Guest Post: God is Love

Today, exactly as the Bible prophesied, man grows ever bolder in his defiance of God.

One basic element common to the rejection of Christ in the world and contempt for sound doctrine in the church is the lack of musing, i.e., thinking and reasoning carefully, especially about God, His Word, and His will. Instead, the chief pursuit of the world—and, sadly, of many Christians—is amusement. We are too busy entertaining ourselves to think of God. As atheism rejects theism, so amusement stifles musing.

Let’s swim against the tide and muse together. God called to Israel: “Come now, and let us reason together...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword...” (Isa:1:18-20
).

That cry comes repeatedly from God’s heart, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth...I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel...doth not consider” (Isa:1:2
,3).

God’s reiterated pleadings for Israel to repent surely indicate that He was not the cause behind their sin. He had not foreordained their rebellion and judgment. They were not doing His will. The God of Israel reasons in vain with His chosen people: “I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not....Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth...” (Jer:44:4
). Obviously, God had not predestined their wicked behavior and doom, or He could not have called their idolatry “this abominable thing that I hate.”

Nor is the selfishness, jealousy, and hatred; the fornication, adultery, and divorce; the homosexuality, lesbianism and rejection of marriage as God ordained it; abortion and other murders; ethnic and religious wars and other violence so rampant in today’s self-centered world any more God’s will than was the wickedness in Noah’s time. That world was destroyed in the flood. Today’s world is ripening for an even worse outpouring of God’s wrath against sin.

Man was made in God’s image (Gen:1:26
,27)—not physically but spiritually. “God is a Spirit” (Jn:4:24
) with no physical form. Man was to reflect the moral and spiritual character of God in all that he thought, said, and did. Eden's Garden was not only a paradise of physical beauty and abundance beyond our imagination, but also a spiritual paradise as well—a bit of heaven on earth.

What a glorious relationship Adam and Eve enjoyed! The Garden was a symphony of God’s glory expressed in the exhilarating oneness of a man and a woman joined in that first marriage by God Himself: the ecstatic, untainted happiness of selfless love displayed in words and deeds of continual kindness, thoughtfulness, grace, mercy, pure goodness, and compassion, each seeking only the other’s joy in the wonder of intimate companionship!

When His creation of the universe, the animals, and man was finished, God pronounced it all to be “very good” (Gen:1:31
). Then what went so horribly wrong? How could man, made in the image of God, have such deep hatred against his Creator and such determination to take his own way and flaunt his rebellion before the compassionate and holy God to whom he owes his very existence?

The Bible calls this enigma “the mystery of iniquity” (2 Thes:2:7
) and declares that its secret source is in the depths of man’s heart: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within...” (Mk 7:21-23).

The heart is not only the seat of the emotions but of the will—like a fortified castle to which each person holds the only key: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov:4:23
).

I will never forget the interview on TV of a Canadian who had been arrested in Saudi Arabia and falsely accused of terrorism. Under continuous torture, he “confessed his guilt” before he was released. That terrifying experience taught him two things: 1) torture can be so excruciating that the strongest person can be made to “confess” to anything, even that he murdered his mother, or God; and 2) yet no torture, no matter how unbearable, can make the victim believe what he is forced to confess.

There is a place deep inside where the real person guards his secret thoughts and true intentions. Solomon warns his son that what a man says is often a deceit to hide what he really is inside (Prov:23:6-8
).

The Bible repeatedly calls this inner stronghold “the heart” or “the will.” Without it, one has no individuality—nor could one love another or receive love. God has so made us that even He cannot force us to believe anything. He reasons with us in the gospel to persuade us of the truth; but, sadly, most people do not listen to reason and insist upon pursuing the broad road to destruction though they know where it leads.

The world is filled with stubborn, disobedient youths who’ve grown up in rebellion not only against their parents but against all authority, especially God. The carrot of amusement that is offered even in the church has only led them further from in-depth thinking, i.e., musing. The result is “unreasonable and wicked men [who] have not faith” (2 Thes:3:2
).

