This tape contains the fifth of six teachings in the series entitled The Counterfeit Kingdom, presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this teaching is The Antichrist. We've come tonight to the subject of the Antichrist, And I feel it's important to include a lecture on this subject because in our generation, this is a matter of endless speculation. And it seems to me that much of it is quite irresponsible. It seems that everything we've been talking about ends here.

It's as if all the activity of Satan and all the allure of the occult and all of the forbidden territory and all the seduction of demons seems to be pointing to the Antichrist. And I'll come back to that in a few minutes. I personally believe that most of what is being said these days is very irresponsible.

And I'll take just as one example the book called The Late Great Planet Earth, which in many ways is very helpful, has many very helpful things to say, and yet it goes into some of the most fanciful identifications, some of the most arbitrary identifications of this and that with biblical imagery and weaving together a set of conclusions that I can't say is not true, but just is arbitrary. there's nothing open and shut about it. And it seems to me that that is typical rather than the exception to the rule, that most of the books, and there is a plethora of books on the Antichrist, on end times, on 666, on whatever it might be, do exactly that.

They'll take contemporary events in an extremely arbitrary way, identify them with biblical imagery, and end up weaving a tapestry that just can't be trusted. As David Wilkerson pointed out in 75, and I quoted this a couple of weeks ago, in some quarters it would seem as if we're far more interested in the Antichrist than we are in the Christ. And that leads me to the conviction that there are at least two reasons why we need to be very cautious rather than very dogmatic on this particular subject.

The first is that our foolishness discredits the gospel. Our foolishness discredits the gospel. It's like those Christians, group after group after group, who have announced that the end of the world will come on June 17th at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

You know, and they sell all their belongings, and they give everything away to the poor, and they go up to the top of a mountain to wait for Jesus' return. And on the morning of June 18th, when they come back down again, the world laughs to scorn. It discredits the gospel.

Now, the end of the world is coming. and Jesus is coming back but he himself said nobody could pinpoint the hour and when we get overly specific albeit God may be giving us insight into some of these things but when we try to pin it down to a specific moment when he himself said you couldn't do that and then that moment turns out not to be the moment we end up discrediting the gospel. I feel exactly the same thing has happened over and over and over and over again when you come to the subject of the Antichrist.

We've had all sorts of arguments made proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Antichrist was so-and-so, and then it turned out not to be that way, and we discredit the gospel. That's the first reason for being cautious. He's been undeniably identified as Hitler.

Stalin Khrushchev Brezhnev Pope John XXIII Kennedy both Kennedys all three Kennedys Khomeini Kissinger just within our lifetimes most of us there was a very famous theologian named Dr. Price who wrote book after book after book proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Antichrist was Benito Mussolini and on the night that Mussolini died Dr. Price issued a statement and he said I'm very grateful that Mussolini waited to die until after I'd sold all my books and he renounced everything that he'd ever written. I have a friend back in Pittsburgh and many of you would know his name, some of you wouldn't, but many of you would because he's one of America's greatest theologians and ten years ago, he was convinced, believe it or not, he was convinced that the Antichrist was Hitler and Hitler was still alive hiding out in Argentina and about to make a comeback. I don't think he still believes that ten years later.

It becomes less and less possible, but he firmly believed that ten years ago. When we say that sort of thing and then turn out to be wrong, we discredit the gospel. That's the first reason.

The second reason is that a healthy interest in this subject can become a morbid fascination and eventually end up in a demonic paralysis of fear. A lot of people start out with just, you know, what is the Antichrist? I'm interested in that.

And then they begin to focus in on that and focus in on that, and it becomes an excessive kind of a preoccupation, it can become an absolutely demonic paralysis of fear. I said some weeks ago that an excessive preoccupation with the occult is itself occult. And I'd add to that that an excessive preoccupation with the Antichrist may be the work of the Antichrist.

I get very nervous when we try to scare people into faith and a lot of the books on the contemporary scene are promoting the doctrine of the Antichrist to scare people to Jesus I think that misses the point of the gospel even more so when our lives as Christians become dominated with a fear of the enemy we've really missed the point And Luther said it just right when he said, The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure. Lo, his doom is sure.

One little word will fell him. This is a biblical subject. This is a biblical doctrine.

And we need to take it into account. There is a doctrine of the Antichrist, but it is not the center of attention. Jesus Christ is the center of our attention.

