Tag Archives: Antichrist

July 6, 2024 · 10:14 am

Who or What is Restraining the Antichrist? (Part 2)

            For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective… (Hebrews 4:12a AMP)

The Bible contains 1,817 predictive prophecies. To date, approximately one half of them have been fulfilled. The remaining ones are expected to be fulfilled during the End-Times. Given God’s omniscience, He will always be 100% accurate. 

Now, think about an Isaiah or Daniel or Zechariah or another prophet speaking an End-Times prophecy over 2,000 years ago. The words were spoken and written down for future reference. Yet, these are not just dead words penned on a scroll, but are living, powerful time-bombs awaiting their appointed times to explode forth in fulfilment.

            Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word. (Psalm 103:20 NASB)

Who makes sure the Bible’s prophecies are fulfilled at the exact time specified by the Lord? 

I believe God’s angels are assigned this task. Somehow, these chosen angels can hear the DNA guidelines within the prophetic words and know when the prophecies need to be fulfilled.

In 2 Kings 19:32-34, Isaiah spoke a powerful prophecy to King Hezekiah of Judah that the Assyrians would not come into Jerusalem or even shoot one arrow at the city and that the Assyrian army would retreat back to Assyria.

That night, one angel went into the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 soldiers.

Gabriel gave insight to Daniel, Mary and Zacharias so that the prophetic narrative could be moved forward.

Michael fought the prince of Persia so that Gabriel could finally speak to Daniel. It is Michael who will arise when Israel is facing defeat in the End-Times. It is Michael who will wage war against Satan and his kingdom of darkness, casting them out of heaven and down to earth.

And it is an unnamed angel who chains Satan and throws him into the abyss for a thousand years.

These are only a few examples of angels carrying out God’s prophetic words.

            And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 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. (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 NASB)

So, who or what restrains the Antichrist?

I believe that Michael – the archangel who defends and has charge over Israel – is the one who restrains the Antichrist until God’s appointed time for the Antichrist to appear on the world scene. 

Now, don’t go thinking that Michael uses a metal sword or a spear to restrain Satan from pushing his Antichrist agenda ahead of time. No, not at all! Michael uses the prophetic words of the Bible as his sword. And he probably tosses in a few, “The Lord rebuke you!” in Satan’s direction every so often.

Okay, I will hang my hat on Michael as the restrainer.

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July 30, 2023 · 1:23 pm

Who is Restraining the Antichrist?

There are so many ridiculous End-Time prophecies circulating on the internet that many of our brains are ready to explode. Let’s search Scripture for some answers, okay?

The Apostle Paul wrote;

            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 on perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:3 NKJV)

Frank Viola states that reading Paul’s epistles is like listening to one side of a phone call, and yes, we miss the other side of the conversation. Thus, we have to assume that Paul was answering questions that had been communicated to him by the various churches.

In Chapter 2, Paul was explaining to the Thessalonian Church that they had not missed the Lord’s return and the Rapture because two events needed to happen first:

            1. The falling away (or apostasy).

            2. The Antichrist is revealed.

Now, if you’re thinking Paul just pulled these two events out of thin air. He hadn’t! He was actually quoting what Jesus said in Matthew 24:

            And at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and will hate one  another (Matthew 24:10 NASB)

            Therefore, when you see the “abomination of desolation,” which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand (Matthew  24:15 NASB)

Have both of these events happened yet? No. Maybe a few preachers and others have fallen away from the faith, but it is not what anyone would refer to as “many.” And as far as the Antichrist’s identity? We have no clue as yet.

So, what’s holding back that Day?

            And do you know what restrains the Antichrist now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 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. Then that lawless one will be revealed… (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 NASB)

Who is restraining or holding back the Antichrist from appearing right now?

For the answer to this question, let’s look at Jesus’ first coming, okay?

            But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son… (Galatians 4:4)

What determined the fullness of time for Jesus’ first coming? Over 300 Old Testament prophecies had to be fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection. With one of the toughest ones being:

            Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)

Not only did the woman have to be a virgin, but also, her freewill could not be violated. Only a wonderful woman like Mary could fulfill this prophecy:

            And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word…” (Luke 1:38)

Then, if you consider all of the prophecies for Jesus’ supporting cast, such as Judah, John the Baptist, Simeon and others, the fullness of time had to be determined by all of the Old Testament’s prophetic words coming to pass in their perfect timing.

Okay, did you realize that there are more prophetic words for Jesus’ second coming than there are for Jesus’ first coming? 

Over 150 chapters in the Bible are devoted to His second coming. That’s more chapters than are in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John combined!

            So, we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. (2 Peter 1:19 NASB)

            …For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10 NASB)

Some scholars believe the Church is the one who restrains the Antichrist. Others believe it’s the Holy Spirit. Still others suggest different ideas. 

But I believe it’s all of the prophetic words (or the Word) in the Bible that restrains the Antichrist so that he’s revealed in his time. 

Hey! The prophetic words ushered Jesus into His first coming and I believe this will be true for His second coming, too.

My suggestion is that we study the 150 chapters and know His word so that we are not deceived.

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April 19, 2019 · 7:22 am

Friday’s End-Time Bible Studies (Part 4)

If you’re going to write about the End-Times, you eventually must mention the Antichrist. So, why wait? Let’s talk about him today.

Is Barack Obama the Antichrist? Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, the Antichrist? Is George Soros the Antichrist? Is Donald Trump? Is the Pope? Who?

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. (1 John 2:18)

The term Antichrist is only used four times in the Bible. All of them appear in the Apostle John’s first and second letters to the churches in Asia Minor.

Yet, the Antichrist appears all through the Bible, but with different names. He’s also known as the Assyrian, man of sin, son of perdition, the lawless one, the beast, the adversary, the little horn and the king who shall do according to his own will in various verses throughout the Old and New Testament.

The Antichrist must for sure come out of the territory in the old Roman Empire and most likely will be out of territory in the old Assyrian Empire (northern Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and southeastern Turkey).

The Antichrist will be pompous, boastful, an aggressive warmonger, a sinister schemer, a cunning trickster, a liar, a deceitful murderer, prosperous, a blasphemer against God,  shall not regard the god of his fathers, have fierce features, have no desire for women, but have a regard for the god of fortresses. (These descriptions are from Daniel 7, 9, 11.)

As you can guess, Obama, AOC, Soros, Trump and the Pope can not be the Antichrist because they do not fit the biblical guidelines.

Thus, how can we be sure who is the Antichrist?

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [of the Lord] 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.(2 Thessalonians 2:3)

The Apostle Paul stated that we would know who the Antichrist is for sure when the Antichrist sits in the Temple of God in Jerusalem, defiling the Temple.

But of course, we first need the Temple to be rebuilt.

There are a couple of other ways we can figure out who the Antichrist is, but we will talk about them in the future.

(Continued in Part 5…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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