THE RAINBOW:

A Magazine of Christian Literature, with Special Reference to the Bebealed Future of the Church and the World.

AUGUST 1, 1865.

D

THE ANTICHRIST.

BY HENRY KELSALL, M.D.

EATH and the grave were vanquished at Calvary, but Satan is still the

prince of the power of the air, the author of sin and evil. At present his malice is controlled; but when the restraining power (2 Thes. ii.) is taken out of the way, he will enter into a man, as he entered into Judas Iscariot; and his malignity, like the venom of the reptile whose semblance he once assumed, will kill and destroy, till the coming of Him, who will bruise the serpent's head.

The fearful human agent to whom Satan will delegate his power and great authority (Rev. xiii. 2), is named.

August 1, 1865.

The beast, or wild beast."

A man.

The " Antichrist," is a man in whom will be concentrated the full and matured development of all the varied principles of evil which in a scattered and divided form have appeared among men from the beginning —pride, tyranny, cruelty, wilfulness, deceit, and blasphemy, combined with intellectual greatness, sovereign power, and human glory. The "Man" whom Satan will set up in opposition to Him, of whom God says, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth "-"The wicked one," whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming. As in the Lord Jesus was found the perfection of everything pure, excellent, blessed, holy, and according to God—in Antichrist will be seen the personification of iniquity.

CHRIST.

Came from above, John iii. 31.

Came in His Father's name, John v. 43. Humbled Himself unto death, Phil. ii. 8.

Was despised, Isaiah liii. 3.

ANTICHRIST.

Comes from beneath, Rev. xvii. 8.
Comes in his own name, John v. 43.
Exalts himself above all gods, 2 Thes.
ii. 4.

All the world wondered after the beast,
Rev. xiii. 3, 4.

Submitted to the Father's will, Mark Does according to his own will, Dan.

xiv. 36.

Glorified God on earth, John xvii. 4.

xi. 36.

Blasphemes the name of God, Rev. xiii. 6.

Is the Good Shepherd giving His life Is the idol shepherd, neither visiting, for the sheep, John x. 11.

Is "He," whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it, Acts ii. 24.

IS THE BRANCH, Isaiah xi. 1, Zech. iii. 8, and vi. 12.

seeking, healing, nor feeding, but tearing and leaving the sheep, Zech. xi. 16-17.

Is the "Beast," whose deadly wound was healed (by Satan) in mockery of the death and resurrection of Him, "Who for us became obedient unto death," Rev. xiii. 3, 12.

"An abominable branch," Isaiah xiv. 19.

The frequent mention of Antichrist in the Scriptures has excited a desire among readers of prophecy to "count the number of the beast,"

Angust 1, 1865.

and determine the name of this awful person; but it is more easy to predicate who he is not than who he is, and his name will without doubt. remain a mystery, till he is revealed. Nevertheless speculation has been freely indulged, and men who have passed away from the world, and systems opposed to the Gospel have at various times been said to fulfil the predictions of Antichrist. At present many think the question is quite settled, that the Pope of Rome is "the man of sin," and the number of the name of the beast (666) is ingeniously fitted to the titles of the Pope by summing together the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters, which express these titles, and making the totals amount to the desired number 666; but by the same process that number may be adapted to many other persons and things, and this use of letters proves nothing at all.* Popery or the Pope cannot be the Antichrist, because the Scriptures describe him as "a man" (Rev. xiii. 18), and Popery is not a man, but a system of spurious Christianity grafted on the idolatry of the Gentiles. The mummeries seen in Popish temples are mere copies of Pagan rites blended with imitations of Judaical forms. The Pope has the old heathen title of "Pontifex maximus," or high priest; the holy water, incense, lighted candles, and the votive offerings hanging on the walls of Romish churches recall to memory the description of heathen writers who record them as part of the idolatrous practices of Greece and Rome. Many of the Romish saints are borrowed from heathen mythology— as St. Nicholas from Neptune, St. George from Mars, &c., &c. Trades and occupations, towns, cities, and persons, have their titular saints, just as the old heathens had their titular deities. The paintings of Diana, Apollo, &c., on the walls of Pompeii are originals from which the pictures of Popish saints have been copied; their heads being encircled with the same luminous ring seen in the pictures of St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas, &c.†

At the time of the first French revolution the unfortunate Louis XVI. was thought to be Antichrist, and the letters of his Latin name," Ludovicus," were thus made to suit the number of "the beast :".

Afterwards, the letters which compose the word Napolean were somewhat differently valued, and made also to produce the number 666.

