CHAPTER THREE

THE CONSUMMATION OF THE ANTICHRIST

"And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end," Dan. 7:24-26.

In spite of the great deal that is written about the Antichrist, his career is but a short one, "and when he cometh, he must continue a short space," Rev. 17: l0f. "And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him," Dan. 11:45. Thus the Antichrist, as all other sinners, shall learn that he may indeed drink of the pleasures of sin, but "only for a season," and then he must give account to the righteous Judge.

In our study upon the career of the Antichrist we considered that the turning point of his career would be when he breaks his covenant with Israel, and stands forth in his true character as the "bloody and deceitful man," Ps. 5:6. From this point onward, his career is speedily downward. When he stands forth in the temple of God, "shewing himself that he is God," II Thes. 2:4, and demanding the worship of all the world, Rev. 13:4, 12 - 17, then he shall be revealed as the rider upon the pale green horse who is the destroyer of the bodies ("death") and souls ("Hades") of men, Rev. 6:7 - 8. From this turning point in his career will be dated the Great Tribulation period, Matt. 24:15 -16, 21.

The period which immediately precedes the return of Christ to the earth will witness the most awful events ever chronicled. It was of this period that Daniel spoke when he said, "There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time" (12:1). It was to this same time that Christ referred when He declared, "For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom He bath chosen, He hath shortened the days" (Mark 13:19, 20). This is "the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world" (Rev. 3:10). It will be a time of unparalleled wickedness, and a time of unprecedented suffering. It is the time when God shall avenge the murder of His Son, when He shall take to task a world that has so long despised His Word, and trampled His commandm~1ts under foot. The very Antichrist will be one of the instruments of His vengeance—"the rod of His anger" (Isa. 10:5).—A. W. Pink, The Antichrist, pp.108-109.

This Great Tribulation will be a time of great affliction upon both the world and upon Israel, and it will end with judgment being executed upon the evil trinity and all of their followers. The consummation of Antichrist and all of his ungodly associates will mark the commencement of the reign of the true Christ, and what a glorious time will be ushered in with this. Little wonder, then, that he is pronounced blessed who comes to the "thousand three hundred and five and thirty days," Dan. 12:12, at the end of which all the evil of the Antichrist’s reign shall have been removed, and Christ enthroned upon His father David’s throne.

We are now to consider the consummation of the Antichrist, or the end to which he comes, and inasmuch as he is brought to his end in stages, we will consider the subject in this way. We note first of all—

I. THE CONSUMMATION OF ANTICHRIST'S KINGDOM.

The Antichrist’s kingdom will have come to be a world-wide kingdom before it is brought to desolation, for it will be the revival of the fourth kingdom which Daniel saw in vision, Dan. 7:1-8. This will be a revival of the kingdom that was upon the earth in the days when John saw the visions of Revelation, Rev. 13:1-2. Yet, though it is a world-wide kingdom, the Antichrist's reign will not be universal, for we find evidence both in Daniel and in Revelation that there is dissent and even rebellion against his rule. Nevertheless his rule will be as nearly universal as any which has ever been upon the earth. However, interestingly enough, the downfall of the kingdom of the Antichrist will not be by a military victory, either human or divine. The kingdom of the Antichrist will be overthrown before either he himself or his army is overthrown, and will apparently come about in this way. When God begins to pour out the vials of His wrath upon the impious and impenitent inhabitants of the earth, the sixth will ruin the economy of the Antichrist’s kingdom. "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared," Rev. 16:12. The result of this great calamity is set forth in Rev. 18:8: "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."

These things will be but the natural consequences of the drying up of the Euphrates. For all of the filth left exposed by this event will cause both pestilence and famine, which, in turn will cause the traffickers in her merchandise to hesitate to enter the city, even if they could. The fire, once started, will rage uncontrollable through the city, for the drying up of the river will naturally cut off all possibility of fighting the fire.

Nor is this all of the calamity that falls upon Great Babylon, for it is recorded: "And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath," Rev. 16:18 - 19. The world has seen some great earthquakes that have caused great and dreadful loss of life and property, but none will compare with this catastrophe. Very likely this is the same earthquake that is referred to in Isa. 29:6 and Zech. 14:5 that affects the city of Jerusalem so radically, and that immediately precedes the Lord’s return. Let the reader turn to Jer. 51 and read the account of the fall of Babylon for it is there described in great detail, and many things are quoted in Revelation from this chapter.

But it is not alone through natural phenomena that the kingdom of the Antichrist is destroyed, for there is a suggestion that there will be a rebellion of some against him. "Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Aschenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion," Jer. 51:27-28.

