IN SEARCH OF THE REAL ANTICHRIST - Part 3

   Remembering that there is but one Antichrist, but many Antichrists has great significance. Now examine the power of Satan:

And the Lord said unto Satan, “Whence comest thou?” Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, “From going to and fro in the Earth, and from walking up and down in it” (Job 1:7)

   Then Satan left Job alone for he could not enter Job because of his faith. As James said years later, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7). Job had submitted himself to God, but Satan and his demons would not leave him alone. Satan came back the second time, God queried him as to where he had been, and the same response was forthcoming: “From going to and fro” and still walking the Earth (Job 2:2).

  Although Satan can move between the realms of heaven and Earth with ease and can transverse without resistance in the first heaven, according to Enoch, on the Earth’s surface, he is severely limited.

  If Satan had been able to enter Job, Job would have been Antichrist as he was once “good” and could rebel or defect (apostasy) from God just as Lucifer had done.

  Like Lucifer, Job was a “familiar friend” of God, but he remained a friend and kept the faith. Not only had Job believed in God as the demons and Satan did, but unlike them, he trusted God for safety until the temptations were over and certainly afterwards. Never forget that Job could have failed God and defected to Satan. That was what his trial was all about!

  That explains the dynamics of Satan and is how evil could flow from him to Job and his family. That contrasts with the virtue (dynamis in the Greek) that flowed from Jesus to overcome the world. Just as Satan and Jesus has such different dynamos, so does Antichrist from Christ in that Satan is the innermost being of the former and the Holy Ghost the innermost Being of the latter.

  Satan, therefore, is less dynamic and would choose only those persons who could do the most harm to Christians. At that time, Job was the most faithful of the faithful, so Satan selected him to test and use to diminish the Almighty God. Job was a wealthy and influential figure in his time and if Job fell, so would his God and others would follow Job to damnation. That was the plan devised by Satan.

  Of course, Nero, Caligua, and Herod were not faithful like Job but they each did good to the Jews at one time, and Nero had even been benevolent to Christians.

  Herod tried to kill Christ, Caligua had killed the Jews, and Nero the Christians. They were all adversaries (Satan’s) of God just as Freidrich Nietzche, although, as written previously, Niestzche may have been merely a tool of the Antichrist, like the demons alongside Satan confronting Job.

  It is difficult to discern just who is the Antichrist and who are the lesser principalities (arche; angels and demons who rule).

  Just as Michael and Gabriel are archangels of God, high ranking demon-possessed leaders are “principalities” who do the word of Satan among significantly powerful people.

  As it occurred, the philosophy of Nietzche was quite powerful, and now the Christian God is all but dead to mankind. Some have written that England, once a hotbed of Christianity, is now as defective as the putrid Laodician Church that would make God vomit (Rev 3:16).

  Many accuse popes of being the Antichrist. Since they are successive in power, then that would be possible. Since popes have been the Church’s (universal/catholic) authority since apostolic times, they have spiritual authority over the whole world.

  Some have been benevolent and others malevolent. Protestants may deny it, but some Catholics, despite their heresies, remain faithful Christians in much the same manner as the seven churches of Asia in Revelation. Churches are imperfect, Roman Catholics are the imperfect church, and so are Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, Campbellites, and even Pentecostals. Your own church is the imperfect church, and your doctrine is imperfect as well.

  Why is that? Doctrine is immutable and internally consistent as it is inspired by God. There are many versions of inspired Words of God, but it was spoken in the languages of their ages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. This may come as a blow to extreme denominations, but Jesus did not speak the King James English! So why is it the last word, when the Hebrew and Greek are the received text (Textus Receptus)?

  Although it is possible that all popes were Antichrist, each in their day, only the worst of the worst would be the Antichrist, and probably one that considered himself a “Caesar” (Pontificus Maximus).

  Of course, they all now claim to be Pontiff, but true Pontiffs were in the days when kings were subservient to the Pontiff. That was both during the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire which was built on the foundation of the first. Voltaire said that the latter was “neither holy, Roman, nor an empire.” It was a loose confederation of Gentiles, speaking in different tongues, whose kings bowed to the Pope. They were all about as unholy as they get!

  Catholics have chosen Peter as their first “Pope” although popism would follow several hundred years later out of arrogance of the Bishop of Rome. That was when Damasus, Bishop of Rome, was referred to as “Pope” (Father) in the 4^th century.

  “Father” was even more heretic than “Pontiff” because the latter belonged to Caesar but the former to God. The Pharisees sought power and glory, but Jesus set them straight when He corrected their errors:

⁷ And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. ⁸ But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. ⁹ And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. ¹⁰ Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. ¹¹ But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. (Mat 23:7-11)

   So, each pope who takes pride in that title are disobedient and maybe arrogant, but that would not make them Antichrist, albeit some surely were. Logical candidates for Antichrist in their times, were each Pope that would be so intolerant so much to kill Christians for not recognizing them as the authority. Hence, there were many Antichrists during the “Inquisition, “beginning in France in the 12^th century in the papal states, ending only after the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s.