Now, if you read most of the popular, and I would say sensational, books on the subject, you get a picture that is something like this. You test me and see if this is about right. That as things move toward greater and greater political and military chaos, maybe even to thermonuclear war, somewhere a man of peace emerges, a teacher of incredible wisdom, and the nations begin to acknowledge him as one who can bring order, stability, calm out of upheaval.

Quickly he begins to fashion a government. Some see it emerging out of the communist bloc, and others see it as some kind of a revival or reconstitution of the Roman Empire. It's based in the United States of Europe, and there's endless fascination with the fact that right now there are ten nations in the common market.

The ten toes come together. Clearly the goal is to bring dominion to the whole world, bring the whole world under his power. And as he gains more and more power, he begins to control business and industry and commerce, even to the point that he begins to limit the possibility of people functioning in the area of economic interchange without his approval.

Again, there's great speculation and fascination about the possibility of eliminating all money. You know, who needs money? We've got credit cards now, but even better than that would be some kind of a massive computer bank where you just have credits and debits.

And instead of a little plastic card which could be lost or stolen, everybody will have a tattoo on the back of his hand or on his forehead. And maybe that won't be visible. It'll only be visible by infrared or by ultraviolet or something like that.

Obviously, if we come to that point, a world dictator could in a second eliminate your ability to buy and sell. He could freeze your account. Right?

And so this person who starts out as a man of peace becomes more and more and more totally influential. And slowly it becomes apparent that he's more than a man. he's more than a man he has supernatural power he can work miracles and others in particular one other like unto a kind of an anti-John the Baptist begin proclaiming him God and demanding that we worship him he's hailed by the World Council of Churches as being the true Christ.

He usurps the papacy. He takes his seat in the Holy of Holies, which some would say is the mosque of the Dome of the Rock, and others would say, no, that will be destroyed and Solomon's temple will be reconstructed there. He unifies the world's religions, claiming to fulfill all of them, not just Christianity, not just Judaism, but Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism.

He unifies them in himself, and then he begins a program of ever-increasing persecution of those who will not acknowledge him. Some believe that before that gets very far along, the Church is going to be raptured out of the world, And then the persecution will fall primarily on the Jews. And that persecution will convert them so that they'll become the evangelists of the last day.

Others say that the church must go through this time of great tribulation so that we end up being persecuted for Christ in the name of Christ. Although it's actually the Antichrist who's doing it. And then finally, when it looks like he's achieved just about total victory.

Jesus himself returns, steps onto the stage of human history, bringing the armies of heaven with him, and absolutely annihilates the Antichrist and sets up his own kingdom. Is that roughly what you've heard? There are variations on the theme.

There are endless variations on the theme, but that pretty much is the general picture. now I'm not about to tell you that some such scenario could not happen how would I know that I'm not about to say that it could not happen what I am going to say is that the hard biblical data that would support such a detailed forecast is very flimsy indeed flimsy indeed. It might be so, but you can't prove it by the Bible, in my opinion.

There are two principal passages in the New Testament that are consistently cited as the basis for this kind of a worldview. And then various bits and pieces from Daniel and Ezekiel and various other Old Testament prophets are thrown in. But the problem, in my opinion, is that those two New Testament passages don't come anywhere near supporting the outline that I've just given you.

The first is Revelation 13. I'd like you to look at it with me. I'm not going to read it, but you just kind of follow along as I summarize it.

Revelation 13. it begins by saying that a beast rises out of the sea and the sea for the Jews was always a symbol of world governments that are antagonistic to God's people a beast rises out of antagonistic world governments in appearance he looks very much like the dragon himself that we met in the preceding chapter If you went back into chapter 12, you'll see that the dragon is identified very clearly as Satan. He looks like Satan himself.

He resembles Satan. It says he's been given the dragon's own authority, and he makes war on the saints, verse 7. That is, in fact, on all who will not worship him.

He has authority over all the nations. And he seeks to usurp the place of the true God. And then a second beast, verse 11, who works supernatural signs and wonders, demands that people worship the first beast.

And this second one has the power to prevent their buying and selling if they will not do so. And it goes down to verse 16. It says, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast, or the number of its name, this calls for wisdom.

Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, and its number is 666. That's all very tantalizing. But the problem is that if you go on all the way to chapter 17, the whole thing is explained.

And it becomes very apparent that the first beast is the political dynasty of the Caesars of ancient Rome. And the second beast is the quasi-mystical cult that has surrounded them demanding their worship. I don't have the time to go into all of that, but that is abundantly clear in chapter 17.

