SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

file000313992053            Earlier one Friday morning, I came to the office to find a guy waiting. He looked to be about 35, had thinning hair, was wearing an expensive-looking leather bomber jacket, and stained sweat-pants. He was holding three cell phones: 2 iPhones, and a flip phone. One of the iPhones was pink and bedazzled with rhinestones. I asked if I could help, and he said he had a Bible question. I asked him to come in and he followed me into the library. 

            When we were seated at the table he said he needed some answers from the Bible. I handed him a Bible from the box of spares we keep under the shelf. “What’s your question?” I asked. He replied, with perfect composure, “I don’t know if I am the Messiah, or the Antichrist. I used to think that I was the Messiah, but now I’m pretty sure I’m the Antichrist.” I thought to myself, “That’s probably the better bet,” but I said: “Well if you want answers from the Bible, I am pretty sure we can establish that you aren’t either one.” He was a little agitated at this and went on to tell me about his criminal past, the Pentecostal grandmother who had told him from childhood that he was either a demon or an angel of light, described the crimes he had recently committed, and of the charges pending against him (he was out on bail). He ended his story by reaffirming that he was certain that he was either the Messiah or the Antichrist.

            I asked if he would let me tell him why I was convinced he was neither, using only the Bible, and he agreed. I began by telling him that the New Testament never speaks of a single Antichrist – “ ‘The’ Antichrist doesn’t exist, just antichrists (I John 2.18-22, 4.3; II John 7)”, I said. I showed him that an antichrist is someone who believes in Jesus, but teaches what is false about Him. Then I asked if he had been doing any of that. He said “no,” and was convinced he wasn’t the Antichrist. Convincing him he wasn’t the Messiah was a little harder, but we stuck to the Bible and I finally convinced him that the Messiah would come again on a cloud (Acts 1.9-11) and since he hadn’t arrived that way he could not be the Messiah.

            “I know that both Satan and God want to use me!” he suddenly exclaimed. “I do too,” I replied, “the Bible says so.” This piqued his interest. I took him to Romans 6.15-23 where Paul talks about yielding your life a weapon for good or for evil, then backed up to 6.1ff to talk to him about being baptized. “Now wait a minute,” he protested, “I didn’t come here to get baptized. I just needed to find out if I am the Messiah or the Antichrist!” I told him we had established from the Bible that he was neither, and that whether he was a powerful tool for good or evil was up to him. He refused to give me his name. His phone rang (the pink one) and an angry woman’s voice ordered him to bring her car back home. He left. I asked him if we could study some more and he said he’d be back if he had another Bible question.

            Was he disturbed? Drug-addled? A world-class narcissist? All of the above? Maybe. He was not the Messiah, nor the Antichrist, nor was he possessed. Satan has no power that is not voluntarily yielded to him. We are told to pray, to preach, to serve, but we are never commanded to exorcise – are never told how. There is no need. No one needs an exorcist. We choose right and wrong. Satan is a lion, a top-of-the-food-chain predator. But he is a cowardly lion. If we resist him he flees (I Peter 5.8-9, James 4.7). The word is enough. It is always enough. It is the only sword we wield against him (Ephesians 6.17).  

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