The hidden bastion deep within can be either the throne of a selfish tyrant ruling others, or the seat of selflessness poured out for others in genuine love and compassion: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Mat:16:25
); “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit...” (Jn:12:24
).

God did not make us robots. In spite of the denial by Luther, Calvin, and many evangelical leaders today, God gave man a will to freely choose to love or to hate Him, to receive Christ as Savior and Lord or to reject Him. God wants man to trust Him so fully and to love Him so deeply as to give Him the keys to this inner fortress of the heart, holding nothing back: “my son, give me thine heart” (Prov:23:26
).

God doesn’t want to trick us or to superficially persuade us by our emotions. He wants to win our hearts with His truth and love. “Know therefore...in thine heart...the LORD he is God” (Deut 4:39); “thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut 6:5); “The LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut 13:3). God’s command for all to love Him with the whole heart proves His love and desire for all mankind to be saved. It would be unreasonable for God to command any to love Him whom He does not love enough to do all He could to save them, but has instead predestined to hell.

“Only fear the LORD, and serve him...with all your heart...consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed” (1 Sam:12:24
, 25); “turn ye even to me with all your heart...rend your heart, and not your garments” (Joel:2:12
, 13); “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest [be baptized]” (Acts:8:37
); “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and...believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom:10:9
).

Creation’s most powerful witness to its Creator is found in DNA. Digitally organized instructions for building and operating trillions of cells as one body are inscribed upon DNA in encoded language that only certain protein molecules can decode. Everything written has an author! And the author of this amazing pool of intricate information could only be an infinite Intelligence, the One who created and sustains all by “the word of his power” (Heb:1:3
).

The rebellion of Satan and man brought destruction to the entire order in the universe. The ongoing result has been natural disasters and a growing pool of disease and deformities among men and animals: “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together...” (Rom:8:21
, 22). Even some cells no longer follow the instructions encoded in the DNA, resulting in cancer.

In spite of overwhelming and indisputable evidence bombarding him daily, man refuses to obey his Creator. He is thus a spiritual cancer on the earth, doing “that which [is] right in his own eyes” (Judg 17:6).

God would be justified in wiping man from the earth—which He almost did with the flood. We would not be alive today had Noah not “found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen:6:8
). And why is God gracious and merciful to rebels? Only because of His boundless love revealed in Christ Jesus!

Christ’s sacrifice for sin is the great proof of God’s love for all mankind: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom:5:8
). The unspeakable horror of sin is revealed in the creatures’ mocking, scourging, and nailing their Creator to the Cross. And as sinful, rebellious man does his worst, God’s love shines all the brighter: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34)—and to answer that prayer, the Father punishes Christ in full for the sins of the world, past, present, and future.

In loving response to rebellious man, who desires to tear Him from His throne, God sent His Son to become a man through the virgin birth and to pay the full penalty His own infinite justice required for sin. Indeed, He could do no other. What? Could do no other? Yes, for “God is love” (1 Jn:4:8
,16).

There is a vast difference between saying that God is loving, and that God is love. The words, “God is,” are coupled with many glorious promises—and warnings: God is, “thy refuge” (Deut 33:27); “my strength and power” (2 Sam:22:33
); “gracious and merciful” (2 Chr:30:9
); “a very present help in trouble” (Ps:46:1
); “my defense” (Ps:59:17
); “good to Israel” (Ps:73:1
); “faithful” (1 Cor:1:9
; 10:13); “true” (Jn:3:33
)—“a consuming fire” (Heb:12:29
), etc. But these expressions describe how God acts, not what God is.

Love is the very essence of God’s being. He cannot but love. Though love that is truly selfless is rarely seen on earth, every person knows that such love is of God. That recognition is like a haunting memory deep in man’s heart of a paradise long lost.

