26-Chapter 2. Antichrist’s System
Chapter 2. Antichrist’s System According to Revelation 13:1-18 the Antichrist comes as the head of a human system at enmity with God. In quite open opposition to and imitation of the Divine Triunity this system is an unity of three trinities:
Three persons: the Dragon, the Beast, and the Prophet;
Three cities: Jerusalem, Babylon and Rome;
Three principles: political, economic, and religious world unity.
It is like a three-sided pyramid with the Satanic trinity at the pinnacle. It is the “tower of Babel” in final historical completion. So again shattering and judgment are God’s answer to this challenge of mankind (Revelation 19:11-21; comp. Genesis 11:7). Correspondingly the nature of Antichristianism (apart from the three cities) displays itself as follows: a. The personal trinity:
(i) the anti-God; (ii) the anti-Son; (iii) the anti-Spirit. b. The cultural trinity:
(i) the political unity; (ii) the economic unity; (iii) the religious unity.
A. The Personal Trinity
Three persons are the spiritual summit of the system (Revelation 16:13; Revelation 20:10): the “Dragon,” as the demonic authority (Revelation 12:3; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:2); the Beast as the political (Revelation 13:1-10); and the “false Prophet” as the religious (Revelation 16:13; Revelation 13:11-18). The Dragon is the anti-god, the Beast the anti-son (Antichrist); the false prophet the anti-spirit. 47
Footnote 47: Of the two “beasts” in Revelation 13:1-18 the first is Antichrist, the second his prophet. This is shown by all that is said above concerning the “anti-son” and the “anti-spirit.” Further: of these two the first Beast stands always in the foreground (Revelation 13:12). The second has only the authority of the first Beast (Revelation 13:12). The number 666, exactly as does the “image” of the Beast (Revelation 13:14; comp. 3:4), unmistakably relates to the first Beast, not to the second (Revelation 14:11; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 19:20). Almost all noted expositors so explain. According to Revelation 16:13; Revelation 20:10, the anti-spirit, the second Beast, is the “false prophet.”
[1] The Anti-God The Dragon is the counterpart of the Father. He is the “first” person in the infernal trinity (Revelation 16:13), the ringleader and seducer of the whole system, the chief enemy, “the old serpent, which is called Devil and Satan” (Revelation 12:9; John 8:44). He stands to the Beast in a similar relationship to that of the Father to the Son in the Godhead: as the Father sent the Son into the world (John 6:57), so Satan, after being cast out of heaven, sends the Antichrist (Revelation 2:7-12; Revelation 13:1-2); as the Father has given all authority to the Son (John 17:2; Matthew 28:18-20), so the Dragon gives to the Beast “his power and his throne” (Revelation 13:2; Revelation 13:4); as the Father through the Son, after his resurrection, receives all honour (Cor. 15:28; John 12:27-28; Php 2:11), so the Dragon through the Beast, after his resuscitation, receives the worship of mankind (Revelation 13:4).
[2] The Anti-Son (Antichrist) The Beast is the “second” person in the demonic trinity (Revelation 16:13), the opposer (2 Thessalonians 2:4), the great parody of Christ.
1. His origin. Christ came down “out of heaven” (John 6:38; Php 2:6-8); Antichrist comes up out of the Abyss (Revelation 11:7).
2. His coming. Christ came in the Father’s name; Antichrist comes in his own name (John 5:43).
3. His nature. Christ is the “Holy One” (Mark 1:24) and embodies the Truth (John 14:6); Antichrist is the Lawless One (2 Thessalonians 2:8) and embodies the Lie (2 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:11).
Christ, the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16), is the Redeemer; Antichrist, the mystery of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:7), is the destroyer (Daniel 7:25).
Christ, the Son of God (Luke 1:35), is the effulgence of His Father (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3); Antichrist, the son of perdition, is the exact likeness of the Dragon. 48
Footnote 48: Both the Dragon and the Beast are, symbolically, monsters with seven “heads” and ten “horns” (Revelation 13:3; comp. 13:1).
