The Second Coming 08 Rise and Fall of Antichrist — Stan Ford

The Beast’s Authority and the Mark of the Beast

Revelation chapter 30. And so, a beast rode up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon its horns ten cranks, and upon its head the name of Lachlan is. And the beast, which I saw, was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave his power and his feet and great authority.

And I saw one of its heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and the whole world wandered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast's flame, who was like unto the beast, who was able to make war with him.

And there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and then dwelt in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power was given him over all the kindreds and tongues of nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose name was not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man hath an ear, let him hear. And he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that calleth with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld an another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake of a dragon. And he exercised up all the power of the first beast before him, and called up the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doth great wonders, so that he make up fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he perceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he hath power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which hath the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he hath power to give light unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and calls that he may, I'm sorry, calls that as many as would worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he calls up all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bound, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that hath the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of the name.

Herein is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three four, and six. May the Lord just add his blessing for that portion, somewhat complicated, unsure for many of us who read it.

And now, let's read one verse in the Epistle to the Galatians. One verse in the Epistle to the Galatians, verse seventeen of the sixth chapter, from Let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Shall we pray? O God and Father, we confess this evening, as we turn to thy word, that we find ourselves in great need of the Spirit of God to be our teacher. But all how we praise thee that he has been given as our teacher, and we ask that this evening, as we look at thy word, that we may see those things thou wouldst have us see, that we may learn the lessons thou wouldst have us learn, and that tonight, each one of us may go on this way, not bearing the mark of a beast, but bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Speak then, O Abba. For we ask it in his name. Amen. If there is one thing I am absolutely persuaded of tonight, it is this, that there's not a man or woman will be in a moment's doubt that the world, and I speak of the world in its broad sense, is looking for a man.

I am utterly amazed, whatever country I go to, how the story is almost the same. I turn it here, and there are brethren and sisters in this service tonight who've said it to me since I arrived in your country.

I hear it in my own country. I hear it in whatever land I go. Men and women looking and seeing the mess the world seems to be in, and asking, is there not a man that can lead us out of the trouble the world seems to be in today?

Someone in this very service, I won't call him by name because he's seated very near me, someone in this very service said to me just a few days ago, all that we had of Winston Churchill. I know not why he named a man from my own country.

What this country, can he, speaking of your beloved land, what this country is in need of today is someone who has the power to lead, the power to take men and women through the problems that they are confronted with.

Is this the truth? Please, I am not a politician, I do not wish to be a politician, God would not have me be a politician. But please, is this the truth, that in the politics of men, men are asking for a forceful leader?

Never you forget that there will come a day when they will be given that leader. There will come a day the Word of God leaves us in no doubt. There will come a day when God will permit them to have the man they've been asking for.

And all what bloodshed and heartache and misery will follow till it's taking that rule. The Bible refers to him in a number of ways. The Bible refers to him as the beast. The Bible refers to him as the man of sin.

The Bible refers to him as the Antichrist. And it is he tonight that I want to talk a little, please I emphasize that word, a little about. Now let's have no confusion about this matter. The Bible speaks of many Antichrists, Antis that simply means against.

And so you could well understand, couldn't you, that there would be many who are against Christ. I look around this world today. I think of what's happening away in Iran. I think of what's happening in many of the African countries that make up that great continent.

I think of what's happening in Russia. I think of what's happening in China. I hear the anti-God, anti-Christ cries that come from so many universities and higher places of education. All we are living in a day when it appears there is much that is anti-to-Christ, anti-Christ.

But never let us forget that while there is much that is anti-to-Christ today, never let us forget that there is coming a day when one will be found who will be known as the anti-Christ. Now if Jesus Christ, as we saw during the course of the week, if Jesus Christ is coming back, and coming back soon for what we term the rapture, the catching away of the Church, then dare I suggest to you that if the rapture is very near, then maybe that anti-Christ is alive today.

For you will not forget that the day of Jacob's trouble is but a period of seven years, and if a man is going to exercise authority and power, and if Jesus Christ is coming back very soon, that man must be alive today.

So maybe. While I would not point my finger and make suggestions, as many have, I have lived a life where, over the past years, I have heard Hitler called the anti-Christ, I've heard Mussolini called the anti-Christ, I've heard the Black Pope called the anti-Christ, and as I reminded you the other day, I even heard your Kissinger called the anti-Christ.

I don't know who the anti-Christ will be, but I do know that there are certain marks that men and women will be able to see, and they will say that this is the man, this is the man. But let us rejoice in this, please.

