Introducing the Anti-Christ????

While my wife and I sat and watched a famous television evangelist last week, we were stunned at the announcement that was made. Apparently the EU elected a permanent president over the entire European Union, and this man was hinting to the fact that this could be the anti-christ. Could this man really be the long awaited world leader that so many passages of scripture warn us about?

Well in the words of Paul Harvey, “now for the rest of the story”.

Although it is true the EU has elected Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium as their permanent president, the term “permanent” is a little misleading. Unfortunately the television evangelist failed to mention the fact that Rompuy’s term is not for life, but for 2 ½ years.

Let’s also take a look at the description of the anti-christ in both Daniel chapter 11 and Revelation chapter 13. In both passages the anti-christ is a militant leader who leads by force. John states in Revelation 13:4, “who can war against him?” This is not the leadership style that most popular evangelists talk about in today’s society.

So you might be asking then, “Who is the anti-christ?” This is the question that is on most Christians’ minds today. I have no doubt that the he might be alive today because of the signs that are being filled in exponential numbers. The fact is that no one knows who the anti-christ is, or is going to be. I have my opinions just like many other teachers of eschatology, but Paul lets us know in 2 Thessalonians 2:4that we will know him because he will be the one who sits on the throne in the temple and claims to be God. Rompuy could be the prophesied anti-christ, but personally I believe it will be more of a leader like Hitler or Stalin. In the mean time we must watch and pray.

End Time Terminology

As we begin our journey into a deeper understanding of end time prophecy, we will be looking at many different viewpoints. With such a conglomeration of different Christian theologies, it is no wonder why so many believers are perplexed with apocalyptic scriptures. I do not claim to have all the answers to these passages, but I do believe that through extensive research, I do have a good grasp on God’s plan for the end of the World as we know it.

Before we can examine the different viewpoints we need to understand the language of the end time debate. First is the term eschatology, which simply means the study of end time beliefs. This term is associated with other religions besides Christianity. Islam, for instance, has their separate eschatological beliefs. I do believe the different religions' beliefs do cross paths, but we will investigate this in a future post.

The next set of theological terms to look at is based on the various interpretations of Revelation 20, the thousand year reign of Christ. This period of time is called the millennium and is divided into three major beliefs: pre-millennialism, amillennialism, or post-millennialism. The pre-millennialists believe that Christ's 1000 year reign is going to happen sometime in the future, amillennialists believe that it is happening right now, and post-millennialists believe that it has already happened. We will look at the history behind each belief in the future, but now you have a general understanding of the tough eschatological terms.