4. His activity. Christ served three and a half years in Israel (John 2:13; John 6:4; John 13:1); Anti-christ lords it over the world for three and a half years (Revelation 13:5).
5. His resuscitation. Christ is He who has been raised from the dead: Antichrist is he whose deadly wound has been healed (Revelation 13:3).
6. His sphere. Christ has the church, Jerusalem, the bride (Ephesians 5:31-32; Galatians 4:26; Revelation 21:9); Antichrist has the world empire, Great Babylon, the Harlot (Revelation 17:1-16).
Christ builds, out of the living materials, an organism (Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 4:12-16); Antichrist builds, out of dead materials, and organisation (Revelation 13:17; Ephesians 2:1). The church of Christ has “the cup of blessing, which we bless” (1 Corinthians 10:16); the world city of Antichrist has “the cup of fornications” (Revelation 17:4; Revelation 18:3; Revelation 18:6).
7. His destiny. Christ leads His own into eternal life (John 3:36); Antichrist brings his followers into destruction and judgment (2 Thessalonians 2:12).
Christ was Himself exalted in heaven (Php 2:9); Antichrist is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20).
[3] The Anti-Spirit The “third” person in the Satanic triunity is the “false prophet” (Revelation 16:13). He is both the imitation of and the contrast to the Holy Spirit, the second Beast of Revelation 13:11-18.
He is a prophet (Revelation 13:11; Revelation 16:13), even as the Spirit of God is the living energy of all prophecy (2 Peter 1:21).
He receives everything from the Anti-son (Revelation 13:12; Revelation 13:15), even the Spirit of God derives all from the Son. “He will take of Mine” (John 16:14).
He magnifies the Anti-son (Revelation 13:12; Revelation 13:16), even as the Spirit of God glorifies Christ (John 16:14).
He gives life to the image of the Beast (Revelation 13:15), even as it is the Spirit of God who gives life to believers (John 6:63; Romans 8:11; Galatians 5:25).
He causes the sealing of men with the mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16), even as the Spirit of God is our seal and earnest (Ephesians 1:13; 2 Corinthians 1:22).
He causes and quickens all worship of the Beast (Revelation 13:12), even as the Spirit of God causes all the worship of the Holy One (John 4:23-24).
Thus the whole is an infernal trinity, a monstrous organism from the pit, with spirit, soul, and body. The Dragon is the spirit, the Beast is the body, the false Prophet is the soul of it all. And in relation to the Persons of the Godhead the Dragon is—the demon god; the Beast is—Satan’s messiah; the Prophet is—the diabolical unholy spirit. But thereby in the Devil’s career the end is linked with the beginning; for now it is manifest that the antichristian system is nothing less than the acme of all Satanic rebellion, the carrying through to its conscious goal of his craving to be like God, the full, most blasphemous exhibition of his own presumption: “Ye shall be as God” (Genesis 3:5; Isaiah 14:13-14; Ezekiel 28:2; Ezekiel 28:6; Ezekiel 28:17).
B. The Cultural Trinity [1] Political World-Unity
If according to Revelation 13:1-18 “all who dwell on the earth” worship the Beast (ver. 8), and “all” receive his mark, the small and the great (ver. 16), and if no one can any longer buy or sell who does not do this (ver. 17), and all are killed who oppose the worship of his image (ver. 15), this signifies that a human system is about to come which will embrace politically and civilly all peoples of the world, which most rigidly organized, supervises each individual, and which, proceeding energetically and toleration no opposition, exercises supreme jurisdiction. This means that Bible prophecy foretells a collaboration of all parts of the earth, a gigantic system of civilization composed of all systems, a universal union of mankind with one head. “To him was granted authority over all tribes and peoples, languages and nation” (Revelation 13:7). Here is a union of opposites; of enthusiasm (Revelation 13:4) with fear (Revelation 13:5), of general happiness (Revelation 11:7-10, esp. 10) with unrelenting severity (Revelation 11:7; Revelation 13:10; Revelation 17:6), of idealistic culture with despotism (Revelation 17:6). The centripetal force of the whole overcomes the centrifugal force of the part. Here is the audacious tower building of the Babylonians of the End time (Genesis 11:1-4; comp. Revelation 13:7), the summit of all self-redemption of mankind without God.
