Matthew-113

 

Opening prayer

Our Master and our King, we do earnestly pray that you will focus our hearts wholly and fully upon yourself so that Lord, you can speak to us through your Word this day. We pray Lord, that your Word will accomplish the purpose for which you send it forth today. And that each one of us will be clear as to exactly how we relate to you in these last days that we may serve you with faithfulness and with determi­nation and above all, in the grace and the power of your Holy Spirit. For left to ourselves we know, that none of us none of us will survive the events of these last days. And those of us who are foolish enough to think that we can stand on our own, that our strength is sufficient, will only find ourselves to be deluded, misguided at the end of the day. And we pray that you will have mercy upon us that we will not fall into such error. We pray that you will speak to every heart of each person here, that none will leave empty, but that your purpose will be accomplished. We ask this for your glory’s sake, Father, amen.

 

The Antichrist is coming, and Jesus Christ is coming again!

I have been preaching on the series concerning the Antichrist and this will the last of this series for the present time. This subject is a very big one, and I could go on preaching on this for many, many more months since we have been going quite slowly and breaking it down into easily digestible portions. But we must wrap everything up today, at least for the present time.

I hope that the purpose for this series of messages will be accom­plished, because I find that many Christians live as though they have got forever, as though neither the Antichrist is coming, nor indeed, Christ himself is coming again. And living under this illusion or delusion, many Christians live with a carelessness and a purpose­lessness that is thoroughly alarming!

 

The dragon in the Bible: Satan

Pretty soon, it will be Chinese New Year. Do you know what year is coming up? Of course you know because you live in Hong Kong. If you were in Canada, many of the Chinese there might not be immediately aware what year it is. It’s the Year of the Dragon! Think of it. It’s the Year of the Dragon. Oh, the dragon is a very impressive creature, and Chinese people find the dragon a really marvelous creature, but not in the Bible, unfortunately for us. Our Chinese emperors used to wear the 龍袍 (long pao), the robe with the dragon in front, symbolizing him as strangely enough, the son of heaven. The dragon was almost a mythical not to say, divine kind of creature. I hear many women would like to have their children born in the Year of the Dragon because they say the children will be someone distin­guished. They might be something special but not exactly what you had in mind.

The Bible mentions the dragon in only one book of the New Testament, and in that book it is mentioned some 12 times. That is the last book of the Bible, Revelation. That’s interesting. Bear in mind, the rest of the Bible doesn’t mention the dragon but when we come to the last book which speaks about things which will shortly come to pass, things which will very soon begin to happen, suddenly, there is mention of the dragon. And not even at the beginning of Revelation, but half way through. The dragon first appears in the book of Revelation in chapters 12 and 13. Most of the references, about 10 out of the 12 references occur in those two chapters, right in the middle of Revelation. And then in chapter 20, near the end of Revelation, the dragon is seized, oh yes, this magnificent dragon is seized and thrown into the bottomless pit because he represents Satan, the enemy of God. And we are coming to the Year of the Dragon! Is it a co-incidence?

Now think about another thing. The year 2000 is a very interesting date, isn’t it? Twelve years from now, and what year will that be, according to our Chinese calendar? Indeed, the year 2000 will be the Year of the Dragon again. Could it be that this year, 1988, will be an introduction to the final appearance of the dragon in 2000? Or the final downfall of the dragon, whichever it is? Those who study the Bible know well that we should not predict any dates. But it’s interesting to think on these things unless we think they are pure co-incidence. Is the year 2000 also the Year of the Dragon pure co-incidence? Interesting!

The Bible does not under-estimate the power of the dragon. The Bible warns us that the dragon is extremely powerful. Indeed, just look at Revelation 12:3 for yourself and you will read that the dragon is an impressive creature with 7 heads and 10 horns! And on each of the 7 heads, there is a crown, a total of 7 crowns. So our Chinese idea is not entirely mistaken when we think of the former emperors as being the representatives of the dragon and hence only the emperor was entitled to wear the龍袍 (long pao). It’s a special garment with the dragon on it, reserved only for emperors. The Bible confirms that the dragon wears 7 crowns, and in the very next chapter, chapter 13 talks about the false Messiah. And do you know what? Verse 1 tells us that the false Messiah looks exactly like the dragon – he also has 7 heads and 10 horns! That doesn’t mean he actually looks like that when he appears. That is all symbolic language that has symbolic meaning. And many of you who have tried to read the Revelation wonder what it’s all about. You can’t make head or tail of it – neither dragon head nor dragon tail. I’ll give you a very simple clue to begin with anyway. It all has to do with crowns.

