The Antichrist

And he stood upon the sand of the sea...Revelation 13:1

To refresh your memory, I recently wrote about the beginning of the Great Tribulation.  As many times as I've heard opinions and explanations of the Tribulation, and how all of Christendom has agreed that the Tribulation is a two part period, with no special name for the first three and a half years, and the second three and a half years called the Great Tribulation, I don't remember that anyone has ever drawn a line in the sand and said, "And THIS is that point at which the second period, known as the Great Tribulation, begins."  So I'll just be the one to clear this up once and for all!  

In Chapter 11, the seventh trumpet sounds, which results in the commencement of last set of seven judgments of the three sets.  These seven judgments are called the Seven Vials.  Immediately after the seventh trumpet, in Chapter 12, the Great Red Dragon, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, loses the war in heaven between Michael and the other righteous angels and Satan and his demons.  Up until this war Satan has had access to heaven!  Right now Satan is still able to enter heaven and accuse people on earth to God.  But after losing this war, Satan and his demons are cast down to earth from heaven once and for all.  They can't go back.  This war is still a future event, and when Satan finds himself kicked out of heaven, he will "have great wrath" and start absolutely tearing up the earth.  "Therefore rejoice ye heavens and them that dwell in them.  Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, and of the sea!  For the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, for he knoweth that he hath but a short time."  All hell breaks loose on earth.  I think that this is the point that the Great Tribulation starts.  

The Great Red Dragon has seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his seven heads, signifying the fact that when this occurs, the seventh empire of world history will have come into being.  All the emperors have been crowned.  This is also a future event.  The previous six empires have come and gone, the seventh is coming.  Revelation 17:10-13: "And there are seven kings: five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seventh, and goeth into perdition. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. 13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."  

In Chapter 13, John sees a beast rise up out of the sea, and the beast resembles the Great Red Dragon.  The beast of the sea also has seven heads and ten horns.  In the case of the beast, however, there are ten crowns on the ten horns.  This tells us that the ten districts which the seventh empire is to be divided into has come into existence at the time when the beast of the sea appears.  

John also says that the beast of the sea "was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." Revelation 13:2.  The leopard is the Babylonian Empire, the bear is the Medo-Persian Empire, and the lion is the Greek Empire.  But wait, there are seven, why just mention these three?  I guess because at the time John wrote, there were five empires of the past, and he was in the sixth empire, the Roman Empire.  This is why he said, "Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come."  The three empires he looks back on go back to the time of Daniel's prophesy, during the Babylonian Empire.  

Why is this person called "the beast of the sea?"  Because in Chapter 17, (Revelation 17:15), the explanation is given that the sea signifies the Gentile nations of the world: "The waters which thou sawest...are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."  The beast of the sea will rise up out of the Gentile world, almost certainly the Western world, because the seventh empire will be a rebirth of the Roman Empire.  Does this mean that the Antichrist will be Gentile?  No, probably not.  The Antichrist is the false Messiah, and the Messiah has to be Jewish.  

Are the Great Red Dragon and the Beast of the Sea the same?  No, not quite.  The Great Red Dragon is Satan.  The Beast of the Sea is the Antichrist.  Revelation 13:2 goes on to say that the dragon gives him (the beast of the sea) "his power, and his seat, and great authority."  The Beast of the Sea is Satan's man that rules the earth, given his position by Satan. 

Who is this man?  Is he alive today?  This same question has been asked through the centuries ever since John first wrote these words about him.  People speculate frequently.  I can't think of anyone that seems to be the Antichrist.  He may just be some dark political horse that comes from obscurity one day.  He will be a big braggart, and also blaspheme God.  One of the most remarkable things about him will be his big mouth.   

Then in verse 3 John says that he saw that one of the heads of the beast is mortally injured, but then the fatal injury is healed.  This astounds everyone of earth, so much so that they are absolutely convinced that the Beast is divine, and "they worship the dragon which gives power unto the beast, and they worship the beast, whose deadly wound was healed."  

This is a head wound, and no one thinks it just appeared to be fatal.  This man was killed.  Besides that, verse 14 calls this injury a wound by the sword.  So do I think that someone will take a sword and strike the Antichrist in the head? Or do I think that the sword is used as a generic term meaning weapon?  Oh, I don't know.  I know that throughout the book of Revelation there is talk of people being beheaded.  Weirdly enough, I have heard of people being beheaded.  In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was murdered by his nephew.  The punishment of the nephew was beheading by a golden sword.  Then there was the murder of the journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 by beheading.  And the drug cartels have beheaded their victims.  There was an incident near Guadalajara a few years ago where someone driving down the highway between Guadalajara and Lake Chapala stopped to pick up an ice chest they saw beside the road, and found six heads in the ice chest.   

So, it occurs to me that the injury that the Antichrist receives could actually be beheading.  It could be with a sword, or at least a blade.  I say this because of the way that everyone is so completely convinced that the Antichrist is dead.  People have survived head injuries before.  This man doesn't just look dead.  He is dead.  Is he murdered or is this a barbaric death sentence?  It doesn't say.  The fact that this man's injury is healed and he returns from the dead is the point at which the world decides this man is God, and worships him, which is also, in effect, worship of Satan, the real power behind this man.  

And so, children, the entire world is taken over by Satan worshippers for forty and two months.