Antichrist, America & Armageddon | What's to Come

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at gregatharvest.org. Again, it's gregatharvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. There's a mysterious figure called the Antichrist, described in scripture. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie describes his evil plan. Antichrist is coming to dominate the globe. There's some brilliant political moves along with an incredible charisma. He'll do what no other has ever done. He'll bring peace to the world temporarily.

You might say, how in the heck is he able to do it? His power is from hell. He's totally energized and empowered by the devil. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Again you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. There's so much evil in the world, it's hard to wrap our minds around it. But serious Bible students know we ain't seen nothing yet. There come a time when evil will reach a crescendo unlike the world has ever seen. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us understand what's to come, and how the Lord wants us to respond to that information. And we need to remember, ultimately, the battle belongs to the Lord, and we know who wins in the end.

This is the day, the day when life begins. So, my wife was gone at some women's event we're doing, and I noticed the pile of laundry had gotten pretty high. Now, that's not her fault. I just get close dirty a lot.

It's probably all my fault. But she does the laundry. Hey, I take the trash out. And she doesn't really want me to do the laundry because I never do it the way she wants me to. She is so neat. If I fold something, she'll refold it, okay? She'll make the bed before I've even woken up with me in it.

I've disappeared for days at a time because of it. So, I thought I'm going to do the laundry for her. So, I got the laundry ticket downstairs, threw it into the washing machine, opened up the cupboard, and I'm looking at all these weird soaps she's been using.

None of them were like what I'm used to. They were like all these organic things made out of kale and wood shavings. And I didn't know what to put where. I was clueless. But I'd heard of something called a Tide Pod.

Heard of those? So, I went down to the market and I bought a box of Tide Pods. So, here's the problem. Somebody came up with this idea of the Tide Pod Challenge on TikTok, where the idea was to ingest a Tide Pod.

By the way, that's a really bad idea. And so, they made the packaging so secure I couldn't get the Tide Pod out. I'm like trying to figure it out. I'm reading the directions. It's like how do you open this thing? Finally, I just got a knife and slit the bag open, took out the Tide Pod, threw the clothes in the washer, tossed in the Tide Pod.

Felt pretty proud of myself that I did it all by myself without texting. How do you run the washer? Pushed the button, came back an hour later.

Everything was nice and dry. This is the problem. I put my dirty clothes in the dryer instead of the washer. So, the Tide Pod's still sitting there.

So, threw them into the washer this time and now they're clean and so it worked out. But you know, I was just confused. And sometimes that's how we feel when we come to the topic of Bible prophecy. We hear terms like Armageddon, Antichrist, Mark of the Beast, Abomination of Desolation, the Valley of Megiddo, Gog, Magog, the Second Coming of Christ, the Rapture of the Church, the Millennium.

What does this all mean? Now look, I'm not an expert on Bible prophecy, but I'm a student of it. And I've been studying it for 50 years. So, I want to try to help put it together for you chronologically. Now there's different views on the order of prophetic events. And I just want you to be sure that my version is the right version, okay?

So, if you have any question, this is the right one. Now, I say that half kiddily. Now, if I didn't think it was the right one, I wouldn't believe it. So, I happen to think this is the way things will play out. I believe in what we call a pre-tribulation rapture. Others hold different views. It's their right to be wrong if they want to be.

I love them still, but this is how I think things will play out. I believe the next event on the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church. Now, some would say, no, the word rapture isn't even in the Bible. In fact, the teaching of the rapture came up around 100 years ago.

Wrong. The teaching of the rapture is 2,000 years old, and it's found on the pages of the New Testament. Some would say, yeah, but you can't even find the word rapture in the Bible. Well, you can't even find the word Bible in the Bible. Nor can you find the word Trinity in the Bible. So, my point is the word rapture is in the Bible depending on what translation you use. 1 Thessalonians 4 17 says, The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. The dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. The two words caught up are from the root word harpazo in the Greek, which is translated to the Latin word rapturis, which is translated to rapture.

So, the word is secondary. The event is important. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That happens at any moment. Then comes the antichrist.