 

The battle for the kingship of this world

I’ve just mentioned that the dragon wears crowns. And the false Messiah also wears crowns, that is, the Antichrist. Now the dragon has 7 heads and 7 crowns but he also has 10 horns. And the Antichrist also has 7 heads and 10 horns, but he has a crown on each of the horns, the symbols of his earthly power. Who else has crowns in the Revelation? In chapter 4, the elders in heaven wore crowns, and they threw their crowns before them. They don’t want to wear the crowns; they want to offer their crowns to God alone. And then in Revelation 19:12, a marvelous figure appears who is crowned, and he only has one head not 7. But on the one head, he wears many crowns, many diadems. Do you get the message of Revelation now? Do you understand the symbolism? Well, let me make it very simple for you. It is a contest that is going on for the kingship of this world, and the book of Revelation portrays in symbolic language and predicts in prophetic language how this battle for the kingship of this world is going to be fought and what will be the outcome. The out­come is not in doubt as I’ve already told you. Yes, the dragon has 7 crowns but he will be cast into the bottomless pit and then what will happen? And then the one who has many diadems, the King of kings and Lord of lords will reign upon the earth. Jesus shall reign!

The battle is going on right now. It is fought in heaven and on earth. And I want to tell you something more about this battle. This battle is being fought between God and Satan through his representatives. And the supreme representatives in the last days will be Christ versus the false Christ, the Antichrist. That’s when the battle will reach its climax. But right now, there are many antichrists in the world! And right now, in this hall, there are those who are on one side in the battle for kingship, and there are those on the other. You and I, we are on one side or another of this battle right now! You should know where you stand. Where do you stand? Are you on the side of God that his kingdom will be established on earth? Is it your prayer that “Father, let your will be done on earth and in my life”? Or is that not your prayer? You don’t care who is king so long as you can live a good life while this age lasts – we don’t know for how many more years, but as long as it lasts. You’ve got to make a decision!

 

We live in the age of the dragon

Now, let me tell you what Revelation tells us and what the New Testament, what the Bible tells us. Right now, this whole world is under the kingship of the dragon, not of God. Yes, it is the Year of the Dragon, but more, it is the time of the dragon, it is the age of the dragon! We live right now in the age of the dragon! Maybe in the Year of the Dragon, the dragon gets more active, I don’t know, but he has been in power for a long time. And I will tell you something else that is important for you to know and what the Bible tells us, that the whole world, and that means the people of the world right now, are living in the power of the dragon. It is a time of the dragon. And read in the Revelation, the kings of the earth for the most part, not just the emperors of China, follow the dragon.

And I would also like to tell you something more. As long as you have not consciously and deliberately renounced the kingship of the dragon, that is, of Satan, to this day, you are still his subject in his kingdom under his power. You don’t have to make any decision. You don’t have to do anything to be a subject of the dragon. Just remember this: you don’t have to do a thing to be a citizen of Satan’s kingdom.

[Loud electrical drilling sounds suddenly interrupts the preaching at this point.] It looks like our friend, the dragon is trying to give us some problems. I have fought this battle for a long time so it doesn’t surprise me too much. Those of you who were at the prayer time may have noticed that I arrived 15 minutes late. That is because those who were delivering the means of transportation to me arrived half an hour late. I managed to cut the loss in half and arrived 15 minutes instead of half an hour late. So as I sat there, I thanked the Lord, “Good! I am sure the dragon doesn’t like my message, but I’m just going to be quiet and pray and relax, and get on with it anyway.”

 

We are born citizens of Satan’s kingdom

Let us remember this: You don’t have to do a thing to become a citizen of Satan’s kingdom. Just like if you are born in Hong Kong, what have you got to do? There’s nothing for you to do to become a citizen of Hong Kong, right? You don’t have to apply to become a citizen of Hong Kong. If you are born in the UK, you don’t have to apply to become a citizen of the UK. You just fill in a form and they’ll give you a passport. It’s like that virtually in every country. And if you are born into the world, you are a citizen of the dragon kingdom! Ah! For the Chinese people, that is glorious! Dragon kingdom! Don’t rejoice too fast. Remember what happens to the dragon in the end. It is his day of glory now. And you don’t have to do a thing! You are a citizen of his kingdom right now!

However, you must apply in order to become a citizen of the kingdom of God. That’s the tricky part. And it’s very hard to get the applications approved. You might think that since the whole world is already lying in the power of Satan, God would be rather hungry to get some citizens into his rather small kingdom on earth! I mean, he’s got so few citizens that he’d be putting up great big posters to say, “All of you apply! There are so many benefits to enter the kingdom of God!” But when you apply, he thoroughly examines you and says, “No, your application is not approved.” And you’d think, “I already gave you face (we Chinese speak of “face”), by applying. So why does he turn me down?”

But do you know what Jesus says? He said, “If you don’t take up your cross, you can’t follow me.” “Cross? Satan never asked anyone to take up any cross. Not only does he not ask anyone to take up the cross, he’s willing to give you all the kingdoms of the earth if you just follow him a little more closely. He’ll bless your business if you burn more incense at the door. You’ll be amazed how your profits will go up! Incense only costs a few cents, but the cross? This is really too much!”

