Breaking News Bible Study | Episode 7
The Prodigal Son Prophecy Intro
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First Responders Against Tyranny
Virtually overnight it seems America has been transformed from the “Land of the free and the home of the brave” to a “Land without liberty, the home of the slaves.” The constitution we supposedly revere is being used as toilet paper by thousands of petty tyrants now ruling over us by decree, and the police forces who pledged to “protect and serve” have been transformed into storm troopers serving the will of the despots. A huge percentage of the American people have surrendered to this tyranny with hardly a whimper, and many have now become snitches against their still-freedom-loving neighbors on behalf of the government. But there remains a remnant of patriots who will not submit!
Consider the extent of “cognitive dissonance” on display in the increasing lionization of “first responders” by people cowering in their homes, as afraid to defy their rogue government officials as they are of the vastly over-stated health threat the officials are exploiting. But what exactly is it that First Responders do that makes them (rightfully) worthy of praise? They run toward the danger when others run the other way! They voluntarily risk their lives and health. We laud them for making the choice to be courageous in the face of danger instead of shrinking back in fear of the consequences.
I am an American. My right to freedom of movement, to assemble together with others, to risk my life and health in the process if I so choose is not granted to me by the government. It is not a privilege given to me by the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, or any of the branches or agencies of the state or federal governments, but is an aspect of my very being as a sovereign creation of God!
I do not cede authority over myself to the unelected health department officials who presume to claim that power over me, nor any of the elected officials now operating beyond the legitimate reach of their offices.
The reason I have supported my government in the past is respect for the rule of law. I am a Christian and Constitutionalist, so I believe strongly in the American political premise that our government has only the power that I delegate to it, in cooperation with my fellow citizens. Love for that ideal has sustained me through decades of steady erosion of that foundation – in the belief that the America I love could be repaired and restored if we just kept fighting for her against all the enemies working to transform her into a Marxist regime.
But this! This abomination of dictatorial national socialism – this perverted “rule of man” we face today is NOT AMERICA and I do not grant it my permission to rule over me. This IS the Marxist regime we’ve been resisting for so long – suddenly burst upon us with the speed of the Bolshevick revolution in Russia.
I am publishing this letter as a warning to whatever leaders we still have who love the true American dream. If you don’t fulfil your duty to put down this Marxist revolution yourselves, then we the people are going to have to do it ourselves, sooner than you think, and if you’re not doing your part to restore this constitutional republic, you will be numbered with the enemy.
I am not a violent man, and I am not calling for violence against anyone, even the despots themselves. But I know that if I, a mature Christian pastor whose self-control and fortitude has been forged over many years by many difficult personal tests and trials, am this angry and passionate, then I know there is a large number of more secular-minded populists out there seething with rage against the traitors and tyrants. They WILL become vigilantes in America’s cause if the current trend continues. That’s not a threat, nor encouragement to do it, but a fact of human nature beyond anyone’s control.
If you allow that dam to burst by continuing to acquiesce to the Marxists, you will have no one to blame but yourselves.
Pastor Scott Lively,
A “First Responder” of the Black Robe Regiment
Breaking News Bible Study | Episode 6
The Snake in the Garden of Heathens
One of the most chilling comments in the testimony of the recently un-gagged Dr. Judy Mikovits, (which I watched before it was censored by YouTube) was her confession that part of her job years ago as a young scientist working under the snake Anthony Fauchi was to “teach” Ebola how to invade human cells. Now comes a story out of Hong Kong that “People In Hong Kong Are Becoming Ill With Rat Hepatitis For First Time Ever. No One Knows How It’s Happening.”
Given the timing and location of this Hong Kong outbreak, it seems obvious that Communist China is either engaging in biological warfare (suggesting Covid-19 was a sort-of Pearl Harbor beginning to a larger strategy), or, that a third party wants the world to believe that it is. Both scenarios evoke the specter of imminent – or already emerging – war, and suggests major events are in play beyond the public view.
