The Nature of the Beast

 

And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea… (Revelation 13:1)

 

Of all the major players in the Last Days scenario, none is the subject of more interest and curiosity than the malicious ruler who is prophesied to emerge and swiftly bring the nations of the earth under his domination. Daniel describes this sinister character thus:

 

Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done (Daniel 11:36).

 

He is called by many names: the antichrist, the beast, the man of sin, the son of perdition, and the lawless one. Some have suggested that we should not concern ourselves with this wicked monstrosity. We should only speak of Jesus Christ; never the antichrist.

 

To understand why it is necessary for God’s people to give any thought at all to the man of sin, we must consider the Bible. On the spine of almost every Bible one can see the words “Holy Bible.” Those words are true. It is a holy Bible. And yet this holy book contains graphic descriptions of some of the most horrific acts of mankind. Lot’s drunken incestuous relations with his daughters, the gang-raping of the Levite’s concubine, multiple wars and slaughters, all present a picture that doesn’t seem especially holy.

 

And yet it is the Holy Bible. God’s word is holy, not because it is sanitized of men’s flaws and failures, but because it tells the truth about life and death, about God and Satan, about heaven and hell, and yes, about Jesus Christ, and the antichrist. The Bible tells us how things really are!

 

Truth is not only the “best policy”; it is downright good for you. In His high priestly prayer for His followers in John 17, Jesus prays thus, “Sanctify them by Your truth, for Your word is truth.” (John 17:17). Apparently there is something about truth that has a powerful cleansing effect on those who are constantly immersed in it.

 

Here is why we read the Bible – not to be good little boys and girls and do our “Christian duty” but rather to be steeped in the dye of truth until it seeps into every pore of our being and colors the fabric of our lives. Spend enough time with truth and you will have a difficult time staying the same. One might as well dip a white sheet in strong purple die and expect it to remain unchanged.

 

The Spirit of Antichrist

 

 

One of the aspects of the truth that Scripture reveals has to do with what today’s generation might call “the dark side.” The Bible is not shy in dealing with the sordid affairs of man’s sinfulness. Nor is God’s word reticent to speak of those invisible, malignant beings, known as demons, whose influence leads to misery, sin, and corruption in multifarious hues and shades.

 

The fullest expression of evil that will ever be manifested in the land of the living is a dark character who emerges in the last days to conquer the earth and subjugate it to his iron will. The term “antichrist” is coined by John, as he writes:

 

Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world (1 John 4:3).

 

John here is not speaking of the person of the antichrist, but rather the spirit of the antichrist. This antichrist spirit has been in the world since the days of the apostles. It is a spirit that violently opposes Christ and His church, exalts self as deity, and rebels against divinely ordained morality.

 

This spirit of antichrist will always conform to the nature of antichrist, as revealed in Scripture. Every person who refuses to submit to the Lordship of Christ is under the influence of the spirit of antichrist, regardless of how nice or humble or friendly they may appear. The spirit of antichrist is summed up by the words from Jesus’ parable when he describes those people who say, “We will not have this man (Jesus) to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).

 

Full and Fuller

 

 

While every sinner possesses some degree of this rebellious, independent spirit, some exhibit far more of it than others, just as some Christians are manifestly more “full” of the Holy Spirit than others. While every Christian has the Spirit, not all yield to the Spirit in the same degree. Occasionally we see certain Christians like Stephen, whom Luke could not help but describe as, “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5).

 

Every generation has had certain individuals who possessed a strong resemblance to the antichrist described in Scripture. These were individuals who drank deeply from the cup of arrogance and rebellion, who possessed strong leadership qualities, and came, for a short time at least, to see themselves as invincible. Alexander the great, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Joseph Stalin, and other such men would be included.

 

People often ask, “Is the antichrist alive today?” The truth is that there have always been potential antichrists living on the earth. Satan himself would not know just who the actual antichrist is going to be, for only God, by lifting His restraining hand, can determine when the antichrist will be permitted to arise. Until that restraint is lifted, all people (or even the devil himself) can do is to observe various “candidates” that could, if given the opportunity, fill the bill.

 

The Closest Call Yet

 

 

In recent history there is no one who has come closer to fulfilling the prophecies of the antichrist than Adolf Hitler. Just as Christians come to resemble their Master by yielding to His Spirit, so Hitler came uncannily near to resembling his master by yielding almost perfectly to that evil spirit that undoubtedly possessed him. Adolf Hitler was the quintessential prototype of the beast; it would be nearly impossible to get any closer and not be that antichrist. For that reason it is important for Christians to take a good look at this malevolent dictator. To look at Hitler is to gain an accurate portrait of the man who is to come. Let us consider some of Hitler’s attributes, and how closely they resemble what the Bible predicts of the lawless one who is to come.

