What will be the sign of Christ's coming? (2)

We are considering signs of Jesus’ return, a subject that He not only sanctioned but which He contributes to in answering the questions of His disciples in Matt. 24-25.  We have begun by seeing what the end-time religion will be like in the latter days.  As far as the visible church is concerned it will be in an apostate setting.  But there is something else that will characterize the latter days.

b)     (A type of) Satanic worship, Rev. 13:3-4,8,11-17.

When we say “a type” we mean that Satan will be worshiped but it won’t be called “Satan-worship.”  Instead it will be a sort of “emperor worship”, as in the Roman times, with the Antichrist being worshiped as if he was in fact Christ.  

2 Thess. 2:3-4 says this in a nutshell, immediately after predicting the apostasy of the Church.  The Antichrist (called the man of sin, the son of perdition) is described as one who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.  This speaks of the existence of a temple during the tribulation (Rev. 11:1 concurs).  It suggests this worship is headquartered in Jerusalem.  All of this fits with the Biblical depiction of the Antichrist being in a covenant relationship with Israel until the midpoint of the tribulation when this demand for worship begins (the abomination of desolation in Dan. 9:27 and Matt. 24:15).

Rev. 13 gives more detail, telling how both the Antichrist and his supporting False Prophet will use miraculous signs to entice people to this emperor worship.  There even seems to be a resurrection of some sort in the healing of a deadly wound.  After a while the worship will become mandatory, with death for those who refuse to take the mark, the sign of worship for the beast.

If you wonder how the Church of that time will fall for this ruse, go back and read the list of attributes of that Church in our previous study.  It is a perfect set-up for Satan’s culminating attempt at derailing God’s purpose to sum up all things in Christ.

Again we are called to watchfulness.  Beware of being lukewarm about Christ.  Apathy is deadly when vigilance is called for.  Beware of the tendencies toward hero worship in the Body of Christ.  It was a problem in Paul’s day (1 Cor. 3:1-4); it is be a problem in this day when, because they have itching ears, they heap up for themselves teachers with the result being that they turn from the truth (2 Tim. 4:3-4).  Beware of an ecumenical motivation that calls for unity among Christians without the discernment called for by Scripture.  As Christ told His disciples, let us watch and pray lest we enter into temptation (Matt. 26:41).