  The foremost adversary of “heretics” (those who would not bow to popism and their church) was Pope Gregory IX. At least during the Inquisition, popes who enforced death for heretics, worked with the kings for that purpose, and were each Antichrist because they endeavored to wipe out true Christianity as practiced by the Waldenses and others.

  Later, Popish Antichrists were those who tolerated murderous regimes. Pope Pius VI was the unfortunate pope during the age of revolutions in Europe that nearly killed the Church and even Christianity when the Jacobian Club became the unofficial church.

  Pius was not Antichrist but someone who destroyed the Church most certainly was! Everyone always look for popes to be Antichrists but actually some were protectors of the faith, albeit a very imperfect faith!

  If there was an Antichrist during the Age of Revolution; then it would be Maximilien Robespierre who was noted for his disdain of Christianity, authority, and the ideology of that time.

  The bay outside of Paris was full of headless bodies of his opponents, even those who were innocent of any seditions at all.

  The executioner’s tool was the guillotine whereunder thousands upon thousands were beheaded because they would not deny Christ, the king, or civility. Like Herod long before, Robespierre conducted the Slaughter of the Innocents. If he was not the Antichrist, then nobody before him was! Why make such a declaration?

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands… (Rev 20:4)

  Doing evil as Robespierre was surely done, not because there was a demon in him, but because, at least for a time, until he was next to be beheaded, he was “Antichrist.”

  That “broken cross” (baton) would have been passed to one of those who continued the atrocities until Napoleon received it.

  More so than Marx who was a coward and never executed anyone himself but only suggested it; Robespierre dictated it and enforced the rule of his law. He was the “Beast” and those who worshiped the Goddess of Reason (Libertas) were the principalities. Robespierre was the instigator of a 19^th century attempt of the “Great Reset” with a new god, a new government, and even with a new calendar. The revolutionaries were so hateful of God that they threw away the Julian Calendar and developed their own rational calendar.

  And finally, Miss Liberty, a decadent opera singer dressed as such, was worshiped in Notre Dame Cathedral after the “merchants of Christ” were thrown out. Miss Liberty had become “Jesus” to those so enlightened during the “Enlightenment” of the Age of Reason.

  Unfortunately, although the United States perfected a better form of government in the years before that under God with life, liberty, and justice for all; it has been contaminated by the French socialists who made for us and idol which stands tall in New York Harbor; albeit God is no longer welcome of these divided states of America.

  America was founded on Christian principles, but it too was an imperfect union. Somehow Satan slipped under the carpet of the room where the Constitution was written. More on that later, but next, Napoleon will get dishonorable mention. 

(picture credit: Wikipedia; Maximilien Robespierre)

IN SEARCH OF THE REAL ANTICHRIST - Part 2

  But before moving on, consider the exact meaning of “antichrist.”

  The root noun is “Christ” and the identity of that “Christ” is prepped by “anti,” meaning against or in place of” (Strong’s Dictionary). The First Commandment narrows that down if taken literally as “in the face of God.” (ibid). Now examine scripture:

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:22)

   Atheists deny the Father and the Son exist, but atheists do not claim to know the Father and the Son, hence, the Antichrist is one who knows the Father and the Son yet denies them. Antichrist is one who would deny that the Father and Son are one, most certainly, but that entails denial of that He who has seen the Father has seen the Son, to wit: “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him (John 1:18).

  That Jesus is in the Father is declared therein. Hence, not only would Antichrist deny the Father and Son, but also that they are one and the same. Jesus died for that cause; He declared that He and the Father are One. Thus, those who crucified Jesus all denied that the Father and Son is One because that is what the crucifixion is all about. In other words, Antichrist denies that the sacrificial death of Jesus was frivolous, as foretold in the Third Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exod 20:7).

  Jews know the Lord God but take His Name, Jesus, in vain. Not alone, Christians know the Lord God and take His Name in vain. Not that saying His Name carelessly is the decisive issue but that the very purpose of Jesus is taken without efficacy. Hence, he who knows the Lord God but then denies Him is the Antichrist. But there is more!

  Those who deny Jesus, deny the Father, but by denying the purpose of Jesus is to deny the Holy Ghost. The death of Jesus revealed that the Holy Spirit of old is the Holy Ghost of the Man-God Jesus. Scripture refers to the three statuses of God as the Godhead, “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). So, denying the Body of Christ is denying the Godhead, or “Holy Trinity,” as theologians say. In the Greek, Godhead is Theotes; “the state of being God” (ibid) which Theotes is to be taught to the world and symbolized by, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mat 28:19).

  The “One Baptism” from scripture (Eph 4:5) would be “baptism by the Holy Ghost” (Mark 1:8). Denying that the soterial baptism (not by water), but by the Holy Ghost of Jesus, “blaspheme(s) the Holy Ghost” (Mark 3:29) which results in eternal damnation.

  Therefore, Antichrist is always one who once knew the Holy Trinity of God in three substances but denies His Substances. That the Holy Spirit (the Comforter) is any less than Jesus and any less than God is blasphemy.

  Lucifer and all the fallen angels know and even believe in God (Jas 2:19). Lucifer is Antichrist who appears often in the “face of God” as the Books and Adam and Eve indicate. John saw in his Revelation that Antichrist appears as “Christ.”

