The Spirit of Antichrist

I hate all the religious indoctrination we get from the dusty old books. Everything from hell to salvation, from Christ to Antichrist – it’s all over-spiritualized to the point where it seems it’s of fairy tale land, and makes absolutely no sense. Everyone needs to question their beliefs and search for the truth.

Further to my last post about ‘The Greatest Sin’, in which I wrote about the possible cause for the brutal exile of Israel in 70 AD, I want to go on to explain my thoughts on the infamous antichrist. It’s really hard to do this without being labeled, but I’m not all that concerned.

If Christ came to fulfill the Law by his most awesome sacrifices (Lk 24:44, Rom 3:21), the greatest sin after this would be to continue the practice of the law (Rom 9:30), particularly in regards to sin sacrifices (Paul calls it 'the law of sin and death' in Rom. 8:2). If you sit and think of the implications of slaughtering a lamb after the Lamb had already faced this slaughter, you’d understand the rage of the Almighty 40 years after his ascension. Jesus predicted it in Matthew 24: ‘not one stone here will be left on another’. I have often heard that the original ‘antichrist’ language refers to a ‘Christ-instead’ or an ‘in-place-of Christ’ scenario, rather than an outright adversary “I am your god now!”. How fitting that the spirit of antichrist would be rooted or blatantly founded on the Law of Moses. This is the law given, which is not able to be perfectly kept, which is the only law on earth which gets closest to what life is all about. Paul calls it 'the embodiment of knowledge and truth' in Romans 2:20. Perfect following of this law bypasses the need for Christ – it is the ‘in-place-of Christ’.

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea: "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" Romans 9:22-26

I nearly fell off my chair a few years ago when I clued in to what this ‘mark of the beast’ is all about. Revelation says it is either located on the forehead or the palm/wrist. The best practitioners of the Law of Moses, the Pharisees, wear what are called Phylacteries, which are tiny leather boxes containing baby scrolls with the words of certain verses written on them to serve ‘as reminders of God and of the obligation to keep the Law during daily life’ (see Encyclopedia Britannica). I’m not saying the mark of the beast is a phylactery, but the prophecy/fulfillment could be rooted in this concept/belief.

Jesus was constantly mocking the Pharisees for their obsession with outward appearances and their inward desolation. Every time I feel like being shocked, I read Matthew 23, which is called ‘The Seven Woes’ where Jesus goes nuts and rips into the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites, sons of hell (v. 15), blind fools (v. 16), snakes and vipers (v. 33), and exclaims ‘how will you escape being condemned to hell?’ (v. 33).

Of this ‘mark’, the phylactery, Jesus says in 23:5: ‘Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long…’. The tirade ends with a brutal declaration that is fulfilled 40 years later. He says in verse 35:

“…upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.”

‘This generation’ certainly did not escape the judgment Jesus foretold. Strange how Jesus puts the blood of every righteous person who was ever killed on Israel and its leaders. Then again, who was responsible for plotting and scheming the death of Christ? Who hunted down all the very first Christians? Did not Paul, the Christian-killer, call himself ‘chief of sinners’?

(It’s hard to write about this without sounding racist, but I’m really not. I’m the last person to be racist. I think Jesus is fairly clear about who/what the ‘antichrist’ is, or at least where it is rooted.)

Questions, then, are begged of modern times, where we have seen the nation of Israel reborn out of nowhere in one day (May 14, 1948), and the nation reformed. Is there any coincidence in the 6-pointed star (inverted triangles) on the nation’s flag being a blatantly pagan symbol? We even have a modern-day clan of Pharisees - the New Sanhedrin - plotting to install pharisaical rule in the land, appointing kings in the bloodline of David, training up a priesthood of Levites, drawing up plans for a third Temple (where sacrifices will commence), and even trying to bring back the lost species of the red heifer through genetic manipulation (also see the Temple Institute).

It is a widely-held belief that a Temple will be completely functional at the return of Christ. Ever wonder where all the rage is coming from in Heaven? Ever wonder what all the revenge is for? We get all this ‘wrath of God’ stuff, but He’s not going to be mad just because we’re sinners – we already know what His response to our sin is. He’s angry because He paid the way for us, and His sacrifice is being ignored, hidden, and disbelieved.

Many end-times preachers use Matthew 24:32 as a proof that we are living as the curtains are closing. It reads: ‘Now learn this lesson from the fig tree (Israel): as soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.’ They say this refers to the rebirth of the nation of Israel, the blossoming and filling in of the nation, which leads to the return of Christ. After all, the nation must exist in order to have the last Temple rebuilt, which must exist for the ‘abomination that causes desolation’ to occur. This reference, however, brings a different perspective to the ‘fig tree’ that Christ mentions. While it ushers in the return of Christ, it may be in a more negative way than positive. We’re all lovey dovey with Israel as a Church, but really, we could be assisting the rise of the antichrist system we’ve all been trained to fear and… maybe even come under its reign when we don’t recognize what’s going on.

It’s bad that we have fairy tale ideas – they could lead us to our own end!