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Last week we
finished seeing part of the description of the beast that came out of
the sea. The identity of the beast is the antichrist, a man who will
mimic the life of Christ. Because of this the fathers have nicknamed him
the "monkey of Christ". He will be 100% human, but will have the energy
of Satan from whom he will receive the authority to do amazing miracles
that will delude the peoples of this world into thinking that he is of
divine origin and thus will be worshipped as a god. Continuing from
where we left off, the next verse refers to one of the great miracles
with which the antichrist will delude the peoples of the world.
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to
death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after
the beast."
Here
we have another imitation of Christ. John says he saw one of the beasts
heads, as it were wounded to death, in other words it appeared to be
dead. So either the antichrist or one of his heads, one of his close
aids, will seemingly be put to death and after this by the energy of
Satan he will be revived and stand up; a rather poor imitation of the
death and resurrection of Christ, but with one major difference. When
Christ was resurrected from the dead he was resurrected forever whereas
the imitation resurrection of the antichrist will be for a time only.
Also the wounds of Christ after his resurrection remained and will
remain eternally visible as a testimony of the true resurrection. These
are the wounds that were touched by Thomas and the other apostles to
verify that he was the one who was crucified and resurrected. On the
other hand, the wound of the antichrist will be healed. This theatrical
ploy of the antichrist, who will pretend to be Christ, will cause many
to follow him, the whole earth will follow him with great wonder. They
refused to believe in the miracles of Christ, but now they will believe
in the false miracles of the devil. This deception of death and
resurrection will be one of the great false miracles of the devil. At
first the death will be announced through the media and then the
resurrection will be staged and televised.
"And they worshipped the dragon which gave power
unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto
the beast? who is able to make war with him?"
As
a result of the false resurrection, people will worship the dragon devil
and the beast antichrist. They will deify them making them gods saying
who is like unto the beast? This is taken from the ode of Moses. After
the Israelites passed over the Red Sea, Moses sung, "Who is like unto
thee Lord." Moses says this to the true God of Israel, but now the
people use this phrase for the person of the antichrist and they ascribe
to him the phrases that belong only to God. St. Paul reassures of this
saying: "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above
all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth
in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thess.
2:4) How will he prove himself as god? With all works of sorcery and
deceptions and impressive false miracles.
The people
will also say "who is able to make war with him?"
Who can fight the beast, who can compete with him? This is like we say
today, who can expect to become victorious against God, who can fight
God? The antichrist will be considered invincible, unconquerable,
impossible to be taken down even by God himself.
"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking
great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue
forty and two months."
And
there was given unto him, in other words he was allowed to speak great
things and blasphemies. Who allowed him? God allowed him, but why? God
respects free will. This does not mean that God consents or approves of
what the devil does, but he allows it. If someone wants to do something
evil through choice of free will then God allows it because if he was to
step in at every moment, the idea of free will would be non existent.
But there is another reason why God allows it, to teach people by
punishment. For example, when a teenage son wants to buy a motorbike, he
badgers his parents, they refuse, he insists he will be careful, they
say he will break his neck and this goes on for months. Finally the
parents give in and say go ahead and buy the bike. In the end he ends up
in hospital with a dozen or so fractures. Pain is a good teacher, and
hopefully the boy will have learnt through the hard way. So God allows
people to do as they wish on the one hand to express their free will,
and on the other hand to show that there is punishment if we make bad
use of our freedom, but this punishment is educational, it is to bring
man to his senses to give up his own sinful will and bring him to follow
the natural and therapeutic will of God, as we are taught with the
Parable of the Prodigal Son. So God allows the antichrist to blaspheme,
but this will not be without limits, he will be allowed only for three
and a half years. Then Christ and the judgement will come.
"And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,
to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in
heaven."
John
has already told us that the antichrist will blaspheme God, but here he
repeats himself probably because he cannot believe his ears. What he
hears is blasphemy against God that has never before been uttered, no
one has ever dared to speak against God in this way.
"And it was given unto him to make war with the
saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds,
and tongues, and nations."
Again
we have a repetition of things said before. "And it was given unto him
to make war" John uses this phrase many times and by it he wants to make
it absolutely clear that every action of the devil and the antichrist
takes place only by the permission of God. Who are the saints that the
antichrist will make war against? They are the members of the church
militant, we are the saints who through faith are expected to withstand
his violent attacks unto death if necessary.
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world."
And
again in this verse John repeats that everyone will worship the
antichrist, but adds that those that worship him will be all those whose
names are not written in the book of life that is, all those who have
not been sealed with the sign of God.
"If any man have an ear, let him hear."
This
reminds us of the words of Christ who after relating certain parables
would end with the words "he who has ears let him hear." What John is
telling us is that none of the things he has told us concerning the
antichrist should be taken lightly. They are not fables, but at the same
time be careful how you hear that you do not misinterpret what is being
said; be attentive and be sure to catch the true meaning.
"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into
captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and the faith of the saints."
Here
we have a warning of punishment. The followers of the antichrist who
abuse, persecute and do harm to the faithful, who arrest them and lead
them to captivity or kill them by the sword or by any other means, will
also suffer a similar fate. But if they kill by the sword, what sword
will kill the servants of the antichrist? They will be killed by the
sword of the devil; in other words they will be enslaved by the devil.
Many who have heard the Lord's words that "he who kills by the sword
will die by the sword" have taken this to mean a literally death by the
sword as divine judgement for their actions, but we have seen that many
who have killed have lived to die a normal death in old age. Thus the
death by the sword does not refer to the death of the body, but a
spiritual death because those who have not repented will be subject to
the devil and will be held captive by him.
"Here is the patience and the faith of the
saints."
The patience of the
saints is that they do not retaliate and seek revenge for the evils that
are done against them; they endure the sufferings with patience and
faith that they will inherit the kingdom of God.
The text now
continues with another beast who is identified as the false prophet.
"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the
earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon."
This
is the third beast in the Book of Revelation. The first was the red
dragon who was identified as the devil, the second was the beast that
came out of the sea who we saw is the antichrist and now this beast who
is the false prophet. It says he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke
as a dragon. The lamb as we know is a gentle animal and outwardly this
person will appear joyous, full of optimism, full of smiles promising
freedom, promising material abundance, peace and all the things that
will please the nations of this world; he is a great messenger with a
nice appearance, but he speaks as a dragon, in other words he will have
the energy of the dragon devil inside him. The Lord told us to beware of
such prophets: "Beware of false prophets, which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
(Matth. 7:15) What we have here is exactly this, a person who appears as
a gentle lamb, but inwardly he will be scheming to devour the people
through deception. Thus the presence of the third beast comes to
compliment and fulfil the work of the other two beasts. We have the
dragon devil, the beast antichrist and the beast false prophet, a
threesome that will strive to be an imitation of the Holy Trinity and as
the Holy Trinity is worshipped, this gruesome imitation will require to
be worshipped in the place of the Holy Trinity.
"And he exerciseth all the power of the first
beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to
worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed."
This
third beast has all the authority of the beast antichrist. Thus the
third beast is subservient to the antichrist and he acts according to
his will and agenda. So in reality this false prophet is a kind of
forerunner who will prepare the way for the antichrist. His work will be
an imitation of the work of St. John the Baptist who prepared the people
to accept and believe in the Saviour. This false forerunner, with the
two horns, in other words the two powers given him by the antichrist;
the power of the word and the power of miracles, will strive to bring
the nations to believe in the antichrist, to consider him as God,
because of the imitation resurrection from the dead, which we saw
earlier, and through the many miraculous signs the false prophet will
perform in the name of the Antichrist.
"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh
fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,"
If
you remember from the Gospels, the Pharisees asked Christ for a sign
from heaven to be assured that Jesus was the awaited Messiah. Miracles
are of three levels, miracles of heaven, miracles of earth and miracle
of Hades. A miracle from heaven is for example the falling of manna for
forty years which was associated with the holiness of Moses and Elias
brought down fire from heaven which also verified that he was a true
Prophet of God. A miracle from Hades is a resurrection of a dead person
which both Elias and Elissaeus (Elisha) performed. A miracle of the
earth or surface miracle is the cure of an illness, such as the healing
of the paralytic and the healing of the blind-man. The Pharisees were
not primarily interested in surface miracles even though these were many
and should have been enough to convince them that Christ was the
messiah. Christ even raised the dead, but this was not enough to make
them believe; they also demanded a sign from heaven. Christ told them:
"There shall no sign be given unto this
generation." (Mark 8: 12)
But the
false prophet will be very eager to provide people with a miraculous
sign from heaven and will bring down fire to emulate the old prophets,
but also to counteract the miracle of the two prophets of those days,
Elias and Enoch who will also bring down fire from heaven thus proving
that these two prophets are not from God.
"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the
means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the
beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an
image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live."
So
the false prophet will through signs and miracles deceive the
inhabitants of the earth that the antichrist is worthy of worship and
will persuade them to honour him by making an image of him, an icon or
statue to be worshipped.
"And he had power to give life unto the image of
the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that
as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."
The
false prophet will have power to give life to the icon of the
antichrist. If you remember from our third talk on the book of
Revelation where we analyzed the letter to the bishop of Pergamos, it
mentioned that "Antipas was my faithful martyr,
who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." I mentioned then
that Antipas was a disciple of St. John and the first bishop of Pergamos
and tradition says that through his presence in Pergamos, the demons
began to scream and protest and their voices began to be heard through
the statue idols and were heard to say that they were ready to leave the
city because Antipas was forcing them out.
This power
to give life to the icon of the beast could be something similar, but in
our days of computer science, with laser and robot technology, the
situation portrayed in these verses seems very close to realization.
Some computer experts are even referring to the most complex computers
of the near future as "living creatures" with capacities far exceeding
those of men. Computers are now able to create "virtual reality", the
appearance of real men and real situations.
With the
technology we have at present it would be no great a task to make an
icon of the antichrist appear to be speaking, an impressive illusion
yes, but not a miracle, yet people will be deluded and worship this
image. Those who refuse to worship the image of the antichrist will be
forced and if this doesn't convince them then they will be put to death.
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in
their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is
wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:
for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore
and six."
Everyone
regardless of age, gender or social standing will be required to receive
the mark of the antichrist on their right hand or on their foreheads. We
saw in the previous verse that everyone will be required to worship the
image of the antichrist under the threat of death and this is now
coupled with an indirect method of compulsion which is of an economic
nature which ultimately includes the threat of death. Without this mark
people will not be able to buy or sell. We spoke about this briefly a
few weeks ago. If we interpret this with the technology of our times the
mark of the antichrist could very well be some sort of electronic
microchip, a perfected computerized registration system, containing all
pertinent personal and financial information regarding a person, a
microchip that will replace the need for money, passports, visas,
tickets, credit cards and other personal documents. This microchip can
also have an inbuilt tracking device to keep check on everyone's
movements. The microchip will be enforced so that the antichrist
government can have political control over all the inhabitants of the
earth, but this is secondary to its true purpose.
