- An Antichrist Will Come
In other places in the Bible such an antichrist is announced (see, for example, 1 John 4:3). Destined to appear at some future time of world crisis, he will be a deceiver, conquering by lies and duplicity (see Daniel 8:23-25). He will be known as “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), and in the course of his dominance over mankind he will ultimately exalt himself as God.
There is reason to expect that those who are pressing for one great world church will welcome and cooperate with the antichrist when he appears. Indeed, he will be favorable to religious interests—for a while! When he sees the church wishing to move in a certain direction, he will say to the membership, “The key to this objective is to be tolerant—you must love everybody! “Then, while men and women are busy loving everybody and being tolerant, those religious leaders will take over and put theirs tamp upon the world.
We have had illustrations of this in our own time. While men and women are intent on brotherhood, love and unity, teachers are busy telling our young people in high school and college that God did not create the heavens and the earth, that Adam and Eve did not really exist, that Christ’s resurrection from the dead is a myth.
Yes, an antichrist is destined to enter the world scene. His control, as I said, will be through duplicity and delusion. He will appear to be an amiable person, able to head up and harness all the divergent political, economic and religious forces. Ultimately he will turn out to be the embodiment of everything that is contrary to our Lord Jesus Christ. When he comes, he will talk much about peace and prosperity. But during his regime, war will come. That armed conflict is the signal for the second horse to appear. The fiery red horse of war This second horseman “was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.” The pacifists and the optimists will argue against this portrait of future war. But the antichrist’s campaign of religious brotherhood and international peace will be short lived. Satan is the world’s greatest counterfeiter, and he is behind the duplicity of this counterfeit Christ!
Suppose some person or force in our world could proclaim that tomorrow morning all wars and all conflict would cease, that all soldiers, sailors and airmen would go home, that all military bases would be permanently closed, that the entrenched military industrial complex would be no more. The proclamation would call for complete world disarmament; no nation would be permitted to go to war ever again.
What would follow in the wake of such a worldwide edict? Everyone knows the answer. The worst economic depression in the history of mankind would quickly develop. Where would the world’s governments find jobs for the millions of people who are currently a part of the defense and military establishments? Or for the added millions whose jobs are in the civilian support net works for the nations’ armies? The antichrist has promised prosperity. To achieve it, he will resort to war and conquest. John was told that this second horseman was given power to take peace from the world and “to make men slay each other.” When this horseman rides forth, any temporary treaties of peace and cooperation will be disregarded. We are reminded of what the apostle Paul predicted would happen as the “day of the Lord” came: “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). The symbolism is plain. This rider with the character of war has a great sword given to him—a sword that surely represents mankind’s capacity to wage international warfare.