But, it may be asked, ii the Antichrist’s armies are made up of creatures from the infernal regions, as we have suggested in the last chapter, how then can these mortal kings and their armies hope to prevail against them? The answer is given in Jer. 5 1:30. "The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken." It seems evident that the Lord restrains this demon power at the end, so that Antichrist does not have the aid of these deathless creatures except for a limited time prior to this. This also explains how he comes to set himself against the Lord Jesus with only human armies, Rev. 19:19.

Thus, as a result of all these things, Babylon will be destroyed even as has been so long prophesied. "Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant," Jer. 51:36-37. See also Isa. 14:22-27; 34:8-15; Zeph. 2: 13-3:7.

But the destruction of the kingdom of the Antichrist is detailed even more clearly in Dan. 2, where Nebuchadnezzar’s great image is in view. "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth... And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountains without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure," V34 - 35, 44 - 45.

Inasmuch as this "Stone" is seen breaking, not only the iron and clay of the feet of the image, but also the brass, silver and gold of the rest of the image, it is evident that the Antichrist’s kingdom will incorporate features, characteristics and territory that were originally included in the kingdoms that preceded his. The image represents world governments, and the stone, which represents Christ and His kingdom, destroys all of them. Man shall have his day, and then Christ will reveal the folly of all human government. A. W. Pink observes:
It is because men received not the love of God’s truth He shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the Devil’s lie. It is because men had "pleasure in unrighteousness" they shall be deceived by the Lawless One. It is because Israel refused that blessed One who came in His Father’s name that they shall receive the one who comes in his own name. This is why the Antichrist will, for a season, be suffered to prosper, and apparently to defy God with impunity. But when God has used him to perform His own pleasure, then shall He empty upon his kingdom and upon his subjects the vials of His wrath. Just as God has set the bounds of the sea, saying thus far shalt thou go and no further, so has He fixed the limits to which He will allow Antichrist to go. And when that limit is reached the Son of Perdition will find himself as helpless to pass beyond what God has decreed as a worm would be beneath the foot of an elephant.—The Antichrist, p. 109.

The destruction of the last world government under man prepares the way for the setting up of the kingdom of Christ which shall be everlasting. Many interpreters have endeavored to make Dan. 2:44 refer to the kingdom of heaven that was preached in the first century, but then there was in power but one of the "kings" represented in the image, and that was the king over the fourth kingdom—the Roman Empire. But the setting up of this kingdom was to be in the days of "these kings,"—the kings represented by the ten toes of the image—the ten kings that reign under the Antichrist for a short time. Thus the kingdom which God sets up in V44 is the same as that referred to in Dan. 7:9 -10, 13 -14, 26 -27, et al. This will be the millennial kingdom of Christ, Rev. 20:4-6, which, at the end of the thousand years, will be delivered up to the Father, and so will continue eternally, I Cor. 15:24 - 28.

But the destruction of the Antichrist’s kingdom, so far from bringing him to his knees in repentance, only causes him to harden himself more, and he then undertakes to cast God down from His throne. Therefore we consider—

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ANTICHRIST’S ARMIES.

The drying up of that great and mighty Euphrates river has another purpose than that which we have already considered, for by means of this, the kings of the whole earth are gathered together for their destruction. "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils (demons), working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty," Rev. 16:13 - 14. To understand what is here set forth, one has but to turn to I Kings 22:19 - 38 and read how the Lord accomplished the destruction of Ahab by allowing lying spirits to deceive him. So it shall be in this instance.
By these demon spirits the cause of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, is furnished with a universal ministry. They are sent out by this infernal Trinity, issue from it, do its bidding, act for it and in its interest. They have the power of working miracles, Satanic miracles, by which they offset everything divinely supernatural, and persuade by their preaching, oracles, and lying wonders, stirring up all the powers that be to unite in one universal movement to suppress and exterminate the incoming kingdom and power of the Lamb.—J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, p. 378.

How blessed it is to know that God controls even the demons, and that all things that happen are in accordance with His permissive will, if not His predestined will. This is why it is true that "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose," Rom. 8:28.

The result of this demonic activity is shown in Rev. 16:16. "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon? This is probably the most famous battleground in the world, being the Mount of Megiddo near the plain of Esdraelon not far from the Mediterranean coast. J. L. Huribut says of this place.
More battles have been fought on this plain than on any other field in the world, the latest being the victory of General Allenby in 1917, completing the conquest of Palestine from the Turks. In the Old Testament it is called the "Valley of Jezreel" from the city at its eastern end, its Greek name "Estradon" being a modification of "Jezreel." It is also called the "Valley of Megiddo" from the city at its eastern entrance, "Armageddon" or "Harmageddon" (Rev. 16:16) is the Greek form for "The mountain of Megiddo."—A Bible Atlas, pp. 15 -16.

