Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 3 * BOOK 71
ANTI-CHRIST: THE BEAST, THE WICKED ONE – 3
Daniel 9:27 – Revelation 19:11
For those of you joining us on television again, we appreciate you bringing us into your living room, kitchen, or wherever. How we appreciate your response to our teaching. We just give God the praise. How we thank you for your letters, especially when you write and tell us that for years you never had any interest in spiritual things. My, we get letters from people who haven’t been to church in years, and they get hooked. I don’t like to use the word, because it always reminds me of the drug culture, but they get hooked on our program, and it changes their life. I know one fellow wrote and he said, “Les, I used to just give up trying to read and understand the Bible. It lay on the shelf and collected dust, but you have taught me how to study, and it is so much fun.”
And that’s the right word. It’s fun to go through these Scriptures and see how it all fits. Of course, that’s what makes our Bible so unique. Unlike all the so-called religious books, it’s not laid out like a story book, but it’s a book that has to be put together like a jigsaw puzzle. That’s a good example. You just put the pieces together and you connect the dots and then all of a sudden it all just makes sense.
We are in the last four programs of book number 71. Now, for those of you out in television, it may not mean much to you. But each book that we list is twelve successive programs. So, if you want to know how many programs we’ve got in inventory, you just multiply 71 times 12 and that’s over 800.
Okay, continuing on about the anti-Christ and those final seven years that the Bible calls the Day of the LORD. We’re going to go to the one and only place that I’m aware of in Scripture where the man is referred to as the anti-Christ. That will be in I John chapter 2 verse 18. I don’t know of any other place where he’s referred to by this term. Now again remember, all of these little Jewish epistles especially are writing with the idea that this is right out in front of them. They have no idea that God is going to stop the time clock and open it up for the Church Age for 2,000 years. So he speaks of it as though it could happen the next month or two.
I John 2:18a
“Little children, (He’s writing to believing Jews.) it is the (What?) last time:…” Well, that means what it says, so far as John was concerned. So far as his fellow believers are concerned, they were right in the last days.
I John 2:18b
“…it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, (future) even now there are many antichrists;…” (plural) Well, now let’s just flip back a minute. Keep your hand in I John. We may want to come back to it. Come all the way back to Matthew chapter 24. We looked at this several programs back, but remember, repetition is the mother of learning. Matthew 24 and the Twelve have come up with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Olives without any outside adherents. No pressure. Just Jesus and the Twelve.
Matthew 24:3-4a
“And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples (the Twelve) came unto him privately, (without any other onlookers or whatever) saying, Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age? 4. And Jesus answered and said unto them,…” Fellows, you’re crazy, you don’t know what you’re talking about! NO! That’s not the attitude He takes. He gives them a specific answer, because it was a valid question. What are the signs of the end? That’s why I think it behooves us to look at it today. Hey, we’re just as close now as they thought they were then. So, we have to look at the signs of the time.
Matthew 24:4b
“…Take heed that no man deceive you.” Now you out there probably don’t realize as much as I do, with the response that we get, the false teaching that is just coming in like a tsunami. It’s coming in like a huge wave. And it comes in all colors and descriptions. It’s just unbelievable…and people are falling for it. They’re sending their money to it. I constantly tell people, don’t send them your money. Why contribute to something that is so false. But it’s just like water off a duck, but that’s the sign of the times.
Matthew 24:4b-5
“…Take heed that no man deceive you. 5. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” Well, in John’s language from his little epistle, what are they calling themselves? Well, they’re anti-Christs – plural. But, who is going to be the epitome of all of them, the anti-Christ, the man that we’ve been looking at—the Son of Perdition, the Prince that shall come.
Now, I know I made definition of the anti-Christ several programs back, and I’m going to have to qualify that a little bit. Number 1, the word anti doesn’t specifically mean against as what? Counterfeit. He’s a counterfeit Christ.
When I mull these things over, then I have to bring it into the language as we use it. During World War II what did many of the axis nations that were against us, Hitler’s Germany, Italy, and Japan—what was one of the things they tried to use to defeat America? They flooded the world with counterfeit American money. Now think about that a minute. It was all counterfeit. But what was the end purpose? To defeat our nation.
All right, now maybe that will enhance the word anti-Christ a little more. Yes, he’s going to be a counterfeit Messiah. But in counterfeiting the Messiah, what is his end purpose? To defeat God and the true Messiah. And it’s going to look like he’s succeeding. But, oh, he won’t. God is still in His Heaven, and one day He’s going to bring it all to an end. All right, so mark that down. When I say that anti-Christ is a counterfeit Christ, yes, the end result is the enemy activity to destroy his opposition.
Also, we find then that one of the marks of the coming Tribulation will be a flood of false Christs, but they’ll be headed up by the anti-Christ. Come back to I John chapter 2 so that you’ll see that there is a singular as well as a plural.
