But doesn’t the Bible clearly reveal the Anti Christ, the man of sin is a religious power? Paul says he stands in the holy place , proclaiming himself to be God, Daniel says says this power would rule for 1260 years. From 538 to 1798, the papacy ruled. Exactly 1260 years.
She is a counterfeit religious power. She speaks blasphemy, saying she can absolve sins. Jesus was accused of blasphemy by saying he forgave sins of people who came to him. This false power , the papacy, fits all the characteristics of the great pretender. The name of the game in Revelation is deception.
And the protestant reformers themselves said it was the Romish power. Wesley, etc. So this is not new to Adventism. The term Anti Christ means IN PLACE of God, not against God. She stands in the holy place, she is in the church.
There is so much more I could say that reveals who she is....a woman in prophecy is a church......not a secular power. The whore of babylon, babylon represents religious confusion.
Beside, a secular power, like communism or socialism wouldn’t fool anyone. That is why she got into the church...Satan works through his Vicegerant....the man of sin, the religious system of works. And her wound has healed. She now influences the world and bides her time and she will have her power again...even now the evangelicals are reaching out to her....The whore and her daughters....
I think it’s supposed to be 1260 days-aka 3 1/2 years so, the last half of the Great Tribulation coming soon to a planet near you.
The False Prophet (the second beast) is the religious power.
This is another beast coming up in Revelation 13:11 if memory serves.
The first Beast (”Antichrist”, colloquially) that is mentioned is a world leader, portrayed as a “messiah”.
The False Prophet demands and enforces worship of the Antichrist by making an image come to life - just as Satan’s false prophets turned their staffs into snakes, I expect he will bring a statue to “life” by the same Satanic power. This will astonish the world; plus the miraculous recovery of the Antichrist who appeared to have been killed.
It is the False Prophet that actually enforces the Mark of the Beast upon the world (except for Tribulation Saints who refuse to their deaths)
YMMV
God bless
Socialism is a religion unto itself.
Socialism is a religion unto itself and it bypasses all the religions and is able to bind them in a coherent unit, which is its trick.
As a former cradle Roman Catholic (from acolyte as a kid to deacon — and brother a priest and then bishop), both myself and my brother (deceased) had serious issues with the Church. He openly wondered if the current pope was an anti-pope, if that gives you an idea of our opinion of how the Church has fallen.
They said, the focus on Christiandom is, I think, partially misplaced. Islam and Mohammed clearly figure into Revelation somehow.
I mean, there is currently sitting on the threshing floor on the Temple Mount a Islamic monstrosity (paid for and repaired by no less than Hitler and Mussolini, replete with the finest Italian marble) that literally says around its top “God has no son” in Arabic.
Well; if one actually READS to bible to find out...
These are the only places that the word antichrist is mentioned in the Bible.1 John 2:18
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22
Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist — denying the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3
...but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist , which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
2 John 1:7
I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.