There is the difference. You and me, we are all born into Satan’s king­dom. But the Lord says you’ve got to strive to enter at the narrow gate to get into God’s kingdom. And when you have striven to get in with all that effort and all that sweat, do you know what happens? You’ll discover that you, who used to be your own boss when you lived in Satan’s kingdom cannot be your own boss in God’s kingdom. Satan is very good; he believes in the system of free enterprise. You just run your little show and field day.

 

A slave in God’s kingdom! A king in Satan’s?

I was reading a book on how do you make people do things the way you want them to do it. You make them do what you want, and let them think they are really doing what they want. That is called practical psychology! If you want to be an administrator, you go to those schools and learn how to make other people do what you want and leave them under the delusion that that’s what they’ve always wanted to do anyway. That’s really wonderful! Satan is a master psychologist but Jesus is no psychologist. Jesus has heard about this type of psychology, but he refuses to practice it. There’s no psycho­logy in the kingdom of God. No, no.

Satan says, “You follow me, and you can do whatever you like. I will make you the boss of your own little kingdom and you will feel just great. If you don’t feel too great, no problem! I’ve got other solutions for you. There are drugs that can give you a boost. There’s TV that can distract you. We’ve got lots of solutions. I will make you feel good and you can be boss of your own little kingdom.

But when you come into the kingdom of God, you’re told that you are a slave of God! You’ll say, “What is this? I never wanted to be a slave!” But without being slaves, you don’t become citizens, much less do you become sons of God. We sometimes like to talk about being sons of God because it sounds so good. Unfortunately, in the New Testament, you don’t become sons without first becoming slaves. And there are preachers who would like to forget the slave bit and just get to the son bit. There are preachers who would also like to give you a passport into the kingdom of heaven without mentioning about taking up the cross, which is very embarrassing. Do you want to have God as king of your life? That is the question.

And the Antichrist will tell you, “No! Don’t be a fool!” Satan will tell you “No! Don’t be ridiculous! Look at my kingdom! The whole world is mine! If you follow me, you’ve got the world. If you follow Jesus, all you’ve got is heaven.”

 

Matthew 23-25 – A Christian must live under the kingship of God

Well, I want to finish the rest of this message today by basing it basically on Matthew chapter 24 and talking about the kingdom of God, the kingship of God. The kingship of God is a wonderful king­ship, but if you think you can get something for nothing, then I’m not the one to tell you that. It is the Pearl of great price, but it will cost you everything to get it. Let’s look at Matthew chapter 24 and I’d just like you to keep Matthew 24 in front of you in the remaining time that I will be giving this message, and I want to conduct you through Matthew chapter 24 so that you have a clearer perception of what it is all about.

The key to understanding the whole of the New Testament and not just Revelation is this central question of whether you will have God as king, or remain under Satan’s kingship. You are already under Satan’s kingship. You don’t have to make a choice. Not making a choice is already a choice. No decision is a decision of Satan. So if you want to stay in Satan’s kingdom, you don’t have to do anything. All you’ve got to do is ignore today’s message and you will carry on happily in Satan’s kingdom. But if you want to get into God’s king­dom, you are going to have to make a very deliberate, costly choice, then God becomes king of your life, and wonderful things will hap­pen!

I want to say one more thing before we come to Matthew chapter 24. I preached some time ago on Matthew chapters 23, 24 and 25; they are one unit of the Lord’s teaching, so you’ll have seen the sequence. In the middle of that unit of the Lord’s teaching, there is Matthew 24 which talks about the end times and the pseudo or the false Messiah, the false Christ, the Antichrist. Matthew 23 has to do with people who profess to have God as their king but in fact their lives show that God is not their king. The key to understanding the whole of the New Testament is the kingship of God, if you want to understand how the teaching connects.

Perhaps you don’t need me to tell you that the church is full of people who claim that God is their king, and they are every bit as hypocri­tical as the Pharisees. You look at their lives, you look at the way they talk, think, live and behave, and you know, even as a non-Christian, that God is not king of their lives. That’s what the Lord Jesus says to these Pharisees right at the beginning of Matthew 23. They speak of the Law of God, of God as king but their lives betray it. They are like tombs that are painted white on the outside and look so nice, but inside, they are dead – full of dead men’s bones! I beg of you please, if you want to be a Christian, don’t be this kind of Christian. There are already too many of these in the world today, and they are stumbling blocks.