What I’ve concluded from news reports during the Covid 19 Pandemic is that the Wuhan China virology labs were to the corrupt scientists of the western world what captured terrorist renditions to Muslim countries were to military intelligence agencies: a place beyond the reach of the rule of law, where the annoying limitations of Judeo-Christian ethics and morality could be ignored.
In short, Wuhan was the “Garden of Heathens” – a Satanic counterpart to the Garden of God in Eden – where human Malthusian Eugenicists like Bill Gates and Dr. Fauchi could feast on the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of evil — and “become like gods” by creating deadly new pathogens and their antidotes: the perfect weapons system for controlling the world and, perhaps, culling millions if not billions of its “useless eaters” and “undesirables” in the process. Like many, I suspect the coming Bill Gates Covid 19 vaccine of being a big part of this admittedly unproven but historically, ideologically and (perhaps) prophetically consistent conspiracy.
Now China is not an innocent party in all of this. When the Cultural Marxists of the Bush and Clinton Dynasties gained control of the US, they formed a corrupt partnership with the Communist Chinese party and built the NAFTA superhighway to China, along which the all-too-frequently amoral, sociopath-run and predatory corporations of American manufacturing abandoned the US and willingly turned China into an increasingly powerful economic and military rival to their own homeland. (Importantly, this was all the consequence of our society, including the business world, slowly but inexorably trading Judeo-Christian morality for the Secular Humanist worldview after WWII, but that’s not my main point.)
However, I do not believe China is the mastermind of this set-up to WWIII, if that’s what is actually occurring. The masterminds are the western globalists of the US, UK and EU: the ones who arranged the marriage of Communist China and the Multinational Corporate Cartel to create an Asian-based model for global socialism without all the nationalist resistance they encounter in the west. The same ones working unceasingly to take down Trump.
And I believe these same Machiavellian elites are ready to throw China under the bus now that Donald Trump has destroyed their plans and ruined the China model by winning his trade and monetary-policy war with China, and luring manufacturing back to the homeland. One could say that Trump has been the proverbial “Bull in the China Shop.”
In any case, now damaged and useless for their purposes, China will now (I believe) be transformed by the elites (through media propaganda and selective leaks of insider knowledge) into a “rogue empire” deserving military pay-back. This is intended to stir up global chaos that the elites hope to use as cover for revolutionary change serving the Marxist agenda – a sort of self-gifted consolation prize. And, just as the elites piggy-backed on Ronald Reagan’s goal of taking down communism in the Soviet Union to advance their banking and oil interests, they hope to piggy-back on President Trump’s goal of ending the threat of China’s vision and plan for global economic dominance to advance their own plan for global control.
Granted, this is complex geo-political calculus, but I believe it is accurate, and note that anti-Chinese war-drums are already beating, independent of the Trump administration (which clearly does not control the media).
Now on to the snake in the garden, Dr. Fauchi. I am convinced that President Trump was forced to lock-down the country against his will by the elites, whose control of media, and mastery of fear-mongering temporarily stampeded his base. But, strategic genius that he is, he put Fauchi out front and center in his daily news conferences, knowing that the truth about Fauchi’s conflicts of interest over suppressing Hydroxychloroquine and his links to the Clintons and the Wuhan labs would eventually be exposed. And once the public caught on to both Fauchi’s duplicity and the media’s intentional sabotage of the economy, the stampede of panic would turn into a giant pro-Trump protest rally. That’s where we stand today. The Trump base is coming back stronger than ever, his America First agenda has been fully vindicated, and the emerging economic depression is ready to popularize populism like never before.
The Democrats actually want another Great Depression because they remember how far FDR was able to move the needle leftward during those years – and in fact, if the Dems retake the White House in November, we’ll become a socialist empire in the blink of an eye. BUT, Trump is the ultimate anti-FDR, and at the moment it looks like he’s holding all the cards again, especially as the Obama team, including Joe Biden, are starting to be exposed to the public as the nest of vipers they are – with hard documentation already starting to dribble out about their illegal espionage against the Trump team, and the Durham investigation still grinding toward the announcement of criminal prosecutions.
