Question
Dear Gramps,
Can you comment on the following:
1. Talk about the book of Revelation …as it speaks to the last days and Armageddon…Who is the Anti-Christ and from where will the anti-Christ arise from?
2. Speak on demon/spirit possession in those that possess the traits of this. And, can spirits (false) enter a person and control mind in a take control fashion with bad intentions?
Al
Answer
Dear Al,
You speak of the Anti-Christ as though he were a single person. The term, Anti-Christ, is not found in the Bible, and is used only twice used only twice in any of the scriptures. In the Book of Mormon, Alma, chapter 30, the evil Korihor is spoken of as being anti-Christ. This term refers not to a single individual with that title, but to anyone who is against Christ. For instance, the former president of the Mormon Church, President Ezra Taft Benson, records the following:
“As we face an uncertain future in the free world, as we face the threat of the anti-Christ and its penetration into our free countries in almost every segment of our society, people are hungry for an anchor, for something that will give them inner peace and a feeling of security. They cannot find it among the churches of the world today. They cannot find it in our uncertain economic system.” ( Come unto Christ, p.106)
Here the term is used as an impersonal noun, as identified by the impersonal pronoun, “its” that refers to the anti-Christ.
Here is another rather defining statement by another president of the Mormon Church, President George Albert Smith,
“The largest portion of mankind today is anti-Christ. There are many who are anti-Christ, they can believe in anything, almost, that you can think of and produce arguments for believing it, and I want to say to you today, that the largest portion of the population of the world that we live in is anti-Christ, not the followers of Christ at all. And among those who claim to believe in Christianity, comparatively few of them really believe in the divine mission of Jesus Christ.” (Conference Reports, April 1948, p. 179)
Speaking of demonic possession, Paul relates in the 19th chapter of Acts how the seven sons of one Sceva, without the priesthood authority to do so, attempted to cast an evil spirit out of a possessed person, and the possessed person overpowered them and caused all seven to flee.
Indeed, evil spirits may possess the bodies of persons, who by their own wickedness permit such intrusion, and in such circumstances are subject to the wills of the evil spirits.
Gramps
