Revival And The Spirit Of Antichrist

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world". (I John 4: 1-4)

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Even in the first century of the Christian faith there were people who proclaimed themselves Christians, but who had separated themselves from the Christian community. They fashioned theologies that used Jesus to represent the mystical, pagan and worldly ideas that permeated their surroundings. Their Jesus was not God who became man, dying and rising from the dead so that man could be reconciled to the Father, and who comes as a person to live in our hearts and to lead us by His Holy Spirit. Instead, their Jesus is a lifeless icon, representing religious works, denying that God who became man shed His precious blood to redeem mankind. The spirit of antichrist denies that Jesus is indeed the Christ, and that spirit has been at work in the world to prepare the world for the son of rebellion, The Antichrist.

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The Antichrist is identified in Revelation as being one of the horns that comes from a beast that comes out of the sea "having ten horns and seven heads" (Rev. 13:1), who will appear at the end of this age, not only to lead men to worship the false god of this world, but also to try and complete the process of rebellion in this world that has been going on since the evil one first sinned. The evil one has always wanted, not only dominion over this world, but also to be recognized and worshiped as the true god of this world. But the end of this age will instead see the Son of Man restoring all to the plan that the Father always had. Jesus is the Christ, and He will reign and rule on this earth, and He will give all the glory to the Father, and will restore all things to the Father.

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In one of his visions Daniel saw a series of beasts. The 4th one was "dreadful, and terrifying and extremely strong", and it had 10 horns. From among the horns rose up a little horn which would grow bigger and rip out 3 of the first 10. Daniel keeps looking at the vision until he sees that "thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His hair was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, and the books were opened". (Daniel 7: 9-10)

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This is an awesome picture of a judgment that is yet to come. God is shown here as a holy and righteous judge who has waited patiently for thousands of years for rebellion to take its course, but is now ready to burn away all the accumulated rot and re-establish His dominion and kingdom. Dominion over the earth had originally been given to mankind through Adam, who surrendered it to the evil one. Jesus came thousands of years later, living a life that was obedient to the Father, showing Himself glorified at the transfiguration to Peter, James and John, so they could testify as to who Jesus really was, dying on the cross as the sacrifice that the Father required to conquer sin, rising from the dead as the first fruits of a promised eternal life with Jesus and the Father, ascending to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father and asking the Father to pour forth the Holy Spirit to change, empower and comfort all those who would confess that Jesus had come in the flesh to be their Savior and Lord. The kingdom of God could now be in the hearts of people, who in turn could minister in the power of the Spirit to change the hearts and lives of others. But there still remained a struggle over the dominion of the earth and the control of its kingdoms.

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The little horn is a picture of the coming Antichrist who will make an agreement with the many that is to last seven years (see Daniel 9:27). I believe that this agreement will allow the Jewish people to once again set up a tabernacle in or near Jerusalem. When it is set up they will anoint priests, cleanse the tabernacle, and set up daily offerings and sacrifices. Midway through the seven years the Antichrist will cause the offerings and the sacrifices to stop. An image of the Antichrist will be set up in the tabernacle, and it will be given the power to speak by the false prophet, who has received power and authority that came from the evil one, and many will begin to worship the image (see Matthew 24:15). Worship of the image in the tabernacle is the ultimate denial that Jesus is God come in the flesh, who became the sacrifice the Father required to reconcile man to Himself. The evil one, through the Antichrist (who may possibly even be the seed of the evil one), wants to inherit and rule through the Antichrist the earthly kingdom promised to Jesus, and from there to have permanent dominion over all the kingdoms of the world.

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But it is not to be. Daniel sees that the forth beast (the kingdom of the Antichrist) will be slain, its body destroyed and given to the burning fire. Then Daniel notices with the clouds of heaven "One like the Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed"

(Daniel 7: 13-14). We are told in the first chapter of John that Jesus, who is called the Word, was present with God from the beginning, and that all things were created by Him and for Him. Jesus is called the Son of Man because the Word became flesh. As both the Son of Man, having become the second Adam, and the Son of God, He will be given authority and dominion over the kingdoms of the earth, ruling from Jerusalem.