If you want to get into it, I have a series of tapes on Revelation. There's a problem of interpretation here because it could be that what happened in the first century of the Christian era in ancient Rome prefigures or foreshadows or anticipates what will come again as a final manifestation of the same thing in the last days. In other words, the Roman Caesar might be a prefigure of a final world dictator.

The Caesar cult that surrounds him might be a type of a final world religion. It might be, but it doesn't say so. The two beasts that we meet here, and with them a scarlet woman who symbolizes self-indulgence, the indulgence of the flesh, are present right up to the very end of human history, according to the book of Revelation.

But whether that means that they're finally incarnated in a single Antichrist and his allies, or whether that means that they are manifested in a whole panoply of Antichristian movements and forces and realities, is a moot point as far as I'm concerned. What is clear is that the book of Revelation was written first and foremost to the people in the first century. It was dealing with realities that were present to them.

Now whether those have corresponding realities in the last days, I don't know. Do you? Do you know for sure?

Maybe it will work out that way. Maybe it won't. I don't agree with John Stott in everything that he says, but I'm convinced that he's absolutely right on in this comment. He said, The dragon's allies have reappeared throughout the history of the world.

The beast emerges from the sea whenever anti-Christian authority persecutes the church. The beast from the earth is reincarnate in every anti-Christian philosophy that deceives the church, and the scarlet woman flaunts her vile charms whenever anti-Christian morality contaminates the church. Through restrictive legislation, heresy, and worldliness, the devil still pursues and seeks to destroy the church of Jesus Christ.

So, in other words, there are realities present in the first century that will continue with us to the very end of history as we know it, but how they end up being manifested, as far as I'm concerned, is a question we ought not to be overly dogmatic about. The other passage is at least as problematic, and that's in 2 Thessalonians 2. That's to the left.

that's the only way you can go 2 Thessalonians 2 the guts of it begins with verse 3 but let's just read the whole thing here because you need to see what question he's answering now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him we beg you brethren not to be excited quickly shaken in mind or excited either by spirit or by word or by letter purporting to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. There were people who were saying the day of the Lord has already come. And he says now that hasn't happened.

Don't get all excited about that. Verse 3 Let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed. the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his coming and by his appearing. The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion to make them believe what is false, so that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. He says there's a mystery of lawlessness already at work. It will culminate in a man of lawlessness who will be revealed to us.

In other words, there's a movement or a force or a general spirit of rebellion which is finally personified in an individual, a man of lawlessness or the man of sin or the lawless one. And he comes in the power of Satan with pretended miracles and the express purpose of deceiving. Back in verse 3, he's called the son of perdition.

It's an interesting phrase that occurs only one other place in the Bible. Do you know where it is? In relationship to Judas, that's right.

Jesus says he is the son of perdition. And that means literally a person who is destined for complete and irreparable loss. There's no possibility of redemption for him.

But on the other hand, says Paul, there's something restraining this lawless one. And once again, the something in verse 6 becomes someone in verse 7. It's personified.

In other words, the force of restraint becomes he who is finally taken out of the way. And Paul says, you know what that is because I told you about it when I was with you. Verse 5.

So by this point we have at least two questions, right? Who is the man of lawlessness and what is restraining him? And again, you read the popular books and you get a very common answer.

The man of lawlessness is a political figure emerging out of an anti-Christian system of government seeking to impose global despotism on all mankind. His most hated enemy is the Christian church and that church indwelt by the Holy Spirit is itself the agent of restraint. And when the church is raptured, the restraint is off.

The Holy Spirit is effectively taken out of the world. The restraint is off. And it will appear that the Antichrist has triumphed until Jesus himself steps in and slays him.

There are at least three problems with that view. Again, it may be so, but there are at least three problems with it. Number one, if the church is the agent of restraint, why didn't Paul say so?

Why didn't he say so? Why didn't he say, now look, you silly Thessalonians, you know that the man of lawlessness can't be revealed until the church has been taken out of the world, because I told you that last time I was with you. You know that.

And since you haven't been taken out of the world, then he can't be revealed and the day of the Lord can't come. that's not what he says he alludes in this veiled way obliquely to something that for some reason he doesn't want to put into print you know what it is that is restraining him secondly there's a lot of evidence in my opinion against the church being raptured prior to the final tribulation. Now that's a huge subject in itself.

A huge subject in itself. But I'll cite to you just the words of Jesus himself in Luke chapter 21. He warns us not to get weighed down with drunkenness and with dissipation and with distress at what is coming upon the world.

