The Rise & Fall of the Antichrist

Want to do more of a Bible study tonight than a challenging kind of message. Do more of a Bible study this evening on the rise and fall of the Antichrist and some of the events that Paul talks about will take place in the surrounding the rise and fall of the Antichrist in regard to the tribulation time. Really need to set why this topic even comes up. However, in the context and the flow of thought of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians and then the second letter, those two kind of go together as far as this topic is concerned. In the first letter that Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, he had told them about the rapture in chapter 4. He had talked to them about the fact that Jesus was coming back and would call them up to be with him and call us up to be with him as a church. It's a passage we often use at funeral services, graveside services and so forth. In chapter 5 he had told them about the day of the Lord and said that should not overtake them like a thief. It would be coming but we as the church are not appointed to wrath but appointed to be with the Lord and so we will not be in that time. He had made that pretty clear to them in the first letter. But evidently someone had given them information which caused them to think that they were already in the day of the Lord. Now let's go ahead and read verses 1 and 2 of 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and we'll see the cause of the problem here. He says concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our being gathered to him, we ask you brothers and sisters not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter, asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. So they have gotten word somehow that Paul has been teaching that the day of the Lord has already come. In chapter 1 of this letter he encourages them and comforts them with the fact that persecution is normal. And this may be one of the reasons why they were thinking they were already in the day of the Lord because the day of the Lord is a time of judgment. And so they're being persecuted and they may have been thinking that's the reason why we are in the day of the Lord we're being persecuted. And in chapter 1 Paul comforts them by saying persecution is normal and those who persecute you will be judged severely when Christ does come at his 2nd coming. Now let me just pause for a moment to describe what the Bible teaches about the day of the Lord before we get into this passage in chapter 2 about the sequence of events that have to occur before the day of the Lord comes. The day of the Lord is an Old Testament expression. It is used often in the Old Testament and it's used of a number of different events. It is not just one day, it is a period of time marked by the Lord's intervention directly in human history. Not indirectly through his providence and working all things together for good from heaven but directly intervening by his presence on planet earth. And so sometimes in the Old Testament the day of the Lord refers to events that obviously happen in the tribulation time. Sometimes the day of the Lord refers to events that happen at the 2nd coming and sometimes in the Old Testament the day of the Lord refers to events that happen in the millennial rule of Christ. Sometimes in the Old Testament the day of the Lord refers to the final judgment when all unbelievers will be judged. Now we don't have the screen, we don't have the prophetic chart tonight, Sunday evening is Johnson Chapel unplugged. So we don't have all that technology to use tonight but if you can imagine the prophetic chart in your mind that we often use as pre-millennialists, dispensationalists, we believe that the next event on the prophetic calendar is the rapture. There is nothing in the Bible that really needs to be fulfilled before the rapture takes place. There are no signs that have to be fulfilled before the rapture regardless of who is writing what book. This is the book, I'm more concerned about. And in this book there is no sign that points to the rapture. All of the signs are of the 2nd coming which are after the tribulation time. All of the signs in Matthew 24 and 25, all of the signs that Jesus talks about of his coming refer to the 2nd coming. They don't refer to the rapture. The rapture could happen at any time. It could happen at any time. And following the rapture will be a 7-year tribulation period. That is when the day of the Lord starts. That's a part of the day of the Lord according to Old Testament prophecies. And you read the prophets, you find that expression over and over and over again, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. Well, it does include that tribulation time. Seven years of God pouring out a series of judgments on this earth. It is also the time when the Antichrist will be active and will be looking at his career a little bit later, just a moment. Following the tribulation time is the 2nd coming. Now the reason why the 2nd coming is distinct from the rapture, at the rapture Jesus does not come all the way to the earth. In his first coming he came all the way to the earth as a baby, grew up as a man, died for our sins. So the 2nd coming also has to do with him coming all the way to the earth. The rapture doesn't come all the way to the earth. That's why the 2nd coming is distinct from the rapture. At the