I have felt led to deal with this issue and have been researching it. There are so many candidates that have been proposed, Prince William, Obama, Islam or the Mahdi/Messiah of Islam, the RCC, or both Islam and the RCC working in conjunction etc. etc.
What I have learned is that Revelation never uses the term antichrist. When it is used elsewhere in the New Testament it refers to those who do not profess belief in the true Messiah. It seems to me there are two mega antiChrists in Revelation.
From Revelation 13, Amplified Bible, the first beast:
5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against Gods holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beastall whose names have not been written in the Lambs book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.[
Then there is the 2nd beast:
11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
It seems to me they both have the spirit of the antichrist, whoever they are.
Any insights?
Hello LoricaLady,
To determine who is the person who will become the Antichrist, we must understand that the question "Who is the Antichrist?" is actually the wrong question to ask. The correct question is "What is the proper relationship between the members of the unholy trinity?"
Once you understand the answer to this question, then you can move on to other questions such as "What is the ethnicity and nationality of the Antichrist?," "What region does he come from?," "What is the main subject he would have needed to study in order to accomplish the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem with such opposition from the Arabian alliances?," "Whose name will equal 666?"
To properly identify the Antichrist, we must identify all associated verses and apply them. Without the application of Scripture, this or any other Biblical study is useless. Some verses describe his characteristics in the first half of the Tribulation and some describe his characteristics in the second half of the Tribulation. He is truly a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Obviously we want to know more of his characteristics that can be determined before the midpoint of the 70th Week.
Scripture gives many specifics about the Antichrist: His royalty, race, reign, relationship, resemblance, religion, role, response, retail representation, reckoning, location, longitude within the location and latitude within the location. And that's not even all of them...
Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum (a Pretribulationalist) stated: “The identity of the Antichrist will be revealed on two occasions. The first revelation will occur before the Tribulation and will be for believers... There is to be a revelation of the identity of the Antichrist that precedes the Tribulation, and it is for believers living at that time. The Rapture of the Church may or may not have already occurred by then... Therefore, the revelation to believers before the Tribulation may be to the Church if the Rapture has not yet occurred.”1
Concerning 2 Thessalonians 2:3, there are two distinct aspects of the word “reveal” / “apokalyptō” (G601), from which the word “revelation” / “apokalypsis” (G602) comes from. The first aspect is the subjective use: “That in which something is presented to the mind directly.” The second aspect is the objective use: “That in which something is presented to the senses, sight or hearing.”2
This process of revelation begins with “an internal disclosure to the believer” then “an external manifestation, to the senses and hence open to all… The unveiling [revealing] precedes and produces the manifestation;”3
The revealing of the revelation is first to the believers understanding through the Word of God, and then it becomes manifested to the world.
Re-examining the Relationship With Respect to the Current Church Doctrine of the Unholy Trinity
“What is the unholy trinity in the end times?” The current teaching in the majority of the Church is: “A common tactic of Satan is to imitate or counterfeit the things of God in order to make himself appear to be like God. What is commonly referred to as the “unholy trinity,” described vividly in Revelation 12 and 13, is no exception. The Holy Trinity consists of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Their counterparts in the unholy trinity are Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet... Satan is the anti-God, the Beast is the anti-Christ, and the False Prophet is the anti-Spirit.”4
Satan = unholy father
Antichrist = unholy son
False Prophet = unholy spirit
After years of study, I see a slight flaw in this understanding of the order of the unholy trinity. Could Satan actually be the unholy counterpart to God the Holy Spirit? This correction would make the False Prophet the earthly father of the Antichrist. So the corrupt counterfeit counterparts would be:
False Prophet = unholy father
Antichrist = unholy son
Satan = unholy spirit / spiritual father
This Doctrinal adjustment is equally applicable for those scholars who advocate the minority view of the supernatural origin of the Antichrist, such as Arthur W. Pink, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Daniel E. Woodhead and others which teach that the person of the Antichrist will be the literal offspring / seed of Satan. The only difference would be that they would be the perceived father and firstborn son. Perceived to those people alive during the Tribulation, creating the concluding corrupt counterparts:
False Prophet = unholy father / perceived father of the Antichrist
Antichrist = unholy son / perceived son of the False Prophet / actual seed of Satan
Satan = unholy spirit / actual father of the Antichrist
There is a difference between perceived reality and actual reality. The Jews in Jesus’ day perceived that Joseph was the father of Jesus (Luke 3:23; 4:22); yet, the actual reality was that God was His Father. Jesus even asked the scribes to explain this apparent juxtaposition (Luke 20:41–44; Matthew 22:41–45).