Because he says it must come upon all who dwell on the face of the earth. And he said your task is to pray that you'll have the strength to endure it. He doesn't say you're going to be snatched out before it happens.

He says pray that you'll have the strength to go through it. And thirdly, what I find absolutely fascinating is that this popular contemporary view that the church is somehow restraining the man of lawlessness who is a political despot That view is precisely the opposite of the majority opinion of scholars and theologians down through the centuries, especially since the Reformation. Luther's view was that the man of lawlessness wasn't going to come out of secular government, but out of an apostate church.

And for all its shortcoming and corruption, it was the government that was restraining the papacy rather than the other way around. The government is the force of restraint and the man of lawlessness is the leader of an apostate church. That was Luther's view.

That was generally the view of the Reformation. Exactly the opposite. Did you know that in the Middle Ages, one of the titles given to the Pope was Our Lord God the Pope?

Did you know that when he was instituted, the Pope took his seat above the high altar, which was considered his footstool? And so it could be that when the wolf comes, he comes in sheep's clothing. All I'm saying, all I'm saying is that a casual reading of this passage today might suggest that the interpretation is obvious, but you scratch a little bit at it.

And you'll see there are some remarkable problems and some absolutely fascinating alternative possibilities. All I'm saying is, be cautious in getting overly specific and overly dogmatic. Because we've been foolish for centuries.

We've been foolish in identifying who the Antichrist is and then turning out to be wrong. And we've led Christian people, let alone non-Christians, into a paralysis of fear when we've been wrong. All I'm saying is be cautious.

Is the man of lawlessness the Antichrist? Or is he an anti-Christian figure? Or is he the personification of a system of government?

Or does he personify an apostate church? I don't know. And I don't think any of you know.

And I don't think anybody knows until he's revealed. However, having said all of that, you're going to get your money's worth since you paid nothing. I'm going to tell you exactly who the Antichrist is.

Because the word Antichrist appears only five times in the whole Bible, and all you need to do is read all five instances. Four times in the first letter of John and once in the second. All you've got to do is read it, friends.

1 John 2, 18. Twice in the same sentence. Children, children, it is the last hour.

He wrote that, what, 90 A.D.? and he said it's the last hour. Are we in the last days?

What do you think? Yeah, at least since the first century. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.

Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2 verse 22 This is the Antichrist he who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 4 verse 13 sorry verse 3 middle of the verse this is the spirit of antichrist of which you heard that it was coming and now it is in the world already and 2nd John verse 7 many deceivers have gone out into the world who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist.

That's all the New Testament has to say on the subject. That's all the whole Bible has to say on the subject. Who is the Antichrist?

Anybody who denies Christ. When is he coming? he's been here from day one friends where is he?

all around us and what are we going to do about him? well we're going to make a choice because the whole point the whole point is that finally there's no middle ground. Finally, there's no middle ground.

It's either Christ or Antichrist. Finally, there is no middle ground. And I said at the very outset that everything points to the Antichrist and that is absolutely true.

It's just not in the way that people think it's true. everything points to the antichrist and everything points to the christ and you've got to choose I'll put it to you this way all the activity of satan all of the allure of the occult all of the seduction of the demonic all of the onslaught of spiritual warfare all of it everything we've studied is designed to do one thing and that's to cause you and me to make a final, irrevocable, irretrievable choice against Jesus. And he himself put it both positively and negatively.

He said, He that is not with me is against me. Luke 11, 23. He that is not against us is for us.

Luke 9, 38. There's no middle ground. You're either for him or you're against him.

Who is the Antichrist? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.

You can't have it both ways. And we beat all of the forces of darkness and all of the power of Satan and all of the authority of Antichrist when we choose Jesus. Let's stand and pray together.

Father, we don't know what the future holds. we know that you hold the future. We know there are forces of darkness at work and how they're going to end up manifesting themselves in the very last days is not entirely clear to us.

All we know is that you're victorious. we would choose you this night. And Lord, I pray that if there be anybody present among us or anybody who ever hears this tape hereafter, who hasn't yet, who has never previously made that basic, fundamental, life-changing decision, that You'd give Your grace to cause that person, that man, that woman, that youngster, to put their trust in You.

because that's what it comes down to. Christ or Antichrist. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.

Thank you for coming into this world to live and die and rise again for me. and this night I choose you. I put my trust in you.

I put my hope in you. I put my life in your hands and I ask you to be my Lord. I ask you to fill me with your Spirit.

God, cause me to know you and to walk with you for your own namesake. Amen. Amen.