Counterfeit and cohorts

There are somewhere between 30-40 titles, names and descriptions given to the Antichrist in Scripture, primarily in the Old Testament. In addition, there are 18 major types of the Antichrist. One example is Cain.

Jordan says, “There are literally dozens of events that portend and foreshadow activity of the Antichrist. A name is employed to express character and titles are given to denote relationship. The Adversary is called the devil. These titles and descriptions of the Antichrist are very fascinating and permeate all through the Scriptures, especially when you study it not just historically but prophetically.

“Amazingly, the term Antichrist is found very few times in the Bible, although it’s a catch-all term to talk about the devil’s counterfeit of the Lord Jesus Christ—he’s the one who’s the substitute and opposes the Lord.

“I John 2:22 says, ‘Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.’ With that verse you kind of get the idea behind the title—it’s the denying that Jesus is the Christ.

"Now you can use that term ‘anti’ in two ways. You can say it’s anti in the sense it’s opposed to Him or it’s anti in the sense that it’s designed to be instead of. But either way you want to use it, and people argue about that, the term describes antagonism toward the Lord Jesus Christ and what it describes in Scripture is the devil’s counterfeit; the devil’s usurper of the position of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Verse 18 says, ‘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.’ So there’s the Antichrist, the one person, and then there’s a lot of antichrists (plural) who are his cohorts. It’s like the term ‘devil.’ You have in the Bible the singular for the big guy and devils plural, which we call sometimes demons, for his cohorts.

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“It’s amazing how thoroughly the Adversary seeks to clone what God is doing. I said for many years that if Jesus Christ stood right here and the Antichrist stood right there, the average Christian couldn’t decide which is which and wouldn’t be able to identify the right one. And if they were forced to pick, they’d pick the wrong one!

“Satan is such a deceiver. One of the great titles of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Branch title. He’s the branch of the Lord, He’s the man who’s the Branch, He’s the king whose name is the Branch. So He’s the Branch and there are four branch titles in the New Testament about Him and they match Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. One’s the king, one’s the servant, one’s the master and one’s God.

“But in Isaiah 25, talking about the Adversary, and in a passage talking about the activities of the Antichrist, is verse 5: ‘Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.’

“In the context, that’s a reference to the destruction of the Antichrist. But notice what he’s called: ‘The branch of the terrible ones.’ That’s those characters over there in Joel and Isaiah 13 that come out of the spirit world, and then there are the mighty ones who come and fight with the Antichrist. That’s why there’s all that demonic eruption during the earthly ministry of Christ where they’re trying to contend and protect the land, and he’s going to come along and is the counterfeit of the true branch, leading the hordes of Satan against the things of God.

“You have to understand that Satan’s favorite tactic is to counterfeit—his goal is ‘to be like the most high.’ To get Adam and Eve he told them, ‘God knows if you eat that you’ll be like the gods.’ Well, they were already godlike, made in the image and likeness of God, but he’s going to counterfeit something and make them think they don’t have an adequate identity in what God’s done for them.

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“ ‘The man of sin’ is a title that describes the Antichrist as the personification--the man of natural human wickedness. He’s the personification of man’s sin. He’s man’s rebellion personified.
“ ‘The son of perdition’ is supernatural, spirit-world wickedness and then he’s called ‘that wicked,’ which is sort of a compilation. The Wicked is the personification of all of that. Then he becomes ‘the Lie.’
By the way, in Daniel 11:21 he’s called ‘vile’: ‘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.’

“He comes in with lying wonders and lies and obtains the kingdom with flatteries because he’s a vile, evil, wicked—all of those descriptions of him as ‘the man of sin.’ Psalm 55 says ‘his words are smoother than butter.’ He’s got the sales pitch and deceptive, lying flatteries.

“There’s one other term that you see 30 times in Revelation alone and that’s where he’s called ‘the beast.’ The beast is described in terms of grotesqueness. When Scripture refers to the ‘brute beast,’ it’s talking about the the violence, the ferocity, the cruel, heartless slayer.

“Isaiah 11:4. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to reign, He’s going to reign in real justice, not impacted by media concerns, social concerns, political concerns. ‘But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.’

“That’s what we’re studying over in II Thess. 2:8, which talks about the Wicked ‘who he will consume with the spirit of his mouth.’

“When you think about the Antichrist as the wicked one, immediately go to Psalm 10 and you really have an encapsulation of his career as the Wicked one and why he’s called that. You see he’s the wicked, he’s Israel’s enemy. Verse 16. Notice back in verse 5 there’s the crowd but down in 16 it’s ‘the wicked, his own hand.’ That’s the individual who’s leading the crowd.

“From Psalm 10, you see his whole purpose is to destroy them. Verse 4. See, this is where the wickedness comes from. This guy’s filled with pride. The middle letter of the word ‘pride’ is the problem. It’s the same as the middle letter of the word ‘sin.’ It’s what wickedness is all about. If you look at verse 6 and 11 you see it’s a heart problem.”