And do you know something? Satan, the dragon king of this world l-o-v-e-s these people. They are his favorites. He loves them so much you can’t believe it. That is why the Lord Jesus can’t tolerate these people, and God can’t stand them. Why don’t you just be a person who is trying to live as one of Satan’s citizens, living under Satan’s kingship than claim to be living under God’s kingship and deny him every day by the life you live in your place of work, your school, or wherever you go? Don’t be this kind of person! That is why the Lord prefaces his message in Matthew 23 about the false Christ with a message about false believers. Oh, the Pharisees had all the right doctrines. The problem with them is not their belief but their life. And let me tell you, God is king of our lives, or he is not king at all!

Matthew chapter 24 talks about the same thing: Some servant of God allegedly, who beats up the other servants. He is filled with a sense of his own importance. He thinks he’s a servant of God, he is some­one important. He’s a pastor or a bishop or whatever he likes to call himself, he’s really important. And he says, “My master is delaying his coming,” so he goes around and ill-treats the people entrusted to his care. Christian leaders are every bit as bad as the Pharisees. Yes, there is this parable. The Lord Jesus said it, not me. Look at it for yourself.

Then in Matthew chapter 25, he speaks of another group of Christians whose lives were indeed shining but gradually, they ran out of oil and they stopped shining; they blended into the darkness. You may not be a church leader but you may be one of those who once shone with a certain light, but as the darkness kept on pressing on you, your light began to grow dim; you ran out of fuel; you couldn’t endure. That’s why the Lord Jesus said, “Before you think of coming into the kingdom of God, before you think of crowning God as king of your life, count the cost whether you can endure to the end, until his coming again.

Finally, the last part of Matthew chapter 25 talks about the judgment of the great who? The great king! You can see that we are on the subject of kingship all the way. It reaches that climax at the end of these three chapters, which talk about the king. Once again, what does the Lord Jesus deal with? He deals with false Christians. That’s his preoccupation. The goats, the people who look like sheep but are not. Did they believe in Jesus? Yes, they call him, “Lord,” “Master,” “When did we not do this? When did we not do that?” There we are again saying, “Lord, Lord.” The Lord says, “Don’t call me ‘Lord.’ I don’t know you. Your life has been a disgrace and I don’t know how many people you have stumbled in your life-time.” That is what I mean, that becoming a true Christian is a difficult thing.

 

Wars in peacetime? Are we in the end times?

Let’s go onto Matthew chapter 24. And what do we read here? We read something quite interesting. At the beginning of Matthew chap­ter 24, the Lord Jesus first predicts there will be wars, many wars (cf. Mt. 24:6-8), and I shall not go into detail as I have expounded this before. There have been wars all through the centuries as you very well know, but as I have expounded before, the significant thing about this prophecy of the Lord Jesus is that the wars will get more and more frequent, more and more intense. Was my exposition I gave many years ago correct? We’ll see in a moment.

In the latter part of Matthew chapter 24, verse 37 onwards, he speaks about the days of Noah which were days of peace. The Lord Jesus says,

What did they do in the days of Noah? Fight? No. What did they do? They did all these innocent things like eating and drinking, for which we in Hong Kong are well-known around the world. There’s also marrying and giving in marriage. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. Except that the only thing that concerned the generation of Noah was earthly things, just like us here in Hong Kong.

There’s nothing wrong with being interested in education and more education, degrees and more degrees, and more businesses, and more money and so it goes on. It seems quite harmless. The problem is that the things which are eternal are forgotten, and the things which are passing away become all-absorbing. Anyone who lives like that is living under Satan’s kingship because this is the only world that Satan’s got, and he wants you to keep your mind on this world. Don’t go thinking about the kingdom of God and other such airy-fairy things, according to him. “Think on this world!” The trouble with this world is that it’s passing away. “Well, don’t think about the world passing away. Just look at this minute. How real is what you’ve got now!”

Now it raises a question. It seems Noah’s generation was simply a generation of peace, not of war. How do we put these two things together? Wars and rumors of wars, eating and drinking and getting married? War and peace at the same time? The Bible is amazing! The Lord Jesus gives this teaching, and I ask you this question right now: Are we in war or are we in peace? Right this year, 1988, are we in war or are we in peace? What’s your answer? We are in peace! Where do you see war? We are living in a time of great peace, right? If you think so, you have obviously not been in touch with the world today. A Christian should not only read his Bible, which he should do indeed, but he should also read his newspapers. There are many Christians who don’t seem to bother to read the newspapers except for other things, maybe job classifications. Who cares what happens elsewhere? Are we living in war or are we living in peace? Matthew 24 tells us that amazingly, both happen at the same time!

