It's interesting if you study history to note that the ancient Roman Empire began as a republic with a democratically elected Senate and then regressed to rule by one man. History, according to what I read here, is going to repeat itself.
The restored Roman Empire, which may be in the works today, has a democratically elected Parliament, but it will one day, if this is it, regress to rule by one man, the last Caesar in line to call himself Lord. Who is the Antichrist? For centuries, people have speculated about this mysterious figure, a leader who will captivate the world and rise to global power. In Revelation 13, John unveils the beast's origins, his allegiances, and his agenda. This isn't a political spin or a fictional villain.
This is real. It's the future fulfillment of Satan's darkest plans. Join Stephen Davey as he explores the characteristics of this final dictator, the revival of the Roman Empire, and what it means for you today. Here's Stephen Davey with a message he's called The Last Caesar. The title Antichrist immediately provokes a response from the average guy on the street, doesn't it? Even the most biblically illiterate person has an opinion. He knows that the Antichrist stands for something evil.
They know that it's a title that has bound up in it, mystery and intrigue and murder and demonic power. He's known as the prince who is to come in Daniel 9. He's called the fierce king in Daniel 8. He's referred to as a despicable man in Daniel 11.
He's called a worthless shepherd by Zachariah. He's called the destroyer by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2. He's referred to as the master of intrigue in Daniel chapter 8, and he's called the evil man in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 9. But when John introduces him to us in his revelation, he is always referred to as simply the beast. That word beast is from Therion.
It can be literally translated monster. It's a word that refers to a monstrous person in whom the political power of the world will be consolidated and concentrated in the life of this man of sin. Paul calls him in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3. Now when you combine Revelation 13 with Daniel chapter 7, and you ought to write in the margin of your Bible somewhere, just Daniel chapter 7, when you compare these two texts, we're actually given enough information to know where he comes from, how he rises to power, what he hopes to accomplish, and how he is empowered. Now look with me at just the first opening phrase of Revelation 13, that first phrase of verse 1.
And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Now this is a reference to Satan, the antecedent to this opening phrase. In fact, the first phrase of chapter 13 would be better serving as the closing phrase of chapter 12. I think perhaps a better division of what we know to not be inspired divisions in scripture. We've been given just the text later on, verses and chapter divisions were offered to help us. You could go back to the last verse of chapter 12 and sort of get a running start on the scene. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, Israel, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.
In Revelation chapter 20, we're given a little explanation that the sand of the seashore is used to speak of the nations of the world. So here you have Satan. You have this brutal beast standing, as it were, in the midst of the nations of the world. He's ready to begin his agenda as the tribulation begins. But he's missing something. He's literally missing someone.
He needs a physical body. He needs a man to do his bidding, and he longs for one who will live and serve as the ultimate anti-Christ. Here he comes, verse one again. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
Now let's just slow down and unpack this as carefully as we can. This is very similar to John's description of Satan earlier in chapter 12. The difference, if you compare the two, is that the diadems, or the royal crowns, are now on top of the ten horns. So in other words, there will be ten kings who will be serving at the same time, under the direction of the anti-Christ. Now this title beast, you will find as you study this along with me, will refer at times to not only this man, but this man's kingdom.
It'll be used interchangeably. It will stand for a representation not only of the man, but that kingdom which he leads. We do the same thing. We've done the same thing with history. We've spoken of things this way with Hitler's name. Hitler stands for Nazi Germany, and Nazi Germany is sort of summarized in the name Hitler. We say Hitler bombed London.
Hitler never flew a plane, but we understand it was his kingdom that bombed London. So the same thing is happening here with this term beast, interchangeably used to speak of the evil kingdom of Satan and the evil prince. John informs us here, as we just read, that there are ten horns. You may remember that horns are symbolic for kings and kingly power. In other words, when the anti-Christ rises to power, there will be ten kings ruling together, forming a coalition of what Daniel reveals to be a revival of the Roman Empire. John also refers to seven heads, which is a reference, as we've already learned, to the culmination of the seven empires that have ruled the known world.
It might help you to mark into the margin of your Bibles above verse one, maybe circle the word horns and draw a line out to the edge and write kings, and then circle the word heads and draw a line out to the margin and write empires. Now, in Daniel chapter 7, we're told that the anti-Christ comes up among these ten horns, these ten kings, and he arises as a little horn or a little king. He's the eleventh as he grows in power. In other words, he will begin among them as an insignificant leader. He begins among the ten kings forming the coalition of the revived Roman Empire. Listen, he does not start out as the president of the world's greatest superpower and then move to Europe.
No, he begins in an insignificant role and he grows in power and influence. In fact, Daniel informs us that he will eventually pull out three horns or three kings by the roots. The language indicates that there will be violence.
He will conquer three of the kings and then subjugate the other kingdoms, creating a united European empire that will follow his dictatorial rule. John described this revived Roman Empire as one, and I quote him, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. Now, I want you to notice one other thing in verse 1. It's that last descriptive phrase.