 

1. A Sense of Destiny. It seems that nearly all leaders who achieve greatness (for good or for evil) have a strong sense of mission that hovers about them, even in their youth. Moses was a good example of this. Many people assume that Moses gained his sense of calling at the burning bush. Actually Moses burned with his mission 40 years before; he just didn’t know how to bring it about. When Moses killed the Egyptian at 40 years of age, he was already thinking of himself as a deliverer of the Jews. Stephen declares about the great lawgiver:

 

For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God would deliver them by his hand: but they did not understand (Acts 7:25).

 

Hitler, too, had a sense of destiny about him, even in his darkest days. As a young man he lived in Vienna in a shelter for the poor, and made a little spending money by painting postcards. His parents were dead, his application for art school had been rejected, and his future looked bleak indeed. Yet William Shirer writes:

 

He had no friends, no family, no job, no home. He had, however, one thing: an unquenchable confidence in himself and a deep, burning sense of mission.[1]

 

In his early years as leader of the Nazi party he proudly proclaimed:

 

The man who is born to be a dictator is not compelled. He wills it. He is not driven forward, but drives himself… The man who feels called upon to govern a people has no right to say, “If you want me or summon me, I will co-operate.” No! It is his duty to step forward.[2]

 

Hitler saw himself as one born to lead. Time would prove that he did indeed possess leadership skills in no small measure. Had he received Christ, he might have made a tremendous evangelist. Had he been born a Jew he likely would have rivaled David Ben Gurion as a leader in establishing the reborn nation of Israel. But growing up in Germany, where nationalistic pride filled the air, and anti-Semitism was to many their daily bread, Hitler was led inexorably toward dictatorship and conquest.

 

When the antichrist is revealed, he will arrive on the scene as a man with an intense sense of his own mission. His satanic ambition shall be boundless, and he will have the power to carry out what other men could only dream of. Driven by a lust for power and worship, and achieving a record of spectacular military and diplomatic successes such as the world has never seen before, this evil character shall consider himself invincible and unstoppable – until he faces the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

 

2. Empowered by Satan. The secular mind has no conception of supernatural power, for good or for evil, that enables men to accomplish far more than they would ordinarily be able. The atheist believes in steam power, electrical power, and nuclear power, but not spiritual power.

 

The Bible clearly presents a “behind the scenes” world of demons and angels, of the power of the Holy Spirit, and a mysterious power of evil. If any man seemed to possess this dark spiritual power, Hitler surely did. Little else can explain his meteoric rise to fame and prominence.

 

Herman Rauschning, the governor of Danzig, wrote, “Beyond any doubt, Hitler was possessed by forces outside himself … of which the individual named Hitler was only the temporary vehicle.”[3]

 

Hitler formed his anti-Semitic philosophy early in life. Even in his twenties he was giving speeches in which he blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Jews, and spewing out his hate-filled doctrines. In those days he wasn’t particularly effective. He would gather little groups of eight or ten people on the streets to listen to him for a while, before they got bored and walked away. Many laughed at the funny little man who spoke with such severity.

 

In his latter years no one was laughing. Hitler’s speaking had an effect upon audiences that could not be explained. Robert Payne writes about one of his speeches: “it was like a revival meeting; he was the preacher calling upon them to submit to a power greater than themselves. Women wept, wrung their hands, and screamed, overcome by excitement… Some wept openly, while others were so shaken with emotion that they shivered uncontrollably.”[4] Hitler’s enflamed rhetoric unified a nation, and led them into the bloodiest war in the history of the earth.

 

In Christianity there is a mysterious grace given to believers that enables them to achieve spectacular results in their individual ministries. It is called the “anointing,” and refers to that divine assistance that empowers men and women to accomplish great things for God, or to be more precise, enables God to accomplish great things through them.

 

There is a parallel to the anointing that can be found on the dark side. It is that demonic energy that can take a Viennese drifter who lived in homeless shelters and made homemade postcards to sell for spending change and turn him into a global terror who would challenge and nearly overcome the greatest armies the world had yet seen. Hitler’s early successes were more than merely the results of human talent mixed with a liberal dose of ambition. Hitler’s ability to sway the crowds and bring the world to the precipice of annihilation came from the master-deceiver, the one who has been stalking humanity since the days of the Garden of Eden.

