One of this blog’s readers pointed out a post on another prophecy site that was speculating that the new prime minister of Greece might be the Antichrist. Like most prophecy sites its writer still believes that the Antichrist will be European.
The post makes an argument that Alexis Tsipras may be the Antichrist. For those who still think the Antichrist comes from Europe it seems to be a convincing argument.
Alexis Tsipras, the new Prime Minister of Greece. He was elected on his promise that he could solve Greece’s debt problem.
However, the Signpost interpretation pays attention to those little details of history which can make Daniel only argue one way: that the Antichrist will be Muslim and an Arab, and most likely a Syrian Arab.
The Signposts themselves (from Daniel 7 and 8) also tell us…
1) that the great Iranian leader(s) to come which will conquer the Middle East will not be the Antichrist;
2) that the great Turkish leader to reconquer the Middle East after him will not be the Antichrist either; and
3) that the man to truly be Antichrist will re-unite the nations fractured from this great Turkish led nation. That’s the one to watch for.
I’ll just come out and say it. In my opinion, any talk of a European Antichrist is just false teaching and hearsay with no real foundation, blowing people here and there and making them fret or follow a fake Antichrist.
This is why paying attention to the correct interpretation of Daniel 2:40 is so important. If one just brushes over the text, ignores history, and says the Antichrist will be European, then one is vulnerable to the kind of thing in that other site’s post. It leads people to watch the leaders and politics of places like France, Italy and Greece.
If you haven’t read Daniel Revisited yet I highly recommend it. The Signpost interpretation presented has the agreement of real and documented history, the simplest reading of Daniel 7 and 8, and today’s current events in the Middle East. It is the only interpretation, as far as I know, that does this. It shows us to watch countries like Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Categories: In The News, Signpost Theology, The Signpost Perspective
THE FOUR SIGNPOSTS 
Hi Mark you are so right! I wrote this article in direct response to this European Antichrist article also debunking the fact that it says the AC will be an atheist: https://dailyprophecydigest.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/will-the-antichrist-be-a-gay-atheist-from-europe-resurrected-from-the-dead-to-rule-the-whole-world/
(>; Bless you!!!!! (as always, I fwd’d this to many!)
Thanks, Mark. It really bothers me when people try to claim that the Antichrist is European, but it bothers me more that I’ve also heard that he’s Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Barak Obama. (Why DID they leave out Bill Clinton?)..
Not directly on topic but this is an interesting development:
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/10/turkey-international-islamic-university.html#
“Turkey will soon have an “International Islamic University,” Gormez said, adding that Islamic universities in Egypt, Pakistan, Iran and Malaysia were “unable to find solutions to problems in the world.” By that comment, he implicitly signaled that Turkey is getting ready to make bolder claims in the Islamic market of ideas.”
In an article elsewhere, there was a suggestion that this was a direct challenge against Egypt which was seen as the heart of the Islamic academy.
Either way, Turkey is clearly stepping up.
Mark,
I was going to send this to you in email…but this may be faster.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Yaalon-Iran-has-apocalyptic-messianic-ambition-391169
Blessings!
Something I want to add in light of the Jerusalem Post article…the article said that the deadline for a basic framework for the nuclear agreement was to be reached by the end of March. Interestingly, we have our first total solar eclipse on Adar 29/Nissan 1(Friday, March 20, 2015) also the Spring Equinox as well as the Jewish Religious New Year’s Day of the Jewish religious calendar.
Is there a connection? We don’t know, but we need to keep watching and praying. By tradition it is said that solar eclipses that fall on Jewish holidays are bad signs for Gentile nations. Is this just superstition or something else…I wouldn’t quit my job and sit on a hill, but I would be paying close attention to these next few weeks in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Blessings!
I find it interesting that everyone wants to predict who the antichrist is, but hardly hear anyone try to predict who the false prophet is. I think the clue to knowing who the true antichristwill be, is to research who the real false prophet would be. The false prophet will testify to the antichrist, as the Holy Spirit has been testifying to Jesus Christ.