  Christ is God in the flesh of man and King of all. Lucifer, as Antichrist, aspires to that position:

¹³ …I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: ¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isa 14:13-14)

   Hence, Antichrist is Lucifer, and he aspires to be both God and King, and furthermore he is the “familiar friend” of Jesus (Psalm 41:9). That seems to pertain to Judas who Jesus would encounter and select as His apostle, but more so, the Satan in Judas, who was once the friend of God but rebelled.

  Antichrist is the one person who has Satan (the Adversary of God) in him. The “Serpent” (the “Beast” of Revelation) seems to be Satan in a Serpent but may very well be the “Satan” in Lucifer.

  Regardless, the “Serpent” was the Antichrist, but do not think of the “Serpent” as a mythological being but the beautiful angel, Lucifer, with guile in him since he “beguiled” Eve (Gen 3:13). Of course, literally, the Serpent deceived her (Hebrew; nasa) but that is repeated in Greek (exapatao); “seduced” (ibid).

  Satan somehow put his “substance” in Eve, and Cain was of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12). Likewise, Satan “seduced” Judas with silver, and Satan entered Judas, and made him the “Adversary” of Christ.

  With that background, Antichrist can be recognized as a being, usually in the form of a man, who believes in Christ so much that he denies Jesus and promotes himself as Christ. Hence, Satan is always Antichrist in all ages. Antichrist is all men in history who have Satan in them, and they cannot exist at the same moment because Satan is not God and as such is limited to one place at any given moment.

  Antichrist was obvious in some instances. That the Serpent is the original Antichrist is obvious, but that Cain was the Antichrist, less so. His name means “Wanderer” and in Nod (outside Paradise), he populated the earth with his Anti-Messianic seed.

  Who was next is not definitely known but Genun, the seed of Cain had Satan in him. Genun was Antichrist, but there may have been some others before him.

  Cain was the “Adversary of God” since he denied Abel who perhaps was the body of Christ in the world at that time; not to be heretical, but his meat sacrifice would have covered the grain sacrifice for Cain, but Cain was adversarial against Abel and slayed him. God said that the blood of righteous Abel cries out from the grave, so his was the sacrificial blood in that age (Mat 23:35).

  Cain was Antichrist and Abel, Christ. Just as the Satan in Cain murdered Abel, Satan in Judas murdered Jesus. Abel (Hebel) means “breath.” Abel was the “Breath of God,” and in like manner, so was Jesus.

  When the Father “overshadowed” Mary, just as he generated Adam, He would have generated Jesus by breathing life into the womb of Mary with no type of intercourse involved, unlike with Cain. Since Eve created Cain (Gen 4:1) after being seduced by the Serpent with carnal knowledge, forthwith, all men would be created by carnal knowledge except for three: Abel, Isaac, and Jesus. She bare Abel (Gen 4:2) with no mention of Adam nor the Serpent. The Father of righteous Abel was as his name suggests; that God breathed his life unto Eve.

  If nothing else, Cain was the negative antitype of Jesus and Abel the positive Antitype, so Abel would be “Christ” and Cain, “Antichrist.”

  Just a few in the Bible were specifically endowed with Satan. Pseudepigrapha (sacred literature) does name Genun, the seed of Cain, as having Satan in him, and that seed caused the world to perish. So, Genun was obviously Antichrist for that age.

  Herod was not said to have Satan in him, but as king-adversary of Jesus who planned the act and thought he had murdered Jesus when an infant, as Herod have up his ghost, then Herod the Great, was the “Great Hunter” who thought he had done what Nimrod tried.

  So, anyone who directly attempts to kill God, is Antichrist. As the “Mighty Hunter” Nimrod hunted God even in the heavens to kill Him.

  To be Antichrist, it is a required that a significant figure who once knew God, defects from Him just as Lucifer did in the beginning in the heavens where he pre-existed.

  Antichrist will persecute God’s people after the Person of God (Jesus) ascended. With Jesus in another realm and His Ghost remaining in the world, then no longer can the Person of God be attacked, thus the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is all that is possible and that is by denying the Word of God, who was the Invisible Entity of God in the beginning (John 1:1-14).

  Skipping over many generations, the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, wrote:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

  Nietzche was a contributor to the Age of Enlightenment wherein science and philosophy replaced, not all religions, but Christianity specifically. The philosophy of Nietzche killed the idea of Jesus. Not only did Nietsche kill God in Name but Spirit.

  Since God could not be seen, according to science, God is not real, and by the philosophy of science, Nietsche killed God and with that notion; and during his lifetime, European socialist governments replaced republics and monarchies. Thus, in his day, during the “Age of Reason” that commenced in the mid-seventeenth century and continues to that time, Nietsche killed God; he crucified God with his adversarial words and as such his ideas became the thoughts of adversaries of Christianity.

  Most certainly, at least for a short time, it seems that Nietzche was Antichrist.

  He had to know Christ to be adversarial to Him. Nietzche was the son of a German Lutheran pastor and knew Jesus well. He knew Christ and denied Him, so according to Hebrews 6:6, Nietsche crucified Jesus afresh! To be Antichrist, Nietsche would somehow be instrumental in government affairs as was Lucifer, Nimrod, Herod, Caius, and Judas.