Everyone we are
told will be required to worship the beast, under threat of death. Many
will go into hiding to escape being found, but what happens when they
begin to starve and they need to buy food? They will have two options,
the first to flee to the mountains and deserts to escape persecution,
which, we are told is what the faithful will do with complete faith that
the Lord will provide for them. This is not at all easy. It needs a
special kind of faith to abandon the comfort of your home and everything
you have taken for granted to begin a life in the wild without a roof
over your head and not knowing where your next meal will come from. The
second and easy way is to give in, accept the mark and worship the
beast. Many even among the faithful will succumb to what will seem to
them as a life-saving option. Parents especially will be torn between
their faith and their children's welfare. Will they be able to subject
their young children to the fierce elements of the wild? Will they have
the strength to see their children suffer martyrdom? What happens when
their child is ill and needs medicine, do they let the child die or will
they do anything, even worship the beast, to save their child from
death? Others will be tormented with the thought of leaving behind their
wealth, their life-savings in the bank which they will not be able to
withdraw and even if they manage to withdraw it before the enforcement
of the mark, how will they be able to spend it unless they accept the
mark? Gold, jewels and everything we now consider precious will be
worthless without the mark.
We see then
that this mark of the antichrist, this economical embargo has only one
intention, a religious function, to force people to worship the
antichrist and Satan. We will have a choice, our soul be not be
destroyed if the mark it placed on us against our will; the fathers say
that the seal will be used as a sign that a person was sealed willingly
and consciously and accepts and believes in the Antichrist. Thus it is
not the seal that will destroy the soul, but the apostasy from Christ
which is the condition of receiving the seal of that number and the
material benefits that go with it.
The mark
that will be imposed on everyone will be the name of the beast or the
number of his name. What is the number of his name? This corresponds to
the numerical addition of the letters of his name based on the Greek
alphabet. Many have used other numerical systems like English, Latin or
Hebrew to calculate the name, for example Nero in Hebrew counts to 666
and using a special code the word computer also has the number 666. What
western minds forget is that the New Testament including the Book of
Revelation was written in Greek so the number 666 can only be decoded in
Greek. The wisdom to calculate 666 must be according to the Greek
language not any other.
With ancient
Greek, numbers were written using letters as each letter of the Greek
alphabet corresponds to a number. This numeric system is still used
especially by the church. The Latins also used letters to write numbers,
but this was a different system which used only seven letters of the
alphabet and therefore cannot be used to give a number to a name. I'm
sure you have all come across the Latin numerical system, I is used for
a single unit, V for five, X for ten, L for fifty, C for a hundred, D
five hundred and M for a thousand.
The Greek
system requires 27 letters, 9 letters for the single units 1-9, 9
letters for the tens, and 9 for the hundreds. As the Greek alphabet has
only 24 characters three letters which have become obsolete are used to
make the 27 letters needed, the digamma
ϝ also known as stigma, the
qoppa ϟ and the sampi
ϡ.
The name of
the antichrist will therefore be a name that when calculated according
to the Greek numerical system will be 666. In Greek this is written
χξϛ. It will therefore not be
some kind of birthmark that will appear on the antichrists body as
portrayed in the film "Omen" where the mark 666 was a birthmark on the
scalp of a boy.
We need to
say something about this number because so much has been said over the
years that some people are terrified at the sight of three 6's. The
number 666 is only a number, there is nothing sinister in it; is it a
number that comes after 665 and before 667. To think that the number is
of itself evil is to succumb to superstition. St. Gregory Palamas tells
us, that no number of itself is evil, for the whole creation, and
therefore all numbers, were created good by God.
When we
print things having a numerical order in many thousands, like paper
money, there are bound to be some notes that have the number 666
somewhere in the number. Should we then assume that those particular
notes have something to do with the antichrist, would anyone throw away
a 100 note because it contained the number 666?
It is not
the number that is the sign of the beast, but the name which makes up
this numerical number using the Greek alphabet. The number is not three
sixes as many interpreters refer to it, it is a single number 666. If
tomorrow you went to the bank to withdraw 666 would you accept 18
instead? You know that 6+6+6 does not amount to 666. Yet this is
what many interpreters are asking us to accept regarding the number 666.
The number 6
is associated with the number of man because man was created on the
sixth day. Thus they say that three sixes must represent a false
trinity. But according to this argument each 6 represents a man and the
three together represent three men. In our interpretation we saw that
there will be a false trinity, Satan, the antichrist and the false
prophet, but only two are men the other is a fallen angel. According to
scripture this argument doesn't have a leg to stand on. If the number 6
represents man because he was created on the sixth day, then the angelic
number is less than 6 because the angels were created at least before
the fourth day. We do not know exactly when the angels were created
although it is believed that they were created at the same time as
heaven which is the first day or just after. It is logical to say that
as the earth was created before man as a ready habitation for him, so
also heaven was created first before the angels as a ready habitation
for them. From scripture we know that the angels were created before the
stars which were created on the fourth day because it says in the Book
of Job: When the stars were made, all Mine angels
praised Me with a loud voice. (Job 38:7) It is pointless to try
and find a symbolic meaning to the number because there is no symbolism;
it is just a number that applies to one person in particular, a number
that when decoded will give us the name of the antichrist.
However, if
we insist on symbolism there is something we can say concerning the
number six. Seven as we have seen many times in the Book of Revelation
is representative of fullness and perfection. The seven spirits of God
refer to the fullness and the perfection of the Holy Spirit. The Lord
rested on the seventh day from his works and Christ rested in the tomb
on the seventh day and his soul descended to Hades where he destroyed
the works of the devil. If seven is perfection then six represents
imperfection falling short of seven. In spiritual terms seven represents
man before the fall, living in grace and communion with God, whereas six
represents man after the fall, seven minus one, exiled from paradise
without the grace of God. The number eight on the other hand, represents
resurrection and salvation. The day of Resurrection is referred to by
the church as the eighth day, a new day because when the Lord comes this
world will no longer exist as we know it; there will be a new heaven and
a new earth, not corruptible like it is now, but incorruptible and
eternal. The number eight therefore refers to Christ who is the
Resurrection and whether it is by coincidence or not, the name of Jesus
in Greek Ιησούς, when calculated using the Greek numerical system counts
to 888.
We may find
all this fascinating, but 888 is again just a number and we do not refer
to Jesus by his number, but by his name, and the same applies to the
antichrist.
St. John stresses "Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number
of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
What wisdom
is John referring to? Apparently he is referring to divine wisdom and
not to the product of man's reason and intelligence. St. John wants to
stress here that this information he is passing down to the generations
of Christians can only be understood through divine revelation and
illumination. John himself knows the name but it was one of the things
he was told not to write down. This knowledge was only for John and he
was not permitted to share this knowledge with the church. That is why
he wrote only the number of the name, because with just a number it is
almost impossible for us to know who it is as there are many names that
make up the number 666. Perhaps this information was also revealed to
the other apostles as well, but they also kept it a secret.
But we may
ask why is John creating this provocation by saying here is wisdom Let
him that hath understanding count the number of the beast. This is
somewhat provoking, but this provocation is not designed to frustrate
the reader, but its purpose is to draw his attention to provoke a
healthy curiosity. The reader needs to create an inner sense that the
antichrist is coming and each faithful needs to be vigilant. Moreover
very many characteristics of the physiognomy of the antichrist have been
made available and Holy Scripture is not lacking in this. So the only
thing lacking will be the name. Consequently what John is saying is that
you will not have any difficulty ascertaining the name if you become
knowledgeable of all his other characteristics and when the antichrist
comes the vigilant Christian will point him out immediately. Time and
experience will reveal the antichrist. Until then we are to remain
watchful looking for the many signs Christ has forewarned us of. When
the time comes, the faithful will know the identity of the antichrist,
which will be confirmed by the witness of the two prophets. If it was
necessary for us to know the name in advance, John would have revealed
it to us, but the grace of God did not want to have the name of this
savage included in the book of Holy Scripture.
As this is
our last talk on the Book of Revelation and our last talk of the season
I want to use the remaining time to answer some of the questions people
most often ask concerning the things mentioned in the Book of
Revelation.