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they suddenly realized that “they were naked” (Gen:3:7
). Not that they were without clothes (see TBC, Feb and Oct ’02), for that had been true since their creation. Made in the image of God, they must have been clothed in the very light of God: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 Jn:1:5
). It has been well said that “we are like mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright at all, depends entirely upon the sun [Son] that shines upon us.”

Sin stripped the first man and woman of all that God had intended for them as creatures made in His glorious image. The reflection of His glory no longer shone out through them. They were spiritually and morally naked. What a tragedy! And today man is still naked before his Creator, missing the glory that once clothed his first parents: “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom:3:23
).

The love, which is God’s very essence, is missing because we have been separated from Him by sin. There is a bitter aching in the heart that nothing but God himself can satisfy. God is calling us to be reconciled to Him: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer:29:13
).

Most members of our tragic race turn to everything but God in an attempt to satisfy the longing that only He can fill: “Be astonished, O ye heavens...and be horribly afraid...saith the LORD. For my people have...forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns...that can hold no water” (Jer:2:12
,13).

Some, however, will not be satisfied with anything less than God himself. With the Psalmist, they cry, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God...” (Ps:42:1
, 2). This is not a thirst to have one’s “needs” met or to see miracles that excite the flesh. This is a deep thirst to know God himself in such a close relationship as to become all that He desires one to be. Is this the passion of your heart—of mine?

In Christ’s prayer to His Father, He expresses the earnest desire that God’s perfect love would indwell and be manifest through those who know and love Him: “that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn:17:26
). What a prayer from the heart of the One who longs to “bring many sons unto glory” (Heb:2:10
) in His likeness (1 Jn:3:2
)! Hear David’s earnest expectation: “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness” (Ps:17:15
).

This is more than a restoration of the love that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden. That intimate relationship they had known with their Creator could be, and was, lost. What the new creature in Christ is brought into is infinitely better and can never be lost. Christ told a troubled Martha: “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Lk 10:42).

Paul prayed that the Ephesian believers would come to a full understanding of “the hope of his calling” (Eph:1:18
). Wonder of wonders, God will eternally restore naked sinners “unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus” (1 Pt 5:10)!

The new birth through faith in Christ begins a new and eternal life. Christ lives in us, but we must diligently partner with Him: “work out [not work for] your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians:2:12
,13); “whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Col:1:29
).

May we each have that same steadfast purpose in our hearts as we eagerly await His return. 

By Dave Hunt

https://www.thebereancall.org/content/god-love-newsletter-classic

Guest Post: Preparation for Antichrist

We noted in the last newsletter that since the Antichrist is a counterfeit "Christ" there must be a large "Christian" church on earth to recognize, support and worship him. Of course, this is where the apostasy which is now gathering momentum leads: to the formation of just such a church, which will be the apostate bride of the Antichrist, as the true church is the Bride of Christ. The religion of ancient Catholic Rome—paganism under a thin veneer of "Christianity"—must become the world religion in partnership with Antichrist's world government through the prophesied political revival of the Roman Empire. The partnership between emperor (Antichrist) and the pope must be revived as well.

The Antichrist will be worshiped by the entire world. To make this possible, apostate "Christianity" must enter into union with all of the world's religions—while at the same time there must be a recognition of the importance of "spirituality" by the secularists. As one syndicated columnist put it in an article titled, "What Part Will Religion Play in Emerging Global Struggles?":

In Chicago, which was once considered the heart of Midwestern America, there are now more Muslims than Methodists, more Buddhists than Presbyterians, more Hindus than Congregationalists....In the future, the majority of Christians will be living in the Third World....It's not particularly chic to mix talk about religion and politics, but there is a connection.

An ecumenical union of all religions is seen to be essential, for there can be no political peace without religious peace as well.

The ecumenical movement that will unite the entire world under the Antichrist has now gathered irresistible momentum. Following up the mention of some of the leading ecumenical groups in the May newsletter, the magnitude and prestige of this movement can be seen in one dominant organization: The Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival. Its stated purpose is to "combine legislative common sense with eternal spiritual values."