To this place will all of the Antichrist’s confederates and their armies be gathered for slaughter, for, while this is often spoken of as "the battle of Armageddon." It is actually no battle at all, but is only a slaughter of the forces of the Antichrist. Thus is revealed, both the impotency of the Antichrist’s forces to withstand Christ, and their madness in even attempting to do so. This is also prophetically foretold in Ps. 2. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure... Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel," V1-5, 9.

This last verse manifests the applicability of this portion to the slaughter of Armageddon, for it is quoted in Rev. 19:15 in this connection. Someone has well remarked that here is one of the few places in the Scriptures where God is ever said to laugh, and He does this in derision at the puny efforts of man to dethrone Him. Indeed, the only times that God is ever said to laugh, it is for this reason—in derision at man’s foolish idea that he can resist the Almighty. See Ps. 37:13; 59:8; Prov. 1:26.
The demonstrations of these confederates with the Beast are tremendous. The whole world moves with one heart, one aim, with all its genius and power concentrated on one end, and with all the potencies of Hell to nerve and help and guide it. Never before was there such a combination of forces, natural and supernatural, directed with such skill, or animated with so daring and resolved a spirit. Yet, Jehovah laughs! What an infinitude of majesty and sovereign contempt does he thus express? The rebels are confident. They believe their leader invincible. They are sure of powers to handle all nature’s forces. They have no question about being able to cope with mortals or immortals, with men or gods. They despise alike the names and sword of Him who rides the white horse, and all his heavenly cavalry. They deem themselves ready and equal for any emergency of battle even with him who calls himself Almighty. But God laughs! Oh, the disappointment and destruction which that laugh portends!—J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, p. 441.

"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army," Rev. 19:19. The battle is set in array; the two armies are in place, but if the army of the Antichrist is confident and sure, so also is the other army. For it is written: "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great," Rev. 19:17-18.
And then comes the grand fmale. The heaven will open and from it will descend the King of kings and Lord of lord, seated on a white horse, with His eyes "as a flame of fire" (Rev. 19:11, 12). Attending Him will be the armies of heaven, also seated on white horses (Rev. 19:14). Far from being appalled at this awe-inspiring spectacle, the Beast and the kings of the earth and their armies shall gather together to "make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His armies" (Rev. 19:19). "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle" (Zech. 14:3). At last the Christ of God and the christ of Satan will confront each other. But the instant the conflict begins, it is ended. The Foe will be paralyzed, and all resistance cease.— A. W. Pink, The Antichrist, p. 119.

Here on the plains of Megiddo will be brought to consummate fullness the heresy that man has long been parroting that, "God cannot override man’s free will." For here will be the kings of the earth with their armies, headed by the Antichrist himself, and all fully set to show God that He cannot triumph over their ungodly wills. Yet, the matter is never in question. The outcome was certain before the First Prophet ever opened His mouth to forecast the destruction of the serpent’s seed by the Seed of the woman, Gen. 3.

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And be was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God... And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh," Rev. 19:11-15, 20-21.

This is the same scene that is pictured in Rev. 14:14-20. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."

It is said that in one city in Europe during World War Two that the slaughter of the civilians by the German army was so great that blood ran in the gutters of the streets for three days. But the slaughter of Armageddon will be much, much worse than that, for the blood will be horse-bridle deep—some four feet—and will run for sixteen hundred furlongs—one hundred and sixty miles or more. So inconceivable is this to the human mind that most interpreters try to make it anything but literal. But considering the size of the Antichrist’s army—that it is a world-wide army, comprised of people of all nations—and that these are riding upon horses, Rev. 19:18; Ezek. 38:15— this is not so inconceivable. A dreadful spectacle, Yes! Yet this shall be no ordinary battle. It is the war of heaven against hell, Christ against Antichrist, Satan against God. It shall be a scene where the true character of sin is manifest in its awfulness. Therefore let none protest that the language is metaphorical or symbolic simply because it transcends anything presently known to man. This will be the great purgation of the earth of all willful enemies of Christ in preparation for His thousand year reign of righteousness. There will therefore be, in the beginning of the Millennium, a relatively small population of the earth. This will be so because there will probably be very few people in their natural states that escape this slaughter except those children that were younger than the age of accountability at the time that this takes place.

We cannot close this discussion of this army without a practical note. This vast army of men will be destroyed because of their willful, knowing rejection of the truth, for none of them would have been here had they not opened themselves to Satan’s deceptions by their resistance of the truth. The Antichrist will come "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness," II Thes. 2:10-12. Many people in our world today are in this exact condition. They may be faithful members in some "church" but they have chosen those false churches that do not regularly and strictly preach the truth of God’s Word. Many members of false churches have no real love for any teaching that does not flatter their egotistical view that they are naturally good. Dear reader, have you been rejecting the salvation of the Lord through a proud self-sufficiency and love of sin? Then you may well be among those that are finally found in the Antichrist’s slain army.

III. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ANTICHRIST’S PERSON.

No one of this unholy alliance escapes the wrath of God, but all that have joined together against the Lord and against His Christ will drink of God’s wrath. It is an inexorable Law from which there is no escape Gal. 6:7. For all of his self-exaltation, his riches, his worldly wisdom, his acceptance by human masses and his Satanic power, the Antichrist comes to his end as surely as the lowliest wretch in his army. There is no escape from judgment except in the blood of the Lamb, and the Antichrist and all of his confederates will have long since rejected this. Now therefore they must "pay the piper." The Antichrist is "the son of perdition," and to perdition he is consigned. "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," Rev. 19:20. It is to be noted that he is not killed, but is taken alive and cast into the lake of fire, as is the False Prophet. The Antichrist and the False Prophets are the first human inhabitants of hell. This appears to antagonize with Dan. 7:11: "I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." But this apparent discrepancy comes about through the translation of the Hebrew word qatal, a rare word only appearing a few times in the Old Testament. It is generally translated "kill" or "slay," but the primary meaning of the word is "to cut off," and though that cutting off often connotes death, this is evidently not demanded by the word every time so that one may be cut off in some way yet not killed.

It is to this overthrow of the Antichrist and his casting into hell that Isa. 14:9 -10 refers. For after referring to the "king of Babylon," V4, it says: "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?" Let the thoughtful reader also consider Isa. 30:30-33, but especially the last verse, which says, "For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."

For all the Satanic power, wisdom and miracles that the Antichrist possesses, he will ultimately be brought down to "Tophet," to "Hell," the same as any other sinner. And part of the torment of this leader of rebellion against God will be the scorning and mockery and ridicule of all those whom he and his father the devil have led into rebellion against God. Divine punishment is always of the nature of a recompense—a paying back in kind, and as the Antichrist was ultimate in his pride, his punishment will be an ultimate in humbling.

Let it here be emphasized that death is not the end of existence, as so many have erroneously thought, nor is the departed person unconscious simply because we are no longer conscious of his presence. We see from Rev. 20:10 that a thousand years after they have been cast into the lake of fire the Beast and the False Prophet, both men, are still in torment. And they will remain in this condition eternally, as will all that go there because of their uncleansed sinfulness. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Observe here that it is not just the devil that is tormented eternally, but the Beast and the False Prophet are also in this sad state. Even the Jehovah Witnesses, with all their attempts to eradicate the teaching of eternal punishment from the Bible, are compelled to translate this verse substantially as does the KJV.

It is one of the Lord’s laws of Divine Justice that "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," Gal. 6:7. And the Antichrist, as well as all other sinners, stoke up their own hell by their ungodly deeds while on earth, so that the degree of their guilt determines the degree of their torment. For six thousand years every rebel against God that has died in his rebellion has come face to face with the consequences of his rebellion. And there will be no exception made in the case of the Antichrist, no, not even for Lucifer, the anointed cherub that fell from his first estate. What a warning this is to every sinner that flatters himself that he shall escape the consequences of his rebellion. How deceiving and blinding is sin!

Since the very beginning of mankind’s history, Satan has been bent upon overthrowing the purpose of God, and exalting himself to sit upon God’s throne. He has consistently failed in his endeavors, yet he has never ceased trying nor will he until he is finally cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. The Antichrist will be Satan’s greatest hope, and for this reason, he will back him all the way in his mad rebellion against God. The Antichrist will be Satan’s answer to the world’s desire for temporal peace without true piety. He will give the world a religion that flatters man’s ego while condoning his sin. It will perfectly suit mankind, yet it will damn him to an everlasting hell.

The Antichrist is also God’s rod of indignation upon a world that rejected and crucified His beloved Son because it loves its sin better than the Savior. Of the "Assyrian" (The Antichrist), the Lord says: "0 Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few," Isa. 10:5-7. "I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive," John 5:43.

Christ came only to glorify the Father and to save man, and the world with one consent rejected Him. The Antichrist shall come only to glorify himself and to lead man into sin, and he will find a great world-wide acceptance and following. But whereas it is not his purpose to serve God in any way, he shall but fulfill the purpose of God by manifesting the total depravity of the human race, and by being God’s rod of indignation upon an unbelieving world. How thankful every true believer ought to be that he has been "delivered from the wrath to come," I Thes. 1:10, and "translated... into the kingdom of his dear Son," Col. 1:13. Dear reader, is this your condition, or have you been deceived through your hatred of the truth and your rejection of salvation? Remember the solemn warning of II Thes. 2:9-12: "Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a (the) lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Jesus warned that, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," Luke 13:3, 5.
 

The End Of Studies On The Antichrist.