As his name suggests, the Antichrist will present himself as an imitator of the Redeemer. Yet he will attempt to hide his deep aversion and hostility toward Christ. He may even quote the Gospel, emphasizing passages that refer to human needs in order to give the impression that he is motivated by Christian charity and to present himself as a defender of justice and mercy. In reality, he will offer a kind of “intraworldly gospel” that denies God’s transcendence and humanity’s need for redemption. He will carefully conceal his satanic mission: to achieve global domination and enter the temple of God to usurp His place (cf. Mt 24:15).
The Antichrist will exert influence over the Church, seeking to use it for his own purposes and attempting to distort the mission entrusted to it. He will win over a considerable number of Christians, causing enormous confusion during the time of the great apostasy.
Many suspect that the Antichrist will have a False Prophet at his side (cf. Rev 19:20), who will prepare the way for his coming. Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the possibility that this False Prophet will come from ecclesiastical circles, just as the Antichrist himself will not be unfamiliar with the Christian faith. Let us recall what Saint John warns in his letter: “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore 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.” (1 John 2:18–19)
What lies hidden behind the Antichrist’s apparent philanthropy will be exposed the moment he encounters resistance, which will come first from the Christian community. Only then will he reveal his true face and cruelly persecute those who cling to God’s commandments, those who bear witness to His Majesty, and who therefore do not recognize him as the supreme ruler. Some, even within prophetic circles, suspect that under the Antichrist’s influence, a kind of false church will brutally persecute the true Church of Christ.
Perhaps it can be explained this way: A worldly church infiltrated by error will not be able to resist the Antichrist because it will already be weakened by the anti-Christian spirit. Thus, he will be able to use it for his perverse plans. With God’s grace, the faithful “multitude of the Lamb” (cf. Rev 7:9, 14) will resist and will have to flee into the desert for a time (cf. Rev 12:6). This may also refer to a kind of spiritual desert to which the faithful must retreat to escape the Antichrist’s influence.
Meanwhile, the “disciples of the Antichrist” have already succeeded in making their influence the politically correct view—the mainstream—in many democratic countries. Through politics and the media, they impose a kind of dictatorship of relativism that does not tolerate people believing in and acting according to absolute values.
The undermining of God’s commandments; the focus on life’s meaning solely on the immanent—on the things of this world; moral disorientation; the drastic loss of faith; the alienation of faith from the public sphere; growing immorality; manipulation through media and social networks; the globalization of Western decadence with its culture of death… All these are signs that we are not living in a “golden age” shining with the glory of human civilization. Rather, it seems that a dominion is being prepared that will seek to exploit this decadence to establish a kingdom opposed to God’s. Blindness arising from sin and ignorance of the true meaning of life will cause many to fall victim to the Antichrist’s deceptions.
The “religion” or worldview of the Antichrist will not require people to convert or change for the better. Instead, it will offer humanity a supposed freedom to give in to their inclinations and desires, as long as these do not harm others. Any transcendent dimension and responsibility for one’s life before God will be omitted. The Antichrist’s “religion” will be a kind of immanent religion, since any transcendence would reveal God’s reign. For this reason, values such as peace, charity, ecology, education, fighting hunger and poverty, and health will be emphasized—yet without pointing to the source of every good work: God Himself.
Thus, man takes the place of God.
After reflecting at length on the figure of the Antichrist, we will devote the coming meditations to identifying the influence that the anti-Christian spirit is already exerting in the world and in the Church, and then to pointing out the appropriate spiritual weapons to resist it.
Meditation on the Reading of the Day: https://en.elijamission.net/god-loves-to-be-graceful/
Meditation on the Gospel of the Day: https://en.elijamission.net/the-true-parentage-of-jesus-3/