The Global Forum began in October 1985. While the United Nations was celebrating its 40th anniversary, ten "spiritual leaders," two each from the world's five major religions, and eight elected officials from parliaments on five continents, met together at psychology's New Age center in Tarrytown, New York to explore ideas for ecological salvation and world peace. Out of this meeting grew a working partnership between the world's religious and political leaders—something which had been unthinkable since ancient Rome.

The politicians belonged to the Global Committee of Parliamentarians on Population and Development. The religious leaders had been invited by the Temple of Understanding, long headquartered at the "Very Reverend" James Parks Morton's infamous Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. As early as 1975 the Temple (Morton is president), known as "the spiritual UN," had sponsored a week-long "Spiritual Summit Conference" which culminated in "addresses at the United Nations by representatives of five major faiths," with Mother Teresa as the keynote speaker (May 1990 TBC).

The interrelationship of vast networks of ecumenical groups may be seen in the fact that Temple of Understanding director Daniel L. Anderson also heads the North American Interfaith Network, while Morton is a co-chairman of Global Forum. NAIN sponsors, among other things, the annual North American Assisi, one of many similar conferences now held around the world as follow-ups to Pope John Paul II's October 1986 gathering of representatives of 12 world religions in Assisi, Italy for a day of world prayer for peace. Assisi was a deliberately ecumenical and New Age addition to Catholicism's day of prayer for world peace traditionally called by the popes on the "Feast of the Holy Mother of God."

That first exploratory meeting in Tarrytown in 1985 was followed by the April 1988 Global Survival Conference in Oxford, England, which brought together about 200 spiritual and legislative leaders from 52 countries. "For five days parliamentarians and cabinet members met with cardinals, swamis, bishops, rabbis, imams, monks....Among them: the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury...Cardinal Koenig of Vienna...Carl Sagan, Vice-Chairman of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Evguenij Velikhov, Gaia scientist James Lovelock ...Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova." The conference was covered by media teams from 35 countries.

Conferees issued a joint "Final Statement of the Conference," which declared: "We have met at Oxford bringing together our individual experience from the parliaments and religious traditions of the world ...brought together by a common concern for global survival, and have entered into a new dialogue on our common future....We have derived from our meeting a vivid awareness of the essential oneness of humanity...the realization that each human person has both a spiritual and a political dimension. We acknowledge the inadequacy of attitudes and institutions within all our traditions [including Christianity] to deal with our present global crisis....We have explored the nature of the relationship between political and religious life, and...have agreed that we [political and religious leaders] both need and desire to work together...and shall promote at regional, national and local levels all possible collaboration between spiritual leaders and parliamentarians....Each one of us has been changed by our Oxford experience...and [we] have undertaken commitments that are irrevocable."

Global Forum next sponsored a four-day symposium at the Aspen Institute in June 1989. It brought together 21 of the world's leading journalists to dialogue with experts, political and religious leaders on global survival issues. Harvard University and Global Forum are hosting a further ongoing series of seminars. As a recent history of this remarkable movement declared, "The momentum is growing: The Global Forum dialogue of spiritual and parliamentary leaders now is being replicated worldwide at local, national and regional levels."

The latest major gathering was the January 15-19, 1990 Moscow Forum co-hosted by what the program called a "unique alliance": "the Supreme Soviet, the country's first freely elected parliament; all faith communities of the USSR, coordinated by the Russian Orthodox Church; the USSR Academy of Sciences; and the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity." Moscow saw more than 1,000 participants from 83 countries call for a "new planetary perspective" involving a "new spiritual and ethical basis for human activities on earth." In his address to the Forum, Mikhail Gorbachev called it "a major step in the ecological consciousness of humanity." He drew cheers from delegates when he pledged "to ban nuclear tests completely, for all times, and at any moment, if the U.S. does the same...[and] to open our territory for inspection...."