Imo, the false prophet will be a false Jesus (“Isa” in Islamic theology) he would have to claim that he is Jesus and perform false miracles to deceive those who claim Christianity in name only, but are not the true elect of Christ. Otherwise, how will the great apostasy within the church transpire without it and that the “the love of many will grow cold and hate each other” as the LORD predicts? This is another reason why Islam is the entity that fits the prophetic narrative and it all makes such frighteningly good common sense.
Blessings!
What if the “Man of Lawlessness”, the “son of perdition” that Paul talks about this in 2 Thessalonians 2 is NOT the same person as the first nor secind Beast of Revelation but a new third figure/decoy of Satan?
Not possible. God would have stated this in His Word as God is omnipotent to give his elect notice.
Blessings!
It is obvious that the Mahdi will be/MUST BE revealed. Will he be the Antichrist or a precursor to him or the False Prophet? I had not done the research on it, but Satan will not let that escathology to waste. He will use it, as he uses anything he can, to deceive. And what better to use the Mahdi to deceive two billion Muslims? If he is the father of deception then it follows that he will use/leverage the Mahdi escathology for deception as he had and will use the Rome-Antichrist eschatology for deception to deceive the millions (yes I said millions with ‘m’) of Christians that will continue to totally ignore, blackout and look the other way from the reality of what is happening in the Middle East while waiting for the rising of a Roman Empire that will never happen. Churches can not wait for the opportunity to be martirs in the hands of the Pope but they are not ready, nor willing, to be casualties of Islam. Satan’s perfect plan and opportunity. Make the church look to Rome while the Middle East burns the entire Earth.
To “good4u1”: It is almost trivia to show and prove that the “Man of Lawlessness” or “Son of Perdition” is NOT neither the Beast nor the False prophet.
This person is a third “new character” introduced by Satan himself to fool Christians AND Muslims. One group will erroneously label him “the Beast” or “False Prophet” while the other group will erroneously label him “Jesus” or “The Mahdi”. Which group will label him what is the topic of another conversation.
In my next post I will show and prove beyond any doubt that the conventional “wisdom” is incorrect. I will show that the Man of Lawlessness or Son of Perdition is not and can not be neither the First Beast, nor the Second Beast and therefore not the False Prophet. But a monkey wrench, thrown out to the world to deceive Christians and Muslims using their own escathology. An ingenious idea of Satan!!! While Bible scholars think they can out smart him he always out smart them!!!
With Mark’s permission, I would like to show and prove, beyond any doubt that the “Man of Lawlessness” or “Son of Perdition” is not and can not be the First Beast nor Second Beast of Revelation and therefore can not be the False Prophet but he is a NEW third character introduced by Satan himself to scew and fool the escathology of Christians and Muslims alike! If you ignore these facts then you will open yourself to the coming deception by the Man of Lawlessness. And that deception is the EXACT reason he will be introduced into the world by Satan himself.
****************
Revelation 19:20-21 present us with two very distinct groups: Group #1: The Beast AND the False Prophet. Group #2: The Rest.
Revelation 19:20-21
20. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
Did you see the two very distinct groups? God wants you to know that there will be two very distinct groups of people who will come up to fight against Jesus.
Group #1: Are thrown alive into, let’s say, “some place”.
Group #2: Is NOT thrown any where but “21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him”. So we know that the “Him” is Jesus. So group #2 is “the rest” but I ask you, how is “the rest” killed? By being thrown alive into a lake of fire? NOPE! The rest as killed by “something” that comes OUT of Jesus’s mouth, “killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him”. Verse 21.
Now I ask you: How is the Man of Lawlessness killed? In which group will he be at? Is the Man of Lawlessness thrown alive into a lake of fire or is he killed by “something” that comes out of Jesus’s mouth?
Let’s see what the Bible, NOT me, says:
2 Thessalonians 2:8 “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”
How is the Man of Lawlessness killed?
>> By “something” that comes out of Jesus’s mouth! “overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy…”
Notice that he is not “thrown alive into the lake of fire” but “killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him”, that ” sword” is by the Bible’s OWN interpretation “the breath of His mouth”!
If you do not agree that: “the sword which came from the mouth of Him” is the same as “the breath of His mouth” then there is nothing I can say to prove my point.
