A third of a million results for “Antichrist, Aug 30, 2016” on Google suggest the widespread belief that the end times will begin in 2016, but searching various linked sources does not reveal any explanation for why the antichrist appears. 30, despite the date on Hagee’s YouTube title.
Hagee’s August date and rapture security sounds like Harold Camping first, but there are a dozen reasons to counter a pre-tribulation rapture that came from John Darby in the early 1800s. Here are a couple of examples.
The first is popularized from the book and film series “Left Behind” in which Christians are supposedly taken to heaven. But if one reads the parallel passage in Luke 17: 36,37, when Christ says that one will be taken, the disciples ask, “Where, Lord?” and He responds: “Where the body is, there the eagles will gather.” (not taken to heaven, but the dinner of the vultures at the end of the world, Revelation 19:17.
Another example is the use of Paul’s statement on the second coming of Christ: “For the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout … with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who live and we remain, it will be caught up … “1Thessalonians 4:16, 17
But most evangelical Christians do not compare Paul’s other comment on this: it is “at the LAST trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.” 1 Corinthians 15:52. There are seven trumpets, Revelation 8: 6 that follow an earthquake in the previous verse and we have not seen that earthquake yet.
Earthquakes are happening all over the world, but the old lukewarm church in Laodicea ended in an earthquake that destroyed the city. America has a lukewarm Christianity that is also materialistic as described in Revelation 3: 15-21, but the deeper meaning of the “knock” on the door is an earthquake that will surprise the preachers who say the rapture first.
Hagee also believes that the Antichrist will arrive on August 30. The Antichrist can have more than one application.
# 1. Antichrist can mean in place of Christ and for over 1000 years millions of people have trusted a religion that claimed to forgive sin and promise salvation, even being able to pray to a person outside of purgatory (a word that is not found in the Bible) for money. .
That system is rife with child abuse and homosexuality, but most people ignore it instead of “repenting” and “calling no man Father,” as Christ said. “Who can forgive sin but God?” This author once opened his home to an alcoholic priest for a week. The church took away the daily experience of Christians: no Bible study, prayer or testimony, represented by the table of bread, the altar of incense and the light of the lampstands in the Holy Place of the sanctuary, shows the experience of the believers. Now it is the mass and the priest on Sunday or the confessional rather than the daily experience of a believer. It is the antichrist instead of Christ.
Hagee believes that the coming antichrist will be shot in the head and miraculously recover, but the fatal wound already occurred with the Protestant Reformation and the capture of the Pope who died in exile by Napoleon, also in Revelation 13. Hagee mentioned the number 666 of Revelation 13, but did not mention the title of the Pope, VICARIUS FILII DEI [vicar of the Son of God] since it adds 666 in Roman numerals (Google).
# 2. There will probably be a Muslim leader who will rise up to claim the leadership to end the infidels for a future Imam Mahdi – world ruler. This will be an obvious antichrist that will be conquered as Daniel 8 shows in the trampling of a militant Muslim ram with two broken horns. Gabriel said the vision is in the end time, so the Medes and Persians then (in this proven vision) are now Iraq and Iran, but Hagee preaches peace and security for Jerusalem that does not conform to Zechariah 14. His Destruction may be the reason for the goat’s wrath in Daniel 8.
# 3. Revelation 17 images endorse a papal, antichrist leadership of the New World Order (NWO). A beast (government) is ridden by a harlot (unfaithful church) who has fornication with kings and is dressed in gold (rich) and scarlet (color of cardinals), “mother of harlots” (mother church-her daughters no longer protest against her), sitting on seven hills (Rome) and drunk with the blood of the saints. Most of the history books have been laundered to reveal no more of the 50-100 million who died as martyrs for what they believed. America was founded by Christians who risked their lives to flee the Old World in search of freedom here.
In the context of a 7-year end, near the end of the New World Order beast power for 42 months (Revelation 13), Satan will appear as Jesus, to work miracles and deceive the entire world. Only a small minority will oppose the New World Order and mark what brings the plagues of God (chapter 14), but those who do will be saved when Christ comes and “all eyes will see him”, Revelation 1.