Laying the foundation for the coming world religion, ecological concerns are being expressed increasingly in pantheistic/New Age terms as though the universe were a living and even conscious entity (the Gaia hypothesis) with whom we must make peace and live in harmony. Calling spirituality"common to all humanity," New Age physicist Fritjof Capra defined it at the Moscow Global Forum as "the experience of being connected to the cosmos as a whole...a sense of belonging that gives meaning to life." Capra recently founded The Elmwood Institute, dedicated to "the convergence of politics, ecology and spirituality."

In his keynote speech at Moscow, U.S. Senator Al Gore declared: "I do not see how the environmental problem can be solved without reference to spiritual values found in every faith." He is not referring to biblical Christianity, but to an ecumenical world "spirituality" based upon what he called a "new faith in the future of life on earth...[providing] higher values in the conduct of human affairs." The final "Moscow Declaration" called for "a global council of spiritual leaders" and the "creation of an inter-faith prayer...." It declared, "We must find a new spiritual and ethical basis for human activities on Earth: Humankind must enter into a new communion with nature...."

In his address to the Moscow Forum, Gorbachev had called for "a new contemporary attitude to Nature...returning to Man a sense of being a part of Nature." Global Forum's newsletter, Shared Vision, declared that "we need to remember our natural origins and re-learn how to love and respect nature. The love of our eternal parents, Earth Mother and Sky Father, is all embracing...."

Using similar pantheistic/New Age language, John Paul II has promoted a kindred concept in numerous speeches. In his 1990 World Peace Day message on the Feast of the Holy Mother of God, the Pope said, "A harmonious universe is a cosmos endowed with its own integrity, its own internal, dynamic balance." Addressing a prayer gathering of "Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and others, he told participants that their efforts were unleashing profound spiritual energies in the world and bringing about a "new climate" of peace. The Pope pledged that "the Catholic Church intends to 'share in and promote' such ecumenical and interreligious cooperation."

Testifying how far the Catholic Church has already gone in promoting "ecumenical and inter-religious cooperation," the entire May/June 1990 edition of The Catholic World is devoted to Buddhism. Articles include "The Buddha Revered as a Christian Saint" and a flattering biography of "His Holiness the Dalai Lama." The Tibetan Buddhist leader has frequent contact with Catholic leaders. He met twice with Pope Paul VI and five or more times with John Paul II, whom he calls "an old friend." "Both of us have the same aim," says the Dalai Lama, who was also, of course, present at Assisi.

The Pope's September 1989 speech to Catholic and Buddhist monks, who had been visiting one another's monasteries in order to further Catholic/Buddhist "dialogue," was revealing. He told the Buddhists: "You were welcomed by Benedictine monks whose motto is precisely PAX—peace. You have encouraged one another to promote this peace of which our world is in such dire need. All human persons...must commit themselves to the cause of peace....You, as monks, make use of...prayer and the search for interior peace....Your dialogue at the monastic level is truly a religious experience, a meeting in the depths of the heart...."

Writing in The Tibetan Review (and quoted in Catholic World), a Buddhist monk evaluated the goals of this "dialogue":

The unity of religion promoted by the Holy Father Pope John Paul II and approved by His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not a goal to be achieved immediately, but a day may come when the love and compassion which both Buddha and Christ preached so eloquently will unite the world in a common effort to save humanity from senseless destruction, by leading it toward the light in which we all believe.

A month before his death, Catholic monk Thomas Merton had told an ecumenical conference in Calcutta, "My dear brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to discover is our original unity." Merton had earlier written that "Buddhism and Christianity are alike in making use of ordinary everyday human existence as material for a radical transformation of consciousness." He was convinced that the transformation of consciousness which Zen Buddhism calls "the Great Death" was identical to what Christians call "dying and rising with Christ"that both led to the same "death of self" and to a "new life" not found in some future paradise, but in "living here and now."

