Jesus Christ
27 (note) And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await (apekdechomai - in the present tense = as one's habitual practice - a lifestyle of "looking" for Jesus) Him.
Comment: This passage appears to speak primarily of Christ's Second Coming. However in view of the verb "eagerly await" there is a sense in which His return is pictured as imminent, and this would speak of the Rapture for those believers who live prior to the Tribulation. In addition "a second time for salvation" is a description of our "future tense salvation" or glorification, an event that will be experienced by some saints at the Rapture and for others who come to faith in the Tribulation their glorification will be realized at His Second Coming. Once again, it seems the predominant idea is that God wants His children "future focused", for such "heavenly" looking motivates sound godly living.
Ray Stedman: This is the only place in the New Testament where the return of Christ is called a second coming. During His first coming, He dealt with the problem of human sin on the cross; at His second coming the full effect of that sacrifice will be manifested in the resurrection (or “transformation”—1 Cor 15:51-52) of the bodies of those who wait for Him. (Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: InterVarsity Press) (Bolding added)
but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.
Comment: This could refer to the Rapture, but probably more likely refers to the Second Coming at the end of the Great Tribulation (John MacArthur favors this view). Thomas Constable interprets this as most likely a reference to both the Rapture and the Second Coming.
2 Peter 1:16 (note)
For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
Comment: This is an interesting verse for some conservative commentators (Thomas Constable, J Vernon McGee) feel this passage refers to the first coming (and Jesus' transfiguration) but a others (John MacArthur, Henry Morris) feel it speaks of His Second Coming! MacDonald deftly includes both an allusion to the transfiguration and the Second Coming explaining that "The Transfiguration was a preview of Christ's coming in power to reign over all the earth (Ed: "The Second Coming)" (Ref)
1. CERTAIN. “If I go, I will come again” (John 14:3). His coming again, then, is as certain as His departure. “If I go, I will come.” This is not the coming of death, but Himself. “The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven” (1 Thess. 4:16).
2. PERSONAL. “This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go” (Acts 1:11). A spiritual coming, or the coming of the Holy Ghost, is not “this same Jesus.”
Many perceive that only a strong and charismatic power can bring unity to the struggling EU. In fact, your Bible prophesies that such a leader is coming, symbolized as a beast with seven heads and ten horns. God reveals the meaning of this symbol: “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast” (Revelation 17:12–13).
Ten kings or kingdoms will support this charismatic leader, producing a powerful, unified force. Currently, the European Union is not so unified, but watch for international events that will spur a future combination of nations in Europe to fulfill a final revival of the historic Roman Empire, which will dominate the world politically and militarily. Notice the description of its power: “And all the world marveled and followed the beast… and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” (Revelation 13:3–4). The world power structure will change dramatically over the coming years. Watch developments in Europe as an ascendant European Union seeks and ultimately achieves global primacy.
We’ve seen the prophecy that a great superpower will ascend on the world scene, but notice that there’s another world figure also described as a beast. This symbolic beast has two horns like a lamb.
On 4 November 2012, just two days before the most recent US presidential election, Texas “Megachurch” pastor Robert Jeffress (1956– ) proclaimed that a vote for the incumbent candidate Barack Obama (1961– ) represented a vote for the coming of Antichrist. “President Obama is not the Antichrist,” Jeffress qualified to his listeners, “But what I am saying is this: the course he is choosing to lead our nation is paving the way for the future reign of Antichrist” [1]. Over the last four years, other evangelical Christians and additional critics of the president have been less circumspect about the apocalyptic implications of Obama’s presidency and his identity as Antichrist. One popular email-chain that made the rounds in the fall 2008 alerted readers, referring to the Book of Revelation as its source:
Naysayers have refuted this particular claim, pointing out (among other things) that the Book of Revelation says nothing directly about Antichrist, his age, or his status as a Muslim. The association of Barack Obama with Antichrist, however, will not be easily turned aside. One video posted on Youtube from January 2009, titled “Is Barack Obama Antichrist?” opens with scenes of Hitler and his mesmerizing political performances before cutting to scenes of Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 [3]. The implications are clear. This video goes on to claim that certain letter-sequences in the Book of Revelation link Obama to Antichrist. As of December 2012 it has garnered close 1.5 million hits. A more recent video posted in September 2012 confidently declares “The Antichrist is Barack Obama.” While ominous music plays in the background, this production combines scriptural citations with recent clips from the media to assert that the president meets an impressive 14 out of 16 characteristics required for being Antichrist [4].
