Who is the Antichrist?

Pastor Malcolm Ferris.

To answer this we have to ask – what is antichrist and where did antichrist begin?

The word antichrist comes from two words anti – and Christ – anti meaning in the simplest sense against, and Christ meaning the anointing, the anointed or the anointer – depending upon the context in which it is used. Christ is the manifestation of God’s Eternal Spirit in creation – so antichrist is the manifestation of another spirit which seeks to replace this.

If we want to find the origin of these two spirits we need only turn to the beginning of the book – to the story of Eden – where we find two trees – two sources of life – the tree of Life, which represents God’s stream of life upon the earth – and the tree of death, which is the perversion of this life. This tree of death (for that is what it is –a tree is known by its fruit – and the fruit of this tree is death) – this tree was not a tree that bears life according to the original pattern – it is not kind after kind as decreed in Genesis 1:11. This tree is a mixture – good and evil – it is a hybrid and cannot produce a true expression of life – it produces a lie that ends in death: eternal separation from God.

Sin did not begin in the garden – it started in heaven when Lucifer (an angel – a spirit being) rebelled against God and deceived many of the inhabitants of heaven. Satan is the spirit that is behind this one called in the bible the antichrist. His ambition is to establish himself on the earth as the god of this earth – instead of Christ – in His place.

We can see this spirit first manifest in flesh in Cain – who tried to establish an alternative worship service in the garden – but God refused his offering and warned him to offer in the approved manner, as Abel had done. When he refused to obey God, or to listen to His advice, he was overcome of the spirit of the enemy and went to convince Abel to offer his way, failing to convince him, he decided to remove the alternative so that his way of worship would be all that was available.

He was rewarded for his murderous efforts by receiving a mark – this was the original mark of the beast – it indicated the one whose lineage had come through a beast instead of a man (for the Serpent was a beast of the field – cattle). Seven generations from Cain we find his ancestors were considering this mark as a sign of divine protection – as sanction to kill and do as they pleased. And God became so grieved with humanity and their wickedness upon the earth that he had to destroy them.

The next time we see this spirit rise to prominence is in Babel (the ancient roots of Babylon) where Nimrod sought by a union of politics, religion and military power to unite the people to a one world government with one unified approach to worship of God: the Tower of Babel.

God’s response was to confuse their language and scatter them – He labelled their efforts ‘confusion’.

What we see then, is three illicit unions in the first of the book, the seed or sowing chapter – that reflect a similar pattern in Revelation, the harvest chapter. The first illicit union was between the woman and the Serpent – and it causes death in the flesh – it was by the receiving of another spirit for life. And we find that the spirit of antichrist came to the early church in much the same way – finding her – like Eve – espoused to one husband: Christ – but before He could come to her – the antichrist spirit got in first through the deeds of the Nicolaitans – which then became the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and led on to the teaching of Jezebel the false prophetess. When the white horse of the antichrist rode forth – he was as a deceiver – pretending to be Christ – the giver of life.

The second false union was that in the days of Noah –wherein the sons of God saw that the daughters of man (Cain’s lineage) were fair and began to take wives – as many as they chose – marrying and divorcing and polluting the pure bloodlines of Adam even further. In like manner the church united with the world through a marriage of ecclesiastical and political (civil) powers, which resulted in the Caesar of Rome decreasing and the power of the Pope replacing it upon the throne of Rome. The red horse that followed the white shows us the bloodshed inflicted upon the saints to enforce this false union.

The third false union is found in the times of Nimrod – this was the attempt of the church to become a universal and all powerful force. We see this happened in the dark ages when the Roman Catholic Church was in its heyday. As with the days of Babel – the church was scattered through the reformation – resulting in many differing denominations, and a confusion of tongues. The black horse which followed the red, carrying the scales – the power to judge and to charge church taxes, the church playing the part of a sovereign – who has the power to tax its subjects. This Union was the corruption of the spirit of God’s creation.

The forth rider in the book of Revelation was a combination of the preceding three colours – the great trinity of Satan – the antichrist (white rider), false prophet (red rider) and beast (black rider). And it is when Satan’s power moves into this forth manifestation that his name is revealed: death – the tree of death that was in Eden. We find that Hell follows quickly upon his heels and this is the final ride of this spirit – which ends in the great battle of Armageddon. So what we see in the whole course of the Bible is the trail of two seeds – two spirits – the spirit of God by the Word of God, and the spirit of Satan by the perversion of this Word.

This then is antichrist – any spirit that puts itself in the place of Christ or seeks to do so by adding to or taking from the Word of God, by claiming the power and right to speak for God and to interpret His Word by another spirit through another gospel in order to preach another Jesus – a twisted version of the truth. This is that spirit of the original rebellion in heaven, for the battle that began in heaven was cast to the earth and has been raging ever since.