This is a new phrase we haven't yet looked at. It says, on his heads were blasphemous names, but you don't have to have much of an imagination to understand why the church in the 1930s and 1940s got distracted in believing that the Antichrist was who? Adolf Hitler.
I mean, think about it. With the clues that we do know, he grew up in Europe, was an insignificant leader, eventually gaining influence over time, specifically through the writing that grew popular in those days of turmoil. Finally, Germany lay at his feet. He claimed to be a champion of a new race, a superior race. It wasn't long before he was gobbling up European nations in his quest for world domination, and you add to that fact that he hated the Jews and he hated Jesus Christ.
And probably we, along with many others, would have said, he's the one. Hitler even boasted that just as Jesus Christ's birth had changed the calendar, so his victories would be the beginning of a new age. He actually said, and I quote, what Christ began, I will complete.
At one of his Nuremberg rallies, a giant photograph was displayed during the rally and it carried the caption, in the beginning was the word. Well, I will tell you, obviously he wasn't the Antichrist, but that ultimate final Antichrist will be crowned with similar blasphemy. He and his puppet kings in this coalition will fancy themselves as more powerful than the Christian's God who seems to have lost control, who is so passe.
Or as my daughter would say, so yesterday. Notice how John describes this coming kingdom of Antichrist in verse 2 of Revelation 13. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like those of a bear, his mouth like the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.
He is empowered by Satan himself. Now this verse again is best understood with Daniel 7 as a commentary where Daniel sees the coming of world kingdoms culminating in the final kingdom of the Antichrist. The first kingdom, and he was dead on the money, even though he was speaking prophetically, was Babylon, seen as a lion with ravenous appetites and a terrifying presence. He then prophesied that the kingdom that would crush Babylon was the bear, representing the Medo-Persian kingdom with its claws, crushing claws and massive string. He then prophesied that the leopard, which was Greece, would follow next, moving with incredibly swift speed to conquer the world.
And in just exactly that way, Alexander the Great, the Grecian ruler, so conquered the world in such a quick, rapid fashion that even still as a young man he wept that there were no more worlds to conquer. And then you have the final kingdom which is yet to be established, the kingdom of the Antichrist described by Daniel, and I quote him, as dreadful and terrible and exceedingly strong. It has large iron teeth. It devours, crushes, tramples down the remainder with its feet.
It's different from all the beasts that were before it, and it has 10 horns. Imagine such clarity and perfect unity, though separated by 600 years. Daniel and John both see a coalition of 10 kings formed in the revived Roman Empire of Western Europe, ruled by the Antichrist. Peace, which the Antichrist brings to Israel, may very well be, and I believe it will be an imposed, forced peace.
Just read the newspapers and watch the news. It's one ongoing battle for the land and everybody's weary of it and the weariness is growing. Even now the United Nations are unable, as they typically are, to keep peace, certainly to keep peace in the Middle East. Name the leader that's come across the stage in my own lifetime and yours. If you're as old as I am, you saw Jimmy Carter attempt it, thought he could bring peace to the Middle East and he couldn't. Ronald Reagan tried it. Bill Clinton gave it his best effort.
The Bush administration tried it and that administration ended with missiles flying through the air. Go back even further. You have Henry Kissinger.
You remember him? Everybody thought he would do it, achieve it. He didn't. Nixon tried it.
So did Ford. You name the president, you name the diplomat, you name the administration, you name the other country's leaders who've tried it. No one on the planet has succeeded in giving the Middle East a peaceful solution, much less a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. But in recent years, in our lifetime, growing on the horizon of public awareness is the reviving of Western European nations in the forming of a coalition which may or may not be what he's talking about here, but it would certainly not take much in that imagination to see it providing the groundwork for it. It's interesting if you study history to note that the ancient Roman Empire began as a republic with a democratically elected Senate and then regressed to rule by one man, Caesar Augustus, the first Caesar in line and the first Caesar to call himself Lord. History, according to what I read here, is going to repeat itself. The restored Roman Empire, which may be in the works today, has a democratically elected parliament, a democratically elected president, but it will one day, if this is it, regress to rule by one man, the last Caesar, the last Caesar in line to call himself Lord.
Ladies and gentlemen, the next chapter can be written at any time. Peace in the Middle East will be the signature of the Antichrist whereby he will amaze the world. That will serve as a capstone to his meteoric rise to power and is the world ever willing and ready for another Caesar. Listen to what one historian wrote, a British historian who wrote this several decades ago, in fact, and I quote Arnold Toynbee, by forcing on mankind more and more lethal weapons and at the same time making the world more and more interdependent economically, we are ripe for the deification of a new Caesar who might succeed in giving the world unity and peace. Now I want us to be careful, especially when you start a series on the Antichrist.
