Light Over the Antichrist (Part II)

Light Over the Antichrist (Part II)

The Ideals of the Old Nature

People seek righteousness, truth, and love, but on the basis of their old, self-righteous and selfish nature, whereas the righteousness and love that a true follower of Christ partakes of comes as a gift—a result of the destruction of his old nature. People seek these exalted virtues on the foundation of their old nature, but since they can never be the true virtues of Christ in that way, they turn out to be false.

The human mind determines man’s way, and just as the path of the righteous man becomes his reward, so the way of the unjust will be his downfall.

Man’s nature does not change with the passing of time, but his ideals take on different forms than before. Whereas the former ideals were what we would now call “coarse,” they are in the process of becoming “beautiful,” adorning themselves with the name of “love” and “righteousness.” In these last days these ideals of an exalted human life and human fellowship will constitute a powerful source for unity and mergers on a human level; but the source of it all is the devil. People will take their sin and their lusts with them in their exalted ideals, and clothed with these ideals, sin will no longer be sin and lawlessness, but only pleasure.

Let us take a look at man’s peace movements based on man’s old nature. Why peace? So people can gather treasures and riches in this world and enjoy life undisturbed. The more one possesses of this world’s riches, the more opportunity one has to enjoy life in all its degeneracy, and the more one can cloak sin in what appears beautiful to man. To this end people want to have peace. They would rather sin than suffer.

It is significant what Daniel says about the last days. “But the ungodly shall continue to be ungodly; and none of the ungodly shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Dan. 12:10. Why does the ungodly person not understand his ungodliness in the last days? In former days a man knew whether he acted in an ungodly manner or not, but now ungodly acts are clothed in modern ways of thinking, and what was previously regarded as ungodliness and sin has now become modern ideals that are being realized in daily life. See also Revelation 22:11. Thus the ungodly person can act in an ungodly manner and not understand it. This is the apostasy, a falling away from being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit.

Satan is willing to let people exercise mercy and love as long as they are not convicted of sin and the sacrifice for sin. The times ahead will be times of tolerance and humanism where all these ideals will be realized. As a leading Socialist said, “What people called sin before is no longer sin; and our time will have come once the atoning sacrifice is taken away.” Once people elevate themselves to a new, modern, and idealistic philosophy while living according to their own desires and in sin, a philosophy which does not acknowledge sin as sin, they will have found (as someone said) a new morality, which is to them a higher morality than the one with which Christ came. This is the liberty of our times. In this manner one does away with sin and the sacrifice for sin. One abolishes laws against sin; this is where we meet the mystery of lawlessness. In this context, what is greater freedom than lawlessness?

The Present Time

Just as light over “coarseness” will cause an increase in the demand for what mankind thinks is noble, so will light over the present war’s insane murders advance the desire of the nations for peace. This is the area in which people’s thoughts flow together into one ideal. Powerful unions, both national and international, will coalesce on this one focal point. This is the one point on which Socialists and peace movements, even religious denominations, are agreed.

After this war, which is hardly a war between peoples but rather a war between states, the rate of acceptance of these ideals will increase tremendously, and their demands will gain strength because of their many supporters. Even now, while the war is raging, these ideals are so strong that the warring powers plead their desire for peace as well as their mercy and goodness toward their enemies—the wounded as well as the prisoners.

Mighty forces have been set in motion to elevate mankind to a higher sphere, but without Christ. Civilization and culture have captivated mankind.

It is strange to see how people in these days—consciously as well as unconsciously—are looking for forces that can lead them to the goal of their ideas. If you speak with them about these things and ask them how this can be accomplished, you will see that most of them are looking for an individual, and they will say, “We need a man, a man with a forceful personality who can take the reins of leadership into his hands.” Who is this person they are waiting for if it is not the Antichrist? This is the man the world is now waiting for and for whom it is maturing. Just as prior to Christ’s coming into the world people were eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah, so there will be an eager expectation of the Antichrist before his coming. People are not waiting for Christ. He came as a Savior who wanted to make His abode in the inner man and transform them according to His nature. However, just as the sin that people commit is outside the body, so they are waiting for a person—someone who does not interfere with their old nature—who can be a force outside themselves to realize their ideas.