Within the nature of the One God, there are Three co-eternal and co-equal distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29, 36; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 5:7...).
Satan wants “to be like” God (Isaiah 14:14). The word “like” in this passage is the Hebrew word “damah” (H1819) which means: “To compare, to resemble, to liken, to be like, to use similitudes.”5 “To make oneself like.”6
To do this, he must pretend to substitute God. To be “like” God, Satan must have his own father, son, spirit unholy trinity (Revelation 16:13; 20:10).
The current teaching in the majority of the Churches is that Satan is represented as the unholy father and the Antichrist is represented as the unholy son (Genesis 3:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, John 8:44). But when we get to the False Prophet being represented as the unholy spirit, the advocates of the current Church teaching say: Since the Holy Spirit bears witness to the person and work of Christ and glorifies Christ and draws men to worship Christ, so shall the False Prophet bear witness to the person and work of the Antichrist and glorify him, and will draw men to worship the Antichrist.7
The main problem with this view is that according to Scripture, the Father has the exact same ministries.–Bears Witness of Christ (Deuteronomy 18:17–19; Isaiah 11:1–2; 42:1; Matthew 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; John 5:37; 8:18). Glorifies Christ (Daniel 7:13–14; John 12:23; 13:32; 17:1, 5, 22, 24; 2 Peter 1:17). Draws men to Christ (John 6:44–45, 37, 65; 17:9, 11–12, 24). To Worship Christ (Hebrews 1:6; [cf. 1 Peter 3:22; Colossians 1:18]; [cf. Hebrews 1:8; Luke 4:8; John 10:30]).
Scripture testifies over and over, that Satan is the cardinal copycat, the diabolical deceiving dragon, the example of every evil, the first fraudulent foe, the initial imitator, the master of masquerade, the prototype pretender, the supreme sinister serpent, the numero uno usurper, the number one wannabe and the original unholy spirit (Ezekiel 28:12–18; Isaiah 14:12–14; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Galatians 1:8; Revelation 12:3–4; Genesis 3:4–5). As the Antichrist imitates Christ, Scripture shows the Antichrist having a dual nature, being the unholy son of perdition (seed of Satan – spiritual or supernatural; depending on which view of the origin of the Antichrist you believe) and the man of sin (Genesis 3:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3).
Since the ministries of the Father are to bear witness of Christ, to glorify Christ, to draw men to Christ and explicitly counsels His creation to worship His Son, then the False Prophet would be the unholy counterpart to the Father, making him the earthly father of the Antichrist. Satan will counterfeit the Trinity in a similar fashion. As the Father instructs His creation to worship His Firstborn Son, Jesus; likewise, the False Prophet will demand everyone to worship his firstborn son, the Antichrist and his image or be killed (Revelation 13:12, 15).
Another categorical correlating consideration is that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and since “the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26), so shall the False Prophet have “power to give life unto the image of the beast” (Revelation 13:15).
Please take note that in Revelation 13:11–18, it is the False Prophet who initiates and institutes both the religious and the economic systems that will be set in place during the last forty-two months of the Tribulation; which are the exact same actions God the Father performed for Israel during the wilderness wanderings (Exodus 20–31; Leviticus 1–10; 16–17; 21–27; Numbers 3–9; 15; 28–29; Deuteronomy 12–18; 23–25; 27–28).
Out of these three beings, only two have physical bodies. Since Satan is a spirit, (literally, the original unholy spirit) people alive during the Tribulation (or more properly termed the 70th week of Daniel) will only see a father and his firstborn son, in order to mimic God, the Father and His Firstborn Son, Jesus (Luke 2:23; Colossians 1:15, 18; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 1:5).
Notes:
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1. Fruchtenbaum, Rise and Fall, 6–7. PDF e-book.
2. Vines, Expository Dictionary, 964.
3. Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, 62.
4. Got Questions Ministries, “What is the Unholy Trinity in the End Times?,” accessed February 16, 2016, ¶¶ 1, 8. Got Questions.org.
https://www.gotquestions.org/unholy-trinity.html
5. Vines, Best of Vine's, Hebrew, 63.
6. Gesenius, Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, 202.
http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/Gesenius/
7. Pink, Antichrist, Chapter 2, § 2, (expanded and adopted from historical Church teachings). PDF e-book.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pink/antichrist