on to the Father. So in the preceding instance. The
inference is, that the Antichrist is to be known by a _doctrinal_ denial
of deity. But the very name of this enemy of all righteousness,
_Antichrist_, demonstrates his recognition of the existence and office
of our Saviour. For why should he oppose a _nonentity_? All scholars are
aware that the primary meaning of _anti_, is substitution. (Matt. xx.
28.) Antichrist usurps Christ's place in church and state, that he may
more successfully oppose his interest. There is no mystery to the
intelligent Christian in the declaration, that men too often "profess
that they know God, but in works deny him." This explains the fact of
Antichrist's denying the Father and the Son. Usurping the prerogatives
of the Mediator is a practical denial of him,--of his authority, and by
consequence, of the Father who sent him. "He that acknowledged the Son,"
in this sense, "hath the Father also; while it is equally true, in the
same sense,--"whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father."
(1 John ii. 23.) Hence it _is not true_ that the _Pope_ is the
_Antichrist_ of prophecy, nor the church of Rome, nor both combined; but
Daniel's ten-horned beast,--John's seven-headed, ten-horned beast, which
are the same: Daniel's little horn and John's beast of the earth, which
are the same; together with the image of the first beast: the Saracenic
locusts and Euphratean horsemen;--all these go to the composition of the
Antichrist, the "eastern and western Antichrist," so identified and
_familiarly_ designated by the _martyrs_ and _witnesses_ of Jesus for
hundreds of years. The great family of nations, called "the nations of
this world," (chap. xi. 15;) in unholy alliance with a _gentile_ church;
(ch. xi. 2;) _these combined, constitute the Antichrist_. They "will not
have this man to reign over them." Against this combination it is the
appointed business,--the life of the two witnesses, to prophesy for a
definite period of 42 months, 1260 days, time, times and a half; all
indicating the same duration, 1260 natural years. All this time the
witnesses are alive and active, but in an obscure and depressed
condition, wearing sackcloth in the wilderness, "not reckoned, (not
_reckoning themselves_,) among the nations." (Num. xxiii. 9; Dan. vii.
22, 27; Rev. xx. 4.) Such is the condition of the saints, and such the
powerful combination against them, as symbolically represented in the
11th, 12th and 13th chap