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There is a mysterious passage in Revelation 13 that implies the Antichrist might be killed and resurrected from the dead in the middle of the Tribulation. Is this what the passage means, or does it mean something else? Will the Antichrist be killed and resurrected from the dead? Lamb & Lion Ministries sought out eleven different Bible prophecy experts and asked this question. Of those eleven, two said yes, one said it was doubtful, and eight gave a firm no. Let's take a look at all eleven answers.
The following two experts answered "yes."
Arnold Fruchtenbaum
I would have to say, yes, because the very same term used of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:1-2) is also used of the true son (Revelation 5:6) as though he had been slain. In the case of Jesus, He didn't appear to be dead. He really did die. Under normal experience He should have remained dead. And so, He was alive because of resurrection. And the phrase "though he had been slain" is the Greek idiom for resurrected individual, was used of the true son in chapter 5 and is used of the counterfeit son in chapter 13. You have to understand this the same way. He will be killed in this war against the 10 kings. He will be raised back to life by Satan's power. He will continue the war, kill 3 kings, then several will submit to his authority. And, therefore, he will undergo as part of the counterfeit program a counterfeit death and resurrection.
Mark Hitchcock
Yeah, I think in the Scriptures it seems clear to me from Revelation 13 and Revelation 17 that the Antichrist is going to suffer a fatal wound and come back to life. Now, some people take that it refers to the empire, that the Roman Empire is going to suffer this fatal wound and then the Empire will be revived or come back to life.
But, I think it is better to see this as the individual himself. The same language is used of the death and resurrection of the Beast or Antichrist in Revelation 13 that is used of the death and resurrection of Jesus back in Revelation chapter 5. Now some people will say, "Now, how is it that Satan has the power to raise people, someone from the dead?" Because back in Mark 2 Jesus raises this man up who is lame and it is a sign that only God has the power to do that. But, it seems to me like in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 it says, "God will send a strong deluding influence upon people in the world so they will believe the lie." So I think that God will allow Satan to have the power to pull off this great miracle as part of that deluding influence, because obviously God is the only one that has the ultimate power to give life. But, I think that He is going to allow Satan to do that as part of the great delusion that will take place in the end times.
This expert was doubtful the resurrection was real.
Al Gist
Revelation 13 speaks of an assassination attempt I believe on the Antichrist. In fact, it even goes on the say that it will be from the use of a sword. But, it uses some words there that indicate that it may not be successful to the extent that he actually, literally dies. It uses the words as though he were dead, or something to that affect. So, I don't believe that he will literally die. However this event will cause the world to wonder after him. So, whether he dies literally or not, the world will be amazed at this feat where he appears to die certainly and then is miraculously, so to speak, healed and able to resume his leadership of the world. So, whether he actually dies or not, I think is questionable. I tend to believe that he would not die but only appear to die. That is my personal position.
The following experts responded that they do not believe the Antichrist will literally die and be resurrected.
Daymond Duck
No, I don't. And again, there is a lot of different views on this issue and I think the controversy centers primarily around how you interpret Revelation 13:3 and Revelation 13:11-14. If you go with 13:3, you come up with one way. If you go with Revelation 14 and Revelation 13:11-14, you come up with another way. At least some people do.
Now, those who go with Revelation 13:3, they say that it is one of the seven heads that has a deadly wound and it is healed. And they believe that is not the Antichrist, but that Europe fell apart and was killed, or died and was healed and came back as the revived Roman Empire which was raised from the dead.
Those that go down to Revelation 13:11-14, they look at those verses and they believe that those verses are saying that the Antichrist will receive a deadly wound and be healed and raised from the dead. Now, when I look at Revelation 13:3, the way I read that it says "this head looks like," or "this head is as though," "this head appears as," however you want to phrase that, as though it had a deadly wound that was healed. Now to me, there is a little bit of difference in saying it looks like, or it were a wound, a deadly wound that was healed, and actually having a deadly wound that was healed.
What I am getting at, when I get down to Revelation 13:11-14, we start reading about the False Prophet, and we see the False Prophet forces people to worship the Antichrist. And the False Prophet uses wonders and signs to persuade people to believe that the Antichrist received a deadly wound that was healed and he was raised from the dead. In other words, the way I interpret that passage it's saying the False Prophet uses persecution and force and phony miracles and deceit to cause people to believe that the Antichrist was killed and raised from the dead. Not that he actually was killed and raised from the dead, but that he uses deceit and force and things like that to perpetrate that untruth, that false doctrine, or that lie.
Phillip Goodman
No, I do not. I don't think the Bible teaches that.
