How will we know the Antichrist?
You said — “How will we know the Antichrist?”
Well, from my understanding (which isn’t unique or little-understood, or not taught by a good number of Christian churches [just had to make that clear... :-) ...]) — a Christian will not be seeing the Antichrist, because he will be “revealed” after the Rapture, which then starts off the 7-year Tribulation time. The Antichrist comes into power during this time, and the Christians are not there to see it.
Now, I will admit that there are some Christians who think that they will be there during the time that the Antichrist rules over the entire world, but I believe they are a smaller segment of those who think the time of the Rapture is *prior* to the coming of the Antichrist.
In fact, it’s a Biblical argument that it’s the very *absence* of Christians which *allows* the Antichrist to take control over the world, so that it’s seen as a necessity for Christians to be gone from the scene, otherwise, they would cause the Antichrist too much trouble in trying to take control of the world. The ones who remain will not hinder him from doing so...
Thus, if you are a Christian, you won’t see him (at least, that’s my position and the position of a great many other pastors and teachers and seminaries around this nation... :-) ... ).
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But, having said that, if you wanted some particulars to the identification of the Antichrist, the Bible indicates that he’s an Assyrian or of Assyrian descent, while others think that the Bible has a verse that leads them to believe that the Antichrist is a Jew (I don’t think so). But, in any case, he seems to come from the East (i.e., the Middle East...).
There have come some saying that the Antichrist exhibits all the characteristics of the Islamic “Mahdi”. Now, that’s a compelling idea, but I’m not sold on that one. There are some big problems with that one, I think, although, as I said, it seems somewhat compelling when you hear it. This one was brought forward by Walid Shoebat.
I could direct you to materials that discuss this. Walid Shoebat has a book that discusses it, but I’m not sold on what he has to say, although it’s very, very interesting in light of what Islam is doing. There are plenty of other materials around about the Antichrist being the Assyrian. That would be the main one, in terms of the identity of the Antichrist. American doesn’t show up in Bible prophecy as a “player” in the end times events that the Bible describes. So, anyone who come from America is not going to be a “player” either... America might not even be on the “global scene” any longer, at that time. It may exist but be totally crippled. And that’s probably what is happening with this financial crisis and what the ultimatum from Europe is all about. That would totally cripple and sideline the U.S. in the world and it would crash our economy even more so than it is now...