Antichrist Comes First: Deception in the Last Days

As Christians, we love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We eagerly anticipate his return, watching for the signs he foretold us to look out for; events that would take place in the last days to indicate his return is near. That’s what this lesson will be about, but before we begin I want to ask you a few very important questions. If you do not know the answers then you are at serious risk of worshipping the Antichrist when he arrives here on earth to deceive the world.

1. Who is the Antichrist?
Hint: he’s neither the pope, president, or any other religious or political leader.

2. How will we recognize the Antichrist when he gets here?
Hint: he’s not some horrific looking demon marked with 666, and he’s not going to announce his true identity.

3. When will the Antichrist be here?
Hint: If you do not study God’s Word in-depth, you will most likely not be aware of his arrival.

We are going to focus on two specific events that God tells us must occur before Jesus comes back. It’s important to understand that He doesn’t say it’s possible these things will happen. Rather, our Father leaves no doubt that these two events will absolutely take place before the second advent and our gathering back to Christ:

1) Satan, as the Antichrist, arrives and sits in God’s Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and claims to be God/Christ.

2) Most people, including many Christians, embrace and worship him because they are deceived and believe he is God.

An important question for you to ask yourself: have you studied God’s Word enough to recognize the difference between the Antichrist and our Lord Jesus Christ? I hope the answer is yes, because you do not want to be deceived into worshipping Satan for any reason, not even unknowingly.

Let’s take our time in this study. When necessary, we’ll use the Strong’s Concordance to examine the original language of the manuscripts. This will give us a solid understanding of what God tells us will happen, and in which order.

Who is the Antichrist

To begin with we’ll read in God’s Word exactly who the Antichrist is, which is none other than Satan himself. Antichrist is just one of the many names that Satan goes by. He’s also been called man of sin, son of perdition, Lucifer, Serpent, and Dragon-to name just a few. We will easily verify these names belong to Satan before the end of this study.

Let’s look up the word ‘Antichrist’ in the Strong’s Concordance:

As shown, the Antichrist is the opponent (enemy, adversary) of the Messiah, that being our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As God’s children, the Antichrist is our enemy and opponent as well (1 Peter 5:8-9, Luke 10:19, among others). Now ask yourself this: all throughout the Bible, who is the ultimate enemy or opponent of Christ (and us)? Satan is, of course. He became our adversary a very long time ago when he rebelled against God.

Let’s dig a little deeper and continue to look at the word ‘antichrist.

This definition tells us that the Antichrist is the opposite, instead of, or substitution of Jesus Christ. As we learned earlier, he is also the opponent of Christ. Keep this definition in mind as we continue this discussion.

Prophecies and Deception in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4

Look carefully at the following verses:

In the first verse Paul gives us the subject, which is the return of Jesus and our gathering together with Him. This happens at the seventh and final trump (Rev 11:15, 1 Cor 15:51-52).

In verse two and the beginning of verse three, Paul is telling the Thessalonians do not be deceived by false teachers or anybody else, do not be confused by the first letter that I sent (you can read his letter in 1 Thessalonians). Do not be deceived in any way, by anyone into thinking that the day of Christ is imminent or happening at any moment.

The term ‘falling away’ is ‘apostasia’ in the Greek language, and is transliterated ‘apostasy’ in English. Let’s look it up.

So, Paul is saying that Christ will not return until after the apostasy, when people defect from the truth of God’s Word. Let’s complete verse 3:

The man of sin, who is also called the son of perdition, is the Antichrist–Satan himself in person.

Why is he called the “son of perdition?” Satan was created by God, so he is his son. Perdition is (G684) in the Strong’s Concordance and it means to perish or die. Satan is the only one who has already been judged and condemned to death by name. The fallen angels are also condemned, but they are not named individually like Satan is. God told Satan that he will be destroyed permanently (turned to ashes from within) at the end of the millennium. This is the eternal death of his soul (Ezekiel 28:18-19, Rev 17:8 and 20:10).

Through Paul, God made it clear that Jesus will not return until after we see the son of perdition. And what will he be doing? He’s going to be sitting in the temple of God, at Mount Zion in Jerusalem, claiming to be God (keep in mind that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us: Matthew 1:23). This blasphemous act is the very definition of antichrist. Remember, we learned earlier that antichrist means “the enemy of Christ who comes instead or in substitution of the real Christ,” which is exactly what Paul is saying will happen.

