who may be the anti-christ?

[HAZARD]

According to Scripture, the Antichrist will be a mortal man, possibly living to-day, and if not some time in the near future, but a mortal man. That he will be a man is clear from Revelation 13:18, "it is the number of A MAN; and his number is six hundred and three score and six" (Rev. 13:18). That he will be a MORTAL MAN is clear from the fact that he will be "slain" by Jesus Christ Himself at His second advent (Read Dan. 7:11; Isa. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:7-8). If Jesus is going to slay him at His second advent, then he must be a mortal man at that time. This proves he is not a spirit being or a resurrected and immortal man from the dead. He is definatley not any Pope, now or in the future.

[hmh]

Isn't it sad how a discussion about the anti-christ turns into a catholic bashing thread? What would happen if I stated that the anti-christ was coming from a baptist? Or a Mormon? or even someone that was of the Jewish faith? What if I said that the Jewish faith was the anti-christ? Or some other protestant religion? We can only speculate where the antichrist will come from, but until he does we need to focus on preaching to the lost to win as many as we can before it is too late.

[Kenna Frye]

Isn't it sad how a discussion about the anti-christ turns into a catholic bashing thread? What would happen if I stated that the anti-christ was coming from a baptist? Or a Mormon? or even someone that was of the Jewish faith? What if I said that the Jewish faith was the anti-christ? Or some other protestant religion? We can only speculate where the antichrist will come from, but until he does we need to focus on preaching to the lost to win as many as we can before it is too late.

I didn't say that it was going to be SOMEONE coming out of the Catholic faith, meant that the Catholic faith ALL TOGETHER is the false system of teaching, I am not bashing either. I can prove every single prophecy dealing with Antichrist is the Roman Catholic Church is the Antichrist power/nation that teaches these false teachings. If anyone has any questions about any prophecy dealing with Antichrist, I will prove to you that this Catholic church is the Antichrist.

[sweetycakes]

It's quite obvious that BATMAN is the antichrist....

I mean........just take a closer look at him!!!

[HAZARD]

Isn't it sad how a discussion about the anti-christ turns into a catholic bashing thread? What would happen if I stated that the anti-christ was coming from a baptist? Or a Mormon? or even someone that was of the Jewish faith? What if I said that the Jewish faith was the anti-christ? Or some other protestant religion? We can only speculate where the antichrist will come from, but until he does we need to focus on preaching to the lost to win as many as we can before it is too late.

I didn't say that it was going to be SOMEONE coming out of the Catholic faith, meant that the Catholic faith ALL TOGETHER is the false system of teaching, I am not bashing either. I can prove every single prophecy dealing with Antichrist is the Roman Catholic Church is the Antichrist power/nation that teaches these false teachings. If anyone has any questions about any prophecy dealing with Antichrist, I will prove to you that this Catholic church is the Antichrist.

The Catholic Church is not the Antichrist, its called "Mystery Babylon" in Revelation. The Antichrist will come out of the future soon to be revised Old Roman Empire teritory, and Scripture shows he will in fact come out of Syria according to Daniel.

[other one]

If you all are going to really discuss this, you really need to define what the "Anti-Christ" is.

I see people seeming to discuss one or both of the beasts in revelation, and others discussing things from Daniel and Ezekiel..

First off there is not one one single person referred to as the Anti-Christ...... there is the son of perdition, a little horn, other horns and the beasts and the image of the beasts..... but antichrist in my bible is orly used as a reference to all spirits that deny that Christ came in the flesh........ this Anti-Christ thing is not so simple as a person.... and all those other things are not the same thing, but several groups, powers and single people.

Sam

[HAZARD]

According to Scripture, the Antichrist will be a MORTAL MAN, possibly living to-day, and if not some time in the near future, but a mortal man. That he will be a MAN is clear from Revelation 13:18, "it is the number of A MAN; and HIS number is six hundred and three score and six" (Rev. 13:18). That he will be a MORTAL MAN is clear from the fact that HE will be "slain" by Jesus Christ Himself at His second advent (Read Dan. 7:11; Isa. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:7-8). If Jesus is going to slay HIM at His second advent, then HE must be a mortal MANat that time. This proves he is not a spirit being or a resurrected and immortal man from the dead. He is definatley not any Pope, any church, any group of people or kingdom, now or in the future.

Revelation 13:18, "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the num,ber of the beast: for it is the number of A MAN; and HIS number is Six hundred three score amnd six."

"The fourth beast" shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth [from Daniel's time to Christ's coming] which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth....And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first [ten] and shall subdue three kings [of the ten, which are the other three divisions of Greece besides Syria, the one the Antichrist shall come from]" (Dan. 7:23-24), "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have recieved no kingdom as yet: but recieve power as kings one hour [period] with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.

