By By Sandy Howard

Is the Antichrist Looking Forward to the Rapture?

By Sandy Howard

Yes, I think he probably is. Is he looking forward to it with giddy anticipation? Yes, I think he probably is.

Now, don’t misunderstand, I do not know who the Antichrist is. I don’t know his name. I don’t know where he’s from. I don’t know how old he is. I don’t know what profession he’s in. I don’t know how he was or is being raised. I don’t know what religion he claims or if he claims one at all. I don’t know if he has brothers and sisters. I don’t know if he is married or single. I don’t know if he is heterosexual or homosexual.

I don’t know his race. I don’t know if he’s rich or poor. I don’t know if he is highly educated or illiterate. I don’t know if he wears glasses, has tattoos or walks with a limp. So, I repeat, I do not know who the Antichrist is. And, frankly, I don’t care who he is. I don’t believe I will ever know who he is anyway because I will be gone from this world by the time he is revealed, and because he is not the one I am looking forward to meeting (in the air) soon.

I know that I am not the only one looking forward to the Rapture─that is, the “catching away,” “snatching up” or “taken out of this world,” deceased believers and those who are still alive believers into the air to meet Jesus -- when we get eternal bodies and go to be with Him, forever. There are many, many Christians looking forward to the imminent return of our Lord for His church these days.

But it occurs to me that there is another human here on earth right now (I personally believe he’s here already, and most likely an adult or close to it by now) anticipating the Rapture with as much if not more excitement than we Christians. Did ya get that? I said “if not more” excitement than we Christians.

Even though I don’t know, and neither does anyone else know right now, who he is, there are still some things we can know about his character and his ambitions and desires because the Bible describes enough about him for us to figure out what kind of person he likely is. For some reason, when I have thought about him at all, I have always viewed the Antichrist as mostly a political figure. A “mover and shaker” type who is orchestrating and manipulating things like world government-type stuff behind the scenes, and that is probably accurate. However, it crossed my mind that maybe he’s more than that, too. He’s human and likely more dimensional than that.

He’s probably funny, and considered fun to be around and maybe described by some as someone you’d like to “have a beer with” as they say. He’s probably charming, witty, smart and very clever. He’s probably talented at many things. I’ll bet he has the gift of gab and is probably very handsome. And as a human, he’s obviously also emotional and has an ego. Actually, I’ll bet he has an extra-super-size dose of ego. I’m pretty sure that even if he doesn’t show it right now, he’s going to turn out to be the most narcissistic narcissist there ever was! He would make Hitler look meek and shy and humble. After all, he’s eventually going to declare himself to be God and demand that EVERYBODY worship him as such.

Although most Bible scholars, nor do I, believe that he knows who he is right now, I do believe he does already have tendencies, desires and ambitions toward becoming ruler of the world someday. So, if I put myself in his shoes and think about that goal and what needs to be done to accomplish it, doesn’t it stand to reason that his path to that goal would be made so much easier if we Christians were out of his hair? Wouldn’t a global economy and a global government be much easier to obtain if only we believers would just disappear?

You know, those of us who are clinging to our Bibles, our guns and our religion? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist putting that in.) He’s probably thinking, “I’m SO close! What I really need now is to get around or better yet, get rid of these holy rollers. Sure, I could and will continue with the plan to disarm the world, shut down freedom of speech, destroy all individual freedoms in fact and erase all verbal or visual references to God or Jesus. But, although my chipping away at this stuff is speeding up now and working quite nicely so far, if I do say so myself, the Rapture would surely be a shortcut to victory.”

Doesn’t it make sense that the Antichrist would be looking forward to the Rapture? I’ll just bet he’s heard of it and it sure makes sense to me that he’s giggling and clapping his hands and smiling all the time in anticipation. So my question is this: WHY aren’t WE as excited? Why aren’t we giggling all day, clapping our hands, shouting and smiling? Huh? Why aren’t we witnessing, testifying and spreading the Word in every way we can think of to get as many people as we can to accept Jesus and come with us? Hmmm…things that make ya go, hmmm!

Skhoward8@hotmail.com