  Judas was political? He was a “nobody” from Kerioth! Not so, he was the tool of the shadow government. In the past, under the Hasmoneans, John Hyrcanus, was both King of the Jews and Chief Priest. Many chief priests sought to be king of the Jews. The chief priest who had Jesus crucified was Joseph ben Caiaphas, who presided over the Great Sanhedrin, the “court” that tried Jesus and found Him guilty of His claim to be God.

  The Sanhedrin were as much a shadow religious government that governed the king using God’s Laws, and most often kings bowed to the will of the Sanhedrin so to keep the government that they had. The trials of Jesus revealed who were the true power. Neither king nor governor could hang Jesus, but the Sanhedrin could and did. Even Caesar feared the Jews because he (Caligua) backed off when he tried to be their God rather than Yahweh.

  The Chief Priests were the Power, and Judas their tool. For a day, Satan was in Judas, and shortly, at least for three more days, Satan was in Caiaphas who was Antichrist for that period. Hence, Judas was part of the “shadow” government, the “shadow” representing Lucifer who was in the ones that killed God, according to Jesus (John 19:11).

  Now back to the nineteenth century: Nietzche was not the “government” but was the “tool” for the government just as Judas. He was Antichrist during the Age of Reason, and as such, he caused the worst governments, along with some others, that ever existed. Communism and its twin, Nazism. You see, without God, government can do anything it wills to do, and that is the problem in this day!

  Herod built a Temple, not for God, but for himself! (Some say restored, but Josephus wrote built.) His will was to please the Jews to keep them from rebelling. By appeasing the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, Herod did about whatever he wanted, but never without the approval of Julius Caesar, according to Josephus. Caesar was truly Herod’s “god” just as claimed to be. Not only Julius but Augustus Caesar (Octavian) became Herod’s “god” once Julius was stabbed in the back by a plot of senators.

  Therefore, Antichrist is not always the most powerful but those the most powerful use to diminish God and increase their power over the people. That is what Nietsche created in the minds of pretenders to the thrones of kings and republicans during the power struggles in Europe in the 1800s. Nietsche caused Hitler! However, as you shall see, Hitler revived Jesus but made his “Jesus” a Nazi. (Keep in mind that Antichrist must know Christ to be the Antichrist.)

(picture: By Keith Schengili-Roberts - Own Work (photo), CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1864568)

IN SEARCH OF THE REAL ANTICHRIST - Part 1

   The prospect of the “end” (telos) is when time is terminated and the righteous whose faith endures shall be saved. Termination (telos) for mortals is at their own death. (Mat 10:22). For mortals the end is at their own worldly termination, thus to “die is gain,” according to Paul. The end for us as at out termination, but the end of the world is somewhat different — in the Greek; it is synteleia, when the “harvest” is harvested, and the “tares” burnt (Mat 13:40. The implication therein is that the good fruit that endures to the end of time shall not suffer burning.

  So far, “the end” is for the individual and the world but the heavens shall never end. Matter will be destroyed but “anti-matter” the unseen existence shall carry on after the matter is removed from it (Luke 21:33).

  The first heaven shall pass away but the third heaven (Paradise and Hades both) shall never pass away. Just as Paradise is eternal in the unseen realm, so is Hell. The “tares” will burn but never burn completely.

  The apocalypse is not the end of time, but a revealing of its end. The “apocalypse (apokalypsis) is when Christ appears (1 Pet 1:7). The “Day of the Lord” is syntelia when God darkens existence. The apocalypse is the revealing of that Great and Terrible Day, and since the beginning of time God revealed to Apocalypse to many; most notably Daniel. With that said, the end is coming, and if anyone perceives that, that is an apocalyptic vision. That means that the Apocalypse is believing the end is coming based on the Word of God. Hence, the end is not the Apocalypse but a “Syntelia.”

  The Syntelia is preceded by the rule of the Antichrist. There are many viewpoiints whether Christians shall suffer great tribulation or not. The “Great Tribulation” is foretold in scriptures:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Mat 24:21)

  Great Tribulation shall be as in the days of Noah but worse! Speaking of the Great Tribulation, Jsus said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mat 24:13). Baptists lean toward the Christian escaping the Great Tribulation because it aligns with eternal security. However, it seems that Christians will experience Great Tribulation just as righteous Noah did. However, Noah for 120 years kept his eye on the prize and by faith through tribulation, he was delivered from the day of the Lord of that apocalypse. Who is right is of no consequence as even Christians are warned of Great Tribulation. Whether they experience it or not is almost irrelevant; they should live as if they will experience it!

  Speaking to His disciples (Christians) Jesus said about the end (the Great Tribulation):

Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Mat 24:30)

   Why would Jesus warn His followers of Great Tribulation if it did not pertain to them? His Word spoke of the Apocalypse, as a warning, to Christians. Why would He do that? So that they would be aware of what was coming and live as if it is today.

  However, before the Great Tribulation, there is a warning provided to Christians: “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Mat 24:8). Those things are detailed in he previous verses and describe the situation at any time in the world. However, Jesus was speaking of a greater tribulation than ever before and the time of sorrows previous to it.

