Continued from The Present Antichrist By Rev. Fred J. Peters – Part 3.

Antichrist a Dynasty

It seems needful at this point to insert an answer to the objection that most Futurists raise concerning the long duration of Antichrist’s sway. Is he one single individual or a line of rulers? As we have already noticed, Futurists assert that he is a single bad man who is to be manifested during the last three and a half years of this age. On the contrary, Historicists believe the Scriptures teach he will be a dynasty or succession of rulers like Pharaoh or the Kaiser.

Is there any Scripture ground for this?

There certainly is.

It is well to recall the fact that in Scripture the word Christ does not always stand for an individual. In I Cor. 12:12, Paul describes the entire body of believers, who are “all baptized by one spirit into one body” as “Ho Christos” “The Christ.”

In Eph, 2:15, the long line of believers of all the ages, is spoken of as “one new man.”

With this Scripture usage in mind look back to Dan. 7:17. Speaking of the four universal empires which were to occupy the course of history it says, “These great beasts which are four are four kings which shall arise out of the earth.” Does this mean four individual kings? No, but the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman Empires, with a dynasty or succession of rulers over each. This is common knowledge.

Again, Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him says, “Thou art the head of gold.” He, however, was not the only king of the Babylonian Empire, but the head of gold stood for the whole of it, and Nebuchadnezzar represents the whole dynasty at that time. So one man stands for a number of men in Scripture usage in this passage also.

Now let us read Dan. 8:20-22, “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.”

This we submit is the clue to the use of the word “King” in many of the prophetic Scriptures. Here it is evident that the word stands for kingdom whether a single king or a succession rule, for the rough goat is said to be the king (kingdom) of Greece of which the great horn is the first king Alexander.

Again, the ten horns of Dan. 7:20, 24, etc., are proven by fulfillment to be the ten kingdoms into which the Western Roman Empire was divided at its fall, yet these ten kingdoms are called kings, verse 24, and they have existed 14 centuries with a succession of kings over each. Side by side with these the strange little horn “which had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things” had to arise and run its course. It is therefore a dynasty of rulers as the others are. And only a cramped conception of the great movements of prophecy could make a student maintain the contrary. We therefore conclude that the Protestant interpretation of the Great Reformation was and is the correct one.

Antichrist is a succession of rulers in the professing Church.

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.”—Rev. 13:18.

This mystic cryptogram has tasked the wisdom of the past eighteen centuries. What does it mean? Can it be ignored? Certainly not, any more than John 3:16, or God would not have caused it to be written. The Holy Spirit does an almost unknown thing here: He literally urges those who are wise and have understanding to decipher the number of the beast, and who dare charge Him with folly. The very form of it indicates that we have here hidden wisdom that we dare not ignore.

How, then, shall we understand it?

“No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation,” we are told, and this, being prophecy, comes well under the ruling.

Whatever, then, may be the meaning of this perplexing number, it will be so unfolded that it will be recognized as given by the Holy Spirit one of whose offices is to show us things to come. And when given, it will be evident that it is not a little private matter. Moreover, the result of the deciphering will be in harmony with all the other features revealed as to the beast or Antichrist.

Every century, yea almost every decade, has seen the rise of some individual of frightful personality, whose name has been tested by the number 666.

During the Great War, we found the following printed in “The Philadelphia Inquirer”: Believing the Kaiser to be the Antichrist, the writer endeavored to decipher his name in the following outrageous fashion:

We do not recollect ever having seen anything more arbitrary than this.

Let the reader note that in this fanciful and capricious private interpretation, the letter K has a numerical value of 116; A, a value of 16; I, a value of 96, etc. Thoughtful minds will at once see the absurdity of such a method of deciphering this great secret number, for nowhere can these letters be found to bear such values. And the result of the Great War has settled the matter in this case.

We give this as a case in point of the kind of thing that is multiplied ad nauseam, but which is all the time diverting the public mind from the true solution and shielding the true beast or Antichrist. They are either deliberately placed before the Christian public for a purpose or are the result of a misconception of the true character of the Antichrist.

But there is an interpretation which comes to us with supreme authority, because it is not growth of a year, or a decade or even a century, and it has served a purpose commensurate with the evident importance of such a revelation. The preachers and teachers of the early church began to discover and decipher the meaning of it. Irenaeus (A.D. 155-202), who was contemporary with those who had known the Apostle John, says “Lateinos has the number 666, and it is a very probable solution, this being the name of the last kingdom (of Daniel), for the Latins are they who at present rule.” And from that early date to the present time, a period of 1700 years, this solution has predominated and has been adopted by great Christian thinkers in all the centuries.

Note what is said about the number of the beast, that it is the number of a man. Now this agrees in a very direct way with what is written about the little horn of Dan. 7:8, which had “eyes like the eyes of a man,” etc. This little horn was a later development of the fourth or Roman beast, in which one man was dominant. This man as indicated by the eyes, was an overseer or bishop. A beast and a bishop. A political and religious combination, for, be it remembered, that a beast in prophecy is the symbol of a political system. What, then, is the politico-religious system denoted by the mystic 666?

We give herewith the great Protestant solution to this riddle which has never been tampered with by any of Rome’s agents, secret or otherwise. It is evident that the language which should be used to “count the number of the beast is the Greek, in which the Apocalypse was written; but it has been discovered that the Hebrew and Latin give the same result, and a threefold cord is not easily broken. We now submit the three readings, reminding our readers that none of these languages had numerals, but the letters had numerical values. Therefore, when such letters were used for a name, that name had numerical value or number.

In The Greek

The word “Lateinos”__The Latin Man_here deciphered reads:

This we have verified carefully with the Greek grammar and find absolutely correct. It reveals the Pope as the beast or Antichrist.