I John 2:18
“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist (singular) shall come, (Well, how did they know that? From the Old Testament prophecies—the Prince that shall come, this deceiver, the anti-Christ. But even now John says–) even now there are many antichrists; (Many deceivers, as we saw in Matthew 24.) whereby we know that it is the last time.”
Now if you remember, when we taught these little epistles, yes, they thought it was right out in front of them. And God didn’t give them any reason not to think that. Even the Apostle Paul, as he wrote to his Gentile believers in the Body of Christ, speaks of the rapture. How does he speak of it? Does he speak of it as something 1,900 years out into the future?
“For we shall be caught up and we shall be ever with the Lord.” Who was he including? Himself. So, they were all of that mentality that this was all approaching the coming of the anti-Christ, the seven years, the Second Coming, and the Kingdom.
They did not understand that there would be another 1,900 years in between. But where does that put us? In the very same place — I can now sit here and teach you just like John said here, beloved, there are already many anti-Christs in the world. The deception is coming in. But what does that tell us? We’re at the end. Now, I’m not saying it’s next year or it’s in five, but we’re getting close.
You know, I keep repeating something that I said way back in my early programs – the old caveman was sitting at the cave door. You remember it? And he had a sign over it, “The End Is Near.” And then I guess he had second thoughts and what did he add? The ‘ER’. So, every day we live, we are what? We’re nearer to the end. I’m not going to be apocalyptic and say, oh my, it’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s going to happen next week. But we’re getting close. Again I always repeat, God’s wheels grind what? Slowly. God’s eternal. He’s not going to get in a hurry. But we do feel by all the indications around us that we’re getting close.
All right, now to pursue this a little more. We’ve got the anti-Christ covered. We’ve got the Prince covered. We’ve got the Son of Perdition and the Wicked One also covered. I’ve got one left. What is it? The Beast. All through Scripture he’s referred to as the Beast.
Now, let’s jump on up to Revelation chapter 13. Revelation is, of course, the roadmap for the last seven years, with all the details that the Old Testament didn’t reveal. But here they are. That’s the whole Book of Revelation. It’s the roadmap for that last seven years of what we call the Tribulation. Revelation chapter 13 and we’ll start at verse 1. John says:
Revelation 13:1a
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea,..” Now we’ve got to qualify, don’t we? Come back with me to Revelation chapter 1, which says again just like John said in his first epistle.
Revelation 1:1a
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants (that is Christ’s servants) things which must shortly come to pass;…” Well, it is the same analogy. They thought that all of this was right out in front of them, and the Holy Spirit caused these men to write in that same mindset, that this was all in the immediate future.
But now you come down to verse 10. He’s beginning to set the stage for the revelation of all these things that are going to take place during that final seven years. All right, John writes:
Revelation 1:10a
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,…” Not Sunday, but what’s the Day of the LORD? Those final seven years! John is being transported, like a time machine, into the very future of those seven years. And miraculously, by the Spirit’s design, reveals the unfolding of those seven years. So, that’s what it means that “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” He was transported into that future period of time.
All right, now back to Revelation 13, while he’s experiencing that supernatural phenomenon of seeing the events of those final seven years, here is one of those things.
Revelation 13:1a
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea,…” Now, as we taught years back in this Book of Revelation, what is the sea symbolically? Humanity. He’s standing upon the sea of the thriving millions of humanity, and up out of that fomenting sea of humanity comes what? One tremendous individual.
Revelations 13:1
“And I stood upon the sands of the sea, and saw a beast (There’s the term.) beast rise up out of the sea, (Now, this is all symbolism, remember.) having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Now, I’ve taught this earlier, but I’d better stop and repeat it again. The Beast refers to the final empire, this worldwide empire of this world dictator. They’re both called the Beast. All right, so here we have the empire of which he’s coming out of. I think it’s the Revived Roman Empire — “Having seven heads and ten horns.”
Now, horns always depict government in Scripture. And even in the book I was reading the other night in history, the first thing old Nimrod did when he killed some wild beast was he cut its horn off and plastered it on a headpiece. It was an indication that he was now a ruler. So, it’s carried all the way through human history. A horn spoke of a government.
Alexander the Great, back in the Book of Daniel, what is it? A horn. And the same way here. This empire is depicted now as “having seven heads and ten horns” (or nations that are going to coalesce and come together) and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” It is an anti-God empire. All right, now then verse 2.
Revelation 13:2a
“And the beast (this empire) which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon (Satan) gave him his power,…” So, this is going to be a complete satanic controlled earth kingdom. And God is merely going to be sovereignly letting it happen. But He’ll never relinquish His power. Don’t ever worry about that.
Revelation 13:2b
“…and the dragon (Satan) gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Now we’re talking about the individual, the anti-Christ, the Beast, the Prince that shall come, the Son of Perdition. All right, verse 3, now we come back to, I think, the empire.
