At the end of each chapter, there are 10 reflection questions. You will be required to respond to 1 reflection question of your choice for each chapter. Post your answer in the comments section below the prompt in the Spaces App. Answers must be at least 2 paragraphs, grammatically correct, and spell-checked. Read the post of one class peer and comment one paragraph on what they said. Due each Friday. Class discussion may be based upon these reflections.
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How is the storyline of the end times impacted by the anti christ, and why does such a figure emerge?
The anti christ will be evil, wicked, gentile leader who stands to resist God. Satan will empower Him, and he will even seem to have been killed and risen to life again, prompting many people to follow Him.
The world is ripe and ready for a leader to step onto the stage and bring peace. 🙌 when rge time is right, that person on earth will be the anti christ. Don't spend your time trying to figure out who it will be. Instead let's be busy doing our fathers business, with our eyes and hearts fixed on the return of Jesus Christ ❤️
Chapter 9: Why does God also use negative things to help the Church come into maturity?
We by nature are a prideful beings. When we operate in pride, we are independent and not joined with the Spirit's direction. When we work and dwell in our will, we are not walking with God. He has to remove pride and our will, to align us with His will. By various shakings and chastisements, God can remove our pride and realign us with Jesus. He knows we look to find comfort and we rest in everything but His arms. He works with us to teach us that He is the loving Father that wants to hold us in His hand and walk with us every moment, in every trial, in every truimph, and in every uncertainty. We need to surrender to Him and allow Him to prepare us to partner with Him. He wants us to learn to handle authority for the use in His Kingdom.
#7 How is God going to use the emergence, rise, and power of the Antichrist to serve the Church and turn all things for good (Romans 8:28)?
First of all, I believe that our faith and allegiance will be tested, especially during persecution. When it comes time to take the mark or not, we will have to trust God more than ever. “Anyone who buckles under the pressure and worships the beast in order to receive short term benefits , will ‘drink of the wine of the wrath of God’ and the fullness of its strength (Rev 14:10)” I like how the author said that “nobody will accidentally acquire this mark. It will only be given to those who choose to bow down in worship and pledge allegiance, with exclusive loyalty to the Antichrist.”
How God turns it to good is that in the end, the Church emerges victorious as Satan is thrown down. The worthy King will have been given the keys, and will have dominion and leadership over the world once again. The author writes, “As Satan conceived and carried out his plan, God will have secretly unfolded His”, meaning that God has and always will be in control.
6. How can Christians avoid potential offense at God related to His allowance of such evil to be unleashed upon the earth?
There will be many ways in which Christians and the whole world will be tested in the end times. Our faith will be tested in how we handle those times. The mark of the beast will be something that we have to fully accept in order to buy and sell. If we buckle to peer pressure and worship the false prophet or the Antichrist. Resisting these things may be punishable by death. I would rather die with my beliefs intact, knowing that I did not subcomb to Satan, and die to martyrdom.
Through our knowledge of the Word and relationship with God we can stay strong. The Word has given us all we need to know what signs to watch out for when the rise of the Antichrist comes. Partnering with God in our daily walks of life, we can commit ourselves to live holy and sanctified.
3. If the Bible describes the Antichrist as emerging from out of the Middle East, would he then have to emerge from within Islam as well?
While the Antichrist’s connection to Babylon may imply that he will be from the Middle East, I couldn’t find anything that directly says that this is the case. Maybe I overlooked some verse or misunderstood the one that says he is from there. Anyway, if he is from the Middle East, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be Muslim. Even if his country’s national religion is Islam that doesn’t mean he will believe that. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 (ESV), “Let no one deceive you in any way…the man of lawlessness…the son of destruction, who 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.” When a person tells an outrageous lie, they need to have a certain level of belief in the lie. It seems to me that the Antichrist will legitimately believe that he is a god, so whatever religion he comes from he will reject it.
Satan will give his power, his throne, and great authority to the Antichrist (Revelation 13:2) and the False Prophet’s goal is to get people to worship the Antichrist (Revelation 13:12). These actions backing up the Antichrist give apparent legitimacy to his lies. He, as he convinces the world to believe his lies, will convince himself that he is telling the truth because that’s how this works. Of course, he will know deep down that he is not a god, but I believe he will suppress such thoughts. If a person believes himself to be a god he will make his own religion or change a religion to focus on him. He won’t adhere to a religion that worships anyone else.