Despite everything I’ve written above, I don’t think President Trump is going to allow war with China to get past an initial confrontation, if it even gets that far. I believe he will instead force China into submission to a US-led economic recovery plan with mutual benefits. That’s just a hunch, but it’s the more Christian thing to do, and he has surrounded himself with Christians. Frankly, I believe that is the secret to Trump’s brilliance. With a couple of glaring exceptions, he’s apparently being guided by the Holy Spirit – either directly, or indirectly via his team.
So it really doesn’t matter what the snake from the Garden of Heathens wants or what the global elites have planned. It either fits with God’s timetable or not, and He, as always, is still in charge.
Why Obama Targeted General Michael Flynn
On December 29, 2016, the Russian Collusion Hoax was already in play and had become the centerpiece of the Obama strategy for ousting Trump, but Obama needed to dramatically raise the stakes and turn Russia from “political trickster” to “dangerous enemy aggressor” in the public mind — to justify a planned accusation of treason against Trump and trigger a constitutional/military crisis that would allow Obama to stay in power, or at least cripple the incoming Trump administration.
and so he created a diplomatic crisis that most Americans would recognize as a prelude to potential armed conflict IF the Russians retaliated
On December 30th, the morning after the set-up, the Russians took the bait.
But later that same day, after General Flynn intervened, the Russians laughed it off.
And even had a little fun with it
Humiliating Obama and dealing a death blow to his nefarious plans
But the ball had already been set in motion by the Obama team.
Including false-flag attacks on US soil, blamed on the Russians, that were to have been the justification for further escalation
Forcing the Obama Deep State to publicly slam into reverse.
All because a patriotic American general threw a wrench into Obama’s war-machinery,
saving us from a potentially serious hot war with Russia — perhaps even WWIII.
And THAT is why General Flynn was Obama’s first target in the Trump administration! (In my opinion)
Scott Lively on the Emerging Beast Government
The ‘New Normal’ and the Emerging Beast Government
After reading Cherie Zaslawsky’s great article “Beware the New Normal” on Canada Free Press, it suddenly struck me that the dystopian “new normal” of Covid 19 really IS normal from the perspective of the leftist elites, and all these blue state governors and blue city mayors reveling in their new dictatorial powers truly don’t have a clue what normal is for average Americans. They live in an ideological fantasy world where good is evil and evil good, family configurations are arbitrary, and people who disagree are witless boobs needing reeducation. They are sheltered from the reality of true morality, natural society and freedom of thought by a cocoon of comprehensive cradle-to-grave government provision (or their own “legacy wealth”) – so completely separated from the “old normal” that they can’t even connect the dots between the tax-revenue they gorge themselves upon and the tax-payers who provide it.
Case in point is the tyrant Gavin Newsom whose response to the citizens defiant pursuit of healing sunlight and saltwater at California beaches – one of the healthiest disease-suppressing environments available anywhere – is the iron fist of reprisal. But a separate Newsom dictate is even more revealing: the announcement that public schools will open “in weeks not months” but Christian churches must wait “months not weeks.”
To the leftist mind public schools are essential because they help to separate children emotionally and ideologically from their Neanderthal parents, while Bible-believing churches do the opposite. And especially critical for the “new normal” is helping the children put the Covid-19 crisis in proper context: they must be helped to recognize it as a consequence of, first, the dangerously incompetent mismanagement of the Trump administration, and second, the adult generation’s denial of the biggest crisis of all, “climate change.”
This reminds me of (my wife Anne’s favorite) culture analyst Peter Jones’ contention that the new religion for the masses is actually not a variation on any of the old world religions, or even Marxist Humanism (as I have argued) but a form of Romantic Paganism. That’s the theology the kids and young adults have been indoctrinated with – from Star Wars to Harry Potter to Game of Thrones: a theology of mysticism in which mortals with the right attitude and training can wield supernatural powers. It is reminiscent of the pre-Gutenberg serfs of the Middle Ages, when only the Roman Catholic elites had the Bible, and the masses interpreted the Latin ritual of the Eucharist “Hoc est enim corpus meum” (the body of Christ) as “Hocus Pocus” – a magic trick. And isn’t it interesting that Pope Francis, whose speech kicked off the UN’s 2030 Agenda (yes, the very globalist agenda) is the one who blamed Covid-19 on climate change denial (the revenge of Mother Earth).
