Futurism

According to the futurist view, the antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan, appearing after the secret rapture of the church. He will rebuild the temple, abolish the Christian faith, and pretend to be God. Then he will conquer the world in three and a half years. This view is built upon a false interpretation of the 70 week prophecy of Daniel 9, where the last 7 weeks of the prophecy is torn off and thrown to the end of time. This view of prophecy was developed by a Jesuit scholar to counter the teaching of the Protestant reformers. It was published in 1585 by Francisco Ribera.

Anything But Secret

Besides the prophetic error, the bible teaches that Jesus’ coming will be anything but secret. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). This is just one of many references to the coming of Jesus being like lightning ripping across the sky.

Type Explains Antitype

When the flood inundated the world, Noah and his family went through the cataclysm in the safety of God’s ark. When the plagues fell on Egypt, the Israelites were right there in the midst of them, protected by God’s hand. From its formation to the present time God’s church as rarely been out of tribulation. These are powerful types that help us to understand the future. The climax of the Great Controversy will develop no differently than the precedent typical events. The faithful will go through the final Tribulation. Actually, that is the point of the tribulation.

A Time Problem

Another problem is that the apostles said that the spirit of antichrist was already in the world in their time (1 John 4:3), but that his power would grow to a crescendo at the end of time. In other words, the antichrist wasn’t in the past, but in the present, and would continue to the end of time. This is why the Protestant reformers all recognized Daniel’s 70 week prophecy as pointing to papal Rome.

Once Again, the Whole World Wanders After the Beast

Notwithstanding these monumental obstacles, futurism (which is the mother of dispensationalism) was accepted by key Protestant theologians, refined into various interpretations over the years, and has been embraced by most Protestant churches today. The irony is that the Protestants, who originally broke away (and paid a high price to do so) from what they recognized as the harlot antichrist of Rome, have become the papacy’s greatest ally in championing its Jesuit authored futurist propaganda. A stunning reversal indeed!


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