Posted on 01/24/2017 6:29:36 PM PST by grumpa
As far back as I can remember people have been speculating about the identity of the "Antichrist," an evil figure referenced in portions of the New Testament.
After President Ronald Wilson Reagan was shot and miraculously recovered in 1981, people made the ridiculous assertion that he was the prophesied evil figure of “end-times.” It didn't help that his first, middle, and last name all had six letters (666).
At that same time, others argued that the Antichrist was Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev or Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Less than a decade later Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians were insisting that the "Man of sin" was actually Iraqi Saddam Hussein in the land once known as Babylon.
Later, I learned that previous generations believed that the Antichrist was Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy, or Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. The actual listing of individuals identified with this role is quite long and ludicrous. Whatever nation happens to be the current enemy of America (or Israel) usually supplies us with the current candidate for the antichrist.
Obviously there’s a lot of misunderstanding and misapplication here. Many of our collective anxieties and fears are coloring our readings of the Bible. We’re bringing into the text things Scripture never actually articulates. Much of this happens because of our confusion about the Bible and ignorance of the apocalyptic genre. We don't comprehend its intended meaning or its use of fierce imagery and symbols.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldrevivalnetwork.blogspot.com ...
One of the first objections that will come up, is about when was Revelation written. Many Christians are used to hearing that it was written in about AD 95. But the evidence for the late date is very, very sketchy. We should note that Revelation is filled with imminence statements that restrict its fulfillment to a time soon after it was written. These statements include: “must shortly take place,” “soon,” “about to happen,” etc. There are some thirty of these time-statements in Revelation. Many of these relate directly to a prophecy about the soon destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. Note that the book begins and ends with these time-statements. See Revelation 1:1-3 and 22:6-20.
While many Christians think that the book was written after AD 70 the internal and external evidence is overwhelming that it was written prior to AD 70. Since the book of Revelation was written to a first-century audience, probably around AD 64, we should expect the first-century readers to have been able to calculate the number of the beast. For the beast to be someone thousands of years in the future would have made no sense to the readers in the first century, and would have made the calculation of the number impossible for them. Remember, the Bible was written for us, but not to us. Audience relevance is critical to understanding the sacred text.
For more, see my articles on eschatology:
https://prophecyquestions.com/2014/02/01/articles-by-charles-meek
If you are preterist, does that make your view post millennial return of Christ? When does the millennia start?
It’s Carrot Top.
CC
Thanks for the post!
I agree that Revelation was written before 70 AD, otherwise there would have been mention of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
Article says Emperor Nero of Rome = the Antichrist in the book of Revelation; there I also agree.
Lutheran and Orthodox Presbyterian & other main denominations (not sure about Baptists) always taught that time would run from Creation to Judgement Day.
No rapture, 7 year tribulation, Antichrist, mark of the beast, etc.
Ummm. The problem about this whole thing is that this guy takes all that information out of context. Without the rest of the content of revelation explained to fit this guy’s totally ridiculous claim (The mark for example, all the water turning to blood, the moon turning blood red, the sun being black as sack cloth, the stars falling from the heavens, 1/3rd of all the water on Earth turned bitter, 1/3rd of all the greenery on Earth destroyed, talk of asteroid or meteors hitting Earth a few times, all the sea life killed, etc.) this is meaningless and the beast cannot be Nero because none of those things written in parentheses have never happened, and certainly did not happen during or near Nero’s reign nor the reign of the Roman empire, or any time in recorded human history.
So I deem this “theory” HOAX.
“fine scholars who adopted the preterist view”
An oxymoron if there ever was one.
All this violence the world over (2 Timothy 3:13), Israel a nation again after almost 2,000 years, technology that allows us to finally fulfill Revelation 11:9, not to mention implant a device that actually uses a “666” identifier to Buy & Sell and you morons still are determined to say Christ’s Kingdom is “now”.
Being a Preterist has about as much “fact” to it as the Islamic Moon God worship of Allah.
If this is the thousand years after the tribulation of AD 70, then satan must be on a very long chain from a unlocked abyss and Jesus should be on the Throne in Jerusalem.
I believe that the Beast of Revelations is a reference to an evil state and not to any one “Antichrist” person. As close as we get to the Antichrist is the “man of sin” but I think the key is that an evil state ruled by evil men comes into existence in the last days, that a spirit of antichrist prevails, and that three forces (beast, dragon, false prophet) combine their hatred of God in one final assault.
