… It is said that Paul-Henri Spaak, who was Prime Minister in Belgium in the 1930s and 1940s, delivered the following speech:

“The truth is that the method of international committees has failed. What we need is a person, a man of first-rate standing and great experience, with considerable authority, wide influence, and powerful energy. Let that man come, and let him come quickly! It doesn’t matter whether he is a civilian or a military man, it doesn’t matter what his nationality is, but let him be someone who rids us of all administrative hassles, who shakes up… all the committees, who wakes people up and pushes governments to action.“

When the Antichrist appears on the world stage, the world will indeed be waiting for such a man. But who exactly is the Antichrist? While over a hundred scripture passages describe him, the title Antichrist is mentioned in only five verses of the New Testament—and always by John. Four of these occurrences refer to contemporaries of John who were enemies of Christ and His work. The term thus only refers once to the individual this chapter concerns, in the following verse:

“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).

Here, John distinguishes between the numerous “antichrists” (with a lowercase “a”) and “the Antichrist” (which we will write with a capital “A”). The spirit of the antichrist, already at work in our world today, will one day incarnate in a single, specific individual, the Antichrist. The prefix anti can mean both “against” and “in place of.” In both cases, it applies to this future world leader. This being will openly oppose Christ and, at the same time, attempt to usurp Christ’s place personally.

The Bible gives more than twenty-five different titles to the Antichrist, which help us to draw a portrait of the most despicable man the earth will have known. In the book of Revelation, he is referred to as a man on a white horse (6:2), but he is also the beast (11:7), and the beast rising from the sea (13:1). Some people think he is the incarnation of Satan. We know in any case that it is Satan who gives him his power, his throne, and his authority.

Here are some other titles the Bible gives to the Antichrist:

• The little horn (Daniel 7:8)

• The insolent king (Daniel 8:23, Good News Translation)

• The master of intrigue (Daniel 8:23, GNT)

• The prince who is to come (Daniel 9:26)

• The destroyer (Daniel 9:27)

• The king who does as he wills (Daniel 11:36)

• The man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

• The lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

• The son of perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

• Christ

Son of God (John 1:34)

Holy One of God (Mark 1:24)

He who came down from heaven (John 3:13)

Works with the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14)

Fulfills the Father’s will (John 6:38)

Cleansed the temple (John 2:14-16)

Man of sorrows (Isaiah 53:3)

Humbled Himself (Philippians 2:8)

Called “the Lamb” (John 1:36)

Taken up into heaven (Luke 24:51)

• The False Christ

Antichrist The son of perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

The lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

The beast rising from the abyss (Revelation 11:7)

Received his power from Satan (Revelation 13:4)

Does his own will (Daniel 11:36)

Will desecrate the temple (Matthew 24)

Lawless man (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Exalts himself above all (Daniel 11:37)

Called “the beast” (Revelation 11:7)

Thrown alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20)

It is impossible to know the precise identity of this future world ruler. In our scenario, we have given him a name and a country of origin, but these details are fictitious. However, he will have a name, and he will probably come from one or another European nation (Daniel 2, 7). And we know what kind of man he will be, for the Bible is rich in information about him. Let us now explore the facts we are certain of.

His Preparation

“At the end of their rule, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; he shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive; he shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people” DANIEL 8:23-24

This passage of Scripture explains that this world leader will rise to power during the last days of the earth. Whenever in Scripture we find the expression “at the end of time” or “in the last days,” it almost always refers to the period of the Tribulation. At the beginning of this period, the world will see a threatening personality rise from among the crowd—who will go unnoticed at first. John warns us:

“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name” (Revelation 13:1).

The word “sea,” symbolically used in the book of Revelation, does not refer to a large body of water but to the tumultuous nations of the earth—and more specifically to the non-Jewish nations. This interpretation is confirmed by Revelation 17, when John reports the words Jesus said to him:

“He said to me, ‘The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues'” (verse 15).

Since the Antichrist will make an alliance with the Jewish nation, a number of people presume that he himself will likely be a Jew. But there are several reasons why this assumption seems improbable to me:

1. Daniel prophesied that this prince, or the Antichrist, would come from the people who would destroy the city of Jerusalem and its sanctuary (Daniel 9:26). It was the Romans who, under Titus’s reign, destroyed Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple in 70 AD. Thus, the prince who is to come must be a Roman prince. In other words, he is a non-Jewish European.
2. Daniel also saw the Antichrist as a little horn rising from among the ten other horns that the fourth beast had on its head (Daniel 7:7-8; 19-26). This fourth beast represents the Roman Empire, which followed the Greek Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Babylonian Empire in their conquest of the Jewish people.
3. The Antichrist is described as the most vicious and wicked of all the persecutors of Jews in history. Generally, it is non-Jews who persecute Jews, while Jews do not persecute one another.

His Presentation

“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, 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… 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. And then the lawless one will be revealed…” 2 THESSALONIANS 2:3-4, 7-8 (New King James Version)

According to Paul, this day—a term that refers to the seven-year Tribulation period during which the Antichrist will be revealed—will not happen until the final rebellion takes place. The Greek word translated here as “final rebellion” is apostasia, a term that appears only once more in the New Testament, where it is translated as “turning away” or “departure” (Acts 21:21). Paul is explaining that before the Antichrist is revealed, there will be a collapse, a falling away from faith by people who claim to be believers. During this period, it won’t just be a few individuals abandoning their doctrinal beliefs; this period will mark a massive and widespread departure from the faith.

In his discourse on the end times, Jesus predicted this time: “Then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:10-12). The apostle Paul describes this period in more detail: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith…” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

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This text is an excerpt from the book “Agents of the Apocalypse” written by David JEREMIAH.

We invite you to read the following article “THE DRAGON.”