If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you won't be here when the anti-Christ sets up his reign. If you love the Lord Jesus, then please, you will be taken home to be with him before ever he sets up his reign.

But if you don't know the Lord Jesus, what an awful thing to be left behind for certain. If I may, just to pass one or two comments concerning Henry. I want, first of all, for us to consider what the Bible says about his character, and then I want to consider what the Bible says about his conduct, and then I want us to see what the Bible says about his temperament, but most of all I want us to see what the Bible has to say about his class.

Well, never let us forget the verse I quoted the other evening is still true. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. God is never taken unaware. God is working out his plan in the appearance of men.

The Antichrist’s Character as the Opposite of Christ

First of all, then, let's think for just a moment what the Bible dares to tell us about this man and his character. I want to point out to you that he is the absolute opposite to Jesus Christ. I want to point out to you that not only is he the Antichrist inasmuch as he is against Christ, but all that I could say of Christ, I see the opposite in the Antichrist.

For instance, my Bible dares to tell me of the Lord Jesus. He said himself, I am come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And if John 6 and 38 is in the Bible, and Jesus Christ came down not to do his will, but the will of the Father that sent him, the absolute opposite can be said of that one that one day men will commit to rule over them.

Well, my Bible dares to use the words of the 7th verse of the 11th chapter of Revelation, and speaking of him it says, the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

I see the blessed Savior as he defends from heaven. I see the Antichrist as he rises up from the bottomless pit. I think of the Lord Jesus, and I remember that he could say, I come in my Father's name.

Ye receive me. If another shall come in his own name, him will ye receive. Why John 5 and verse 43 is as real as the words of God are. That Jesus Christ came in the Father's name, but men would not receive him.

Ye receive me not, but if another shall come in his own name, you shall receive him. And that's exactly what the Bible says, that men and women will do with the Antichrist, for he will come in his own name, and they will receive him.

They will bow their knee to him. They will accept him. They will permit him to rule over them. Of the Lord Jesus, the glorious words of Philippians 2 and 8 come to every heart that knows his life. And we dare use those words again, he humbled himself.

All the wonder of it. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That's Christ. But the Antichrist, the opposite. 2 Thessalonians dares to remind us, verse 4 of chapter 2, it dares to remind us that he exalted himself above all that he's worshipped.

He exalted himself above all that he's worshipped. So, when I look at the character of the Antichrist, I find he's the opposite of the Saviour. I think of the words that are spoken in the fifty-third of Isaiah of the Lord, he was despised.

For my Bible says he was despised, and we have seen enough that the Antichrist, not despised, and they worshipped the beast, saying unto him, saying, I'm sorry, they worshipped the beast, saying, who is like unto him?

The fourth verse of that 13th chapter of Revelation. One humbling himself, the other exalting himself. Of the Christ of God, the Bible dares to say this, that he was the Son of God. Christ was the Son of God.

I think of those glorious words in the thirty-first verse of the first chapter of Luke, and I am utterly and absolutely amazed. Therefore, that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

The Son of God, that's the Christ. And when I think of the Antichrist, I remember the Bible dares to say that he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above God. I have quoted, no doubt, as you know, from the thirty-sixth verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, all the absolute opposite of a saviour I see in the character of the Antichrist.

My friends, I wonder if I could ask, is there any one of you would like to live when he reigns? Or, it may appear, when perhaps he reigns, that power has been given to him by the nations of the world, and so it will be.

But it is not long, as we saw the other evening, before he who would come indeed as the one, as the protector of God's earthly people, the Jew, will turn out to be the persecutor of God's earthly people.

Oh, what a violent... But if I think of his character, I think indeed of his countenance. I compare it again to the countenance of the Lord Jesus. And I remember when I look into the face of the blessed Saviour, I see a Christ with tears drenched face.

There he wept over Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ye who stone at the prophets! How I would have gathered thee, and the hen gathered her chicks, but ye would not! Ye would not! It's interesting, is it not?

Interesting, to say the least of it, that it's only twice recorded in the Gospels that Jesus wept. Once he wept over a city of people, Jerusalem. Once he wept over one man, Lazarus. Once he wept over living people.

Once he wept over a dead man. Only twice recorded in the Gospels that Jesus wept. Oh, I know it's recorded in the epistles of the Hebrews, in the epistles that he wept with strong, crying tears. And the writer of the epistles of the Hebrews takes us way yonder to Gethsemane's garden and shows us he who takes Calvary and the punishment of sin because of his love both to his power of God and to you and me.

