Understanding the Antichrist

Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoga.

We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough.

Thanks for joining us.

So anyway, so what we're gonna do, we're gonna jump into this topic.

I've been talking about the Antichrist.

How many remember that?

Okay, I'm gonna continue.

I'm gonna pick this up.

And um, how many of you know I love I love uh the ministry from Nigeria?

And we have a couple of brothers from Nigeria here.

Let's give them a hand, God bless you, and uh Joshua Selman, he comes from uh Nigeria in that.

But um he uh says this very interesting, he says, ignorance is not a demon.

I love that ignorance is not a demon, and uh the Bible talks about people dying because their lack of knowledge, and uh so God wants to inform us and have us in the picture, in the program of what he's doing.

And uh, you know, we're not to be ignorant, the word of God says, of the enemy's schemes, but we should be wised up, we should have an understanding, we should know the season that we're living in.

We don't panic about the season, we're excited about our season, we're excited about what God has for us as a church, as a nation, the prophetic program that God has for us, and uh we're excited about what God has for us as marriages and our family and so forth.

We get excited about God, and the reason is because in Jesus Christ, we become an inherent conqueror, okay?

We become victorious because of the association that we have with Christ.

That's an amazing way to live.

Not everybody's living like that around the world, but we live like that, and uh simply because we're tied in and connected to Christ.

We're actually, if you like, and uh we're actually adopted into the kingdom of God, or we're adopted into the Godhead, if you can handle that kind of terminology, but we're adopted into the relationship with Jesus, adopted into that, which is awesome.

So I want to talk about that this morning, and uh yeah.

How many of you know?

I was thinking about Jesus this morning.

He would have been the the a hard preacher when you read what he says, it's just like he's a hard preacher, man.

He's a hard preacher.

In fact, one of the parables he refuses, uh he refers to one of the guys who um I think it's the talents, and the guy that didn't do lot but buried a talent, he says, I knew you to be a hard man.

Interesting, and uh not harsh man, please, not a harsh man, not a man with a hard tone, but I think the message that Jesus brings to humanity is a pretty tough message.

It's tough on the flesh, okay?

It's tough on our flesh life, our uncrucified life, it gets tough, and so the idea is so it doesn't become tough, and so we don't have a struggle no more, is that we decide to yield over our entire life for Christ, and then it becomes easier, okay?

And uh and so forth.

So that's really our, I guess, our objective is to do that.

But you might have heard different versions of the end times, different concepts and ideas, and picked up different belief systems as we go along through YouTube and maybe some preachers and stuff.

But the Bible actually has answers to the close of the age.

In fact, moment by moment and step by step, you will find that God actually takes us through, actually, quite chronologically, through from the beginning to end.

There is gonna be an end of the age.

So if you don't, I'm just gonna uh talk today as if uh people don't know a lot, yet some people know a lot.

Okay, so I'm gonna and I'm gonna try and dispel some ideas and beliefs that I don't believe actually are are right biblically as we go along.

Amen.

But it's important that we put our thinking caps on, and if you have your Bible, you can follow me, and uh, I will skip some of the scriptures out.

Twinkle, thank you very much.

Doing a great job as always.

The disciples ask questions, and they ask questions, they ask three questions in a sentence to Jesus in Matthew 24.

Matthew 24 is a passage or it's a text of scriptures that are particularly pertaining to the end times, okay?

The end of the age.

There will be a close to this age where Jesus Christ is going to return, the second event.

Okay.

Um, and anyway, so uh uh verses three of uh Matthew 24 verses three.

Now, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, some of you have been to the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Number one, tell us when will these things be?

Number two, what will be the sign of your coming?

And number three, and the end of the age.

Verse four.

And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you.

Verse five, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.

Verse six, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you're not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Number seven, for nation will rise against nation.

That word is is where we get our word ethnicity from.

In other words, you could say uh a people group against a people group.

It's just not a kingdom against a kingdom or a nation against nation.

It's part of that, it's actually people group, like civil uh uh contention and so forth.

And kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in various or diverse or different places around the world.

Okay.

Number eight, and all these are the beginning of sorrows.

So the beginning of sorrows, that's important.

Uh, in uh Jeremiah 37, it talks about Jacob's trouble.

So Israel is going to go through a season, a terrible season, a sifting season.

It's going to happen in the future.

That's going to be the worst time that it's ever had as a nation.

It's going to go into that, ready for the Messiah's return.

They call that the Jacob's trouble.

Okay?

This is this scripture here.

So Jeremiah, you'll find in the Old Testament, it prophesies, you see it spoken of in the New Testament.

Then, number nine, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

I want you to skip to Matthew 24, verses 21.

Matthew 24:21

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no nor ever shall be.

So it's speaking of a particular specific time that's going to be economically, I guess morally, sociologically challenging for the world.

Jesus is talking himself.

Now, this is what I want to try and work through.

Some people don't believe in a future tribulation.

A tribulation is pretty much marked out as seven full years where the antichrist will begin to reign, sign a covenant with the nation of Israel, a peace agreement, and the first three years is going to be pretty good.

