Corrie Ten Boom and the Rapture (This is from a letter Corrie wrote in 1974) The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers. Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change. My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room. We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate. Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world. Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.”Yes, the Lord will heal me,”, Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day. It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus. There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution, rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes, – to stand and not faint.” I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next. Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.
So, here we go in laying out the chronology of the last 7 years before the return of Christ. And the first part of any chronology is when an event starts. So, when does the apocalypse start? We look for the antichrist.
Names for the antichrist;
1. The Bloody and Deceitful man.
- Psalms 5:6 (KJV) Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will
abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
2. The Wicked One.
- Psalms 10:3-4 (KJV) 3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and
blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. 4 The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
3. The Man of the Earth.
- Psalms 10:18 (KJV) To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of
the earth may no more oppress.
4. The Mighty Man.
- Psalms 52:1 (KJV) Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness
of God endureth continually.
5. The Enemy.
- Psalms 55:3 (KJV) Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the
oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they
hate me.
6. The Adversary.
- Psalms 74:10 (KJV) O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the
enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
7. The Violent Man.
- Psalms 140:1 (KJV) Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from
the violent man;
8. The Spoiler.
- Isaiah 16:4 Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them
from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler
ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
9. The Profane and Wicked Prince.
- Ezekiel 21:25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come,
when iniquity shall have an end,
10. The Little Horn.
- Daniel 7:8 (KJV) I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among
them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns
plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of
man, and a mouth speaking great things.
11. The Prince that Shall come.
- Daniel 9:26 (KJV) And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah
be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a
flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
12. The Vile Person.
- Daniel 11:21 (KJV) And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom
they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably,
and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
13. The Willful King.
- Daniel 11:36 (KJV) And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall
exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous
things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be
accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
14. The Man of Sin.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV) Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
15. The Son of Perdition.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV) Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition;
16. The Lawless One.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9 (KJV) Even him, whose coming is after the working of
Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
17. The Antichrist.
- 1 John 2:22 (KJV) Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
18. The Beast.
- Revelation 11:7 (KJV) And when they shall have finished their
testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war
against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
- Revelation 13:1 (KJV) And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast
rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns
ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
From; http://www.abundantlifecrusades.com/sermons/names_antichrist.htm
How will we know when the last 7 years starts? We won’t. Like most of world history, I think “hindsight will be 20/20.” I think we won’t be entirely sure until we can identify who the antichrist is. To be sure, there will be indications that we are very close. There is going to be a religious revival of Israel somewhere in the first 3 ½ years. “Babylon the Great” or a one world religious system will begin. The 1st five seals will unleash the conquest of nations, war, famine, and the slaying of Christians on a worldwide scale, like we’ve never seen before.
But many of those signs have very indefinite start times. For example, how do you know when a war starts? The Lamb of God may open the first seal and unleash the conqueror, the antichrist. But on earth, we just hear that some war began, which is nothing new.
But, as I’ve mentioned before, there is one sign that will signal the beginning of the 7-year countdown. The antichrist will make a peace accord with a number of nations intended to last for 7 years.
Daniel 9:27 27 Then he shall confirm a [k]covenant with many for one week (seven);
But that is still pretty vague. It is a peace accord involving many peoples, including Israel. So, if you want to keep your eyes open for something, look for some sort of covenant between a world leader and many people or nations. Look for the rise of the antichrist.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
“The falling away” will come first. The word in Greek is “apostasy.” It indicates that there will be many who claim to be Christian who will fall away in great numbers, even before the antichrist is revealed. Jesus predicted as much when He predicted that family members would turn on each other, “a man’s foes will be those of his own household.”
Incidentally, that is one of the things that distresses me most today. We have many who have called themselves believers who have fallen away from the true faith. And many still call themselves Christian, but they have abandoned Biblical doctrine, and have adopted the values of the world.
1 John 2:18-19 18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
But after the falling away is the revelation of the man of sin. The antichrist
Who is he?
Since it all starts with the antichrist, we need to be able to recognize him.
We can gain more clues about who the antichrist is by reading Revelation 13 and 17. Revelation 13 describes the rise of the antichrist. We find 10 things about the antichrist in these chapters. And I will draw in other Scripture passages as well that describe the same things; His rise, his confederation, his anti-god message, his healing, his accolades, his limits, his announcer, his worship, his economic system and his destruction.
1. His rise
Then [a]I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast (the beast is the antichrist) rising up out of the sea,
Where does the beast come from? He rises out of the sea. I’ve heard different interpretations of this. The most reasonable to me is that the sea represents chaos, or the abyss. It just means that the antichrist comes up out of the evil, demonic and chaotic system of the world. Some people interpret “the sea” to mean the Mediterranean sea, and so say that the antichrist will be Jewish. But I don’t think we can push the text that far.
If we do consider that “the sea” in this passage is the Mediterranean Sea, then you have to consider that the Mediterranean Sea is the border of more than just Israel.
Looking at this map, there are a number of countries from which the antichrist could arise if the Mediterranean Sea is the geographical marker for the antichrist.
I read an article online that claimed to identify who the antichrist is. The author of the article identified the antichrist as the president of Turkey.
Lately Turkish President Erdogan has been claiming to be god! According to the Bible that is something that the Antichrist will do.
Turkish President Erdogan has also announced his plans to form of a new Islamic Union led by Turkey. Erdogan has made his desire to reestablish the Turkish ruled Ottoman Empire very clear. Erdogan has also vowed that he will remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power in Damascus. Erdogan has also vowed to reinstate Muslim Brotherhood Presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi back into power in Egypt. These are all things that the Bible tells us that the Antichrist will do.
