Antichrist, America & the End of Days | Arrival of the Antichrist

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. We'll be cataclysmic. He's the devil's disciple. He is Lucifer's leader. He's Satan's son.

He will oppose every law of God because he's anti-Christ. The tension between good and evil is at the heart of nearly every fictional story we've ever seen or read. The bad guy causes some mischief.

The good guy settles the score. All is right with the world. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out when the anti-Christ comes onto the scene, it won't be fiction. It'll be a war between good and evil like the world has never seen. It'll reach every single city, town, village, and hamlet. And at that point, nothing will be right with the world.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Some of you are saying, Greg, have you looked at America lately? We have a lot of problems. Oh, I acknowledge that. I acknowledge the divisions and the problems and the conflicts and all the areas we fall short in. But this is a unique nation.

We have spiritual roots. You know, a very important name in the history of America is George. Right? George. Is anybody named George here? Any George?

That's a good name. George. Now you're immediately thinking of George Washington. And he was our founding father. And we named the nation's capital after him. But I'm not talking at this moment about George Washington. I'm talking about our spiritual founding father, George Whitefield.

Ever heard of him? He wasn't even an American. He was from England. And George Whitefield was a great evangelist. So he came over to our shores and preached to the colonists. And many of them came to Christ. In fact, 80 percent of the people living in the colonies at that time heard George Whitefield preach in person, including Benjamin Franklin.

Sometimes as many as 40,000 people would come to hear George Whitefield preach. And thousands and thousands of people came to Christ and a spiritual awakening spread across America. So while France was having a revolution, we were having a spiritual revival. And it was in that soil that the seeds of this experiment, this new concept of a nation was born. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. That we say even in our Declaration of Independence we have been endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And we would not be ruled by a monarch on a throne.

We would have representatives who would go into our capital and speak for us and with all of the flaws of our system. And there are many. This amazing thing has worked. And America was born. In fact, there was George Washington, our first president, who said, quote, Anyone who believes you can explain our victory in the American Revolution without the hand of providence completely misunderstands what happened. End quote. And then one of the ratifiers of the U.S. Constitution, Patrick Henry, made this statement, which is very significant, quote, It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, listen, not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it is for this very reason people of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here. End quote.

Very true. And revisionists want to edit that out of our history books. But it is part of our story. And then we entered into a civil war, you know, of course. And it almost destroyed America because we were killing each other. We survived that and ultimately emerged as a superpower in the world.

And imagine if you will for a moment a world without the United States of America. Imagine if the United States of America did not exist during World War II. Hitler could have won that war with the amazing technology that they had developed so far ahead of its time. But it was when America stepped in that England knew that the war would ultimately be won. Now England was taking a beating from Hitler. But we stepped in and thankfully we turned that back.

Imagine what would happen to the Jewish population of the planet if Adolf Hitler had won. And then you go forward in history and you look at all the times we have stepped forward. We face down the Soviet Union, that evil empire as President Reagan said, and we won. It was America that has pushed back and stood against the spread of Islamic terrorism since 9-11. It is America that sends humanitarian aid around the world. No other nation really even comes close to the generosity of American people.

We gave away $30 billion in humanitarian aid last year alone. People expect the United States of America to do that. And we do. Now imagine if you will a world without America. Well sad to say that day is coming. Oh I don't know that America will cease to exist.

But I am saying there is coming a day when America will not be the dominant superpower that we are right now. Because as we look at the last day's scenario other players emerge starting with the Antichrist and his ten confederated nations and another massive force called the kings of the east. I think you can make a pretty good case biblically for the existence of Israel in the end times.

In fact I think it is an airtight case. You can make a pretty good case for the existence of Iran according to Ezekiel 37 existing in the end times. I think you can even possibly make a case for the existence of Russia and China in the end times scenario. But it is alarming that you cannot really find anything that resembles America as we know it today in the last days. Where are we?

I don't know. We will explore that in another message. But in our absence imagine a world where evil is allowed to spread unabated. A world that ultimately pledges its loyalty to a man that will make Adolf Hitler look like a lightweight in comparison.

