CANDIDATE #7: ?

Here is the great unknown one. The next superman of the world. A man who will hate Jews and Christians. A man of immense power. He will think himself Divine. And all the rest.

But how I wish I could convince my readers/listeners that that next man is not the final antichrist. I am confident we shall not be able to stop the speculation about Russians and Popes and other great men who arise. But whoever he is, he is not number eight. He is number seven.

I have heard the assassination theory. And I must agree it could be true, if I have misinterpreted a small bit of the text here. Let’s look at it again.

Revelation 17:8. It seems so simple. “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit.”

Lots of clues there, and in my opinion they cancel out the possibility of number “seven” being assassinated, and then immediately rising from the dead.

The angel tells John, who lived in the first century, that the beast that John saw was. “Existed in the past” is the meaning of that 3-letter word. WAS. How clear can I make it? Someone who used to live.

The beast that John saw is not. Does not exist, is not alive, today. “One is”, namely Domitian. But the beast “is not.” Clear?

You see why I am voting for one of the “Old Testament” candidates.

But number seven will be here one day. Powerful indeed. Attracting the attention of Christians everywhere. Denounced. Condemned. Perhaps rightly so. But another, worse than he is, will be in place within a few years after number seven’s reign begins.

KING #8 IS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE ABOVE CANDIDATES

There can be a lot of differences on which of the above candidates is truly the antichrist. But one thing is, in my opinion, non-negotiable truth, namely, that the final world ruler before Jesus will be a resurrected king.

I align my proofs for you:

Revelation 13: 1-4. After a description of the beast’s outward feature, including his seven heads, John sees that one of the heads was as if it had been wounded mortally. Killed. Dead. As if, or “as it appeared” to men. But the deadly wound was healed. Not dead after all.

So the world, seeing this, worshipped the beast, and realized there would be no way to make war against one who could indeed rise from the dead!

Revelation 17:7-11. Referring to the mortal wound of chapter 13, the angel describes this same beast a bit more by saying of him that he was – historically – but is not now, and that he will ascend out of the pit (where he has been placed awaiting his grand re-entrance into the world). One who was, from the viewpoint of the earth, alive at one time, but who exists now only in the underworld, will re-appear at a given point, giving to men of earth the appearance of a resurrected god-man.

Then the angel gives even more details. He says there are a total of seven kings from which to choose. Five of them have already died, one is alive in John’s day, and one will come at the end, but only to reign a short time.

The final hint from John’s angel: The “beast” that we know as antichrist is actually one of those seven, but is called the “eighth” because of the flow of history making it seem at first that he is just another man in a new generation. Actually he is from a past generation, probably already past when John heard these words.

One other piece of information can be gleaned from the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10. Paul says that the man of sin will enter the world “according to the working of Satan”, with power, and signs, and lying wonders.

Notice Paul is not just talking about antichrist’s existence here, but his entrance here. The enemy will find a way to convince the people of earth that this man is indeed rising from the dead. No doubt the major news networks will focus on the very spot of his miraculous revival. Miracles will occur. The world’s focus will be on him from that day, and the seventh world ruler will have to give way to the man decreed from the beginning to bring in the holocaust of all that is good and true, ushering in the judgment and return of the true Christ a few years later.

We sit with awe before the predictions of what shall surely come to this planet. Perhaps soon.

Afterword

The candidates are not really candidates in the modern usage of the word. There will be no debates. No primaries. No door to door.

The election is over. As all the other heavenly elections, this one took place before the foundation of the world. A man has been chosen to live on the earth (done), die (done), and come back from the grave empowered by Satan (not done as yet). He will oppose God and God’s Christ and God’s people. He will control the entire world for a short time. He will be cast into the lake of fire and be punished there forever.