Listen: 60 Question 1

I’m sure you understand that I cannot give a definitive answer to your question.  I will say that it is very possible that the antichrist has already been born.  Let’s start by considering 1 John 2:18 which says, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”  I’d like to read that verse again; this time from the World English Bible translation.  It says, “Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour.”  The Apostle John understood that we are living in the last days.

Some had heard that the Antichrist would come.  They  may have heard that from the Apostle Paul who wrote of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 which says, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”  Here, Paul is writing about a particular man that would come and would claim to be God.  He is here called the “man of sin” and the “son of perdition.”  He will reveal Himself during the seven year period known as the Tribulation period.  We read of this person in Daniel 7:25 which says, “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”  This accounting of time here as, “a time and times and the dividing of time”, is equal to 3 ½ years, or the second half of the Tribulation period.  This reckoning of time is also found in Revelation 12:14.  In Revelation 11:3 and 12:6, it is referred to as 1260 days.  In Revelation 11:2, it is referred to as 42 months.  So, it was known to the Church that one day this man who opposes and exalts himself above the Lord would come.

When will this Antichrist come?  2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 tells us, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”  The One who holds back the Antichrist is the Holy Spirit, who will be taken out with the Church at the rapture, in the sense of His indwelling every believer.  Then this lawless one, this Antichrist, will be revealed.  To those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be taken up to be with the Lord in the rapture.  It is after the Church is gone that the Antichrist manifests himself to the world.  Of course, when he is revealed, he will be a grown man.  So, the revealing of the Antichrist is dependent on the rapture of the Church.  Is it possible that the rapture could happen soon?  Yes, it is very possible.

The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:18 that, “these are the end times”.  The Apostle Paul wrote of the time he lived in as, “these last days” in Hebrews 1:2.  If these two apostles from the first century considered that they were living in the last days, certainly that day is closer now than ever before.  Speaking of the Lord’s return for His church, Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”  Each day, the return of the Lord to rapture His church grows one day closer.  Will the Lord return soon?  Yes, I think so.  Is the Antichrist already alive?  It is very possible that he is.  However, we Christians do not look for the Antichrist, we look for the true Christ to come and take us to be with Him in glory.  1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 tells us, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  What a glorious day that will be!  May we all be like those in Thessalonica who, “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” as we read in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10.