Hi there,
So part of the counter-intuitive nature of Revelation is embellished here, as we look at the anti-Christ. Revelation says he has a number. What is important about this, is that it suggests that the anti-Christ does not answer to God, by name, but as we must imagine, by number. In a sense this is an expression of faith, that our shame is hidden from God, in a way that God would be pleased with, not individually: as a group - that is that the name of the man of sin, not be named among us (in the same way that Jews do not completely name G*d).
The thing is that without a calling from God, it is not possible to reconcile what we would like to do, with what we know we must do. This creates a problem of interpretation. Do we assume the collective will get the job done? Or do we rely on someone with the relevant name, to do the bulk of the work? You see, then, that it is a denial of the calling in the absence of faith - as though God were at all standstill, in terms of what He has expected of the men He had created.
But how does this relate to the taking away - that must come before the anti-Christ is revealed? There is an intermediate step, which is counter-intuitive to expectation of the anti-Christ making a name for himself (think about it, how does someone who is only concerned with a number, "make a name" for himself?): the anti-Christ must first be put together. This is the opposite of the statue in Daniel, that was destroyed with a rod of iron - the anti-Christ must put himself together, in order to make himself an answer, to the number of God (how else would the anti-Christ relate to God, if God defined him only as a number?).
This is what the anti-Christ does: he takes things that were dead and re-energizes them, by putting them together and setting them with a mark, that the weakness of the death not interfere with the resurging, the resurging that the re-energizing brings. In reality, he will do this to himself and become a political standup, bringing the death of the nations around Israel, to life, in his intimation of a sacrifice. Biblically we can expect that God will judge them all combined: Israel and its neighbours.
This isn't a warning to avoid the anti-Christ, so much as it is an explanation for why the faithful of Israel have to defend the honour of Israel, to the death: if the anti-Christ were to make of Israel a dead nation, that is, one that did not defend its honour against a tradition of men denying its form, Israel would be destroyed in a matter of decades, maybe sooner. But with the faithful laying down their live in the midst, the crack between number and name would begin to be clearer and the bias of the Devil against mankind sharing knowledge (remember that we said the anti-Christ would faithfully cover sin, thus creating a chance of not having to pay for it - the Devil is against even, that) would be made manifest, thus illuminating the path to Golgotha as the only way!
Thus it takes a believer of maturity, not to offend the decision of God to number a man, for His purposes, but to stand in the breach that a good man (as we would dare to die for - letters) distance himself from the Devil, until he has learned to lead him, and by leading the Devil to lead all the lost - though at first it may seem that the lost will never turn to him again. This is the battle of the first resurrection, what it will be, for the anti-Christ to cease putting things together, by his own fledgling power - I say "power" cautiously, because it is a reservation that nature not know how to recover from sin, as makes the manliness in the man of sin seem welcoming (yet received, being a cruel curse that no further help is deserving).
This then is the history of the anti-Christ: first without name, he doubted,, then he doubted names; second without a way to identify the things of the spirit (names), he betrayed, then he exhausted the root of betrayal; third without a way to identify the root of betrayal, he ceased to be able to understand the gospel, and unable to understand the gospel he disclaimed God's Judgment as above Man. So it is that Man sins, without knowing what his sinning is of; while yet Christ's equality with God, makes us coheirs of something greater than a gospel on its own - coheirs of a brotherhood of that gospel! The difference of what was dead but put together, versus what was spiritually dead but resurrected,, could not be clearer!
What follows, is that the anti-Christ will attempt to distance himself, from the faith - as is fitting that the backward of Israel be crushed. He will try to do away with the faith, that is more broadly the will of God, than what he believes - in part he will succeed; what I am saying here is that the suffering he feels, to be denied power, makes him very much like a child that does not get his toy. On his own head, then, will his judgment come back on him - as Jesus said "I am laying a stone and whoever falls on it will be cut in two and on whomever it falls will be crushed to powder" (gospels, from memory). This logically leads us to Jesus' words in Revelation "I have this against you, that you have lost your first love" - the Lord will not allow the anti-Christ to single out the faithful forever: instead, the anti-Christ will come to sacrifice that which he had believed was "his" strength (for something greater, we pray,, specifically that he be able to prolong word - for if he can prolong word, on our commitment to lay down our lives, the enemy can be chased from the stronghold - as Daniel prophesies will fail (the stronghold will fail) for trust in fortresses).
The time simply comes, that we lay down our lives, that word be prolonged (without the evil of the day able to follow it) - here! I say it, in the open!!
