William Greider, former assistant managing editor of The
Washington Post, writes:
The decayed estate of American democracy
"The decayed condition of American democracy is difficult
to grasp ... Symptoms of distress are accumulating freely
in the political system and citizens are demoralized ... A
climate of stagnant doubt has enveloped contemporary politics,
a generalized disappointment that is too diffuse and intangible
to be easily confronted ... This dissonance ... is so discomforting
that many naturally turn away from its implications ... In
place of meaningful democracy, the political community has
embraced a ... culture of false appearances ... [It] responds
to the public's desires with an artful dance of symbolic [and
vacant] gestures - hollow laws that are emptied of serious
content in the private bargaining of Washington. Promises
are made and never kept. Laws are enacted and never enforced.
When ordinary people organize themselves to confront the deception,
they find themselves too marginalized to make much difference."
There is, as a result, an almost palpable yearning within today's
electorate to be rescued from all this; a desire for some kind
of Arthurian figure to step forward and put an end to it.
THE LONGING FOR A NEW ARTHURIAN
FIGURE TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT - A NEW CAMELOT
Max Mell, a contemporary poet, has said that underneath the
thin cosmopolitan surface of today's modern Western World [i.e.,
the Euro-based, white civilization of Western Europe and North
America] lie all the "old heroes" still - Parsifal,
Guinevere, Roland, Lancelot, Barbarossa, Tristan, Isolde, etc.
They are implanted far too deeply in our collective memory to
ever be rooted out by the fleeting fashions of modernity, secularism,
and democracy - and who, like Arthur (the "once and future
king" - the Resitiutor Orbis), stand ready to re-emerge
and rescue us from the chaos and confusion of this present evil
world. And there are more people than most would care to admit
(many of whom are passing themselves off as Christians) who
are calling us to embrace the concept of leadership that these
old "warrior kings" represented - a kind of messianic
leadership based on nobility of character, charisma and the
ability to "get things done."
Indeed, many of the Christian men and women who are crying
out for such leadership hold the concepts of what we today call
"democracy" in utter contempt. To their mind, messianic
leadership - not democracy - is the ideal. To such people, the
messy and disordered condition of "politics as usual"
- with all its sordid, back room deal-making and compromises
- is a disgusting and vulgar thing, made all the more loathsome
by people like Bill and Hillary Clinton and the radical feminists,
militant homosexuals and effete multiculturalists who surround
them.
KING ARTHUR:
The Resitiutor Orbis
The longing for such a messiah rests on the bedrock of Western
tradition, a tradition which the secular elites can hide and
gloss over, but one which they have utterly failed to stamp
out; it is far too deeply embedded in the Western psyche - so
much so that British writers Norris J. Lacy and Geoffrey Ashe
can write that such a messiah has been -
"... persistently imagined and hoped for - a new Constantine
who will ... end civil strife and [the] usurpation [of political
power by the moneyed elite] ... [who will] defeat ... [Christendom's]
... enemies, and bring back peace and prosperity."
And not only that, but - as Carolly Erickson, a professor at
the University of California at Santa Barbara, writes -
"... one who [like Arthur] dwells in the circle of the
miraculous."
THE DARKER SIDE OF EVIL
There is, however, a dark and foreboding side to all this that
goes beyond the heroic to the demonic: first, it is the product
not of Biblical Christianity, and - when taken to the extreme
- is precisely that which produces the David Koreshes and the
Jim Joneses of our world, and it goes a long way in explaining
the death-like embrace of Hitler and the German people - one
with the other - as they careened towards their final destruction
in the waning days of World War II.
For those Christians who look for such a solution - maybe,
just maybe - they'll get it, and a lot more than they had originally
bargained for. The Bible says:
"Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have
heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many
antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."
(1 John 2:18; cf. I John 2:22; I John 4:3; 2 John 1:7)
ANTICHRIST: KING OF BABYLON
And so we now at last come to one of the most primeval nightmares
of the Christian West: the Antichrist.
In the study of prophecy, evangelicals of course lay a great
deal of stress on the Second Coming of Christ. But in doing
so, we as evangelicals often forget - though the world doesn't
(a quick perusal of its movies and books would confirm this
fact) - that there is another coming that is almost as momentous
as that of Christ's. In both the Old and New Testaments we are
told of a MYSTERIOUS and TERRIBLE person who shall
be revealed in the "Last Days." He is known variously
in the Scriptures as the "King of Babylon" (Isa. 14:4),
the "Little Horn" (Dan. 7:8; 8:9), the "Prince
that shall Come" (Dan. 9:26), the "Man of Sin"
(II Thess. 2:3-8), the "Son of Perdition" (II Thess.