rapture we meet him in the air. You see, and then we go on back with him to heaven. At the 2nd coming after the tribulation Jesus comes all the way to the earth, defeats the armies of the Antichrist at the Battle of Armageddon, and then carries out a series of judgments that are described in Daniel chapter 12 and other places in the Old Testament and New Testament, Matthew 24 and 25. For instance, carries out a series of judgments on the Gentile nations, on Israel and so forth, and then sets up his kingdom. A thousand year rule of Christ on the earth called the millennium. Following the millennium Satan is released from his pit where he's been chained for a thousand years, not able to roam about throughout the earth to see the nations, but he's allowed to be released and phoenix one last rebellion against God, which finalizes in his destruction and casting into the lake of fire. Following that is the great white throne judgment for all unsaved people. So that's the sequence of events when you put it all together from a biblical perspective. The rapture followed by the tribulation then the 2nd coming of Christ, his kingdom for a thousand years, and then the great white throne judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth are developed after that in Revelation 21-22. So what's happened here is that Paul has introduced to them in his first letter the concept of the rapture and the concept of the day of the Lord. But evidently the day of the Lord didn't develop that real well, didn't have time. Remember from the book of Acts, he was only in Thessalonica three weeks, and so he didn't have time to really develop that much, didn't develop it much in his first letter. So they are confused about whether or not they are in the day of the Lord. Now notice again in verse 1 how Paul comforts them. He says concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, that's the rapture. We are gathered to him at the rapture. So he's reinforcing the idea that you're not remember what I taught you about the rapture. If you understand what I taught you about the rapture you would know that you're not in the day of the Lord because the rapture occurs before the day of the Lord starts. So he says I want you to be encouraged by remembering our gathering to him. And then he says we ask you brothers and sisters not to become easily unsettled. And the word unsettled is literally the word which means shaken. It was used of earthquakes in the first century. So they become shaken in their thinking. You don't have something sometimes when it's presented to you it just kind of shakes what you believe and you feel very unsettled at that point. You feel like whoa I'm not sure I'm on solid ground here. That's the way the Thessalonians were feeling. They were feeling like we're not sure we've heard something different and we're not sure about what Paul taught us. And then he uses another word not to become easily unsettled or alarmed. The word is literally frightened. And that's the natural response to being unsettled. When you get shaken in your belief system you get frightened. You think well maybe I'm all wrong. Maybe I was taught wrong. Maybe I'm seeing the whole thing wrong. Maybe I'm not really sure what is going to happen in the future. And so they were becoming frightened about what was happening to them thinking maybe they were already in this day of the Lord which could mean they're in the tribulation time. So he says don't be unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us. Someone has been teaching them false doctrine and saying they got it from Paul. They're using him as their reference point as their authority. And he goes on to say whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter. And there was whoever was teaching this was saying this is a prophecy. This is a word of prophecy that I'm giving you a declaration from the Lord. And I have Paul's sign off on this. He told me by word or maybe by letter that what I'm telling you is okay. And so somebody is telling them that Paul is teaching this. This teaching about being in the day of the Lord. He says don't get unsettled or alarmed by someone allegedly saying they got this from me asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Okay. Now he's just set up what he's going to do. He's trying to calm their hearts saying you've become shaken and frightened by somebody teaching you something that's not right about the day of the Lord. He's trying to calm their hearts saying you've become shaken and frightened by somebody else. He's trying to calm their hearts saying you've become shaken and frightened by somebody else. He says don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until. And then he mentions three things that have to happen before the day of the Lord comes. Okay. Three things that must happen before you're actually in the tribulation time and the day of the Lord has started. Those three things are number one, the rebellion. He says for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs. What is that? Some translations call it the falling away. And some people think that's referring to the rapture but it's probably not. I mean that would fit neatly our theology but that's probably not what the word means here. The falling away is a doctrinal falling away. It literally is a rebellion. The Greek word is apostasyah. It's the word we get our word apostasy from. It literally