Will The Real Antichrist Please Stand Up.

It seems that many are now claiming that Donald Trump is the antichrist. Before that, it was Obama, and before that it was Clinton, and some have said it is one of the Bushes (I don’t know that it matters which one). Some said it was Reagan, some JFK, some Prince Charles or one of his sons, Prince William or Prince Harry. Some say it is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, or Erdogan, or Putin, or Solana, or any other of a dozen candidates. Some even say it will be Hitler reincarnated or rather brought back from the dead.

While speculation runs rampant, and in and of itself if kept under control there is no problem with speculation, there is a danger in participating in it in a more than speculative way. Herein lies the problem, and I will use a recent episode I experienced to show what that problem is. In the case of the hypothesis that the antichrist is Donald Trump, I had the unfortunate experience of “running into online” shall we say, a person who says he has written a book on Donald Trump (which he was unashamedly hawking in the most overt manner on someone else’s blog). He claimed that unequivocally and without error, Trump is THE antichrist of the Bible, and that he can show Scripturally why that is so. This person boasted repeatedly that no book had ever been written on the antichrist that is anything like his book. (There have been many books, articles, blogs, videos, etc. on the antichrist which he called “pap and drivel”.)

He made the claim that his is unparalleled among other writings and self-promoted his book nearly every other sentence, telling people if they wanted truth, they needed to buy it for they would get the truth nowhere else, yet he claimed to not be in it for the money. He belittled the person who wrote the article (blog) saying that the author didn’t understand Scripture, was wrong (the only thing the author said was that Trump did not Scripturally fit all the aspects of the antichrist and therefore was unlikely to be him), and needed to study the way in which he (the boaster) did. [Note: It so happens that the author of the article is very scholarly, very humble, very circumspect and careful about what he says, and always leaves room for flexibility in what he teaches, so that he does not state anything that cannot be absolutely proven as a fact. He leaves room for his own error in understanding and is extraordinarily patient with people who are nasty to him. I have seen very few prophecy teachers of his excellence.] Further this person was condescending and taunting to others who dared challenge his boasting by using Scripture to point out errors in his assertion, which he then mocked and rejected, patronizing them also, calling himself a martyr (yes, he literally called himself a martyr) for the cause of promoting this “truth.” It was a display of the most obnoxious unChristian arrogance and was very off-putting. He said his path was a lonely one. I have no trouble understanding why. Hopefully no non-Christians will read the article and see his comments for it leaves a bad taste in the mouth for Christians. We all have our moments when unfortunately we lose sight of being loving in our answers, but this went on and on and on. I have run into this same attitude in others who are promoting Trump as the antichrist or other truths which they have come by during their “revelations” through dreams and visions, which bear no resemblance to Scriptural truths. In the case of Trump, their hatred of him is palpable and coupled with this attitude of “I can’t be wrong, because God chose me for special revelation” it creates a serious problem, along with declaring to know truths that nobody can discern from Scripture, as there is not enough information. Speculation is one thing. Declarative truths on the other hand, which cannot be backed up by Scripture is another. It is Satan using Christians to mock God’s Word and other Christians. This should not be.

What I found interesting in the comments written by this person, was that it was not Scripture that he offered as proof (I don’t know what his book offers), but facts like Trump’s mother’s name was Mary, he had an aunt named Elizabeth, and a cousin named John. (I have no idea if that is true or not.) That when he was born there was a “blood moon” (I have no idea if that is true or not also.), and a host of other inane and unimportant data about Trump, none of which has any bearing on the beast, as it is not found in Scripture that these things are a criteria for the antichrist. His reasoning was that since antichrist is a mockery and imitation of Christ that these things mean something. Well, they don’t. They might be interesting facts, but they actually mean nothing concerning the antichrist, as far as Scripturally identifying him goes. I am sure in many families that tend toward using Bible names for their children, and looking at the generation when these names were popular, you will find this a common thing. I have known more Johns in my life than I can even count. And plenty of Marys and Elizabeths as well. It proves nothing. Nor does anyone having a boastful or arrogant personality prove they are the antichrist. That description could be applied to literally thousands of leaders and even applies to the person writing this book. So far out of twenty-four comments, some which were lengthy and supposed to be quotes from his book, he quoted one verse of Scripture. Not exactly a recommendation for his book or his proof.