Of course, the obvious difference is Christ himself and His historical death, burial and resurrection on this planet for our sins, to reconcile us to God. It is this essential uniqueness which ecumenism eventually denies. Paul didn't try to die to self through mystical techniques popular not only among Catholics/Buddhists/Hindus/New Agers but increasingly so among evangelical Christians. His death to self came about by faith in the finished work of Christ: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me...." (Gal:2:20
).

In a Time interview (5/28/90) concerning his two audiences with the Pope, Billy Graham said, "I have spent considerable time with the people around [John Paul II]. I could sense they recognize that they have an affinity with Evangelicals. They have suddenly realized that these are the people who are closest to them theologically." In fact, the Pope, at the same time he tells Graham, "We are brothers," has been warning Catholics against nonecumenical evangelicals. Meanwhile, Pat Robertson is recruiting "conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians" as the "invisible army" of a new Christian Coalition that he hopes will turn America back to God and eventually land him in the White House.

Earlier this year at its annual convention the Michigan Episcopal Diocese refused to vote upon the resolution that "Jesus is the Christ, 'the only name given under heaven by which we may be saved.'" The resolution was called "flawed because it presumes to define the ways in which God is able to work," and "divisive and demeaning to people whose faith in God is as strong as ours though it is differently defined." A substitute resolution was voted upon and passed to the effect that Episcopalians would recommit themselves to proclaim a "Good News" that offended no one.

The apostate church is growing in all denominations. "Positive Christianity" is the enemy of souls. Do not seek to please anyone except our Lord himself. And do not be afraid of the cost, for "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe" (Pro:29:25
).  TBC

By Dave Hunt

https://www.thebereancall.org/content/preparation-antichrist

Guest Post: Christ & Antichrist

Anti is a Greek prefix which not only means "opposed to" but "in the place of." Antichrist  will indeed oppose Christ, but in the most diabolically clever way possible: by pretending to be Christ. For the world to follow and worship him, a false antichrist "Christianity" must become the world religion—a "Christianity" that all religions can accept and which embraces all religions into "one faith." Hence the necessity for today's growing apostasy: to create an apostate church to be the Antichrist's earthly bride, just as the true church is Christ's heavenly bride. Such is the important role of the New Age movement and the many accelerating delusions and seductions in these "last days."

Through a false gospel, false prophets, occultic religious practices and lying "signs and wonders," today's churches are being filled with millions who call themselves Christians, but who are not. Left behind at the Rapture, and happy that the "negative" influence of the vanished troublemakers has been removed, they will worship and follow the Antichrist, thinking he is the true Christ and that they have "never had it so good." An ecumenized "Christianity," in partnership with all religions, will carry on and prosper even more after the Rapture than before. The unifying factor will be concern for Mother Earth. Working for peace and ecological wholeness will have replaced truth as the basis of Christianity, as the World Council of Churches has already decreed.

Far from being a cop-out invented by those who desire to escape persecution (which could become very severe in America before the Rapture), a pretribulation Rapture is essential for a number of reasons: first of all, to remove the true Christians from earth. If they were present when Antichristwas revealed, they would oppose and expose him. Such opposition must be removed in order to give Satan and man, under Antichrist's leadership, full freedom to prove that this earth can be turned back into a garden paradise without God. The Holy Spirit, who is omnipresent, will still convict and draw many to Christ during the Great Tribulation. The restraining influence, however, which He has wielded in this world through the millions of true Christians, will have suddenly been removed, leaving a moral and spiritual vacuum in homes, neighborhoods, businesses, and schools such as we cannot even imagine.

A pretrib Rapture is also necessary because the Antichrist will be given authority by God "to make war with the saints, and to overcome them" (Rev:13:7
). Such a fate could not befall the church, for Christ said that the "gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mat:16:18
). Moreover, true Christians have authority and power to "resist the devil" and "he will flee" (James:4:7
), for "greater is he that is in [us], than he that is in the world" (1 Jn:4:4
). So the fact that Antichrist is given power by God "to make war with the saints and to overcome [i.e., kill] them" is proof that the true church is no longer present.