In fact, it's the world is going to prosper.

And people will lauder and applaud the antichrist, saying he is the master of solutions, master of military tactician, all sorts of stuff, great political figure, fantastic.

We will talk about that in just a moment.

But after about the three and a half years, things begin to change, okay?

And that three and a half years, the time of sorrows, is an intense time for the planet.

It's an intense time for the planet.

Now, many people believe, and I I understand this, that we will be raptured, the church will won't even be here then.

But if we're wrong on that, if we're wrong on that, that and many people believe well, the church will go through.

Let's just say that we've taken up to the Lord before the Lord comes back if we believe that.

I'm concerned for my brothers and sisters are still here.

I'm concerned for the nation of Israel that's still here.

I'm concerned for it's all good for me, but I'm concerned for the people who have left.

So we must warn people, we must tell people what is to come.

Very important.

And what I find is people uh we love the good things, we love the thrills of Christianity and the and the feel goods and how God wants to prosper us and bless us and provide hope for us.

That's all part of the gospel.

In fact, that's right in John 10:10.

John 10:10

Abundant living.

That's a promise for us, that is an absolute promise for us.

But there's another side to the reality of it, is there's a there's a lost eternity, life without Christ.

That's a reality.

We don't talk about hell much, and we don't we talk, we we don't talk about it much.

That's a reality, but the reality of it is in scripture, and Jesus talked about that more than any other preacher.

So we get into this thing where Jesus is actually answering these three questions.

What is the political, economic, social, and moral climate going to be before you return?

Christ, you said you're gonna come again, you gave us that promise.

Tell us how we could even know what it would even look like.

So on social media today, podcasts, you'll have people sitting down saying, Is this our time?

Are we are we close?

How close are we?

So it is a bit of a discussion, well, a big discussion actually going around uh the uh Christian circles today and so forth.

Now, okay, so the Matthew, and this is you're gonna have to put your um uh Bible hats on a little bit, and getting a little bit what they call it Bible nerdy, and uh, but in Matthew 24, there are people, I've got friends of mine that say, oh no, no, no, no, that's not the future.

That took place in the sacking of Israel in 70 AD with Titus.

Remember Nero, and then Titus sacked sacked Jerusalem and destroyed it.

That's talking about that, okay?

I want to say that is wrong theology.

That's not, it's talking about that that took place, but it's also it's called a dual um aspect.

It's talking about the future as well.

I'm gonna talk about this principle in just a moment because the old does speak of the new, okay?

But how we know it must be about the future, the future, because in here, Matthew 24, 34 says, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until these things are taking place.

So people say, aha! Jesus is talking to the crowd in front of them, the immediate people talking to him and say, This generation, you guys, you're not even gonna pass away.

You'll be around.

You will be here, 78.

You're gonna be around when these things take place.

So on the surface, it seems like, oh well, okay, this is all done and dusted.

But the word, when it talks about this generation, is actually talking about this people group.

It's not the immediate group, the immediate people Jesus is facing.

It's primarily talking about people to come, the Israel or Jewish people that will still be alive when Jesus Christ returns.

We jump over into Matthew 24, 29, 31.

Matthew 24, 29, 31.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, so remember we're talking about Matthew 24, the wars, the rumors of wars, the beginnings of sorrows, and so forth, but it says, after the tribulation of those days, verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man, that's Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

So if we believe that that seven years is historical, happened at about 70 AD, we've got it right there.

Jesus would have had to have come.

No, but Jesus hasn't come.

Well, I hope he hasn't come.

What's this all about?

No, Jesus, his second coming hasn't come yet.

So we know then that scripture confirms scripture.

We interpret scripture with scripture.

It had to have been, yes, there was the sacking of Jerusalem by Rome and that sort of stuff, but it's talking about somewhere else.

It's talking about a future occurrence that's going to take place.

Okay, then we come into this.

The Antichrist, because I'm going to get back to that in a moment.

The Antichrist himself is given uh he's an individual, a political figure that is actually going to come.

Some people say, Oh, it's the it's Islam.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It might carry the Antichrist spirit, yes, but it's not the person of the Antichrist, singular.

People say, Oh, it's the Catholic Church.

No, it's not the Catholic Church.

It's not the Catholic Church.

It's talking about a one individual.

It's a system, it's a monetary Babylonian system.

No, it's not a monetary Babylonian system.

That's a Babylonian system.

No, we are talking about a political individual that's going to come into the world right now.

So I want you to understand, and I want to be very candid with you this morning.

The world is actually being groomed.

Yes, we are being groomed for the parents of the Antichrist.

If you want to know what's happening in the political, you watch.

The nations will come together and they will listen to this figure.

And he is the antichrist that comes just before Jesus Christ's return.

Okay, he didn't come 40 years ago, he didn't come a thousand years ago, he didn't come at 70 AD with Nero.

No, he is a future man that we're looking at.

He hasn't come yet.

Okay, so we'll jump into that.