The fact that these things can transpire quickly is evidenced by the present time. Satan is a master at indexing people so that they will act in obedience to his thoughts. For example, he manages to get the whole world to run after a fashionable hat within a month. In the midst of crying out for freedom, people have become obedient slaves who gladly follow their master’s beck and call. What will Satan not be able to do with these obedient people? He divides them into organizations where the opinion of the individual vanishes in the thinking of the organization as a whole. They all have the same opinion, and they all think alike. Take socialism, for example. Now we understand how Satan can act through people in an unbelievably short period of time.

We can see that he first molds their minds according to the ideals which he sets up. After that, once their inner man has been molded, he executes the external events—because all the external events are a consequence of people’s nature. An example of this is socialism. They worship an image. In Revelation we read about the image of the beast which men worshiped. Speak with a Socialist, and you will find that he worships an image, because he will always have this image before his inner eye—an image of future conditions, an image of a future state where everything is shared equally, where there is peace and tranquility. He is apprehended of this image; He admires it so much that his whole desire is to persuade others to worship and admire it as well.

The Future

James writes, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” Jas. 5:7. He says this right after he speaks about the condition of this world in the last days. As followers of Christ, we do not follow any of the world’s many inventions because we live in the hope of Christ coming down from heaven, together with His saints. Then He will establish a kingdom of peace on this earth that will last a thousand years. Supporting the world’s deliberations and ideas about peace is synonymous with supporting the spirit of Antichrist. The word that is addressed to us is: Be patient, and wait on the Lord.

When the Antichrist comes, he will be like a culmination—a revelation—of people’s thoughts. This is the person the world is waiting for. He will not be a coarse person; on the contrary, he will be someone who is talented and ambitious, but a person who does not appear to be ambitious because he both advances, and is the epitome of what has already become a reality.

Read Revelation 13, which describes the rise of these things. In Revelation 14:9 we read God’s warning against following the beast and worshiping his image; and in Chapter 16 we see the plagues coming over everything that man has built up.

When (in Revelation 13:3) we read that the whole world marveled and followed the beast, we know right away that there is something that is popular. And they will say, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” There they found all their exalted thoughts realized, and they marveled at his power and asked, “Who could fight against the beast?” In their own greatness they opened their mouth and blasphemed, and then they began to make war against the saints, because the saints did not go along with their ideas and would not recognize what they had accomplished. It was only reasonable to expect that they would wage war against the saints. Had they not established their idealistic ideas? When peace, mercy, and love ruled, should the believers not be the first ones to acknowledge that? However, because it was all accomplished outside of Christ, the saints will not go along with it. They are therefore considered to be rebels who oppose them.

The kingdom of peace which mankind will establish will be ruled well, because the one who disturbs the peace and kills someone with the sword will be killed with the sword; and if he leads anyone into captivity, he will be led into captivity. Rev. 13:10. It will be an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Everyone has to bow to the established authority. In the midst of peace there will therefore be a time of tremendous tribulation for all those who will not submit. See verses 15-17. A reign of terror in the midst of peace!

Just as man built the tower of Babel that was to reach to heaven, so he is building his kingdom now. Its ruler, Antichrist, opposes and exalts himself over everything that is called God, or is worshiped, so that he presents himself as God. Then, however, his time will soon be over, because just as God intervened when man built the tower of Babel, so He will now intervene in this work of man. He will show them that there is no peace for the ungodly. Therefore God will send out seven angels with the seven bowls of His wrath, to pour them out over the earth.

It will be hard for people to see their accomplishments ruined. They will even bite their tongues in pain, but the altar will call out: “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.” Ch. 16:7.

The true and righteous judgments will have the final word. Blessed is the one who even now lets God’s judgments proceed from the house of God.

People will not succeed in having their dreams realized. Plagues and wars and all sorts of horrible things will overtake them. The regime of Antichrist will not last long. Christ will come with His saints; He will conquer the beast and the false prophet who had shouted, “Peace, Peace,” when there was no peace, and they will be cast into the lake of fire. Why is Antichrist called the son of perdition? It is because he exalted himself the most. The one who exalts himself the most and is the haughtiest is the one who represents the epitome of everything that is called perdition, because he is the one who will be cast into the deepest depths.

I have written this so that we may learn to discern the spirits in these new times that loom ahead when God’s plans with mankind will be revealed by the events that will unfold.