The
Antichrist
By
Stephen Terry
Commentary
for the September 22, 2012 Sabbath School Lesson
“…Satan
himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants
also masquerade as servants of righteousness…” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, NIV
“There was war in heaven” the Bible tells us in
Revelation 12:7. The combatants were one third of the angels led by the Dragon
and two thirds led by Michael, ruler of the angels. Revelation, chapter 12,
relates the brief account of this war, we discover that the Dragon is the
Devil. The stars which followed him would be angels according to the symbology
of Revelation, chapter 1. Just how many participants were involved in this war
is staggering.
Revelation 5:11 tells us of the number of angels
surrounding God’s throne. It does not say that these are all the angels, but
the ones that were present numbered “thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand
times ten thousand.” Using elementary multiplication, we can easily discover
that this number is in the billions. Even a third of that would be several
hundred million. To visualize this we might equate it roughly to the entire
population of the United States. If this many angels were walking among us,
they would represent approximately 5 % of the world’s population. This is about
one out of every twenty individuals.
Why would they even be walking around here on Earth?
Revelation tells us that when the Devil lost the war, he and his army of angels
were cast out of heaven to the earth. (See
Revelation 12:9) If they were cast out soon after the earth was created, there
was lots of room even for such a large host to keep to itself. But now with a
human population exceeding seven billion, it might be easier to hide in plain
sight. This would not be hard, for as our verse at the top of the page tells
us, Satan and his angels are capable of appearing even as beautiful and
righteous beings.
Satan’s battle against Michael continues here on this
earth. Some identify Michael with Christ because Michael literally means
“Prince of God.” If God the Father is King then His Son would be Prince and
heir to the throne of heaven. Other evidence to support this conclusion would
be the voice of the archangel which calls for the dead to rise from their
graves. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:16) This indicates the ability to give life
which is an ability Jesus demonstrated with Lazarus. (See John 11:43) In any
event, even without regard to this understanding concerning Michael, we can see
from the Bible that Jesus and the Father are one. (See John 10:30) For the
Devil to war against God is the same as making war against Christ. This makes
him anti-Christ. The concept of an antichrist apparently originates with the
Devil and this war.
The war has not ended. It has only changed theatres. The
battle that raged through heaven now rages here. We don’t know how the battle
was fought above. Artists often depict it as a medieval battle with swords and
lances. However, these are beings with far greater capabilities for either good
or evil than mankind. We may not even be able to comprehend the weapons they
had at their disposal. Our wildest science fiction fantasies may not even come
close to what that war was like. We can see a faint glimmer of what they might
have been capable of when we consider our own sordid history of warfare. We
have progressed from clubs and rocks to the point where we can now send weapons
to kill one another from the far side of the globe. We can annihilate entire
nations without ever setting eyes on our enemies. We no longer need hear their
screams or see their pain. We can destroy them as dispassionately as we would
eliminate bacteria in an autoclave.
World War II was the worst conflict mankind ever
experienced with tens of millions swept into the grave in a few short years.
Yet, as horrible as that conflict was we continue to dabble with warfare in hot
spots all over the globe. While we fear the potential devastation our weapons
can produce. We seem to take a perverse delight in seeing how close we can come
to the line with our ability to wage war without actually crossing it.
Even if we do go too far, we no longer need direct human
involvement as with the Enola Gay over Japan, or the death camps of Nazi
occupied Eastern Europe. Perhaps the only thing limiting the level of our
depravity and inhumanity is our relatively short life spans. How much worse
must the depravity be for the fallen angels who have lived for eons and
continually studied methods to keep the war against heaven alive?
Somehow we think we can escape this conflict. Christians
might be tempted to project the idea of an antichrist onto some being that will
be revealed in the future. We may convince ourselves that when that time comes,
we will make the right choice. We might allow ourselves to become lulled into a
sense of complacency while telling ourselves we have plenty of time to prepare
for something future. But John wrote that it is not future. He wrote “…every
spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of
the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the
world.” 1 John 4:3. NIV He also wrote that those “…who do not acknowledge Jesus
Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is
the deceiver and the antichrist.” 2 John 1:7, NIV
Perhaps we make the mistake of projecting the antichrist
into the future when we consider the beast of Revelation 13 to be THE
antichrist. But the same John who wrote Revelation also wrote the Epistles of
John. It does not appear that he saw it that way. The beast power is simply
another tool used by the true antichrist, Satan, to continue his warfare to the
bitter end. We all can become tools in that conflict. Anytime we prefer our way
over God’s way, we open ourselves up to manipulation by one who has little
regard for our humanity beyond what he can compel us to do to hurt his true
enemy, Jesus. Adam and Eve discovered this in the Garden of Eden. It seems we
have continued discovering it ever since.
Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He said “Whoever
is not with me is against me…” Matthew 12:30, NIV He knows that the Devil will
allow no middle ground. There is no safe, neutral sanctuary in this war. To
choose against one is to choose in favor of the other. Someone might say “I
know my own mind, and if I reject God, I can still choose to be a good person
anyway.” However, even in some popular movies we can see from the plot lines that
it is not so hard to compel someone to do something they otherwise would not.
If humans can compel one another, how much easier would it be for a being with
angelic abilities to do so? If they assumed the forms that our opening verse
indicates, they might even convince those being manipulated that they were
doing a righteous deed while actually doing evil. Perhaps some of those who
dropped the Zyklon B into the showers at Auschwitz were convinced they were
doing something righteous and were exterminating a threat to Christianity when
they exterminated so many so-called “Christ Killers.” For them this was only an
end game for prejudices against the Jews that had been allowed to germinate for
generations.
How can so many, who are purportedly Christian, do such
a thing? Perhaps one way is when we allow others to do our thinking for us.
When we allow someone else to tell us what is right and wrong instead of
developing a personal relationship with God. If we have that personal
relationship with Him, then when someone tells us something that isn’t right,
even if they appear to be well-educated and righteous themselves, we can say, “I
know that isn’t right because I know God personally, and I know He would never go
along with that.”
The world is full of voices telling us to go this way or
that, think this or believe that, and promote this cause or oppose that one. If
we give in to them, in the end, we come face to face with disappointment. Only
if the way we are traveling is God’s way do we find peace and safety. Going the
wrong way is much like voting for a political candidate. Once the election is
over, the promises are forgotten, and we feel empty and deceived.
Unfortunately, like someone who has just been through a bad divorce and feels
the only answer is to jump right into another troubled relationship, we all too
often fail to learn from experience and jump right back in for another round of
deception.
I have sometimes heard young Christian men lament, “Why
do so many pretty girls seem to prefer the excitement of bad boys who abuse
them? Don’t they care that they will only be left hurting?” Perhaps God can ask
the same of us. Why do so many of us prefer the excitement the antichrist
offers even though it destroys us physically, mentally and spiritually? Don’t
we care that we will only be left hurting? It does not matter what the book of
Revelation tells us is waiting for us in the future. If we can’t figure out how
to have a relationship with Jesus and avoid the antichrist now, we won’t be
able to handle the future either, beast or no beast.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
If you wish to receive these weekly commentaries direct to your e-mail inbox for free, simply send an e-mail to:
commentaries-subscribe@visitstillwaters.com
If you
want a paperback copy of the current Sabbath School Bible
Study Quarterly, you may purchase one by clicking here and typing the word
"quarterly" into the search box.