Revelation 13:3
“And I saw a one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Now, I didn’t intend this to be a study of the Book of Revelation, but when you get into it, you’ve got to take it as it comes.
Here we have, I think, the death of the original Roman Empire. Now some will teach this is the death of the anti-Christ, and he’ll be miraculously raised from the dead. I prefer to think that it’s the death of the Roman Empire, and it died between A.D. 300 and A.D. 400. It went into the dustbin of history.
But now, with the advent of the European Community, here it’s coming once again. What have I said for 30 years as I’ve taught Scripture? Watch Western Europe. Because right after World War II, the ten major nations of Western Europe met in Rome and they formed what was called the Club of Rome. It was that original ten nations of what is still the European Union. I feel that was the beginning of a revival of that Roman Empire that died back there between A.D. 300 and A.D. 400.
All right, here we’ve got it now. It was dead; miraculously it’s coming back to life. You know, I mentioned on a program a long time ago and this was in, I think, probably one of our daily newspapers. At least I read it some place. That at the time the Italian, now I’ve forgotten his name, (Romano) but anyway, now this is one of those things I didn’t plan on sharing. But this Italian head of state was having dinner at the White House. It was just after they had brought in another 15 or 20 of the Eastern European Nations into the European Union. And this Italian was bragging to President Bush of how the Western European Nations were growing. I suppose he was sort of letting him know that we’re going to go right by you in population and gross domestic product and all the rest. But anyhow, George W. stopped and he said, “But Romano,” he said, “That was the Roman Empire.”
Well, now I don’t know if he spoke from biblical knowledge or what, but that’s true. That’s exactly what it is. It’s the reappearing of the old ancient Roman Empire. It was dead and now it’s alive. All right, verse 3.
Revelation 13:3b
“and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Now again, we’re going to take the word beast as defining the man as well as his empire from which he will draw his power. All right, verse 4.
Revelation 13:4a
“And they worshipped the dragon who gave power to the beast:…” What does that mean? The world is going to fall completely into Satan worship, as they worship the anti-Christ, because that’s what he is. He is the epitome of satanic operations. He is going to be wicked. He’s going to be evil, and yet he’s going to have charisma. He’s going to have intelligence to make the world think that he is their god. It’s coming.
And you can see it by the way people fall for all this false stuff. They’re ignorant of the Scriptures. Consequently, if it sounds good, hey, that’s what they have to believe. All right, coming back to Revelation 13 verse 4.
Revelation 13:4
“And they worshipped the dragon who gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” So now we’re talking about the man, the man anti-Christ. But he’s got that ten-nation consortium of Western Europe, I feel, behind him. They’re doing the financing.
You know, I mentioned on the program a while back that nobody can do anything without money. You know that. Nations cannot do anything without a viable economy behind it. They have to be funded. And that’s why if they could ruin our currency with counterfeit, hey, we’d go down the tube. And that’s the one thing that scares me for America. All of these foreign people that are just raking in the trillions of dollar are investing it in our American economy. And if they would decide to pull it, it would just simply crash us. So, we have to hope and pray that they don’t do that.
But nevertheless, here again, I feel that these ten nations that make up this European Community, or European Union, will be the foundation from which this man anti-Christ will take on complete world dominion. All right, now then verse 5:
Revelation 13:5
“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue (to carry on his worldwide endeavors and his rule for another) forty and two months.” That’s three and a half years. So, that takes us from the middle to the end of the Tribulation. All right, verse 6:
Revelation 13:6-7a
“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,…” Now you want to remember, there are going to be people being saved during the Tribulation while these 144,000 Jews are preaching. So, he’s going to cause misery and persecution upon anyone who becomes a believer.
Revelation 13:7b-8a
“…to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. (all under one man, remember) 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall (What?) worship him,…” Now, we’re still talking about the Prince that shall come, out of Daniel. I hope you’re staying with me now. Here is where he comes to his final time of power and rule especially in the last half or the last three and a half years.
Revelation 13:8-10
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. (It’s going to be a constant retribution thing.) Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”
All right, now while we’ve got this minute left, remember, there is another key player during the Tribulation that we call the false prophet. And here he comes, beginning in verse 11. He’s going to work hand-in-glove with the anti-Christ. Was it Lenin who said that religion was the opiate of the masses? Well, to a degree that’s true. Look at your world today. What makes them react in violence and killing and murder? Religion! All right, so what is the anti-Christ going to use to maintain control over his masses? Religion. And how is the religion going to do it? Through one man, a false prophet, he will be the religious leader. All right, here he comes now.
Revelation 13:11-12
“And I beheld another beast (another great world leader under the anti-Christ) coming up out of the earth; (In other words, the mass of humanity that is not in any way, shape, or form in a relationship with God.) and he had two horns like a lamb, (Showing that he’s not a militant.) and he spake like a dragon. 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,…” So, they’re going to work hand-in-glove.