The Antichrist

I generally avoid this subject because there is much unadulterated bullshit about it. Here is an excerpt from my updated notes on 2 Thessalonians 2.

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Now we come to the point of this second letter to Thessalonica. Someone was trying to convince the church there that the Day of the Lord had come, as if that would explain their persecution. Paul warned them not to believe any such notion, whether it comes via spiritual revelation, a report of teaching or a bogus letter from Paul himself. During those three short weeks with them, he warned them that there would have to be certain conditions fulfilled before the Lord’s Return.

Paul runs through a brief summary of what he had previously taught them in more detail, which detail is no longer available to us. However, the outline is not hard to follow. First, there must be a general apostasy, but it is paired directly with the rise of an Antichrist figure claiming to be Christ. This draws a picture of the church drifting far, so very far that it mistakes some satanic deceiver for Christ. In other words, the genuine Return of Christ would be preceded by a fake one. This someone will eventually claim to be God. In his previous letter, Paul draws a picture of Christ coming in the air, and then we rise to meet Him. He changes and redeems all Creation, and then comes Eternity in Paradise. Christ will not return to stand on this world in its current fallen state. The qualitative difference is indescribable, so anything short of that means Christ has not come. Signs and miracles are not evidence of any new revelation from God that contradicts plain teaching and Scripture.

We realize the deep mystery of such a preposterous presumption is already at work in this world. Satan began the day Christ ascended, planning and preparing the way for his fake Messiah to displace the truth of Christ. The only thing stopping him is the restraining hand of God, working through some force Paul does not declare here. Nor does it matter, because the point is that we have not yet seen any such global deception focused in a single individual just yet. The Antichrist’s day has not yet come, and it precedes the Final Day of the Lord. When this Son of Perdition does come, he won’t last long. God will obliterate him with just a puff of His breath.

There is a clear distinction between those who embrace the Cross and those only pretending. The Cross is death and those who don’t quite grasp the nature of mortification aren’t there yet. Spiritual birth requires a death of the old life first. On top of that, the Spirit speaks only through the heart, not to the intellect. The brain has to take it’s orders from the convictions living in the heart. The mind is not capable, and cannot be made capable of discerning spiritual truth. The mind cannot guard against this overwhelming deception Paul refers to here.

The Antichrist will come with an easy gospel, signs and wonders; a solid majority of humanity will embrace whatever he’s selling, at least on some level. It’s not as if this hasn’t been offered in numerous packages already, but the following has never been quite universal in any sense. The final revelation of the Antichrist will provide the context that will so clearly separate those who willingly give all for Christ versus those who seek something else, because the reign of Antichrist will seek to destroy those who really do know the truth and recognize him.

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The Dispensationalists have really perverted this thing. Christ is only going to return once. The above characterizes what must come before The End. Then, He’ll come to gather the saints to Him in the air and send everyone else to His Father’s Judgment. Next, He’ll restore Creation to its unfallen state rather like Eden and bring us all to our new earth. Even then, the language is mostly symbolic.