When the Bible, God's Word, tells us to beware, we must pay attention and take great precautions to what it is warning us about! There are so many times we ignore God's warning and find out the hard and painful way the consequences of our disobedience. Here are some important warnings we are to heed from the New Testament.
Beware of the Antichrist and Antichrist Deceivers
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. - 2 John 1:7-11
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. - 1 John 2:18-23
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. - 1 John 4:1-6
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. - 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12
The Bible tells us many antichrist deceivers have been and are in this world, they follow after the devil and are filled with hatred and evil. We can think back in history and name a few and we see many today who are doing the work of the devil. However, there is one that will be worse than all the evil people before him, the antichrist will be the "son of sin" the embodiment of pure evil and the human form of the devil. Satan wants to be God and in trying to do so, he is the biggest copycat and plagiarizer in history. The holy trinity consists of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Satan forms his own trinity, an unholy trinity, Satan, the antichrist, and false prophets. God's number is 7 meaning divine perfection, He created everything in 6 days and rested on the 7th making it the day of rest, 7 stands for completion. Satan claims his own number 6 representing man, as man was created on the 6th day. It also stands for the manifestation of sin. Satan not only wants to be God but he passionately hates and is jealous of man, God's creation given free-will, made in the image of God, and loved unconditionally to the point of sending His only Son to die for us and set us free from the bondage of sin.
The Bible doesn't tell us exactly who the antichrist is, but gives us descriptions so we can be aware and on alert at all times. The antichrist will be revealed after the Church, Christians, are taken home to heaven. Here are the descriptions of the antichrist:
He is a great deceiver (Satan is the father of all lies) (Daniel 8:25)
He promises peace to all the world, makes a 7-year peace treaty with Israel (but breaks the treaty in the middle of the 7 years), and he will appear to have all the answers to the problems in this world which people will believe. (Daniel 9:27a)
Men worship him and women desire him, but he is not interested in women (Daniel 11:37)
He denies that the Son of God came in the flesh (1 John 2:22)
He will perform ungodly signs/miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9 & Revelation 13:13-14)
He will exalt himself above all and will sit in the temple of God to be worshipped (2 Thessalonians 2:4 & Daniel 11:36)
He blasphemy's God (Revelation 13:6)
He is given authority and control over the kingdoms of the world (Revelation 13:16-17)
What happens to the Antichrist and antichrist deceivers?
Our God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, and all-seeing. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the great I Am. Nothing was created without Him, He has always existed. (Genesis 1:1-2, Exodus 3:14, Revelation 22:13). Our Savior comes back as a man, in full force with God's wrath to judge those left on the earth. As Adrian Rogers said, "Now when He came the first time, He was spat upon. When He came the first time, He was lied on. When He came the first time, He was ignored. And then worse than being ignored, He was crucified. But when He comes again, and I can hardly wait, He’s going to be crowned and He is going to be glorified. And at that moment there will be stark terror for those who do not know Him and who have not trusted Him...The Savior then becomes the judge and men have cursed Him behind His back; they won’t curse Him to His face, I will promise you that. Now God takes no delight in this, but God is a holy God and God will punish sin. " (How to Have a Steadfast Hope in a Shaky World (2176)).
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. - Revelation 19:11-16
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. - Revelation 19:17-21
The antichrist and the beast will be "cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone." (Revelation 19:20). After this, Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years while Christ reigns in flesh in Jerusalem with the saints. Revelation 20:1-6. After the 1,000 year reign of Christ, Satan will be released for the final battle.
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. - Revelation 20:7-10
The ending of evil and Satan's "reign" happen just as the beginning of the world did, with the spoken word by God Almighty! (Revelation 19:21). They may have their few moments of fun and evil deception, but their time will come to an end once and for all, and for all of eternity, they will be punished. Satan tries to convince people that hell is his domain and a big party full of evil and sin but just as he is the father of all lies, this is him being in denial of his loss of the war and awaiting doom. Hell is not his kingdom where he rules and punishes humans who chose hell over a relationship with God, hell is punishment for Satan and his followers. He knows he has lost, he lost the battle before he even began, but he is completely evil and full of hate and jealousy that he keeps trying to get one up on God and is in complete denial of his chosen condemnation that he won't stop until God stops him once and for all.
"His (Jesus') coming is like the sunrise. You can’t hurry it and you cannot stop it, but it shall come and one of these days the Lord Jesus is going to pull back the shades of night and pin them with a star, open the door of the morning and flood this world with His glory. And I can hardly wait. When He’s coming, we don’t know, but we know exactly that He is coming" (How to Have a Steadfast Hope in a Shaky World (2176), Adrian Rogers).
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