2:3-8), the "Antichrist" (I John 2:18), and the "Beast"
(Rev. 13:1).
Isaiah describes this extraordinary and marvelous being in
Isaiah 14 with remarkable grace and elegance, and shows how
this proud possessor of world power - who in titanic arrogance
will think himself to be the equal of God - shall at last be
cast down: the Kingdom of the Dead will rise in commotion at
his arrival; specters will hurry to meet him; and princes shall
bow down before him -
"... thou shall take up this proverb against the KING
OF BABYLON [i.e., the Antichrist], and say,
How hath the oppressor ceased! The golden city [i.e., Babylon]
ceased! Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at
thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the
chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones
all the kings of the nations." (Isaiah 14:4-9)
In general, there have been several diverse views of the doctrine
of the Antichrist. These views can be classified into four categories:
That he is to be a "Roman Prince" of Gentile
origin - the leader of the last great form of GENTILE
WORLD POWER.
That he is to be a Jew - the leader of an apostate Israel.
That he is the Pope, or that "system of things"
summed up in the form of the "Papacy."
That rather than being a person, Antichrist is best
understood in spiritual or allegorical terms as an "institution"
or "principle" of evil.
THE VIEW OF THE EARLY CHURCH: ANTICHRIST AS A "ROMAN PRINCE"
The early Church believed that Antichrist was to be a person,
the embodiment of human blasphemy and wickedness - a Roman Prince;
indeed, almost all the early Christian literature of the Age
of Persecution (33-312 A.D.) singled out the Antichrist as just
such a prince. [Please see J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and
the Jews (New York; World Publishing House, 1943; Yale University
Press), pg. 224.]
THE VIEW OF THE MEDIEVAL
(CATHOLIC) CHURCH: ANTICHRIST AS A JEW
But with the acceptance of Christianity by the Roman Emperor
Constantine, and the increasing identification of the Church
with the Roman state, it became ever more embarrassing to both
the Roman state and the Roman Church to continue to allow Christian
doctrine to picture the Antichrist as a "Roman Prince."
A solution to this difficult problem was finally adopted by
the Papacy: over the years it gradually shifted the onus of
Antichrist from off the back of Rome and on to the Jews. THE
IDEA OF ANTICHRIST AS A JEW IS THE CREATION OF THE ROMANCATHOLICCHURCH and is traceable in
its embryonic form to the early Fifth Century A.D., and specifically
to the writing of Jacob of Serug. As a mature hypothesis, this
doctrine was fully developed and finalized by Thomas Acquinas
(perhaps the Roman Church's greatest scholar) and Albertus Magnus.
Both devoted considerable attention in developing this theme
and it is in Catholic tradition and doctrine that this concept
found its greatest acceptance.
Today, however, while the Catholic Church continues to hold
to a greater or lesser degree to such doctrine (as do many Post-Millennialists),
evangelical-fundamentalists have rejected this doctrine as unscriptural
and Catholic in origin. J. Dwight Pentecost writes:
"He (Antichrist) is a GENTILE since he arises
from the sea (Revelation 13:1) and since the sea depicts the
Gentile nations (Rev. 17:15), he must be of Gentile origin.
He rises from the [legacy] of the Roman Empire, since he is
[to be] a ruler of the people [civilization] who destroyed
Jerusalem (Dan. 9:26). He is to be the head of the last form
of GENTILE [not Jewish] world dominion." (Rev.
13:1)
THE VIEW OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMERS: ANTICHRIST AS THE POPE OR THE PAPAL SYSTEM
During the Reformation, however, the onus of Antichrist - like
a boomerang - returned to the Roman Catholic Church, this time
with a vengeance. Dissidents within the Roman Church, and among
the leaders of those Protestant bodies which broke off from
Rome, began to look upon the Pope himself and the institution
of the Papacy as Antichrist - and it was all too natural and
understandable for them to do so, given the nature of the struggle
they found themselves engaged in at the time. Indeed, the arguments
in favor of this view are ingenious and plausible, but they
are hard to reconcile with the Word of God. This view has tended
to make of the Antichrist a "system" (the Papacy)
rather than an actual person. But such views are disproved by
the Word; the Scriptures plainly teach that the Antichrist is
a PERSON. Furthermore, the Word also teaches that the
Antichrist will deny the deity of Christ. The Apostle John writes:
"Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the
Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son."