One question
many people ask is if the so called millennial kingdom will intervene
between the coming of the antichrist and the second coming of Christ.
The answer is no. Christ appears immediately after the three and a half
years after the antichrist. The millennial kingdom has been totally
misinterpreted by the Jehovah Witnesses and all protestant
millennialists. There will not be a one thousand year kingdom after the
coming of the antichrist neither after the coming of Christ. Initially
the number 1,000 is used figuratively to denote a long period of time;
it is not a specific number like the three and a half years, but a
representative number as we saw with the 144,000 which represents the
number of the faithful. The thousand years represents the period between
the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ and is
interpreted by all the fathers as the time of the Gospel.
Another
question people ask is if the Second Coming of Christ is close at hand.
The Lord said concerning his second coming that of that day and hour no
man knows. Thus the actual day and hour is not for us to know, however
can the general time frame be known? Definitely, because immediately
after telling us that the day and hour is not known to man, he gave us a
list of signs explaining how the second coming of Christ will take
place. And when he gives us signs it means we can generally determine
the time frame based on these signs. One of these signs is the coming of
the antichrist who must come first. St. Paul was compelled to write
about this to the Thessalonians because some false teachers had deceived
them that Christ would come in a matter of a few days. Acting upon this
information, they gave up their occupations; they closed their shops and
generally stopped everything and waited for the coming of Christ. Thus
Paul wrote to them saying: "Let no man deceive you
by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 2: 3-4) In short Paul confirms
that Christ will not come unless the antichrist comes first.
Each
generation has wondered whether their time was the time of the
antichrist and throughout history many people were identified as the
antichrist only to be proven wrong when that person died. In our
generation there are a great many people who believe that we are in the
age of the antichrist or very close to it. Indeed the many signs which
could not be interpreted in previous centuries, have suddenly become
very clear to us and as we progress the meaning of many more signs will
come to light. As Christians we must be at all times vigilant and look
for the signs, but not to become fearful and despondent because our hope
and expectation must remain in the coming of the Lord.
Lastly many
people ask who will the antichrist be. The person of the antichrist has
been portrayed very well by the Holy Scriptures and has been interpreted
by many of the holy fathers. We have seen that he will be a man born of
a woman and the seed of an unknown man. The father will be unknown
because according to St. John of Damascus, his mother will conceive in
fornication, she will be a prostitute knowing many men and will not know
herself the identity of the man with whom she will conceive. Another
explanation is that the antichrist will be conceived by artificial
insemination which again explains why the father will be unknown. St.
John of Damascus who lived in the 8th century could not have known about
this form of conception which has only been perfected in our times.
Certainly as the antichrist is the monkey of Christ, who will assume to
mimic Christ in all things, his conception and birth will attempt to
mimic the conception and birth of Christ, who was born of a virgin
without a human father.
According to
St. Andrew of Caesarea and Ecumenius, the antichrist will be a direct
descendant of the Jews and more specifically a descendant from the tribe
of Dan which is not included among the tribes of Israel in the Book of
Revelation. Now we may ask that today there are really no distinct
tribes of Israel, how then would we know that the antichrist will be
from the tribe of Dan? The Jews today certainly do not keep catalogues
of tribes; however these were kept even through the Babylonian captivity
and the destruction of Judea. The public records were kept, if not for
all the tribes, they were at least kept for the tribe of Judah for the
coming of Christ. Based on these public records and catalogues, the
Evangelists Matthew and Luke were able to give us the genealogy of
Christ. This is significant because they needed to show the precision
and fulfilment of the prophecy of Jacob that the expectation of the
Messiah will come from Judah. The tribe of Judah remained intact for
Jesus Christ and the prophecy was proven true. For the antichrist the
prophecy exists that he will come from Jacob's son Dan however it is not
imperative for the tribe of Dan to remain intact. The prophecy was
partially fulfilled by Samson who was a judge and since part of the
prophecy was fulfilled, the rest of it will definitely be fulfilled
regardless of the fact that the tribe of Dan is not intact.
