Javier Solana is the Antichrist?

I hear almost daily from folks who have dedicated themselves to the proposition that Javier Solana is the antichrist. I generally reply that I would like to disagree agreeably.

That ALWAYS gets a nasty response. Appparently, one must either agree or be bombarded with increasingly nasty responses until one does.

Even junk mail filters don't dissuade such correspondents. Some go to the trouble of getting multiple email addresses so they can continue the bombardment.

My answer to the question, "is Javier Solana the antichrist?" was, is and will continue to be, "I don't know and I don't care." The only reason for looking for signs of the coming antichrist is as evidence that the Lord is coming soon. If one can see signs of the antichrist, then it means Christ is coming. I don't care who the antichrist actually is.

But, since that answer is evidently unsatisfactory, here is the first problem with placing one's bet on Javier Solana. He might not be. If he isn't, those who have bet their credibility on Solana as the antichrist will lose it the moment he has a heart attack, gets run over by a bus, or steps down from offic.

And if he is the antichrist, then it only matters to the Church if the Church will be present during the Tribulation.

And THAT opens up the next can of worms. It then follows that the whole "Javier Solana is the antichrist" crowd want to argue about what they call "the pre-trib Rapture theory." I don't want to argue about that, either.

But I am more than happy to address it logically.

The purpose of the Tribulation is two-fold. First, it is to bring about the national redemption of Israel. The Tribulation is rightly called both, 'The 70th Week of Daniel" and "The Time of Jacob's Trouble."

Daniel was given a 490-year outline of Israel's history, using the Hebrew custom of counting years by sevens the way Greeks count years by tens. (Hebrew- 'shabua' Greek-'decade' This just isn't that complicated.)

'Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” [Daniel 9:24]

The revealing angel specifically noted that, at the end of the sixty-ninth 'week' (shabua) the Messiah will 'be cut off'. There remains a final 'week' of years specifically purposed to Israel's future history.

In that 70th week, six things are to be accomplished. First, to 'finish' -- or finalize Israel’s sin – the rejection of the Messiah at the First Advent.

Then there is a skip forward in time to His Second Advent, at which time, an end will be made of sin, reconciliation will be made for Israel’s iniquity, everlasting righteousness will introduced to Israel, Israel’s Scriptures will be vindicated by the fulfillment of all prophecy and finally, the return of Christ at the conclusion of the war of Armageddon, at which time He will be anointed and will take His seat at the Throne of David.

Again, this isn't rocket science. The next six events haven't been accomplished in Israel's history. They will be accomplished in the 70th "week" -- the seven-year Tribulation Period. That is WHY the Bible says the Tribulation will last seven years. Because it's primary purpose is to fulfill the prophecy of Daniel 9:24.

If that isn't clear enough, Jeremiah writes, "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it." (Jeremiah 30:7)

It is the 'time of Jacob's trouble' and its purpose is that, "out of it", will come Israel's (Jacob's) national redemption.

To argue otherwise means to throw out about half of the Bible. So I won't.

There is a second purpose given by Scripture for the Tribulation. That is to impose judgment on a Christ-rejecting world. To argue otherwise means throwing out the Book of Revelation.

Revelation Chapter Seven is an account of a miraculous 'sealing' of 12,000 of each of the 12 tribes of Israel with the Holy Spirit. Throughout the New Testament, we are told that nobody can be saved except by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1st Corinthians 2:14)

Not one of the Apostles understood salvation until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them. But that same day that He entered into them, Acts tells us that they led thousands to Christ. Is there any disagreement here?

If there is, it means throwing out most of the New Testament and abandoning logic altogether.

So, here is where we add things up.

It is the time of Jacob's trouble and a time of judgment on a Christ rejecting world. During this time, the only ones sealed with the Holy Spirit are the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, who, once so empowered, lead many of those in the Tribulation to Christ.

To assume there are any others sealed with the Holy Spirit during the Tribulation, one must also assume Revelation Chapter Seven is redundant and unnecessary.

Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit as a function of the Age of Grace.