First of all, we have to look at it from a theological standpoint that the evidence that Jesus himself is the Son of God is because of the resurrection from the dead. That is unique in all of human history. As a matter of fact, I want to read a passage out of Romans chapter 1 that speaks to that affect. Romans 1:4 tells us that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by what, by the Resurrection of the dead. So, we could not possibly have Jesus rising from the dead and saying, "I am the life and the resurrection." And Satan on the other hand coming up and saying, "So am I, I am the life and the resurrection also." And also the evidence in the Scriptures don't indicate that.
Revelation 2:18 tells us what it is like to be raised from the dead. Jesus says this, He says, "I am the first and the last I was dead and I have come to life." We never see that about the Antichrist. In Revelation 13 he's got 7 heads — 7 kingdoms — one of those is slain.
The real commentary on what really happens with the Antichrist is Revelation 17, it says, "He was, he is not and he will come." That is the language of reincarnation. That is not the language of resurrection. And Satan has raised up reincarnation as the chief antithesis of the resurrection all through history. Satan hates the Doctrine of the Resurrection because of the resurrection of the Son of God. But, when we look at "I was, he was, he is not, and he will come, he was in past history, he is not" during the time of John when John wrote that particular passage and he will come in the future. That is the most it says about the Antichrist and his origins. He will come up by the way out of the Abyss. That also is not the language of Resurrection. He will be indwelled by a spirit that comes up out of the Abyss. So he is two persons in one, he is a man, and he is a spirit from the Abyss. And, he comes up from the past a spirit who controlled a kingdom in the past, comes up and indwells the Antichrist, raises him up in the last days. And perhaps fakes a resurrection, but Satan does not have the power to perform resurrection.
Ray Gano
No! Actually, I back that up with a couple points. First point is a lot of people point to and make an assumption that the Antichrist is being raised from the dead based on Revelation 13:3. You know John describes a beast with seven heads and that one of these seven heads has a mortal wound and is resurrected and everything. There is problems with this. I see in Revelation 13:1-3 that this is not the Antichrist. This actually represents the seven Gentile nations. And, in this I see it's: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the final kingdom or empire that has the wounded head. It is the one people totally disregard and forget about — the Ottoman Empire.
Nathan Jones
That's a tough one. That could be a reference to the Roman Empire being wounded and being broken up for so many hundreds of years and reviving as the European Union. God does seem to like a lot of symbolism, though. If you look at the seven churches, the seven churches of Revelation were seven actual churches, they also represent time periods, and they also could be representative of the seven churches today. So, the Antichrist could very well have something that seems like he died and then rose again. But, Satan has no power over death. So, if it is a resurrection, it's going to be another counterfeit resurrection, a counterfeit miracle.
Todd Strandberg
No. The healing of that wound is the Roman Empire in which it has two stages. I believe when someone dies you are in God's hands. Only God can resurrect someone. I don't think the False Prophet can bring him back to life.
Don McGee
I don't believe the Antichrist is going to be killed and resurrected from the dead because only the Lord Jesus Christ has the power over death. If you look at those passages that have to do with the slaying or the mortal wound of the Antichrist, it says that John saw that he had a wound "as if" he had been slain. Not every mortal wound results in a fatality. People have been healed from wounds that would otherwise be mortal in nature, but for some reason they were not. And, I believe this is going to be a resuscitation more then anything else. I believe that it is going to be fakery. I believe that it is going to be trickery. It's going to be one more thing in the arsenal of the Antichrist to convince the whole world that he is their Messiah.
Ed Hindson
I do not. I differ here from some other prophecy preachers. I think that passage that says in Revelation one of his heads was wounded unto death represents the multi-headed facets of the kingdom of the Antichrist in the last days. I don't think that it is an individual that is attacked. I think that you have serious problems with saying Satan will have the power to resurrect the Antichrist. That is a power given only to God in Scripture. Now it may appear to be a resurrection if it is an individual attack, but not a real resurrection. It is a pseudo-miracle at best. I think that it actually represents the fact that part of his kingdom will be devastated and that part of the kingdom will be revived. Could that apply to a nation, for an example like Germany, that was totally destroyed and has now come back to power as a major leader in Europe and as part of the kingdom of the Antichrist of the end times... I think that is certainly a very real possibility.
David Reagan
I side with those who believe the Antichrist will not be killed and resurrected from the dead. I think the passage is speaking of the Roman Empire rising from the dead and not the Antichrist. But, if it is speaking of the Antichrist, I do not believe he will be resurrected from the dead. Instead, I believe his death and resurrection will be a deception using modern technology.
I hope you found those answers as fascinating as I did, and I hope the discussion will drive you into the Scriptures to judge for yourself the meaning of Revelation 13:3.
You can watch this Q&A at our website on Christ in Prophecy.
