Revelation Preppers

Who is the Antichrist?

There is a lot of speculation about who is the antichrist.  People are constantly wanting to name a man, based on how they act or what they do.  I remember when people were saying Ayatollah Khomeini was the antichrist, even John F. Kennedy was listed by some as a candidate for the job.  Recently a lot of people are saying it is President Barack Obama.  Hitler was thought to be the antichrist during WWII, and he really did qualify, based on his actions and attempt to annihilate the Jews.

What does the Bible say about the antichrist?  The Word of God, is our most authoritative source to figure out who this evil world leader is, and where he comes from. 

In Revelation 17; 7, one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls came to the Apostle John and said, 

Drunk with the Blood of the Saints

"I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns."

The angels'  next words are remarkable and something that you almost never hear Bible prophecy teachers talk about.  

"The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend from the bottomless pit, and go to perdition."

Let's look at those words: (The beast was), OK what does that mean?  It means the beast was alive sometime in the past.  Next (he is not),  that means he is dead at the time John wrote Revelation.  (And will ascend from the bottomless pit), well that's pretty clear.  He doesn't come from Hawaii, or Kenya, or Germany, or Iran.  He comes from the bottomless pit.  He ascends to earth from the bottomless pit.  Why do we not see that?  It is plainly explained by the angel to John.  Next, (and goes to perdition), well what is perdition?  Perdition is the opposite of salvation, it is total ruin and destruction.  We know the beast and the false prophet will make war on the saints, and wreak havoc on humanity, we also know they will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire,  Revelation 19: 20. I think that wraps up perdition pretty well.

The angel continues; 

"And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."  

 The angel says it again, (that was, and is not, and yet is).  This time he adds, (and yet is).  (Yet is)would indicate that he ascends from the pit, and is alive.  The angel uses the description (was, was not, yet is).  So let's go over that one more time . . . the antichrist was alive in the past, he died and was not, then he ascends from the bottomless pit, and is alive again.  No wonder the people that are deceived by him will marvel.  A past world leader, long dead, raises up, and is alive, that would be enough to deceive just about everybody.  Wait a minute, it gets better.

The angel continues his explanation to John; 

"Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.  There are also seven kings.  Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come."

The city on seven hills or seven mountains is Rome, that is common knowledge.  The seven kings represent kings, kingdoms or empires.  Five of those kings have fallen.  So we can see that, five of the kings that John is writing about, are in the past.  One is, refers to the present kingdom, Rome.  The other, has not yet come, is a kingdom in the future, at the time John was recording Revelation.

So, lets' break this down further;  Five kingdoms in the past.  They would have to have some things in common.  They must have had kings or emperors, that went against God and his word.  They would have been mixed up with persecuting or imprisoning the Jewish people, since they are God's chosen people, which would give them a common link with the antichrist.  We are getting into some speculation here, but let's make it an educated guess based on the preceding criteria, and we can use some of the extra Biblical texts for historical support.

1.) Babel/Babylon/Assyria, was the first empire after the Flood of  Noah.  It's king was Nimrod.  Nimrod ruled over all of the sons and descendants of Noah, he ruled over the earth at this time.  He was a man of renown, this is the same term used to describe the Nephilim giants before the flood and the word as it is used, describes a

Nimrod built the Tower of Bable to defy the Lord

man, full of infamy and arrogance.  The ancient book of  Jasher describes Nimrod as a man, more wicked than all of the men before him.  He taught all of his subjects his wicked ways.  After the tower of Babel and the people of the world, were separated by different languages, there are many legends and different names given to Nimrod.  Many nations worshiped him as a god.
 

We do know in Rev. 13 that the antichrist receives a mortal wound to the head and that it is healed.  

In the Book of Jasher Ch. 27, there is a story about Esau and Nimrod. 

"Esau went frequently into the field to hunt, so did Nimrod, who was accompanied by two of his mighty men.  Nimrod was jealous of Esau's prowess as a hunter and Esau knew this.  Esau concealed himself and when Nimrod grew close, Esau leaped from his hiding place and cut off Nimrod's head.  He then fought a desperate battle and slew the two mighty men that accompanied Nimrod."  So we see that Nimrod ruled the world, was a very evil and arrogant man and that he died from a mortal head wound.

2.) Egypt,  is our second empire that qualifies as one of the five fallen kingdoms.  Egypt did not set out to enslave the Jews.  They offered sanctuary to Joseph's family in good faith, but after 400 years, they did not want to release them, because the children of Israel, had become a nation of free labor/slaves, to the Egyptians.  The Egyptians were cruel to their nation of slaves, and did not want to give up all of the cheap and convenient labor.  

The king or pharaoh during the time of the Exodus is thought by historians to be  Thutmoses III.  Some argue that it was Ramses II.  The pharaohs' were wicked in their arrogance and described by Moses as hard hearted.  The pharaoh's declared themselves gods over the people.  Rhamses II died of old age, which would rule him out as having a mortal head wound.  Thutmoses III likewise died most likely from natural causes in his 5th year as Pharoah.  Rhamses III the father of Rhamses II died from having his throat slit, but there is no historical evidence linking him to the Exodus.  There is too much confusion about who exactly was ruling Egypt at the time of the exile of the children of Israel, and Moses doesn't tell us in his writings. 

