Another False Christ Contending for the Role of Final Antichrist

 Fascinating.  I knew that some believe the Antichrist is to come out of Islam,  I knew that Islam occupies the eastern half of the original Roman Empire and is thought to be represented by one of the two legs of the statue in Daniel 2, but what I didn't know is that there are some very specific reasons to identify the Antichrist as coming out of Islam, reasons that are found in their own writings.  John MacArthur lays out these sources in one of his teachings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMy_cRtSrcA

The first seven minutes give background on the Islamic understanding of Jesus Christ as a mere human prophet.  Starting at about 7 on the counter MacArthur describes the Twelfth Imam or the Imam Mahdi who is the great savior awaited by Muslims who is prophesied to establish the worldwide Caliphate by killing all those who reject Allah.  

The fascinating thing is that in their own writings they identify the Mahdi with the first horseman of the Apocalypse in the Bible's Revelation 6, the rider on the white horse who goes out to conquer, whom we understand to be the figure of the Antichirst.  Unlike this figure, however, who carries a bow but no arrows, he bears a sword.   The second horse, the red horse that signifies war, is also identified with him.  

So their savior is our Anitchrist.   But even more amazing, this Mahdi will make a covenant with Israel for seven years, just as we understand from the Book of Daniel the Antichrist will do.   Interesting that a peace deal considered to be historic was recently signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.  Not the Mahdi of course and there doesn't seem to be a time limit on it, but wouldn't this one have to be broken for the Mahdi to establish a seven-year agreement?  Not that there would be anything surprising about such an agreement being broken.

MacArthur continues with a description of the figure Islam regards as Jesus Christ, who is prophesied in their writings to return to earth in order to teach Christians how wrong we've all been about him.  He's considered to be a servant of the Mahdi, inferior of course, a mere man who will eventually marry and have children and then die.  He seems to fill the role we identify with the False Prophet of Revelation, the one who points to the Antichrist.  Then there is a third figure who is to come according to Islamic doctrine, their version of the Antichrist who is rather like the true Jesus Christ.  Imagine that.  

This scenario certainly hangs together rather well overall.  Islam occupies about 60% of what was the original Roman Empire, according to MacArthur, and their own writings describe very closely what we expect to come based on the Book of Revelation.

What happens then to my own favorite scenario that has the Pope in the role of the final Antichrist?  That too has some pretty solid support.   The Protestant Reformers identified the papacy as the Antichrist, and many down the centuries testified to that identification, a few of whom I list here:

https://watchpraystand.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-antichrist-of-tribulation-day-of.html

The papacy more or less ruled the "Holy Roman Empire" throughout the Middle Ages, and the Roman Church itself had taken on the trappings of the pagan religions of the Roman Empire.  Some have considered it in itself to be the continuation of the Roman Empire.  The Vatican is both the seat of the Roman Church and a sovereign state.  The Harlot Church of Revelation is clearly identified as sitting on seven hilils which can only describe Rome.  The 666 of Revelation only too nicely fits a Latin title of the Pope, but that title itself, Vicar of Christ, is practically a definition of Antichrist on its own anyway.    I'd say the papal credentials for final Antichrist are better than pretty good.  

Nevertheless the Mahdi has a credible claim.  So how is this to be resolved?  At the moment it's just a question.  I don't have an answer.

False Christs Abounding As We Approach the Last Days.

 Needing an antidote to so much immersion in worldly concerns, looking for inspiration to turn me back to God, I've found some, some good devotional poetry, some meditations on the life of Christ and that sort of thing.  But I've also seen how much there is out there that pretends to be about Christ but is designed to mislead a person into false religion.  Hinduism has always co-opted Christ and there is a lot of that out there, even claims that He *really* taught Kundalini.   There is also a Buddhist mindfulness meditation that presents itself as Christian.  

Another trend of this is the Mormon influence.  One would think that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir should be an innocent enough indulgence.  The music can be quite good.  Andrea Bocelli sang The Lord's Prayer with them and it was breathtakingly beautiful.  I was just looking up the hymn "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee With Sweetness Fills the Breast" and found them doing that too.  It's jarring to realize that their idea of Jesus is about as profane as it gets, even to his supposedly being the brother of Lucifer.  It is hard to imagine them even being able to sing such exalted lyrics in the context of their actual beliefs.  So although I was attracted to the music I think it best to ignore them. 

