I thought I'd start the Christmas Season - a season in which the Church celebrates the birth of Christ - by posting about the Antichrist. Merry Christmas!
Now, if you search "The Antichrist" on the internet, you'll find thousands (if not tens of thousands) of videos and blogs all asserting that President Obama is the Antichrist. They're everywhere. The last thing you'll want to do, frankly, is go to Youtube with this search, because the pages are endless. While some of them are interesting, the majority of them are utter foolishness: cleverly edited newsreels, altered photographs, stories of aliens living in the center of the earth, and the like; theories are a dime a dozen (we'll take a look at one of those in the next post). Now, theories are not always bad, but we have to be careful with them, so before we start pointing fingers, let's see what the Scriptures tell us about the Son of Perdition.
The Book of Daniel offers some interesting comments on who this man will be. Now, to be fair, it's what is called a "Dual Prophecy," meaning it is referring to someone in the near future (relative to Daniel), as well as someone in the distant future. This can be confusing to decipher between, which is perhaps part of the reason why Daniel was "troubled in spirit" (7:15, 28), he kept fainting (8:18), and was unable to eat (10:2-3)! So let's lay out what it says, and see if we can decipher what's going on.
"I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast - terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts [see Daniel 7:1-6], and it had ten horns.
"While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
"As I looked,
"thrones were set in place.
and the Ancient of Days took His seat.
His clothing was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before Him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
"Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. . . .
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (Daniel 7:7-11; 13-14)."
So, this "beast" clearly comes at the "End Times," as his execution occurs when Christ returns to earth. All of this, however, confuses the prophet, and Daniel asks one of those in attendance to explain to him everything he's just seen:
"Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws - the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell - the horn that looked more imposing than the others and had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
"He gave me this explanation: 'The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress His saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. . . .
"'He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men and the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human hands.' . . . He said to me, 'It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated. . . . The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future'" (Daniel 7:19-25; 8:24-25; 7:14; 8:26).
The section refers to Antiochus IV, who rose to power out of one of the four kingdoms left in the aftermath of Alexander the Great (see article, particularly the section entitled "After Alexander"; see also Daniel 8:8). Antiochus called himself "Epiphanes," which means "God manifest," essentially setting himself up as God. He desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, but it was reconsecrated 1,150 days later by Judas Maccabeus (1,150 days is 2,300 evenings and mornings). So much of this has come true already. Many scholars, though, associate these passages with the coming Son of Perdition (hence the angel's reminder that all of this "concerns the distant future"). Jesus Himself equates the prophecy in Daniel with the coming ruler (see Matthew 24:15). This is why we can reasonably assume that this passage is a dual prophecy: it refers to events that would take place within a few hundred years of Daniel, but it also refers to events that will happen in the last days. Should you be skeptical of this idea, understand that dual prophecies exist in other areas of Scripture, too. The passage in Isaiah that deals with the Virgin Birth, for example, is a prophecy dealing with Isaiah's own child, as well as the coming Messiah - thus, a dual prophecy (see Isaiah 7:13-8:4).
There are still people who debate this, and since many of them are much smarter than me, I will concede that I could be wrong, but history has revealed Antiochus, and Jesus revealed the "beast," so I tend to side pretty heavily with this interpretation. Nonetheless, what we do know, with relative certainty, about the Antichrist comes from Revelation. We looked at it in the previous post of this series, but I want to look at it again in more depth. Before we get to the actual Antichrist, however, I want to backtrack and look at the visions John is given immediately beforehand:
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and His throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days (Revelation 12:1-6).
As this is a little confusing, I want to pause here and talk about what could be going on, and what seems most likely to be going on. Let's start with the woman: the fact that she is clothed with the sun and has the moon under her feet indicates an authority over these things. The Scriptures tell us time and again that the earth is the LORD's footstool (e.g., Isaiah 66:1, Matthew 5:35), an indication of His complete authority over the earth. So "the moon under her feet" most likely refers to a position of authority. In other words, this "woman" is in an exalted and chosen position within the realm of Creation. Well, from Genesis straight through the rest of the Bible, the descendants of Jacob are constantly referred to as God's chosen people. The fact that she has a crown of twelve stars probably, therefore, refers to the "Twelve Tribes" of Israel (the people descended from Jacob's twelve sons). Israel's son, therefore, would be the Messiah, who will rule with an iron scepter (see Psalm 2), and who was taken up into Heaven (see Acts 1). If that is the case, then Israel is going to be protected for a period of 3 1/2 years (1,260 days) by fleeing to the desert. I tend to side with this interpretation, for a number of reasons, which we'll look at in a moment.
The other possibility often put forth is that the woman represents the Church, with the twelve stars representing the twelve apostles. This, many would argue, means that the "snatching up" of the child refers to the Rapture. The problem with that, of course, is that if the woman represents the Church, then who, exactly, is her child? The basic idea, when we break it down, is that the woman represents the Church, and the child represents . . . a baby church. A baby church that is snatched up to heaven, leaving the actual Church on earth. Eh. It falls apart.
There is a third possibility, and that is that the woman represents Israel, and the child represents the Church. I also discard this one, because the child is specifically referred to as one "who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter" (12:5). This probably does not refer to the Church, because while we are promised to rule and reign with Christ (Romans 8), it is Christ - and only Christ - who receives the honor and glory of ruling with an iron scepter. We may be joint heirs with Christ, but He is the only True King. There's another reason for rejecting this, too, which I'll get to in a moment.