The second purpose of the Tribulation is to pour out judgment on a Christ-rejecting world. The Bible says that during the Age of Grace, Christians are already judged at the Cross and are imputed righteous by the Blood of Christ.

Revelation presents those in the Tribulation period as members of one of three categories. Jews, those who reject Christ and accept the Mark of the Beast, and those who are martyred for their witness of Jesus.

Now we begin to ask the questions and see what answers work.

Can those martyrs be the Church? I think not. Why not? Because of Revelation Chapter Seven.

If the Church were there, then there is no reason to seal the 144,000 Jewish evangelists with the power to lead people to Christ. There will be millions of indwelt Christians who already have that power.

And an angel wouldn't seal those Jews. Getting saved would -- like it sealed you and me by grace through faith. But Revelation 7:2-3 says:

"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads."

See anybody being saved by grace through faith here?

Here is what we DO see. We see John describing, AS ALREADY IN HEAVEN, "a great multitude, which no man could number, of ALL NATIONS, AND KINDREDS AND PEOPLE, ANND TONGUES, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." (Revelation 7:9)

John asks who they are. "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14)

Not out of THE Great Tribulation. We term the Tribulation Period as "the Tribulation Period." God calls it, The Time of Jacob's Trouble, the 70th Week of Daniel and the Day of the Lord.

We coined the phrase 'Tribulation Period' from the Lord's description of it as the worst period of tribulation in human history, not the ONLY tribulation period in human history. Just the worst one.

Run a Bible search on the word, 'tribulation'. It refers to life. In all generations. Before the Church Age. During the Church Age. After the Church Age.

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

In context, Revelation 7:14 is speaking of those who overcame the tribulation of life by being washed in the Blood of the Lamb. By trusting Jesus and being saved by grace through faith. No other context makes logical sense.

Revelation 7:3 says the 144,000 are sealed BEFORE the judgments begin. Yet there are ALREADY an unnumbered multitude of ALL NATIONS and they are IN HEAVEN.

"And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth." (Revelation 14:3)

What about the millions of Christian 'men'? Why, if they are on the earth, can't THEY learn the 'new song'?

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." (Revelation 14:6)

Does it not strike you as a bit odd that ONLY 144,000 Jews can learn the 'new song' and that an angel is the one carrying the Gospel? Isn't that the job of the indwelt Church?

Is that not the REASON the Church is indwelt? To hear the 'new song' and to preach the Gospel? Why are they not doing the job that has been their Great Commission for the last two thousand years?

Since the 144,000 are still there and an angel now holds the commission to preach the Gospel to those on the earth, where is the Church?

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is passed to the 144,000 Jews in Revelation Chapter Seven. Judgments begin to be poured out in Chapter Eight. The antichrist imposes the Mark in Chapter 11. God's Wrath is poured out in Chapter 16.

Who is left to Rapture at the Second Coming in Revelation 19:11?

According to Scripture, nobody.

"That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of ALL men, both free and bond, both small and great." (Revelation 19:18)

If ALL men become buzzard food, then who is it that populates the Millennial Kingdom?

". . . and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and THEY lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4)

Is this the Church with their Resurrection bodies? Are they the 'dead in Christ' from all ages who are Raptured first, before we 'who are alive and remain?'

"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1st Thessalonians 4:17-18)

Were the 'dead in Christ' from all ages ALL beheaded? Like I said, none of this is rocket science. It is the chronological and logical outline of the Tribulation Period, without symbolizing or allegorizing the clear teaching of Scripture, but rather, simply taking it at face value.

If it was meant to be allegorized until it was too confusing for anybody to figure out, then why would God bother to have it included in Scripture?

Is that logical? Does the Bible characterize God as a cosmic Joker who just wants to have a little fun at our expense before He wraps up human history?

As to whether or not the Church is present during the Tribulation Period, I leave it to each of you to answer these questions to your own satisfaction.

But for those who want to know what I believe the Bible teaches, the answer is no. If the indwelt Church is Raptured first, all the questions I've posed are answered by that one event. If not, the questions linger unanswered.