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John writes later in the Book of revelation; "And the beast (the Antichrist) was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who have received the mark of the beast, and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone" (Rev. 19:20). The evil one is bound for a thousand years, released for a short time near the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ, then is also thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone for eternity. After this there will be a new heavens and a new earth, Jesus will turn everything over to the Father, and things will be different in ways we cannot now imagine. Indeed, even now our image of who God is; His glory, His eternal nature, the vastness and complexity of a creation that He designed and implemented, and His love, we are so limited in understanding.

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The visions in Daniel would identify the ancient of Days as being the Father. But the apostle John records in the beginning of Revelation another vision in which he sees seven golden lamp stands, "and in the middle of the lamp stands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters" (Rev. 1: 13-16). Here John, who saw the transfigured Jesus, sees in a vision someone who has the same look as the person described in the visio of Daniel, who appears as both priest and judge, and who identifies himself a few verses later as God did to Moses at the burning bush; "I am the first and the last" (v17). This is repeating how Jesus identifies Himself to John earlier in the 1st chapter; "I am the Alpha and the Omega', says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8).

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My daughter Becky went to a Division I University to play soccer and to get her nursing degree. Eighty per cent of the students at that college had been born and raised Catholic, maybe 40 per cent had gone to private Catholic high schools, and religion for most was part of their daily lives. So Becky, coming from a religious and conservate non-Catholic home was very surprised to find out that most of her teammates would get drunk every weekend and many were sleeping with their boyfriends on a regular basis. I don't suppose that this was any different than the average secular college, or perhaps the same thing can be said for a lot of other Christian colleges today, Catholic or non-Catholic, but it was upsetting to my daughter. She saw in so many cases religion without any relationship with Jesus, and tradition that did not lead to a healthy fear of the Lord. Becky eventually began to pray that there would be revival at that school. She prayed for revival everyday and even started a meeting that meet early in the morning at the student union, joined by students from a variety of Christian groups on campus to pray for revival. But it was easy for her to get discourged. One time Becky expressed to me on the phone her frustration that she was not seeing anything happen, and I e-mailed her some encouragement, telling her that I sensed that there would come a time when people would fall under the power of the Holy Spirit at the school, even in the classrooms.

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One evening that winter she went for a prayer walk around her downtown campus, lifting it up to the Lord for revival. As she was walking it started to snow. Becky had actually walked several blocks pass the campus, and when she turned around to go back she noticed that everything on the campus was covered by in white. Even the main city road running alongside the campus was now snow covered without any traffic having cut channels through to the pavement. At that moment God spoke to her and said something like this. "Revival will come when repentance covers the campus as the snow you see now is covering the campus. And when it does you are to lay your hands on people and say - Believe in the Lord God, the Almighty; who was, and who is, and who is to come. - And when you do, they will fall in the power of the Holy Spirit".

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John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, and he ministered with a baptism of repentance. Jesus said of John that no greater man had walked the earth. But when Jesus eventually came, John realized that the focus of what the Holy Spirit was doing through him wasn't about him at all. John's attitude was that he must decrease so that Jesus would increase. We read and hear stories about revival and we want to see the Holy Spirit move in our family, our church, our schools, our city and region. and just as Peter, when he saw the transfigured Jesus, wanted to build a little camp there, so we too are inclined to look for a place to camp that resembles what we have heard and read about. The spirit of antichrist is ultimately a spirit of pride, blocking the will of the Father and the move of the Spirit because we are slow recognize who we are in relation to who He is.

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Lord, it is my prayer that you would search my heart, and show me where pride is limiting the move of your Holy Spirit in and through my life. Show me where sin is hiding. I repent of my rebellion towards you and my lack of love toward those around me. Burn your light into every corner of my life, and let my life be pleasing to you., I reject the lies of the evil one, and I will make every effort to walk in honesty and humility before you and my fellow man, no matter what the cost. This is my prayer, not just for now, but for the rest of my days on this earth. You have been my Savior for these many years. Help me know you as Lord each day forward.