“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
It is a truth that there is nothing that God has done that Satan will not try to use for his own ends. Satan mimics God and he will do so again at the end of the age to deceive the whole world. Even though Satan is the most powerful being created by God, Satan is still not powerful enough that he can create. All he can do is take what already exists and corrupt it for his own ends. This is what he will do with the coming of his “man of sin,” his own satanic version of Christ.
Satan is a created being and is certainly endowed with immense power, more than any other created being, yet when it comes to the things of God all he can do is imitate.
As Christ sowed his “good seed” (Matt. 3:24), so Satan also sows his “tares” (Matt. 13:25). As Jesus talks of the “children of God” so we also read of the “children of the wicked one” (Matt. 13:38). Jesus Christ came to bring forth his gospel, and we also read of Satan bringing forth his own gospel, “another gospel, which is another” (Galatians 1:6-7).
The Spirit of God “…searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10), and Satan teaches his “deep secrets” (Rev. 2:24) to his disciples. God works in his children, “…both to will and to do his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13), whilst Satan is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
Just as the Father seeks worshipers (John 4:23), so does Satan (Revelation 13:4). As God will seal his servants on their foreheads (Rev. 8:3), so will Satan seal his servants on their foreheads or right hands (Rev. 13:16).
Jesus Christ has a throne, as does Satan (Rev. 2:13). Christ has his own angels (Matt. 24:31), as does Satan (Matt. 25:51). Jesus is the Light of the world whilst Satan transforms himself into an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
As Jesus Christ has his Bride, the Church, so Satan has his “whore” (Rev. 17:16). God has His New Jerusalem as Satan has his Babylon. Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as Satan is “a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:6).
God has Jesus His only begotten Son, Satan has his own son, the “son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). God has presented his own Anointed One, His Christ, to be rejected by a largely unbelieving world. Satan will present his own anointed one, his very own christ, to be accepted by an enraptured and fawning world. God sent His son Jesus to save, Satan sends his son to destroy.
As Jesus Christ is the “…seed of the woman,” so the Antichrist is the “…seed of the serpent” (Genesis 3:15). Jesus Christ is the Son of Man whilst the Antichrist is the “man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
As Satan imitates God, so the forthcoming “man of sin” will imitate and mimic the life and Person of Jesus Christ. Just as God brought forth his very own Son to seek and save mankind, so Satan will bring forth his own son to enslave it, bringing it ultimately to damnation and ruin.
The end times deception and imitation embodied in the person of Antichrist will be exceptional.
As there is a Holy Trinity of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit so there is an unholy trinity of Satan, Antichrist and False Prophet. As God is the head of the Holy Trinity so Satan is the head of his own unholy trinity. As God passes all authority in heaven and on earth to his Son, so Satan will pass all authority to his own son, the Antichrist.
As the Son of God leads people to the worship and knowledge of God the Father, so the Antichrist will lead people to his own father, Satan. As the Holy Spirit serves to point to, and glorify the Son, Jesus Christ, so the third person of the unholy trinity, the False Prophet seeks to glorify and lead in worship of Satan’s son, the Antichrist.
As Jesus was a man, but more than a man, so too will the Antichrist be a man, yet more than a man. He will be a superman, the likes of which this world has never seen (with the exception of Jesus Christ himself two thousand years ago).
As Jesus was able to demonstrate his full humanity in his death and his full divinity through his resurrection, so this man will attempt to show his humanity in his death and his divinity in his own apparent resurrection.
As God’s Son brings freedom and eternal life, so Satan’s son brings enslavement and eternal death.
As the Son of God is a complete and a perfect reflection of His own Father so the “son of perdition” will be a perfect representation of his own father, Satan. He will be the direct embodiment of Satan himself. It will be as if Satan were walking this earth in human form, in pride, in power and in the desolation he will bring upon this world.
He will be the second most exceptional man ever to have walked this earth, and the destruction and suffering he will bring will be all the more terrible because of it. While Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost, he will come to bring utter desolation. While Jesus saved many, he will condemn a multitude to eternal damnation and torment.
As Jesus did not publicly identify himself, but relied on his works and miracles to show his ministry and mission, so the Antichrist will use false signs and lying wonders to overtly convince the world that he is god, and these false wonders and lying signs will be stupefying.
As Christ had a ministry that lasted for three and a half years, so the length of time given to this man will be three and a half years.
As Jesus Christ will sit in the holy of holies in his Millennium Temple, so will this man sit in the temple of God, “…he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
As Jesus Christ has become the new holy of holies for all believers, bringing sinful man to perfect peace with an awesome God, so this vile man will sit in the holy of holies of the third temple, desecrating it and showing the world that he is the abomination that brings desolation.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:9), so that all who looked to it would live, a clear foreshadowing that all who would later look to Jesus Christ would also live. The Antichrist will set up an abomination of desolation in a wing of the temple, that all must look to it for their temporal salvation in this life, sealing their doom spiritually.
As Jesus Christ was of humble origin, a carpenter until he was thirty years old, so this man will rise from normality and obscurity, as if from nowhere. Beginning as a “little horn” (Daniel 7:8), he will rise to exceptional prominence seemingly against all odds.
As Jesus was a normal man externally, even undesirable “…he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him…” (Isaiah 53:2), so I believe this man to come will be an unexceptional man physically. Contrary to some opinions, he will be a master of intrigue and dark sentences, not a cat-walk model and this itself, I believe, will delude many and aid his spectacular rise to unassailable power.
Yet though there are many similarities more than given here, in reality there is no comparison. No comparison at all. The Antichrist is not the match of Jesus Christ, nor is Satan His equal. Satan was created by Jesus and Satan gets his power from Jesus. He is allowed to do his will only so far as it fits with God’s plans and only for the time set specifically by God to achieve His own purposes.
When Satan’s christ meets God’s Christ there will be no competition, no struggle, no contest.
“…the Lord Jesus will overthrow [him] with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
This man will meet his end swiftly and his awful, cruel, wickedness will be brought to a close. This very darkest hour in history will be brought to a sudden conclusion by the Lord Jesus Himself. Yet before that deliverance, the night will come and it is getting visibly darker day by day. This period will witness the most terrible events ever seen in human history, and we stand on the brink of it.
The darkness is coming. Jesus said “…the night comes, when no man can work…” (John 9:4). Soon it is going to get very dark indeed, more than any of us can imagine.
Jesus’ Great Commission to go and “make disciples of all the world” has never been more urgent than it is today.
The Antichrist is coming. Whether it be this year, next or in ten years’ time, he is coming. When we look all around us, the signs of his soon emergence are all present and are becoming increasingly prevalent.
Jesus expects his Bride to be ready.
“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).
“What I say to you I say unto all: Watch!” (Mark 13:37)