Does the Antichrist REALLY Exist?
A critical review of
Jack Van
Impe's interpretation of Biblical prophesies
"And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed [spoken evil
of]." 2 Peter 2:2 (NKJ)
"He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." Matthew 12:30 (NKJ)
In my Mar 97 article
"Does Satan REALLY Exist" (on this web site), I explained in detail
what I mean when I use the term "Satanically inspired." This article
will provide further illustrations of the meaning of that term. But in case you haven't read that article yet, I'll provide
a brief review.
Jesus Christ's entire ministry was founded upon God's two most fundamental
commandments: "[1] You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is
the first and great commandment. And the second is
like it: [2] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matt 22:37-40 NKJ)
This is not as difficult as it sounds. It simply means that we should seek and follow the TRUTH relative to the commandment to LOVE our neighbors as ourselves without placing any restrictions whatsoever on the applicability of either of those two commandments. Over the centuries, most theologians have downplayed or ignored the importance of these two commandments, because they conflicted with many of their "expert" conclusions and teachings. If you examine their teachings for conformance with these two commandments (without restrictions), you can easily recognize which of their teachings are "of God" and which are "of Satan" or "Satanically inspired." This web site points out numerous examples of each.
First, let's take a look at where the term "antichrist" originally came from.
I John 2:18-24: Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
I John 4:2-3: By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the SPIRIT of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
II John 1:5-7 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that WE WALK ACCORDING TO HIS COMMANDMENTS. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose these things we worked, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ [God's two most fundamental commandments] does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
That's it. The term "antichrist" is not actually used in any other part of the Bible. As we can see from the writings of the author I John and II John, it is clear that the term "Antichrist" (with a capital "A") is a SPIRIT which was "now in the world" at the time the author was writing these passages. It is also clear, that people who follow or exhibit such a spirit can justifiably be called an "antichrist" (with a small "a") in accordance with the way that term was originally used. The "Antichrist" is a RELIGIOUS SPIRIT which CLAIMS to be following Christ (or God) but which is actually teaching the OPPOSITE of what Jesus Christ would teach. Here is what Jesus Christ Himself had to say about such people (without actually using that term):
"Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, 'Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.' Then His disciples came and said to Him, 'Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?'" Matthew 15:7-12 (NKJ):
There are many
"antichrists" in the world today; you've
probably seen some of them on TV. In this article, l'll review the Biblical interpretations and
teachings of one of them, Dr. Jack Van Impe, based on
two of his more recent videos. The first is a 107-minute 1995 video entitled
"666 The United States of
In both videos, Jack and his wife Rexella appear to be quite sincere about their teaching's, and I'll grant them that. Jack claims that to have spent over 70,000 hours on Biblical research to derive the interpretations and conclusions which he is presenting in these videos. Unfortunately (for tens of millions of men, women, and children who are no longer with us), Jack evidently spent that entire 70,000 hours "barking up the wrong logical tree."
PROOF? Even though (as shown above) Jesus Christ clearly stated, "On these two commandments hang ALL the Law and the Prophets," God's commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" is NEVER EVEN MENTIONED in either video! Even the SPIRIT of that commandment (which Jesus pointed out is LIKE the first commandment) can hardly be found in either of those two videos!
Instead, in both videos they present arguments, interpretations, quotes, and scriptural references to make the following kinds of points:
VAN IMPE THEME #1: Attempts to create anything which even remotely resembles a true world government are to be feared and opposed. They rattle off a list of dictators throughout history (many who really WERE evil) and say, "The time is right for a 'world dictator' to come into power [from the European Union] and reign for seven years." They badmouth George Bush's comments about a "new world order", the "Illuminati" of the 1770s, the Trilateral Commission, Bildenburgs, the European Union and its fledgling Eurocorps standing army, the very idea of "federalism" in Europe, and even the "Eye of God over an unfinished pyramid" symbol on the back of our 1 dollar bills.
Evidently, their REAL god is "national sovereignty", the bloodiest IDOL ever created by man! Can you name anything else that mankind has ever created that has gotten MORE people killed than the concept of national sovereignty? And behold! It's being worshipped (literally) by people all over the world!
Jesus Christ, on the other hand, promised his faithfull followers in Revelation 2:26-29 that He would return (in Spirit, at least) to rule mankind with a "rod of iron" (a God-guided world government). But Jack and his wife are attempting to lead their viewers in the OPPOSITE direction!
VAN IMPE THEME #2: Attempts to create anything
which even remotely resembles a "one-world religion" are to be
feared and opposed. They badmouth the World Council of Churches, the "new
age movement", pagan worshippers, etc. Rexella
even dug up the following quote by David Spangler, Director of an organization
called "Planetary Initiative" which she claims to be a "United
Nations world government organization":
"No one will enter the new world order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the new ages unless he will take a Luciferian initiation."
Who elected him? And what is that "Planetary Initiative", really?
Anyhow, Jesus Christ's position regarding a "one-world religion" was expressed in Matthew 23:37 (TLB)
"O Jerusalem,
Jesus Christ sought to
establish a "Kindom of God" on earth based
on Gods' commandments to seek the TRUTH relative to His commandment to LOVE our
neighbors as ourselves (without restrictions). As religions go, you can't get any more fundamental (or world-wide appealing)
than THAT! Jesus Christ Himself was preaching a "one-world religion!"