 

Peacetime weapons outlay

Last Monday, the South China Morning Post, January 25^th gave this report on the global military expenditure on weapons in 1987. I wonder how many of you have read it. Do you know how much the world spent on military weapons in this so-called “peace time” in 1987, which passed only a few weeks ago? It simply boggles the mind! My calculator can’t put enough zeros just to record the num­ber. 930 billion US dollars, that is, 930 thousand million US dollars! Can your calculator put that many numbers on it? It’s 930 followed by 9 zeros – 930 thousand million! And we are talking about US dollars which translates into 7 trillion Hong Kong dollars. Now I’m sure if you could manage the US dollars figure in your calculator, you would have trouble with the Hong Kong dollars. This is called “peace time”? In “peace time” the world spends that kind of money on military weapons?!

What is more, was my preaching right that the situation gets worse every year? The same newspaper tells us that the outlay in 1986 was 880 billion US dollars. That is to say, in 1987, the world spent 50 billion US dollars more on weapons in our so-called “peace time.” Do you know how much it amounts to per minute? They even did us the favor of calculating that in the newspaper. That is wonderful, isn’t it? You don’t even have to bring out your calculator; they did it all for you! It amounts to 1.8 million US dollars per minute, that’s being spent on weapons. Every minute! How many millions have been spent since I’ve got onto this pulpit? It boggles the mind! Every minute I am talking, every few sentences, 1.8 million US dollars is spent on weapons. Let me ask this question again: Are we living in peace or are we living in war?

 

The total destructive power in 1987 is 2,600 times that of WWII!

Do you want to know a few more facts? The newspapers say, “The nuclear bomb inventories of the two super powers in 1987 increased at the rate of 16 nuclear bombs per week, that is, more than 2 new nuclear bombs are manufactured a day. Today, maybe two more nuclear bombs have been manufactured. Do you think we are in peace time? The total destructive power that we have available in 1987 is 2,600 times the explosive power available for all the armaments in the world during WWII, not double, not three times the explosive power that was available in WWII. I visited Germany immediately after Second World War as a little boy, and I was shocked at what I saw. Germany was flattened by Allied bombing. And if I was shocked and you are shocked with what you saw in the movies, then remember what it tells us here: Today, the destructive power is 2,600 times that of Second World War! It boggles the mind! These statistics are beginning to get out of hand! You thought we are living in peace time, right?

Let me give you one more quote. This paragraph reads: In 1987, last year, 22 wars were fought, and counting only those wars in which 1,000 or more people died! This was last year. And notice the closing sentence of this report: “And that is more than any other year on record.” Now I’ve said years ago in expounding Matthew 24, that the meaning of what the Lord Jesus said is that it will keep on intensi­fying and year after year, and this is exactly what this newspaper report confirms to us. Every year, it’s getting worse.

So the Year of the Dragon is going to be a great year, is it? Will we add another 50 or 100 billion US dollars to military expenditure this year?

It’s also interesting: I mentioned the dragon with 7 heads. This news­paper report says that only 6 nations in the world account for 75% of all that military expenditure, all that 930 billion US dollars. The Bible is truly amazing! That’s why I say read your Bible and read the newspapers and you’ll be amazed, if you have eyes to see how God’s Word is being fulfilled in front of our eyes!

 

Distinction between contra-Christ and pseudo-Christ is vital

I also have to make an important point, which I touched on several times and in my last message. I illustrated rather dramatically, and maybe disturbingly for some people, when I pulled a pistol out of my pocket to the shock of everyone, simply to illustrate a point. What was the purpose of my pulling out that hand gun? In the end, everyone breathed a sigh of relief to know that it was not a real gun although it looked dreadfully much like a real one. In fact, that gun cost US$4, nowhere near US$930 billion. It was a US$ 4 gun that children buy to shoot plastic pellets with, and that robbers use to rob banks with, because it looks so genuine that no one knows the difference.

Why did I go through all this? Because I wanted to drive home a very important point: the distinction between a contra-Christ—in the sense of “anti”, which is the general meaning of “contra” in English, but not in Greek—and the pseudo-Christ. And you may think, “Why did you go so far to illustrate this point?” Because it’s very important for our understanding of this subject. I touched upon it repeatedly, but I didn’t explain what I was driving at, and in this last message I must take a few minutes to explain why it is so important.

 

1. The Bible has nothing to say about a contra-Christ

First of all, if you look at Matthew 24, you won’t see any reference to a contra-Christ, but only to a pseudo-Christ or pseudo-prophets. There’s no reference anywhere to a contra-Christ. Study it for your­self. Everywhere, the stress is on the falsehood of this Christ. Just like there are false Christians, this is a false Christ. I shall come back to this in another brief moment. First, the reason why I want you to clearly grasp this contrast is because the Bible has nothing whatever to say about a contra-Christ, strangely enough. Everywhere, the stress is on the falsehood of this Christ; just like there are false Christians, this is a false Christ.

So we must pause to ask: Where does this doctrine come from? I am very fearful in these last days which we are living, because there’s a lot of false teaching going around which parades itself as true teaching, just like when the false Christ will parade himself around as though he were the true Christ. He is the imitation Christ, the counterfeit Christ, and very convincing in his falsehood.