This is all tied up in points in just a moment.

But he's given 10 terms or 10 titles.

How many of you know what 10 means in scripture?

It means testing, sifting the world, testing.

We have 10 commandments, the ten plagues.

Daniel's men, and Daniel tested 10 days.

The ten versions.

Revelation talks about the testing of that, but it's ten.

So here's our title.

So first thing, the the antichrist, he's mentioned in Daniel, he's mentioned in um where else?

He's mentioned in 2 Thessalonians, he's mentioned in 1 and 2, John, and he's mentioned in Revelation, uh, and he's mentioned elsewhere here.

The little horn, that's what he's called in Daniel.

He's called the king who does according to his own will.

The prince who is to come, that's what he's called.

He's called the man of sin, the son of perdition.

Uh, he's called the lawless one, he's called the man of lawlessness, he's called the beast, and he's called the antichrist.

Okay, so let me just dive down on this one.

Antichrist.

John talks about antichrist, he talks about antichrists, he talks about the spirit of antichrist.

Remember, the spirit of antichrist is just a system, it's just an atmosphere.

Although against God, it's just like, man, what a godless environment.

Antichrist, okay?

Uh, the antichrist's plural is somebody who's been in history.

Uh, some people like to say, well, you know, you've got all these uh political figures in the world that could have been antichrist during their time.

They thought they were.

A modern day you would say Adolf Hitler would have been, Mussolini would have been, Stalin, Joseph Stalin, Communism Russia would have been.

Uh, some people have thought Elon Musk, yeah, Elon Musk and uh charismatic guy and has uh uh you know incredible uh influence on the world.

Is he the antichrist?

Uh you talk about Bush, he was a candidate, Reagan was a candidate.

Um, Obama, he is a very charismatic individual, very much so.

People thought uh he he looks like he's the Republicans, especially.

He's gonna be the Antichrist, surely.

And of course, President Trump and uh and so forth.

But none of those guys are antichrist.

Now you have people, uh, you would say that North Korea, which replaces Jesus and you worship the state, that's an anti-Christ system, okay?

Islam that uh that the that exalts Allah in the Quran and Muhammad uh and is anti-Jesus Christ as the Son of God, it's an anti-Christ religious system.

There's no point getting woke about it, that's what it is.

Uh let's we're looking at the New Age movement, anti-God, it's anti-Jesus Christ, and it operates through philosophies, through our education system, uh, all sorts of things for our entertainment and it's anti-Jesus.

Now the word anti means, what does it mean?

It means to replace, to oppose and stand against.

To replace, oppose, and stand against.

So any system, any religious system, any governmental system that stands against Christ, opposes Jesus Christ as the Son of God, is against Jesus on the concepts and ideas of the word of God, is actually being targeted and influenced and being orchestrated, if you like, or being uh influenced by the spirit of antichrist.

So three things there's the spirit of it, which is an atmosphere.

There are many antichrists, people, and probably even today that are very anti-Christ themselves against Jesus Christ, and there's the anti-Christ singular, the individual that we're interested in this morning, and he's gonna come on the on the human uh scale.

He's gonna come.

I don't know he could be alive today.

He could be, but he may not be, but he could be.

People say, yep, they believe a lot of people believe.

I mean, you might be sitting here too, a lot of people believe that Christ is coming soon.

I don't struggle with that.

I don't struggle with it.

I know this gospel must be preached to all the nations, and then the time will come.

I understand that, and that's happening very, very quickly.

But the world has been conditioned for this.

We know that the Bible says before Christ comes back, two things take place.

Remember?

Number one is the great falling away, the apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2, 3, the falling away must come first.

What are we falling away from?

We're falling away from moral principles, we're falling away from our relationship with God.

I'm not talking about someone backsliding, I'm talking about somebody doing a complete U-turn on Christianity and saying, I want out.

That's apostasy.

Uh, it's also uh the debunking, if you like, of theological truths.

We deny the Trinity, we deny the virgin birth, we divide, deny the errant word of God as as legitimate from God.

We uh we divide uh and they're going through, if you like, doctrines that are orthodox and denying it, saying this is this is we don't even believe this anymore.

That's part of the apostasy, okay?

So what happens is this before Jesus Christ returns, some things we need to look at that will take place.

People that are turning away from Christ, turning away from solid doctrine, turning away from moral values.

Amos stating that what is evil is good, and what is good is evil.

We're hearing that today.

Then the next thing, when before Jesus Christ, the apostasy and the man of sin, right, the lawless one, appears on the scenes.

So two things, if you want to know what's happening, this the number one is the apostasy.

Then we're gonna look at the man of lawlessness, the antichrist emerging, the little horn coming forth and coming into the nations with a solution.

You ready for this?

A solution of how to work the nations together, a solution on how to resolve the Middle Eastern crisis.

Donald Trump has tried to crack a deal with Iran 27 times and failed.

But the Antichrist will come in, and that man will be engineered and filled with the power of Satan, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians, and he will broker a deal with an Islamic community, with a European market or European world, also Israel, and bring a peace thing, and we are gonna think, man, what a hero.