I have also come to the conclusion that the prophecies manage to describe two different end times, those which are separated by the “thousand years” of the Kingdom, and that this may all be allegorical so that we may in fact be able to view the situation as follows —
First, we have already seen the first end time, prophecy may have been fulfilled by the events of the second world war. The “thousand year kingdom” may turn out to be a reference to the phase of modern times that led to the current “little season” in which we see a renewed attack of evil forces on the Kingdom, at the present time only partially realized.
This second end time will not wait a thousand years, that is perhaps a reference to the millenium or just to the observation that a thousand years is like a day in the Lord’s timetable.
This would explain why such massive and perhaps obvious parallels of the second world war were not in fact followed by the second coming as most would understand that — we have had the spiritual version of the second coming and now we await the actual final dispensation.
You could check some dates in the second world war to see that periods of the required length of time were quite evident. In particular, it was just about 1,335 days from the onset of America’s declaration of war to the end of the war in the Pacific. Shortly before that, events at about 1,260 and 1,290 days can be linked to the required imagery. Every other image of the Revelation timetable is fairly easy to link to the history of various powers involved in the Second World War.
My belief then is that much of the prophecy has already been fulfilled and that only a few sections more specific to the “little season” require completion. America’s role in this prophecy is not peripheral and in fact seems to validate the Mormon concept of a dispensation of the Kingdom on the land mass of the United States although perhaps not exactly as they understand that location. I know that similar beliefs are held by non-Mormon evangelical Christians.
Now that Donald Trump is president, perhaps the conditions are met for all things to be brought to completion. It may be that Obama was the “man of sin” and that we are even now right at the predicted time when sudden changes for the better will begin to unfold.
The partial nature of the millennial kingdom suggests that the dispensation may be the creation of a “more perfect union” or political order on the earth following the total defeat of last-gasp beast, dragon and false prophet giving it the old college try for one final time. This is perhaps also the reason why the demons are pouring out of the abyss at this very time (sure you noticed that).
Beasts in scripture are governing bodies/entities that have power over the lives of people. There are many governments and rulers who have been, or are even now against the teachings of the Messiah (i.e, they are anti-Christ).
There have been many false prophets, Mohammed probably being the greatest of all, and the cult he founded, Islamism, is likely the ultimate “beast”. Then there is communism, and other forms of government, run amok, that meet the criteria.
Government by man will be chained and thrown into the “bottomless” pit, “dashed to pieces”, replaced by a world order not of man, but of the Almighty.
The kingdom of God was rejected by the Jews at the Messiah’s first advent, so we’ve had a delay of a couple thousand years, all prophesied, to make amends and to allow things to reach such a state that those living will heartily proclaim: “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Almighty!”
Then He will come and set up the “kingdom of God”, ruling the entire planet, from his city of Jerusalem, and not before, just as He told all those who crucified him, 2,000 years ago.
Don’t be a false prophet...
It’s Paul. No, wait...he was the Walrus.
Freedom Star, he did not take it out of context, but provided the context. However, the article is too short to list the entire context. See my other articles that give more of the context that you demand:
https://prophecyquestions.com/2014/02/01/articles-by-charles-meek/
I strongly disagree.
Except for the fact that the Beast is alive and well during all of the seals being broken , the Trumpet judgments, and that he makes it so no man on Earth will buy or sell without receiving his mark on their right hand or forehead.
Which has never happened.
Be very carefully about being “sure” of the end game - the Pharisee’s made that mistake - we should learn from it. This has a great deal of merit.
Right?
The Beast cannot be Nero if the rest of revelation is real.
I don’t understand how you can make that argument without invalidating the rest of revelation.
Look toward Islam...with a strong dose of taqiyya firmly entrenched in the person.
I agree with your posts. The nations are not being ruled with a rod of iron right now. Exams would be the women’s marches in Washington dc.
As a side note, I also disagree with Irvin baxters interpretation of the 5th trumpet. I didn’t see any locusts coming out of the abyss with the oil well fires. No one was in pain for 5 months.
No millennial reign either. Because the 2,000 years since can hardly be characterized as Christ and his martyrs reigning over the earth.
“I don’t understand how you can make that argument without invalidating the rest of revelation.”
Yup.
Baloney.
Before 70 AD? I am willing to listen to your arguments, but you aren’t doing a good job of presenting them.
The evidence for an “early” date is far more sketchy, than it is for a late date.
Among other things you must look at authorial intent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.