[00:00:00] End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi by Dr. Michael Youssef, Know Your Enemy. The Antichrist is not who you think he is. Three. The arrival of the Antichrist in his youth, Ignatius was a student and traveling companion of the Apostle John. Ignatius was appointed Bishop of Antioch by the Apostle Peter. He led the church in Antioch, Syria, for many years before being arrested by the Roman government.
[00:00:30] There is no record of the charges against him, so the reason for his arrest is a mystery. We only know that he was led in chains from Antioch to Rome, where he stood trial. He wrote a number of letters during his journey, and though he suffered harsh treatment from his captors, God gave him the grace to refer to his chains as, My Spiritual Pearls.
[00:00:56] After his trial and conviction, Ignatius suffered many horrible tortures from the Romans. Finally, in AD 11, they led him to the Colosseum and threw him to the wild beasts. In his letter to the Ephesians, shortly before his death, Ignatius wrote, The last days are here. Let our lot be genuine life in Jesus Christ. Do not let anything catch your eye besides him. That's good advice.
[00:01:26] Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't be distracted by lesser things. Always be ready for the Lord's return. But Ignatius was mistaken in thinking he lived in the last days. The explorer, Christopher Columbus, was a student of Bible prophecy. He was heavily influenced by the 12th century Calabrian abbot, Joachim of Fiore. Columbus became obsessed with a prediction supposedly made by Joachim
[00:01:55] that a last world emperor would arise in Spain and would lead a war to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims. Columbus believed the world would end in 1656. When Columbus set sail in 1492, he wanted to open a trade route to India and he wanted to convert the people of India to Christianity. He believed that gold from those lands would finance a new crusade
[00:02:24] to recapture Jerusalem and hasten the Lord's return. His true motive when he set sail was to fulfill Bible prophecy. In 1500, he wrote in a letter, God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke through St. John in the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation. Columbus never reached India.
[00:02:51] He didn't know that North and South America blocked his path. He was also wrong about the world ending in 1656. Jesus warned us not to set dates and times for the fulfillment of prophecy. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Matthew 24 36 We must be vigilant and ready to meet him at any time,
[00:03:21] and we should never presume to know the things that God has chosen to conceal. The Lord also told us to watch for the signs that the end is drawing near. Watch out that no one deceives you, he said. For many will come in my name claiming, I am the Messiah and will deceive many. Matthew 24 4-5 He said there would be wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes,
[00:03:50] persecution, apostasy, false teachers, and an increase of sins and wickedness. But these events, Jesus said, are not the actual signs of the last days. They are just the birth pains, verse 8. The unmistakable sign that the end is near, Jesus said, is this. So when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation,
[00:04:18] spoken of through the prophet Daniel, Let the reader understand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equaled again. Matthew 24 15-16 21 What is the abomination that causes desolation? Both Jesus and the prophet Daniel warned about it.
[00:04:47] In Revelation 13 15, we see that an image of the Antichrist appears to come to life. Everyone in the world is required to worship the image, and all who refuse are killed. This image is almost certainly the abomination Jesus and Daniel warned us of. When the abomination is set up in the temple in Jerusalem, the last days will begin.