The title ‘anti-Christ’ only occurs in the last books of the New Testament, in the epistles of John.1 It is the characteristic of the ‘last hour’.2 The spirit of the ‘anti-Christ’ was already at work in John’s day too, and many ‘anti-Christs’ have appeared during the course of history since then, like Hitler and many others.
The word ‘anti-Christ’ means two things: against-Christ, and in-the-place-of-Christ, for ‘in the place of, is also a meaning of the Greek word ‘anti’. That is why he will present himself as a prince of peace, with awesome slogans and impressive promises,
He will not immediately be a ‘curse beast’, but rather extremely civilised. He will offer solutions to the world’s problems. He will make peace with Israel and maybe even give the Jews permission to rebuild the Temple during the ‘peace-process’ of that time. He speaks ‘great words’ such as awe-inspiring state ideologies or political philosophies. He embodies culture and religion. ‘Anti-Christ’ as Prince of Peace deftly combines his ideologies with absolute political power. His speeches will be impressive, and they will be transmitted worldwide. The masses of the world will adore him. Hitler’s great propagandist was Goebbels, who was capable of manipulating the media of his time and managing mass meetings like no one else. Anyone studying mass communication in our time will certainly come across Goebbels as one of the greatest media magicians of the twentieth century.
When the ‘beast’ first steps onto the world stage, it will actually be very difficult to immediately recognise that it really is a ‘beast’. Everybody will love him. His true nature will come to the fore over time, but by then he will already have won over the vast majority of the world population. So much so that there will no longer be any real alternative to the solutions he proposes. For the world’s problems are worldwide, and they demand solutions that are able to be imposed and enforced worldwide. However, his ‘great words’, his beautiful slogans, solutions and ideologies are actually ‘blasphemies’ as they are based on humanism and a concept of ‘Man’ who thinks that he is divine, that he himself is a god in his deepest thoughts and innermost being. Stated in religious terms, this is the belief that there is a divine spark that every human possesses, deep in his innermost being. This will ultimately lead to the concept, that Creation itself is divine. An age-old belief is “pantheism’ which preaches that everything is ‘God’, and ‘God’ is in everything. ‘Pan-en-theism’ still considers the possibility of ‘God’ outside the Universe. Both – pantheism and panentheism – believe that ‘divinity’ is part of Creation, so that lifeless matter is also thought to be divinely ‘inspired’. The vision ‘anti-Christ’ presents is one of great unity and solidarity of everything and all, through the ‘divine spirit’ that everything possesses and is propelling things in an evolutionary manner towards a glorious future. Hinduism and Buddhism, New Age and occultism, liberalism and socialism, Christian faith and Jewish faith, humanism and atheism are all melted together into the great inspiration that man who wants to be and is becoming ‘god’, just as Satan showed him in paradise. Genesis 3:4 “…you will be like God…”
Anyone who is against this must disappear, be re-educated, retrained or brainwashed and in the case of those who are stubborn and resistant, interred. People who oppose the prevailing philosophy or ideology are regarded as ‘stupid’ and treated psychologically, or even ‘treated’ in psychiatric hospitals’ or shut up in a concentration camp, or simply exterminated. Many Christians were subjected to such treatments in Russia and China. How does one recognize the true Saviour of the world instead of those who claim to be the Saviour of the word, but are not – false ‘christs’ and false prophets? Someone once said: ‘I shall certainly know that anyone who presents himself as the ‘Saviour of the world’, yet does not come on the clouds of Heaven but rather in a Mercedes, is not the true Saviour/Christ!’ The true ‘Prince of Peace’ will come from Heaven with the clouds covering the Shekinah. Just as Jesus says: “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be!”
The length of time between the manifestation of ‘anti-Christ’, (‘pseudo-Christ, ‘prince of peace’) as ‘against-Christ’, as the opponent of God and Christ and of His people, and the final display of his brutal force is limited to 42 months. A short period of time, but each of those 1,260 days will be very hard to go through. Yet, this is comforting knowledge. It will only last for a limited period of time. Then we will be free! Free at last! Had the resistance movement in Holland and in Europe under Nazi occupation known that this would last only for such a short period of time – only 5 years – it would have encouraged them greatly to keep up the resistance movement! They did not know. Hitler boasted that his empire would last for a thousand years! But in this case, we do know! Only three and a half years! Of course, although this may seem to be a short period of time, it will be a very difficult period of brutal behaviour, suffering and violence – even intense persecution for believers. So each of these 1,260 days will be difficult to bear. But God will save us from it.
• The ‘Shekinah Glory’ is the Hebrew name given to the presence of God dwelling on the earth. A notable example of the ‘Shekinah Glory’ is the ‘pillar of cloud’ by day and ‘pillar of fire’ by night that guided the Israelites through the desert after their Exodus from Egypt.
• Pantheism is the belief that reality is identical with divinity, or that all things compose an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheist belief does not recognize a distinct personal anthropomorphic ‘god’. Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years, and pantheistic elements have been identified in various religious traditions. Pantheism was popularized in Western culture as a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
• Pan-en-theism (meaning “all-in-God”), is the belief that ‘the divine’ pervades and interpenetrates every part of the Universe and also extends beyond time and space. Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the Universe are identical, pan-en-theism maintains an ontological distinction between the divine and the non-divine and the significance of both. In pan-en-theism, God is viewed as the soul of the Universe, the universal spirit present everywhere, which at the same time “transcends” all things created. While pantheism asserts that “all is God”, pan-en-theism claims that God is greater than the Universe. Some versions of pan-en-theism suggest that the Universe is nothing more than the manifestation of God. In addition, some forms indicate that the Universe is contained within God.
• Much Hindu thought and consequently Buddhist philosophy is highly characterized by pan-en- theism and pantheism.
Bible References:
1.1 John 2:18–22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7 2.1 John 2:18