  As we are now in the New Age (Aquarian) and out of the Age of Christ (Pisces) those warnings pertain to the present. The Aquarian Age, according to New Agers is the Age of the Antichrist. Before the Antichrist is discussed, it is to be noted that Christians will live during the time of sorrows, but will escape the Great Tribulation, to wit: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened” (Mat 24:22).

  Those days are the seven-years of Great Tribulation. Christians will evidently live through the first 3-1/2 years of Great Tribulation, and much of the time of sorrows, which will precede the Greatest Tribulation ever to be seen.

  There are three ideas regarding the coming of the Lord: (1) Pre-tribulation before the Great Tribulation, (2) Post-tribulation, coming after the Great Tribulation, or (3) Mid-tribulation coming after the peaceful 3-1/2 year reign of the Antichrist. Rather, the snatching up (rapture) of Christians appears to be after the time of sorrows in the Great Tribulation.

  If the time of sorrows was now, then the Antichrist would be known.

  There are two types of Antichrists: (1) Those who are demon possessed having a spirit (demon) of Satan in them (1 John 4:3) and those who have Satan in them. The Antichrist will be Lucifer in the flesh who appears as a “Light Bearer” to the world but inside, his supra-nature is Satanic. As such, Christians must stay sober and remain vigilant to see the “Shadow” inside the “Light Bearing” one (1 Pet 5:8). Why be sober and vigilant if not in jeopardy of deception?

  Scripture identifies those with Satan in them:

(1)    Cain (1 John 3:12) says that he was of the Wicked One.

(2)    Genun (2 Adam and Eve 20:2) “as to this Genun, Satan came into him in his childhood.” That is in sacred writing. but they are at least early commentary on the days preceding Noah’s Ark.

(3)    Not stated directly but implied, is Canaan who was cursed (Gen 9:25).

(4)    Nebuchadnezzar because he made himself out to be Almighty God but reduced to a beast as Satan is in the end (Dan 6).

(5)    Certainly Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3) who Satan had specifically entered.

(6)    Last but with possibly many more in between, is the Antichrist who has Satan in Him at the last battle.

   Those all were Antichrists because Satan was certainly in them all. However, there are “many Antichrists” (1 John 2:18). Antichrists are (antichristos), “adversaries of Christ” (Strong’s Dictionary), and there are literally many against Christ, and so many are Antichrists but not at the same time because Satan is not omnipresent!

  It appears that Satan often imbues a significant person with his spiritual presence. The Book of Job appears to be an attempt by Satan to overcome him, because Job was a righteous man with great health and wealth. Satan enters some at their birth as he did with Genun, according to the sacred writings, but generally, the entrance is by one allowing him in either by negligence (insobriety or non-vigilance) or by defection.

  Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” is said by some to be blindness, but that is not clear (pun intended), to wit: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Cor 12:7).

  For Paul, it was a “messenger of Satan.” As Paul preached against Gnosticism so much in his journeys, apparently the “thorn” a messenger whose message was poisonous to the doctrine that he was preaching. Early history reveals that Simon the sorcerer (Simon Magus) journeyed himself and taught the “anti-gospel” that it was only a phantasm that died on the Holy Cross and not the Man Jesus.

  Perhaps Simon had been at the crucifixion and saw what the centurion saw; that the Holy Ghost had gone out of Jesus. Usually, Antichrists are serious about their beliefs, and the only evidence they would need is that, as Luke wrote about his baptism, he saw the Holy Ghost of Jesus light upon Him (Luke 3:22). Those who stood by at the crucifixion would see the Holy Ghost and focus on that, especially since Jesus was soon risen from the dead!

  Gnosticism is “Anti-Christianity” and it about won over Christianity; and Satan to this day buffets mankind with that false religion of secret knowledge.

  Paul was buffeted, not by Satan himself, but the messenger of Satan. As it turned out, in those days, Simon was the Antichrist, as he professed to be the real “Christ.” Simon, as it is written, had the power of levitation in mockery of Christ arisen. Simon had served his purpose. Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus, and Epiphanius wrote about Gnosticism and its founder Simon Magus.

  Simon is associated with the occultic as “Simon the Druid” and recognized as the founder of druidism by many. Simon was the thorn in the flesh of mankind and was an antitype of Jesus.

  Jesus had His thorn in the flesh as well with a crown of thorns. The soldiers made a crown of thorns and put it on the head of Jesus to mock him (John 19:2). Surely the centurion that pierced Him, instigated by someone else, had mocked Jesus, and the crowd saw that mockery. It makes sense that Simon would mock Jesus given the same event.

  First off, Simon was a “bewitcher” and presented himself as the “Great One” — the Savior (Acts 8;9. Simon was the Antichrist in his day, and upon his death, physicians cut Simon into pieces, much like the death of Judas and Jesus when their bowels were exposed, and their spirits released.

  When scripture says that the Serpent “beguiled” Eve (Gen 3:13), it means that Satan bewitched her. Eve may have had, for a short time, Satan in her, either figuratively or literally. For Cain to be of the Wicked One, Eve would have had the “Serpent” in her womb until the Word provided for her a garment of chastity (Gen 3:21).