I get more and more puzzled reading the Scriptures and reading the books on this subject in various Christian bookshops. How do we come to teach about a contra-Christ when you can’t find a contra Christ being referred to in the Lord’s teaching in Matthew 24, and for that matter, in the rest of the New Testament?

 

Contra-Christ exposition derives from an interpretation of Daniel 7

The answer is simple. The whole exposition of a contra-Christ derives from a certain interpretation of basically Daniel 7 and parts of two or three other chapters of Daniel. It’s all supposed to be derived from Daniel. And the Antichrist is supposed to be modelled on Antiochus Epiphanes IV, that hated person, who Daniel predicted would come, and he indeed came. That prophecy was fulfilled.

 

(1) Only the temple will again be desecrated by an abomination

Then the question is: Why are we still talking about Daniel 7? The answer is Matthew 24:15 which reads:

There is an assumption from this. The assumption of our commenta­tors is because Daniel speaks of the Abomination of desolation, and the Lord Jesus refers to Daniel, therefore the whole sequence of events referred to in Daniel will somehow be repeated once more, not just Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 B.C., which already happened. The Lord knows that it was already fulfilled, but somehow, this whole thing would be repeated one more time in the future. Well, that’s an assumption, and it’s not proven. And every attempt to prove it must be deemed as having failed because there’s no support for it in the New Testament. The fact that the Lord Jesus refers to only one thing which will happen again—the temple will be desecrated one more time by the setting up of an abomination in the temple—does not mean that all the sequence of events in Daniel leading up to that will be repeated.

 

(2) Apostle John saw an amalgam of 4 beasts, not 4 beasts

But there are those so-called “scholars” who remind us that in Revelation 13:1 onwards, the chapter on the Antichrist, the beasts that are referred to there are also referred to in Daniel 7. That’s correct, but with a major and very important difference. In Daniel 7, there is a sequence of 4 beasts. In Revelation 13, there is no such sequence; the beast in Revelation 13 is an amalgam, a composite figure of these 4 beasts, which shows that the apostle John did not see Daniel 7 being repeated in sequence again. No, the beast is a composite figure, composed of characteristics which did formerly appear in Daniel 7 and in the fulfillment of Daniel 7, leading up to the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes.

I say these things for those of you who are better equipped in Scriptures, and this part may be a little complicated for you. That’s why I’ve been going very slowly in this series. But that’s all I will say in all these technical comments. That is one reason why we must reject a notion of a contra-Christ, and go for the Scriptural teaching of a pseudo-Christ.

 

2. Scripture stresses deception, not persecution

What is the second reason? The second reason is precisely that any teaching that stresses a contra-Christ will of necessity stress persecution as the main element. There’s no way the Antichrist can be a contra-Christ because he cannot touch Christ, who is at the right hand of the Father, and will come again in glory! In fact, the very term, “contra-Christ” is meaningless since he cannot persecute Christ. So really what they mean by “contra-Christ” is “contra-Christian,” that is, he will try to persecute Christians. So the emphasis is all on persecution. There will indeed be persecution. We don’t deny that. And there has been persecution from the beginning. But that’s not the stress in Matthew 24 or anywhere else in the New Testament.

The Lord Jesus warns us of the significant and dangerous thing: Deception. He does that three times in Matthew 24. Look at it for yourself. He uses the word “lead astray” three times in Matthew 24:5, 11, 24. In fact, he begins the whole message with a caution that the disciples should not be deceived. Verse 4 says, “See to it that no one leads you astray.” That’s how the message begins. The whole concern is with the danger of deception.

The same concern is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:10, the wicked deception that comes with the Antichrist, not the persecution; the deception is the dangerous part. And the same thing in Revelation 13 – the signs and wonders – the miracles, all designed to deceive. Persecution will come against those who refuse to be deceived or cannot be deceived.

But the point is where the emphasis is. For those who emphasize the “contra-Christ”, they never speak about deception. That is where they have left out the important element. They only concentrate on persecution. But anyone who speaks about the pseudo-Christ emphasizes both: persecution and deception but with the emphasis on deception.

 

3. A “contra-Christ” can be anyone; the “pseudo-Christ" must be a Jew

The third and last point why the distinction must be made is this: a contra-Christ can be anyone, but the pseudo-Christ can only be a Jew. Do you understand what I am saying? Anyone can oppose Christ – he can’t really oppose Christ, but he can if he tries to oppose his church. As I said, one should say, “contra-church” or “contra-Christian” to be precise. But no one can claim to be a false Christ or a false Messiah—“Messiah” is a Jewish title of the promised coming king of the line of David—unless he is a Jew. Now that greatly narrows the field.