Now, this is not got part of this is not part of my message, but the Bible actually does say he will receive a mortal wound, and people will think, wow, that's amazing.

He received a a wound to his head.

The Bible says that, I think about three times, a wound to his head of which he will recover and he will be a hero in our midst.

How many of you have ever worshipped a rock star?

A pop star?

Eh?

Or a gangster?

Come on, you ladies.

How many girls have ever looked up to, you know, they call them the Swifties in America, you know, for the young uh generation of girls and that?

But they lie, idolize these things.

Okay, think about that.

It's kind of human nature, it's just what we do as kids and that, but adults do too.

I mean, yeah, I won't go down there.

But, but it's exactly the same.

There will be a political figure who will be incredibly charismatic.

How are you doing?

You look so awesome.

Hey, hey, hey, you look great.

And he's gonna come on the scenes, a male, an individual, incredibly charismatic, and he is gonna be working according, the Bible says, to the according of the works of Satan.

Satan will give.

His throne over to him, it says.

He will give his full authority over.

Some people used to say, Oh, is he half man and half devil?

No, he's full man, but sold his life out to incredible ambition, political ambition.

And the enemy, like Judas Iscariot, remember the son of perdition, the son of doom, or son of uh destruction, he's called the same thing, the son of doom, son of destruction, the son of perdition, the antichrist, this antichrist figure who's completely against the church, who's completely against Israel, can't stand Israel's guts, can't stand anything to do with Christianity.

And we're gonna see that in scripture in just a moment.

These days are coming.

So the reason why I could we could be talking about all sorts of things this morning and love to, but I'm gonna talk about this because I feel the church has got to get out of its wokeness and just got to get a little bit discerning a little bit, have a good understanding, a broad understanding of the word of God, so we can trail through these things as well.

Okay?

Okay, so we're gonna uh now I've I said this last time.

Remember five things that Jesus Christ is?

Can you remember even one of them?

Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus is God.

Okay, Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

Thank you.

Jesus literally rose from the dead.

Those are five things it's important that we know.

He is the son of God.

He is God, he's coming again, he was born on the verge of birth, he is risen from the dead, and he reigns forevermore.

And he's at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us today.

That is Jesus Christ, okay?

The Antichrist Spirit, this is very important.

The Antichrist spirit may talk about Jesus.

Oh, Jesus is a great guy, he was a good man.

No, we are talking.

Do you believe he is the Son of God?

Do you believe that He is actually God Himself?

That's what we want to know, friends.

And if you can't say that, and there are some Bible scholars that can't say that, seriously blow you away.

We've got a real issue.

There is no other way.

Here's the other thing: there's no other way, and to get it clear in our heads that you can get to heaven except through Christ.

You can't get another way.

It can't be through works, it can't be through turning up to church, it can't by uh be by just trying to bargain our way through.

You have to have an alive relationship with Jesus Christ.

There is no other way, and that's clear right through scripture.

Now, antichrist devils in churches manifest at that.

Well, that's just like that sort of thing, it's just oh I can make my own way and I'm I'm part of Buddhism and I study these religions and that.

You are full of devils.

Is that a good thing to say in church?

No, that's the antichrist spirit that's got around us, hardening our hearts, hardening who we are.

We've got to understand we sung about the blood of Jesus, we just clapped it.

We just we just got excited about it.

Do we get hyped up on the the song that um that our brother took us through, or do we actually believe that Christ is king and he's coming again?

Hey, very important.

Okay.

Now, before Christ comes, I believe our communities are gonna split two ways.

There's gonna be people that are more hungry for Christ than you've ever, it'll shock us.

There are gonna be people that you never expected to get born again again and get saved.

He said, I never thought they had it.

I went to school with them.

Well, it's it's just like wow.

You know, when I left school, we had this guy, Mark, somebody, I won't tell you his name.

And uh he was a white guy, he's a tough guy, and he belonged to a gang and he was beating people and you know, all sorts of stuff up.

And uh, but when I got saved at 18 years of age, guess what?

I heard that he'd given his life to Christ, surrendered his life to Christ.

Amazing.

Never would have expected it.

No church affiliation, had an encounter with God.

Another guy in my class, Raymond, and then another Cook Island guy, new, gave their hearts to Christ.

Never would have expected it after college.

They just gave their hearts to life and just went full on.

It's amazing.

There'll be people around our lives, family members, that are hard nuts or hard doers, but they will surrender their lives to Jesus Christ.

We're talking celebrities, musicians, political figures coming under the authority of Christ.

I love for those days.

They're happening now, seed by seed.

Yet at the same time, there'll be an apostasy we understand.

At the same time, there will be people in this world's heart will grow incredibly cold towards the things of God.

That's just that we've got to pray for our um, some of those are our family members or or whatever, or relatives or neighbors or so forth, or people we might know, but we want to pray for them.

Pray for a divine Damascus road encounter.