Okay, I've been, I've surfed enough to know we need to be certainly careful and I'm sure you know too. We're not going to spend our waking hours or our time discussing if the Antichrist is alive today or not. He may be. We're not going to try to decide if he's in London or Greece or Spain or Rome. It won't do us any good. In fact, it'll only keep us from praying for whomever we pinpoint as the Antichrist, which we've been told to do in this dispensation. We have already discovered that the Antichrist will not be revealed until after the rapture. Revelation 6 clearly informs us that his emergence with this peace plan for the Middle East will take place after the church is taken to the throne of God's glorious heaven.
So we will know, we'll know after we're raptured, when he is revealed. So let's not spend a whole lot of time speculating on the latest inclination toward what we believe may be the Antichrist. Before the rapture, the Antichrist will be an insignificant, small player in the European unification system.
He probably won't get anybody's attention. There will be several months, most Bible scholars believe, between the rapture and the beginning of the tribulation and so there can be some things that will happen quickly. His formal introduction into the world scene as a major player will follow his ingenious Middle Eastern plan and it will be ingenious to have the Arabs and the Jews worshiping on the same mount. I personally believe that the enemy of the church would love us to pinpoint someone as the next or what we believe to be the Antichrist and at the same time then, cause us to fail to focus on that which seems to catch the church off guard in every generation, certainly in our generation. It is what the author of scripture, John the apostle, calls the spirit of Antichrist. He wrote that the spirit of Antichrist is already at work in the first century and certainly it has been working now into the 21st century, 1 John 2, 18. The spirit of Antichrist is alive in every such century and generation. The spirit of Antichrist is what? It would be that which is categorized and culminated in this false leader. It would be that satanically engineered system of our world that blasphemes God, that hates Jesus Christ, that opposes the work of Christ, that opposes the church and that attempts to drown out the truth of God's word that can happen inside the church.
That exists now. John says, listen, the Antichrist is coming, but even now the spirit of Antichrist is at work, 1 John 2, 18. This is the spirit of twisting the truth and taking a lie and making it acceptable in your culture, maybe even in the church, taking that which is nothing less than greed or lust and making it fashionable and acceptable, taking a lie and spinning it into the truth. That is the spirit of Antichrist.
And I fear the church in every generation risks the distraction of going after the person of the Antichrist and being blinded to the spirit of the Antichrist. I mentioned before, I think to you when our kids were younger, we would, when we were watching television, we would tell them to spot the lie. It's great exercise for those of you who are parenting younger children, just tell them to spot the lie, especially during the commercials. Commercial's over. Okay, now tell me what the lie was. Oh, we got it, daddy. We know. They said, if you buy that you're happy or if you have that you're cool or whatever.
That's right. It's a lie. Can you spot the lies in our culture that may have even crept into the church? I just kind of propped my feet up on my desk and jotted down a few of them that have struck my attention. Try these on for size.
They're being spun into the latest fashion of public consumption. Here's one. What you do in private is nobody else's business. Here's another. Divorce doesn't really hurt children. How about this one? Marriage is the union of two loving partners regardless of sexual orientation.
Here's some more popular ones. Belief in moral absolutes is proud and unfair. If it's legal, it's acceptable. Telling someone they are sinners in need of forgiveness is hateful speech.
Sexual relations before marriage proves you love them. Truth is a relative term defined only by you. If you believe in yourself, anything is possible. It's up to you to save the planet from destruction. Pride in one's own self and one's own accomplishments are part of a healthy self-image. You are part of the universe, a piece of the divine.
PG-13 means a movie is suitable for 13-year-olds. Bisexual experimentation is part of discovering the real you. All the wisdom you need is already within you. Living together is a good warm up to marriage. Abortion is the removal of fetal tissue. What you do in Vegas will never follow you home.
At 21, it is legally and socially acceptable to get drunk so long as someone else drives you home. Are you alert to the spin doctoring in our own culture and maybe in the church today? A lie that is parroted by enough people or some significant person in your life that makes you believe that the lie is actually the truth. Listen, beloved, as we spend several sessions uncovering the clues about the coming antichrist and the devastation he's going to bring with his lies and blasphemy, let's make sure that we are right now alert to the spirit of antichrist that we might be inviting into our lives, our own self-justification, our own greed, our own thinking, our own lust, our own planning. I personally believe that the rider of the white horse is about to mount up.
I mean any day. But you know what? That doesn't pose any danger for me.
It doesn't pose any danger for you. We're gone when he rides forward. But the challenge and the danger and the warning of John the Apostle, make sure you don't allow his lies to gallop into your heart and your mind while you wait for the rapture, while you listen for the upward call of Jesus Christ who is the true Messiah. The true God of this world is Jesus Christ.
It's true that Satan has some power and it's true that there will be an antichrist who arises in the end times. But the God we love and serve is sovereign over all. That's great news from God's Word today.
Thanks for joining us. This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Stephen is the president of Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary, North Carolina, and the pastor of the Shepherds Church. I invite you to learn more about Stephen and our ministry by visiting our website. You'll find us online at wisdomonline.org. That site contains the complete archive of Stephen's four decades of Bible teaching. You can listen to each of his lessons or you can read his printed manuscript.
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