Who is the ANTICHRIST?

Well, we've been hearing about this for a long time about who is the Antichrist and where will he come from. In every Presidential election in America, people seem to think one of the candidates will be the Antichrist but they are absolutely wrong and have not read their Bible (or unless there happens to be one who is from the area that I will mention). According to the Bible, he will not come out of America.....but Assyria (which can be a reference to modern day Syria or possibly northern Iraq and stretching to the northern part of Africa). In the book of Isaiah, he refers to destroying an 'Assyrian' when God sets up His kingdom on earth (read Isaiah 10:5, 10:12, and 14:25).

It's interesting about chapter 14 in Isaiah because it first talks about how Lucifer was cast out of heaven in verses 12-17. Then it goes on to talk about the 'Assyrian' in verse 25 which the Antichrist (Satan in flesh just as Jesus was God in flesh described in 1 Timothy 3:16) will be destroyed. It also mentions about the prophecy of Christ destroying an 'Assyrian' in Micah 5:5-6 at His second coming. But it gets even more interesting when we read more information about the Antichrist in Daniel 11:37 and understand that the beginning of Daniel 11 describes history that has already been fulfilled until it reaches the latter part of the chapter. Also note that the term "antichrist" isn't found until the New Testament but it's referring to the same individual.

Daniel 11:37 says 'he will not regard the God of his fathers' which is an Old Testament way of referring to him as being Jewish. Now I understand that needs an explanation and I will give it to you. What this means is that he will have a Jewish origin but come out of the land of Syria. You must understand that the Jews won't except him to begin with unless he is a Jew. By the way, this is not an insult to Jews. This is just pointing out that Satan is a counterfeit and he tries to copy God. In this case, Satan will try to use a Jewish person as the Antichrist just as Jesus Christ was a Jew and Satan is just trying to mimic Him. Also notice in Daniel 11:37 that he will not have 'the desire of women.'

Now you can guess all you want, but it's amazing to think about the rise of homosexuality today. We know from reading 1 John 4:3 that the 'spirit of antichrist' is already in the world before he actually shows up. Could it be that he doesn't desire women because he is homosexual? It's a possibility! I now want to focus on WHO is the Antichrist? Well, I could be wrong but with an open mind and an open Bible, I think Jesus told us who it was when He prayed in John 17:12. He was praying for the disciples (later for all believers in verse 20) but in verse 12 he mentioned about the disciples that 'none of them is lost, but the SON OF PERDITION.'

He was referring to Judas Iscariot as the 'son of perdition' and this is important because the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 referred to the Antichrist as the 'son of perdition.' So, it's a possibility that the Antichrist could be a resurrected Judas Iscariot and check this out before you think this sounds weird. In Acts 1:25, it says that after Judas died that he 'went to his own place.' Now, fast forward to Revelation 11:7 where it says 'the beast ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.' How did the 'beast' get there to begin with? Maybe when Judas (who is probably the beast a.k.a. 'Antichrist') went to 'his own place.'

Just something to think about and keep in mind that the Bible says we will have many antichrists before the real one appears. This is found in 1 John 2:18 which says, "LITTLE CHILDREN, IT IS THE LAST TIME: AND AS YE HAVE HEARD THAT ANTICHRIST SHALL COME, EVEN NOW ARE THERE MANY ANTICHRISTS; WHEREFORE WE KNOW THAT IT IS THE LAST TIME." We have already seen many 'antichrists' in history and they are just paving the way for the REAL one to show up!

Some thoughts about the Arizona shootings.

There can be so many things to discuss surrounding this tragic event that happened in Arizona this past Saturday. I want to take this opportunity to focus on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her attempted assassin, Jared Loughner. First thing I would like to share, just for basic information, is Giffords's father is the first cousin to Bruce Paltrow (his daughter is actress, Gwyneth Paltrow). Kind of interesting in general. Also, Giffords was raised in a mixed religious background.

Her father being Jewish and her mother a follower of Christian-Science. Giffords identified herself with Judaism since 2001 and is Arizona's first Jewish Congresswoman. With this in mind, I wonder if her attempted killer may have any Anti-Semitic beliefs, such as the Nazis or so forth? This is just a thought for what it's worth but I don't think any of the media is covering all bases. It's all becoming political by the minute from the 'conservative vs. liberal' talk to the questions of the Second Amendment and gun ownership.

Allow me just to give a brief thought of why this guy, Jared Lee Loughner, did something like this. I know the psycho-analysts blame a lack of self-esteem but they are totally wrong as usual. You see, when someone relentlessly shoots at people (including a 9 year old girl) it's not about self-esteem, it's about SELFISHNESS! He has no care in the world about anyone else but himself and responded out of his disappointments of life by taking the lives of others. The Bible teaches us 'esteem' but not SELF-esteem. It teaches OTHER-esteem! As Philippians 2:3 says, "...let each esteem other better than themselves."

But there's another opinion I have of why Loughner went after Giffords which I did my own piecing together and could be entirely wrong which I humbly accept. Loughner could have been infatuated with Congresswoman Giffords, like one of those stalkers who doesn't want anyone else to have her. It has been revealed today that at his home, he had a letter stored in a safe that goes back to Novemeber of 2007 which was from Giffords's campaign inviting him to a similar event that took place this past Saturday. It was also discovered in the safe that Loughner wrote his plans of an attempted assassination mentioning phrases like "I'm planning ahead", "assasination", and the name "Giffords."

I find it sort of strange that November 2007 is the same month and year when Giffords married astronaut Mark Kelly (November 10, 2007 to be exact). Was Loughner obsessed with Giffords and did this act out of a jealous rage? I don't know, but in the meantime let's pray for her and the families of the victims who lost their lives.