Even with Paul the Apostle, he had the fervency for God, but misdirected.

Even with the Islamic community, and I'm believing for a hundred thousand Muslims to get born, a hundred million Muslims to get born again, even in the more Islam community, there's a hunger for God.

Totally, it's misdirected.

It needs the message of our Savior there.

Okay.

This is what Revelation says.

Now, during the seven-year climate, in our future, not in the past, it's in our future, it's going to be a tough time.

And the Lord is going to allow uh economic collapses, going to allow uh disturbances and the cosmos and different things like that take place around our world.

What's he trying to do?

He's trying to shake the nations.

Remember Hosea, I think it is, and um uh uh uh Hebrews 12, shaking.

That's why we build ourselves on the rock, it doesn't get shaken.

Shaking, what's he trying to do?

He's trying to grab the attention of the world because as long as you are doing well, as long as you've got a good social network, as long as your health is good, as long as everything's working for you, you don't need God.

Okay, but when things happen amiss and things fall around our lives, God help me.

Even in our Christian community, we are at our best when we're suffering.

When we're under the pump, we're at our best.

When hard times, we're praying, when good times we're just rocking with it, you know what I mean?

But when there's difficult times, we're saying, God, where are you?

I I love you.

Yes, you can have this.

I just need to give me a let up, Lord.

Help me.

I'm suffering down here.

All right, it's how we kind of roll it out a little bit.

That's why persecution is good for the church.

It's a good time.

The church gets refined, it's no longer up the clubs, it's no longer doing that.

They get serious with God.

They look at their house, look at the music they're playing, they look at this, and they says, Man, I've got to, I gotta, I gotta sort my life out with Christ.

Gotta put these issues that I've got right with my neighbors.

I'm gonna ask their forgiveness.

Why?

Because there's now pressure from God.

Okay, translate that on a very, very large international scale.

God is going to allow situations to take place around the world, hoping to shake the nations out of its appetite for sin, out of its desire away from God.

So that people that had a seed, because you told them about Jesus Christ, they are living uh for the flesh.

Things get shaken around the world, around their world, and they begin to cry out to God and they begin to say, I remember the things that um that uh Tiadi told me.

I remember the things that she said about Jesus Christ.

Father, if you're alive, God, if you exist, please would you help me?

And God comes into that circle.

So the seeds that we're sowing are never amiss, they're all strategic in Jesus' name.

Tell me about this.

Well, there's four scriptures.

I won't go into these, but there are four scriptures.

It says this that the people refers refuse to repent.

Amazing.

Even though this tribulation's out, people are still going to refuse to repent.

It says they refuse to repent of their thefts, their immoralities, their murders, their sorcery, in other words, their drugs and so forth.

They come to a place, even though they may know that God exists, they come to a place in their life where they're not going to repent.

They don't want to repent.

The Bible says they actually refuse to repent.

So we have a hotbed of people getting saved.

The Bible says the harvest is at the end of the age.

Lots of people are giving their lives to Christ, uh, sports folks, all sorts, housewives, old wives, everybody coming into the kingdom of God.

Amazing.

Yet at the same time, we've got the other, the left, if you like.

Um, and uh on this side here is people saying, No, I don't want God.

I refuse to repent.

I want to live this way, and I want to turn my back on God.

We are going to see that.

You ready?

Dichotomy.

We're going to see it more black and white, more openness amongst our secular community, more openness amongst our community to God, the Holy Spirit, righteous living, and so forth.

Yet we're going to see more of an opposition, more bitterness, more resentment.

The Bible says they even blast, they refuse to repent and they blaspheme the name of God.

Isn't it incredible?

In other words, you would think when things have been shipwrecked around our life, we cry out to God.

No, it only makes them harder.

That's what the Bible says, only makes the more uh stout-hearted or or determined against God a more antagonistic, more bitter, so that the Bible says that they blasphemed his name.

Isn't incredible blaspheming the guy, the best person for us, we turn around in our own selfishness and twisted uh mentality and so forth, we begin to actually curse God.

That's happening, and that will happen before the coming of the Messiah comes.

Okay, now uh in the Bible, they call this thing, and I want you to think about this.

Can everybody say dual reference?

It's a theological term, so it's a dual reference.

This is this, okay.

Basically, the Old Testament tells a story, but we see, hey, this is this is actually about the New Testament.

So Psalms 22, David's doing a lament, he's talking about his own sufferings.

David is, but he can't be talking about David uh your sufferings, David.

You're talking about Jesus in his crucifixion.

How does that work?

So prophetically, he's talking it, he's talking about himself, yet he prophetically in his storyline or in his writings, the psalms, he's now talking about the for the coming of the Messiah.

You see what I'm saying there?

Scripture's full of that.

It's called a dual reference or foreshadowing.

Okay, I want to ask you these questions.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Who said that?

Yes, you did, but so did David the psalmist.

Credible.

How about this?

All those who seek me ridicule me.

Who says that?

Well, it's in it's about Jesus.

They ridicule me, remember?