The reason I am going into such a description of this person's behavior is because we need to be careful to whom we listen and what they are saying and be Bereans. An attitude of arrogant  boastfulness, and mockery should be a red flag at the beginning to make one check what someone says. As I said above, we all sometimes get pushed too far and have our moments, but it should not continue on and on and on. It is true that not all personalities are alike, but when one claims uniqueness in being the only purveyor of God’s truth, it is time for caution. Someone may actually have a new idea on interpretation, which one can check to see if viable, but Scripture is the only truth and it is unlikely that one person, whose knowledge is questionable and who offers coincidences and a lot of talk as proof rather than Scripture, is the only person with truth. Scripture is the only plumb line for what someone says. Interesting but irrelevant facts, biased attitudes, personal feelings, these are not the foundation of good theology. They might provide interesting speculation, but nothing more.

While I have not encountered a lot of people quite as boastful, there seem to be a lot of people out there who feel that they have had a “revelation” from God which then leads them to pick and choose some Scriptures, some out of context even, and apply them to a person of their choosing and then state that they have God’s truth on the matter that this person is the antichrist. This has been going on for 2000 years since Christ left, and to date, nobody has been correct. Why is that?

Well, other than it is not time yet, the thing which I chose to point out to this person was something which he and all these others who claim to have discovered the antichrist seem to miss or simply reject. The Bible, the one place we can look to for the absolute truth on the information on whom the antichrist will be, says that the beast or antichrist comes out of the bottomless pit or abyss. Revelation 11:7 “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” Revelation 17:8 “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” So it seems that the Bible tells us that the antichrist is not any human being themselves. He is a powerful demonic entity, but not Satan, as some believe. That would explain why he is the eighth head or king, and yet is of the seven. Revelation 17:10-11 “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” If the demonic beast inhabited and controlled each of these seven kings, then that would explain how the eighth person could be “of the seven.” The connecting factor between these eight people are that they were (seven were, one will be) all possessed by this beast. He was each one of them. While we may refer to the eight people as their human host (for instance Hitler seems to have been the eighth), the reality is, the person himself is no longer in control. They are not the beast themselves, they simply let him have their bodies as his host.

The truth of the matter is, it is irrelevant whom the person who is possessed is, for that person is not the person in charge of the body. That person no longer exists, so to speak, because the beast will be the person in charge. It matters not whether the person is boastful or powerful or charismatic beforehand, for that person will not be the person who is speaking and acting once the beast takes over. They will merely be the body which the beast uses to do his purposes. He will not be a silent partner. He will be the one who is boasting, who is arrogant, who shakes his fist in God’s face. The descriptions in the Bible belong to him. In Revelation 13:12 it says, “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.” The indication is possibly that the person whom the beast inhabits will have been killed and raised from the dead. This might very well indicate that what the beast inhabits is really a corpse which he keeps alive and the person himself is no longer living.

The point here that I am trying to make is this; it could be anybody, for the very character traits which are described in Scripture are the traits of the beast, not necessarily of the person he will possess. Could that person also be like that? Of course. Could it be one of the many candidates listed? Of course. But he, the person he is now, is not the beast. The beast is a demonic entity which will be allowed to come back up out of the abyss where he has been chained for the time being, and he will take over someone’s body. So in pointing to any person on the scene now, and calling them THE antichrist, or the beast, is bearing false witness against them. They may be an antichrist, for there are many antichrists out there, people who are against Christ, but when it comes to the beast, none of them are the actual beast himself. Even if their body gets possessed by the beast, and someone eventually will be, that person himself is not THE antichrist. The beast is the antichrist. The person controlled is the puppet. Without the beast, they could not achieve what will be achieved. They are just a necessary tool for the beast to be incarnated.

So we need to stop pointing fingers and accusing people, no matter how boastful, arrogant, or unlikable they are, nor where they come from, nor their ethnic roots, etc. People need to stop declaring that they have the truth on something which nobody can know for certain at this point in time (and some declare that it is they alone who know for certain due to “revelation” and I have heard this from people who think it is Bush, Kushner, Prince Charles and Solana, not just Trump). If one does put forth a candidate, they must do it with great circumspection and uncertainty and not treat those who disagree with mockery and condescension. That the person he possesses no doubt will have had congress with Satan is probably true, for all of those possessed before the last beast have been ungodly people and to take over someone who is alive, there must be previous interaction with Satan which provides permission for their body to be taken. However, as we cannot know in advance who that might be out of the many people who are ungodly, we need to stop bearing false witness and declaring someone as antichrist so far in advance. When he arrives, we will know it. Then there will be no question in anyone’s mind. And truly, is it important that we know in advance? No. Should we study and know what he will do and how he will act? Yes. So that when he does those things, we will then know who he is presenting himself as. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. His identity will present itself when we see him do the things prophesied in Scripture. But none of those things will happen until we get to the end – to Daniel’s 70^th week, and we simply aren’t there yet.