According
to a recent popular video on the
rapture, “Evangelist Greg Laurie has suggested that a massive Jesus revival in
America could lead to Christians being snatched from Earth, removing the U.S.
from the End Times conflict.” But why couldn’t a massive Jesus revival in
America instead lead to Christians changing America?
In his
interview with PureFlix, Laurie
“recalled that one of the earmarks of the Jesus movement of the 1960s and 1970s
was that people believed Jesus was coming soon.” He went on to say, “we’ve
never been closer to the return of Jesus than right now.” This means that for
nearly 60 years millions of Christians have been preoccupied with the return of
Jesus. It’s no wonder that our nation has lost much of its Christian
foundation.
Let’s not
forget that books by Hal Lindsey and Chuck Smith predicted that the “rapture”
would take place before 1988. That was 30 years ago. The Bible passages that
were used in the 1970s to “prove” that the “rapture” would take place 40 years
from 1948 (=1988) are the same passages Laurie and others are using today to
claim the rapture is near.
He went
on to speculate on why the United States and North Korea are not mentioned in
end-time prophecy. The answer is simple: the prophetic material in the New
Testament is about events that were to happen to that first-century generation
leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Jesus was clear on this
point: “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matt. 24:34). “This generation” always refers
to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking (23:36; 10:23; 11:16; 12:39, 41,
42; 45; Luke 11:50, 51; 17:25).
In
“America, Antichrist, and the End of Days,” a talk he gave earlier this year,
Laurie focused on the antichrist. He began by claiming that there are over 100
passages in the Bible that talk about the antichrist.
·
“In fact, he will be a very charismatic world leader. A great
orator, very convincing, probably very handsome.
·
“He is going to do things that no world leader has ever done
before. He is going to solve the Middle East conflict, and is going to rid the
world at least temporarily of terrorism. He is going to be hailed as the
greatest peace talker that ever lived.”
·
The antichrist, he said, will even “get the Jewish nations and the
Arab nations to sign a peace treaty that will pave the way for the long-awaited
Third Temple [of which the New Testament says nothing]. The antichrist will be
a satanic superman. But it’s all a mask hiding who he really is, [namely] the
most evil man that ever lived.”
·
“The dominant force of the end times is going to be a confederation
of ten nations led by an individual called the antichrist.”
What the
Bible really says about antichrist
There are
only four passages in the Bible that use the word ‘antichrist’ and
Laurie does not mention any of them. Curiously, the book of Revelation does
not use the word antichrist. Not one of these passages mentions anything that
Laurie says about his version of antichrist. Read the passages for yourselves:
1.
“Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard
that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared;
from this we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). (“Now” refers to John’s day and
audience.)
2.
“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the
Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father
and the Son” (1 John 2:22). (Notice
that it’s not a political personage.)
3.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does
not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of
which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the
world” (1 John 4:2-3). (The
antichrist was alive and well in John’s day: “now it is already in the world.”)
4.
“For many deceivers have gone out into the
world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This
is the deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 7). (Past tense. There were many
antichrists.)
Notice
that there were “now many antichrists” (1 John 2:18). “Now” refers to John’s day.
In 1 John 2:22, we find, “Who is the liar
but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the
one who denies the Father and the Son.” In 2 John 7, we find the biblical definition
that compliments what we read in 1 John 2:22: “For many deceivers have
gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as
coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” “Have gone out.”
This is a “when” passage. John’s describing his day.
In his
latest interview, Laurie speculated, “We know that the players of the last days
will be the forces united under the anti-Christ going into a great battle in
the battle of Armageddon with the kings of the East.” Really? Where does John
say this? He doesn’t.
John’s
definition of antichrist is exclusively theological. Nothing is said about a
charismatic leader, solving the Middle East conflict, ridding the world
temporarily of terrorism, getting the Jewish nations and the Arab nations to
sign a peace treaty that will pave the way for the long-awaited Third Temple, a
satanic superman, namely, “the most evil man that ever lived.” Nowhere do we
find John describing a ten-nation confederation led by an or the antichrist.
John was
describing antichrists (plural) in his day as evidence that “it is the last
hour” (1 John 2:18). What did John mean by “the last
hour”? It’s a reference to the prophecy Jesus made in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) and other places (Luke 11:46-52; 13:34-35; 17:22-37; 19:41-44) that a prophetic event was going to
take place before their generation passed away. When John wrote his first
epistle, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was very near. For a
verse-by-verse study of Matthew 24, see my books Last Days Madness1 , Wars and Rumors of Wars, and my shorter
study Is Jesus Coming Soon?
Conclusion
The
definition of an antichrist is self-evident: It’s someone who denies that Jesus
had come in the flesh and thereby “denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). Who does John have in mind? The
antichrists were most likely the unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ day. The early
adversaries of Jesus and the gospel message were Jews as were the earlier
believers. Jews denied Jesus as the true temple and lamb of God (John 1:29; 2:19; 8:59; Matt. 12:14; John 10:31; 11:8).
Laurie
also believes in something called “the rapture” when the church (Christian
believers) will be taken to heaven prior to a seven-year period that
encompasses a period of Great Tribulation when billions of people will be
slaughtered, including millions of Jews, God’s “chosen people.” He writes, “there
are perhaps 50 million legitimate Christians in America today.”
If this
is true, and those 50 million Christians acted as a block in every area of
life, including politics, wouldn’t this mean a radical transformation of the
United States? Instead, Laurie is looking for an escape hatch known as the
“rapture.”
Notes:
1.
Laurie mentions the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thess. 2). Last Days Madness includes two
chapters on the Man of Lawlessness.(