 

The Bible tells us that the antichrist’s coming “will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders…” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The word translated “work” or “working” in this verse is the Greek word energeia which speaks of divine energy. One definition of this word is: “efficiency, used in the New Testament only of superhuman power, whether of God or the devil.” The antichrist will be demonically “energized”. The results will be amazing. He will be able to accomplish in a very short time what other dictators and would-be world conquerors could only dream of.

 

3. Hateful of God and Christ. Hitler, while using the church in the beginning to capture the hearts of the people, had nothing but disdain for evangelical Christians and their churches. With its emphasis upon meekness, forgiveness, and turning the other cheek, those evangelicals who took their faith seriously had no place in his 1000 year Reich built upon “Aryan” superiority and the power of the will.

 

In fact Hitler had plans to establish his own “church.”[5] It would be based upon his own views of what a church should be, and would be known as the National Reich Church. Some of its rules were 1) All churches were to be declared National churches of the Reich, and to follow it completely. 2) The national church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains, or priests, but National Reich orators are to speak in them. 3) No more publishing or distributing the Bible in Germany. 4) Mein Kampf would be its holy book, since it “embodies the purest and truest ethics for the present and future life of our nation.” 5) On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels … and it must be superseded by “the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika.”

 

While Hitler was too preoccupied with military matters to ever implement this, clearly he had a deep-seated hatred not only for the Jews, but for the evangelical Christians. Their loyalty was always considered suspect, due to their powerful convictions that forbade compromise and accommodation. Liberal Christians and liturgical Christians could be tolerated; indeed many of Hitler's Nazi party members would have fallen into that camp, but men who took their faith seriously, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, must be banished or eliminated.

 

When the antichrist arrives upon the world scene, he, too, will have an intense and violent hatred for the Christians and their Savior. We read in Revelation:

 

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them… (Revelation 13:6,7).

 

It is odd to see just how violent ungodly men and women can become in their hatred for Christianity. Christians are taught by their Savior to put others ahead of themselves, to forgive those who sin against them, to practice love even toward their enemies, and to treat people as they themselves would want to be treated. They are an asset to any society. The more one strictly adheres to the commands of Scripture, the more he will tend to make a model citizen, a good neighbor, and will generally work hard and mind his own business.

 

Yet Christians are constantly mocked as fools, and their religion treated as the scourge of the world. It has always been this way. From the early days of the Roman emperors to the final days of the antichrist, powerful ungodly leaders always sense that the kingdom God’s people represent, however poorly, is a direct threat to their own little kingdoms and empires. Ultimately they are right! Daniel described Christ’s kingdom as a stone that would strike the kingdoms of this world and destroy them, and then become a great mountain that would fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:35).

 

4. Self-exalting.  Adolf Hitler did not suffer from a lack of self-esteem (as much as many of our current psychologists would like to think!) Intoxicated with his early successes, blinded by the fanatical loyalty shown him by all of Germany, he considered himself invaluable. He stated:

 

 Neither a military man nor a civilian could replace me… I am convinced of the powers of my intellect and of decision… No one has ever achieved what I have achieved… I have led the German people to a great height, even if the world does hate us now…The fate of the Reich depends only on me.[6]

 

Hitler had indeed accomplished some pretty impressive things. Some of his diplomatic and military decisions leading up to and during the first couple of years of WWII had been brilliant and effective. Austria had been annexed without a fight. The German blitzkrieg style of warfare seemed unstoppable. France’s impenetrable Maginot line had simply been bypassed and the nation conquered in a few weeks time. Some might suggest that Hitler was simply being realistic in stating how irreplaceable he was.

 

Fuehrer Failures

 

 

In truth Hitler wasn’t quite what he thought he was. His early successes were more than canceled out by his later blunders. Invading Russia was an error of monumental proportions. Taking the day to day military decisions upon himself tied the hands of his able generals and led to disaster. His “never retreat” policy cost his army hundreds of thousands of casualties. His view of Americans as soft and unwilling to fight was perhaps his greatest folly of all. It turns out that Hitler was not only replaceable, but was in fact Germany’s greatest detriment in the last years of the war. Most of his generals that he had scorned as too conservative could have done a far superior job of leading Germany’s military forces.

