Some might consider the above hardly a suitable subject for an article intended for young Christians, but Scripture, which is much wiser than we are, speaks of it to the “little children”; or, as the word really signifies, “babes” in Christ. These are the very ones whom the apostle John warns against the “many antichrists,” which even then were in the world. It is, he says, the “last hour”; and this “hour,” or period of time, has already lasted more than nineteen hundred years, but everything goes to show that it is soon drawing to a close.
Let us briefly consider some of the leading features of the antichrist as we find them delineated for us in Scripture, and then consider how far these principles are to be found in our own times.
(1) He denies that Jesus is the Christ, and he denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2). It has been truly remarked that the first of these is Jewish unbelief; for an unbelieving Jew would naturally deny that Jesus was the true Messiah. The second is the unbelief of one who opposed Christianity, for these titles, the Father and the Son, are those under which the divine persons are revealed to us Christians. Antichrist combines both these forms of infidelity.
(2) He practices deceit and falsehood. In Revelation 13:11-18, the antichrist is presented under the figure of a “beast.” It has two horns “like a lamb,” for he is the travesty or false imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But to the spiritual mind he “spake as a dragon,” being energized and inspired by Satan. The Lord Jesus was born “King of the Jews,” and He was the “Prophet” of whom Moses wrote; and so likewise the antichrist will assume to be both a king and a prophet, doing great wonders and performing miracles. Of our Lord Jesus we read in Acts 2 that He was a man approved of God by “miracles, and wonders, and signs,” which God did by Him; and of antichrist, we are told, that his coming is after the working of Satan, “with all power and signs and lying wonders.” Thus Satan’s representative man will be in a false way just what marked the mission of the Lord in His testimony for God and His truth in the world. The seat of his power will be at Jerusalem; where he will act in league with the “beast” mentioned in the first ten verses of Revelation 13, that is, the head of the revived Roman empire. He will deceive the dwellers on the earth by his miracles, making an image of the “beast,” to which he will give breath (not “life”) – God only can do that (see Revised Version) – and will cause fire to come down from heaven as Elijah did. From 2 Thessalonians 2 we learn that he will be marked by “all deceivableness of unrighteousness.”
(3) He will take the place of God, and will sit down in the temple of God – the restored temple at Jerusalem – showing himself that he is God. It is the principle of self-will and lawlessness carried to its highest pitch in opposition to the true God.
But it is important that we should clearly understand that the true Church of God – all believers in Christ – will be “caught up to meet the Lord in the air,” before antichrist appears. At the present time there is that which hinders his revelation, as the apostle says in 2 Thessalonians 2, “Ye know what withholdeth,” and “he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” Doubtless it is in some measure “the powers that be” which are ordained of God to restrain the full development of lawlessness; but more particularly the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church here below. When the Church is gone, the Holy Spirit as dwelling in the Church will be gone too, and all hindrance to the manifestation of “the lawless one”‘ will be removed. Some have supposed that the Pope was antichrist; but this is a mistake, for however corrupt the Roman system may be, it is still professedly Christian, and Scripture is very plain that that day shall not come “except the falling away come first” (R. V.). It is really “the apostasy” or total abandonment of even the profession of Christianity.
These facts, which are written so plainly on the page of inspiration, have a voice for us all, even the youngest. God has revealed them beforehand so that we should be forewarned. Now let us endeavor to trace out how far these principles are to be found around us at the present day. We have already seen from the 1st Epistle of John that even then there were “many antichrists.” They had gone out from the Christian assembly – “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” We have no doubt at all that, in our own times, there are “many antichrists’ within the professing Christian Churches; and this is a very solemn thing to contemplate. Especially of more recent years the spirit of infidelity has been mixed up with nominal Christianity, and has shown itself in various forms, such as Higher Criticism, the New Theology (so-called), Christian Science, Millennial Dawnism, and many other similar systems. The leading teachers of all these forms of departure from the faith are certainly to be numbered among the “many antichrists.” The unsettling of the integrity and authority of Holy Scripture in people’s minds leaves the door open for all sorts of unbelief – may God preserve us from it!
It is true that there have been, from apostolic times downwards, many attacks upon the truth, and the Middle Ages were characterized by gross darkness. But within the last seventy years or so, God, in His great mercy, has recovered very much long lost light and truth through servants specially raised up for the work. How far has it been received, and is it being retained by those who did receive it?
These are questions we ought all to ponder over. It is because people receive not “the love of the truth” that God will send upon them a “strong delusion” – and what can be more solemn than to think that it is God who will send it! There can be no question in the mind of any one who weighs things calmly in the light of Scripture that the refusal of light and truth, and the general drift towards infidelity which is now taking place in these so-called Christian countries, will prepare the way for antichrist, and will all contribute to the general apostasy which will take place when he appears. Socialism, which is greatly on the increase, is man’s effort to set up an independent will and break away from the restraints which an ordered system of government imposes. Man wants to make a happy world in his own way without God: and socialism is, therefore, generally allied with infidelity: this accounts for much of the total indifference as to eternal things which we find with so many.
Young believers have to meet with these things in everyday life; it is well, therefore, that they should be warned to take a very decided stand in loyalty to Christ. There is no need to be discouraged; but we are never safe unless earnestly desiring to go on in communion with the Lord, learning from His word, in dependence on the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Everything which displaces Christ in the heart and sets up man – whether it be infidelity on the one hand or superstition on the other – will contribute to the apostasy and the deifying of man, which will be seen in its full-blown form in the antichrist. But it is after all only man, though urged on by Satan, and in impious opposition to God; and it will all meet its end when the. Lord comes in judgment. Then “the lawless one” will be consumed with the spirit of His mouth and brought to naught with the brightness of His coming.
We learn from Revelation 19 that when Christ descends from heaven in warrior judgment, both the “beasts” of Revelation 13, that is the head of the revived Roman empire and the False Prophet or antichrist, will be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone – this will be the end of all their boasted greatness. Meantime, the true safeguard for us is the Word of God; as says the inspired apostle, “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.” May we take heed to His word!