THE RISE, REIGN, AND RUIN OF THE ANTICHRIST

Dr. W. A. Criswell

2 Thessalonians 2:3-12

3-18-84     10:50 a.m.

Second Thessalonians, chapter 2, beginning in the middle of verse 3 [2 Thessalonians 2:3]:

There shall come a falling away, and that man of sin will be revealed, the son of perdition;

 He is the one who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;

so that he, proposing to be God, sitteth in the temple as God, showing himself that he is God.

verse 7—

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.

[2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 7]

These things in the Bible are already moving toward their final consummation, and we’re gathered up in it. We are a part, inextricably, of it. “Only He who now prevents,” will prevent, and He’ll be “taken out of the way,” the Holy Spirit in the church, until we are raptured with the Holy Spirit to heaven [2 Thessalonians 2:7].  And then, after we are raptured:

…shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. 

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.

[2 Thessalonians 2:8-9]

It is an amazing revelation to me, one that I had not thought for before, how much the Bible portrays the rise and course of the Antichrist.  He is Satan’s finest and final masterpiece.  He has many types that we see in history, but all of it moves toward that final consummation when Satan’s incarnate presentation of himself to the world rises in the person and power of that Antichrist. 

What we shall do this morning is, we shall follow, chronologically in order, we shall follow the biblical description of this final, great ruler and dictator of the world, and the blaspheming antagonist to our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.  We shall take it book by book as he is presented in the Word of God.  Daniel, chapter 7, beginning at verse 7:

After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly … and it had ten horns. 

I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn … and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man…

[Daniel 7:7-8]

Intelligence and worldly wisdom “and a mouth speaking great things” [Daniel 7:8].  He has world-wide authority.  Verse 21: “I beheld, and the same horn.”  The horn is a sign and a symbol of a king.  “I beheld and”—the same ruler, the same dictator, the same king—“the same horn made war with the saints” [Daniel 7:21].  He’s at war with Daniel’s people and nation, and he’s at war with those who have found refuge in our Christ, “and he prevailed against them.”  He’s the victor. Verse 25:

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 there shall be given unto him and into his hand the people of God and the world for a time and a times and the dividing of times

for three-and-a-half years.

[Daniel 7:25]

These are the days of the Great Tribulation. 

We turn now to Daniel, chapter 8, the next chapter, beginning at verse 9, “And out of one of the horns came forth a little horn.” We meet him again:

… which waxed exceeding great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.

Yea, he magnified himself … And an host was given him … and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.

verse 17—

Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.

[Daniel 8:10-12, 17]

  The Lord is revealing this to Daniel about 600 B.C., but the time that the Lord speaks is even beyond us.  It’s at the time of the end. Verse 23: “And in that latter time a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,” that is, he rises and he uses falsehood and dissimulation to carry out his purposes:

… he shall rise up. And his power shall be mighty, and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

And he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall he destroy many.

[Daniel 8:23-25]

Over and over again, you’re going to see that presented.  He comes into the world as a champion of peace and progress and prosperity and rest and victory, and the great solution to all of our difficult problems. 

The next chapter, Daniel 9, verse 26: “And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  Verse 27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” [Daniel 9:27]  That time period is where the Revelation and the Book of Daniel speaks of three-and-a-half years and three-and-a-half years, the dividing of the week [Daniel 9:27, Revelation 12:6,14]].  Sometimes it will speak of it as forty-two months, the Great Tribulation, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days, or “a time, times, and half a time” [Daniel 12:7, Revelation 12:14], or “a time, times and dividing of times” [Daniel 7:28].  It comes from this time period in Daniel 9, verse 27. 

Now, we turn to Daniel 11:16, and here we read of him again: “But he that cometh shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him.”  Verse 21: “He shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flattery” [Daniel 11:21]. He’s going to be the great champion, the solution to the problems of the world.  Verse 31: “And they shall set up the abomination that maketh desolate” [Daniel 11:31].  Verse 36: “And the king shall do according to his will,” a willful king, “and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished”—until God’s judgment is fulfilled.  Now the next chapter, Daniel 12, verse 1, “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time … But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end,” and “the abomination that maketh desolate” is set up [Daniel 12:1, 4, 11]. 