To be sure, the elites themselves are mostly high church Marxist Humanists, but the secularized “common people” now have the less intellectual and more emotional religion of the earth and its “familiar spirits,” while the true believers in the “old gods” (Jesus, Mohammed, et al) are kept busy fighting each other for turf (especially in Christian Europe and North America) through the “open borders” strategy.
Now, back to Gavin Newsom and the other principalities and powers of the world of the “new normal.” I suggested above that they can’t connect the dots between tax-payers and tax-revenue, but that’s not really true. They may be psychopathic, but they’re not stupid. So why would these despots kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? Could it be that they have foreknowledge of a new financial order being readied for implementation – one perhaps requiring the collapse of the old? Is is mere coincidence that so many CEOs of the elite strata – such as Bill Gates and Michael Eisner – resigned just before the Covid-19 stock market crash?
My guess is the new system is ready to roll out like a new company “going public” with an “Initial Public Offering” (IPO) in which the insider elites, as always, already hold generous portions in their shiny new Beast-Market portfolios. I’m guessing it will be initiated with a “Global Debt Jubilee” – in which all pre-existing debts of any kind are wiped clean worldwide, but only for those who accept membership in the new system (with a mark on their hand or forehead?) and those who don’t are blamed for all the problems caused by not being able to “close the books” on the old system – leading to severe persecution (even from fellow “believers” ) for those who refuse to “take the mark.”
We’ve long endued a wealth-perpetuated caste system in the “free world,” it’s how the elites have remained the elites, while pushing socialism on the rest of us. Tucker Carlson did a great commentary on this theme recently, asking first how the dull-witted Chris Cuomo managed to get into Yale to then expose the larger conspiracy of elite schools routinely admitting the merit-less children of mostly Democrat politicians. The super-rich set themselves apart from the rest of us and steer the policies of the world system to suit themselves. That’s a point I expounded upon in my recent lecture for the Salt and Light network: Marxism, Eugenics and Transhumanism.
As depressing at it may be to think we may never recover pre-Covid 19 America, it is even more disturbing to realize we now consider that “old normal” a good one by comparison. I suppose all things are relative when it comes to this fallen world.
But we who are in Christ are not of this world. He told us in John 17 to be in it, but not of it. Our duty as American is to fight like Patrick Henry to restore the earthly kingdom God has blessed us with, while keeping the wins and losses in perspective like Paul the Apostle in the time of the Romans.
And just as God allows us aging humans to experience increasing aches and pains as we are prepared for leaving our earthly bodies, He has warned us of tribulation before His second coming, when we will receive glorified spiritual bodies. That’s the “new normal” I’m yearning for!
Scott Lively’s ‘Dynasty of Darkness’ Part Two
Chapter Two: Satan and Antichrist
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15.
The ancient Book of Job has never been accurately dated but is believed by many to recount events roughly from the time of Abraham. In it Satan famously receives God’s permission to test Job’s faith and puts this blameless man, figuratively speaking, “through hell.”
In Job 1:7, “The LORD said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.’”
If the Book of Job is taken literally, it confirms that Satan’s casting down to earth by God in Isaiah 14 is a past, not future event. It also supports the belief that demons “roam” the earth in a disembodied form but can “walk around on it” in a human host. Jesus described this phenomenon in Matthew 12:43-45
“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
The Book of Job indicates that Satan takes possession of human hosts in the same manner as unclean spirits do. That host then becomes the literal embodiment (in-body-ment) of evil on the earth, the person we call the Antichrist.
