When The King Tolerates Antichrist
Lesson Overview
When the King Tolerates Antichrist with Dr. Erwin Lutzer
This standalone message is the companion to Dr. Lutzer’s talk on the glorious return of Christ, delivered the same weekend. Building on the prophetic framework laid out by Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Lutzer focuses in detail on the Antichrist, walking through his career in Revelation 13 and closing with two lessons meant to strengthen believers for a time of persecution. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
Why We Think of Hitler
Lutzer opens by asking why the Antichrist so often brings Adolf Hitler to mind rather than other mass murderers like Stalin or Mao. He gives several reasons: Hitler rose to power largely through legitimate democratic means, he was adored by crowds who believed he was bringing peace and hope after the First World War, he electrified audiences as an orator (Lutzer says, under demonic inspiration), and above all he hated the Jewish people and tried to exterminate them. The Antichrist, he argues, will follow the same pattern, first courting Israel and then turning against it.
Drawing on his own books about Nazi Germany, Lutzer recounts Hitler’s fascination with the “spear of destiny” in Vienna and his mentors’ occult claims, presenting these as evidence that Hitler was spiritually influenced. He notes that the coming great tribulation, according to Matthew 24, will be a time of persecution worse than anything in history, including the Holocaust.
Parallels Between Christ and Antichrist
Lutzer lists ways the Antichrist will imitate Christ: both claim to be God, both make a covenant with Israel, both appear in the temple, both are worshipped, both perform signs and wonders, both have armies, and both experience a death and a resurrection. Satan, he explains, wants to counterfeit everything God does.
He briefly addresses the theory, argued in some recent books, that the Antichrist might be the Islamic Mahdi. He gives two reasons he finds this unlikely: Islam abhors the worship of a man, and it is hard to imagine Israel signing a covenant with a Muslim ruler. He holds instead to the more common view that the Antichrist will arise from a unified Europe. This is his position within an ongoing discussion among prophecy teachers, and other views exist.
The Career of Antichrist in Revelation 13
Lutzer walks through the Antichrist’s career as described in Revelation 13, in five stages.
His rise to power. A beast rises from the sea with ten horns and seven heads. Comparing this to Daniel, Lutzer reads the beast as both a person and a coalition of nations.
His apparent death and resurrection. One of the beast’s heads has a mortal wound that is healed, and the world marvels. Lutzer believes this is most likely a staged or counterfeit resurrection rather than a real one, since he doubts Satan can raise the dead, though he notes some believers think it will be a genuine, devil-empowered resurrection. Either way, a watching world will follow a man believed to have risen from death.
His signing of the covenant. From Daniel 9:27, the Antichrist guarantees Israel’s security, and the world breathes easy, believing peace has come. Lutzer notes that many hold this covenant to be the event that formally begins the seven-year tribulation, with a period of alignment following the rapture.
His entrance into the temple. From 2 Thessalonians 2:4, the Antichrist enters the rebuilt temple, proclaims himself God, and breaks his covenant, triggering the worst persecution in history. Lutzer suggests the destruction of the hostile nations in Ezekiel 38 could clear the way for the temple to be built.
His rule over the world. Given authority for 42 months, the Antichrist rules in three spheres: religiously (all the earth worships him), politically (no one can make war against him), and economically (no one can buy or sell without his mark, the number 666).
The Unholy Trinity and the Economic System
Lutzer describes a satanic counterfeit of the Trinity in Revelation 13: the dragon (Satan) in the role of the Father, the beast (Antichrist) opposite Christ, and the second beast (the false prophet) in the role of the Holy Spirit, drawing worship toward the Antichrist and enforcing his mark.
On the economic control, Lutzer relates a book he read proposing to the G20 a new international currency purchased by every nation for world trade, one that would exist only electronically. He uses this to illustrate how a cashless system in which no transaction goes unrecorded could make the prophesied “buy or sell” control realistic, without claiming to know the actual details. He then presses the question personally: if feeding your family required the mark, and denying Christ were the price of your children’s safety, how would you respond?
Two Lessons: The Sovereignty of God
Lutzer’s first takeaway is the sovereignty of God. He stresses that the Antichrist is given authority for exactly 42 months and cannot make it 43, because he can only do what God permits. Quoting Luther that “even the devil is God’s devil,” and Jesus before Pilate (“you would have no power unless it were given from above”), Lutzer argues that Satan is only as strong as God allows. He applies this directly to fears about the rise of militant Islam, urging believers not to be ruled by fear.
Two Lessons: The Glory of the Saints
His second takeaway is the glory of the saints. Reflecting on those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life from before the foundation of the world, Lutzer teaches that God chose His people first, and that a person can know they are chosen by believing on Christ, who receives all who come to Him.
He turns to the persecuted church, noting that many Christians are being killed and displaced across the Middle East, and asks whether believers today would stand firm under such pressure. From Revelation 12:11, he gives the secret of those who overcome: “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.” He contrasts Revelation 13, where the beast kills the saints, with Revelation 15, where those same saints stand victorious before God’s throne singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Two chapters apart, the martyrs are shown triumphant.
The Closing Challenge
Lutzer closes by calling for courage in ordinary life, arguing that the willingness to die for Christ means little if a believer will not even live openly for Him at work. He tells the account of a young girl during the Boxer Rebellion who chose to honor the cross even at the cost of her life, and whose example was followed by the other students. His final charge is for believers to be role models who raise their children to stand firm, and his parting encouragement is that whatever the Antichrist does, “in the end, Antichrist will lose,” because the believer is “backing a winner.”
Key Terms
Antichrist: the coming world ruler of Revelation 13 who imitates Christ and demands worship.
The unholy trinity: Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet, a counterfeit of the true Trinity.
Mortal wound: the beast’s apparent death and healing, which Lutzer reads as a likely counterfeit resurrection.
Mark of the beast: the required mark (666) without which no one can buy or sell.
42 months: the fixed span of the Antichrist’s authority, underscoring God’s limit on his power.
The song of Moses and of the Lamb: the victory song of the martyred saints in Revelation 15.
Verses to Know
Revelation 13:1-8, the rise and authority of the beast. Daniel 9:27, the covenant confirmed with Israel. 2 Thessalonians 2:4, the man of lawlessness in the temple. Revelation 13:16-18, the mark and the number 666. Revelation 12:11, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony. Revelation 15:2-3, the saints victorious, singing before God.
Takeaway
Lutzer argues that although the Antichrist will rise, deceive, and persecute, his authority is strictly limited by a sovereign God to 42 months, and the saints who seem defeated are shown moments later in glory, so believers should not fear but live boldly for Christ, backing the certain winner.