They passed, they cursed him at the cross and so forth.

David's writing it in there.

They pierce my hands and my feet.

Who's he talking about?

Himself, Christ.

But this is a this is talking, David's talking about his personal sufferings here, guys.

And now he just moves it a little bit, and he's now prophetically talking about the crucifixion to come.

They look and they stare at me.

How about this one?

In Psalms 22, 18, it says, They divided my garments amongst them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Who's that talking about?

David?

Jesus.

Okay, right.

So in Matthew 24, it's talking about uh the sacking, uh Titus, the sacking of, the sacking of Jerusalem, it's actually in there, it's actually talking about a future that will happen to Israel in our future as well.

A dual concept.

Ezekiel 28.

Remember they talked about the king of Tyre?

But the language goes, how about this?

You were the seal of perfection or the sum of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were an Eden, the garden of God, you were the anointed cherub who covers.

I established you.

Who's that talking about?

Talking about Lucifer.

You were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created.

The king of Tyre was never perfect in all his ways, but Lucifer was created perfect in all his ways.

You were you became violent within you, and it says your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.

Who's that talking about?

The king of Tyre.

No, it's now beginning to shift, it's prophetically now spinning out and beginning to talk about Satan.

There's another one, Isaiah 14.

There's a prophecy against Babylon, right?

Describing, though, the king of Babylon, and then it comes out in Isaiah 40, verse 12.

Isaiah 40:12

How are you fallen from heaven, you o Lucifer, son of the morning?

Now, who's that talking about?

Right, it's written in there.

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

That's not gonna not talk about the king of Babylon, that's talking about Satan.

That's talking about Lucifer, okay?

That's very important.

So when we are talking about the book of Daniel, I heard a great man of God, a lover's teaching, I'm gonna get his book, a brilliant guy, but he believes, oh no, no, all that is past, man.

It's all in the future, can't be past.

It has to have a future aspect coming in because part of Daniel did take place for sure.

We know that it took place, but he also you read between it, you realize no, he's actually prophetically also talking.

I've got it here, talking about the future things to come, which ties up with Matthew 24, which ties up with the book of Revelation, which ties up with Second Thessalonians and so forth.

It ties up, this is future.

Very important.

Now, some people say, Oh, and I've got good friends of mine, good friends of mine that say this, so they're very close friends of mine that say, Oh, the antichrist was Nero, the emperor of Rome.

Off the record, Nero, they say okay, so he conquered the world.

No, he didn't conquer the world, he conquered 25% of the world.

China, the oceana, so many countries, India, Japan.

It was never ever conquered.

He conquered only 25% of the world.

He never sat in and said, I am God.

The antichrist will do that.

Second third.

And he's never recorded as saying that.

How did he die?

He died by committed suicide.

His secretary helped him.

A secretary doesn't mean a woman's secretary, she gave him the poison.

No, no, it's a male guy who was a secretary, it's an office.

Helped kill him.

But how does the antichrist actually die?

You ready for this?

The Bible says that he's gonna die without human effort.

Somehow it wonders, is God gonna be involved with that?

Scripture interprets scripture.

What does the Bible say?

The Bible says this in 2 Thessalonians.

You ready for this?

The Antichrist will die at the coming of the Lord.

It says he will die at the appearance of the Lord, he will die when Christ actually comes.

God will consume him with the power of his presence.

That's how we know that the antichrist was never historical, it was never with Nero, it was never with uh any of these other guys and so forth.

It wasn't 50 years ago with the leader, it was not current day, right now, necessarily.

No, because whoever it is is gonna be just before Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is gonna destroy him at the appearance of his coming.

Very, very important.

So we get that.

So we know.

So you're gonna hear teaching.

Oh no, it's the past, past, past, past.

No, no, no, future, future, future, future, future.

It's in the future, okay.

Some things have happened in the past.

There's been antichrist in the past, there's been types and typologies in the past.

We know, but it's dual, it's part, partial, but it's future.

The person of the antichrist, we're heading that way.

That's where the world is going, and that's what we've been conditioned into.

Okay, Jonathan, tell me about this figure very, very quickly.

Tell me about the Antichrist.

I'm glad you asked.

Okay, so the first thing, the Antichrist, number one, is gonna control the world.

Not 25% of it.

Says every tribe, tongue, and nation in Revelation 13.7.

I'm gonna go so fast, Twinkle.

This is gonna be so hard for you to think.

I do apologize.

Revelation 13.8, all who dwell on the earth will worship him.

So we understand there's global worship heading towards this particular figure coming.

You're gonna have family members that are gonna be like, no, this guy's awesome, man.

You see what he's done, you see what he's doing.

Nobody's been able to do this.

He's an amazing.

I saw him on television, I saw him on media.

He's awesome.

You see the way he communicates, articulates, he's brought the nations together, he's bringing peace into the world, and we're gonna be going, yeah, we want peace above all things, we want peace, we want prosperity, we want security because the Bible says he will try and bring peace and prosperity to the world.

Antichrist.