The Bible provides special insight into the relationship of Satan and Antichrist in Ezekiel Chapter 28. In this chapter, God gives the prophet Ezekiel two messages to deliver to the King of Tyre, an Antichrist figure. The first message in verses 1-10 address the king in his Antichrist role, while the second message in verses 11-19 speak “past” or “through” the King of Tyre to Satan himself.
The first message is to the King of Tyre as the Antichrist:
“The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are a man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God: Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from you: With your wisdom and with your understanding you have gotten yourself riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasuries: By your great wisdom and by your trade have you increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches#: Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have set your heart as the heart of God; Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon you, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness. They shall bring you down to the pit, and you shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Will you yet say before him that slays you, I am a god? but you shall be a man, and no god, in the hand of him that slays you. You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 28:1-10).
The second message speaks “past” or “through” the King of Tyre to Satan:
“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus says the Lord GOD; You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your timbrels and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so: you were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your trade they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned#: therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor: I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you. You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of you, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you: you shall be a horror, and never shall you be anymore” (Ezekiel 28:11-19).
The Bible reveals quite plainly here that this King of Tyre was the Antichrist of his time, possessed by Satan.
Satan on the Earth
Again, the devil took [Jesus] up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And said unto him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, Begone, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve (Matthew 4:8-10)
As Matthew 4 notes, Satan has authority to delegate political power and wealth to his followers in this world. He is “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). He will remain “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) until the Second Coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11-18; 20:2).
He is a “murderer from the beginning,” and the “Father of lies,” whose “native language” is lying and deceit (John 8:44). His purpose is to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10) and to enslave (cite).
The Satanic Attributes of the Antichrist
In his spiritual form, Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), but when he has taken a host he can actually work in the physical world to accomplish his objectives. The host takes on the personality of Satan and reflects his nature in a variety of ways.
The following scriptures offer details about the personality of Satan/Antichrist:
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for [the Day of the Lord] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God…For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-9)
“By your wisdom and understanding You have acquired riches for yourself And have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries. By your great wisdom, by your trade You have increased your riches And your heart is lifted up because of your riches” (Ezekiel 28:4-5).
“Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (2 Corinthians (11:14-15).
We find additional details in the Apocryphal books 1st and 2nd Maccabees. While not inspired scripture, these books are nevertheless highly reliable historical records which document the partial fulfillment of events prophesied in Daniel 11and the actions of the Antichrist figure Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
“He shed much blood, and spoke with great arrogance…. He plundered the city, burned it with fire, and tore down its houses and its surrounding walls. They took captive the women and children, and seized the livestock….On every side of the sanctuary they shed innocent blood; they even defiled the sanctuary….they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judah…The books of the law that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king…they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers’ necks” (1 Maccabees 1:24-61).
We can also recognize attributes of Satan and the Antichrist in the specific worship rituals by which Satan’s human followers were degraded: primarily human sacrifice of children and extreme sexual perversions involving incest, homosexuality and bestiality (Leviticus 18; 1 Kings 11:4-7). And, of course, there are various extra-biblical records that can assist us in our study.
By the examination of these sources, and looking for common denominators in the lives and actions of the individuals in Biblical history most clearly associated with Satan, we can establish a core profile of the Antichrist through the ages. We are thus looking for especially evil individuals whose actions are directed against Hebrews and/or Christians, and who display one or more of six key satanic attributes:
Extreme megalomania. Often expecting worship, especially as head of a pantheon of gods.# Sometimes employing vast slave armies to build monuments to himself.
Wanton cruelty and sadism. Often involving torture, mass murder, genocide, infanticide or war, most especially targeting Jews and/or Christians.
Enormous wealth and power — through inheritance, theft and/or commerce.
Sexual perversion — especially incest, homosexuality and/or bestiality.
Habitual lawlessness and deceitfulness.
Insanity
Importantly, the Antichrist does not demand worship only for himself but allows and even encourages the worship of all of his demonic underlings as well. The earthly influence of Satan’s demonic kingdom is thus perpetuated even when he is absent from a host body.