Oh, if he said of the Christ that his countenance was wet with tears, what of that countenance of the beast in town? Why, the book of Daniel dares say a king of pure countenance shall stand up in that great twenty-third verse of the eighth chapter of the book of Daniel.

A king with a pure countenance. Why, my Bible dares to say of him in the second verse of the 13th chapter of Revelation that we read together. Let me read it again to you. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard.

Not a leopard beast, but like unto one. Why, it dares say of him that his feet were like the feet of a bear, that his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him power and his feet and authority.

Oh, what a countenance. As I see that which is opposite to anything that's beautiful and fine. And yet I remember that this was ever so. I remember indeed that when I open my Bible, my Bible only tells me ugly things about sin.

The devil has ever tried to make sin look pleasant. He's ever tried to make sin look attractive. And never let us forget that there's nothing uglier in the world than sin and its consequences. To look into the face of a man or a woman that turn their back upon God is to look into the face of a man or a woman that has no beauty that will last for eternity.

And as I look at this antichrist and I see his character and I see his countenance. I see his conduct. How does he act? What happens when he rules? As I open my Bible, what does the Word of God say of the man who is opposed to God?

And my Bible leads me again in no doubt about this. For my Bible dares to tell me, and he calls it all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bound, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead, and that no man might buy or sell save he that hath the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

His conduct, I tell you how he works with the individual. With an individual, he makes it so that man or woman will be unable to buy or sell unless he bears the mark of the beast. You see, I've come through years when such statements as this were laughed upon.

However could anyone bear a mark? And then suddenly they came over with a thing they called a computer. And oh, what a change. I know nothing about your country. I don't know if I'm saying the truth as I look at you, but if you lived in my country already, every one of you would have a social security number.

It might not be 666, but I'll tell you something, when the time comes for your pension, you couldn't get it unless you had a number. I'll tell you something more. If you fell out of work and you wanted unemployment benefit, you couldn't get it without a number.

If you fell sick and went to see the doctor, you couldn't be treated without a number. Don't you tell me that people can't live, can't rather take this verse that we have quoted, that they can't say that it can be true.

It is evident in the world today, the world today. And one day he who will exercise the greatest power against Christ, one day he will make it that it will not be possible to buy or sell unless we bear a number or a mark.

That's his conduct with the individual. His conduct with the nation. Oh, there's no doubt about this. The nineteenth chapter of Revelation tells us that he will come with great force against God's earthly people.

We were seeing the other evening, and I don't wish to go over what I've said, we were seeing the other evening that there will come a day when the nations of the world will lift their hand against God's earthly people.

It seems almost as though they're doing it today. Please, I believe I would be right in saying this, that there are not many prophetic students who can open their Bible and find in the Word of God a place for your beloved country.

Bible prophetic students have found it difficult to place America in poverty, and I think we should all understand where these people are. You know, I'm not going to do it, but if I was to start at one end of a row and then go back and forth and ask each person to stand up and tell me where their ancestors came from, I have a strong feeling we'd have a geography lesson.

Some of you came from Poland, and some of you came from Germany, and some of you came from Hungary, and some of you came from Africa, and some of you came from every other nation in the world. I'd go to no country in the world that has, at its root, more nations.

And so it would be difficult, would it not, to place such a nation in poverty. But, I want to say this, she is in poverty. Your land is here, and I'll tell you why she's in poverty. Because God has promised to bless and honor a people who will bless and honor his earthly people, and that's what you have done.

I don't think there is a country in the world that has honored the Jewish nation more than America. I believe that my own country, my own country, held her position in the affairs of the world for so many years, because she, it seems at that time, alone, alone stood for God's earthly people.

And it is since we have neglected, neglected the care of God's earthly people, that one of the reasons that as a nation, my nation, has slipped down. God dares to say, they that honor his people, he will honor them.

And as I open my Bible, and I see the conduct of this beast, this antichrist, I see that he lifts his head against God's earthly people. But isn't it wonderful? Makes you feel, you must shout hallelujah, that if I can see his character, and I can see his countenance, if I consider his conduct, I must consider his complete collapse.

I must remember that there will come a day when he will be completely overthrown. I come across so many people today who call themselves modernists, you know. Not quite sure what that means. The most amazing thing to me is that the person who calls himself a modernist is a person who believes that Jesus Christ lived 2 ,000 years ago, he dies, never rose from the dead, and is finished with.