It figures of course that there would be a lot of false doctrine along these lines as we approach the Day of the LORD.   Anything to deflect people from the simple truth of salvation and mire them in demonic pseudospirituality.    It can be quite dazzling and seductive.  The demons are supernatural beings after all.

As usual I can only hope and pray that the Lord will save many out of these deceptions.  I still need to spend more time myself in biblical meditations so I don't want to go more deeply into these false teachings.  

Dark Horse Podcasts: Riots, Politics, Trump

 Still watching the Dark Horse podcasts by Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, which are usually good at keeping the insanity of the current rioting on the table.  A couple of liberals but they honestly report on what is really going on in their city of Portland Oregon.  While the mainstream media continue to claim it's "mostly peaceful" they say that it predictably becomes violent every single night after dark.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXtnCitgRFE

This 43rd podcast started out with the Trump administration Memorandum against the indoctrination sessions that promote racism:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/M-20-34.pdf   This is an inspiring statement against the promotion of racism and an affirmation of American values.

It has come to the President's attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date "training" government workers to believe divisive, antiAmerican propaganda. 

, The Dark Horse duo applaud this action by the Trump administration and attribute the indoctrination to Critical Race Theory.   Just for context, Critical Theory is a Marxist concoction, just one of the many Marxist tools for the destruction of civilization, so it's not surprising that there is a specialized version of it called Race Theory.

So they are good at discussing the causes and dangers in this current movement, even good at giving the Trump administration credit where credit is due and rejecting the leftist accusations of fascism and white supremacy and so on.  nevertheless they aren 't quite ready to give up their generally jaundiced view of the man as they continue to see his basic motivations as narcissism, self interest and cynicism.   So they actually think he is only promoting the causes he's known for because he's catering to the interests of a certain segment of the population.  So that if the leftist position was popular among them he'd be supporting that etc.

Trump's personality is certainly problmatic at times, but nevertheless I've always seen him as genuinely working for causes he himself values.  That is, he's a genuine American patriot whose decisions are all about promoting American intrests, building up America economically and culturally, protecting America from her enemies and so on.  He's not a cynic.  I don't know if "narcissist" applies in any sense or not but if it means blowing where the wind blows I don't see it.   Also, there were many who spoke at the Republican convention who described him as a very kind and thoughtful man who was always there when someone was suffering.  That's also not a narcissist.  

Also I've heard at least one person who claims to know him well, Sean Hannity, say how he's always had this same patriotic mentality, had thought of running for President at other times because of it.  You may not like his style, he may talk too much and exaggerate when he should be more cautious, but no, the man is not a cynic, he's genuine, and the people who claim to know him all say so.

One other thing Bret says from time to time continues to bother me, which is that there is good reason for the protests at bottom despite their degenerating into indefensible violence.  Since the protests are based on incidents that are wrongly identified as racist, I can't see any justification for them at all.  Many, including black thinkers, have shown that there is no racial bias in the methods used by the police, that one could object to the methods but not on racial grounds.  And there is no systemic racism in the police or the society at large.  So I don't know what Weinstein has in mind when he claims there is cause for frustration thta fuels the protests.  It would have to be despite all these facts which oppose the main excuse of racism.  I don't say there can't be any such justifiable cause, I just don't know what it might be, since the stated cause is unjustifiable.  That plus the fact that BLM and Antifa are Marxist organizations adds up to illegitimacy.

Bret thinks Trump is going to win big in the election.   I think he should but I'm not all that sure myself that he will, but because it's so clear the Democrats are setting up a vote harvesting fraud.

So supposedly we evolved this huge brain .... moved this post

 

Copied to Fantasy of Evolution blog   htt(ps://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6030885580613135432/7954870186277174692

(I don't know what Blogger/Google did to my blogs but they all used to have their own URLs and they no longer do.  Also when I copy something from one to another a strange URL shows up that I can't get rid of.)

The People's President

 That's what I got out of watching parts of the Republican convention on You Tube.  Ordinary Americans, not bureaucrats, not many politicians even, just a lot of ordinary Americans of all races telling their stories and speaking out for America and for Trump.  Very happy there were so many blacks in particular speaking for Trump, the charge of racism against him is so false.       

I did look at some of the Democratic convention and some of the media comments on the Republican convention and it made me feel sick.  Lies and hatred, lawlessness and destruction, Marxism and anti-Americanism.  I don't know if they can win but if they do it will be a disaster for everyone.  