End of Chapter Two
Is the Last Days Antichrist Already Here?
The unfolding globalist takedown of the world economy and concurrent natural phenomena such as locust plagues and earthquakes has stirred great interest in end-times prophecy and the Antichrist. This article offers some non-traditional perspectives on these topics my own studies “de novo” (from scratch), using a first century perspective of scripture without regard for established denominational doctrines.
I have this week begun publishing a book and video series titled “Dynasty of Darkness: Satan’s long serpentine trail through human history in the role of successive Antichrists, and the imminent rise of his last days kingdom.” I believe the “Antichrist” is whomever the demon Satan happens to be possessing at any given time and there have been many. (You may request a free sample of the book and videos by email to scottlivelyministries@gmail.com)
Antichrist means “anti-Messiah,” the adversary of all who worship Yahweh (the salvation-promising God of the Bible), both Jews and Christians. Though most Jews do not acknowledge Jesus as Messiah (Christ), many Torah-faithful Jews will accept Him at the second coming (Romans 11:25-29). In the mean time, Jews are no less a target of Satan than Christians, and indeed were the exclusive target of the Antichrist Antiochus IV Epiphanus in the 2nd century BC (Daniel 11), and the primary target of a famous modern Antichrist, Adolf Hitler, whose “Holocaust” of them literally means “burnt offering.”
Of course, Christians will be the primary target of the imminent last-days Antichrist of Revelation, and we who are “in the light” of Christ should not let him take us by surprise (Matthew 24:4-8, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6).
To that end we must search the Scripture for enlightenment. There we find that Satan is a finite, created being with limitations defined by God (Ezekiel 28:15). Though he has great power, and an army of demonic angels at his command (Revelation 12:9), he can only be in one place at a time. He is NOT like an evil counterpart to the Holy Spirit with omniscience and omnipresence, but only “like a ravening lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
However, his greatest weapon is the power to deceive (John 8:44) – which, when it takes the form of self-indulgent false doctrines and false religions such as (Marxist) Humanism (which most don’t even recognize as a religion), enslaves vast numbers of people in self-harming and self-degrading beliefs and conduct – to the point that God gives them over to a “spirit of delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12). Satans’s alluring and powerful lies thus operate like a deadly mind-controlling virus, spread by humans ourselves, magnifying his influence immeasurably.
We also learn that Satan has authority to delegate political power and wealth to his followers in this world (Matthew 4:8-9), that he is “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) and that he will remain “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) until the Second Coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11-18; 20:2).
How does possession work? In Job 1:7 we get a glimpse: “The LORD said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.’” This suggests that in their natural state, demons “roam” the earth in a disembodied form but through “possession” can “walk around on it” in a human host.
Jesus described this phenomenon in Matthew 12:43-45: “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
Job indicates that Satan takes possession of human hosts in the same manner as the lesser “unclean spirits” do. That host then becomes the literal embodiment (in-body-ment) of evil on the earth, the person we call the Antichrist.
We further glimpse the relationship of Satan and Antichrist in Ezekiel 28 where God gives Ezekiel two messages to deliver to the evil King of Tyre. The first message in verses 1-10 address the king in his human Antichrist role, while the second message in verses 11-19 speaks “past” or “through” the King of Tyre to the demon Satan himself.
The first message is to the King of Tyre as the Antichrist: “The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are a man, and not God…”
The second message speaks “past” or “through” the King of Tyre to Satan:“Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre, and say unto him… You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden the garden of God …perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you…”
This plainly reveals this King of Tyre as the Antichrist of his time, possessed by Satan.
Now, if we accept that we are in the season of the end times, 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us that the last days Antichrist is already on the earth, but hidden. Various names are touted as candidates, from the ever popular George Soros and Pope Francis, to the recently short-listed Bill Gates, but these don’t fully fit the Biblical criteria for the Antichrist in my view. IF, however, these world events truly are the “beginning of birth pangs” Jesus warned about, the real Antichrist will be revealed soon enough.