The Old Roman Empire is to be revived. So, in what form will she exist. There will never be a Revived Roman Empire as a single empire ruled by one man as in the Old Roman Empire, but there will be ten separate governments formed inside this territory, as the seventh head on the beast. This kingdom could best be called the Revised Roman Empire. Rome is to exist in the form of ten kingdoms in the last days before the revelation of both Christ and Antichrist. These kingdoms will still be in existence during the appearance of both and will be overthrown, first by Antichrist and then by Christ.

In Dan. 2:40-45 we have the first picture of Rome symbolized by two legs of iron and ten toes of iron and clay. Rome never has existed yet in the form of separate kingdoms, as symbolized by the ten toes, so in order for all the prophecy to be fulfilled it must exist as such. However Rome has existed as one kingdom, symbolized by the lower part of the body, where the legs are joined to the body. Then too, Rome has existed in the form of two divisions as symbolized by the two legs of iron, representing the eastern and western divisions of the empire. The time of the existence of the ten kingdoms is clearly stated in Dan.2:44-45 as being in the day that the God of Heaven sets up a kingdom. God has yet not set up His kingdom and will not do so untill the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, who will reign forever (Isa.9:6, 7: Dan. 7:13-14; Rev. 11:15). This proves that the Roman Empire will again exist in a new form of ten kingdoms at the time of the second advent,which will succeed old Rome as Rome succeeded the first five heads (kingdoms) on the beast. The ten toes of the two feet on the two legs of Dan. 2:38-45 represent ten kingdoms from the eastern and western divisions of Rome, five from one and five from the other. The phrase "the kingdom" is used twice in Dan. 2:40-45 and shows the unity of the ten kingdoms in some kind of loose federation.

Dan. 7:7-27 shows that there will come out of Rome ten kingdoms which will exist at the same time as the above ten kings. The additional prophecy given here is that "another little horn," called "the beast" in Dan. 7:11, will arise "after them" and overthrow three others. This little horn will continue "untill the Ancient of days" comes, and judgment is given to the saints of the Most High, and the time arrives for the saints to possess the kingdom. This relates to the coming of Christ to destroy the Antichrist and the ten kings and set up His kingdom, and proves that these ten kings and the eleventh king will all exist at the time of the coming of Christ. The ten will give their kingdoms to the eleventh or the beast, and they together will destroy Mystery Babylon, or religion in the middle of the Week, and then three and one half years later, they will fight Christ at Armageddon (Rev. 17:12-17). This beast of Dan. 7:11 is to be slain like the one in Rev. 19:20. Thus we see that Rome is to revised and exist in the form of ten separate kingdoms.

Now, regarding the Extent of Antichrist's Reign (Rev. 13:5-18)(Dan.7:23).

The question often arises, "Will the Antichrist have power over all kindreds, tongues, and nations, and will all that dwell on Earth worship him?" While this can generally be answered in the affirmative, still much depends on what is meant by all. If all is used in the most inclusive sense and is meant to include every individual in the known world today, we can say that he will not have this power, but if it is taken to mean all that God has in mind-the latter day ten kingdoms of old Rome--we can say that all will include all affected by the decree made by the Antichrist in his empire.

The following points from scripture prove that the Antichrist will not rule America or be a world wide dictator as many students of prophecy teach.

1. The word all in Rev.13 is simply part of the figure of speach called "synecdoche" in which a part is used for a whole and a whole for a part. It is frequently used in scripture as in the following examples:

1."I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherin is the breath of life, from under heaven; and EVERY THING that is in the earth shall die" (Gen.6:17). If we look at this literally as men do Rev.13, we would have Noah and his family and all the animals in the ark dead, for they were also under the Heaven and in the earth and yet did not die.

2. " And they utterly destroyed ALL THAT WERE IN THE CITY, both men and women" refering to the people in Jerico when the wall fell, but "all" here must be understood in a limited sense, for Rahab and all her people were spared (Josh. 6:21-25).

3. "David and ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL played before the Lord" and brought up the ark" (2 Sam.6:5,15). yet not all Israel did this, for many did not know how to play instruments and many were too young and still many more were not even gathered at that one place.

4. "Six months did Joab remain there [out of his own country] with ALL ISRAEL untill he had cut off every male in Edom" (1 Kings 11:16,17). The "ALL ISRAEL" referred to here is part of the army of Israel.

