one individual.

Third, Anti-Christ was already working as John wrote: "even now many Anti-Christ’s have arisen" (1st John

2:18); "I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you" (1st John 2:26); "you have heard

that it is coming, and now it is already in the world" (1st John 4:3); "many deceivers have gone out into the

world. . . . This is the deceiver and the Anti-Christ" (2nd John 7). Obviously, if the Anti-Christ was already

present in the first century, he was not some figure who would arise at the end of the world.

Fourth, Anti-Christ was a system of unbelief, particularly the heresy of denying that Yashua has come in the

flesh. Although the Anti-Christ apparently claimed to belong to the Father, they taught that Yashua was not the

Messiah (1st John 2:22); in union with the false prophets (1st John 4:1), they denied that God was in Messiah

(1st John 4:3; 2nd John 7, 9); and they rejected apostolic doctrine (1st John 4:6).

Fifth, the Anti-Christ had been members of the Ekklesia, but had apostatized (1st John 2:19). Now these

apostates were attempting to deceive other saints, in order to sway the Ekklesia as a whole away from Yashua

(1st John 2:26; 4:1; 2nd John 7, 10).

Putting all this together, we can see that Anti-Christ is a description of both the system of

apostasy and individual apostates. In other words, Anti-Christ was the fulfillment of Yashuas' prophecy that a

time of great apostasy would come, when "many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one

another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many" (Matthew 24:10-11).

As John said, the Ekklesia had been warned of the coming of Anti-Christ; and, sure enough, "many Anti-

Christ’s" had arisen. For a time, they had believed the gospel; later they had forsaken the faith, and then went

about trying to deceive others, either starting new cults or, more likely, seeking to draw the saints into Judaism

– the false religion which claimed to worship the Father while denying the Son.

When the doctrine of Anti-Christ is understood, it fits in perfectly with what the rest of the New Testament

which tells us about the age of the "terminal generation [ forty years ]."

Returning to John’s statements about the spirit of Anti-Christ, we should note that he stresses one further, very

significant point: as Jesus foretold in Matthew 24, the coming of Anti-Christ is a sign of "the End":

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that Anti-Christ is coming, even now many Anti-Christ’s

have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour" (1st John 2:18). The connection people often make

between the Anti-Christ and "the last days" is correct enough; but what is often missed is the fact that the

expression the last days, and similar terms, are used in the Bible to refer, not to the end of the physical world,

but to the last days of the nation of Israel, the "last days" which ended with the destruction of the Temple in

A .D. 70.

This, too, has come to many of you as a surprise hasn't it? We must accept the clear teaching of Scripture. The

New Testament authors unquestionably used "end-times" language when speaking of the period they were

living in, before the fall of Jerusalem.

As we have seen, the Apostle John said two things on this point: first that Anti-Christ had already come; and

second that the presence of the Anti-Christ was proof that he and his readers were living in "the last hour." In

one of his earlier letters,

By the end of the age, however, as John was writing his letters, the Great Apostasy–the spirit of Anti-Christ, of

which the Lord had foretold – was a reality.