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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRevelations On the Anti-Christ - Isn't It Funny How Evangelicals Cheer on Trump?
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The Bible's end-time prophecies state that religious peopleincluding many self-professed Christians, would be deceived into accepting a counterfeit Christianity, and would oppose many of the teachings of Christ. In that sense, the New Testament states that many Christians would be deceived by a spirit of antichrist.
The Bible does not reveal specifically who the Antichrist is, speaking instead of his corrupt teachings. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul prophesied of a man of sin, a liar and deceiver whose natural abilities Satan enhances by supernatural power in order to confuse people in the end time. In addition, Revelations refers to a false prophet to come at the end time (Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 16:13; Revelation 19:20). Finally, Revelations describes a great religious leader of the end time: He had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon (Revelation 13:11). That is to say, he takes on the image of (or imitates) Jesus Christ (the Lamb of God), but is empowered by Satan. Thus, a counterfeit version of Christianity fulfills the types we read of in the prophecies of Revelation.
Well, I guess it is a good thing that our Evangelical leaders have not been deceived by Trump and have taken a strong, vocal stand against his infidelity, his cruelty, and his hate.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4:
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
Revelations 13:11-18:
11Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
Revelations 16:8-16
8The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. 10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15("Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!" 16And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Revelations 19:20:
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
Archae
(46,301 posts)But I can't help but notice NONE of these things have come true, and it's been 2,000 years.
Face it. There ain't gonna be no "AntiChrist," no "Beast," and no "Rapture."
The world will end when the Sun goes red giant.
In billions of years.
TomCADem
(17,382 posts)...and like you would view any suggestion that Trump is the anti-christ as heresy:
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/donald-trump-the-herald-of-evangelicals-end-times/
Donald Trump, the herald of evangelicals end times
GOD chose Donald Trump to serve as the Republican presidential nominee. And he did it for one reason: To pave the way for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
This is the claim of Frank Amedia, who recently served as Trumps liaison for Christian policy.
* * *
We know Trump does not embody the values or the virtues of a traditional evangelical champion. He is divorced, has long supported gambling and it would appear that he has no idea what it means to humble himself before God. He will not ask for the forgiveness of his sins because he is not sure he has any.
But these are not regular times, and he is not a regular candidate. Amedia, who publicly prayed with Trump recently, believes along with many of his fellow evangelicals that a secret, spiritual battle is under way of good against evil, light against darkness, Christ against Antichrist.
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)that he is the mechanism that will bring about the end of the world and the second-coming of Jesus. They're supporting the Antichrist so they can force Jesus to come back, in other words. Apocalyptic religions are a major threat to humanity and the world.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Y'all check it out for me, let me know whether Trump is Satan-incarnate according to yet another source
moondust
(19,958 posts)the party of money and greed--Rockefellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts, JP Morgan--didn't at some point realize that there weren't nearly enough fat cats out there to get them elected. They were gonna need some large blocs of gullible voters who would believe most anything and/or go along with most anything if you tossed them a bone.
Voila! Look at all those evangelicals and all those neo-confederate racists in the Old South! Perfect!!!!
Tanuki
(14,914 posts)"Conventional wisdom holds that America has been a Christian nation since the Founding Fathers. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse argues that the idea of Christian America is nothing more than a mythand a relatively recent one at that.
The assumption that America was, is, and always will be a Christian nation dates back no further than the 1930s, when a coalition of businessmen and religious leaders united in opposition to FDRs New Deal. With the full support of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, these activiststhe forerunners of the Religious Rightpropelled religion into the public sphere. Church membership skyrocketed; Congress added the phrase under God to the Pledge of Allegiance and made In God We Trust the countrys official motto. For the first time, America became a thoroughly religious nation.
Provocative and authoritative, One Nation Under Godreveals how the comingling of money, religion, and politics created a false origin story that continues to define and divide American politics today."
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)even though they came about 150 years before the deists and liberals who founded the country. To them, this nation is all about religious freedom, not about individual liberty. Ever since the Great Awakenings we have had tensions between those who want to convert everyone to evangelical fundamentalist Christianity, versus those who want religion to take a lesser role in society and government. The Civil War was in many ways a religious war and in some respects, it never ended. Trump is doing everything he can to stoke those tensions. I believe he that he would like nothing more than to start a new civil war. In some ways, the countries who are behind him would benefit from the United States being in chaos and turned inward against itself.
roamer65
(36,744 posts)DonViejo
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