Second Thessalonians 2:1-11, and I haven’t time to read it; it was a part of our text this morning; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11, in which he says:  One, the Day of the Lord will not come until first, Antichrist is revealed [2 Thessalonians 2:3].  Second, the sure sign of the Tribulation period, the sign of the Day of the Lord is the appearance of this Antichrist [2 Thessalonians 2:3].  Third: Paul calls him “that man of sin.”  Again, he called him the “son of perdition” [2 Thessalonians 2:3].   God has a Son that redeems the world [1 John 2:2].  Satan has an incarnate son that damns the world.  And Paul calls him “that Wicked.”  That’s the way it’s translated in the King James Version, “that Wicked” [2 Thessalonians 2:8].  The Greek word is ho anomos.  Nomos is the Greek word for law.  An “a” in Greek is a privative; it is a negation. So anomos is “the lawless one”—the one that doesn’t obey or observe any law in heaven or in earth—and that one must be revealed first before the Day of the Lord can come [2 Thessalonians 2:3]. 

Now we come to the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation, where the beast is described minutely—Revelation, chapter 13.  I don’t have time to read it.  In that chapter, there is one world political system, and he heads it [Revelation 13:2].  There is one world military system, and he leads it [Revelation 13:4, 7].  There is one world monetary system, and he controls it.  In Revelation 13:17, “No man can buy or sell without his mark.” There is one world religious system, and he is its object of worship:  Revelation 17:1-18.  Revelation 13, verse 6 says, “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and them that dwell in heaven.”  Now what on the earth could that mean?  Well in the previous chapter, chapter 12, there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels.  And Michael and his angels were victorious, and they cast Satan and his angels out of heaven [Revelation 12:7-9].  And that’s what this means.  He lifted up his voice to blaspheme them that dwell in heaven down here on this earth where he’s been cast. He shakes his fist to curse Michael and the victorious angels of God up there in heaven. 

In that chapter, 13:18, the number of the beast Antichrist is the number of a man, and his number is 666 [Revelation 13:18].  And there are ten thousand efforts through the ages by ten thousand thousand interpreters trying to identify the name of that man.  This final dictator, his number is 666.  As you know, in Hebrew, in Greek, and all those languages, each letter represented a number.  Well, his number is 666.  Now I want to tell you, verily, you will not know that man’s name until he is revealed.  Not until he arises in the earth will you know what 666 is.  All we can know from the revelation of God is that the number is the number of a man [Revelation 13:18].  That’s what he says, and the number of the beast is the number of a man. The number of God is seven—fullness, completeness, the glory of the sovereignty and omnipotence of God. 

Number seven.  The number of a fallen man is six—short of the glory of God.  He was created on the sixth day [Genesis 1:26-27].  His opposition to and blasphemy against God is often presented in the Bible in the number of six.  For example, Goliath was one of six brothers.  He was six cubits tall and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron [1 Samuel 17:4, 7].  Or take Nebuchadnezzar’s image.  It was sixty cubits high.  It was six cubits in breadth, and it had six kinds of instruments played at which the people were called to bow down before it [Daniel 3:1, 5-6].  Six is the number of a man, and this man is the superman: 666 [Revelation 13:8].  But we won’t know who he is until he is revealed in the earth. 

Now the occasion of his rise to power is very apparent in the Word of God, and I would say, confirmed by human history.  For example, in Revelation 6: 1-2, he comes riding a white horse of victory with the promise of peace and rest and prosperity.  In Daniel 11:21: “He shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”  When the super Antichrist, the world’s dictator, shall come he will rise to power on the platform of peace and prosperity and rest to the nations of the world.  He will announce to the earth, “I have the solution to all the problems of mankind.”

That is the cry of Israel.  If you’ve been in Israel, from one side of it to the other, from the humblest peasant to the Prime Minister himself, the cry of Israel is for peace and for rest from her surrounding enemies.  The cry of the world is for a solution to their insoluble problems.  Our politicians are not able to solve the problems.  We have, I think, some of the noblest and finest politicians in American history.  But all they do is plunge us further and further and further into that ultimate chaotic day of reckoning.  The international conflicts in this world are not capable of solution whether it be by a socialist, or a communist, or a democratic government.  The earth is looking for a man who can lead us out of the conflicts of our day, and mankind is looking for a man to solve our problems. 