  By grace, God had removed Satan from her when she soon saw her Creator as the Man, Jesus (John 1:1-3, 14). All grace requires is to see Jesus as God, as is learned from the Greeks (John 12:21). So, add Eve, “the adulteress,” and “mother of all living” to the list above, albeit God saved her from the Wicked One.

  With that background. it seems probable that upon the death of Judas, Satan went into Simon, or else the story of Simon would not have importance. Simon had affection for Jesus but once he saw that he could profit from his faith, he defected from Jesus, thereafter, seeing the Holy Ghost as only a way to make money (Acts 8:19-20). Simon, once having affection for the Holy Ghost, defected from Him for money. That is called apostasy and the money aspect of it makes it the “Simony,” and defection is apostasy and a “falling away” (Heb 6:6).

  Simon, the person, was the messenger of Satan, it seems, and had Satan in him. He buffeted Paul just as the mockers buffeted Jesus (Mat 26:27). Paul faced the same buffeting as did Jesus, and most assuredly by the same Wicked One.

  The time of death of Judas is unknown, but perhaps Satan in Judas went to and fro as he pleased as in the time of Job (Job 1:7). Perhaps Satan got into one in the crowd to buffet Jesus. With that said, perhaps Satan was in someone at the crucifixion of Jesus, and the Antichrist was there buffeting the Savior. In like manner, Satan bewitched the aggressor leading his “wolves” to the slaughter of the “sheep.”

  The point to this background is that Satan always uses prominent people to kill God. Not in the list above is Nimrod, “the mighty hunter,” who built a tower to kill God (Gen 10:9). Nimrod would have Satan in him, and as such, Nimrod would have been the “Antichrist” of that age. Therefore, add Nimrod to the list of those who had Satan in him thus enlarging the list of Antichrists.

  Perhaps that is what is meant by “many Antichrists” in scripture! They are not types of Antichrists (negative antitypes of Jesus) but real Antichrists, not that there are many at the same time, but that Satan can go to and fro, not to dwell in human beings, but long enough to change who they are!

  Judas was a familiar friend of Jesus (Psalm 41:9). With Satan in him, Judas, for just long enough to kill Jesus, became the Adversary (Satan) of Jesus. For one day, Judas was the Antichrist, then Satan moved on because Judas had defected from Christ. Someone at the crucifixion was the next Antichrist, and perhaps it was Caiaphas, the chief priest, who led the buffeting.

  Jesus as much as said son to Pontius Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin” (John 19:11). Who had the power that hour? Caiaphas, and his power was ordained by God.

  Caiphas even felt guilt before he would kill Jesus, not accepting the blood money (Mat 27:6). Caiaphas means “man of stone” (Abarim Publications) and is a version of “Peter.” The Church would be founded upon Peter, some say, but it was founded upon Christ. Was Jesus referring to the false Church on, not Peter, but Caiaphas? That will never be known! However, Caiaphas committed Simony when he used the Temple, allegedly built for God, to become a den of thieves for profiteering, thus committing the sin of usury (Simony) against those who were too poor to farm their own animals for the sacrifices.

  Jesus provided the evidence that Caiaphas was His greatest adversary, and for the crucifixion, for a time, was the Antichrist.

  And the list goes on! There were many Antichrists called “Caesar.” The name has great significance:

From the verb caesa, to cut (hence C-section), or its adjective caesius, cutting or piercing (of eyes, or one's stare)… The title Caesar became the hereditary title of the Roman emperor, and in effect marks the instigator and perpetrators of the most heinous and persistent case of nationalistic crime in humanity's history, namely the murder of a republic headed by a popular senate and its replacement by a totalitarian empire headed by one man, and one deified to boot. (ibid)

   Thus, Gaius Julius Caesar would be the Antichrist until Brutus and Longinus relieved him of Satan with his stabbing. Is it really coincidence that Longinus was one who removed Satan from within Caesar, as he claimed to be God in the flesh, and that Longinus was the name of the centurion who pierced the side of Jesus to release the Holy Ghost in the Savior? God does not use coincidences, but it is all part of His Plan. So, add, Julius Caesar to the list of Antichrists, and Satan moved on.

  Augustus Caesar (Octavian), the great nephew of Julius Caesar, became emperor, but although he was regal, Octavian passed along the Holy Land to Herod, and made Herod “the Great.” Herod became King of the Jews and missed the opportunity of becoming King of the Arabs (Nabateans) because it was meant for him to be only the “king of the Jews.”

  Him and Jesus had the same title! He was certainly the Antichrist. With that power, like Nimrod long before, Herod became the “great hunter” and not only hunted down his Arab brethren but Jesus, the Christ Himself.

  Caesar had missed his chance to abort God in the womb, so to speak, and the task became Herod’s who would use infanticide with the “massacre of the innocents.” He missed killing the Christ because that was not in God’s Plan. However, Herod attempted to die a death much as both Jesus and Judas would! (Note that Longinus did not kill Jesus, but Jesus sacrificed Himself. So did Judas, but only God’s sacrifice was acceptable.)

