Paul the Poke

Memorial Day weekend proved to be an interesting time in the Holy Land. The Pope, Francis, visited the Middle East. There are many who think the Pope will be the Anti-Christ. The Roman Empire is being revived, so they say. Many have identified the Pope as the Anti-Christ. I would also encourage everyone to remember the Roman Empire had an eastern leg which included modern day Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.

The Pope had an interesting trip. He called for interfaith toleration and unity between the Muslims and the Jewish people. He visited the Muslim Dome on the Temple Mount and the Jewish Western Wall. He endorsed dividing the land and acknowledging a Palestinian state. With all due to respect to the pontiff, I would encourage him to read the Book of Joel. God says, “Do not divide My land.” This is not a good idea and not in accordance with God’s will.

The Pope has requested a peace meeting or summit next month (June 2014) at the Vatican between the Muslims and the Jews. I expect the Pope or somebody to invoke Father Abraham as a bridge to peace at some point in the future.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming…

Scripture tells us the Anti-Christ will NOT be revealed until the resurrection of the dead believers in Christ and the living believers in Christ are raptured into the clouds to meet Jesus. There is a lot of debate about the word “apostasy”. It is the word apostasia in the Greek. The word is transliterated. It can mean the following in the original Greek: a falling away, defection, or apostasy. The word is used one other time in the New Testament.

The key to the passage is noted later in these verses with the restrainer. Many take this “restrainer” to be the Holy Spirit who is indwelled in Christians. The restrainer will be removed when Christians are snatched into the clouds at the rapture by Jesus. Then, the Anti-Christ will be revealed and present himself to the world.

This passage also notes there will be a Jewish Temple. The Anti-Christ will present himself as being God in the temple. Currently, there is no Jewish Temple. But if we wake up one morning and there has been an agreement to rebuild the Temple…