According to
St. Athanasius the Great the antichrist will come out of Galilee where
Christ also came from. Is it coincidence that after eighteen centuries
that Galilee is now inhabited by Jews again? Is this not another sign?
Galilee did not belong to Israel even in the times of Christ, but after
this Israel did not have a country for centuries. The Jews took Galilee
only a few years ago and is now inhabited with Jews. Clearly then when
the antichrist comes from Galilee we will be of Hebrew descent.
The fathers
say that when the antichrist first appears he will hypocritically appear
as a man of righteousness, as a man of holiness, but when he takes over
he will persecute the Church of God and will expose his entire evil
self. Why will he appear as righteous and holy? To influence and win
public opinion in order to be elevated to the political arena as a world
despot. St. Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, provides much more detail about
this external holiness of the antichrist. He says he will be meek,
loving, reserved, pious, peace loving, an enemy of injustice, an enemy
of bribery. He will not accept gifts, he will be against idolatry, he
will say that he loves the scriptures, he will respect the priests and
he will honour and respect the elderly. He will despise adultery; he
will be against fornication, against slander, against oaths. He will be
hospitable, merciful, kind to widows and a patron to orphans. He will
love everyone, he will advice people who are fighting to forgive and
make up. He will not possess any gold, he will not love money and he
will not amass wealth.
What amazing
characteristics, a beautiful, holy and extraordinary man. Now if you add
to this catalogue of holiness his miraculous power, you will see and
understand why people will be deluded. St. Hippolytus adds: When the
world community and the public officials see so many virtues and witness
his supernatural powers, they will all be of the same opinion and will
convene to make him a king saying to each other, is it possible to find
another man with such goodness and righteousness in our generation who
could govern us? In the beginning when this is offered to the antichrist
he will pretend modesty, he will say I am not a saint you're
exaggerating, but eventually he will accept and at the beginning of his
career he will govern the state of Israel and through Israel he will be
elevated as a planet ruler. Then his true nature will appear, he will
eliminate every religion on earth including idolatry, because he will
not tolerate anyone else to be worshipped other than himself. He will
erect the temple of Solomon and there the Jews will accept him as their
Messiah. There he will set himself up as God.
As yet attempts to
rebuild the temple have failed because the temple mount is controlled by
the Muslims, and the Jews have been forbidden to worship there. Also the
exact location of the first and second temples has not been verified
because the Muslims will not allow Jewish archaeologists to study the
area, although it is believed to be 110 meters north of the Dome of the
Rock. This has not stopped the Jews in hoping and preparing for the day
when the political climate will change and they will be in a position to
begin rebuilding the temple.
It is
rumoured that the Jews in America have the stones pre-cut and stored in
containers to be shipped for the building of the temple. We may ask; is
Palestine lacking in stones? After all the temple is not a very large
structure, its dimensions are approximately 30m x 8m. The Mosaic Law
prohibited stone craftsmen to operate inside Jerusalem. The sound of the
hammer and chisel was not to be heard in the city so the stones had to
be cut and shaped at a distance, then imported and put in place. This
was the will of God at that time and since the Jews supposedly wish to
keep the law of God, they have the stones ready to be transported for
the building of the temple. The building of the temple is another sign
and when we see or hear that its construction is near at hand, we can be
sure that the antichrist has already come because as the false messiah,
the Jews will accept him as their expected messiah and the temple will
only be built during his time. The various gold, silver and copper
vessels for the temple and the high priests vestments have already been
prepared and can be seen on the Temple Institute's website. Piece by
piece, the third temple is taking shape, and a new generation of levite
priests have been specially trained for temple service. These too are
signs and all this activity in preparation of the temple cannot be
interpreted as coincidence or the Jewish hope. Let him who has ears to
hear, let him hear.
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