Now, the Scriptures say that that composite superman will appear on the world scene before the days of the Great Tribulation [Daniel 9:26-27, 11:40-12:1; Matthew 24:15, 21].  And I have written out here, I have a composite picture of that man from what the Scriptures have said about him.  One: he will be intellectually superior with superhuman wisdom [Daniel 8:23, 11:21].  He will be politically astute.  He will be an economist of the highest order.  He will be a politician of shrewd and cunning adroitness [Daniel 8:24-25; Revelation 13:16-17].  He will be, at first, a special friend of the Jewish race [Daniel 9:27].  He will be versatile in his political gifts.  He will be a consummate flatterer.  He will be a superb strategist [Daniel 11:21-24, 40-45].  He will possess the genius of Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, Darius, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon.  He will be endowed with an irresistible and fascinating personality [Revelation 13:3-4]. 

Like Satan, who is an angel of light [2 Corinthians 11:14]—I have never in my life seen anything foisted upon mankind as the idea that come Satan has a horn, has two horns and a tail and a red suit and a pitchfork. That is a caricature, and I presume it pleases him. Satan is the most alluring, and wooing, and delightful, and delectable, and sought after of all of the things in human life.  That’s Satan.  He’s an angel of light [2 Corinthians 11:14].  He’s brilliant.  There’s no scientific theorem that he doesn’t know. He’s foisted it off on us such as evolution.  That pleases him. Teach these little kids evolution: “You come from monkeys.”  And when they act like monkeys, why, I wouldn’t be surprised.  You taught them they were monkeys. Then, they act like monkeys. That’s the Satan.  That doesn’t have anything to do with this sermon.  Let’s get back to it. 

We’re talking about the biblical picture of this Antichrist.  He promises to bring to mankind its golden age.  “You follow me, and I will bring you the peace and the prosperity that the nations cry for.”  He will appear with the credentials of never-varying success [Revelation 13:2-4].  There is something about mankind that worships success whether in the athletic field, whether in the monetary world, whether in the political world.  I never heard of this fellow, Hart, until just recently, but because of success, he makes the headlines of the papers.  This ultimate and final dictator will be a man of unvarying success and that impresses the world. 

In Revelation 17:13, it says the kingdoms of the world shall give their power and strength to him. He will seek to solve the problems of the earth by unsanctified human resources: by human culture, human science, human philosophy, and human government.  We’re told to look to God for our answers [Colossians 2:8-10, 3:1-2].  He will, as the world avidly follows, he will seek their solution in human genius. 

Now in Revelation 13:11-18 and in Revelation 17:1-18, to my amazement, there is revealed to us the religious leader called the false prophet, the second beast.  And he appears to support and sustain the world dictator.  There will be a world church, a world system of religion, and the man who heads that will support and sustain this world dictator, the Antichrist. 

In Revelation 17, verses 3 and 7, the scarlet harlot, the false prophet, rides on the back of the political beast.  In Revelation 13:12 it reads:

The false prophet causeth the earth and all them that dwell therein to worship the first beast.  He had power to give life unto the image of the beast, and caused that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

[Revelation 13:12, 15]

Had Nebuchadnezzar had the astuteness to build his golden image around a religious scheme, he would have been successful [Daniel 3:1-7]; instead of making it political, had he made it religious, he would have gotten by with it. But Satan doesn’t make that mistake twice.  This time the political worship of the beast is going to center around a false world religion and a false prophet who heads that religious system and who brings honor and glory and worship and adoration to that wonderful, successful world dictator, that superman, that antichrist—not religion but politics [Revelation 13:1-18]. 

In the Revelation there is a trinity from Hell.  Revelation 16:13 to 16, there is the dragon, the Satan, who imitates the work of God the Father.  There is the Antichrist, incarnate Satan, who imitates the work of God the Son, and there is this false prophet who imitates the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit’s work is to point us to Jesus [John 16:7-18]; and this false prophet, head of the false world system of religion, points to the political leader, the Antichrist [Revelation 13:12].

I must close. The tragic and catastrophic end of the Antichrist, this world dictator, is described in Revelation 19:20:

And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet … These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone…

chapter 20, verse 10—

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 forever and ever.

[Revelation 19:20, 20:10]

All manmade solutions fail—all of them. They always have and always will. The only ultimate and final answer to our problems lies in God alone.  We face inevitable death [Hebrews 9:27].  We face the opening of the grave.  We face the end of time.  Any scientist will tell you the very sun will one day burn out.  We face the end of the age. We face increasing political conflicts and national problems.  Who has a final answer?  It is God; it is our Lord. 

When I face the inevitable day of death, who can raise me up?  Can the hand of man deliver me from the hard, dark, cold clutches of the grave and of death?  Our answer, our hope is in Christ and in Him alone.