The "saints" mentioned are those who have not heard and rejected the gospel prior to the Rapture and who believe in Christ during the Great Tribulation. They will pay for their faith with their lives. Those who take the mark of the beast suffer the wrath of the Lamb, while those who don't are slain by Antichrist. Thus a post-trib rapture would be a classic nonevent, for there would be very few if any surviving believers to be raptured at that time. And surely those Christians who were left alive, seeing the judgment of God poured out upon mankind and earth's armies gathered for the battle of Armageddon in an attempt to destroy Israel, would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Second Coming was about to occur—and would be watching for their Lord to appear. Yet Christ declared that He would return at a time of such ease that even the "five wise virgins" would "slumber and sleep." He warned, "[F]or in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Mat:24:44
). Hardly likely in the midst of the greatest tribulation and destruction the world has ever seen or ever will see!

To understand how the stage is being set for the final conflict between Christ and Antichrist, it is helpful to consider some comparisons and contrasts between these two antagonists. First of all, the procession of events is in God's hands. While we cannot know the day or hour of our Lord's return, the Bible does give us many clues as to the general timing of this great occurrence.

There is a precise time for Christ's second coming just as there was for the first: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son..." (Gal:4:4
). The same is true of the Antichrist. Though already present in the world and waiting in the wings, this "man of sin" known as "that Wicked [one]" (2 Thes:2:3
,8) can only take power when it is God's time: "And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time" (2:6).

Interestingly, the Roman Empire plays an integral part in the timing for the revelation both of God's Messiah and Satan's. Ancient Rome set the stage for Christ's birth: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed" (Lk 2:1). It was this decree that caused Joseph and Mary to be in Bethlehem so that Christ would be born there in fulfillment of Micah:5:2
. And of course He also had to be executed during the time of the Roman Empire, which introduced crucifixion, in order to fulfill Psalm 22.

For Christ to return, the Roman Empire must be revived. This is clear from Daniel's interpretation that the distinct parts of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar "...head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron" (Dan:2:32-33
) represented four world kingdoms: the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman. That the "feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron" (2:41) represent the fourth world kingdom revived in the last days is clear from the statement, "And in the days of these kings [i.e., represented by the ten toes] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed ...[and] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (2:44).

Christ did not establish His kingdom the first time He came, so He must come again to do so. When? "In the days of those kings"—i.e., when the Roman Empire has been revived, out of which the Antichrist will arise. No longer "as a lamb to the slaughter" (Isa:53:7
), but now returning in power and glory to execute judgment upon those who crucified Him, Christ will destroy this evil empire in its revived form at His second coming. So although the date is not given, the timing of Christ's return is clearly indicated.

It is also essential for the Roman Empire to be revived in order for the Antichrist to appear. Daniel prophesied that "the people of the prince that shall come [i.e., Antichrist] shall destroy the city and the sanctuary..." (Dan:9:26
). The Roman armies under the command of Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in a.d.70. It is therefore from these people that the Antichrist must arise. That doesn't necessarily mean that he has to be Roman, since her legions came from many parts of the Empire. It does mean, however, that he must come from that world kingdom—and for that to happen the Roman Empire must be revived. We are seeing the fulfillment of this most remarkable prophecy in our day.

Calling Antichrist "the prince that shall come" indicates that he, like the ancient Caesars, will rule the Empire when it is revived. Moreover, the ancient Roman Empire was not only a political, economic and military entity, but also a religious one with the god-emperor the head of the pagan priesthood. So in conjunction with a world government, a world religion headed by the new Caesar, the Antichrist, must be established in the last days exactly as Revelation 13 indicates.

During the periodic waves of Roman persecution which the early Christians endured, all citizens of the Empire were required to bow down to an image of the current Caesar and worship him as god. Those who did not were killed. Such will also be the case under Antichrist in the revived Roman Empire: "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life...[and] as many as would not worship the image of the beast [Antichrist] should be killed" (Rev:13:8
,15).