Even a very slight knowledge of the papacy will reveal how Latin everything is in that system. Its decrees and bulls are in Latin, its masses are Latin; its prayers are Latin; its worship is Latin; it blesses in Latin and curses in Latin—all is Latin.

In The Hebrew

The word “Romiti”__A Roman Man_here deciphered, reads:

This gives the same unerring results as the Greek, locating the Antichrist in Rome. It is also true that the word Romith, The Roman Kingdom, gives 666. We have had this Hebrew verified by an educated Jewish Rabbi born in Palestine, who is a master of Hebrew.

In The Latin

Vicarius Filii Dei—Vicar of the Son of God.

This is the Pope’s official title, and is synonymous with the original meaning of the Greek word Antichrist, which meant a Vice-Christ, or one in the place of Christ, which is the Pope’s most insistent claim. We now give this Latin name and number. Anyone can count this, for we still use the Roman numerals. Let the reader try it for himself.

As we look over these results what do we see revealed? Just this incontrovertible fact, in harmony with all the other teaching of this book, that the decoding of this strange number points, with unerring certitude, to the Pope or Papacy as the Antichrist who was to come.

Why then look for another?

The Doom of Antichrist

This booklet would be incomplete without a statement as to the future of this great system.

Has it a pre-destined end?

If so, what is it to be and when?

Is there any Biblical light on this?

Yes! Thank God! there is, and that a most decisive and awful one. We quote from 2 Thess. 2:8, “That wicked one the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”

Now there is scarcely any doubt as to the application of this. What is the spirit of his mouth? I read in Rev. 19:15 of One out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword. In Eph. 6:17 this sword is declared to be the Word of God. So the interpretation of the consuming referred to above is clearly a process of disintegration in the system of Antichrist brought about by the operation of God’s Word—The Bible. Has such a consuming process ever taken place in this system?

Can there be any doubt as to the answer?

The Great Protestant Reformation is the answer. This was brought about by one thing, viz., the discovery and proclamation of God’s Word. The printing and distribution of the Bible. The placing of the Bible into the hands of the common people. The result is very apparent on the map of the world today in the great Protestant nations numbering nearly 200,000,000 of people. These would now have been Catholic but for the consuming power of the Word.

Verily the Lord has been consuming it with the spirit of His mouth. This is the first stage of the pre-destined end of Anti-Christ.

The second stage can hardly be called a stage, it is a cataclysm. “It will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming.” It will therefore last till He comes, when all hypocrisies will be immediately manifest, and all false lights will wane in the oncoming dawn.

To be destroyed, that is the fate awaiting the mighty, anti-christian system which has its seat in Rome, that so-called church which still deceives untold millions. Listen to God’s judgment of Antichrist and his system.

“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.” Rev. 18:20, 21.

Reader, are you one of God’s true children? Then dare to take the place of these who rejoice in heaven in response to God’s call here. Rejoice over the prospect of the fall of this system which has sent untold millions to hell by its deceptions. Rejoice, for as much as you love Christ, you should detest and oppose His enemy, the Antichrist, who has usurped His place through these long weary centuries.

An Appeal To Brethren

Many futurist brethren, beloved in the Lord, are looking eagerly for the development of this personal Antichrist. Some expected him during the Great War. Some pointed to the Kaiser as he. But the futurist’s Antichrist is still as far away as when the Jesuit Ribera started the deception 300 years ago. Nor is there the slightest vestige of him on the horizon.

Our brethren adopted this teaching unwittingly and innocently at the beginning; have made themselves believe it because other orthodox teachers believed it; then they taught it, written tracts and books about it, and consequently must needs defend it. It is hard for a man, even a consecrated christian teacher, to climb down and acknowledge he has taught wrongly. But the recent rapid growth of Romanism in Protestant lands is the result and strongest condemnation of futurism. It has no positive witness against Rome.

Oh! Brethren beloved, open your eyes. Put away the Jesuit deceit. Come back to the faith of the Reformers. Your churches and classes need this teaching. It is the food that has been lacking for many a day. It is the missing link in your teaching.

Christian brother, these prophetic words are more needed by you today than at the time of the Great Reformation. Reject them not. Without them you will be completely in the dark with regard to Christ’s greatest enemy on earth, Satan’s masterpiece; The Man of Sin; The Papacy.

Postscript

There are many questions that cannot be answered in such a small work as the present. But let the reader be assured that his queries have been already answered in works extant and available. We hope that the result of a perusal of this tract will be to create a desire to know more about these things. If so we shall thank God.

We are well aware that, if a person accepts the Protestant presentation of Prophecy as herein set forth, it will change his method of interpretation of the Apocalypse a good deal, but it will not alter his belief in the Personal Pre-Millennial Coming of the Lord Jesus. This is “Our Hope,” our sheet anchor.

We conclude this testimony with some pointed words on this subject by that sainted scholar, Dr. A. J. Gordan:

“The papal ‘Man of Sin’ was accurately photographed on the camera of prophecy thousands of years ago; that no detective searching for him today would need any other description of him than that which is found on the pages of the Bible. Taking these photographs of Daniel and John and Paul, and searching the world upside down for their originals, I am confident that this same detective would stop at the Vatican, and after gazing for a few moments at the Pontiff, who sits there gnawing the bone of infallibility, which he acquired in 1870, and clutching for that other bone of temporal sovereignty which he lost the same year, he would lay his hand on him and say ‘You are wanted in the court of the Most High, to answer to the indictment of certain souls beneath the altar, who were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they bore, and who are crying, How long O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’”

Art Thou he that should come or look we for another?

In vain shall we look for another, for Thou oh! Bishop of Rome, Art the Man of Sin, the Antichrist.

This is God’s judgment. Reader, will you side with God?

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