We could easily stop here because those few verses alone are straight-forward and leave no doubt that the Antichrist comes before Jesus, which is the goal of this lesson. However, God repeats this message in many other places throughout His Word, providing even more details.

Satan Cast From Heaven: Woe to the Inhabitants of Earth

Let’s turn to The Great Book of Revelation:

This is where what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 comes to pass. We now know that “Dragon” is one of Satan’s names, and it’s he who is cast to Earth along with his angels. These are the fallen angels-those souls who left their place of habitation and refused to follow God’s plan to be born of woman. Instead they came to Earth and impregnated the daughters of Adam. If you haven’t already, you can read about this in the books of Genesis and Jude. I strongly recommend that you do because these fallen angels are going to be here again, along with Satan.

Satan used to physically traverse between heaven and earth, as documented in Job 1:7 and 2:2. He was also present in the Garden of Eden as both the Serpent and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, this is not the case anymore, as the above verses indicate that Satan is now in Heaven, being restrained by Michael (see also 2 Thes 2:7).

In the very near future God will command Satan to be cast from heaven to earth. The archangel Michael will kick him out, marking the start of the tribulation. Satan, taking on the role of the Antichrist, will try to deceive the whole world into believing he is the Messiah. This will be the biggest act of deception that mankind has ever known, and most people will fall for Satan’s lies. However, God’s elect, those who have the seal of God, and those who do not have the mark of the beast, know the truth and are not deceived by this abomination claiming to be God (Mark 13:20, Rev 9:5, 13:8, 10; 12:12).

“Now is come salvation,” meaning only after Satan and his fallen angels are here for a short time, will Christ arrive at the Seventh trump. During that short time many things will occur (a lesson for another time). But when Jesus sets foot on Earth at the Mount of Olives, it’s over for the Antichrist and his fallen angels. Everyone will see the real Jesus Christ coming. Those who were deceived will immediately realize they worshipped the Antichrist, and many will wish for mountains to fall on them (Rev 6:15-16). Why? Probably because of the shame. I cannot imagine anything that would make me feel more ashamed than having worshipped the Antichrist, can you? It is at this time, Satan will be bound in chains for a thousand years as the millennium begins (Rev 20:1-3).

Let me digress for a minute. Did you notice the last part of verse 10? Before being cast to earth, Satan stands before God in Heaven. What is he doing? He’s accusing us-further proof of Satan being in Heaven right now. Remember in the book of Job where Satan accused him? Similarly, Satan accuses us every chance he gets. It’s important to note that Satan is not physically here yet, but his evil spirit is.

Satan’s Fall in the First Earth Age

Okay, back to the Antichrist being here before our Lord Jesus Christ. We can read of these same events in other places throughout God’s Word. Our Father gives us plenty of warning so that we are prepared and will not fall for Satan’s lies. In the following verses of Ezekiel, we are taken back to the first earth age, a previous dispensation of time when we still existed in our spiritual bodies.

This is when Satan fell because he decided he wanted to sit on God’s throne instead of covering (defending) it. He wanted to be God. Sounds familiar, right? There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Now Skip down to verse 14-15:

God created Satan as a cherub. He was not born of woman, so he’s not (and never will be) human. He was perfect at one time and appointed to guard the very throne that God sat in. God must’ve loved and trusted him deeply for him to have held such a high position, and to have been so blessed. Satan had to have earned these blessings, as we are told in Acts 10:34 that God is no respecter of persons. The same would have been true in the first age, when we were in our spiritual bodies, because God never changes (Malachi 3:6).

Satan was obviously very good in the first earth age, but he stopped loving God and instead wanted to take God’s place. This pride and jealousy led to his downfall. His desires are the same in this flesh age, and as we have read, he will try to get you to worship him when he arrives as the Antichrist. Now, let’s turn to Isaiah.

Deceptive Imitation: Disguised as Christ

Lucifer is another one of Satan’s names. Lucifer is hêylêl in the Hebrew language, but what does it mean?

Christ is the only true bright morning star (Rev 22:16 ). Satan always imitates Christ, and he will be disguised as Him when he arrives here at the sixth trump to deceive everyone into believing he is God.

