Faith-based blogs and message boards have been abuzz within the last several months over the recent and rapid ascent of Alexis Tsipras onto the world stage. Tsipras is the newly-elected Prime Minister of Greece who appeared virtually out of nowhere, and many are speculating that this handsome and charismatic 40-year-old leader meets all the criteria of the Bible’s prophesied Antichrist.
It’s important to note that speculation about the Antichrist’s identity has persisted throughout the ages, and there have been no shortage of failed attempts to identify him. And as some have rightly pointed out, believers should have their eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, not the destroyer of it.
With that said, for many end-times scholars closely following world events, Tsipras’s rock star status, coupled with his stated ambitions as the new leader of troubled Greece, make him (at the very least) an archetype of the Antichrist to come.
Alexis Tsipras was elected as the 186th Prime Minister of Greece on January 25, 2015. He is a former communist and leader of the SYRIZA party (Coalition of the Radical Left). He is a self-professed atheist and unmarried, although he currently lives with his long-time girlfriend. They have two sons together, one with the middle name of Ernesto, which is a tribute to radical leftist Che Guevara.
Upon assuming power, Tsipras took a civil oath rather than a religious one, making him the first leader of Greece to refuse a Biblical oath of office. He has been hailed for his telegenic good looks and “unrivaled communication skills.”
Tsipras takes the helm of Greece at a fractured time for that country. As the 10th member to join the European Union in 1981, the nation has suffered massive economic chaos, requiring multiple bailouts from other nations. The economic woes have forced Greek leaders to implement harsh austerity measures, angering citizens, even causing riots and unrest. Tsipras has promised to rescue the country and its citizens from that ongoing turmoil.
On September 17, 2014, Tsipras met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Immediately following their meeting, his office issued the following statements in a press release:
“In our meeting with Pope Francis today, we had the opportunity to discuss the economic crisis, as well as the crisis in human values…we asked [Pope Francis] to take an international initiative for the termination of conflicts in the Middle East…we agreed that the dialogue between the Left and the Christian Church must go on. We may have different ideological starting points; however, we converge on common values, like solidarity, love for the fellow Human being, social justice, and our concern regarding world peace.”
What makes this meeting and those remarks so interesting is the fact that Pope Francis has been widely speculated to be the False Prophet, as foretold by the Book of Revelation. A meeting between these two leaders and the subsequent disclosure of topics discussed have certainly raised some eyebrows.
Lastly, based on the Book of Daniel and its numerous prophecies regarding end time events, it has been a widely-held assumption that the Antichrist would eventually emerge out of Greece.
So is Alexis Tsipras the Antichrist? It’s impossible to say for sure and there’s also the strong potential for his name to join the ranks of other failed Antichrist predictions over the years (joining Napoleon, Hitler, Ronald Reagan and countless others).
However, as world events continue to unfold in spectacular fashion, particularly in the Middle East, Tsipras is a leader definitely worth keeping an eye on in the coming months and years ahead.
WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
No comments:
Post a Comment