  About the death of Herod, Josephus wrote:

After this, the destemper seized upon his whole body, and greatly disordered all its parts with various symptoms; for there was a gentle fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all the surface of his body, and continual pains in his colon, and dropsical tumours about his feet, and an inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of his privy member, that produced worms. Besides which, he had a difficulty of breathing upon him, and could not breathe but when he sat upright, and had a convulsion of all his members, insomuch that the diviners said, those diseases were a punishment upon him for what he had done to the rabbins. Yet did he struggle with his numerous disorders, and still had a desire to live, and hoped for recovery, and considered of several methods of cure. Accordingly he went over Jordan, and made use of those hot baths at Callirrhoe which ran into the lake Asphaltitis, but are themselves sweet enough to be drunk. And here the physicians thought proper to bathe his whole body in warm oil, by letting it down into a large vessel full of oil; whereupon his eyes failed him, and he came and went as if he were dying; and as a tumult was then made by his servants, at their voice he revived again. Yet did he after this despair of recovery, and gave orders that each soldier should have fifty drachmæ a-piece, and that his commanders and friends should have great sums of money given them. (Josephus; Antiquity of the Jews).

   Herod did not die yet, but although he would consider suicide by the lance, he would not because the massacre of the innocents had not been accomplished. He had not killed God so it would be left to someone else to do the job just as with Moses and Zipporah with Gershom.

  With his wicked son, Antipater, dead, it would not be his son who would have Satan in him but perhaps some appointed priest.

  Note that Herod had a distemper — a viral disease usually associated with other species. Ironically, God had used a virus to drive out the viral Satan in Herod. God used a virus to kill the virus of sin in Herod. Was that what Jesus meant when he asked of those who mocked Him as the one who had Satan in Him, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” Satan cannot do that, but God cast out Satan from even Herod for another day and another Antichrist! They accused the Christ of being the Antichrist!

  The Christ was in the “business” of casting out Satan and it was Jesus who cast Satan out of Herod by a virus, and the dead flesh became worm-infested just as Isaiah foresaw the many deaths of the hosts of Lucifer, as he wrote, “Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee” (Isa 14:11). That applied to Herod, the pompous “Great” and would to Judas as well. In fact, death is accompanied by worms to all who sin, eventually, because they will be with the “Worm” Antichrist in Hell.

  Now for more of the many Antichrists who are not in the Bible. Antichrists can be thought of as adversaries of Christ, but specifically many with “The Adversary” in them, not a different demonic angel but Lucifer himself. As can be seen from scripture, the Antichrists are all highly significant people of power who have the motivation and means of killing Christ or trivializing the Doctrine of God.

  Cain had power over most of the world, other Antichrists also have power on either a global scale or in proximity to Christ.

  The same factors will be considered when determining just who were the Antichrists outside of biblical canon. The easiest one to identify is “Caligua,” (Caius Caesar), or Gaius (Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus). He was the son of a prominent general, Germanicas and the elder Agrippina, granddaughter of Augustus Caesar. He was best friends with Herod Agrippa who may have even been named their maternal family name, not to forget that Herod the Great was close friends with the Caesars.

  Theretofore, the Romans had been great friends of Herod and extremely tolerant of them and their exclusive laws, even ruling that, foremost, the Law of God superseded even the law of Caesar. Then came Caligua.

  Germanicas’s adoptive father was Octavian Caesar, the son of Augustus. Hence by birth, Caligua was a negative antitype of Jesus as Joseph was with His adoptive father and Mary his royal bloodline. Just as Jesus was a rightful heir to the House of David, Caligua was rightful heir to the brutish Augustus who had to be put down by Longinus and Brutus. As it turns out, Caligua was as brutish as Augustus and the Senate again had to put him down.

  Thus, Caligua had the temperament and birthright to be the Antichrist and earned that designation because of one main thing: He attempted to be God, soon after Jesus arose (41 AD). With that thought, another biblical Antichrist was Nebuchadnezzar who did the same thing with the Jews during the Diaspora in Babylon.

  There, Jesus, God Himself, who Nebuchadnezzar saw saving Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, was put down to crawl on his belly like the Luciferin “worm” he was, in the form of a grass-eating beast. So, add Nebuchadnezzar and Caligua to the list of Antichrists.

  God put down Nebuchadnezzar and in like manner God got into the Jews who defied the soldiers of Caligua who backed them down. You see, Satan can be backed down!

⁶ But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jas 4:6-7)

  But that would apply to Christians alone would it not? Well, God said that He would never leave nor forsake His people, and Paul reminded the Hebrews of that when he wrote God’s promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5), quoting 1 Kings 8:57.  However, Paul wrote earlier what could happen and it did:

It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb 6:4-6)

 

  Paul was speaking to the Hebrews about Christians who had the Holy Ghost in them. He said that they could “fall away” and would put Jesus to shame by blaspheming the Holy Ghost. In the Greek, “fall away” is apostasia — to defect from the One to whom there was once affection. By the time Paul wrote these words, (written late in the first century AD), the Jews had defected from God, although they had been chosen by Him to be His people.

  God had told of His coming to Earth and told the Hebrews, “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people” (Lev 26:12). Truly, Paul was insinuating that there had been others chosen — Gentiles who were chosen like the Hebrews to be His people (1 Pet 2:9).