We're going to talk about him in a moment. This mysterious, powerful world figure that emerges on the scene. And then comes the seven year tribulation period, broken up into two three and a half year sections. The first three and a half years, antichrist comes with overtures of peace, economic solutions, even rebuilding the temple for the Jewish people. And then he commits what Jesus calls the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24. And that is when he erects an image of himself and commands people to worship it. Now comes the second half of the tribulation, where the judgment of God is poured upon the earth, culminating in the battle of Armageddon, fought in the valley of Megiddo.

And I'll talk about that in a moment. And then Christ returns in the second coming. Okay, so in the rapture is when he comes for his church. In the second coming, he returns with his church. In the rapture, he comes as a thief in the night.

In the second coming, every eye will see him. In the rapture, it comes before judgment. The second coming, Jesus returns with judgment. That brings us to the millennium. The word millennium means a thousand. It's the one thousand year reign of Christ.

And finally, we have the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth. So let's start by talking a little bit about this Antichrist figure. As I said, he's going to be a peacemaker.

But the reality is, he's a troublemaker. But through overtures of peace, he wins the favor of so many. In fact, the Bible even says through peace, he will deceive many. So he will establish a peace treaty that will hold.

War will effectively cease for a period of time. But in reality, he's energized by the devil himself. So let's read about him, Revelation 13. Then I saw a beast, verse one, rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and 10 horns with 10 crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blaspheme God. The beast looked like a leopard. He had the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his own authority and throne and great authority.

Point number one. The Antichrist is an imitator. Where does the power come from that he has?

From the devil. Verse two says the dragon gives him his authority. And Revelation 12 identifies the dragon as Satan. So the beast is set by Satan himself because Satan is effectively an imitator.

He always has been. So you'll have the genuine and you'll have the imitation from the devil. God has real miracles. Satan has his own version of miracles.

There are real followers of Jesus and there are fake followers of Jesus as well. God has his son, his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. And in effect, the devil has a son too, if you will. He's the Antichrist. He's the most wicked man who has ever lived. Now I think we envision him as some evil looking figure. You know, dressed all in black with red eyes and steam coming up from behind him.

And the Darth Vader theme playing whenever he walks into a room. He'll be the opposite of that. He'll be charismatic and outgoing and friendly and clever. And he'll seem like the greatest guy. He'll be your consummate politician. He'll be magnetic.

He'll be engaging. And he'll be someone that will convince many to think he might even be the very Messiah. Now you might ask, Greg, why should I even give a passing thought to the Antichrist?

Simple answer. Because there are over 100 passages in the Bible that detail the origin, nationality, career, character, kingdom, and the final doom of Antichrist. He has discussed in length in 2 Thessalonians, the book of Revelation, as well as the book of Daniel. The sheer volume of information about the Antichrist in scripture should cause us to want to know who he is and what he is coming to do. Coming back to that statement of Christ, when he speaks of the abomination of desolation, he then says, let the reader understand. It's important to understand Bible prophecy. It is not God's desire to conceal but to reveal.

And the word revelation means the unveiling. So God's saying, look, let me show you what is coming and explain it to you. But some would say, I don't want to hear a message on Bible prophecy. It's all doom and gloom.

Well, that's not the way we should look at it and it's not the way it should be taught. Because if anything, Bible prophecy tells us that God is in control. After all, the return of Christ is called the blessed hope. So this should bring hope to our hearts. And we don't have to be afraid. I read recently that 70% of church goers have a growing sense of fear.

Well, that should not be the case. Of all people, we should be filled with hope. Jesus said in Revelation 1.18, don't be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one.

I was dead and look, I am alive forevermore. So when I look at what the Bible says about our future, it reminds me God is in control. And from this study of scripture and of these events, it should bring me comfort. After Paul talks about the rapture, he says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. In addition, understanding Bible prophecy should have a purifying effect on me spiritually.