VAN IMPE THEME #3. Jack spends a considerable amount of
time quoting Bible verses and historical references concerning his
interpretation of the gold-headed image with feet of iron and clay described in
the 2nd chapter of Daniel. He claims that the feet or
iron and clay represent the European Community. Actually, they represent the
national sovereignty system itself which is about to be "shattered"
by that "rock" which allegorically represents God's two most
fundamental commandments. If you are really interested
comparing our interpretations of such prophesies, I recommend you order Jack's
videos, download a copy of my Jan 97 article "What does the Second Coming
of Christ REALLY mean?" (this article contains my
own commentary on
VAN IMPE THEME #4: They also spend a consider amount of time describing various
technologies that have evolved for monitoring or controlling people ("the
mark on the head or the hand" kind of stuff). Marks like that actually WERE put on the arms of Jews (and others) during the Hitler
era in
VAN IMPE THEME #5. Jack also spends a considerable amount of time attempting to Biblically justify a Satanically inspired concept of escapism known as the "Rapture." According to Jack, all you need to do to qualify for the "Rapture" is to repent of your sins and "call on the Name of the Lord", and "the blood of Jesus will save you." When the time comes, you'll be "snatched up" into heaven in a "twinkling of an eye" when the Lord calls "Come hither" (Rev 4:1). Then you'll float around (in a "glorified body") without dying for a thousand years in a "New Jerusalem" in the clouds. And best of all, you'll miss all that "tribulation" stuff including wars and plagues that will physically kill half of the entire human population of the earth (that's what Jack Van Impe predicts)!
There you have it folks,--a CLASSIC example of "soothsaying"! Evidently, predicting doom on one hand and offering an easy "supernatural" escape on the other hand has proven to be a real money maker for these "antichrists" (it's as if there were following a "golden calf"). Their message is NOT to love your neighbor as yourself,--their message to love yourself (only!) and to let the rest of the people in the world "go to hell." Once again, Jack's message is the OPPOSITE of what Jesus Christ would teach.
At end of the
"666" video, Rexella says, "What we
believe about the world to come shapes how we live in the world today..." She's right about that. If the people of the world really
believe and follow the teachings of Jack Van Impe,
Hal Lindsey, etc., those teachings could actually lead the world into a
cataclysm that would physically kill half of the world's population (an effect
known as the "self-fulfilling prophesy phenomenon").
Jesus Christ predicted that this would happen in his "tares in the wheat" parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field: but while he slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'" (Matthew 13:24-30)
"Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, 'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.' He answered and said to them: 'He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world [the "earth" of mankind's perceptions of popular truths], the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Matt 13:36-43 NKJ)
What these "antichrists" are doing is urging mankind to follow the "tares" in the present "kingdom of heaven" [mankind's perceptions of God].
Perhaps this point can be better understood by considering a present-day
analogy. Suppose we use a "tubeless tire" as an analogy for the
teachings of Jesus Christ. People ride on such tires every day as if their
lives depended on them (and they do). As long as that tire is mounted on a
wheel and filled with air (let's assume for this analogy that this
"air" represents God's two must fundamental commandments), then there
is no way that anybody can turn that tire inside out. My Jul 97 interpretation
of the story of Moses illustrates this. But if they remove
that "air" (as Jack Van Impe has done),
then they can take the tire off of the wheel, turn it inside out to conform
with their Satanically inspired ideology, and then claim, "This is a tire,
and you can believe me when I tell you that this (inside-out, off-the-wheel,
airless) tire will save you when the going gets rough, because I have a Doctor
of Divinity Degree, and this tire has 'supernatural' written all over it.
" It may not look like a tire, and it certainly won't
function like a tire, but it is true that the view of the tire which they are
presenting does in fact have some of the major components of a tire (selected
biblical quotations). As Jesus Christ discovered in the desert, even the devil
can quote from the scriptures.
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I'm mailing a copy of this article along with various
other articles from this web site to Jack Van Impe in
hopes that by reading them he will recognize that fact that he has been
"barking up the wrong logical tree" all these years. I'm also hoping
that he will then reformulate his conclusions from those 70,000 hours of
research, so that he can start working FOR God rather than AGAINST Him.
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So! WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
There are many in
1. They attempted to implement a "Decency in Communications Act" which was supposedly designed to combat "pornography on the internet." But the "fine print" in that law ALSO made it a federal crime to discuss the churches' teachings regarding homosexuality, abortion, and birth control on the internet. If that law had not been struck down by our courts, then I could have been sent to jail for pointing out (in my Jun 97 article) that many of our churches' have been preaching Satanically inspired doctrines as well as Godly doctrines (as Jesus predicted they would), and that those Satanically inspired doctrines included some of their teachings regarding the topics homosexuality, abortion, birth control.
2. They are attempting to implement a "flag burning amendment" to the US Constitution, so that they can use the "tools of Cain" to protect their beloved idolatry from being ridiculed.
3. They are attempting
to use the "tools of Cain" to "resolve" an abortion problem
which they themselves helped to create in the first place (by not teaching the
4. They have been attempting to censor the arts and to shut down PBS stations, because they presented ideas which they didn't like.
5. They've
been providing a religious sounding ideology to help inspire (and support the
recruitment efforts of) anti-government "militia groups" throughout
the
6. They've been encouraging US military commanders to figuratively "thumb their nose" (with impunity) at their Commander-in-Chief's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy as they terminate (with prejudice) the military careers of hundreds of dedicated military personnel (based on un-Christlike misinterpretations of the scriptures).
7. But by far most significanly, they SUCCEEDED in turning US foreign policy away from adequately supporting the United Nations and its peacekeeping operations, thereby permitting conditions of anarchy to evolve unchecked in Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire (resulting in the slaughter of millions of men, women, and children over the past few years)!.
These present-day examples illustrate quite well why our nations' founding fathers insisted that the very first sentence of the first amendment to the United States Constitution read, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
HOW AND WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?
These Satanically
inspired interpretations of the scriptures are being repeatedly preached to the
American people via infomercials, weekly religious broadcasts, and traveling
road shows. With only rare exceptions, these are the ONLY interpretations of
Biblical prophecies that most people in
as of 12-2005