Do you know who the person who brings peace and prosperity to the world?

Ultimately, it's Christ.

Christ is gonna bring peace and prosperity through his kingdom and to his kingdom.

The antichrist is connected with Christ's return and will be destroyed.

I'll give you that scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2.8, if you need to know.

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming.

So that means when Jesus Christ comes, let's just say Jesus Christ is coming in 40 years' time from now.

I probably would have gone by then, but 40 years' time, the Antichrist will be on the stage before that time.

Let's just say Christ is gonna come.

Two years' time, that means he's in the political circle somewhere on the line.

Remember, he's a small horn, he's not straight away.

Who is this guy?

It's amazing.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You watch so he comes and he climbs right up, and all of a sudden, he's a hidden guy operating, and all of a sudden, he's able to resolve the solutions of this world.

That's his agenda, okay, according to the work of Satan.

Okay, what else do we know?

Move this out.

Uh okay.

Did you know this?

He's actually Satan gives him his power.

So for the first time, Satan actually gives him the ability to do supernatural miracles and signs, which will outstrip most of your Christian brothers and sisters, calling fire from heaven like the false prophet can do.

He is coming according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and wonders in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 and 10.

He will move.

The Bible says the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and his authority.

He'll actually be able to move in incredible signs of wonders.

So you're gonna have people like this, relatives and family members and so forth, and neighbors and work colleagues, and say, mate, did you see what he did?

Who can do this?

He must be God.

Okay, next one.

The Antichrist will demand global divine worship.

Now, here's a problem for himself, and reject every other authority.

Who wanted to do that?

Satan, I will exalt myself.

Daniel 11, 36, right through these other scriptures.

He will exalt himself and magnify himself above every God.

He sits in the temple of God, the temple is going to be built back in Jerusalem, showing himself that he is God.

The world worships the dragon and the beast.

What else?

He will carry extreme arrogance and blasphemous God.

Now, can I just say something?

All right?

There are some political people that say I've done this and I've done that and I did this.

Sometimes it's good to say our team did this or we did this, but there's some individuals that come in and you look at it, and man, I see the tone of arrogance there, tone of pride.

That will be nothing on what the Antichrist is like.

He will be the epitome of pride.

Satan was proud for he will be the epitome of incredible, obnoxious arrogance.

It'll be about I, I will descend, I will ascend, I will this.

A mouth which speaks pompous words.

He is given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.

Blasphemy, blasphemy is when you actually speak against God.

Who does God think he is?

I am God.

Nations of the earth, I have brought you the answer.

You need to listen to what I am saying.

That's what we're going to be facing.

And with a more aggressive and legitimate tone than that.

Though I thought I did pretty well.

That's frightening.

Okay, ready for this?

Number four, he will reject the religion of his fathers and have no desire for woman.

Now, this is controversial.

I don't know the answer to that.

Reject the desire for woman.

Is he a homosexual?

I don't know.

Something I believe I read one scholar 20 years ago, I believe he had a whole case, he said he believed that he would be uh a homosexual because it's he it says in Daniel 11, 37, referring to the beast the Antichrist, he will regard neither the God of his fathers, nor the desire of woman, nor regard any God.

So it could mean that he's gonna look down on women, oppress woman, not regard woman, it could be that, or have no desire or no affection towards.

Woman.

I don't know.

Number five, all I know is scary.

Number five, he begins as a peacemaker, but becomes the world's greatest tyrant.

He will be the hardest, the harshest leader that humanity has ever had.

You thought Adolf Hitler was hard?

You wait.

He will unite the nations and dominate the world through deception, diplomacy, military power, and the Bible says through intrigue, which is flattery.

Ever met people that flatter?

Government officials that flatter?

He is going to be all of that.

He comes mighty.

The Bible says he destroys many and prospers nations of people through deceit.

Daniel 9, 27, he confirms a covenant for seven years, then breaks it halfway through.

Number six, just about closing here.

His reign is marked by severe persecution, really, of those who remain faithful to Christ.

He will wage war against believers during that time.

Daniel 7, 21, the same horn was making war against the saints.

Daniel 7.25, he shall persecute the saints of the Most High.

This is our brothers and sisters.

Revelation 13.7, it was granted him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.

He will turn violently against the Jewish community.

He will turn violently against everybody that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.

Why?

Because he's in opposition to the name of Christ.

He's opposed to the name of Christ.

He is against the name of Christ.

So when you go to some like Islamic State, you were not allowed a Bible.

If you had a Bible, you're dead.

You go through and actually work out what they did to Christians, it's just shocking.

Okay?

But that is going to be during that time.

And that's why the Bible talks about the patience and the faithfulness of the saints.

So it all begins to make sense a little bit.

Why is God knocking on the door of his church and saying, I'm wanting to go deeper?

I'm wanting to make you stronger.

I'm wanting to break the idolatry.

I'm wanting to give you a sure foundation.

I'm wanting to elevate you in strength.

Why does the roots have to go down?

Because when the sifting times come, they were able to stand.

