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Body Of Antichrist

Part I

 

 

 

 

 

As is the case in many instances in the study of Spiritual things in the times in which we live, much can be learned from examining the opposite of that which is of interest. For example, in the early days of Christianity, a major work entitled Against Heresies, written by the Christian leader Irenaeus (a Bishop who lived in the 2^nd century AD), used the examination of False Doctrines which were then prevalent as a vehicle to assert the truth which refuted those falsehoods.

 

This is essentially the same approach used in the Christian Media Network video program Another Gospel, which features extensive quotations of selected false prophets in their own words, followed by a refutation of those doctrines drawn from Scripture.

 

The present work is a variation of that technique, as certain topics in Scripture, which are shrouded in mysterious images, may be elaborated on by texts describing their known Spiritual opposites. As a case in point, there is much Scripture detailing the nature of the Body of Christ, yet there is relatively limited information on the Body of Antichrist, even though the term "antichrist" does clearly occur in Scripture.

 

"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular" (I Corinthians 12:27).

 

This paucity of information on the "body" of Antichrist is also because the precise term "body of antichrist" does not appear in Scripture; however, as the idea of an individual, supernaturally empowered Antichrist is itself unscriptural, we recognize that the information given in the New Testament does tell us there are "many" antichrists.

 

"As ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists" (I John 2:18).

 

That cumulative total of the "many" is surely the "body" of antichrist, as it is, by its very definition, a spiritually  driven collective of non-believers in Jesus Christ.

"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist" (II John 1:7).

 

In examining the topic based on spiritual polarities, we recognize the exclusive nature of salvation is uniquely vested in JESUS CHRIST.

 

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12).

 

This verse illustrates the rationale which emerged against embracing Jesus as the only Saviour of mankind – especially among those versed in spiritual things – for the claim of a unique exclusivity concerning a solitary path to God obviously defines anyone or anything that is not of Jesus Christ as embracing a lethal miscalculation.

 

A major part of the difficulty in an accurate perception of the body of Antichrist is in the resilient belief that a final Antichrist will emerge in the last days, and this mythical character is surrounded by legend and lore – mostly tied to the false doctrine that the Scriptures predicted would be prevalent in our time.

 

The Apostle Peter, for example, writing under the declared inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said that the many false prophets that were in Israel during the Old Covenant, would also appear in future generations.

 

"But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who [privately] shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them…and many shall follow their pernicious ways" (II Peter 2:1,2).

 

More broad based Scriptures, such as those describing end time's miscreants, can certainly be applied to the many characteristics found in the body of antichrist.

 

"Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" ( II Timothy 3:2-4).

 

This multitude of unsavory aspects of the people following their baser instincts without the guiding light of the Spirit of God (available only through Jesus Christ), is in stark contrast to the attributes of the Body of Christ.

 

"But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, goodness…of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption…" (I Timothy 6:11, I Corinthians 1:30).

 

In previous works, we have discerned that Satan seeks to counterfeit the works of God, usually casting himself in the role of the Father. Where the New Testament makes very clear that the Body of Christ Spiritually dwells in the heavens -- because we have made the choice that we wish to be in God's kingdom -- Satan counterfeits God's plan to indwell us by coercing us to follow his infernal ways through earthly means.

 

It is obvious Satan does not rule in heaven, and we can easily see that Satan's domain is on the earth.

 

"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and the sea! For the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:12).

 

The Holy Bible tells us the Body of Christ is in heaven, because it is comprised of Spiritual beings.

 

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9).

 

Many Christians don't yet understand this essential fact. There are many verses which tell us the believer is "in Christ" and "how that Jesus Christ is in you" (II Corinthians 13:5). To put it another way, because He is NOW at the right hand of the Father in heaven, our Spiritually regenerated man or woman is also at the right hand of the Father in heaven!

 

Conversely, the body of antichrist, which is apart from God, is on the earth. Furthermore, it is inconceivable there is no Scripture describing the mass of earth dwellers that have been deceived into neglecting the salvation that is readily available.

 

The truth is, the body of antichrist is vividly described in the book of Revelation under the label the Image of the Beast.

 

Unfortunately, the many false prophets the Holy Bible has scrupulously warned us about have presented the Image of the Beast as a physical creation of Satan, in the same sense they've concocted their myth of "the" Antichrist. Moreover, as the "Beast" itself is metaphorically presented as the earthly system of government which rules those that dwell on the earth, the truth is readily obscured.

 

The same is true of the spirit of the False Prophet, who allegorically "causes the earth, and those which dwell therein to worship [the Spirit of Antichrist]" (Revelation 13:12), as there is no "the" False Prophet. 

 

For many years, God has revealed that Satan's spiritual "house" is divided.

 

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" (Luke 11:17,18).

 

Earlier I noted how Satan seeks to counterfeit the work of the LORD. In this regard, remember that God utilizes His Holy Spirit to draw men to Christ:

 

"The comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name…he shall testify of me" (John 14:26, 15:26).

 

Satan seeks to copy God's triune nature, in that he utilizes the spirit of the False Prophet (part of his divided "house") to entice the earth dwellers through their sinful nature, which causes them to follow the Spirit of Antichrist. We see imagery of this unholy trinity in Scripture.

 

"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet" (Revelation 16:13).

 

Just as our God (who is revealed to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), has arranged to absorb the fourth component – the Body of Christ – into His heavenly kingdom, Satan's unholy trinity has "caused" the body of antichrist to share his infernal fate.

 

"[The False Prophet] deceiveth them that dwell on the earth…saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast" (Revelation 13:14).

 

Just as God the Father gives His refreshing Holy Spirit to the body of Christ, the spirit of the False Prophet gives his "life" to the image of the beast, which is the body of antichrist.

 

"And [the False Prophet] had power to give life to the image of the beast" (Revelation 13:15).

 

However, Satan does not have the power to give actual life to the "image," and it is here we find a crucial distinction between the Life that God gives, and the False Prophet's animating energy which that wicked spirit is able to transmit to the body of antichrist.

 

There are multiple Greek words for life, and as you might expect, the "Life" that God gives uses a different word than the "life" the False Prophet uses to energize the body of antichrist.

 

In the Gospel of John, when he recorded John 3:16's "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only betgotten Son, so that whosever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life," the disciple used the Greek word Zoe, which is used in many, many verses.

 

But in Revelation, that same writer John, uses pneuma when he writes of the "life" the False Prophet gives to the body of antichrist. Pneuma has a relationship to the air, such as an air powered tool like a pneumatic drill, a pneumatic hammer, or an air compressor.

 

The Apostle Paul writes about believers who "were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1) before they received the "first resurrection" (Revelation 20:6), when they imported new Life in Christ, and he makes a very unusual statement:

 

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2).

 

In view of these Scriptures, he was obviously connecting this to an artificial power associated with the earthly realm, but further elaboration on that aspect of the prophecy will have to wait for our next edition of The Body of Antichrist.

 

- James Lloyd

 

To Be Continued