 

Like most fanatics and cultish leaders, Hitler expressed his sense of importance by monopolizing the conversation in any social gathering. Mussolini’s son-in-law, Ciano, once noted, “Hitler talks, talks, talks. After lunch he talked uninterruptedly for an hour and forty minutes. He omitted absolutely no argument: war and peace, religion and philosophy, art and history. General Jodl, after an epic struggle, finally went to sleep on the divan. General Keitel was reeling but he succeeded in keeping his head up. He was too close to Hitler to let himself go…”[7]

 

Egoists have always been thus. David Koresh used to hold “Bible studies” that would last for ten hours at a time. Jim Jones preached his rambling sermons in Guyana that went on for hours. Fidel Castro, long known for his rambling speeches, once told the members of the United Nations, “Although I have been said to be long-winded, I shall assure you that I shall be very brief in my remarks today.” He then went on to speak for over four hours!

 

Adolf Hitler felt he was so superior to everyone else it was his duty to share his knowledge, wisdom, and insights at any and every opportunity. The Scriptures tell us that the antichrist who is to come will likewise have a lot to say, and that his mouth will be filled with blasphemy:

 

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months (Revelation 13:5).

 

Paul writes:

 

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

 

We have many titles and offices by which men are honored for their leadership roles. President, Prime Minister, “Your Honor”, and “Your Excellency” are used to show deference and respect. But the lawless one will not be satisfied with any of these. The only title that will satisfy his engorged ego will be that coveted eons ago by Lucifer himself: God Almighty.

 

Glorifying Self

 

 

The spirit of self-exaltation is at work in our world today. Psychologists and psychiatrists never tire of promoting self-love and self-esteem. All our problems will be forever solved if only we can but love ourselves enough and esteem ourselves for the wonderful and amazing people that we truly are. Tucker Carlson reported that one fall evening four seventh-graders at Ridgefield Academy in Connecticut broke into their school using a stolen key.[8] They helped themselves to food from the cafeteria, threw eggs at a school bus, and stole from the band room. After being found out the boys were expelled. The parents of one of the boys were outraged. Their son had been “harassed” and “defamed.” They sued for damages, claiming that this terrible punishment had caused their son “feelings of unworthiness” and left his “self-worth impugned.”

 

If the secular world obsesses over the self, its spiritual counterpart, the new age movement, does all the more. Werner Erhard, founder of the Forum and promoter of est, states: “You’re god in your universe.” Sun Myung Moon proudly proclaims, “God and man are one. Man is incarnate God.” Former Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi solemnly declares, “The purpose of transcendental meditation is to be still and know that you are God.”

 

Shirley McClaine tops them all, telling her followers:

 

You are everything. Everything you want to know is inside of you … You must never worship anyone or anything else other than self. For you are God. To love self is to love God… I know that I exist, therefore I am. I know that the god source exists, therefore it is. Since I am part of that force, then I AM that I AM.[9]

 

The way is being prepared. When the antichrist appears, his proclamation of his own deity will fit in nicely with new age dogma.

 

5. Successful. The antichrist will appear to be an unqualified success in his early days, even as Hitler was. William Shirer writes of Hitler’s first year as supreme head of Germany:

 

Within twelve months he had overthrown the Republic, substituted his personal dictatorship for its democracy, destroyed all the political parties but his own, smashed the state governments and their parliaments and unified the Reich, wiped out the labor unions, stamped out democratic associations of any kind, driven the Jews out of public and professional life, abolished freedom of speech and of the press, stifled the independence of the courts.[10]

 

Adolf Hitler was a man that made things happen. Unhampered by caution and prudence, having little use for public opinion, and driven by a burning ambition, he got results in a hurry. Even his critics had to admit that for a season Germany flourished under his aggressive leadership. Shirer goes on to say:

 

What really aroused the Germans in the Thirties were the glittering successes of Hitler in providing jobs, creating prosperity, restoring Germany’s military might, and moving from one triumph to another in his foreign policy. Not many Germans lost much sleep over the arrests of a few thousand pastors and priests…[11]

 

Dictatorship and Efficiency

 

 

There is no question that a dictatorship is the most efficient form of government. Congresses and parliaments can debate and discuss fine points of difference for weeks on end. Supreme Courts can strike down what took the Congress years to agree upon. But when all the power is in the hands of one man, things can move very swiftly with no debate, no discussion, and no delay. Throughout the thirties Hitler was a most efficient leader. People who got in his way were crushed. If you weren’t Jewish, life improved dramatically. The Germans were impressed. Many had little understanding or appreciation for Hitler’s strange philosophies or esoteric views, but regular work, regular food, and a renewed pride in German nationalism were things they could hardly criticize.