The Book of Jasher calls the daughter of pharaoh who discovered baby Moses, Bathia.  She was the daughter of Pharoah Malul or Merenre, according to the midrash.  Upon Malul's/Merenre's death, Moses returned and the pharaoh of the exodus, would have been, Adikam, who was also known as Pepi II. Pepi II ruled an amazing 94 years, some believe it was 64 years.  Pepi II died an old man, and there is no evidence of foul play. There just isn't enough evidence to state who was the king at that time in history.

3. Assyria, is the third empire that ascended to power after defeating Egypt.  King Sennacherib took the ten northern tribes of Israel into captivity.  They have become known as the ten lost tribes of Israel.  King Sennacherib spoke arrogantly against God and moved to go against Jerusalem.  God sent a death angel, who slew 185,000 of his soldiers in one night.  Sennacherib fled to his home, Nineveh, where he was killed by two of his sons.  One story tells of them tipping a Lamassu, which is a statue of a hybrid human/animal on him and crushing him.

While pinned and crushed under the statue his sons slew him with a sword.  We do not know if they cut off his head, thrust the sword into his head, or stabbed him somewhere else with the sword.  But we do know that Sennacherib was assassinated and died violently while praying in a temple to his false gods.

4. Babylon, is the fourth empire that achieved power after defeating Assyria.  King Nebuchadnezzer installed Zedekiah as king of Israel.  Zedekiah did now submit to Babylon, so Nebuchadnezzer besieged Jerusalem.  Zedekiah was punished by viewing the slaying of  his sons, then having his eyes put out so that his last vision, would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Nebuchadnezzer took most of the people of Jerusalem to Babylon, leaving only the poor behind.  They broke down the walls of the city and destroyed the Temple, and took the contents of the Temple to Babylon. This period of captivity was during the time that the book of Daniel was written.

Nebuchadnezzer is known as a conqueror and a destroyer of nations.  He was used by God to punish a rebellious and idolatrous Israel.  He does not fit the type of an example of the antichrist to come, though.  Nebuchadnezzer was stricken with insanity and wandered the land, living  as an animal for 7 years. 

When sanity and reason returned, Nebuchadnezzer acknowledged God, and blessed the most high. Before he died at age 68 he wrote these words, 

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways justice.  And those who walk in pride, He is able to put down."  

Nebuchadnezzar was repentant at the end of his life, his arrogance and pride were gone.

King Belshazzar proceeded Nebuchadnezzar, and he was an evil man.  He is famous for a drunken orgy, in which the participants at the party drank out of the sacred cups from the Temple, and he praised false gods.  During the party the fingers of a hand appeared and wrote on the wall.  It so terrified Belshazzar, that he could not control his bowels and his knees knocked together.  Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." 

Mene; God numbered your kingdom and finished it:  Tekel; You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting:  Upharsin; Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Medo-Persia:  That same evening of Daniel's interpretation Belshazzar was slain and King Darius received the kingdom.  The midrash gives us details of his death. " Cyrus and Darius grasped a heavy ornament forming part of a candelaburm, and with it shattered the skull of Belsharusuyrus (Belshazzar)."  So from this piece of history, we believe that Belshazzar received a mortal head wound.

 Daniel served under King Darius and King Cyrus.  The captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon ended with the reign of Cyrus.  King Cyrus of Persia, decreed their freedom and  he actively assisted the Jewish people in rebuilding the temple.  Cyrus returned the Temple treasures and provided finances from his own royal treasury.  The Medo-Persian empire ran consecutively proceeding Babylon.  They are mostly famous in the Bible for helping Israel after their captivity, with rebuilding.

5.) Greece: The fifth king (that was fallen), would almost undoubtedly be Greece.  The Hellenic empire started with Alexander the Great, son of Phillip II.  Alexander the Greats' empire included Greece, the Persian Empire, Egypt and stretched almost to India.  After building a vast empire, he became sick and knew that he would die.  Alexander divided his empire with those that he trusted while he was still alive.  The kings appointed by Alexander ruled, and the book of I Maccabees 1: 8, tells us after his death, evils were multiplied in the earth.  Vs. 9 is an important one:  "And there came out of them a wicked root, Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king, who had been an hostage at Rome, and he reigned in the hundred and thirty and seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks."

Atiochus Epiphanes - Desecration of the Temple

Antiochus Epiphanes went down to Egypt, with a great army and made a war against Egypt.  He returned and laid siege to Jerusalem and entered into the Temple and took all of the temple treasures, silver and gold, and hidden treasures, which he found.  After looting the Temple, he made a great massacre of the Israelites and spoke against them with arrogance and pride.  Antiochus outlawed Judaism and placed a statue of Zeus in the Temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar.  Antiochus was unsuccessful in eradicating the Jewish people and Judas Maccabeus rose up and led an army and won decisive victories against overwhelming odds.  These are recorded in history as the Maccabean wars.

