An Ancient Evil is Rising…

Who is the Antichrist?

Nero? I believe there are three possible candidates. Number one, Caesar Nero. Adolf Hitler. Another name for the Antichrist is Son of Destruction. And if there's one man who brought utter destruction to Earth, it was Adolf Hitler.

Elon Musk? Elon Musk said Neuralink hopes to start implanting its brain chips in humans in 2022.

Bill Gates. Does Bill Gates want to implant us all with 5G microchips?

Mark Zuckerberg? Today, we're going to talk about the metaverse. The Pope? Is Pope Francis the infallible vicar of Christ on Earth?

Nero, the Beast, and the Number 666

Let's consider Nero. Joe Kirby recently presented Nero, or someone like Nero, as his top candidate for the Antichrist.

That being said, if you really pushed me in a corner and you really pressed me and said, Joe, who do you think the Antichrist is? I'd probably say to you, I believe it will be someone like Nero. Someone like number one.

Or dare I say, someone operating in the same spirit as Nero. Here we have five emperors who have fallen. One who is, who's still alive right now. And one who died naturally. But the prophecy which John wrote down was this.

One out of the original seven, who is not, who is already dead, would come back and he would be the Antichrist, the beast. So where did I get Nero from? Well, in the book of Acts, we actually read that the Apostle Paul appealed to a Caesar.

Who was this Caesar?

It was Caesar Nero. Joe also points out Nero's relationship to the number 666, the number of the beast.

But perhaps most suspect of all is this. In the Hebrew language, every single letter is given a number. And if you add up the numbers of Nero's name, guess what number it adds up to? 666, the mark of the beast.

Hitler and Modern Tech Candidates for the Antichrist

Next, Adolf Hitler. For obvious reasons, many thought Hitler was the Antichrist because of how much power he amassed and how much destruction he caused. But again, Hitler is no longer in power and he is dead.

Next, let's consider Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. Men like these have arisen as popular candidates because many interpret the mark of the beast as a major technological advancement. And these men are on the front lines of technological advancements.

However, first, that interpretation of the mark of the beast isn't supported by scripture.

No, Bill Gates, his stupidity and foolishness on many levels, and any chip that he wants or chips with data in them in terms of like buying and selling, commerce, those sorts of things, has nothing to do with Revelation 13.

Your head symbolized ownership, authority, right? So having God's name on your head was, I belong to Yahweh. I'm his subject. I worship him. And his mark on your hand, your right hand, symbolized your work, your labor.

It's not a literal mark because, listen, the mark on the head or the hand of the early Jews wasn't literal, right? So how all of a sudden does it become a microchip and literal? It wasn't literal for the Jews.

It wasn't literal here.

There's a context to the passage. And second, 2 Thessalonians 2, 4 tells us that the man of lawlessness will take his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. It seems extremely unlikely that men like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg will take their seat in the temple of God or claim to be God.

Which means it is essentially certain that they are not the Antichrist. Finally, let's consider the Pope. Throughout history, the general office of the Pope has been by far the most popular candidate for the Antichrist.

The Papacy, False Gospel, and Antichrist Language

The Westminster Confession of Faith contains this statement. There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God.

And the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith contains a very similar statement. Now, in many ways, the Pope is an extremely enticing candidate. The Pope's title is the Vicar of Christ or the Earthly Representation of Christ.

This fits perfectly with the description of the Antichrist, taking his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church has deceived countless millions of people throughout history with a false gospel that calls the crucial doctrine of justification through faith alone anathema.

And finally, if anyone says that the guilt is remitted to every penitent sinner after the grace of justification has been received and that the debt of eternal punishment is so blotted out that there remains no debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world or in the next in purgatory before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be open, let him be anathema.

They do not preach the same gospel.

And that's just one of Rome's many, many unbiblical teachings.

So there's of course the problem theologically, doctrinally, we can talk about Mary, Mariolatry. We can talk about Mary as co-mediatrix, co-redemptrix with Christ. We can talk about prayers to the saints.

We can talk about purgatory. Transubstantiation. All these different things, these unbiblical doctrines.

Many Antichrists, End-Times Watchfulness, and Christ's Return

Now, when considering the Antichrist, we need to remember that the word Antichrist does not just refer to the man of lawlessness who will appear immediately prior to Jesus' second coming. Many Antichrists have already existed throughout history.

And Antichrists exist today because the Bible was written to be relevant for Christians today, not just as a prophecy of future events.

If we're not careful, we look to this battle of Armageddon and we're watching the newspaper and we're watching what happens in the Middle East and trying to figure out what's going on with Syria, what's going on with Iraq, what's going on with China, what's going on with Russia, what's going on with Saudi Arabia, what's going on with Egypt, what's going on with fill in the blank.

And while we're looking at it, this war is going on right under our noses.

In light of this, it is almost certain that popes throughout history have been Antichrists because they fit what the Bible teaches about Antichrists perfectly. At the same time, we simply do not know and should not ever state with certainty who exactly the man of lawlessness described by 2 Thessalonians 2 is.

The Bible was not written for us to be able to figure out when Christ will return based on current events. When Jesus said that he would return like a thief in the night, he meant that he could return at any time and that nobody would be able to expect his return.

At the same time, we as Christians should be pursuing the things the Bible says will be precursors to Christ's second coming, such as the preaching of the gospel to all nations and the conversion of a large number of God's original chosen people, the Jews.

What is he talking about?

I'm glad you asked. A significant number of ethnic Jews at the end of the age.

There is a tension between Christ's imminent coming and these precursors to Christ's second coming that we need to understand and live with. To spend a lot of energy trying to determine the exact identity of the Antichrist is basically a fruitless endeavor that both goes against and distracts from what the Bible actually teaches about Christ's second coming.