As you can see, the Man of Lawlessness will be in group #2 and NOT in group #1!
So YES, it is possible that the Man of Lawlessness is NOT the False Prophet, nor the First/Second Beast of Revelation!
“God had already stated this in His Word as God is omnipotent to give his elect notice.”
God bless!
Martinez,
Thanks for enthusiastically sharing your take on this topic. I find in my own studies of Bible prophecy that we tend to make things more complicated when God is telling us something simpler. The Signpost theory is a case in point: Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 and the horsemen in Rev 6 all seem to be talking about different things but no, they are talking about the same set of events. The prophecies about Jesus’ first appearance is similar: from prophecies of the virgin birth, born in Bethlehem, called a Nazarene, and others, we might think God is talking about several different people but they are all one person.
Likewise, the beast of Revelation 13 is the Antichrist and is Mahdi. The second beast is the false prophet and is Islam’s Isa. How do I know from your text passages that this is so? Yes, Rev 19:20-21 talks about how the beast is thrown alive into the lake of fire. So the question is how do you reconcile 2 Thessalonians 2:8? There are two possibilities:
1) If the beast is indeed thrown alive into the lake of fire, would you say the beast is ended or destroyed at that point? I would say so. You assume the beast is killed in 2 Thess 2:8, but the words do not necessarily say that, but the translators are filling in with what they think the words are. The first part “kill with the breath of his mouth”, has “anaireo” (strong’s #337) for “kill”, but it means to “end”. Anaireo is used elsewhere to end something. Is it to end a life? Or is it to simply end the beast’s tenure as the beast?
Also, “bring to an end by the splendor of his coming” has “katargeo” (strong’s #2673) for “bring to an end”. It means just that: to put an end to something. Technically, the beast is not said to be killed in the Greek but to be ended.
2) However, lets say the beast is really killed. And yet he is thrown alive into the lake of fire. Everyone will go through the second resurrection and the second death. All the lost are resurrected after they were in hell or on earth, and then thrown alive into the lake of fire. The beast may be no different. If the average evildoer is treated this way, why not the beast as well? Look at Rev 20:11-15, Dan 12:2, Rev 2:11, Rev 20:6 for references.
This is my position.
Mark
I appreciate your point of view and see where you are coming but yourself said in your own book (yes I finally got your book!) under the subtitle “Be Aware of Assumptions” “how wrong assumptions grow[ing] from mere acceptance to near reverence”.
I feel comfortable following your advice.
Are not you following the same interpretation assumptions that made you believe in the Rome-Antichrist?
Why repeat the same error again instead of adding to our understanding?
Why ignore what comes out of Jesus mouth, the Holy Spirit, as irrelevant during the final conflict? Will the Holy Spirit sit idle watching the show?
Why did Jesus bothered to differentiate the two groups, the ones thrown alive in the lake of fire and the second group that is destroyed by something that comes from Jesus mouth?
Why the insistence to ignore that “minor” detail risking the fact that those “minor” details can reveal new information that God might want us to have?
Do we think we have everything figured out? So does the Pope-Rome-Antichrist bunch. They feel they can ignore Islam and the Middle East and only pay attention to a bankrupt Pope.
Maybe, just maybe, we should consider what if, just what if, the Man of Perdition is not revealed to kill nor persecute anyone but only to deceive Bible scholars that think they got it all figured out?
Let’s remember that the “Man of Lawlessness” is not “revealed” shown into the world to persecute anyone nor to kill anyone, not even to testify in front of any other beast, but its ONLY purpose is to deceive many people by pretending to be who? The real Antichrist? What if that is so?
Can you tell us why the two groups in Revelation 19 are intentionally mention to have very different endings? Why did God made John waste time, paper and ink if they are “destroyed” identically? Are we not kind of stretching it?
Maybe, just maybe, the Bible is PERFECT and when it says that the Beast and False prophet are “captured” ALIVE while “The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse” then maybe just maybe God wants us to know that the Beast and False Prophet have very different endings than “the rest”. I ask you to open your mind and consider my position and “Be Aware of Assumptions”.
All I am saying is that maybe just maybe “the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse” Rev 19:21 is exactly the same as “the breath of his mouth” 2 Thessalonians 2:8
If that is so then we should reconsider the Antichrist = False Prophet interpretation!