2 Corinthians 11:14 says “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light,” Let’s look up the word transformed:

So, a better translation is that Satan is disguised as an angel of light. In John 9:5 Christ makes it clear that He is the light of this world. Satan is always nothing more than a fake imitation of the real thing: A fake morning star, a fake light, a fake rock, and after he is thrown out of Heaven and cast to this Earth: a fake Christ. He will certainly weaken the nations even more than he already has, though he will be claiming to strengthen them.

“The most High” is God, and the “stars of God” are His children-us. Satan wanted to be God in the first world age, and he wants the same thing now. He is going to establish his throne in God’s favorite place on earth: Jerusalem, on the North side of Mount Zion (Psalm 48:2). Before Christ returns, Satan will proclaim to be God from the exact same location where God is going to set up His millennium throne.

Now, Listen to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ…this is Christ speaking:

The abomination of desolation (desolator) is Satan in his role as the Antichrist. The abomination is his filthy blasphemous lies claiming he’s God/Christ. And most people are going to fall for his lies. This is when the apostasy will take place.

The Last Trump: Christ Returns and the Millennium Begins

Let’s look at some more verses that show the Antichrist will be here prior to the arrival of Christ. We want this sealed in our minds so we do not waver during the tribulation. Instead, We wait for our true messiah and never worship Satan.

Immediately after the tribulation God’s elect will be gathered together, not before. This is when Christ returns at the Seventh and final trump. You can also read of this in Mark 24-27.

There are only seven trumps, so when the seventh angel sounds, that’s it. Let’s look at two more verses:

Again, we are told this happens at the last trump. When Christ returns with His army of angels, all flesh-whether or not you worshipped the Antichrist, the good and the bad-every single person alive on earth will be instantly changed from our corruptible flesh bodies to our incorruptible celestial (spiritual) bodies. This transformation marks the end of this flesh age and the beginning of the millennium.

This does not mean that we all have eternal life at this point. Only God’s elect and those who have the seal of God (sealed with knowledge) will put on immortality at Christ’s return. Everyone else will still have a mortal soul, which is ‘athanasia’ in the Greek language and means liable to die (1 Corinthians 15:53-55).

Many of the them will have an opportunity to attain eternal life during the millennium. Is this a second chance? No, as there are no second chances for those who know the truth, but God is fair. He is not going to destroy someone’s soul if that person never knew the truth because they were not taught anything except for lies. Also, people who have physical or mental issues and are unable to learn now, will not have these barriers in the millennium.

Our Heavenly Father loves us and does not want any of us to perish. Everyone who didn’t have an opportunity in this age will have a fair chance at choosing to love God during the millennium, and one cannot make that decision without knowing and understanding the truth. Sadly, even after walking with Christ for a thousand years, many will still choose to follow Satan after he is released for a short time at the end of the millennium.

It’s difficult to understand why anyone, with full knowledge, would choose Satan over our Father, but for whatever reason they will. After the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium, Satan and those who follow him will be destroyed forever. God is going to blot them out and it will be as if they never existed (you can read a lot about the millennium in Rev 20 and Ezekiel 44).

Something to keep in mind: we are instantly changed when Christ arrives here, right? So, as long as you are in your flesh body, do not worship the one who claims to be God. He is a fake; he is the Antichrist, and you will be worshipping Satan.

All of the verses we’ve discussed so far confirm that Satan will be here prior to Christ’s return, and you will find that these verses are only a few of the places it’s written. But do you know what you will not find? You will never find it written in God’s Word that Jesus will be here before the Antichrist. It’s not Biblical because God never said it. He never taught that Jesus would come first and rapture all the good people away. He teaches us the opposite. He tells us to put on the whole armour of God so that we can withstand the wiles and fiery darts of Satan-so we can stand up and fight for God (Ephesians 6:11-20). He promised us that those who endure until the end shall be saved (Matthew 24:13). Yet as you have read, most of the world will be deceived when that Antichrist gets here.

How Are So Many People Deceived

You may be wondering how so many people, especially Christians, are deceived.

First, don’t ever forget that Satan is the great deceiver and the father of lies. His greatest tool is deception, and he knows scripture better than most people; probably better than all of us. God knows how convincing Satan is, and for that reason he shortened Satan’s time on earth as the Antichrist. If God did not do that, Mark 13:20 says that even His elect would be deceived. That shows you how capable Satan is of deception, so don’t ever underestimate him.