And he calls that modern. I'm a modernist, I believe in a Christ who lives now, today, this very moment. That's the Christ I believe in. But I do, of course, especially when I'm addressing undergraduates in college, I come across a large number of folks who tell me, oh, you know, Mr. Ford, there are two books we can't believe.

We can't believe the myth of Genesis, and we cannot believe, please, we cannot believe the mystery of Revelation. Two books we can't understand. The myth of Genesis, and the mystery of Revelation. Oh, but listen, my friend, I want to say just one simple thing.

I know who it is that wants people to believe that Genesis is a myth, and Revelation is a mystery. It's the devil himself. And do you know why? Because in Genesis we had the sentence declared of the complete overthrow of the evil one.

God's first promise in Genesis, the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head. And when I come to the book of Revelation, it is not a mystery, but it's Genesis tells us that the sentence against sin and evil is declared.

Revelation tells us that it's executed. We see here the evil one overthrown and overthrown forever. Oh, blessed be his name. And he gathered then into a place called Armageddon, says the sixteenth verse of the sixteenth chapter of Revelation.

And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him who was faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, says the eleventh verse of the nineteenth of Revelation.

And he laid hold on the dragon, cast him into the fathomless pit, and shut him up, and set the seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, says the second and third verses of the twentieth of Revelation.

The more I read my Bible, the more I realize this, that he shall make war with the land, and the land shall overcome them. For here's the Lord of lords, and king of kings, and they that are with him are cool, and chosen, and faithful, says the fourteenth verse of the seventeenth of Revelation.

Never let us get away from this, my friends, that one day there will rise in fifteen one who is called the Antichrist, but he will be overthrown, and overthrown by the one that sits on a white horse, and later on will sit on a white horse, and overthrown by the very Christ, the one that tonight offers salvation to human beings.

My Bible lays very clearly before me the future and what will happen. I started by saying this, and I want to continue by saying this, that what I've been talking about in actual fact won't affect any man or woman here who touched Jesus Christ, because you won't be here when these things happen.

Sometimes, why we spend so much time, but you asked me to speak about this subject. I didn't ask to speak. I only know this, I only know this, that the more I realize that the program of God is being fulfilled, the more I realize that those who love the Lord Jesus won't have to enter this at all, for we'll be home of the Lord.

Apostasy, Apathy, and Anarchy in the Present Age

It's a question, a question I want to ask. It's simple, and yet I believe a very profound question. If there will dawn a day when men shall bear the mark of the beast, is it not a fact that while they're not bearing it on their foreheads and on their hands, the mark of the beast can be seen today?

Or maybe not, six, six, six, in this world of ours, and I see it far ahead of the mark of the beast. I suggest three things. I suggest that there are three things that mark this world today, and then would you give me the answer, would you tell me whether that's not the mark of the Antichrist?

There are three things that are prevalent in the world today.

First of all, apostasy. First of all, apostasy.

Three things, the things that our young people, as well as our older friends, have to fight continually. They originate from. They don't originate from God. They cannot originate from Christ. It's not the truth of the Word of God, for the opposite is the truth of the Word of God.

When I look around this world of ours today, and wherever I look, I see apostasy. I was told just about six weeks ago, working in our front garden, suddenly I looked up and walking up the garden were two people.

Almost immediately I could recognize who they were. I suppose working in the garden they thought maybe I was a gardener, I don't know. But they went on to the house and knocked the door and I called them back and I said, can I help you?

Oh yes, they said. We represent, and I forgot just what they said, and I said, do you mean that you represent the Jehovah's Witnesses? Oh yes, they said. Well my friend, the gate is there. I would be pleased if you would leave my body.

My Bible tells me that I mustn't allow you to enter my house, I mustn't wish you God's blessing, because if I do I'll be a partaker with your sins. Oh they didn't like that. I mean they don't mind saying the ugliest things about others, but let someone say something ugly about them and they don't like it.

I looked at them and I said, now just be quiet a moment, I don't want you to talk, I want to say one thing to you, then you can talk. I look at you and I accuse you of being the cause of most of the wickedness and vileness in Great Britain today.

In our book, the great historic truths of the Bible, the Trinity of God, the Trithon, you have sown up and down our land, danced in the historic truths of the Bible, until there are thousands of people who say, why is it true?

They say this, they say that, and I believe you to be the cause of much of the unrest and wickedness in my land today, and I want to say that in the land where Jehovah's Witnesses started. Please, I do not stand up for the Catholic Christians, I love all who love the Lord.