Therefore also the figurative language of the Apocalypse goes on to picture this world situation of the End time as the gathering together and culmination of all former world-empires of prophecy, as the final product of all God-estranged world effort of the millenniums of man’s ancient race, as the general sum of all the “beast” empires of Daniel’s prophecies: The Babylonian was a lion, The Persian was a bear, The Grecian was a leopard, The fourth Beast was a terrifying beast (Daniel 7:2-8). But the antichristian Beast is all of these at once; its form as a leopard, its feet as a bear, its mouth as a lion’s mouth, and as a whole a monster which is inspired by the Dragon (Revelation 13:2). The same idea arises from the number of the heads and horns. the Babylonian lion had one head, likewise the Persian bear, the Grecian leopard had four, and the fourth, the terrible Beast, one, thus together seven. And as to their horns, the first three had none, but the last had ten. Thus altogether there were seven heads and ten horns, exactly the number of the first Beast in the Revelation (13:1) But inasmuch as this is at the same time an exact reproduction of the Dragon, which likewise has seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 12:3), it becomes plain that the entire development was controlled by the “god of this world,” that the Dragon stands behind the whole labyrinth of human affairs (1 John 5:19), that the history of the sinner is a self-revelation of the Devil, a shocking perversion of the ancient gospel of the serpent, “Ye shall be as—Satan, your god.” But with all this it is clear that the rule of Antichrist does not extend to the whole world at the beginning of his career, but that he first of all fight for his political position. Arising in one of the regions which had formerly belonged to the old Roman empire, he will surpass the neighbouring States in political power, will extend his rule over more distant lands, and in particular will gain supreme power over a group of the States which, in the End time, will exist in the area of the fourth world empire of Daniel (Revelation 17:12) These correspond to the ten toes of the image of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:41) and to the ten horns of the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7:7; Daniel 7:24).
Among these ten horns he appears at first as only a small horn, but which at last surpasses all the rest in size and power. With this ten-horned kingdom as his own proper realm his influence will extend to all other peoples, even if these may not at first be incorporated with his own proper kingdom. But in ever-increasing measure he will bring under his control the political, industrial and commercial, as well as the religious and philosophical life of all the world. He will solve their civil and social problems, excite their enthusiasm, suppress their religions (2 Thessalonians 2:4) and draw to himself their worship (Revelation 13:4). Finally, having attained the summit of his power, he will dominate their whole outward and inward life in an imposing but at the same time God-defying manner (Revelation 13:7). But at last, as it appears, this world-wide, fascination, bewitching influence over the peoples in some measure declines. In various parts of the world the enthusiasm wanes. Some nations revolt. Wars break out. The combination of mankind as an unity is imperilled. He is victorious against powerful opponents, especially Egypt (Daniel 11:40-43), but at length his own overthrow comes.