Also, anyone familiar with Early Church doctrine, unfortunately, there are not many who are, will know that Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons—who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was in turn a disciple of Apostle John, who writes about the Antichrist in his epistles—taught that the Antichrist, that is, the pseudo-Christ would be a Jew. In fact, many Early Church fathers taught exactly that.

There is almost no one today who teaches that. The reason is not hard to find. The Early Church was composed of Jews and Gentiles and in many places, they were predominantly Jews with a smaller section of Gentiles. But as the generations wore on, the Jewish element began to shrink in the church, and finally, they disappeared almost completely from the church. The church became Gentile and failed to reach the Jews. One of the greatest disasters of the church is it failed to reach the Jews, and excluded the Jews almost complete­ly. And as you know, I’ve been to Israel and I’m trying to reverse that situation. We owe the gospel to the Jews. But as the Jewish element disappeared from the church, the teaching of the Early Church that the Antichrist, rather, the pseudo Christ would be a Jew also vanished from the church. Therefore all kinds of speculations arose that the Antichrist might be like Antiochus Epiphanes, or Napoleon, or Hitler, or even poor old Kissinger, as some people have come up with this idea. Kissinger has since disappeared from the scene, but they think he may turn up again. Otherwise, it would be some other future person, and there we go forever conjecturing.

The king, the Messiah that God promised, would be a king from the line of David. If the Antichrist or the pseudo-Christ claims to be the king that God promised will rule not just over Israel but over the whole world, then he has to be a Jew whether we like it or not. I may not like the idea but that’s how it is in Scripture.

 

A Jew who blasphemes God is not an impossibility

I will make one modification for those of you who are a bit more deeply versed in Scripture. There are people who oppose the idea that the Antichrist will be a Jew because they cannot imagine any Jew who would blaspheme God, much less set himself up in the temple, as stated in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 as well as in Revelation 13:6. If you also think like them, then you don’t know the Jews. The Jews are no different from the Gentiles in their mentality in this respect. To use that as an argument is absolute nonsense. Has it ever crossed your mind for example, that the one powerful, atheistic system that exists in the world today, which is Communism, was founded by two Jews: Marx and Engels. And their writings are still a “Bible” to the Communists to this day? They were Jews. They established the atheistic system.

If that’s not enough for you, think of Herod Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod the Great, in Acts 12:20 onwards. He also had Jewish blood, and he was the first one that we have in Acts, who was willing to receive divine honor as the people chanted, “That is no man. He (Herod Agrippa) is God!” And God struck him down. You can read it for yourself. The fact that he had Jewish blood, that he was of Jewish descent didn’t prevent him from seeking to be proclaimed God. Even the Bible eliminates that objection.

 

The Antichrist: Gentile on his father’s side, Jewish on his mother’s side

Speaking of Herod, we can bring in another important point. Did you know that in Jewish thinking, a person is not a Jew because his father is a Jew? If your father is a Jew, that doesn’t make you a Jew, but if you mother is a Jew, you can be counted as a Jew. It’s very interest­ing! We always tend to think that we are whatever our father is. But this is not so in Jewish thinking.

I’ve just mentioned Herod Agrippa, and the Herods are a whole line of kings. Many people are not aware that there are several king Herods in the Bible. The Herods had Jewish blood on their mother’s side. Hence, the Jews had to grudgingly admit that the Herods were Jewish even if they hated them.

The Antichrist or the pseudo-Christ could very well be Jewish on his mother’s side and Gentile on his father’s side. That is very interesting because it means that he would be accepted as a Jew. Remember that the Lord Jesus was a descendant of David through his mother’s side. The Antichrist could do just the same. Of course, the Lord Jesus’ father was also Jewish, but that didn’t count because it was through his mother’s side that his descent was traced. The Antichrist could therefore be pleasing to the Gentiles because he is Gentile on his father’s side but Jewish on his mother’s side. He becomes acceptable to both Jew and Gentile! He could be king of the world on that score. Excellent arrangement! Satan is not stupid. He has worked it all out. This is what I want to share with you.

 

The Antichrist – A dignified gangster king

Before I close, there is only one more point. As I said, I could preach on this subject for many, many messages, but we must close. Jesus is king, and we saw that the battle is for kingship. So in order to challenge God’s kingship through the king he establishes namely, Jesus, the Christ, the king—“Christ” means the anointed one, the king in particular—Satan will set up his own Christ, an imitation Christ, a pseudo Christ, so similar and performing such amazing miracles, that most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. It is a battle for the kingship of this world! However, the difference is that this Antichrist, this pseudo Christ will really be a gangster king trying to supplant the real king!

Recently, I was reading a book on the Yakuza. Have you heard about the Yakuza? The Yakuza is the Japanese equivalent of the triads in Hong Kong. They are the association of criminal gangs in Japan. Did you know there are criminal gangs in Japan? No, Japanese people are very decent. They are all very nice, polite people.