When a man tells me that my Saviour is in Christ, when he tells me that when the Bible says, I pray the God of peace shall sanctify your holy spirit, soul and body, a man hasn't got a spirit, soul and body, then all I can say to him is that he's untruthful, he's more than that, he is but a servant of the Antichrist.

Apostasy of the bandit. Have you ever known so much apostasy as there is today? Constant attack on the great fundamentals of the Christian faith. Now, let me say something to you. I think I will have said this in Augusta before, but if I haven't, forgive me, I shouldn't.

And if I have, I want to say it again, that as far as the Christians who are responsible for these services are concerned, we believe the Word of God to be the Word of God, we believe the great fundamental truths of the Apostles' Creed.

We have no difficulty to believe in what is called Trinity. This is the story I wanted to share with you, and I'll share it now. I was speaking to a crowd of undergraduates in the University of Stratford-Strait.

I'd been given the subject to speak on, Christianity, relevant or ridiculous. At the end of what I'd said, it was open for questions. I can see him now, a young fellow sitting at the back of about 600, put his hand up and said, I've got a question.

Now please, it wasn't what he said, it was the way he said it. I've got a question, he said. One plus one plus one is three. It's intellectually dishonest to believe that three can be one and one three.

Shove the glasses on the end of the nose and look at it. A man could ask, are you an undergraduate here? Pass your exams to get here. You're a sum wrong, you have your sum right. One plus one plus one is three.

But that's not the sum, you're not even looking at the right page. The Bible never looks at Trinity as one plus one plus one. The Bible looks at Trinity as one multiplied by one, multiplied by one. How many there?

Speak of God and the Son, it says, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself. The Bible tells me that Christ was filled with the Spirit. The Bible doesn't look upon God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit working out salvation.

It looks upon God working out salvation. But then as I looked at him, I wonder whether your chemistry is any better than your mathematics. You tell me one plus one plus one makes three. You haven't learnt that it's one multiplied by one multiplied by one.

But I've got something to say to you young man. I will not permit you to accuse me of intellectual dishonesty. Not you or anyone else. You say it is impossible for three to be one and one three. I was at a lecture theatre so I whipped out a piece of chalk.

And on the blackboard I chalked out H. And I said what's that? Oh he was beginning to feel a bit embarrassed. Well he said that's water. Is it? Is it? H2O was ice. H2O was sea. H2O is water and that's a liquid.

But don't you forget these young folks in school learn that H2O is not only water but it's ice. And it's not only ice but it's steam. And one's a liquid and one's a solid and one's a vapour. Don't you tell me three can't be one.

The whole basis of science for a time. I opened my Bible and I wanted to say this to you all. I'd love to go on further but I can't tonight. I haven't time and I've more to say. I just want to say though if there's someone here tonight and you've got any debts along this line, I would be most happy to speak with you.

Most happy. We have not followed commonly devised tables. Couldn't care less. The old hymn writer has said time for pleasure, time for business. But for Christ the crucified, not a place that he can enter in the heart for which he died.

Oh, is it not apparent that folks have time for everything. But for Jesus Christ, it's eating like a canter into the very soul of our nation. Not only apathy and apostasy. The last verse of the book of Judges is still true.

Men are doing that which is right in their own hearts. ...among young people and please, I'm no longer a boy so I can speak to you young folks like an old uncle. Let me say something to you. Do you know the problem with young folks today?

Look back from the point of view of an old man like me. I'll tell you the problem. You think you're answerable to no one. Don't talk to one, will you? You think you're answerable to no one. I'm going to do what I want to do.

...answerable to no one. Well, let me tell you something. You are answerable to someone. You are answerable to the law of your country. Back and saying, Oh, well, if they pass a law that most of the people don't agree with, then you don't take any notice of it.

I want to tell you something. One day you'll stand before God and the 13th of Romans will be read in your ears. And you'll find out that you are answerable. Everyone shall give an account of himself in God.

Let me tell you something. A man, would you please remember this. If you forget everything else I say tonight, would you please remember this. A woman. They are what they are before God and nothing else.

Did you hear that? You are what you are before God and nothing else. You may think you're so great, but you are what you are before God. ...this evening will agree with me. There is a mark of the beast today.

It is seen in these three things that God has an answer for. Oh, listen, my friend, God has an answer. Do you know God's answer to the mark of the beast? I'll tell you what it is. Hath he marks to lead me to him?

If he be my guide. In his hand, peace and health. God has an answer by someone or in someone who bore a mark. And I gain my faith upon Calvary's cross. And I see the blessed Saviour. As He takes my sin and my sorrow and makes it His very own.