Satan, in his role as the Antichrist, will come in peacefully and prosperously (Daniel 8:24-25). He’ll be offering a solution to all of our problems. God’s word tells us in Revelation 13:3 that the Antichrist will heal the deadly wound to our one-world political system (think new world order), which will then come fully into effect. His coming won’t be like you see it portrayed in the movies, where he comes in destroying everything and killing everyone. That wouldn’t convince very many people that he was our loving Messiah, would it? The Antichrist will be acting as you would expect Christ to. He is going to fix the world’s problems, starting with the deadly wound, and there will be peace in a new world order. Only, it’s false peace.

Think spiritually when reading the following verses. Satan will not be here to “destroy” your flesh body; he doesn’t care about that. He wants the spiritual death of your soul, and as we’re about to read in Daniel, he is going to use miracles, prosperity, and peace to accomplish his goals. Satan will say and do whatever it takes to convince you that he is Christ and to worship him (See also Daniel 11:32-34):

Satan will perform miracles and wonders like we’ve never witnessed before. Among other things, he’ll be able to make lightning appear from the sky. Can you imagine what people who are do not even believe in God will be thinking? These miracles will change their minds and they will believe he is God:

The Rapture (Fly-Away) Theory: A Dangerous Lie

Finally, many people are already primed to think that Jesus will be back at any moment now to rapture the true believers away, before the antichrist arrives. So, of course, when they witness the miracles and hear the lies of Satan, they will believe it’s Christ’s second advent. It’s what we see in commercials, television shows, movies, read in books, and are taught from the pulpit of many churches. Unfortunately, it contradicts God’s Word in every way possible. It’s a dangerous lie, a false teaching that sets the stage for God’s children to believe Satan is Christ, and to worship him. Bowing down to Satan has serious consequences; it could cost you your eternal life.

I have a challenge for you. First, try to find the word “rapture” in the KJV Bible. You won’t find it there or in the manuscripts, but go ahead and look for yourself so you know. Second, research where the rapture theory, also known as the fly-away doctrine, originated. I’ll give you a starting point: A 15 year-old Scottish girl named Margaret Macdonald in the year 1830, and John Nelson Darby.

Two White Horses, Two Different Riders

In closing, I want to leave you with a side-by-side comparison of Satan vs. Christ’s arrival to earth.

Satan (The Antichrist) Arrives First:

Notice that Satan has a bow and only one crown. The interesting thing here is the word ‘bow’. It’s ‘toxon’ in the Greek, (G5115) in the Strong’s Concordance. It’s not a bow and arrow, as many believe it to be. Toxon means “the cheapest fabric.” Think about this: when you go shopping for a specific item, you have a choice to buy the expensive brand or you can get the cheaper generic brand of the same item, in which case you’re getting an imitation of the real thing. That is what Satan on this white horse is. He is the Antichrist, a fake and cheap imitation of the real Christ. He will be conquering the people with lies and deception, as he comes in disguised and imitating our Christ.

Now let’s look at the return of our true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Jesus Arrives Last (After The Tribulation)

First, notice Jesus also comes on a white horse. Second, how many crowns does He have? He wears many crowns. This alone tells us that this is not the same rider as Revelation 6:2, who has only one crown. In verse 16 we’re told exactly who is riding this white horse.

There is only one “King of King, and Lord of Lords.” This is the true Jesus Christ, and as discussed earlier, His arrival will usher in the millennium. After that thousand-year period, God is setting up his eternal Kingdom right here on Earth. We are not going to be raptured away because Christ is coming back here, and in the meantime we have work to do for our Father.

Conclusion

I hope this post encourages you to study the end times further, because we are in that final generation-the generation of the fig tree-and there is always so much more for us to learn.

Mark 13:23 says that God has foretold us all things, but each of us have the personal responsibility to read and study His Word for ourselves.

While it’s great to discuss these things with teachers, preachers, family, and friends, we always have to verify what we hear by comparing it to scripture, as God instructs each of us to do. It’s the only way to be sure that what we hear is the true Word of God (1 Thess 5:21, Acts 17:10-11).