KRIZDA88 wrote:
Basically the anti-christ is Satan's attempt at out doing Christ, God will allow it to succeed for a few years and then it will be overthrown and thrown into "the lake of fire" this will be the begining of satan's ultimate defeat when God will get rid of him once and for all. We can only speculate as to why so many things have to happen before God makes his ultimate attack against Satan, but as christians we trust he knows what he's doing. It's a bit ironic because my dad is currently taking our sunday school through the book of Daniel, which in many ways is easier to understand than revelation yet parallels it in the prophecies of the end times.
Here is an excerpt from Daniel first is his vision and next is the interpretation, maybe it will help clarify some things...
Basically the anti-christ is Satan's attempt at out doing Christ, God will allow it to succeed for a few years and then it will be overthrown and thrown into "the lake of fire" this will be the begining of satan's ultimate defeat when God will get rid of him once and for all. We can only speculate as to why so many things have to happen before God makes his ultimate attack against Satan, but as christians we trust he knows what he's doing. It's a bit ironic because my dad is currently taking our sunday school through the book of Daniel, which in many ways is easier to understand than revelation yet parallels it in the prophecies of the end times.
Dan 7:7-12
7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast — terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 "While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
9 "As I looked,
"thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
11 "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12(The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
NIV
Basically the anti-christ is Satan's attempt at out doing Christ, God will allow it to succeed for a few years and then it will be overthrown and thrown into "the lake of fire" this will be the begining of satan's ultimate defeat when God will get rid of him once and for all. We can only speculate as to why so many things have to happen before God makes his ultimate attack against Satan, but as christians we trust he knows what he's doing. It's a bit ironic because my dad is currently taking our sunday school through the book of Daniel, which in many ways is easier to understand than revelation yet parallels it in the prophecies of the end times.
Dan 7:7-12
7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast — terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
8 "While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.
9 "As I looked,
"thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
10 A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
11 "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12(The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
NIV
Dan 7:19-27
19 "Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws — the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. 20 I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell — the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
23 "He gave me this explanation: 'The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.
26 "'But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.'
NIV
The "small horn" is the anti-christ. There is another reference to it in Daniel Chapter 8 but I won't take up anymore room to paste it.
Personally I have a hard time believing in all of that, I've read Revelation many a time so I know the epic story. Still, I tend to believe in the formula that if God is all knowing, omnipotent, infinite in how many mental calculations he processes - he also knew exactly what would happen if and when he created Lucifer, knew what the fallen 1/3 of the heavenly host would do, hence he designed them to be what they are. If you read the Nag Hammadi though its a much more elaborate story - Tripartite Tractate and many other books.
In the end, God is all good, evil is a creation of his so we mature, grow, and essentially toughen up - learn what not to do by seeing the consequences of what happens. Its part of why I'd believe that all are going to heaven, if it exists, including the antichrist - if he happens to occur, just because he/she plays a rather predestined roll and simply plays his/her part in God's plan. Otherwise, if its not like that, then its more like Silvia Brown would say - a small gray planet called Charon where all evil comes from, evil itself being really just the force of "Yeah, we're better than everyone else....yeah yeah yeah me me me" to the point where at end times god just reclaims all the evil, brings them in, melts them down and recreates them - they served a purpose.
If its the atheist ending - no existence, for an aspie - cool! I wouldn't have to go some place and live eternally where my sense of things wouldn't be eccentric. Even if we could be the most alpha NT's with our ways of thinking, most people still couldn't relate to a lot of us. Its true, they say in more new age gnostic spin-off philosophies that when we go into the light after death, perfect knowledge is restored, we're kind of omnipotent, we can laugh off our lives as trials we designed ourselves - and in the end we litterally are just like....no, are, anyone else just on our own personal paths - all of which are respected.... beautiful thing to look forward to in a heaven for hordiculturalists, musicians, scientists, and all walks of all types. Until that last day comes though, when I draw my last dying breath, whether its that or whether its atheist oblivion - I'm still putting the screws to myself and doing whatever I can to harden, toughen, learn as much as I can, become a better person through life, and never stop trying.
An antichrist? Some random dude just picked by destiny, it'll make for interesting hob-nob and cocktail lounge discourse in heaven (if it exists) and people will be like "Huh, so God talked you into that roll... you were one of a kind....on *earth*....interesting.....Hey bartender!! ! More Jagerbombs!! !". Not to say he'd be a nobody, he'd be interesting, and I'd imagine he/she must have lived many pious and righteous lives before hand just to say he/she'd even the score - but still, so many other planets our souls have been on and so many rich histories of so many planets.....and to think, yes, I am crazy enough to think that atheist oblivion and eternal peace through nonexistence is about as good as that (after all, it would be a common end for all).
11 Mar 2008, 9:00 pm
(though I don't know if, in his later years, that he could remember to stay on the dark side 
).