That is coming to planet earth. And that is what I want to talk about in this message Antichrist America in the End of Days. Let's talk about the Antichrist himself. He will be sent by Satan. You see Satan is effectively an imitator.

He is not an innovator. He imitates whatever God does Satan does his devilish version of. And just as surely as there is a father in heaven there is a Satan from hell. And just as surely as the father in heaven has given us his only begotten son Satan in a way will have a son too. If the devil ever had a son this will be him.

The Antichrist will be energized by Lucifer himself. God has real Christians. Satan has fake ones.

God has real miracles. The devil has imitations of those as well. Antichrist will be history's vilest embodiment of sin and rebellion. But he is not going to be what you might expect.

You know dress head to toe in black with glowing red eyes and steam coming off of him with a Darth Vader song playing in the background when he enters a room. No I am telling you this guy will be charismatic. He will be magnetic. He will be a powerful orator. He will be a convincing speaker. He will be probably a very handsome guy as well. He will probably be on the cover of GQ and Time magazine simultaneously. Think the devil wears Prada.

Right? He will do what no man has ever been able to do before. He will establish a treaty between the Jewish and Arab nations that they will abide by. And he will pave the way for the long awaited third temple in Jerusalem. He will be a satanic superman. But it is all a mask hiding who he really is.

The most evil man who ever lived. You know many people believe Antichrist is coming. I read an interesting poll done among Americans.

Not Christians necessarily. And many of them 49 percent believe that an Antichrist will come in the future. And then another article revealed that 19 percent of Americans think that Antichrist is on earth now.

And in the same poll nearly half of those who accept biblical prophecy believe Antichrist is alive right now. Now we don't know if he is or if he isn't. We don't know if he is present somewhere waiting for his moment. But we know his moment will ultimately come. Now I know some of you are thinking, Greg I didn't come to church today to hear about the Antichrist.

Oh ok. Well listen. It is important that you know something. There are over 100 passages that detail the origin, nationality, career, character, kingdom, and the final doom of Antichrist.

He is discussed at length in 2 Thessalonians Revelation as well as here in the book of Daniel. The sheer volume of information about the Antichrist in Scripture is enough for us to want to understand who he is and what he is coming to do. And also to know that ultimately he is going to lose. Reminding us that as dark as things can look at times we win in the end.

We must never forget that. We win in the end. And I bring that up because there are times when it seems evil is prevailing. It seems like darkness is winning and we are losing.

Well it does seem that way at times. But I have read the last page of the Bible. I am telling you we win in the end. Here is three things to remember that are important. Number one, God is sovereign over all of history. God is sovereign over all of history because history is His story. Number two, history is a blip on the screen of eternity.

It is a blip on the screen of eternity. And thirdly, God will have the final word and it will be good. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Emails, letters and phone calls from listeners are so encouraging to us.

And they let us know the effectiveness of these studies. Pastor Greg, unlike some other preachers I never get bored or disinterested when I listen to one of your messages. I have been listening to you on the radio, TV and internet for probably 30 years or more. What a gift you have to keep your listeners engaged. Thank you for all you do for the mission of Christ. God bless you.

How have these studies in God's Word touched your life? If you have a story to share, why not call us and tell us about it? Call 866-871-1144.

That's 866-871-1144. Well, we're considering what the Bible says about the Antichrist today from Pastor Greg's series called End of Days. Let's continue. So who is this Antichrist, also called the beast, the wicked one, the son of perdition? Well, that brings us to where we last left off here in the book of Daniel. Daniel saw a vision of a winged lion and a bear and a leopard coming out of the sea in Daniel 7. Remember we pointed out that in the Bible the sea is a picture of the multitudes, the people. And these are not literal animals.

They are symbols of nations. So the winged lion is Babylon. And they even had the winged lion on the gates of their city. And so the lion, the king of the jungle, this powerful beast, ruled and dominated for many years.