All I can do is pray.  And speaking of that, I thinnk my favorite speaker of all those I've heard so far was Jack Brewer, who said he was a lifelong Democrat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MfIEEe2Nis

After doing a stellar job of defending the President and even the Republican party itself, he ended by quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14:  "If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land."

Amen.

End times ponderings

 "All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purposes."  Romans something :28, please forgive my memory problem (and my eyesight problem which overlooks too many typos and makes looking things up difficult.)   That scripture verse is very reassuring at times when I feel that nothing I do has any value, that all my writing here is a big waste of time.  Somehow it encourages me to keep doing it, maybe God has plans for it I don't know about.  My main daydream is that the Rapture will come soon and that many people I know will not be in it will nevertheless be able to use some of the information I've written here to become Christians during the ensuing time of Tribulation.   

I'm still persuaded of the eschatological scenario I've been sketching out here, 98% or so anyway.  If it's right I hope it will orient others to a useful idea of what to expect over the next seven years.   There are plenty of other sources that are more thorough that I also point to.   There are important points I haven't discussed, which I expected to get from John MacArthur's study of Revelation eventually , especially about the length of time that is clearly spelled out in the book of Daniel, but MacArhtur's study seems to have been taken down from Utube.  It's probably at his Grace to You website so if I can I'll listen and link.   

The daydream involves a few people who would probably eventually gravitate to my blogs, and if they turn out to be useful, drawing others to them as well.   The only reason they'd come here is that they know me though there are plenty of better sources of Christian truth.  I hope to point them to those, they aren't likely to go there first.  God could certainly lead them wherever He desires so I know my contribution isn't necessary, I just hope it's useful.   During the Tribulation who knows what internet sources of Christian teaching might remain, and for how long?  The Christians who maintain them will be gone after all, though I suppose there will be some who thought they were Christians and disovered they weren't who would repent and become keepers of such information.  And then there will also be the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who will reach out to everybody all over the world, if that interpretation of Revelation 7 is correct.  I pray for all of those I think of to be saved, and if there is any possible refuge for them during that time that God will provide it.  Above all they are going to need courage.

I wonder if anything of the political situation will continue into the Tribulation period.   Will America have become part of the global government, everybody under a Communist tyranny with the Antichrist presenting himself as the source of peace and safety?  At a price of course, such as taking the Mark of the Beast.  If the pandemic continues I hope and pray that HCQ will become available to any who get the virus.   But this of course assumes it's all coming very soon.  Yes I do believe that.  How soon?  A few years at most I'd suppose.   And of course I could be wrong.  

May add to this later.

Some of the Futurist Interpretation Has to Go, But the Main Outline of the Last Days Remains

 Richard Bennett is such a rich source of historical information and biblical understanding of the Antichrist and the Roman Church it can be a bit overwhelming.  

I've been hoping to find a discussion of how some elements of prophecy about the Antichrist have been fulfilled, including confirmation or disconfirmation of my speculation in the previous post about the meaning of the Antichrist's displacing of three "kings" of the Roman Empire in his rise to power.  So far I haven't found such a discussion either by Bennett or by Chris Pinto, the two of my sources most likely to cover such a topic.  

I mentioned but didn't name a well-known prophecy teacher in that post who sees this as yet future, as the whole understanding of the Antichrist is seen in the Pre-Trib eschatology.  But as I've been pursuing the identity of the Antichrist as Pope through the eyes of the Reformers, I'm finding that most of it is considered to have been fulfilled in the past, his civil power for instance having grown by stages in specific events down the centuries.    

Another question I have now as a result of rereading Daniel 11, has to do with the military movements of the Antichrist figure that are described starting in Daniel 11:36.  The prophecy teacher I mentioned sees this as yet-future too of course, leading up to the war of Armageddon.  But what I'm wondering in light of the Reformers' take on so many historical fulfillments of prophecy about the Antichrist,  is whether those movements can be located somewhere in history rather than in the future.  There were certainly military operations that engaged the Pope at various times.   But so far I don't know enough about these movements to speculate much myself.  Maybe something to do with Pepin the Short and Charlemagne, maybe something to do with the Crusades, but those are more or less wild speculations on my part.