 

The antichrist who will dominate the last days will be a world leader of unprecedented success. The Bible tells us:

 

He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place (Daniel 11:36).

 

Is all success from God? In a providential fashion the answer must be yes. No one, from Atilla the Hun to Adolf Hitler achieved any kind of success apart from God’s permissive will. If we depend upon God for every breath and every heartbeat, surely we cannot conquer kingdoms and nations without God’s “permission.”

 

Yet not all that God allows is necessarily what God prefers. Much of the ugliness in our world is due to man’s greed and selfishness. God allows the natural consequences of these to take place, but places no stamp of approval upon them. In like manner God allows wicked men to achieve success to extraordinary degrees. These men obtain riches, power, and fame without every praying for it, or once seeking God’s opinion or approval on their lives. This bothered Jeremiah a great deal. He asked, “Why do the wicked prosper, and why are those happy who deal so treacherously?” (Jeremiah 12:1).

 

The antichrist will be the ultimate expression of the prosperity of the wicked. In the early years of his rise to power, he will appear invincible. Behind his success will be the sovereign providential will of God. Paul writes, “And God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that all might be condemned who do not believe the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11,12).

 

6. Controlling. There is something about the sin nature that wants to control. Whether it be a domineering woman who demands that her family yield to her every whim, a cult leader who micro-manages the lives of all his followers, or a head of state who insists upon unquestioned loyalty, the extreme expression of sin will always lead to an unhealthy, forced domination that curtails all individual freedom and independent expression.

 

Nazi Germany was a classic example of this. The “workbook” was introduced in February 1935, and eventually no worker could be hired unless he possessed one. In it was kept a record of his skills and employment. The workbook not only provided the State and the employer with up to date data on every single employee in the nation, but was used to tie a worker to his job. Finally in 1938 a special decree was issued which obliged every German to work where the State assigned him.

 

Germany became a nation saturated with individual papers giving a person’s ID, and other pertinent information about him. “Where are your papers?” was the standard question asked of suspicious individuals. One’s papers gave him legitimacy; they declared that the state (Hitler) officially sanctioned him. He was not an enemy.

 

Hitler demanded loyalty to the extreme. Loyalty to the nation would not do. Some might, in their ignorance, see opposition to the Fuehrer as being loyal to Germany. No, loyalty must be sworn to Hitler himself. William Shirer reports:

 

Every soldier was required to take the following oath: “I swear by God this sacred oath, that I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Fuehrer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for this oath.”[12]

 

Actually Hitler did not wait for his subjects to become adults before swearing their loyalty. He started much younger. All across Germany Hitler youth camps were training boys to think and act like proper young Nazis. Calisthenics, indoctrination, vigorous sports contests, more indoctrination, military history, and more indoctrination prepared these young men to sacrifice their lives for the fatherland and for their “father” the Fuehrer, when the time came. From age 6 on, boys in the Hitler youth were given a book which recorded their progress throughout their entire time in the program, including their ideological progress. They were required to take this oath: “In the presence of this blood banner, which represents our Fuehrer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”[13]

 

Interestingly, as American soldiers crossed the Rhine River in their final invasion of Germany, and German soldiers began surrendering wholesale, it was often the young teenage troops who fought the most fanatically, long after all hope of a German victory was given up by every German general. They had been well trained and lived their oaths to the letter.

 

The One to Come

 

 

Like his prototype, the coming antichrist will possess a will of iron and a domineering, controlling personality which will demand obedience and loyalty not merely from a single nation, but from all the world. In Revelation we read:

 

And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Revelation 13:16,17).

 

Many grocery stores today are offering a form of membership card which enables the users to receive substantial discounts off various products. The cards are usually free and seem like no big deal. Some may wonder what the point of these “discount” cards is. There is a method to their madness. Because these cards are scanned into their databanks with each purchase, they enable research analysts to keep a careful log of every item that you purchase. How much you spend, what you buy, and how often you shop is all carefully recorded and stored for analysis of shopping patterns and current trends.

 

The antichrist will use a similar system to keep track of every individual in the world (save those who refuse to receive his mark). But this is far more than market analysis. In order to receive the “mark of the beast” one must swear absolute loyalty to this man. So serious is this pledge, and so evil this man, that God has declared that “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever…” (Revelation 14:9-11).