But Babylon was defeated by the Medo-Persian Empire under the direction of King Cyrus. And that is the bear. The bear defeats the winged lion.

But then the bear is defeated by a leopard also with wings. And that is because the Medo-Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great conquered most of the world in 12 brief years. And he seemed unstoppable. But Alexander died unexpectedly at the age of 32 and his massive kingdom was divided among four generals.

They were defeated eventually by mighty Rome and Rome was never conquered. Now from the ashes of Rome rises a phoenix, the new leader, the antichrist. Daniel 7 verse 8. I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words.

We will stop there. So if you are taking notes here is point number one. Antichrist is coming to defy and take the place of Jesus. Antichrist is coming to defy and take the place of Jesus. A horn as mentioned here in Daniel 7, 8 is a symbol of power in Scripture. This horn has both eyes and a mouth reminding us that this is the person that is being addressed.

And I would also add this. The prefix anti does not only mean against. It also means instead of. So it is not just that this coming world leader, this beast, this charismatic politician extraordinaire is going to oppose Christ, and he will, but he also comes in the place of Christ. For some they will believe he is the Christ or he is their Messiah at least.

Verse 8 says that he speaks pompous words, which means he boasts arrogantly. He is a powerful orator. He will win people over. He will bring about a temporary global peace and economic solutions. But here is something else to know about antichrists.

Point number two. He is coming to declare war on believers. He is coming to declare war on believers. Daniel 7, 25 says, Then the saints will be given into his hand for time and times and half. So we will read this phrase in Daniel and elsewhere.

And basically it comes down to this. The antichrist will inaugurate what is often called the great tribulation period. That will last for seven years. It will be divided into two sections.

Time, times and a half or three and a half years. In the beginning of the tribulation the antichrist will come off like a good guy. He will come with his peace treaty.

He will come with his brilliant words. He will come with economic solutions and many will hail him and love him and especially when he rebuilds the third temple for the Jewish people. But at the three and a half year mark the abomination of desolation takes place and we will talk about this more later too. But this is when the temple is rebuilt and it is desecrated by the antichrist marking the second section of the tribulation period where this coming world leader shows his true colors and they are not pretty. He begins to persecute Jewish people and he persecutes Christians and he begins to rule by force. And so that is what this is referring to. And already you see four shocks of antichrist in the world today.

Number three. Antichrist is coming to dominate the globe. He is coming to dominate the globe. Revelation 13 says authority was given to him over every tribe, tongue and nation. Now again I want to emphasize how does he do it? Through war?

No. Initially through peace. See because he is the man of peace. They will probably award him the Nobel Peace Prize.

And the Bible says through peace he will deceive many. And so he will establish peace but then he will be the ultimate man of war following that. And he will also come at economically difficult times.

And he will succeed where others have failed. Now you might wonder where in the heck does antichrist get the ability to do this? He gets it from hell. His power comes from hell. His power comes from Satan. He is the devil's disciple. He is Lucifer's leader. He is Satan's son. Revelation 13 says the dragon, which is later identified as Satan, gives him his power and is thrown in his great authority. He will oppose every law of God because he is antichrist. Now here is another interesting thing about him.

Number four. Antichrist will establish global control through a cashless society. Antichrist will establish global control through a cashless society.

Over in Revelation 13 17 it says no one will buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast. That is the antichrist. Or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man. His number is 666. We have all heard those numbers haven't we? I think everybody knows that 666 those are not good numbers. If there was a house for sale in a neighborhood and it was 666 anything many people would not buy it. If you Google the number 666 you will find 543 million results. And you will also find 543 million different ideas about what it means. And I don't think we should over fixate on what it literally means. Here is the bigger picture.

Antichrist will introduce a cashless society requiring people to take a mark and no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark under the reign of antichrist. Now I ask you is this possible in technology today? Well of course it is.

We all know it is. Bill Gates brought it up three years ago. He said the key to this will be mobile phones. Already in the developing countries with the right regulatory framework people are storing money digitally on their phones and using their phones to make purchases as if they were debit cards. By 2030 two billion people who don't have a bank account today will be storing money and making payment with their phones end quote.