So part of the counter-intuitive nature of Revelation is embellished here, as we look at the anti-Christ. Revelation says he has a number. What is important about this, is that it suggests that the anti-Christ does not answer to God, by name, but as we must imagine, by number. In a sense this is an expression of faith, that our shame is hidden from God, in a way that God would be pleased with, not individually: as a group - that is that the name of the man of sin, not be named among us (in the same way that Jews do not completely name G*d).
The thing is that without a calling from God, it is not possible to reconcile what we would like to do, with what we know we must do. This creates a problem of interpretation. Do we assume the collective will get the job done? Or do we rely on someone with the relevant name, to do the bulk of the work? You see, then, that it is a denial of the calling in the absence of faith - as though God were at all standstill, in terms of what He has expected of the men He had created.
But how does this relate to the taking away - that must come before the anti-Christ is revealed? There is an intermediate step, which is counter-intuitive to expectation of the anti-Christ making a name for himself (think about it, how does someone who is only concerned with a number, "make a name" for himself?): the anti-Christ must first be put together. This is the opposite of the statue in Daniel, that was destroyed with a rod of iron - the anti-Christ must put himself together, in order to make himself an answer, to the number of God (how else would the anti-Christ relate to God, if God defined him only as a number?).
This is what the anti-Christ does: he takes things that were dead and re-energizes them, by putting them together and setting them with a mark, that the weakness of the death not interfere with the resurging, the resurging that the re-energizing brings. In reality, he will do this to himself and become a political standup, bringing the death of the nations around Israel, to life, in his intimation of a sacrifice. Biblically we can expect that God will judge them all combined: Israel and its neighbours.
This isn't a warning to avoid the anti-Christ, so much as it is an explanation for why the faithful of Israel have to defend the honour of Israel, to the death: if the anti-Christ were to make of Israel a dead nation, that is, one that did not defend its honour against a tradition of men denying its form, Israel would be destroyed in a matter of decades, maybe sooner. But with the faithful laying down their live in the midst, the crack between number and name would begin to be clearer and the bias of the Devil against mankind sharing knowledge (remember that we said the anti-Christ would faithfully cover sin, thus creating a chance of not having to pay for it - the Devil is against even, that) would be made manifest, thus illuminating the path to Golgotha as the only way!
Thus it takes a believer of maturity, not to offend the decision of God to number a man, for His purposes, but to stand in the breach that a good man (as we would dare to die for - letters) distance himself from the Devil, until he has learned to lead him, and by leading the Devil to lead all the lost - though at first it may seem that the lost will never turn to him again. This is the battle of the first resurrection, what it will be, for the anti-Christ to cease putting things together, by his own fledgling power - I say "power" cautiously, because it is a reservation that nature not know how to recover from sin, as makes the manliness in the man of sin seem welcoming (yet received, being a cruel curse that no further help is deserving).
This then is the history of the anti-Christ: first without name, he doubted,, then he doubted names; second without a way to identify the things of the spirit (names), he betrayed, then he exhausted the root of betrayal; third without a way to identify the root of betrayal, he ceased to be able to understand the gospel, and unable to understand the gospel he disclaimed God's Judgment as above Man. So it is that Man sins, without knowing what his sinning is of; while yet Christ's equality with God, makes us coheirs of something greater than a gospel on its own - coheirs of a brotherhood of that gospel! The difference of what was dead but put together, versus what was spiritually dead but resurrected,, could not be clearer!
What follows, is that the anti-Christ will attempt to distance himself, from the faith - as is fitting that the backward of Israel be crushed. He will try to do away with the faith, that is more broadly the will of God, than what he believes - in part he will succeed; what I am saying here is that the suffering he feels, to be denied power, makes him very much like a child that does not get his toy. On his own head, then, will his judgment come back on him - as Jesus said "I am laying a stone and whoever falls on it will be cut in two and on whomever it falls will be crushed to powder" (gospels, from memory). This logically leads us to Jesus' words in Revelation "I have this against you, that you have lost your first love" - the Lord will not allow the anti-Christ to single out the faithful forever: instead, the anti-Christ will come to sacrifice that which he had believed was "his" strength (for something greater, we pray,, specifically that he be able to prolong word - for if he can prolong word, on our commitment to lay down our lives, the enemy can be chased from the stronghold - as Daniel prophesies will fail (the stronghold will fail) for trust in fortresses).
The time simply comes, that we lay down our lives, that word be prolonged (without the evil of the day able to follow it) - here! I say it, in the open!!
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