Greetings Upstream friends!
We trust you've had a good week so far. Welcome to another blog teaching. We are deep into a series called End Time Prophecy Revealed in which we've looked at many aspects of the end times, what to expect and how to stay strong in the Lord. If you need reminding of any of this, you can look back through our previous blogs on our blog page.
We’ve talked previously about the great tribulation and the beginning of sorrows. Last week, we began looking at the antichrist and what he’s going to do. This week, we are continuing with the antichrist and some of his characteristics. How will we know it’s the antichrist?
There have been many ‘antichrist’ types over the ages, from Stalin to Hitler, there have been incredibly ungodly, evil figures rise up in the world and murder millions of people in their attempts to gain power and adoration.
The antichrist will oppose anything that recognises God, he will exult himself as God and require the world to worship him. It says in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Daniel 11:36-37 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Other than those who believe in Jesus, all the world will worship this beast. What will that worship look like? Worship means to yield ourselves in adoration. It’s giving control of ourselves over to something that we desire and adore. That’s what’s going to happen in the great tribulation. The world will love the antichrist so much that they will worship him, yield themselves to him and adore him.
It says that he will be empowered by satan directly, he’s possessed by the devil. As we find in Revelation 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
In Revelation 17:9 it says And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits. So, what are the seven heads/mountains of the beast on which the 'whore of Babylon' sits. They could be actual mountains, physical, geographical locations but that doesn’t seem to make much sense. It's clear that there is symbolism here. It could be the continents, or it could be 7 arenas of society. The 7 cultural systems are: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government.
These are all quite possible, reasonable interpretations of what the 7 mountains could be. But, we'd like to offer an alternative.
Typically, in the Bible, a mountain is usually referring to as a place of worship or a symbol of belief systems. Isaiah 2:2 says And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Anyone familiar with Daniel 2 knows that the statue represents the major empires of the world. Daniel saw a rock, not carved with hands, fall from heaven and smash the statue. Jesus is the rock! And he becomes a great mountain that filled the whole earth.
So, it’s very likely that the beast with seven heads is the source of all the ungodly philosophies of the world. Think about it. The antichrist is just that; anti Christ. All the anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-Christian philosophies of the world come from the antichrist. The spirit of antichrist fuels every humanistic, false philosophy, all the other religions, pagan religions, anything anti-God.
We will talk next week about the empire that he sets up and where that comes from.
You might find some of this a bit heavy. You might feel it's unnecessary. We'd really encourage you to review our blog here, to remind yourself why we study this out.
Until next week, keep your eyes on Jesus and may you know His love for you deeper than ever before.
Upstream Ministries
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