I would nevertheless guess that a historical fulfillment is far more likely than a future fulfillment which would put it in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation peeriod.  So I am now taking much of the Book of Revelation to be about the identity of the Antichrist as already established in history, rather than about future events.  Not ALL of course if there is to be a final Antichrist-Pope who consolidates power in the world even greater than he had in the Middle Ages and makes even more martyrs of Bible believers than the Inquisition accomplished.  And this is still my working hypothesis.  Although Bennett and I think also Chris Pinto apparently see the historical fulfillment of so much prophecy about the Antichrist as a major argument against the whole Pre-Tribulation eschatology, I keep seeing it as simply telling us who this Antichrist is from historical facts, while there is still a final Pope-Antichrist to come.  Building on millennia of variations on this evil theme, he will be a satanically inspired terror to people who come to belief during the Tribulation period, but then finally killed when Christ returns at the end of the seven years.

At least I don't see anything yet that has required me to change my mind about the timing of the Rapture and the following seven-year Tribulation /Time of Jacob's Trouble when God finisihes His work with Israel, and the Day of the LORD when He judges the entire Earth.  Instead it seems to me that the Reformers have given us a very full understanding of the Mystery of Iniquity as embodied in the Roman Church and specifically the papacy.  The Last Act of the drama of Planet Earth will be Satan's Day as he possesses the final Pope and murders his enemies the followers of Jesus Christ with a bitter vengeance, before God pours out His wrath and destroys the whole evil system.  

I'm still listening to talks on this subject, by Bennett at the moment, and still not finding a full eschatology described that from what has been said should completely supplant the Pre-Trib scenario.  They do refer to the very end when Jesus returns, however, so maybe the idea is that history just continues until the end, perhaps with some signs as that end approaches, but that part is a guess.  

If that is the case there is no Seventieth Week of Daniel, no Great Tribulation, no Day of the LORD , and the Rapture must come at the moment Jesus returns.  That's a lot of prophecy that will go unfulfilled if so.  Also, the idea that the Rapture occurs when Jesus returns would make the idea of the Millennium impossible, understood as a thousand years when normal life plays out under the literal reign of Christ.  Maybe that makes them Amillennialists?  

All that requires stretching or throwing out a lot of scripture it seems to me.  The Book of Revelation pretty clearly describes a Millennium ruled by Christ, in which people live to be very old but are considered to be children still.  That's a picture of a restored Eden or Paradise on Earth, people living out normal lives, having children, etc., only under increasingly improving conditions, reversing the trend of life in this fallen world.  They will still be fallen people but under the reign of Christ, after the forces of evil were defeated at His coming, they are better able to pursue righteous living and it's a blessed and happy life in which death is put off and diseases and other sufferings minimized.  

There is no more papacy in that Millennium and Satan has been bound in chains and can't influence the people, until the very end when he is released and the fallen nature again asserts its ugly potentials.

It's a fitting scenario.  It completes many themes of the Biblical story that would otherwise be left open-ended.   

Likewise the Pre-Trib Rapture is fitting:  the Church escapes the Wrath of God as promised while the rebellious world is judged\.   There has to be a Day of the LORD.  It's been promised for millennia.  There has to be a Seventieth Week of Daniel when the story of Israel is brought to completion.  There has to be a specific Great Tribulation because Jesus prophesied it and nothing else qualifies that I know of.  Also, how do they explain the 144,000 of the twelve tribes of Israel?  Way too much has to be left o0ut if the entire futurist interpretation is scuttled.

And there is no reason to scuttle it.   I agree that it is hugely important to recognize the true nature of the Antichrist because the Church is in great danger since it's been abandoned, and the first order of business should be reintating this truth.  It is also needed to make sense of the end times picture;  we need the historical understanding of the papacy and the Mystery of Iniquity as the foundation for the Antichrist who brings evil to its perfect expression in the last days.  The Mystery of Iniquity is the same basic system that has existed throughout history, through all those empires we see in the Book of Daniel for instance, but also going back to Nimrod and the religion of Semiramis.  It doesn't just spring up during the Tribulation, it is a system of evil that reaches a pinnacle of perfection at the end but has always been in the world, going back to Babylon.  Even going back to the Fall in Eden, except the evil that grew from that point was rather rudely interrupted by the Flood so Satan started over in Babylon by inventing counterfeit Messiahs.  Now he's working to bring it all together as a global totalitarian system.

There is a fitting grandeur in this way of looking at it too..  

=================

A couple of references to historical discussions by Richard Bennett:

A Biblical Uncovering of the Pope and the Papacy 

.The Antichrist, Man of Sin, In our Midst.  Classic Reformed Eschatology