Revelation 17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”
In this section we want to discuss the origin of the anti-Christ i.e. where does he come from? The apostle John is the one who specifically named this individual the “anti-Christ” (1 John 2:18). In that same passage John goes on to say that there are indeed many anti-Christ’s that have arisen, speaking of those who deny that Jesus is the Christ and go around proclaiming that false message to others. Nevertheless John was referring to one specific individual when he named this person the anti-Christ. The anti-Christ has various other titles ascribed to him, i.e. the apostle John also refers to him as the beast (Revelation 13:3), and the apostle Paul refers to him as the man of sin, the son of perdition and the lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8). So who is the anti-Christ? It is very amusing to see the various predictions that are made by numerous “end time teachers” as to who they say the anti-Christ is. Their predictions range from the latest Pope to the latest American president and anyone else of notoriety they can think of. Nevertheless their predictions always change when that person either dies or moves off the world stage. The bible however, reveals to us a very different person to any predicted by the many end time “teachers” that are out there. For example, we have already learned in this teaching that the anti-Christ will emerge from within the Muslim faith, and that he will reign over the ten Islamic states which will comprise the core of his kingdom. So what else does scripture reveal to us about this individual? In the book of Revelation John reveals to us that the number of the beast is 666, which he tell us is the number of a man (Revelation 13:18). And so we know that the anti-Christ is a man. However, although the anti-Christ is a man we shall see in this section that he is no ordinary man. So how do we know that? In the above quoted passage of scripture the angel, in teaching us about the anti-Christ, tells us that the beast was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit. In other words this passage teaches us that the anti-Christ was on the earth once before; that he is no longer on the earth but he is currently in the bottomless pit, and that he will eventually ascend out of the bottomless pit to come back to the earth. The apostle Paul teaches us along those same lines; when he tells us that the anti-Christ is currently being restrained so that he may be revealed in his own time, and only when the one who is restraining him is taken out of the way then the lawless one will finally be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8). And so we see that the reason the anti-Christ is currently being restrained is because he is being held captive in the bottomless pit, and the angel of the bottomless pit will only release him back into the earth when his time finally comes.
Genesis 6:1-4 “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, (2) that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. … (4) There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
So the question is asked, how did the anti-Christ land up in the bottomless pit in the first place? In order to answer that question we first need to understand how and when the anti-Christ came into being. The above quoted passage of scripture explains how and when that happened. In this passage we have an account of a group of rebel angels who left their proper domain and came to the earth. This incident occurred during Noah’s time just before God destroyed the earth with a flood. The “sons of God” mentioned in this passage is in fact referring to angels, for this passage refers to men simply as “men” and it refers to women as “daughters of men”. The reason the Holy Spirit does that is because He wants us to see that the “sons of God” in this passage is not referring to men, but rather to angels. This passage teaches us that these angels saw the beauty of the daughters of men; and so they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. In other words these angels came to the earth for the express purpose of being intimate with human women. Notice that this passage goes on to say that children were born to the women who were intimate with these angels. It is also interesting to note from this passage that the male children born from this union between angels and women were giants and mighty men of renown. In other words they were superior beings to the rest of mankind on the earth. The anti-Christ was one of those superior beings born from these immoral unions. And in fact the false prophet who will be revealed with the anti-Christ at the end of the age, is also one born from those immoral unions (Revelation 19:20). And so we see that although the anti-Christ is a man he is also the offspring of an angel, and it was during Noah’s time that both the anti-Christ and the false prophet were originally on the earth.
Jude 1:6-7 “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; (7) as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Although the angels that came to the earth at that time were part of Satan’s kingdom, they nevertheless rebelled against even Satan’s authority in committing their lawless act, for had Satan sanctioned their actions God would have held him to account at the same time that He judged these angels. Satan knows his limits and will not step out of bounds, for even though he knows the judgement that he is facing he does not want to incur that judgement before the time. As revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, when these rebel angels committed their sinful act, God judged them by reserving them in everlasting chains in darkness where they are awaiting their final day of judgement. In other words God cast them into the bottomless pit. Notice in this passage that the apostle Jude equates the sins committed by these angels with the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude elaborates on their sins by telling us that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah committed sexual immorality by going after strange flesh, i.e. they practised bestiality. And so, in the same manner these angels also committed sexual immorality by going after strange flesh, i.e. having sexual relations with human women. Because their offspring were hybrid beings i.e. part celestial and part terrestrial, God judged their offspring at the same time i.e. their offspring were cast into the bottomless pit along with the angels who sired them. As already mentioned, two of those offspring were the anti-Christ and the false prophet, whom God will release at the appropriate time to fulfil His purposes in the earth. And so this explains why the scripture refers to the anti-Christ as one who was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit. There are numerous reasons why God cast these hybrid angelic offspring into the bottomless pit. One of the reasons is because being part celestial beings these individuals cannot die, because just like the angels who fathered them, they are immortal (Luke 20:36). And so because they are immortal, the scripture teaches us that the anti-Christ and false prophet will be cast “alive” into the lake of fire when they are finally judged (Revelation 19:20). As we have seen earlier, when they first roamed the earth these hybrid angelic beings were classified as giants and mighty men of renown. And so we see that because they are part celestial beings, not only are they immortal but they also have certain angelic powers, making them far more powerful than men. We can therefore understand why God could not allow these hybrid beings to roam freely on the earth, because mankind would immediately begin to treat them as being Gods, which is exactly what will happen when the anti-Christ finally appears, for scripture teaches us that they will worship the beast saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4).
Michael E.B. Maher
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