5. In Rom.1:8 Paul said, "Your faith is spoken of throughout the WHOLE WORLD," but we know he meant only that the local church at Rome was known by many in the various parts of the Roman Empire. Multitudes outside of Rome, and even many inside the Empire of Rome had never yet heard of the Christian faith, much less of the local church at Rome. The same thing is true of Col. 1:23 where we read that the gospel had been "Preached to EVERY CREATURE UNDER HEAVEN" and in Rom. 10:18 it was preached "INTO ALL THE EARTH" and ''UNTO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD" The gospel has not even yet been taken to all nations, so we know the whole world was not evangelized in Paul's day.

6. In Acts 11:28 we read of a dearth [famin] "THROUGHOUT ALL THE WORLD" which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. That famin did not cover every part of the Roman Empire much less all continents and islands of the world.

Many hundreds of examples can be given to demonstrate the word ALL is used in a figurative sense of a part, so we do not need to believe that Rev.13 and Dan.7:23 means that the Antichrist of the future will literally reign over all the earth and kill all who do not take his mark.

We must, therefore, understand the way the word "all" is supposed to be understood in a particular scripture. If it means ALL in the all inclusive sense then there will be no limitations to it in the passage itself or in other scriptures on the same subject. If it means ALL of what it has reference to specifically and it is clear that it means a part of something and this is made clear in the passage itself or in other passages on the same subject, then we must be sensible to recognize the fact that ALL is not inclusive of all men on earth. For example, when Paul said of God that it was His will that "ALL men come to the knowledge of the truth" (1Tim.2:24), we know that this means ALL MEN without exception. But when we read of ALL MEN being baptized of John and in the same passage and in other passages on the subject, it is made clear that many were not baptized, then we take it as a figurative statement expressing that a great many in the region were baptized of John. We can see in both Testaments that God used universal terms in speaking of the extent of certain kingdoms and the powers of certain kings. We can also see that these terms show that only a great part of the earth was ruled by these kings and empires. We can therefore logically conclude that the extent of Antichrists kingdom and power could likewise be limited to a part of the world. Because we can find a number of scriptures limiting his power and authority to a part of the Earth, and they plainly tell us what part of the Earth will be under him and what part will not be under him then we must limit the "ALL" of Rev.13 and Dan. 7:23 to what territory he rules over and not make it universal as many prophetical students do.

[other one]

You know with all this anti-christ watching; I wonder who is watching for Christ. Jesus says He will catch those who are not watching (and He does not mean watching for the anti-christ), but for Him in thier unawares. He will come like a thief in the night to those who are not watching. But to those who watch FOR HIM there will be no suprise. Let us keep our eyes focused on Christ; He will reveal the anti-christ WITHOUT our looking. When we keep our focus on Christ we will see what is contrary to Him.

We run this race LOOKING TO JESUS....not the anti-christ.

I don't have to look for Jesus, he dewlls within my very being....... and the antichrist has to come before Jesus does, so in a way we are looking for Jesus..... no one in their right mind would be looking forward to the antichrist coming...... it's what follows that we really care about. That and maybe when to flee to the mountains.....

[cjrose]

You know with all this anti-christ watching; I wonder who is watching for Christ. Jesus says He will catch those who are not watching (and He does not mean watching for the anti-christ), but for Him in thier unawares. He will come like a thief in the night to those who are not watching. But to those who watch FOR HIM there will be no suprise. Let us keep our eyes focused on Christ; He will reveal the anti-christ WITHOUT our looking. When we keep our focus on Christ we will see what is contrary to Him.

We run this race LOOKING TO JESUS....not the anti-christ.

I don't have to look for Jesus, he dewlls within my very being....... and the antichrist has to come before Jesus does, so in a way we are looking for Jesus..... no one in their right mind would be looking forward to the antichrist coming...... it's what follows that we really care about. That and maybe when to flee to the mountains.....

Be ready for Jesus for He will come in the twinkling of an eye and our own eyes should be fixed on Him rather than focus on anti-christ.

[HAZARD]

You know with all this anti-christ watching; I wonder who is watching for Christ. Jesus says He will catch those who are not watching (and He does not mean watching for the anti-christ), but for Him in thier unawares. He will come like a thief in the night to those who are not watching. But to those who watch FOR HIM there will be no suprise. Let us keep our eyes focused on Christ; He will reveal the anti-christ WITHOUT our looking. When we keep our focus on Christ we will see what is contrary to Him.

We run this race LOOKING TO JESUS....not the anti-christ.

Someone politely asked this question?

"Is it possible that anti- christ may be existing right now , that he may be preparing to make his grand entrance as the world's stages get set. I would like to hear others opinion on this"

.

Do we ignore peoples questions because we are watching for Christ?