 

Until now there has been but one unforgivable sin: the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. When the antichrist appears on the world scene another unforgivable sin will be added to the list: sworn allegiance to that one who is the antithesis of the Savior of the world.

 

7. Lawless and Self-willed. Every proper candidate for the antichrist must possess an extraordinary streak of lawlessness. Moral boundaries are highly inconvenient to him who would possess power in the swiftest and most efficient fashion. The Bible, with its severe strictures and prohibitions, must be either eliminated or marginalized. The law becomes nothing more than what the dictator desires.

 

Adolf Hitler possessed this lawless spirit in abundance. One of his favorite philosophers was the mocking Nietzsche who prophesied: “A daring and ruler race is building itself up … The aim should be to prepare a transforming of values for a particularly strong kind of man, most highly gifted in intellect and will. This man and the elite around him will become the “lords of the earth.”[14] Hitler took a great liking to this term “lords of the earth” and used it frequently in his book Mein Kampf. He and his cronies would rule as gods over the earth which they had conquered. They would be lords and Hitler would be the lord of the lords (sounds a little familiar doesn’t it?”).

 

Hitler once held his hand over a gas flame to demonstrate the unyielding power of his own will. One of his favorite books was Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Idea, which makes all circumstances subordinate to the will. The will alone rules, nothing else matters. The man who possesses the strongest will rules the world. In his speech before the court, when he was tried for a failed government coup in 1923, he boldly asserted, “The man who is born to be a dictator is not compelled; he wills it…”[15]

 

The only morality Hitler accepted as legitimate was the morality of power. Might makes right; the strong set the rules for the weak. Hitler declared, “The law and the will of the Fuehrer are one…” One of the titles he took to himself was Supreme Law Lord.  It was not the will of the people nor even the will of God that mattered. The will of the Fuehrer was paramount. If the Fuehrer says that millions of Jews must be slaughtered in the gas chambers, the moral thing to do was to go and kill Jews. To disobey the Fuehrer’s commands would be immoral.

 

WWHD?

 

 

On April 26, 1942, Hitler had his Reichstag (parliament) to pass a law which gave him total power of life or death over every German. All laws and courts must yield to the Fuehrer’s every whim. Dr. Hans Frank, the Commissioner of Justice, told the German people, “Say to yourselves at every decision which you make: “How would the Fuehrer decide in my place?”[16] (Again, this sounds very familiar to Christians, millions of whom strongly identify with the meaning of the initials WWJD.)

 

To take the will and desires of a single flawed and sinful individual, and make them the basis for the morality of a nation or a planet, is a recipe for disaster. Nazi Germany was just such a disaster. When Germany was crushed, and the war was over, the major players in the war and the concentration camps were called into court to account for their actions. At Nuremberg, their defenses were identical: “We were only obeying orders. As good soldiers and loyal Germans we had to carry out the orders we were given. Anything less would have been insubordination.”

 

The American and British lawyers decided to appeal to natural law. They argued that there is a law above human law, which is eternal and is part of the general understanding that is recognized by all decent people. Of course, what they were describing was the moral law of God. Mr. Hitler wasn’t around to argue, but he would never have recognized such a law. As far as he was concerned, he was the law.

 

The beast of Revelation will possess this trait in measures that will outshine even Hitler. Daniel writes:

 

Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods… (Daniel 11:36).

 

The term “according to his own will” is another way of saying that he will do just what he wants. The Biblical term for such a lifestyle is the word “lawless,” which is another word used for the antichrist. Paul writes:

 

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan… (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

 

In the last days a lawless world dictator shall lead a lawless world to the brink of annihilation. Only the return of Christ, the One who fulfilled all the law of God perfectly, will stave off complete destruction of all life on earth.

 

8. A swift and terrible end. It is said that all good things must come to an end. While this is generally true, the good news is that all bad things will also come to an end, and this includes the antichrist. His prototype, Hitler envisioned a thousand-year Reich, but ended up with a mere twelve years. Even before his suicide in Berlin, Hitler was disintegrating fast. Historians have differed on the reasons for his physical degeneration. No one knows why, but whatever the reason, Hitler began resembling a senile old man by the last year of the war. At age fifty-five, he probably wouldn’t have lived another five years, even if his thousand year Reich had succeeded.