Here is the problem. You can lose your phone. Right? But now you can get a watch. Like an Apple watch. And you can make payments on your watch as well. But the next logical step is to introduce biometric based payment systems. Where I don't have to carry a phone.

I don't have to have a watch. If I just had something you could scan on my body. And this technology exists and you know it does.

There was a day when I would have to go into all these things and illustrate it. We all know this is already here now. And we know that this data is out there and is accessible and there are people. You talk about the dark web.

Who with sinister motives can access this data and have control over the lives of a lot of people. That man is coming and that man will be the Antichrist. Pastor Greg Laurie. With good insight about what's to come when the Antichrist takes the world stage.

There's more to learn about this part of Bible prophecy as Pastor Greg continues his message called Antichrist America and the End of Days. As you'll see in a new DVD called The Jesus Music. Contemporary Christian music began in the Lord's timing in an unassuming way. Tommy Coombs of Love Song and Maranatha Music.

There was no contemporary Christian music industry at all. That was just Chuck Smith saying these kids need a record so that when they go somewhere and nobody gives them money they can at least sell the record and have enough gas money to get it home. That's how Maranatha started in 1971. But it soon caught fire across the country.

Michael W. Smith. This thing called Jesus Music which exploded in Southern California somehow found its way in my hometown and it changed my life. A lot of people had their lives changed.

Isn't that right? Through that music? Mine was one of them Dave. I was there. I had a front row seat to the explosion of this new music. Then called Jesus Music later to be called contemporary Christian music. And it was as simple as Tommy Coombs just said.

It wasn't some big master plan. Hey let's start an industry. It was more of a hey let's reach our generation with the message of the gospel and let's do it through music. And that's how these bands started. And these bands would tour around and I would travel with them as a young man and preach the gospel and we would see thousands of young people come to Christ around the nation. And ultimately it has touched the world.

It had such a simple beginning. But what a powerful tool it has been in the hand of God. You know music is, it disarms us. It touches us emotionally. It's different than preaching.

I love to preach and teach the Bible. But you know there's something about music that touches us in a different way. God gave us music. And God can use music. I remember the story of when King Saul was tormented by demons. And young David would come in with a stringed instrument, some kind of harp. We might call it an electric or an acoustic guitar today. David would play a little bit, sing a little bit and Saul would be calmed.

I think that God can use Christian music to touch our soul, to calm us, to give us perspective. And I want to tell you the story of how it all got started. It's all found in this great documentary film produced by the Irwin brothers who also produced I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, and the soon to be released, well not too soon, but next year. The feature film based on my life and on the last great spiritual awakening in America that will be called Jesus Revolution. This is a really insightful film that goes back to the beginning of this music that we all love and brings us to the present day. And you're going to want to watch this. You've probably seen it promoted.

You might see it out there streaming somewhere. But I want to send you a DVD, also a Blu-ray, and a downloadable code where you can take this with you wherever you go. The Jesus Music, our resource for you right now for your gift of any size to our ministry so we can continue to preach the gospel and teach the word of God. Order your copy. You're going to love this.

Yeah, you really will. You'll hear from Stephen Curtis Chapman, C.C. Winans, Lauren Daigle, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Chris Tomlin, Lecrae, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Kirk Franklin, Toby Mac, and so many more.

They give such a unique, such an inspiring background on Jesus music. So get in touch with your investment and we'll say thanks by sending you the new film called The Jesus Music. You can call us at 1-800-821-3300.

We're here to take your call 24-7. Again, dial 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. I don't know if you know about this, but we have a weekend service called Harvest at Home exclusively for people that are tuning in literally from around the world.

Listen to this. We even have harvest groups where you can get into a small group with folks from all around this planet of ours and study the Word of God. So join us this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, for Harvest at Home at harvest.org. Well, we hope you'll join us again next time as Pastor Greg brings us more biblical insight about the Antichrist and what's coming in God's last day's plan. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins.