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When the wicked take charge, people hide. When the wicked meet disaster, the godly multiply.
—Proverbs 28:28
History is replete with stories of the rise and fall of persecutors of the Church, but the worst persecutor of all time could arrive in our generation. We may or may not be around when the actual Antichrist arrives on the scene, but the “spirit of the Antichrist” (1 John 4:3) has been working for thousands of years. It is a deceptive spirit, seeking to deny that Jesus is the Christ and thus denying the Father and the Son (2:22).
Daniel received the greatest Old Testament revelation of the Antichrist. He foresaw the covenant the Antichrist will make with the Jewish people in the seven years known as the Tribulation. The Antichrist will suddenly turn on the Jewish nation and “set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration” (Daniel 9:27). It will be an image of the Antichrist himself in the midst of the Jews’ rebuilt temple.
We are not deceived, however, because we have the truth of the Holy Spirit living in us (1 John 2:20). Let us fear neither the literal Antichrist nor the spirit of Antichrist. The greater One is living inside us!
Suggested Reading:
Daniel 9:1-11:1 1 John 2:18-3:6 Psalm 121:1-8 Proverbs 28:27-28