But first, what about this dragon that tries to eat the baby? Fortunately, most of it is defined in detail in the next few verses, so I don't want to get too much into interpretation. What I want to address are two things. First, the numerology here appears to be a direct reference to the passage in Daniel we looked at earlier. This dragon, much like Daniel's fourth beast, has ten horns. We'll see a little later on that the dragon gives authority to a very particular ruler, much like the horn that grows out from among the ten horns in Daniel. This could be coincidental, but since the passage in Daniel is a dual prophecy, I don't believe the number to be a coincidence.
Regardless, the main point I want to get to here is that John is seeing something that occurs on earth, definitely (see 12:6), but it is largely spiritual in nature ("A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven"). This isn't unusual for the book of Revelation, as John sees many kinds of things, some of which occur in the spiritual, some of which occur on earth, and some of which occur on earth as a result of something happening within the spiritual realm. This is one of those times, because the sign is in heaven, but the woman (Israel?) flees to the desert prepared for her by God. The sign appears in heaven, but the child born "will rule all the nations." This means that "devour[ing] her child" refers, not to a physical dragon eating a physical baby, but a symbolic representation of the dragon trying to utterly destroy the Messiah, either through death or discrediting, a common theme that we see throughout the life of Jesus. Shortly after He was born (within two years), King Herod plotted to kill the child (see Matthew 2); after Jesus' baptism, He was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11), an attempt to render His death on the cross useless; and throughout His ministry, various people attempted to kill Him in a manner other than that with which He was purposed (e.g., John 8:48-59). We're talking a spiritual battle here, but one that plays out in events on earth.
Okay, moving on:
And there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and the angels with him.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled
down.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time, out of the serpents reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea (Revelations 12:7 - 13:1).
There's way too much going on here to go into great detail, but there are a few main points:
1) The dragon is Satan (12:9). There's no need to interpret him any other way, because it's stated loud and clear.
2) The woman is most likely Israel. Why? Because Christians are "the rest of her offspring" (12:17), and Christianity is a direct offshoot of Judaism. We can also conclude, then, that since Christians are named separately from the child,
3) The child (12:5) is most likely Christ.
In light of all of this, I truly believe that this image of a Dragon eating a baby is symbolic of Satan trying to prevent and undermine the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Many scholars do offer different interpretations, but they sort of have to contradict and ignore passages of Scripture in order to do it. That indicates they are probably off-track. While I mean no offense to anyone who holds a different interpretation of this, seriously check your reasons for believing your interpretations. More importantly, seriously check the Scriptures to see if you are, in fact, ignoring and contradicting other passages.
Now, let's get to the more speculative parts, starting with The War (12:7). Many, many people believe that this war happened a very long time ago, when Satan initially rebelled against God. I disagree, for two reasons. Satan was not kicked out of heaven and banished to earth when he sinned, because Job 1&2 tell us that he approaches God's throne with the rest of the "divine beings" (i.e., angels). Therefore:
presence in heaven = not banished from heaven
We also know that when he is hurled to earth, he pursues the woman "who had given birth." The verb tense is interesting, because most of the book of Revelation is in past tense. Ever noticed that? That's because John is writing down the contents of this book after he received the vision (see 1:9-19). So he's saying, "here's what I saw in my vision: this happened, then this, then I heard that," and so on. But in 12:13, he's using a different tense, a tense that indicates a past event relative to the current events about which he is writing. What John, then, is saying, is, "I saw a war in heaven, and Satan was cast to earth. In his fury, he pursued the woman who had already given birth to the child." Satan's eviction, John appears to be saying, happens after Jesus, not when Satan initially rebelled. That's my take, at least. Obviously, other people - smart, people - disagree.
So what John has said to us, so far, is that Satan pursues the Messiah, but that fails, and Jesus is triumphant on the Cross. Then, there is (or will be) a war in heaven in which Satan and his followers are hurled to earth, and in his rage, he pursues Israel, but she will be protected for 3 1/2 years in a place prepared for her in the desert. Now, I don't believe this has happened yet. There are numerous points in Israel's history where people attempt to erase her from the map, but fail, but none of them match the description of the events given to us in Revelation. It's possible that "a time, times, and half a time" (12:14) means something other than 3 1/2 years. We are, after all, assuming that "time" refers to a year (a year, two years, half a year). However, the explicitly-stated 1,260 days (12:6) is pretty hard to interpret any other way (1,260 days/365 days=3.45 years).
Given that Israel has not fled to the desert to be protected for 3 1/2 years, I don't believe she has been actively pursued by a banished Satan, ergo, he has not yet been banished, because the Scriptures give a sense of immediacy to the events: Satan is banished from heaven, and as a result, he pursues the woman. When that fails, he pursues the Church (also referenced in Daniel 7:21). I believe this is what 13:1 is setting up for us, the method by which Satan begins to execute Christians.
That method is the Antichrist. We'll get to him in the next part of this.
(Oh, and the "two wings of a great eagle" that God gives Israel in order to protect her? Yeah, no clue, so I'm not even going to touch it. We'll have to wait and see when it happens. Sorry.).
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