Characteristcs of the Anti Christ
By Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer

Willem J.J. Glashouwer

The antichrist will have unimaginable worldwide power during the last seven years before the glorious Return of Jesus Christ (Revelation 13:7-8). The power of The antichrist will stretch far and wide, to the uttermost ends of the earth. No one will even be able to buy or sell without his permission (Revelation 13:16-17). The antichrist will use his position and authority to persecute Christians and Jews (Revelation 13:15). The antichrist will even raise his hand against Jesus Christ Himself: “He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power” (Daniel 8:24-25). This last act of rebellion will therefore finally lead to his demise.
 

THE antichrist comes from a certain people – the people that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. We read in Daniel 9:26, “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”  

Eastern Roman Empire

The traditional explanation of this is that THE antichrist will therefore hail from a restored Roman empire, so from Europe, possibly. Because, indeed, Roman soldiers, under the command of Titus, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in the year 70 A.D., it is said. This is how and why Protestantism looked at the pope of Rome, or the papacy as such: full of mistrust, seeing in him THE antichrist. The people that destroyed the city and the Temple in the year 70 A.D. were indeed Romans. So THE antichrist must come from the Roman Empire.

This does not mean that he must come from Italy, however! The fourth/fifth empire of iron of the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw and that Daniel explained (Daniel 2) had two legs in fact: the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire. THE antichrist will come from somewhere in that Roman Empire, but possible and even more likely from the Eastern Roman Empire. Furthermore: the archetype of THE antichrist was Antiochus Epiphanes, one of the descendants of the empire of Seleucus (one of the four or five generals to whom Alexander the Great had bequeathed his Greek empire). He came from the territory that belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire - modern-day Syria.  

So then, who were those Roman soldiers who destroyed Jerusalem? They were certainly people with Roman citizenship, probably, who were serving in the Roman legions. They did not all come from Western Europe however.

All the enemies of Israel the Bible refers to, such as Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek (Psalm 83) are Islamic states, countries and nations today, without exception. Will their future ruler therefore be a follower of Islam – from the region of Iraq, Syria – the former Assyria/Babylonia…, when the caliphate, which was dismantled in Turkey under Kemal Ata Turk in 1924, will perhaps be restored one day, and when there is once again a great Islamic empire stretching far into the world, from the Middle East, perhaps …?

Let us keep following the developments in the world and particularly in the Middle East, but with the Bible in the hand, and keeping our eyes wide open! It does not look as if THE antichrist probably will be a Muslim however. It seems to me that the arguments for his being analogous to Antiochus Epiphanes – humanist and atheist, Greek-Hellenistic – are too strong.  

Arrogance

He oozes arrogance. Daniel 7:8 says, “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.” He is fully convinced of his own bragging; he is convinced that he is greater and better than God.

In Daniel 11:36 we read, “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.”  

Demonic Inspiration

He is a man with unimaginable power and might and strength because he is fully inspired and supported by the powers of darkness. He will seduce many people and nations by this occult, demonic inspiration, with exceptional signs and wonders.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 we read: “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”

Alas, mislead humanity will follow THE antichrist and idolize him. They will be convinced that this supernatural might and power come from God, and not from the devil/Satan. The Bible reveals that THE antichrist derives his power from Lucifer, from the dragon, however. “The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority” (Revelation 13:2).  

Worshipping the ‘god of the fortresses’

He will worship a god his ancestors never knew - a completely new ‘god of the fortresses’. Daniel 11:37-38 …He will show no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all. Instead of them, he will honour a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his ancestors he will honour with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts.” To understand who THE antichrist will be, we need to understand that he will be a man of unbelievable arrogance and conceit, who believes himself to be greater than any man who ever lived. He is an idolater who worships the ‘god of the fortresses’, which - at least - implies enormous military might. Power and violence combined with personal bloodthirstiness and cruelty.  

Speculations who THE antichrist is

Now that we know more or less what kind of man THE antichrist will be, are we maybe already able to identify him today? The Apostle Paul says that tremendous apostasy will precede his coming. Thereafter THE antichrist will come to sit down in the Temple of God – whatever your explanation of that Temple may be: a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, or the worldwide Church of God.  

Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us – whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter - asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”

Because this is clearly not yet the case, we can only say with certainty that THE man of lawlessness has not yet been revealed, and that we therefore cannot yet identify anyone as THE antichrist. Throughout history (as well as today) many have nevertheless attempted to point the antichrist out. To name only a few from an inexhaustible list: Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Charles the Great, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco, Henry Kissinger, Pope John Paul II, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, Saddam Hussein, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden, Javier Solana, Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Amadinejad, Barack Obama, Pope Pius XVI, etc.! A number of these could perhaps be classified under the sub-heading: ‘many antichrists’, but many of them cannot. In any case, most of them died long ago and they cannot therefore be THE antichrist. A list like this does have some significance, however. It shows that, without much further knowledge of the Biblical aspects of THE antichrist, it is ‘hysterical’ to directly point a finger to one or other political or religious leader and to immediately start calling him THE antichrist – a trap we must not fall into.
 

Whatever kinds of antichrists still might come: the true Christ, the Messiah is coming too, and He will make short work of THE antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The process of history is taking giant steps forward in our time, and Israel is the great sign of hope in this respect. He will not abandon what His hand has begun! He has made so many promises to Israel that have not yet been fulfilled. But He will be faithful to Himself and fulfill them all.  

(Rev. Glashouwer is the President of Christians for Israel International)