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Who is this mysterious master of evil—whom the Bible calls the Antichrist, the Beast, the Evil One, the Man of Sin, and the Son of Perdition (Hell)—who is destined to stride onto and dominate the world stage in the last seven years before the return of Jesus Christ? His identity has been a matter of speculation for millennia, and although we aren’t yet able to point to someone and say, “There he is! That’s him!” the Bible does tell us a lot about him. It is incumbent on us to understand all we can about him because he will, perhaps even soon, be leading a one-world government. That means he could be in power over you and me.

Why is it important that we are aware of the details of the Antichrist and his reign? How is all this relevant to us? After all, many Christians believe, as popularized by the widely sold Left Behind series of books written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, that God will take them to Heaven and out of this world before the reign of the Antichrist. However much we might want to avoid that man and his reign of terror, many scriptures indicate that Christians alive on Earth at the time the Antichrist assumes power will, barring their deaths, remain on Earth during his reign. Sadly, many Christians will not be prepared for what is to come and will not be the witnesses—that is, the examples and evangelists of their faith—that God wants them to be during that time. Instead of being beacons of light and understanding, they run the risk of being as hopelessly confused as the rest of humanity.