The contrasts between Christ and Antichrist are also instructive. Our Lord was despised and rejected by Israel and by the world: the Antichrist will be hailed and embraced. Christ was mocked and jeered: the Antichrist will be praised. The cry of those who rejected Christ was, "We'll not have this man to reign over us!" It is awesome to realize that in contrast the Antichrist will be accepted not only by the world but by Israel as well. Jesus told the Jewish leaders in His day, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (Jn:5:43
).

Christ's kingdom of light and truth is heavenly ("My kingdom is not of this world"- Jn:18:36
); Antichrist's kingdom of darkness is built upon a lie and is totally of this world. It is sad to see so many evangelical Christians becoming increasingly entangled in this world, joining with Catholics, Mormons and other cultists and occultists to pursue its political and social agendas—and in the process losing their hope of heaven. It was characteristic of the early church that they knew they were the ekklesia, the called-out ones who were no longer of this world (Jn:17:6
,14,16) but were eagerly waiting (1 Thes:1:10
) and watching for Christ to return to take them to heaven (Heb:9:28
; Jn:14:2-3
). That hope must be awakened!

Mystery surrounds both Christ and Antichrist. Of Christ, Paul wrote, "great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh..." (1 Tim:3:16
). And of Antichrist he wrote, "[T]he mystery of iniquity doth already work" (2 Thes:2:7
). Each has a mysterious bride, one a virgin, the other a harlot. The mystery of godliness, which will be revealed in Christ's bride, the church, has been "kept secret since the world began" (Rom:16:25
) and is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col:1:27
). It can only be fully revealed at the last time (1 Pt 1:5).

The mystery of iniquity, which could conversely be called "Satan in you, the hope of damnation," will also be revealed through a bride, the Antichrist's. She is called "mystery, babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Rev:17:5
). As Christ loves and preserves His bride, so Satan will "hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire" (Rev:17:16
).

That the second coming of Christ in power and glory to rescue Israel, destroy the armies that are about to destroy her, and to set up His kingdom upon the throne of His father David is a separate event from the rapture of His bride, the church, is very clear. Some try to make them one event by suggesting that we will be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air" on His way to earth and will immediately turn around and accompany Him to the Mount of Olives and His intervention at Armageddon. However, Revelation:19:7-14
 tells of Christ's marriage to His bride in heaven before He comes to earth to execute judgment and set up His kingdom.

A major purpose of the Second Coming is to destroy Antichrist: "whom the Lord shall...destroy with the brightness of his coming (2 Thes:2:8
). Thus it is clear that the Second Coming cannot take place until the Antichrist has been revealed and has established his kingdom upon earth. If the Rapture were not a separate event from the Second Coming before the Antichrist is revealed, then Christians would not be watching, waiting and looking for Christ, but for the Antichrist, which is unthinkable!

One of the growing delusions today is the belief that the church is not to be raptured at all, but that when we have taken over the world (and not until then) Christ will return to reign over the kingdom we have established for Him. Yet Christ promised, "And if I go and prepare a place for you [in heaven], I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (Jn:14:3
). Paul wrote that "the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air [obviously to be taken home to His Father's house of many mansions]: and so shall we ever be with the Lord [in heaven, where He has gone to prepare a place for us]" (1 Thes:4:16-17
).

Instead, many who claim to be Christians are looking forward to meeting a "Christ" with their feet planted firmly on planet earth—a "Christ" who has not arrived to take them to heaven but to reign over the kingdom they have established for him. What a delusion! Such have not been working for the true Christ, but for the counterfeit, the Antichrist. They have not been "lay[ing] up...treasures in heaven" (Mat:6:20
), but have been building an earthly kingdom. May our Bridegroom reawaken our love for Him, and may our hearts, as it should be with a bride, long to see and be with Him! TBC

By Dave Hunt

https://www.thebereancall.org/content/christ-antichrist