means a departure from the faith. Epistus is the Greek word for faith. Put the letter alpha in front of it. Apostasyah means no faith. It's a departure from the faith. The English word we use is apostasy for someone who denies the faith and turns from the faith. That's what Paul says has to happen first before the day of the Lord starts. You've got to have this grand apostasy, this mass leaving of the faith. And there is tremendous evidence of that happening now. There was not a lot of apostasy in the first century. There was some. It has grown throughout church history but there is a crescendo of it today in the last 100 to 150 years. There has literally been an avalanche of rebellion against the faith. It started in Germany in the late 1800s with the rise of liberalism. People took the evolutionary theories of Darwin and applied them to the Bible of all things. They took rationalism and logic and started applying it to the Bible. That's where German liberalism came from. That's why that's so dangerous to put all of our eggs in that basket. Whenever you start subjecting the word of God to human reason, you're headed down a wrong path. That's where German liberalism came. In the late 1800s, German universities started to apply evolutionary thought, rationalism, all of that to the scriptures. And so they started explaining away all the miracles, denying anything supernatural. And that line of thinking came into America in the 1920s and became full blown in American seminaries. Princeton seminary in the 1920s went through a huge shift. And there were some great stalwarts of the faith like J. Gresham Machen and some other wonderful theologians that stuck with the truth. And Machen wrote a book in 1923 called Christianity and Liberalism. And he was fighting against this and crotching liberalism coming into the seminaries. But the seminaries fell. One by one, the major seminaries fell into liberalism in the 20s and 30s. And it just swept through America. And most major denominations went liberal. One started that direction and was saved by some stalwart preachers like Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley. It was a Southern Baptist convention. Most of their seminaries had gone liberal. Southwestern, South Eastern. I can remember, South Eastern in 1970s at Wake Forest, Dr. Randall Lolley, the pastor of first Baptist church in Winston-Salem, was going to be the president, an out and outranked liberal. And he was taking that seminary down and there were some strong pastors in the Southern Baptist convention that said, we will not let our denomination die. And they took it back. And now every seminary in the Southern Baptist convention is solidly conservative. It's the only time that's ever happened in church history. Where a denomination was going liberal and it was rescued. Liberalism swept through the United States by the 40s. Most of our major seminaries and denominations were gone. And then the evangelical revolution began and churches began to come back to the truth of scripture. But this apostasy has begun growing and growing and growing through the last 150 years. And I would not be a bit surprised if this is the signal that we are in the last days. Not could get worse, could take another hundred years. I don't know when the Lord's coming back. I'm not setting any dates. But I know that what Paul says is this falling away from the faith has to come first before you get into the day of the Lord. And there certainly has been an avalanche of move away from the faith in the last 100 to 150 years. So that has to happen first. Second thing that has to happen before the day of the Lord starts, Paul says, is the revelation of the man of lawlessness. Notice this in verse three. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day, the day of the Lord will not come until the rebellion occurs. And the man of lawlessness is revealed. Or the man of sin, some translations describe. Who is this man of sin, this man of lawlessness? He is a particular individual. Notice he is called the man of lawlessness. This is not just a group of people or series of people that are lawless. This is a man who has a title, the man of lawlessness. And notice how he's described. He's a man that is doomed to destruction. The word destruction here is eternal destruction. A man who is doomed to hell. Why is he doomed to hell? Because he has come under the influence of false teaching. He sets himself against God. And he is irretrievably hopelessly lost. He has described further in verse four. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped. It's not just the personal God of the Bible that he will oppose. It's over anything that is called God. Over any religious system, he will demand that all religions be consolidated under him. Notice it says so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Well, you know who this man of lawlessness is, don't you? He is the Antichrist, obviously. He is described in several places in the Bible, notably in Daniel chapter 9, Matthew chapter 24, Revelation chapter 12 and 13. His career is supplemented. This passage is supplemented from those passages which describe him in the same way. Daniel particularly says he will oppose any God at all, any form of religion, and will demand that he be worshiped. Daniel 9 describes him going into the temple and setting up an abomination that causes desolation. Jesus refers to that in Matthew 24. Matthew, or Revelation 13, talks about the same thing that he will cause with the false prophet an image of himself to be worshiped in the temple and then that image will come to life. By a miracle done by the false prophet, we'll see that passage in just a moment. So what's talked about here, obviously, the person is obviously the Antichrist. The Antichrist must be noticed, revealed before the day of the Lord starts. In other words, the Lord doesn't start until the Antichrist is revealed. Now that's a key word. The word revealed is the same word that's used of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the last book of the Bible. It has been misnamed in many translations, the revelation of St. John the Divine is not the revelation of John, it's the revelation of Christ. The book is revealing Christ. It is revealing him from chapter 1 all the way through chapter 22. It's all about Christ, and it's revealing him in his glory. Jesus who is now hidden in heaven will be revealed. He will be proclaimed and seen in all of his glory. In the same way, the Antichrist, someone who is hidden, will be unveiled, revealed. Which leads me to believe that the Antichrist Satan may have a person on the scene at any point in history that could eventually become the Antichrist. But it will not be until world events coalesce into a certain point and the rapture takes place after this great rebellion that the Antichrist will be revealed. He will be shown to be who he is. And you know what the Bible tells us, the event that will reveal the Antichrist. You know what it is? It is the signing of a peace treaty with Israel. Revelation chapter 9, or excuse me, Daniel chapter 9. The 70th week of Daniel, that period of seven years, which is the tribulation time, Daniel's book says, prophecy says, that it will begin with the Antichrist signing a treaty. He will make a treaty with the people of Israel. And it is that treaty that begins the seven years. And so that's how he's revealed. That's how you know who the Antichrist is. Now thank God we will already be gone. Because what Jesus is talking about here, we've already been gathered to him, verse 1. What he's talking about is the events that have to happen before the day of the Lord starts. Remember the day of the Lord begins with the beginning of the tribulation time. So the tribulation starts after this period of lawlessness, rebellion, apostasy. And it cannot start until the Antichrist is revealed. And he's revealed with a peace treaty made with Israel. That's what kicks off his career. Anybody you can see it today can't you in the headlines anybody who would step forward with a peace treaty that would allow Jews and Arabs to get along and would also allow the Israelites to build their temple again on the temple mount. Because that's a part of what Daniel 9 talks about as well. It won't be to the middle of the tribulation that he steps in and proclaims himself God in the middle of that week. Daniel 9 says, Revelation 12 says the same thing. So Israel has already built a temple. As a part of that peace treaty evidently there is a temple that will be built on the third most sacred place to Muslims in the world. Where the dome of the rock is and the Al-Aksim Mosque is in Jerusalem. Well anybody who can pull that off is going to be hailed the world leader that we've always been looking for. This great man of peace. And that's what begins the career of the Antichrist. That's when he's revealed is when he makes a peace treaty between Israel and the Arab nations that allows Israel to build a temple. So he's revealed this man of lawlessness who will end up opposing all kinds of religion and all gods and desire and proclaim himself to be God the end of verse 4. That happens in the middle of the tribulation time. Okay, so two things that have to happen before the day of the Lord comes before the tribulation starts. Is this apostasy, this falling away from the faith, the revelation of the Antichrist, the third thing is the restrainer has to be taken away. Now look at what Paul says in verses 6 and 7. Verse 5 he says, don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things. And now you know what is holding him back. Who is the him, obviously referring to this man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, you know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. So there is something in verse 6 you know what is holding him back. But then this thing is identified as a person in verse 7, the one who now holds it back. So there is someone who is holding back restraining the unleashing and revelation of the Antichrist. Who is that? Well Paul says he is already at work. Verse 6 he is already holding him back so that the Antichrist will not be revealed till it is the proper time. And the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. This is the power of Satan to in very deceptive ways carry out his program on planet earth of lawlessness against God. Again I talked about that this morning and how the hatred of Christ is growing in our culture. And Christianity is more and more being marginalized, pushed out to being seen as extreme. And we are seen as extremists now because we don't fit in line with the culture. So this spirit of lawlessness is already at work and it has been all through the history of the church. But someone is holding it back. Someone is holding back like a damn holding back the building flood waters. Someone is holding this spirit of lawlessness back until it is time for the Antichrist to be revealed. There have been many suggestions as to what or who that is. But I believe the best one without going through all the options is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the restraining influence on the spread of evil in our world. But he does that through the church and it may be the church that is mentioned in verse 6. What is holding him back? The thing that is holding him back may well be the church. The person, verse 7 who is holding him back and continues to do it, is the Holy Spirit. So it is the Holy Spirit working through God's people, the church who are salt and light. Light is holding back the darkness. Salt is preventing the spread of corruption. God is using His people throughout church history and even in these dark days, God is still using His people and His proclaimed word through His church. To restrain, to hold back that swelling tide of lawlessness. The one day the dam is going to break because the restraint is going to be taken away. You see what he says there? In verse 7, the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And that obviously refers to the rapture. If the Holy Spirit is working through God's people, the church, as salt and light, to prevent the spread of this spirit of lawlessness, just restraining it, holding it back so that it doesn't just burst loose. If the Holy Spirit is using the church, then when the church is taken out of the way, that restraining work of the Holy Spirit is gone. The dam has broken. There is nothing to hold back anymore. And all kinds of lawlessness and sin, including the Antichrist himself, proceeds unchecked. And that is also in God's program and plan because He's designed the tribulation time to be a time of His judgment. And He will use the Antichrist's activities and the spread of corruption as a part of His judgment and the rationale for His judgment on planet earth. So the strainer has to be taken out of the way before the day of the Lord can come, which is another reason why I believe the rapture occurs before the tribulation. There are so many people in these days that are moving toward a post-trib rapture position that the church goes through the tribulation. And we don't meet the Lord until after the tribulation, we are caught up to meet Him in the air and then we come right back down at His second coming. I mean, it's like a yo-yo. Just like that. Well, I don't think the Bible teaches that. I think the Bible teaches that the church is part of that restraining influence and the day of the Lord, the tribulation time will not start until the restraint is removed. And so the church has got to be removed. That restraining influence of the Holy Spirit has got to be removed before the day of the Lord can start, which starts with the tribulation. Three things have got to happen before the tribulation starts, before the day of the Lord starts. Wide spread apostasy, the restraint of the Holy Spirit taken away and then the revelation of the Antichrist, they happen in that order. So those three things have to happen. And once those happen, once the apostasy has reached its full and the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit through the church is removed at the rapture. And the man of sin is revealed by that treaty with Israel, then the day of the Lord starts. And the Antichrist's career takes off. So Paul is saying, those three things have to happen first. And remember, the whole purpose for writing this is to comfort the Thessalonians to realize you are not in the day of the Lord. There are so many people telling us today the church is going to go through the tribulation. Why don't they read Second Thessalonians? The whole purpose for writing this book was to tell the church, you're not in that. And it won't even start until you're taken out of the way. So the Bible is pretty clear on that. At least in my opinion, it's pretty clear. Those three things have to happen before the day of the Lord starts. But then quickly, let's summarize the career of the Antichrist in verses 8 through 12. Quickly, three things about his career. First of all, his career starts with his defeat. This jumps ahead seven years. This is not chronological, but there's a reason for God mentioning this first. When you talk about the career of the Antichrist, he's done before he gets started in God's eyes. So the first thing God mentions is his defeat in verse 8. And when the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. It's kind of an aside. He's going to talk about the career of the Antichrist, but he wants us to know at the very beginning, he's not going to last very long. He has defeated already in the eyes of God before he gets started. And so his description has begun with his defeat. It's mentioned first to remind that his reign is only temporary. Jesus will defeat him. And notice how he defeats him in verse 8. He will overthrow him, literally consume him with the breath of his mouth. You know where that takes place, don't you? Revelation 19. We don't have time to look at it, but read Revelation 19. Well, let's look at it. We got time. Revelation 19. This is too good. Revelation 19. Verse 11. I saw heaven standing open there before me. It was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true with justice. He judges and wages war. This is the build up to the Battle of Armageddon. His eyes are like blazing fire. And on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows, but he himself. He is dressed in a robe, dripped in, dipped in blood. And his name is the Word of God. This is Jesus Christ stepping out to come back at the second coming to the earth. Verse 14. The armies of heaven were following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. You know who that is? It's me. Jew, it's us. We're dressed in white linen, which has just been described in the first part of chapter 19 as the righteousness of the saints. Those who have been judged at the judgment seat of Christ after the rapture, those of us who have been in heaven with Jesus for seven years are going to come back with him at the second coming. Thank the Lord. I'm going to get to learn how to ride a horse. Verse 15. Coming out of his mouth. Notice this. Out of his mouth. Whose mouth Christ? Out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. Now, is there a literal sword coming out of his mouth? This is probably a word picture that John uses to describe that it is with his word. All he has to do is speak and the armies of the antichrist are slain. It is like he has a sword coming out of his mouth. All he has to do is speak. This is how it happens. Verse 16. On his robe and on his thigh at a name written King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun who cried and allowed voice to all the birds flying in midair. Come gathered together for the great suffer of God so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals and the mighty horses and their riders of the flesh of all people free and slayed great and small. These are the armies of the antichrist who have gathered to face the Lord at his second coming. Verse 19. Then I saw the beast who is the beast. It is antichrist. Go back to chapter 13. The antichrist is defined as the beast there. I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf with these signs he had diluted those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, the lake of fire. The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse and all the birds, birds, gorge themselves on their flesh. Jesus wins the battle just by speaking when he speaks it is as though a sword comes from his very words and slays the armies of the antichrist. So before Paul even starts talking about his career he wants us to know, hey by the way I want you to know he's doomed. He's done. He is destroyed by the Lord Jesus with the breath of his mouth and he will destroy him by the splendor of his coming. That's what we just read. And by the way the antichrist makes great boasts. He speaks with his mouth great things about himself proclaims himself to be God in the temple and demands to be worshiped. All Jesus has to do is speak with his mouth and the antichrist is done. The antichrist has a kingdom of great earthly splendor. The whole earth is under his dominion. Jesus will come in the splendor of his coming Paul says that will be his undoing the undoing of the antichrist. So his destruction his defeat is mentioned notice his description in verse nine the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. In other words, Satan will work through the antichrist. Satan will work through him will lift him up will empower him will give him what he needs. There's a lot that can be said there in Revelation 12 and 13 when I have time I believe in Revelation 12 when Satan is once and for all thrown out of heaven no longer able to come accuse believers of their sins in heaven. He has thrown out for good the Bible describes him as being thrown out to the earth and he's angry. So he starts to persecute Israel and persecute those who have come to trust Jesus in the tribulation time. And I believe because at that same time middle of the tribulation that the antichrist enters the temple and proclaims himself to be God demands to be worshiped. I believe it's very reasonable to think that the antichrist when he or when Satan is cast out of heaven he will actually entwail the antichrist and begin to motivate this huge turn of anger and persecution and hatred against Israel in the church or not the church but believers in the tribulation time and seek to rid the earth of all of them. I think that's very, very possible but he'll be in accordance with our Satan works and notice he will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie. Now the lie is that the antichrist is really the Messiah. He's the one that is to rule the earth. That's the lie. That's Satan's lie. Satan is a liar and a deceiver and he always imitates what's true, what's real. And so he will imitate Christ with this antichrist, with this one who proclaims himself to be God, the one who takes over the world and is ruling the world as though he is the Messiah. So this is a deception but the antichrist will have the power of Satan to do signs and wonders, literally miracles that will serve the purpose of propping up this lie. This lie that he really is the Messiah. And read Revelation 13, I was going to go there tonight but we know what time. Revelation 13 describes some of those miracles. It describes a mortal wound that the antichrist suffers and then comes back to life. I believe that it may well be that in the insurrection against him described in Daniel 11, armies of the South come against him, armies of the North come against him. I believe in that insurrection. He's actually killed and then comes back to life. Satan imitating the resurrection and that's when everybody, the Bible says, wonders after the beast and thinks this has got to be God. He came back from dead, the dead. It's an imitation. It's a miracle performed by Satan to imitate the resurrection. And then the false prophet who is the imitation Holy Spirit sets up an image of the antichrist in the temple. Read about it in Revelation 13. Set up an image of him in the temple and calls us it to come to life. And the whole world just goes bunkers over the antichrist. Bunkers is the King John word. It's not in the text there but it's kind of that way. The whole world just marvels after the antichrist and the false prophet and all these miracles. Why look at these miracles? He's got to be the real article, right? Wrong. Satan has the power to perform miracles in imitation of the true work that God does. Don't ever be deceived by so-called miracles. Because Satan has the power to do things to imitate what Christ and what God does. And so he has the antichrist is going to have all that power. Signs, wonders that serve the lie and then notice the deception will stop with this. And all the ways that wickedness deceives, verse 10, those who are perishing, they perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, the lie of the antichrist that he's the Christ, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. Let me see if I summarize this. There will be people in the tribulation time who will most of the world, the majority of the world will wonder at these miracles and signs and they will believe the lie, they will not believe the truth of God's word and they will perish because they refuse to love the truth and be saved. By the way, there will be people saved in the tribulation time. Read the book of Revelation again, chapter 7, chapter 14, there will be people from every tongue and nation saved in the tribulation time. And remember Christ will set aside 144,000 Jewish evangelists who are sealed that the antichrist can't touch, he can't kill them. And they go throughout the earth spreading the gospel and multitudes of people will be saved in the tribulation time. It's not that the Holy Spirit is not active, he's just no longer restraining the man of lawlessness through the presence of the church. There will be people saved, lots of people saved in the tribulation time. But there will be many people who will not be saved and those people who refuse to believe the truth and who are wondering at the antichrist and will not be saved, God confirms their unbelief with a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie of the antichrist and not be saved. So that's the deception that takes place on a grand scale in the tribulation time where people are deceived into believing the lie of the antichrist will not believe the truth. And thus because they have set themselves along that path and will not believe the truth, God sends them a strong delusion to seal their punishment. Verse 12 sums it up, so all will be condemned who have not believed the truth. So there will be a lot of people saved but there will also be a lot of people deceived by the antichrist. That's his career. He has an amazing career like a meteor that shoots into the skies and lights up the whole sky. It is in human terms brilliant and he will be a masterpiece of Satan. I believe he'll be a brilliant negotiator, peacemaker, economist, military leader. He'll be brilliant. But he will fill up the sky for a brief period of time and then pass off the scene. He will deceive many people and then Christ will come and slay him with the word of his mouth. That is the career of the antichrist. Now if I'm understanding this correctly and I think I've just kind of explained this, Paul said it, I'm not going to be here to see the antichrist because that's in the day of the Lord. And one of the things that happens before the day of the Lord is our gathering to Him and the Holy Spirit's work through the church is taken away. We're removed and then the antichrist has revealed, has this career or Christ comes back and destroys him, cast him into the lake of fire at the second coming. That is the rise and fall of the antichrist. Don't be deceived to use Paul's words. Don't be deceived. Don't be alarmed and don't be shaken when people try to tell you the church will go through the tribulation time. Just go back to 2nd Thessalonians 2. Re-read it, be comforted by the coming of Christ and our gathering to Him, then remember what has to take place before the day of the Lord comes. And the fact that part of that is that we will be removed. Don't be deceived. Don't be alarmed. Don't be frightened. Don't be shaken in your faith. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Paul's clear directives. How we often neglect this kind of truth and don't even think much about this little book of 2nd Thessalonians. Now, powerful it is, especially in much of the confusing teaching of our day. Father, help us to be settled at peace in our own minds and hearts, knowing at least the broad strokes of what you plan to do in the future, knowing what part you have for us in that. Thank you that at any moment you could come and take us home to be with you. Lord, we do pray that we will be able to reach more people before that time comes. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.