Revelation 19:20-21
20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
2 Thessalonians 2:8
“the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus [rider on the horse] will overthrow [kill] with the breath of his mouth [the sword coming out of the mouth]” just as “the rest” but NOT captured “alive”.
Martinez,
The main message of Daniel Revisited is not that the Antichrist will be Muslim and not European, for this is just a gate; it is that there are four major events to occur prior to the rapture and tribulation. You seem to be misunderstanding me and my work. It was the tossing of the old assumptions that allowed me to see a Muslim Antichrist that is coming and that it will be in four major steps.
It is the simplest and easiest reading of Scripture, coupled with a proper and thorough understanding of the original Hebrew or Greek text, and much prayer with the Spirit being allowed to teach, that allows one to see what God is trying to show us in His word.
Is the sword that comes from Christ’s mouth (the Greek says it travels out) that hits or strikes nations the same as the breath that overcome the Beast? Most likely. But each picture or image has its own purpose.
In my last response to your comments I offered two choices. But it cannot be #2 if the Beast is captured alive. Therefore the Beast is captured alive per Rev 19:20 and an end is put to the Beast per 2 Thess 2:8. This is where I stand.
One final note. The Signposts as presented in my book are based on Daniel 7 and 8. Those two chapters both show one little horn emerging and making war against the saints. One Beast and his sidekick the false prophet. That’s about it.
I’m glad you got the book; I look forward to hearing from you again after you have seriously studied it.
Mark
Mark said “Therefore the Beast is captured alive per Rev 19:20 and an end is put to the Beast per 2 Thess 2:8. This is where I stand.”
Of course that will be the case if you assume the Beast and the Man of Lawlessness are one and the same!
But that is exactly the assumption I am debating about!
I still do not see why the Bible clearly mentions two very distinct groups, one that is captured and thrown alive into a lake of fire and another group that is killed by something that comes from Jesus mouth.
You claim both groups will have the same ending! I disagree! We can agree to disagree!
Maybe, just maybe, the birds can not gouge on burning flesh from the lake of fire and will go to the second group and “gorged themselves on their flesh.” Show therefore that they are two very distinct groups.
I still stand firm that there are two different and distinct groups with different endings. One is burned alive while the other is killed by Jesus breath (Holy Spirit).
I hope and pray, if I am right, you will not be deceived by the Man of Lawlessness and identity him as the Antichrists when in reality he is just a “decoy” Satan will use ‘to deceive even the saints”.
Maybe “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.” To deveive even the elects.
I pray that “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed.” Revealed not to fulfill prophecy, not to persecute saints, not to kill elects, not to behead Christians but only and only to “deceive” the elects.
The risk is the following: If the Mahdi is NOT the Antichrist and he is erroneously identify as him then any Muslim that comes around and “destroy” him must then, by escathological conclusion be accepted as Jesus, since ONLY Jesus will destroy the “Man of Lawlessness” as per Scripture. That, I believe, is the purpose and intention that Satan has for his decoy!
PD: I am also just an engineers that had deeply study the Bible in original Greek and Hebrew.
Regardless of the differences between the Islamic Paradigm scholars, the main point is the most crucial point: that the Antichrist is NOT European!
For those that grow up believing that error that is a big jump!
The Rome-Antichrist doctrine is very ingrained in the church.
Countless hours of research, books, seminars, training and theological discussions had being expended in defending the Rome-Antichrist doctrine.
Once that jump is made everything else is details!
Joel Richardson had less that effort but let’s not forget that long before Joel Richardson show up in the scene a number of scholars were already claiming an Islamic Antichrist.
A great book, and now hard to find is:
Mark, had you read that book?
It is very powerful! Simple but powerful!
They even predicted ISIS and the Caliphate back in the 70’s!
Martinez,
Yes, the jump from Rome to Islam is huge. Many are stumbling in their understanding because of it. Joel may not have been first, but he articulated it well. Let us not forget though, the message that comes out of the blue shocking people once you understand that the Antichrist comes out of Islam: the Signposts. This is where prophecy meets reality.