Unleashing the Beast

22 / U NLEASHING THE B EAST

8. The Antichrist, 1 John 2:22 9. The Beast, Revelation 11:7

W RITINGS FROM THE E ARLY C HURCH The early church fathers were bishops and leaders who lived and wrote from the first to the fourth centuries. They made numerous statements concerning the rise of the Antichrist. At one point in the first century, some felt that the wicked Roman Emperor, Nero, had faked his death and would rise once again from the East. He (the antichrist) shall divide the globe into three ruling powers when, moreover, Nero shall be raised up from hell. Elias shall first come to seal the beloved one; at which things the region of Africa and the northern nation, the whole earth from all sides, for seven years shall tremble. But Elias shall occupy the half of the time and Nero shall occupy half (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume IV, Chapter XLI). Nero was such a persecutor of Christians that when he died some believed he would come back from the dead in the form of the Antichrist. The writer used the verse in Revelation concerning the beast that "was and is not shall come out of the pit," and applied this to Nero (see Revelation 17:11). This is an incorrect interpretation of Scripture and tradition. Because both Judas and the