Because in 1 John we read, he that has this hope, that is the hope of the Lord's return, purifies himself even as he is pure. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. 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're glad you're along today for Pastor Greg's important message, Antichrist, America, and Armageddon. Point number two, Antichrist is coming to take the place of Jesus. Antichrist is coming to defy and take the place of Jesus.

Verse one says he has seven heads and ten horns. Now, you read this and you go, what is this, like a Godzilla movie? You know, all these weird creatures. Remember, have you ever seen a Godzilla movie? And he would get into fights with Rodan.

And my favorite was Mothra, a giant moth. And so that's not what this is at all. These are metaphorical statements in Scripture. You see a lot of this also in the Book of Daniel. And a horn in the Bible is a symbol of power. When it says he has ten horns, seven centers of power, we know that there's a confederation of ten nations that will unite behind the Antichrist.

Also, I would add, this prefix anti can also be translated instead of. So it doesn't just mean that he's against Christ. It means he comes instead of Christ. He's a fake Christ. He's an imitation Christ. In Matthew 24, speaking of the last days, Jesus said, many will come in my name saying I am Christ.

That's who this guy is. I remember years ago I was in Israel and I was talking to our Israeli tour guide. And we were talking about Messiah. And he did not believe Jesus as the Messiah. And he said, when our Messiah comes, he will rebuild our temple and bring global peace.

I said, you just described the Antichrist. So you could see if that was your way of thinking, that your Messiah so-called would rebuild your temple, which the Antichrist will do, and bring peace, you could think he is the Messiah. Number three, Antichrist is coming to declare war on believers. He'll declare war on believers, Revelation 13.7. It's granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. As I said, first he comes as a man of peace.

And after he rebuilds this Jewish temple, he erects an image of himself and commands people to worship it. And then he begins a persecution against believers. Listen, the most persecuted religious group has always been Christians. More persecuted than any other group historically and even to this present day. Now we know Christians are persecuted in atheistic countries and also in Islamic countries. But now we see more persecution even here in the United States. We see a mentality, an ideology, a philosophy that is permeating everything that is so anti-God. A woke ideology that is in our education system, it's in our media, it's even permeating the military right now. And it's sort of what I would describe as an ABC culture.

ABC, anything but Christ. So when you stand up and say, I'm a Christian. Expect push back. Expect resistance. Expect persecution. The Bible says those that live godly in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution. That's a verse we rarely claim.

Have you ever noticed that? We claim all the promises of God. Lord send your provision. Send your blessing. I love your promises. He promises persecution.

Hold on that one please. No one likes to be persecuted. Number four, anti-Christ is coming to dominate the globe. Dominate the world, Revelation 13, 7.

Authority is given. Him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. Again he'll do it initially through peace plans. He'll come at economically difficult times with war in different parts of the world. There's some brilliant political moves along with an incredible charisma. He'll do what no other has ever done.

He'll bring peace to the world temporarily. You might say, how in the heck is he able to do it? His power is from hell. It's from Satan himself. He's totally energized and empowered by the devil. He's Lucifer's leader. The devil's disciple. Satan's son. Revelation 13, 2 says the dragon gives him his authority. The devil gives him his power. Now the question arises, could artificial intelligence play a role in the rule of anti-Christ?

I think the answer is perhaps. Or whatever technology follows it. Elon Musk, known for many things. Creating the electric car, landing rockets, and having a cage match with Zuckerberg. Very prolific and creative billionaire. Bought Twitter not long ago.

Renamed it X. A very intelligent man. He made this statement about artificial intelligence and I quote. A form of artificial intelligence smarter than humans could create an immortal dictator from which we would never escape. End quote.

Interesting. An immortal dictator. Now in the movie The Terminator, remember The Terminator? James Cameron imagined a world overrun by these programmed robots that have Austrian accents.

And say, I'll be back. Right? So, but in a way, he was onto something. Because we see this artificial intelligence in our culture right now. Many say it's so dangerous we're losing control of it already. James Cameron said quote. You can imagine artificial intelligence in a combat theater. The whole thing just fought by the computers at a speed humans could no longer intercede.