(I John 4:3)
While we are certainly not attempting here any defense of Catholicism,
the Papacy has never done so! The Church of Rome has always
confessed: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker
of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
Lord." However false and impious the claims of the Papacy,
it has always recognized its subordination to God, and the Pope's
highest claim is that he is merely the "Vicar of God,"
and not that he is God Himself - which claim the Antichrist
will most definitely make (at least after the "Abomination
of Desolation"):
"... He (Antichrist) will exalt himself and magnify
himself above every god.” (Dan. 11:35-37)
"... So that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God
showing himself that he is God." (II Thess. 2:4)
While there are many Protestant commentators who insist that
the Papal System itself is described in Revelation 17, under
the figure of a "Woman" arrayed in "purple and
scarlet color," and decked with "gold and precious
stones and pearls," it is also true that most of these
same men admit that this Woman is not a picture of the Antichrist
as such, but of the apostate Christian religious system which
will appear in the Last Days and which will be supported by
the Beast (i.e., the Antichrist) during the first half of the
tribulation and prior to the "Abomination of Desolation.
While there are many things in the history of the Church of
Rome and in the conduct of her Popes that foreshadow the Antichrist,
yet it is clear from these and other Scriptures that the Pope
(and / or the Papal System) is not the Antichrist, and that
these Scriptures can only be fulfilled in the person of some
individual that is yet to come.
THE VIEW OF THE "LIBERAL" CHURCH: ANTI-CHRIST AS AN INSTITUTION OR PRINCIPLE OF EVIL
Finally, there have been the views of Antichrist as a "principle"
or "institution" of evil. These are the views generally
held by most theologians in the liberal Protestant Church and
even in some segments of the so-called neo-evangelical Church.
Indeed, these views have proven to be especially attractive
among Christian authors who wish to maintain some semblance
of genuine Christian faith hand-in-hand with a liberal-critical
view of Scripture origins - in other words, by those who deny
the literal and inerrant interpretation of the Scriptures. But
it is simply not possible for those who believe in a literal
interpretation of the Scriptures to hold such views and at the
same time to make them square with the Scriptural identification
of Antichrist as a person (which a literal interpretation of
the Scripture demands) rather than as a "principle"
or "institution."
GETTING BACK TO ORIGINS: ANTICHRIST AS A PERSON - A "ROMAN PRINCE"
Today, most serious students of the Word accept the early church's
view of the Antichrist. There is, as Dr. Robert Duncan Culver
has suggested, almost universal agreement among them that:
"... a final PERSONAL Antichrist (of Gentile
origins) shall appear near the close of the present age who
will become master of the world and who will be destroyed
by Christ at His coming."
It is thus their view that the Antichrist is to be the head
of the last form of GENTILE WORLD POWER - depicted in
Daniel's dream image (Daniel 2) as the feet of iron and clay
- the final form of the fourth great Gentile empire: the Roman!
IT IS THIS FINAL FORM OF THE FOURTH GREAT GENTILE
POWER (THE ROMAN) THAT IS KNOWN IN THE SCRIPTURES
AS PROPHETIC BABYLON. But the
Scripture is even more specific. In Daniel chapter 7, this final
form of Gentile world power is indicated as a head with ten
horns (depicting a group of nations) over which an eleventh
nation rises and eventually dominates. IT IS AS LEADER OF
THIS ELEVENTH NATION THAT ANTICHRIST IS KNOWN AS "KING
OF BABYLON."
THE DOCTRINE OF THE ANTICHRIST
The cornerstone of the Doctrine of the Antichrist is II Thessalonians
2:1-12. There are many other passages which speak of the Antichrist,
but all are unintelligible in the absence of this key passage.
Just as Revelation 20 is the cornerstone of the Doctrine of
Resurrection and Judgment, so is II Thessalonians 2 the cornerstone
of the Doctrine of the Antichrist.
In addition to II Thessalonians 2, there is another key test
concerning the Antichrist hardly less important than II Thessalonians
2. It is Daniel 7:20, 24-25. These verses say that ten horns
representing ten kingdoms (over which sit ten kings) shall arise
in the final stage of the fourth GENTILE kingdom. These
ten horns correspond to the ten toes of Daniel's dream image
in Daniel 2 [Please also see Revelation 17:12-18]. A little
(i.e., younger) horn shall arise from among the original ten
and it is out from this horn that Antichrist shall appear. This
little horn represents both the kingdom out from which the Antichrist
shall come and the Antichrist himself (in the same fashion that
the original ten horns represent both kings and the kingdoms
over which they sit). This is the common view.
Almost all interpreters - Jewish, evangelical, and men of about
every kind of persuasion concerning "last things"
(eschatology) agree that this is some kind of consummate Antichrist.
Liberal Christianity and Reform Judaism think Daniel 7 was written
at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (about 165 B.C.) and that
the author of Daniel supposed that Antiochus -- the sacrilegious,
anti-Semitic tyrant of Syria (and descendent of the Greek general,
Selussis, Alexander's brilliant lieutenant) who desecrated the
Jewish Temple -- would be the final wicked oppressor before
the coming of the Messiah's victorious Kingdom, with the Jews
as his elite.
THESE SAME LIBERALS THINK THAT THE AUTHOR OF DANIEL WAS
MISTAKEN. It should, therefore, come as no shock that most
evangelicals (as well as most Orthodox Jews) reject the thesis
that this passage has anything (directly) to do with Antiochus
and that it relates directly and specifically to the Antichrist
(the false messiah).
There are in addition to these two main passages many other
passages which shed additional light on this man of sin: Ezekiel
28:1-10; Daniel 7:7-8; 21-23; 8:23-25; 9:26-27; 11:36-45; Revelation
13:1-10; 17:8-14. A synthesis of the truths contained in these
verses reveal the following (please see J. Dwight Pentecost,
Things to Come; Robert Duncan Culver, Daniel and the
Latter Days; and Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince).
The synthesis is organized into three parts:
Part 1 lists those general characteristics
which accrue to the Antichrist before he is manifested through
the Treaty with Death and Hell by which he will guarantee
Israel's security (in other words, those characteristics
which will accrue to him before the beginning of the Seventieth
Week).
Part 2 lists those characteristics which
describe his personality during the first half of the Seventieth
Week and before the Abomination of Desolation.
Part 3 lists those characteristics through
which he is fully manifested as the Son of Perdition during
the second half of the Seventieth Week - the "Great
Tribulation:"
PART 1:
HIS APPEARANCE BEFORE THE TRIBULATION
He will appear in the Latter Days.
He will appear before the Day of the Lord - which is to
say, before the Rapture and the Resurrection.
His "SATANIC" manifestation (specifically,
his manifestation as the Son of Perdition and the Beast) will
(and is) being hindered by the Restrainer. It should be noted
in this connection, however, that the SATANIC manifestation
of the Antichrist will occur only after the Abomination of Desolation,
which itself occurs midway through the Seventieth Week.
He is a GENTILE (not a Jew) since he arises from
the sea (Revelation 13:1) and since the sea depicts the GENTILE
nations (Rev. 17:15), he must be of GENTILE origin (please
see J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, pg. 332). Robert
Duncan Culver writes, "... the Scripture leads us to believe
that ... the suffering of ... (God's people) will be brought
about by a great, evil king of a GENTILE nation ..."
[Robert Duncan Culver, Daniel and the Latter Days (Chicago;
Moody Press, 1954) pg. 85.]
He will arise from within the boundaries of Western Civilization,
since he is a ruler of the people (civilization) which destroyed
Jerusalem. [(Daniel 9:26) - i.e., Graeco-Romanism or "The
West."]
More specifically, he will arise from an "eleventh"
kingdom which is heir to the heritage of the original ten which
themselves represent the final form of the fourth great GENTILE
empire [cf. Dan. 7:7-8; 20-24; Rev. 17:9-11].
He will be a political leader. (please see verses above
plus Rev. 13:1 and 7:12)
He will be a great communicator or orator and will be renowned
for his persuasiveness; he will "look the part" of
a great leader. (Dan. 7:8, 20; 8:23), he will practice subtlety
and will have a secret love for "craft" - i.e., witchcraft.
(Daniel 8:25)
He will promote himself as Israel's champion. (Dan. 9:27)
He will oppose the Northern Confederacy (a group of nations
to the north of Israel which will array themselves against Israel
in the "Latter Days") [Ezek. 38:1 - 39:25; (cf. Ezek.
38:15; 39:2) Dan. 11:40; Joel 2:1-27 (cf. Joel 2:20) Isa. 10:12;
30:31-33; 31:8-9].
He will put his trust in military power. Dan. 11:38).
He will oppose the "desire of women" (Dan. 11:37);
while there are some who insist that this particular verse refers
to the desire of women to "bring forth the Messiah,"
such an interpretation requires an inordinate amount of convolution
and seems to imply that women are more desirous of this than
men. The more likely interpretation is the "common sense"
one - i.e., that he will oppose the "modern-day" desire
of women to seek "equality" with men in the world
of business and politics.
He will deceive God's people (i.e., the Christians) by posing
as their champion (apparently by appearing to promote their
religious desires and political programs) in the same fashion
that he deceives Israel. [(Rev. 17:3; please also see Matt.
24:24].
PART 2:
HIS APPEARANCE DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTIETH
WEEK AND
BEFORE THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
As the King of Babylon (Isa. 14:4 - please see Lange's
Commentary on the Holy Scripture, Vol. 6, pg. 186) he will
make (or "cause to prevail") a defense pact with Israel
which will be directed against the Northern Confederacy. (Dan.
9:27)
The Northern Confederacy - together with a southern confederacy
of nations) will make war with him in the Middle East (Ezek.
28:7; Dan. 11:40, 42) and in the ensuing conflict he will defeat
these confederations (Ezek. 37-39). [Please see chapter 6; please
also see J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, pgs. 326-340.]
He will be opposed by three nations in the ten nation confederacy;
he will eliminate the leadership in these countries and bring
them under his power. (Dan. 7:8, 24)
After his defeat of the Northern Confederacy and the establishment
of his absolute power over the ten confederated nations, he
will seek to extend his domination over the whole world. (Rev.
13:8)
He will seek to promote the extension of his power through
alliances (Dan. 8:24; Rev. 17:12) and through the promotion
of "world peace." (Dan. 8:25)
He will appear as the champion of the Harlot or Great Whore
of Revelation 17 (which is to say, Apostate Christianity) who
will everywhere promote him in his quest for world dominion
(Rev. 17:3)
He will appear as Israel's champion. (Dan. 9:27)
PART 3:
HIS APPEARANCE DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEVENTIETH
WEEK AND
AFTER THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
He will receive a "deadly wound" from which he
recovers. (Rev. 13:3; 17:10)
He will become energized by Satan and will receive satanic
power so that now he will be able to perform "wonders"
and "miracles." (Ezek. 28:9-12; Rev. 13:4; Ezek. 28:2;
Dan. 8:25)
He will claim absolute power and will demand to be worshipped
as a deity; all pretense to democratic forms of government will
be abandoned. (II Thess. 2:3, 9-12; Rev. 13:8)
He will reveal himself finally as the great adversary of
the Church and Israel, and will seek to destroy both of them
- those who "keep the commandments of God" (i.e.,
the Jews) and those "which have the testimony of Jesus"
(i.e., the Christians) [Rev. 12:7, 9, 12b, 14, 17; 13:7; Dan.
7:21, 25; 8:24]. Robert Duncan Culver writes,
"The Antichrist will seek to destroy God's people, especially
the Jews, thus bringing on the 'Great Tribulation'. [But] I
[also] feel that when Jesus speaks of the 'elect' as coming
into a great trial ... the sufferers of the trials are not [only]
Jews as such. He quite obviously is [also] referring to His
disciples, to Christian believers, who will be living on earth
when, at last the sad events just before the end of the age
shall come." [See Matt. 24; Luke 21; Mark 13; please also
see Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince.]
Because he will now demand to be worshipped, he will turn
even on the "Apostate Church" (i.e., the "Harlot
Church" as opposed to the real church) so that he may rule
unhindered - indeed, it is axiomatic that those who seek absolute
power will never share that power with anyone else; they inevitably
destroy all competitors (real or only imagined) and the perceived
closeness of any previous relationships has mattered little
to these kinds of men as Ernst Roehm [Hitler's chief of the
SA (Sturmabteilung)] found out to his horror with regard
to Hitler on the infamous "Night of the Long Knives"
in 1936. (Rev. 17:16-17)
He will establish himself as the head of Satan's lawless
system. (II Thess. 2:3)
He will seek to change all laws and customs (as the Jacobins
attempted to do after the French Revolution). [Dan. 7:25]
6-6-6
Finally, there is the question which arises from the Biblical
reference to the number 6-6-6 (Rev. 13:18) in reference to the
Beast (Antichrist). The number should more properly be read
not as six hundred and sixty-six, but as a SERIES OF THREE
SIXES: 6-6-6.
The Scripture makes it plain that this number has reference
specifically to the name of the Beast - and Antichrist does
not become the Beast until after the Abomination of Desolation
which - again - occurs midway through the Tribulation period.
Thus, the name to which the number 6-6-6 refers may not be actually
appended to the Antichrist until after the Abomination of Desolation
- rendering it useless for Christians to identify the Antichrist
using this number until after the Abomination of Desolation.
The practice of taking a new name is a common practice in "sacring"
- a practice which many western monarchs used and one which
the popes continue to practice, even today.