 

A young army captain described him at the end: “His head was slightly wobbling. His left arm hung slackly and his hand trembled a good deal. There was an indescribable flickering glow in his eyes, creating a fearsome and wholly unnatural effect. His face and the parts around his eyes gave the impression of total exhaustion. All his movements were those of a senile man.”[17]

 

Someone else who saw Hitler in his last days described him as “a stooped figure with a pale and puffy face hunched in his chair, his hands trembling, his left arm subject to a violent twitching … When he walked he dragged one leg behind him.”[18]

 

Not only was Germany’s invincible Fuehrer a physical wreck; he was an emotional basket case as well. As Germany’s empire began to crumble, and Hitler heard reports that there were movements in Austria and Bavaria to separate from Germany, it was reported: “His hand was shaking, his leg was shaking and his head was shaking, and all that he kept saying was ‘Shoot them all! Shoot them all!’”[19]

 

Robert Payne writes, “Enfeebled, prematurely old, his mind broken under the strain, he continued to receive his generals and to give orders that would never be obeyed. His secretaries saw another side of him: the man who shuffled around his room, mumbling to himself, interminably repeating the same phrases, sometimes pointing to his hand and saying over and over again, ‘Look, it is getting better. It’s not trembling so much and I can keep it still.’”[20]

 

End of a Monster

 

 

In the end the man who claimed to be the master of the master race, went deep into the bowels of his dark, smelly, damp underground bunker with his bride, Eva Braun, put a pistol in his mouth, and ended his life. He who had lived by the sword died by the sword.

 

Hitler’s manner of death proved clearly that he was not the antichrist. The Scriptures have shown us that the antichrist of the last days will meet his end, not by human hands, but by a direct command from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes:

 

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 (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

 

The best news we read about the antichrist is that his dominion is of a very limited duration. This seems true of most dictators. Their time is soon up and they pass off the scene. Hitler had 12 years of rule, Napoleon had 16, Alexander the great had 13, and Julius Caesar reigned in various forms in Rome for 16 years, before being stabbed to death by his colleagues. Few dictators die of old age.

 

The antichrist will never live to be an old man. In the prime of his power he will have a face to face confrontation with the King of kings, and will come to a swift and terrible end. In Revelation we read:

 

Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone (Revelation 19:20).

 

To the antichrist and his right hand man will go the dubious distinction of being the first “inhabitants” of the lake of fire. They will even beat the devil there by a thousand years. This powerful man who made the nations tremble and dominated the earth as no man had ever done, will be brought down in a moment by a word from the lips of the King of kings.

 

The Point

 

 

This is all very interesting, you say, but what does it have to do with me? What practical good does it do people to read and think about this dark character who rises to rule in the last days?

 

Most importantly, the antichrist is a Bible character; a future character to be sure, but a Bible character all the same. Because we know that all Scripture is both “God-breathed” and “profitable” (2 Timothy 3:16), we must conclude that somehow the knowledge of the antichrist, kept in its proper perspective, will be a blessing to God’s people. There are several reasons for this.

 

When we look at the antichrist we are seeing the outworking of sin taken to its most extreme measures. The antichrist does not possess anything different from that which is found in every person born on planet earth; he is merely a more “perfect” expression of that which indwells us all.

 

Eichmann in us all

 

 

Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes did a story once about Adolf Eichmann, the murderous Nazi leader responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Jews. During the program Wallace interviewed one of the Jews who had been under Eichmann’s power in one of the death camps. This man had been called to testify against Eichmann when a very strange event occurred. As Dinur walked past Eichmann, he suddenly began to sob and then passed out. Wallace wanted to know what was going through Dinur’s mind at the time. Dinur’s answer came as a surprise to everyone. He explained that when he looked into the eyes of this mass murderer, the one who had once held supreme authority over the lives of tens of thousands, he realized that this former Nazi was not some god, nor was he an inhuman monster. He saw that Eichmann was an ordinary man. Dinur stated, “I was afraid about myself. I saw that I am capable of doing this. I am … exactly like him.”[21]

 

What Dinur saw was that the butchers of this world are not so different from ordinary men, and ordinary men not so far removed from the butchers. Wallace summed up Dinur’s “revelation” with the words, “Eichmann is in all of us.”[22]

 

Mike Wallace probably didn’t realize that he was describing the sinful fallen nature that festers and overflows within the hearts of all men. The same selfishness, lust, and greed that will animate the man of lawlessness is working in the hearts of ordinary, run of the mill sinners every day.

 

Bigotry in the Barbershop

 

 

I was once at a country barber shop, waiting for a haircut, when I began to hear the barber using the most unsavory terms in referring to black people. This bigoted barber soon had me so angry I was ready to walk out when the conversation turned in a very different direction. One of the customers mentioned that he had heard that there was a new invisible way of putting an ID on your hands that could serve as a debit or credit card. The barber warned him that that was nothing to fool around with, and that he sure wouldn’t be getting that done to him.