And you would have no ability to de-escalate. End quote. Scary. We'll see. And again I want to emphasize. If you're a Christian you will be raptured before this all starts.

Okay. Again we're told in Thessalonians, he who now restrains will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that wicked one, Antichrist, will be revealed whom the Lord will destroy with the brightness of his coming. He who now restrains will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way.

What does that mean? The restraining force in the world today. That which holds back evil is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church.

It's you and it's me. It's us doing our job. When we're removed then Antichrist will be revealed. And if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you don't have to be afraid. Powerful insight today from Pastor Greg Laurie on A New Beginning. We are considering what the Bible tells us about what's to come and the part Antichrist will play.

Now those were some eye-opening insights today. And Pastor Greg, if somebody's not sure they're protected given these last days events, they're not sure they're a believer, how can they be sure? How can they make things right with God?

What I would say is he's only a prayer way, which means if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer, he will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer right now after me. Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and my friend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Amen. And if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg and meant those words sincerely, well, first of all, we want to welcome you into God's family. And we want to help you get started in your new faith. Pastor Greg wants to send you his New Believers Bible free of charge along with some other helpful resources. Let us know you've prayed along with Pastor Greg and that you want the New Believers Bible so call us at 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime at 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. Well, Pastor Greg, we have a new book, a Christmas devotional book called Heaven's Light Breaking. And I know our listeners are going to be interested in getting this, but before the book gets to them, you know, there are people who are really having a tough time here during the holidays. You know, big problems seem even more overwhelming here at this time of the year. If one of those suffering saints was sitting here at the table with us right now, what would you say to them? I'd say it's going to get better.

Whatever you're going through, you're going to get through it. I'm reminded of a memory from my own childhood. As many of you know, especially if you saw the Jesus Revolution film, which is about my life, my mother was a raging alcoholic.

She would pretty much drink to excess every night and pass out. And I remember one Christmas in particular, we were living in this little trailer home and we had one of those artificial trees. It was white and we had one of those little lights that slowly turned, you know, aimed toward the tree. And there was a stale smell of smoke in the air. My mother was passed out from a night of drinking and I'm sitting there in front of this tree waiting for her to wake up so I could celebrate Christmas.

And even as a little kid, I knew this was bad. And I remember saying to myself, it's going to get better. And it did get better. It got better when I met Kathy and we got married and we had our own family and decided to create our own Christmas memories. It got better because of Jesus Christ, because He became the Savior and the Lord of my life.

And it will get better for you if you have Him where He belongs in your life as your Lord, directing and guiding you. Christmas should be about Jesus. We're celebrating His birth and the impact it made on the world, the impact it continues to have because He was born to die that we might live. The incarnation was so there would be the crucifixion and the resurrection and ultimately the return of Jesus Christ. There is no incarnation without a coronation. One day Jesus will come back again and rule this world as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So let's get our focus on Christ, kind of get our eyes off of our own problems and look at Him and you'll find the joy of Christmas.

I have a resource I want to send you that might help with that a bit. It's a brand new book I've written. It's a Christmas devotional and the title of it is Heaven's Light Breaking. It's 25 devotions that you can read by yourself or with your family or anyone you like that will help you get back to the meaning of Christmas.

There's a little prayer at the end that will guide you as you pray your own prayer that will help you understand the real reason for the season. So we want to send you this new Christmas devotional called Heaven's Light Breaking for your gift of any size. And whatever you send will be used to continue with this radio broadcast that we call A New Beginning. So I encourage you, order your own copy of Heaven's Light Breaking, this brand new Christmas devotional from us here at Harvest.

Yeah, that's right. We're eager to send it your way for the holidays. It'll bless you and your family and your donation will help us bless others as we continue to teach believers and share Christ with those who don't yet know Him. So thanks for that investment today and be sure to ask for Heaven's Light Breaking when you call 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock, 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more solid biblical insight from Pastor Greg's message, Antichrist, America and Armageddon. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. A New Beginning is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. Helping people everywhere know God. If this show has impacted your life, share your story. Leave a review on your favorite podcast app and help others find hope.