But the Antichrist comes first

¹⁸ 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

Let’s move on because Thessalonians goes on to say there’s going to be another one coming just before the return of the Messiah to the earth described here in this passage as ‘the man of sin’ otherwise known as the Antichrist or the Beast of Book of Revelation.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³ 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 of perdition, ⁴ 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 2:1-4

Concerning the Antichrist Paul tells us one or two things. He says that his coming is connected with the coming of the true Messiah Jesus. He’s called the son of perdition, a name which is also given to Judas es Iscariot in John’s Gospel Chapter 17:12,

¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12

Judas claimed to be a disciple, but he wasn’t. He was a deceived man and a deceiver. He betrayed Jesus to his enemies and he served the enemy not the Lord. And he went to a lost eternity, to hell.

So too with the Antichrist. He is the only one who has been called the son of perdition in the Bible apart from Judas Iscariot.

He claims to be coming in the place of God, take the place of God as with Satan in Isaiah Chapter 14. He said he was going to be as God, going to take His place above the stars of Heaven and be worshiped as God. That was what he wanted, to take God’s place in the Temple of God, whether literally or figuratively.

¹² “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.

¹⁶ “Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’ Isaiah 14:12-17

Another point we can discuss but I’m not going to get into here at this moment is that the Antichrist wants to be worshiped as God and it is interesting when you look through history, to note that all the great dictators in the world want to be worshiped as gods.

When they raised their hands and said Hail Hitler, that was an act of worship. Hitler was terrible. All the great dictators like to have their pictures and their images all over the world, all over the place. Stalin, Mao, Lenin had their images and statues erected all over the place. You see statues or images to them, and totalitarian countries make images of their leaders and put them all over the place. It’s the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of worshiping a man as God

Watch and read Tony’s videos and articles on the Antichrist below:

At the moment, there’s something restraining the Antichrist and Paul wrote about this. He said there’s something restraining him which will continue to restrain until he’s taken out of the way.

⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ 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. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12

Whatever the restrain, it hasn’t yet happened and there’s a bit of a mystery about what it is. Some people say it’s the Holy Spirit that will be taken out when the church is taken out in the Rapture. Some people say it’s something to do with the government or a change in government.

The early church had an idea that the ‘restrainer’ was the Roman Empire which was preventing the coming of the Antichrist and the Roman Empire would fall and then divide into 10 different nations or states and then the Antichrist would come along and unite those 10 states. Jesus would then come back immediately after that had happened. They were looking for it to happen pretty much after the fall of the Roman Empire. It didn’t actually happen that way but, whatever it is, something is going to be taken out of the way and the Antichrist is going to appear.

Something is restraining him. Some people say it’s the law or conscience, or some form of government which is going to restrain him, but he’s going to be restrained until the point when he comes, he appears.

We can also see from the scriptures that, before that comes, evil is going to abound. His arrival has something to do with lawlessness. He is called ‘the lawless one’. Lawlessness in Greek is ἀνομίᾳ [anomia] which is made up of two words ἀ [a] which means ‘against’, and [nomos] which means ‘law’. The Greek ‘nomos’ is the equivalent of the Hebrew word Torah, the law. So, you’re going to be against the law, against God’s law, against the law of God, the Ten Commandments, the Torah law, but also against the moral law of the Torah, and against the law of Messiah, of Jesus.

The Antichrist is going to be destroyed by the Lord at His return. Revelation 19 tells you that when Jesus comes again, He is going to throw the Beast and the false prophet straight into Hell:

¹⁹ And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. ²⁰ Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. Revelation 19:19-21

Daniel 7 tells us that when the Messiah comes at the time of the end, the Beast is going to be thrown into the burning fire. So, there’s going to be something which will destroy him supernaturally at the end of days.

²⁴ The ten horns are ten kings
Who shall arise from this kingdom.
And another shall rise after them;
He shall be different from the first ones,
And shall subdue three kings.
²⁵ He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,
Shall persecute the saints of the Most High,
And shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand
For a time and times and half a time.

²⁶ ‘But the court shall be seated,
And they shall take away his dominion,
To consume and destroy it forever.
²⁷ Then the kingdom and dominion,
And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven,
Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.’ Daniel 7:24-27

It appears then that he’s a person not a system.

He’s going to have power to do lying wonders given to him by Satan, do miracles, lying wonders signs and wonders of some sort.

⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

The point of all this is that will be some kind of deception of the people. In other words, there is going to be a powerful spirit of deception working in the last days. There are going to be false prophets going up, leading people astray, and the Antichrist is going to confirm this with some kind of false prophecy, some kind kind of false signs and wonders which will impress the people and cause them to follow him.

Additionally, all unsaved people, those who perish, are going to be open to this deception and the only answer to this is going to be to receive the truth. Truth is salvation through Jesus Christ. And to receive the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth.

Finally, the Beast or Antichrist is going to bring in a strong delusion so that people will believe the lie. As people reject the truth that Jesus is the Word of God, that He’s the truth, they will have pleasure in unrighteousness and believe the lie whatever that lie is which he brings.

Some say it’ll be him causing people to worship him as a god. Whatever it is, there’ll be some strong delusion which will come upon the people, and the answer to that strong delusion is to believe the truth in Jesus who said

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

The Antichrist is coming. John, in his epistle, tells us there are many antichrists are coming:

¹⁸ 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

So, you’re going to see many people claiming to be some kind of Messiah figure and, like this one, they’re going to bring with them some kind of delusion which people believe, which will take them away from the truth. You’re going to have types of the antichrist arising, and deception leading to the strong delusion in our time.

The scripture implies this going to arise out of time of great crisis. It appears the Antichrist is going to offer some kind of a peace program which will work for a while but then, collapse, war and disaster will follow.