The Crooked Path of the Antichrist
When the LORD Jesus Christ testified to the Jews of their rejection of Himself as the Messiah, He noted the pattern for the ultimate acceptance of the False Christ, i.e., he will come "in his own name". "I am come in My Father's Name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive" (John 5:43).
The Antichrist will come in the power and authority of "his own name", because he will have no authority from the Father. "For many shall come in My Name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many" (Matthew 24:5). Everything about Antichrist will emanate from the perversion of the Truth that was represented in the lie, "ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:5). As the master deceiver, Satan is a "liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44), and so the preparation of the way for the Antichrist has to be the corruption of the Truth of God. "The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from Antichrist Shall Come- Or, The False Christ Will Be a Broken Cistern text by Tom Stewart 6 of 9the ends of the Earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit" (Jeremiah 16:19).
The history of Satan and his prophesied doom is a tragic warning to all of how we can become "lifted up" (Ezekiel 28:17) in our hearts, only to become an astonishment "in the sight of all them that behold" (28:18) when God judges us. "12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus [referring to Satan in a figure], and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God [as the Serpent to beguile Eve]; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold [possessing great beauty]: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created [possessing great musical ability]. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub [a fallen angel] that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect [holy] in thy ways from the day that thou wast created [Satan is a creature and not the Creator], till iniquity was found in thee" (Ezekiel 28:12-15).
Antichrist will follow in the perverse steps of Satan by corrupting the Wisdom that God originally gave to Lucifer. "16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty [sin of pride], thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness [perverted the way of Truth into "doctrine of devils" (1Timothy 4:1)]: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the Earth in the sight of all them that behold thee [cast into the Lake of Fire].
19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more" (Ezekiel 28:16-19). For the Antichrist to maintain that he is the Christ, the Messiah, the Deliverer, is to reject the claim of the LORD Jesus that He is the Christ, i.e., "25 The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when He is come, He will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He" (John 4:25-26). "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son" (1John 2:22). Antichrist is a liar because he denies the LORD Jesus as the True Messiah.
Is it possible to affront the Son without denying the Father? No. "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" (John 14:9). In other words, Jesus is God Almighty manifested in human flesh. "And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1Timothy 3:16). Either Jesus is the Christ, or the Antichrist is the Christ. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15).