Such military events at the end of Antichristian period are intimated in the prophecies of Daniel. In ch. 11 the prophet gives first an outline of the then near future, the wars between the “king of the south” and the “king of the north,” that is, of the political and military conflicts between Egypt and Syria in the third and second centuries before Christ. He has especially in view Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164), the chief enemy of the worship of Jehovah by Israel, the special type of the Antichrist. But then the prophecy, viewing type and final fulfilment together, passes more and more to the actual Antichrist of the End days, and tells what will happen at the “time of the end.” This expression “time of the end” is twice used in the context (Daniel 11:35; Daniel 11:40). Quite apart from the obvious, proper meaning of the word itself, it is unmistakably connected by the prophet with the actual End time, for in immediate connexion Daniel sys that “in that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered.... And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; these to eternal life, those to shame and eternal abhorrence (Daniel 12:1-2). This connexion makes clear that, allowing for the reference in the vision to the typical Antichrist (Antiochus Epiphanes) the prophet more and more carries forward his prophecy to the actual Antichrist, and ever more distinctly brings the antichristian End time into the centre of his message. It is in this exact connexion that he says that “at the time of the end shall the king of the south (Egypt) contend with him (that is, the Antichrist) ... and he (the Antichrist) shall stretch forth his hand upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape” (Daniel 11:40; Daniel 11:42). The whole passage, with ver. 44, intimates that final waning of his influence which has been mentioned above. Otherwise such revolts would not be possible, even though he is able to defeat them. But at last Antichrist himself will “come to his end” (Daniel 11:45). He himself with his central kingdom and all his many servants and vassals, will be brought to naught by Christ at His appearing with the armies of heaven in glory and power (Revelation 19:11-21; 2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Yet the Bible does not by this teach that God is against every union of the human race. On the contrary, the closest, most spiritual, and all-embracing fellowship of mankind is precisely His intention (Micah 4:1-4). But this fellowship is in Christ, His Son, whom He has appointed King (Psalms 2:6; Ephesians 1:10; John 10:16); it has Himself as its centre (Zechariah 14:9); and it brings blessing for mankind on the most world-wide scale. Understanding among the peoples, mutual esteem, reciprocal appreciation, co-operation in peace—all this is so little antichristian as to be exactly the will of God. That which the Scripture terms antichristian is not the outward form, but the religious revolt of the soul, the united rejection of Christ, the conscious decision against God. Thus antichristianism, as to its essence, lies on the plane of belief, not on that of culture in itself, but on that of the cult (that which one venerates as divine), not in the sphere of historical outlook, but in the sphere of religion. It is the concentration of the hatred of Christ, the revolt against the Most High, the attempt to dethrone the supreme Lord of the worlds.
[2] Commercial World Unity
According to Revelation 13:17 “no one on the whole earth” who does not receive the mark of the Beast will be able any longer to buy or sell. This is only possible if all traders, with all social and industrial undertakings, stand under one common oversight, if a centre exists in the world where everything is organized and centralized, a general collaboration of all men, which exercises an absolute control and rule over world trade. Thereby the New Testament foretells a gigantic organization of mankind to embrace each individual of its members, including the individual workers and the small employers, 49 and exercising over all the peoples the sole right of trade; a common Trade Authority directing all commercial life, without whose trade mark no one can continue to do business.
Footnote 49: Believers who refuse to receive the mark, and so are boycotted and even executed (Revelation 13:13; Revelation 13:17), will doubtless, as in all times, be mostly of humble rank (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).
Here also it is not the commercial form that is antichristian. Only the grossest misunderstanding could so assert. Oversight of commercial life—exercised freely by each civilized nation—is a necessity in the life of the individual nation, an indispensable measure for guarding against social unrighteousness. Rightly exercised it is a pre-requisite for the preservation of life, for advance and ascent. The antagonism to God of the End time consists much rather in this, that this all will be misused in the fight against the Eternal , to the destruction of Biblical Christianity, to the brutal oppression of any who confess faith in God (Revelation 13:17, comp. ver. 7; 17:6; 18:24; 20:4).
[3] Religious World Unity
1. Self-Deification of Mankind. According to the prophecies of the Revelation the Antichrist will be worshipped (Revelation 13:8; Revelation 13:12; Revelation 14:9; Revelation 16:2). He becomes the admired of the whole earth (13:3), the honoured of all its inhabitants (13:8), inflaming the enthusiasms of the masses (13:4; 11:10). It will be said of him: “Who is like to the Beast? Who is able to war with him?” (13:4). He becomes the acme of mankind, the embodiment of its highest ideals, the visible perfection of all human genius, indeed “the man” in the highest sense of the word. In the deifying of his own power he will exalt himself above everything divine, set himself in the temple of God and represent that he is God! (2 Thessalonians 2:4). But thereby the worship of him becomes the worship of mankind in general, and whoever resists him resists the body corporate; in the most offensive sense of the word he is of all men the Offender; he is Insurgent and Rebel, and therefore under sentence of destruction.