I’m very embarrassed every time I go to Japan, because they keep bowing to me and talking to me in Japanese. And I keep looking in the mirror, do I look Japanese? Obviously, they think so. I was at the airport and I was asking the air stewardess which gate I should board, and the next thing was, she was bowing and speaking to me in Japanese. But I had to say, “Excuse me, I don’t speak Japanese.” Also, when I go on the train in Japan, they all talk to me in Japanese. When I reply in English, they look at me as though thinking, “Why doesn’t this Japanese know how to speak Japanese?” It’s rather like in Hong Kong, if you speak to people in English, they’d think, “Ah, this arrogant guy! He thinks he is a cut above us because he speaks English.” So I’ve got the same problem in Japan.

Japanese people are so nice, they could never be gangsters. Well, let me tell you this: this huge book of 500 pages, tells us the truth. It is written by a group called “The Center for Investigative Reporting,” which does research at great risk to themselves on this kind of subjects. It’s quite amazing that in Japan, the Yakuza is so powerful that it can influence even the decisions in government. They control 26,000 legitimate businesses in Japan! Next time I go to Japan, I won’t be sure which store to walk into! There are 26,000 Yakuza stores, so I might just be walking into one! And I am not comforted to be told in the next sentence in that book, that not only are there 26,000 legal outlets controlled by the Yakuza, but there are also countless businesses that are controlled by them illegally. Do you know how much the Yakuza’s annual revenue is in Japan? No one knows exactly but it runs into not millions, but billions of US dollars! Some put the figure as low as US$5 billion per year, and others put it as high as 22 billion. They control gambling businesses, waterfront activities, but above all, as you would have guessed, drug trafficking, which accounts for over 50% of their income.

But the point I want to get to is this: Strangely enough, many Japanese respect these gangsters as the descendants of the ancient Samurai. In fact, the Yakuza gang members like to carry Samurai swords around to kill people not too infrequently, and they have special tattoos on their body. They are so loyal to their leaders—and Christians might learn something from this—that to prove their loyalty, they chop off the top of their little finger, wrap it up in a piece of cloth and present it as a token of their loyalty and devotion to their leaders. That is why the organization is so powerful because it is bound by a fanatical loyalty to one another and to their leaders! That’s what the book tells us. Satan’s kingdom is extremely well-organized. The Yakuza is exceedingly well-organized, very disciplined, very loyal to one another, very faithful to their leaders. So if you go to Japan and see someone with a missing tip of the little finger, he is one of the 110,000 known members of the Yakuza gangs.

The interesting thing is that they all claim to have a certain air of dignity, of patriotism of the Samurai tradition! It’s amazing! We find it hard to put together gangsters who claim to be samurais, who are patriotic to their country, as long as they can continue to rob some of its citizens! During the WWII, many of these Yakuza members were conscripted into the army, and those who survived the war had a lot of military experience and proved very valuable to the Yakuza organizations.

The Antichrist also wants to have this semblance of legality. This book tells us that the Yakuza organization is so impressive that even the cabinet and the Prime Minister often consult them. Sometimes, it even has access to the emperor himself. This is amazing!

 

Choose whose citizen you want to be!

I want to conclude on this point. Don’t think that because the Antichrist or the pseudo Christ is called the “man of lawlessness” that he behaves in a lawless way. No, not openly. This brings me back to the point about deception. It’s important to bear in mind. That book has photographs of past Yakuza bosses, and do you know what? Each one of them look the perfect gentleman! They are dressed up in beautiful suits. They behave in very gentlemanly fashion, and if you met them on the street, including their followers, they are all dressed in business suits. We wouldn’t have the vaguest idea that they are criminals.

When the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness comes, he will behave in a very lawful manner. All the lawlessness, like the Yakuza, is undercover. There are legal fronts to cover everything. That is why I say once more before I close, the pseudo-Christ is so terribly dangerous! May God give you the courage to speedily transfer, before it’s too late, your citizenship out of the kingdom of the dragon and his false Christ, to your loyalty and citizenship to God and his kingdom, and to his king. Let us pray.

 

Closing prayer

Our Father and our God, I do earnestly plead for each person here today, that no one will be so blinded as not to see that we have not been talking about superficial matters, we have not been talking about stories and fairy tales, but about the things that go on in this world that affect the lives of each one of us for life or for death.

And we know that the time is rushing forward from this coming Year of the Dragon to the next time the Year of the Dragon comes by in the year 2000. The time is short, and we pray Father, that you will cause us to see all things clearly and be ready to crown you and your Christ as the king of our lives. We pray that when your judgment comes with flaming fire against the kingdom of the dragon, we will find mercy on that day in your presence, through the blood of your dear Son, through his eternal sacrifice. We ask that you hear our prayer. Amen.