  Well, up to the time of Caligua, the Jews had not defected from God although their leadership had. Soon, the Hebrews would go the way of their leaders, and that is the danger facing Christians.

  Socialism is essentially trusting the government and its leaders for nourishment and security. It is “social justice” that replaces Divine grace.

  The rich young ruler in the Bible is a perfect example of socialism, where he acted goodwill toward others but left out goodwill toward God (Matthew 19:16–30; Mark 10:17–31; Luke 18:18–30). Not only that, but as a rich man, he had greater inclination toward money than God and would not become a disciple of Jesus. He was not only socialist, but a crony capitalist socialist, like the elite in the World Economic Forum that now meets yearly in Davo, Switzerland. (More on that later).

  Although the rich young man was not the Antichrist, his antitype is, and to that, it is meant Karl Marx who is the sponsor of the evilest ideology since Simon the Sorcerer; the one who would make money by impersonating Jesus! More on Karl Marx as the Antichrist later, bit for now we shall continue with Caligua.

  Caligua was a “god” in his own eyes and would defile the Temple with his image. His pomp was as Lucifer’s who, of course, is the invisible being in visible beings. A times he reverses the charade and shows himself as the “Angel of Light.”

  Paul wrote, about false prophets and compared them to Lucifer, “for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2Cor 11:14). Satan can only transform himself; on the inside he remains the “Serpent,” Satan, and on the outside the angel, Lucifer, who seems good but is evil inside.

  How about demons? The crazy man of the Gadarenes in scripture had many demons but he was not one of the many Antichrists because Jesus drove them out of his “temple” but he lived on. God always drives out Antichrists by causing their death, beginning with Eve, then Cain, Genun, and so on until Judas had to die for Satan to be defeated in him. In the end, Jesus will drive out Satan from the Antichrist and he will die in the Lake of Fire.

  To identify who is the Antichrist, it means only to look for a powerful man in government who has the authority and armament to diminish God, and who dies a violent or abhorrent death.

  After Herod, Judas had Satan in him. From there, Caiaphus, for a few hours (the 3^rd to 6^th hour), surely had Satan in him, but it may be that Satan returned to Judas who was then near death, hanging from a tree, where he would reside until Jesus gave up the Ghost to finish off Judas by causing his bowels to gush out just as he had with Herod the Great; and in imitation of what had just occurred with Himself!

  Then, Satan may have gone to and fro until Caligua and Simon came along. Josephus wrote that Simon was during the governorship of Antonius Felix in Judaea. That would place the act of Simon the Sorcerer in the rule of Felix (52-60 A.D.). Thus, Satan was in Caligua even before Simon Magus. Could it be that since Caligua’s statue was prevented from being put up by Law-abiding Jews, that Satan just changed plans and used Simon who even had more power with the people than Caligua, as revealed by historians.

  Whereas Caligua claimed to be God, but could not demonstrate it, Simon convinced many. The biblical Apocrapha reveals in three of its books; the Acts of Peter, Pseudo-Clementines, and the Epistle of the Apostles, that Simon could levitate and because of that power most certainly could buffet Paul with thorns.

  What type of man was Caligua? Effeminate, bisexual, incestuous with all his sisters, hedonistic, murderous, narcissistic, seemingly insane, and adversarial. As such, he was also psychotic and suffered delusions of grandeur as God.

  Jesus had been accused of being a madman. Jesus was thought to have a devil (Satan) in Him. He was accused of being the Antichrist (Antimessiah) because He claimed to have Power from His Father, Yahweh, and the Jews were offended (John 10:20).

  Jesus was asked before the governor: “and the governor asked him, saying, ‘Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.’” (Mat 27:11). Because He claimed to be King, Jesus was thought by the government to be intoxicated or have some wild insanity. But Caligua was the one much intoxicated with power and would be considered insane by classical psychologists who once believed homosexuality, effeminacy, and incest are abnormal. Even his fellow Romans saw those things as abnormal, and outside of hedonism (Epicureanism), they were normal people.

  Jews were murdered under Herod the Great, and even his wives and three of his sons. However, Herod knew to retain power, that he must do good to remain in power. He was “Great” because he built lavish cities in Judea and Caesarea, not really for the Jews, and for Caesar, but for the use of the Jews. He also lavished unto Caesar great monetary gifts that was Caesar’s already because he granted Herod the power of taxing his own people.

  Although Herod was evil, he did good with evil motives. So did Octavian Caesar. To be honest, the common Jew had a good life under Herod and Octavian Caesar, except for atrocities against those who sought their powers.

 Then came Caligua. Christ had been crucified already, but Caligua would endeavor to crucify all memories of Him with his own likeness in the Temple. If not for faithful Jews, be they Messianic Jews or not, God put it in their hearts to repel Caligua’s soldiers.

  And soon after, his own senate “crucified’ him, not on a cross but the blades of many. Like any devil, he was tough to kill, and many believed he was still alive. The same goes to this day for Judas Iscariot who some Muslims believe is the Christ.

  Next, another Antichrist in time shall be revealed; and always remember since Satan is constrained to one place in time (Job 1) that there can be only one Antichrist at a time, and that many Antichrists must be a function of time.

(picture credit: istock,com; "blurred face")