Now you say, Oh my goodness, this is not good.

No, but this is good.

This is great time.

Because other people around the other side of the world, like Nigeria right now, north of Nigeria, you've got it right through Pakistan, northern Pakistan.

They're not where we go is a safe area, but you go further up into Pakistan.

They say it's hard to even have any meetings with Christianity at all because it's a rural area and they are so entrenched with Islamic uh radicalization or Islamic uh uh conservatism that the gospel doesn't even get a chance.

They don't want to hear it.

I I think people will want to hear it, I do, but I think the spirit power of antichrist that sits over that region is so opposed to Jesus Christ.

You start saying that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then we get into major, major problems.

So, what's the Lord saying?

You want to know what he's saying?

The Lord is saying, Lordship, Savior, is it time to be afraid?

Heck no.

This is time to celebrate, this is time to to spread the gospel, and and and honestly, this is time to win our family members.

Talk to them.

Have you ready for this?

Have the honest conversation.

I've always been a pretty honest conversation person.

Have the honest conversation with family members if they're not serving God, sit them down, take them out for lunch and have a heart-to-heart.

Say son or daughter or dad, mom, auntie, I've got to talk to you, Auntie.

We have to talk.

When can we get together?

Your neighbors, plead with your neighbors.

Talk to people.

We have an urgency amongst us that sometimes we think we're in a bubble in the Cook Islands and that things are going really, really well.

So we don't know there's an urgency in the realm of the spirit.

I mean, you look, people are just dying left, right, and center.

That's an over-exaggeration right there.

But people are dying, and we don't know when our next time is up.

Do you know what I'm saying?

For a lot of people, missed opportunity.

I mean, the girl that passed away, the nice girl, the the reception, uh, the girl at um at one of the places the other used to serve us for food and stuff and that, and she's gone.

That's it.

Gone.

I think she's in her 40s or something, completely gone.

I had an accent, but she's completely gone.

Who would have expected?

And he said, I never happened to my cousin.

No, okay, it may not, but the fact is our hearts get harder and harder and harder and harder.

So, where are we at with this?

The Bible says there'll be a monetary system come through.

There are five or six five scriptures that are talking about a monetary, a cashless society that's coming through the world.

It will be probably engineered by AI.

There's a whole lot of stuff in that uh that they're saying, but uh the the false prophet will come on the scenes.

People used to think he was the uh the Pope.

I don't think so.

He's gonna come on and he's gonna be like a lamb, but speak like a dragon.

So he's gonna not be a political figure, he's gonna be a religious figure, but he speaks as the mouth of the dragon, Satan, and he is going to pay homage to this guy, and he is like the Holy Spirit with Christ.

He is gonna say, World, we need to worship, and he also carries signs and wonders with him.

Calls down fire, the Bible says.

That's amazing.

Everything's counterfeit, and so so we're going to see this take place, but the church, in the meantime, in this season, is destined to explode, it's destined just to explode all around the world.

I want to say this where it doesn't matter who got into power or who didn't, not for the church, because we are subject to a higher authority than what you see.

We respect all authorities that are legitimate here, voted in, we respect it.

But let me tell you this we pray for the kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven.

There's gonna be some rocky stories and rocky stuff in the future.

I believe that around the world, every the last three years have intensified dramatically, and I think the next three years, watch it, it's just gonna progressively get worse, but not for us, not for us, because we operate to a different different drumbeat.

We prosper when nobody else prospers.

Did you know that?

We have peace when there is no peace out there.

We have a joy, a tranquility, and a joy and excitement when others don't have that joy.

We have great marriages and secure marriages because we're on the rock, and sadly, some other marriages can shake, shake, shake because they've got no clutches to security, they're just battling within themselves.

You see what I'm saying?

And so for us, I want to encourage us, and I'll finish this whole series there.

I want to encourage us to dig into Him.

Take life very seriously.

Take it very, very seriously.

It's not a game.

Life is not a game, it's not a game just to play.

It's not, it's a it's a it's what you're doing is incredibly strategic.

It's either you're doing the wrong thing or the right thing.

But make sure your head is in the kingdom.

Make sure you're fully focused, drawn in, and make sure your foundations go incredibly deep.

Get off the peripherals, get off the stuff that counts for nothing.

Go thin.

The Bible talks about going up to the holy mountain, getting those things that entangled us, attitudes perhaps.

Or maybe it's stuff we're maybe we're time wasting, maybe we're just men, growing up men, but we're babies on the inside and doing silly things and just get rid of some of that stuff and go hardcore to the Lord.

He said, Is this radical Christianity?

No, this is not radical Christianity.

This is just basic bottom line discipleship.

This is just Christianity.

We're giving our lives to Jesus.

God will bless you well beyond.

Don't chase the money, don't chase the careers.

Honestly, chase God, He will give you the money and He will give you the career.

He'll give you it all.

But align yourself and you'll soft have a soft conscience.

You go to bed sleeping at night in incredible peace and joy, and it's going to be amazing for you.

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