When as a young man I studied the great image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream (Dan. 2:28-35), I became fully convinced that the Bible is a divinely inspired book. The parts of the great image—the head, the breast and arms, the belly and thighs, and the legs with the ten toes— match the development of the worldly powers throughout the centuries. Besides God Himself, who could have given us such an illustration? We must believe that God has been and still is sovereign over all the world powers, having sovereignly prepared them in a certain way. How wonderful it is to see the world powers represented by the image of a human body. It is foolish not to believe that the Bible is a divine book. If we would understand the prophecies of this book, we must have divine wisdom. The more wisdom we have and the more we get into these prophecies, the more nourishment we shall derive from them.
There is rich nourishment to be gained from the prophecies in the Bible. However, many studies of prophecy merely touch things such as the seven heads, the ten horns, the ten toes, the three and a half years, the forty-two months, and the twelve hundred sixty days. This is like being given a bowl of chicken bones without any meat. But we should receive nourishment from the divine Word. To say that all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16) means every line of the Bible is the breath of God. In every line of Scripture, including these portions that are prophecies, there is some life element, some living nourishment. When we study prophecy, we should have meat as well as the bones.
We have seen seven significant aspects of Antichrist: the fourth beast, the little horn, the prince, the king, the all-inclusive beast, the angel of the abyss, and the man of sin. Now in this message we need to consider several other important aspects of this extraordinary figure.
Antichrist will have the power and authority of Satan. Revelation 13:2 says, “The dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.” In verses 4 and 5 we see that the dragon “gave authority to the beast” and that “authority was given to him to act forty-two months.” That the dragon gives his power, his throne, and great authority to the beast indicates that he makes the beast one with him. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was tempted in the wilderness by the Devil. Matthew 4:8 and 9 say, “Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, All these will I give You if You will fall down and worship me.” The Lord Jesus refused, saying, “Go, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:10). Since that day, Satan has been looking for someone to whom he could give all the power, authority, and glory of his satanic kingdom. He will find the one he has been seeking in the person of Antichrist. What the Lord Jesus rejected, Antichrist will receive.
Because Satan will give his power and authority to Antichrist, Antichrist will become an extraordinary person. His personality and character will be exceedingly strong.
Antichrist will be killed and resuscitated. Revelation 13:3 says, “And one of his heads was as if it had been slain to death, and his death stroke was healed.” Verse 12 says that his “death stroke was healed,” and verse 14 says that the beast “had the stroke of the sword and lived.” “One of his heads” refers to one of the Caesars who will be slain and resuscitated. The word about the healing of his death stroke refers to his resuscitation. After he has been resuscitated, the whole earth will marvel after him. Antichrist will probably be slain in the middle of the last seven years, perhaps about the same time Satan is cast down from heaven to earth. I say this because, according to Revelation 9:1, the angel of the abyss emerges shortly after Satan, as the star, falls from heaven to earth. About this time, the seventh Caesar of the Roman Empire will be killed.
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