A sign of the antichrist: Pride

Today, I’m going to talk about the antichrist.

I don’t discuss my eschatology here much, but I’m premillennial, and I believe the antichrist will be a specific person in the years leading up to Jesus’ second coming. If you disagree, that’s fine, and the point of the article will stand whether he’s one man or not.   

This won’t be about any timeline or circumstances surrounding the antichrist, assuming he exists, but one particular trait of his.

The antichrist will be a man of pride.

Pride is the worst sin (I make the Biblical case for that here). It is the sin of the devil himself, who exalted his throne above the stars of God and said, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). Whose heart was lifted up because of his beauty (Ezekiel 28:17).

Pride was part of the serpent’s temptation, as he enticed Eve with his own ambition, telling her she would be like God (Genesis 3:5). The devil doesn’t want us to worship him as much as he wants us to worship ourselves.

Pride, then, can be described as satanically evil. Pride may be the one sin that can be called antichrist, because it rejects Christ’s rule and exalts self to His throne.

Pride in the Bible

The Bible abundantly reveals God’s judgment against pride, particularly in world leaders:

• In Daniel 4, God turned King Nebuchadnezzar insane because he exalted “my mighty power and … the honor of my majesty.”

• In Acts 12, God struck down King Herod Agrippa because he accepted praise as “the voice of a god and not of a man!”

• In Isaiah 10, God judged “the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks” for thinking his assaults on Israel and Judah were by the strength of his hand and wisdom.

• In Ezekiel 28, God condemned the king of Tyre,
  “Because your heart is lifted up,
  And you say, ‘I am a god,
  I sit in the seat of gods,
  In the midst of the seas,’
  Yet you are a man, and not a god,
  Though you set your heart as the heart of a god.”

• In 2 Chronicles 32:25, God even threatened His wrath against Hezekiah, one of the godliest kings of the Bible, because “his heart was lifted up.”

Related: When pride brought God’s wrath on a successful king

As so it makes sense that pride would be a fundamental characteristic of satan’s end-times manifestation, his final rage against the Most High.  

The antichrist’s pride

The brazen arrogance of the antichrist is the culmination of the evil leaders before him, and is mentioned in multiple passages that I believe prophesy his coming:

• The “horn” of Daniel 7:8 had “a mouth speaking pompous words.”

• Daniel 8:23-25 foresaw Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who is considered a type of antichrist because he desecrated the temple in 167 BC, the first “abomination of desolation.” Verse 25 says, “he shall exalt himself in his heart.”  

• Daniel 11:36 looks forward to a king who “shall exalt and magnify himself above every god.”

• Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 about the coming “man of sin … the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

• Revelation 13 describes the reign of “the beast”; verses 5 and 6 say “he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.”

The antichrist will be the pinnacle of human evil and rebellion, of glorying in our own might. Some identify the post-flood king Nimrod as the first antichrist; Genesis 10 calls him “a mighty one on the earth.” His kingdom included Babel, where the people built a tower to “make a name for ourselves” and ascend to heaven, as Lucifer desired to do (Isaiah 14:13).  

So if you’re wondering who the antichrist will be, this will be one telltale sign. And it works whether it’s one man or any man — if a prideful leader isn’t the antichrist himself, his arrogance will make him a type of one. He will be AN antichrist if not THE antichrist. He will be an enemy of God — even if he gives Him lip service.