 

My curiosity about this barber got the best of me, and I decided to wait for my turn, when I could quiz him about his attitude toward this invisible mark which he felt to be so dangerous. When I got to the chair, I asked him why he was so bothered by it. He asked me if I had heard of the book of Revelation. Playing a little dumb (not all that hard for me!) I said that I believed that I had. He then told me that Revelation told how that there would be an antichrist in the last days that would put a mark on people’s hands and foreheads, and that this would be like selling your soul to the devil.

 

I asked him with mock surprise, “You mean you believe in the Bible?” By this time the barber was sure that he had a big city liberal in his chair. “I sure do!” he proclaimed indignantly. I replied, “Then why don’t you believe the part that says, “He who says he is in the light, but hates his brother is in the darkness still”? (1 John 2:9).

 

The barber, a little confused, said, “I don’t know what you mean.” I answered, “You say you believe the Bible but those things you were saying earlier about black people sure don’t sound like the words of a born again Christian.” He now realized where I was going, and retorted simply, “Never said I was.”

 

The truth is that that barber had the same spirit that will eventually drive the antichrist to conquer nations and subjugate all the world. He was a lawless man; the law of love had not come to rule in his heart. Without the grace of Jesus Christ every man or woman is, in a lesser sense, an antichrist. He or she is opposed to the rule of Christ and the kingdom of God. The opposition may not be conscious and won’t be nearly as violent as that of the future antichrist, but it is opposition nonetheless. The Bible says, “The carnal mind is enmity with God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be” (Romans 8:7).

 

Prevailing Winds

 

 

Another reason it is valuable to study what the Bible says about the antichrist is that is helps us to identify the spirit of antichrist which is at work in our world today. Jesus had a forerunner that went before him and prepared the hearts of the people to be ready to recognize and accept Him. The false messiah, the antichrist, must have his way prepared before him. There is an antichrist spirit that is powerfully moving across our society and our world, which spews lawlessness and mocks morality and decency.

 

This lawless spirit is evident every time a young mother sacrifices her unborn baby on the altar of personal convenience. It raises its ugly head with every condom passed out by zealous promoters of “safe-sex” at schools and government agencies. We see it in mindless sitcoms that ridicule old fashioned virtues of purity and chastity, and bold commercials that boast, “No rules, just right.” A Calvin Klein spokesman reeked of this spirit, as he defended their semi-pornographic underwear commercials by saying that they were perfect for today’s independent generation: “People who do only what they want to do.”

 

Sadly, we even see this lawless spirit invading the church. In an essay titled, “The Loves”[23] the Christian writer, Vanauken described how a Christian friend named John shocked him by announcing that he was leaving his wife to marry another woman. John explained his sudden change of heart by saying, “It seemed so good, so right. That’s when we knew we had to get the divorces. We belonged together.”

 

Vanauken then described a conversation with another friend named Diana, who had left her husband for another man. Diana defended herself with nearly the same words: “It was just so good and right with Roger that I knew it would be wrong to go on with Paul.”

 

Vanauken called such justifications “the sanction of Eros.” Never mind that traditional morality, the Bible, or even God Himself has called such actions sin. Never mind that Jesus said that leaving your spouse to marry another was tantamount to adultery.

 

Eros, the pagan god of lovers had decreed that they should leave their spouses and marry another. Who were they to question their feelings? They had received the sanction of Eros.

 

Delusion is on its way

 

 

This is the spirit of lawlessness; the same spirit that will drive the man who will be its most perfect expression. This spirit is impacting our world like a tsunami today. It fills our divorce courts and abortion mills, corrupts our movies and television shows, turns innocence into depravity, substitutes lust for love, and self for God. It awaits its messiah, and a messiah it shall have. Every new level of depravity, every virtue forsaken and innocence lost brings the world closer to that day when “God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11,12).

 

His day will come and quickly pass. The seven years in which the antichrist will appear and dominate the earth, will be filled with death and misery as the world has never known. But they will not last forever. In the midst of the carnage the Lord Jesus, God’s true Messiah, shall appear, and speedily put an end to the dominion of evil. John writes:

 

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war (Revelation 19:11).

 

The King shall return. The earth shall be flooded with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. All the universe will see that while the wheels of God’s justice grind slowly, they grind exceedingly fine.