I begin by asking about the sequence of studies for this quarter, more specifically the author; The theme of the seven letters of the Apocalypse still has many subjects not exhausted, in fact, the seven letters could be studied in the thirteen classes of the quarter. I say this because we are moving on from the letters to enter eschatology, eschatology in what is to come. For we are at the end of time and the seven letters are extremely modern.
I confess that I am not a dispensationalist eschatologist; I do not see extremely precise times and measurements for the apocalypse, with emphasis, of course, on some advents, and the most desired is the rapture of the church; Apart from the rapture of the church and endless joys for these narrated and already revealed, I do not see a radical change of era or time, what I see is man heading towards self-destruction, including, of course, the Antichrist. As this is not a commentary on the apocalypse, but on the Government of the Antichrist, I want to comment only on my point of view on this, since the internet is full of dispensationalist and apocalyptic times, traits, goals and charts.
If we study the doctrine of the antichrist on the etymology of the word, the field will actually be broader, because everything that opposes Christ is antichrist. Thus, the golden text in John says: “Many antichrists have arisen…” with an equation to the text of 1 John 4,3 – on the spirit of the antichrist.
On the other hand, if the doctrine is limited to a future person, there is occasion for some discussion as to who that person is and what the scriptures say about him;
The spirit of the antichrist, or those who have already emerged as such, is extremely broad; because this has been discussed for 1900 years, starting precisely with John himself, still in the letters; For John, in his letters, the antichrist was anyone who did not confess that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is God. This is not just the case of Islam, Judaism, etc., who do not have Jesus Christ as Lord; the letters are far from that; within the context, this spirit of the antichrist that already exists is those who have left “our” midst. I will go beyond John; in our era, these spirits are still in our midst, in the church. Because not confessing that Jesus is the Christ does not necessarily have to do with the act of speaking against it; the subtlety with which this spirit of the antichrist operates is precisely in the deception and subversion of the Gospel, proposing seduction in the name of Jesus where it does not correspond to Jesus.
It has to do with the fact of nullifying the sacrifice of Christ, offering some “price” to be paid in exchange for favors from God, it is the spirit that transforms God into the devil.
The spirit of the antichrist that is already among us is the “Jesus” that religion offers; Jesus who is not God; Jesus “Sílvio Santos” who opens doors of hope; The Jesus that the spirit of the antichrist is operating in the churches today is the spirit of “Jesus” Bahia houses, household appliances. It seems that the Jesus who forgives sin, saves, who emulates explosions of joy in the soul of man with the great salvation that was given to us, who frees, who transforms, is not enough for our times; He has to come accompanied by Dr. Fritz… pulling nails out of heads, performing spiritual operations; Such religious movements have nothing to do with Jesus the Christ, and if they are contrary to what Jesus is, they become the antichrist; Therefore, today we have churches, bishops, apostles, pastors and priests speaking in the name of God, but what reigns in them is the spirit of the antichrist, of the devil.
The government of the antichrist is the Babylonian government; an analogy used all the time, which began with Cain. It is the government of slavery, a government that persecuted the Semitic people, a government that persecutes the church; this persecution has different fronts and hoods, either fiercely persecuting, crushing; or it appears hand in hand with the church that does not have Christ as Lord, confession, footprints in the gospel;
The Babylonian government is an evil government, it is the government of the spiritual world against the spiritual church.
From Cain to Lamech began to found the physical kingdom of this evil order, which came through the offspring of the curse; Culminating in the total and depraved corruption of man in Genesis six;
That returns with Nimrod, Babel… Babylon. It is the government that imprisons, opposes, persecutes Israel; It is the government established at its peak with the Antichrist (person);
But God has His kingdom for the Church. God has Seth, Enosh who begins to invoke the name of the Lord parallel to the kingdom of the antichrist, Babylonian; God guards His church, rapturing it as He did with Enoch – because he walked with God – before the destruction of humanity (here the flood); God has Daniel in Babylon, God has the tribe of Judah; God has confusion in Babel; But He has foreign languages that everyone understands in Acts two; God has the church, raptured – because it walks with God – before the destruction for the redemption of the earth. God has the ark, God has Israel kneeling and saying: “truly he was the Messiah and we did not recognize him.”
The second conception of the antichrist is precisely the person who is the only Antichrist, the one who is coming, the one who will arise (or has already arisen). If the person predicted is identified by his claim to be equal to Christ, he is correctly called the antichrist, and is easily represented by the beast of the apocalypse (13.1-10); identified as the one who declares himself God in Ezekiel (28), similar to the man of sin about whom Paul writes in Thessalonians. Daniel sees a little horn or king who conquers other kings and assumes a place of authority over the nations.
He who made a pact between kingdoms, his path is evidently already being prepared by those who teach the anti-Christian doctrine of the Gospel.
Probably Jewish nationality, – “He shall die the death of the uncircumcised” – Ez 28.10);
In Revelation a “stone” falls, and the kingdom of Babylon is destroyed.
I do not want to describe concepts and assumptions about this, since there is a vast literature on this subject, most of which does not even match my eschatological perspective. But here is some help regarding this spirit and government of the antichrist, who has been called Nietzsche, Hitler, John Paul II, Bush, Yasser Arafat... But make no mistake, he will be the one you least expect.
We are therefore concerned and committed to defending the genuine Gospel of Christ.
Fabiano Moreno.