The Antichrist’s Supposed 7-year Reign

Next Part Understanding Tied to Obedience

With the Bible teaching about antichrist made clear, let’s return to the idea that the phrase “one week” in Daniel 9:27 refers to the final seven years, or seven “prophetic days,” before Christ returns. The prophetic understanding of rapture theorists is false! Let’s first examine the verse: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate…”

This verse actually refers to the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. 12:11), when occupying armies end the Jews’ daily sacrifice at the Temple. It also addresses the final week of the 70 weeks prophecy and shows Christ would be cut off in the middle of the week, after the 3½ “days”—actually 3½ years—of His earthly ministry and mission. The antichrist—and therefore any supposed 7-year reign by him—is not the subject of this verse! Such thinking is as fictional as the rapture! There is simply no prophesied “7-year reign” of the antichrist that supposedly begins when he signs a “treaty” with the nation of Israel. The Beast (or final antichrist) will not suddenly throw off his cloak to reveal his true colours halfway through his “reign,” thus ushering in the 3½ year Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord (which indeed are biblical periods totalling 3½ years).

Consider. It should not be surprising that those who teach the doctrines of antichrist cannot even correctly discern when Jesus Christ is the subject of a passage!

Daniel’s amazing prophecy in chapter 9 in fact reveals the exact year that the Messiah would begin His ministry, and how long it would last. It points to one major event that He would fulfil—His sacrifice!—as the beginning step in God’s Plan of Salvation. It further shows that the final segment of this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled! While somewhat technical, this series of events, when studied carefully, can be understood for the inspiring—and truly fascinating—fulfilment of prophecy that it is! For those who wish to understand the truth of Daniel 9:27, including the context of the verses leading up to it—which do talk about both antichrist and Jesus Christ—we offer an article, “What Is the ‘Seventy Weeks’ Prophecy?”

You should also read another related article, “What Is the ‘Abomination of Desolation’?” As with the “Seventy Weeks” prophecy, the prophesied coming abomination of desolation is much bigger—and much more crucial to understand—than you think.

How the “Rapture” Works

According to a large segment of people within professing Christianity, a secret rapture is coming. Only those who are “saved,” “born again,” and have “accepted Jesus in their hearts” will be secretly whisked away without warning—regardless of where they are or what they are doing—to the safety of heaven. This supposed event, signaled by the sudden vanishing of millions “whooshed off to heaven,” it is said, will “shock the world.”

All “unbelievers” remain to suffer the Great Tribulation. The antichrist will rule over those who are “left behind,” who missed out on their chance to be “vacuumed” into heaven, at Christ’s so-called secret second coming. All believers are thought to escape the antichrist by going to heaven. (It is true that during the Tribulation, war, disease, famine and religious deception will proliferate throughout the world.) The rapture theory also states that the antichrist will allow the Jews to build a temple in Jerusalem, which, 3½ years into this tribulation, he will turn on and destroy.

At the end of this period of turmoil, Christ will return—supposedly in effect now His third coming—but this time He will bring final defeat to the antichrist and his forces.

Many have become so consumed by this doctrine that there have developed a series of movies, a host of best-selling books and even board games about the aftermath of such a worldwide vanishing act!

Protection Promised!

So then, naturally following this is the most central, all-important question that should be on the minds of all who care about these impending prophecies—“Can I escape what is coming, and if so how?”

God promises in His Word to protect His people from the terrible suffering that will be unleashed on the world during the Great Tribulation. His statements are real, and many. Will you take them to heart?

Consider this admonition: “Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to ESCAPE all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36). The phrase “accounted worthy to escape all these things” pertains to the entire sequence of end-time events—all those that occur just prior to Christ’s Return. Lk 21:35 states, “For as a snare shall it [the entire period of terrible worldwide calamity] come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” This passage shows it is God’s purpose that some will be spared from—can ESCAPE—the global punishment lying just ahead. They will be protected from the period when the Beast and False Prophet rule the earth.

Matthew 24:21-22 shows the unprecedented worldwide turbulence of this future time: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [alive]: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Daniel 12:1 adds, “…and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time…” Jeremiah 30:4-5 describes more about this time of extreme worldwide troubles. Notice Jer 30:7: “Alas! for that day is great, so that NONE IS LIKE IT: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”

Only a remnant—a tenth!—of Jacob (the modern nations that descended from Israel, Jacob’s later name) will survive (Ezek. 6:8; Isa. 6:11-13; Amos 5:1-3). These will live on over into the wonderful world to follow, administered by Jesus Christ and the saints.