Derek Prince - The Overthrow Of The Antichrist
This is the judgment seat of Christ. Then we come to the overthrow of the antichrist and his forces. Now, in 1 John 4 John speaks about antichrist in three ways: the spirit of antichrist, many antichrists and the antichrist. The spirit of antichrist is the spirit that operates through every antichrist. The many antichrists have been here since the second century A.D. One of the most significant was Bar Kochba who claimed to be the messiah and led the Jewish people in the final revolt against Rome which was utterly suppressed and the whole nation was either killed or taken into captivity. There was another one called Shabbatide Spee, in the 17th century, who claimed to be the messiah and said he would take the Jewish people back to the Middle East and plant them in their land. He went to the Middle East, was arrested by the Turks and converted to Islam.
So that was a disappointment. The Jewish encyclopedia records about forty false messiahs that have come to the Jewish people since the time of Jesus. Jesus said, Many will come in my name saying, I am the messiah and will deceive many. So there have been many antichrists and a lot of antichrists in the church, we don’t need to be too specific about that. But the antichrist has not yet come. I personally believe his shadow has fallen across the stage of human history but he has not emerged. He will be the final embodiment of all that is evil and satanic. When he rules humanity, which he will for about three and a half years that will be the worst period in human history. God will permit this because He says to the human race: Well, you’ve made your choice.
Now, see what you’ve chosen. You’ve rejected me, you’ve rejected my Son, this is the alternative. Help yourself. Have you ever discovered that God doesn’t teach just in theory? No. You can say, God, I really learned that principle. That’s fine, God says: now let’s see it worked out in your life. That’s going to be true of humanity. Humanity is going to get the most terrible lesson that humanity has ever had. You see, Pontius Pilate brought before the Jewish people two men, Jesus and Barabbas. Barabbas was a criminal, a violent man, an agitator. He said, Which of these will I release? And they said, Give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus. At the end of this age the human race will do something similar. They’ll say, We don’t want this Christ, give us the leader of our choice. This brilliant, talented, supernaturally empowered man, we want him.
And you know what happened, the Jewish people got him. They also said to Pilate, We have no king but Caesar. It’s an amazing thing for Jewish people to say, and for nineteen centuries they’ve been ruled by the Caesars and the Barabbases have been turned loose on them. That’s really the essence of Jewish history. The same thing is going to happen to the human race. We’re going to get what we choose. Those of us who choose Jesus will be under His government. Those of us who reject Jesus will be under the government of the antichrist. I have to go on. The overthrow of the antichrist, Revelation 19:19-21 This is where Jesus appears from heaven riding on a white horse. Do you believe there are horses in heaven? I do. Whether you do or not that makes no difference to me. The One who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
Notice, Jesus makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many diadems (royal crowns). And then it says in verse 15: Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule the nations with a scepter of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of God. He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords. This is Jesus coming forth as God’s appointed ruler to deal with the wicked.
And then it says a little further on in that chapter, verses 19-21: I saw the beast, the name of the antichrist. It’s quite interesting, Revelation, the final book of the Bible, has two characters that are set in opposition to one another. One is the Lamb, the other is the beast. The Lamb is Jesus. The beast is the antichrist. The word ‘the Lamb’ occurs twenty-eight times in the book of Revelation. The beast occurs thirty-three times in reference to the antichrist. This is the end time conflict. It's between the beast and the Lamb. And you know who wins? The Lamb, that’s right. And that’s a lesson for us because we don’t win by violence, we don’t win by hatred, we don’t win by being tough. We win by laying our lives down like Jesus.
In the fifth chapter of Revelation John was weeping because no one was there to open the scroll? One of the elders said: Don’t weep, it’s all right. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. Bear in mind, dearly beloved, that Jesus still is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. You know what name we get from Judah? Jew. So He’s still a Jew. He didn’t become a Jew just for thirty-three years. He identified with the tribe of Judah for time and eternity. Bear in mind when you get mixed up with the Jews you’re getting mixed up with the brothers and sisters of Jesus. You’d better be careful.
The beast and the kings of the air and their armies gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. The beast and the false prophet were captured, who worked signs by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. And the rest of their followers were killed with the sword which preceded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. That’s God’s garbage collection system. It’s the birds. They’ll clean up everything. All they’ll leave is clean bones. You find in Ezekiel they’ll have a system of burying those bones.We won’t go into that.