Through all this the antichristian system becomes a political-religious association with a welding of State and religion, a self-deifying World Church marked by intolerance of all opposing convictions. Thus will come withdrawal of religious liberty, religious compulsion, planned enslavement of conscience, mass execution of respectable 50 citizens solely for conscience’ sake. This is the religion of the Antichrist: it is the detestable doctrine of the divinity of man, faith in oneself, the deifying of one’s own spirit. It is the most imposing attempt to escape the consequences of sin without laying aside the sin itself, the final outcome of “progress,” the sum total and completion of all God-estranged civilization. 51
Footnote 50: The “saints” of god (Revelation 13:7; Revelation 17:6; Revelation 18:24), the “witnesses” (Revelation 11:3; Revelation 11:7) and “prophets (Revelation 16:6).
Footnote 51: In this sense the purely symbolic number 666 is the motto of the Antichrist. For 6 is the number of man—on the sixth day man was created, on the sixth day (Friday) he was redeemed at Golgotha. But 666 is the total of all the numbers from 1 to 36, the square of 6 (6x6=36:1+2+3+4 ... 35+36=666).
2. State Religion. Antichristendom is thus not irreligious but a religious contrast to Christianity. It is not an elimination of religion, but the establishing of a State religion; it is not a belittling of it, but the setting upon it of so high a value that the authority of the State is exerted in its favour. It is not simply heathendom but a super-heathendom. It is heathenism with conquest and rejection of Biblical Christianity. It is the glorifying and worshipping of self by an adulterous generation (Matthew 12:39; Php 2:15); it is the making of self a god and therefore is complete godlessness, the climax of all abomination and idolatry of the world. “It is not flesh but spirit, not folly but wisdom, not weakness but strength; it is not human but demonic, not simple but full of mystery, not darkness by blinding brilliance.”
Outwardly it appears as a religious World Union, as a combination of business, politics, and faith; as a political blend of trade, external affairs, and religion; as a Union of State, commerce, and Church, that is, a concentration of three already concentrated lines of life. Its head is a surpassing personality, an inventive, unique organizer, “a genius in statecraft, science, art, and social finance, of a religious type, and endowed with the occult powers of the unseen world” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). But within it is hollow and empty, being nothing other than the fig-leaf philosophy of the first man (Genesis 3:7), the self-redemption philosophy of the first murderer, the serpent gospel of the first deceiver, “Ye shall be as God.” And as the sum of all it is the summit of human revolt, the zenith of the civilization of the serpent’s seed. The earthly kingdom of heaven, the rule of “God” without God and therefore of all the religions of history the most antagonistic to the true gospel. (Revelation 13:7; Revelation 17:6).
3. The Pinnacle of Religion. The Antichrist himself will be the “against” Christ because he is the “lying” Christ, the pseudo-false Christ (Matthew 24:5; Matthew 24:23-24). He will not only suppress Christ but supplant Him. As regards human culture, he will not deny outright the general expectation which Christians associate with the person of Jesus of Nazareth; on the contrary he starts with it and relies upon it; but he describes himself as its fulfilment and thereby would make the true Christ superfluous. Thus he confirms intellectually the Christ idea and proceeds to step forth as the “substitute” Christ; yet he denies the personal Christ of prophecy and is therefore the “opposer” (2 Thessalonians 2:4) and “anti”-Christ. This double character corresponds to the two designations “pseudo-Christ” (lying Christ, Mark 13:22) and Antichrist (against Christ). As Antichrist he sets himself against Christ; as the lying-Christ he declares himself, so to speak, to be “Christ.” He is both at the one time, since he is the intellectual “substitute-Christ.
Thus he is, so to speak, the Messiah of the world, its cultural Saviour, its saving Head. He sets himself before it as the centre of gravity of its order, the centre of its hope, the goal of its development. And against the heavenly truth that in Christ God has become man he sets the demonic lie that in him man has become God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
Thus it is a fixing of faith on this side, a making the heavenly to be earthly, a humanizing of the conception of God. Conversely, it is a deifying of the human intellect, a claim to be oneself equal with God; indeed a will to supersede the Divine, and therefore it is the final, perfected sin.