The heathen Chinese represent their "Queen of heaven" by the figure of a lady carrying an infant. The heads of the woman and child are each encircled with a "glory," and the whole is identical in appearance with "The Madonna and Child" of the Papists.

August 1, 1865.

The Pantheon at Rome was once a temple dedicated to Jupiter and all the gods; it is now reconsecrated for the worship of the Virgin Mary and all the saints. The temple of Romulus and Remus to two other brothers, Saints Cosmos and Damian, and places of worship are dedicated to the honour of saints. The vestal virgins of the ancient Romans are perpetuated as "Nuns." But although these things are the "working of the mystery of iniquity," they are not the apostacy "of which St. Paul writes." (2 Thess. ii.) In that "falling away" the Jews will be concerned; and it was to them our Lord said (John v. 43)—"I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him will ye receive," when He foretold the coming of a false messiah, who will come in his own name (i.e., stand up on his own basis, Dan. xi. 21), and this cannot be any Pope, for hitherto the Jews nationally have ever manifested abhorrence of Popery.

It is strange that St. Peter's Church at Rome should ever have been called the temple of God, as it is well known that the image which it contains, and to which Romanists bow down, is an old statue of Jupiter, disinterred from the ruins of Rome. Antichrist will sit in the "Temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. ii. 4). This can mean only the temple at Jerusalem, for no other building is called by this name in the Scriptures. "Temple of God" is figuratively used1st. Of the body of the Lord Jesus (John ii. 19).

2nd. Of Christ's elect people (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17, and vi. 19; also Ephesians, ii. 21, 22).

3rd. Of the bodies of individual believers in Christ (2 Cor. vi. 16). But the " man of sin" can have no place in any of these.

Some, who allow that St. Peter's Church at Rome is not the temple of God, still maintain that the Pope sits in the spiritual temple of God, built of the living stones-i.e., the church composed of Christ's elect people; this is the same as to say, that the Church of Christ consists of papists; but if the Pope, who sits in their midst is "the man of sin," it is impossible that they who receive his mark or the number of his name, can be the living stones of the church; therefore the Pope does not sit in the spiritual "temple of God."

The man of sin will magnify himself above every God (Dan, xi, 36); "Destroy wonderfully" (Dan. viii. 24). He will speak great words. against the Most High (Dan. vii. 25). Oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped (2 Thess. ii. 4). He will open his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven (Rev. xiii. 6). But hitherto surely no Pope, no man, has ever committed iniquity like this.

Though the Pope has been blasphemously called "our lord god the Pope," he has never exalted himself above all that is called God, or that

August 1, 1865.

is worshipped; so far from that, he bows down before the bronze image in St. Peter's Church, and kisses its great toe; and such multitudes of Papists have performed this act of idolatry that the toe is worn away, and scarcely a stump remains.

They who believe the Pope is the Antichrist should consider well the following passages in the Apocalypse, where a doom is pronounced on them who receive the mark of the beast, that can be neither symbolical nor mystical. Rev. xiv. 9-11 :-" If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone for ever and ever."

They who receive "the mark of the beast" are excluded from the first resurrection, Rev. xx. 4; (Rev. xv. 2, xvi. 2, and xix. 20, 21, should also be noticed): All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life" (Rev, xiii. 8). Thus, all mankind who live during the time of Antichrist are divided into two great classes:

1st. They who worship the beast, and are lost (i.e., for ever and ever no Romanist can be saved if the Pope is Antichrist).

2nd. The rest who are written in the book of life, and are saved; these must include (if the Pope is Antichrist) all Jews, Mahomedans, and infidels the disciples of Paine and Voltaire, because none of these are in any way connected with Popery; they receive not the mark of the Pope, nor the number of his name, for they reject Popery equally with Jesus of Nazareth.

But he who denies the Father and the Son (1 John ii. 22), cannot be a Papist, because the Romanists invoke the Holy Trinity in their forms of prayer.

Popery is grossly corrupted Christianity, but a corrupt church cannot exclude Divine grace; and, notwithstanding the abominations of the Romish system, it is to be hoped that many Papists build on THE ROCK, and all who believe in Jesus, and put their whole trust in Him, will be saved, if they truly repent them of their sins. THE man of sin, therefore, cannot be the Pope.

* The rejection of Jehovah and his Messiah, Psalm ii., is a state of the world which now seems to be setting in. Deistical opinions have long circulated among the working classes of England, but of late, the very men appointed to uphold Scripture truth, and drive away heresy and error, have done their utmost to cause disbelief of the Word of God, 2 Peter ii.

The prevalence of German rationalist or rather deistic doctrines, is infinitely more be dreaded in these days of progress than Popery.