Now, I’m not trying to lend any credibility to this prediction. I think there is to little information at this point to identify who the antichrist might be. But, I did want to point out that things are happening in some countries around the Mediterranean that are hostile to Judaism and Christianity, and there are rumblings of a movement to dominate the world.
What is the second thing we learn about the antichrist in Revelation 13?
2. His confederation
having [b]seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns,
We get some insight into what this means in chapter 17.
7 The angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. 8 The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth and whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see that the beast was, and is not, and shall be present.[a] 9 Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 They are seven kings. Five have fallen, the one is, the other has not yet come. When he comes, he must continue a little while. 11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes to destruction. 12 The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 13 These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast.
So, the beasts heads represent two things; seven mountains, which is a direct reference to the Roman Empire, Rome was known as the city of seven hills. But they also represent 7 kings, 5 that are gone, one that was in power when John wrote the Revelation, and another which is to come. The five that are gone could be the world empires that had fallen before Greece and Persia, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt. The Roman empire of John’s day was the one that is, and in the end, there will be a revived Roman Empire, which will then be controlled by the antichrist himself, who will be 8th and final earthly king.
Now, the passage also says that there will be ten horns which are ten kings who give their authority to the antichrist during the Tribulation.
Daniel 7: 24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
Now, we could spend a great deal of time here. But what we are trying to do is to determine what to look for in our own world that correlates to the antichrist.
So, it says here that the antichrist will arise, and that he will give power to ten kings for one hour. All that means is that there will be a federation of ten kingdoms who will join to become a revived Roman empire, and that the antichrist will be the chief among them. What “kings” will that include? Well, we don’t know for sure. But if we look at the territory of the old Roman empire as a guide for what a revived Roman empire would look like we come up with a long list of possible candidates for these 10 kings. (I copied this list from a Quora question)
Here is a map of the Roman Empire at its height. If we use current state denominations, we can list
In Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
In Asia: Saudi Arabia (by the way there were commercial stations all over the Red Sea), Israel, West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Cyprus
In Europe: Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Monaco, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, UK, Malta, Italy, Vatican, San Marino, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany, Austria, Greece, Northen Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Crna Gora, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan. (Maybe also some commercial stations also in Russia)
But just because it is a revived Roman Empire, doesn’t mean that the nations that join it have to be limited to the territory of the original Roman Empire.
Some even believe that the number ten is symbolic of the group of nations that surrender their power to the antichrist for that last time in history. Maybe it will be the European Union. The EU is an economic union of European nations, but it includes 27 nations today. Or maybe some existing nations will join together and arrange themselves into 10 territories. Or maybe it will begin as some agreement like the Paris Climate Accords, where nations surrender their autonomy to some agreed upon principles.
The fact that we keep saying “or maybe,” means we don’t know for sure. But the antichrist will build some sort of coalition government either by force or persuasion.
3. His Anti-God message
and on his heads a blasphemous name.
Blasphemy is speaking against the true God and the name on the forehead is an identifier of the nature of the individual. The book of Revelation talks about the people alive during the Tribulation taking the mark of the beast. It also refers to those who belong to God receiving a mark that shows who possesses them. So, the beast, or the antichrist is identified with a blasphemous name. We know that the antichrist will be anti-God, and antichrist. That is his identity.
Daniel 7: 25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
When I think of the antichrist changing times and laws, I immediately go in my mind to two things; the cancel culture revolution that is happening around us, and the desire of radical Islam to overthrow Christian societal influence. If either, or both of these groups were to gain significant power in the world, you can be sure that they would try to erase Christianity from the globe. That would include any law that they considered Judeo-Christian, and even the very calendar itself, that is centered around the birth of Christ. They could outlaw Christian holy days, and forbid their practice. Any and all of that could be what we will see the antichrist do.
1 John 2: 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1 John 4: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2 John 1:7 7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Of all the things that we could recognize, we should be able to recognize a ruler who is anti-God.
2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
This hearkens back to Daniel’s description of the world empires. John MacArthur wrote this, “It's a perfect parallel to Daniel's prophecy. Daniel said Babylon is a lion, fierce and majestic. Daniel said Medo Persia is a bear, strong and powerful. Daniel said Greece is a leopard, swift and here the Lord shows John that the Beast in his empire will be Babylon, Medo Persia and Greece all rolled into one. The fierceness of the lion, the strength of the bear, the swiftness of the leopard combined in this incredible, powerful individual.”
4. His healing
The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed.
From the start we understand that the antichrist is a man, but he is empowered by Satan himself. The man will be demon-possessed in a way that no man has been possessed before. He will be possessed by Satan himself, and Satan will have many of his limits removed during this Tribulation period.
So, the antichrist will stand out as a supernatural man. He will have great powers of persuasion and intimidation. And because all of the world will be under the thumb of Satan, the remaining world powers will bow to the authority of Satan’s chief agent, the antichrist.
Now here it says that one of his heads is mortally wounded, and is healed.
There are a number of interpretations concerning this mortal wound that is healed. Since the heads represented kingdoms in the verses prior to this, it could mean that his kingdom will appear to be destroyed in some battle, but it will arise victorious in the end. Some take this wound to be a literal wound that the antichrist himself will receive. Maybe in a war, or even in an assassination attempt. All the world will know that this world leader has been critically injured. And news of this wound will dispirit some in the world who put their hope in him. But somehow, he will be healed of what seemed to be a death wound, and that will add to the mystique and amazement from the world.
There are other interpretations, but for the sake of brevity, we won’t look at them here.
But what we can say for sure is that something will happen to either the man himself, or his kingdom, that will appear to have killed him or it. But that he or his kingdom will survive. And suffice it to say that the world will be captivated by the antichrist.