Antiochus was a king at the tail end of the Hellenic/Greek empire.  The Romans were

quickly taking power and building a new empire, that none could stand against.  Antiochus decided to go to Persepolis and rob the temple there.  The people raised up against him and he left in defeat and shame.  In his anger, he decided to go again to Jerusalem and avenge his shame on the Jews.  On the way there, he became very ill and suffered from pain in his bowels.  On the chariot ride there he fell out of the chariot and suffered many injuries.  This proud and arrogant king, was then carried on a horse litter.  He became filled with worms and his flesh began to rot.  The putrid stink was disgusting to the men in his company, and soon he could not endure the stench of his own rotting flesh, and the pain was unbearable. 

II Maccabees 9:28 " thus the murderer and blasphemer having suffered most grievously, as he entreated other men, so died he a miserable death in a strange country in the mountains.

Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of the north, the man who called himself, "God Manifest", was a forerunner or a type of the end times antichrist, but he did not die from a mortal head wound.  He is considered the Old Testament antichrist by many theologians.

Well, that ends our overview of the 5 Kings that were fallen. 

Let's move on to the  kingdom that is, when the Apostle John is writing Revelation in A.D. 94-98 when John was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos. 

The Roman empire

Emperor Nerva was in power and he died the same year John was released, or soon afterwards.  Nerva died from a fever and was cremated.  Another possible emperor of that period in time was, Tiberius the emperor when Pilate crucified Jesus.  Tiberius was a vile man that murdered children after he molested them on his island home, Capri.  Tiberius died in A.D. 37, and may have been smothered by his successor, Caligula.  Caligula's cruelty is legendary and he demanded to be worshiped as a living god.  Caligula was assassinated by being stabbed over 30 times.  Nero was another emperor in this time period and he died after stabbing himself in the throat. 

That may or may not qualify as a mortal head wound.  There are many emperor's in Roman history, and naming a specific ruler that John is writing of in Rev. 17: 8 would be difficult to determine.  We do know that Rome is the king or kingdom that the angel is talking about in his explanation to John.

The seventh king has not yet come at the time of the writing of Revelation 17; 10.  "And when he comes, he must continue a short time."  If we look at history the seventh king must be referring to Adolf Hitler.  Who else in history was as evil and murderous as Adolf Hitler? 

He was truly attempting to eradicate the Jewish race from the earth.  This seventh king or type of the antichrist - Hitler, was in power for a short time, yet he murdered over six million Jews.  Hitler was a man full of arrogant pride and his record of infamy and evil puts him right up there at the top of the most evil men in history.  Hitler's death is surrounded by some controversy.  The people that were with Hitler in the end describe hearing a gunshot and then discovering his and Eva's bodies with Hitler suffering a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head, after ingesting cyanide.  Eva died from cyanide poisoning.  Their bodies were then taken out doused in petrol and burned.  If this story is accurate, then Hitler died from a mortal head wound, and is a candidate for becoming the antichrist.  The death of Hitler is controversial, and a book has been written that gives some credible evidence for Hitler escaping and living his life in Argentina.  The only piece of Hitler's skull found in the ashes turned out to belong to a woman under the age of 40.  We cannot know exactly what happened to Hitler, with the evidence available to us.

Rev. 17: 11  "The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

From this verse, we can clearly see that the antichrist is one of the seven kings or types of the antichrist.  Verse 8, tells us he will ascend from the bottomless pit.  The antichrist will then be the eighth king.  Hitler meets the criteria for being the antichrist, yet I seriously doubt the world would be thrilled at his return.  It is very unlikely that he would be worshiped or accepted.  Hitler's mark on the world was in the form of an ugly stain.   Nimrod would be the next ancient ruler that would qualify as the antichrist.  

I do not know if the beast will literally rise from the bottomless pit for all the world to witness.  It does say that in Revelation, and if we take God's word literally then we will see news coverage of an event where an ancient being rises up from out of the ground and into prominence and charismatic leadership.  The world will marvel at the beast, because it was and is not and yet is.  It would be easy to see why the world would adore and worship such a man.  It would appear to everybody that a man was rising up to fulfill the myths, legends and ancient prophecies.  He would be accepted as the Messiah, or the Mahdi, and his words will convince and unify the world.  

The beast will have authority to make war on the saints and to conquer them. He will have authority over every tribe and people and language and nation.  Rev. 13:7  

The beast will exalt himself against every so called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.  2 Thess. 2:4

So what should we do as Preppers?  The warning is there in the scriptures.  

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false propehts have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses the Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is from God.  This spirit is of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.  1 John 4: 1-3

Do not live in fear but as a Prepper, you must prepare.  The best place to start is in your heart.  You must believe and be saved!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3: 16

You can build your underground bunker, stock it with food and water and try to live through the coming apocalypse, but it won't do you any good, if you have not prepared your heart for eternity.  This life is a blink of the eye in eternity.  Depending on your own self sufficiency will not save your eternal spirit.  Only Jesus can do that.