“And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him, whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying: That all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity.”
At this point, one should also take note of an alternative notion of Antichrist as a corporate entity rather than individual figure, paralleling the “body of Christ” as the assembly of the faithful ([7], p. 78). Although the first letter of John 2:16–21 indicates the coming of Antichrist at the “last hour,” this biblical text suggests a collective sense of Antichrist as anyone who denies God the Father and the Son. For patristic Christian theologians such as Augustine of Hippo (354–430), this idea of a corporate Antichrist held great appeal as a far safer mode of historical interpretation. Augustine did not deny the future reality of Antichrist as an individual who will come to persecute the faithful during the end of days. Nevertheless, in works such as his magisterial City of God, he spent little time indulging in the imagined details of Antichrist’s reign. As is well known, by his mature phase of thinking, Augustine opposed overt forms of apocalyptic speculation about the future course of history, including the notion that there would be a transformative millennial age of peace and justice on earth after the defeat of Antichrist along with the “binding” of Satan (Rev. 20: 1–2) and the coming of the Lord in Final Judgment. For Augustine, such fantasies about a Sabbath age were fit only for “carnal-minded” Jews and heretics, distracting from the true eschatological culmination of history in God’s eternal kingdom ([7], pp. 76–77; [13,14]). In this regard, Augustine and other conservative patristic figures emphasized the nature of Antichrist as the collective embodiment of those things, peoples, and deeds opposed to Christ, creating an influential counterweight to the
In recent years, Lindsay’s prediction that Antichrist will be European has clearly given way to the far more immediate anxiety that Antichrist will be an American political leader
However, the idea about God’s greatest opponent is found both in the Old and
New Testaments. The first prophetic notion of the Antichrist is found in Genesis
3:15, where God said to the serpent (i.e. Satan): “And I will put enmity between
you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall [a]bruise you
on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Christ is the seed of woman,
while the Antichrist is the seed of Satan and the Devil (Dufield and van Cleave,
1987, 536). The Old Testament does not provide the full picture of the Antichrist,
because Christ was not yet revealed, but it does provide basic notions about him
in the descriptions of the opposition between individuals or nations toward God.
Opposing God’s kingdom means opposing God. Bad people, who were notorious
for their wickedness, have been called “the sons (i.e. people) of Belial (Beliar)”
(Heb. belial: worthless, useless) (cf Deut 13:14; Judges 19:22; 20:13; 1 Sam 1:16).
The unsuccessful conspiracy of the people against the Anointed One of God is a
hint of the notion of the Antichrist. In the Book of Daniel we find a story about
an evil leader, who will oppose the Lord, and His people Israel. This evil leader
is portrayed as a Northern king (Dn 11:40), who will come with a great army to
destroy peoples, persecute the righteous (Dn 7:25), and sow death (Dn 8:10). The
smaller horn (Dn 7:8-21) seems to be referring to the ultimate enemy of God.
Furthermore, the portrait of this “king of the North” (Dn 11), this personification of evil, has helped significantly in shaping the New Testament person of the
Antichrist (Blevins, 1991, 63)
The Holy Scriptures,” Flacius points out, “do not only oppose the Pope and his
fallacies in terms of outlining an opposing teaching, but also by explicitly stating
that the Antichrist will come, by clearly stating that it is the Pope himself, and by
describing his fallacies and frenzy. Saint Paul also teaches that the Antichrist will
sit in the temple of God, where he will proclaim his power and enforce his tyranny. And the temple of God is His entire church… And who else has exalted and
magnified himself, and made himself more prominent, if not the Pope?” (Vlačić,
1998, 14).
It is, however, certain that the pope was posing as the vicar of Christ, and that
he took for himself a power greater than the power which the Son of God took
for Himself. In fact, Christ was always obedient to the Scriptures and He claimed
that all He was doing and suffering was for the fulfillment of the Scriptures. The
pope, on the other hand, claimed that he was able to provide forgiveness, going
against the words of Paul the Apostle and Evangelist, and that he was able to turn
a wrong into a right, and vice-versa (Vlačić, 1998, 14).
Paul the Apostle clearly pointed out when the time of the Antichrist’s appea-