The Antichrist reveals himself
Antichrist activities of the Son of Man
Jesus had the habit of revealing the secrets of heaven as parables and we have seen how the parable of the Prodigal Son ceases to be a mere story. That story is now the truth about the Father and his two sons; one who is obedient, loyal and who is always with the Father and the second one who turns against the Father and his brother and squanders all that was inherited by him. He decides not to work for the Father as he feels that the elder son deserved a better treatment by the father while delivering his duty.
He prepared himself to prove that the elder one was a fraud in the hope that such an act would spare him from working for the Father. If he prepares himself as someone against Christ or in other words ‘Antichrist’, how could people accept him!! This was his thought.
And this work against the Father and the elder son made the Father consider him dead and lost. Now let’s see how he tried to prove that Jesus Christ was a fraud.
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a friar administers Juliet a drug that enables her to be in a coma induced state for forty two hours. She was presumed dead and that’s how the story progresses. So it’s not wrong to assume that the people of the past had knowledge of such drugs. What if Jesus also knew of such a drug that could induce a deathlike state!
Luke 9: 51 says that Jesus was in the habit of sending his disciples to arrange things beforehand. The resurrection of Lazarus was an act staged by Lazarus, Jesus, Thomas and Judas, so that the people readily believed in Jesus’ powers.
Proof
1. Though Jesus was sent word that Lazarus was fatally ill, he waited for two more days and only then did he leave for Bethany to see his friend.
Why would he wait for two days before he went to see Lazarus? Wasn’t he waiting to ensure that he reached there only after the effect of the drug subsided?
2. Jesus mentioned that Lazarus was only sleeping. When informed about the sickness he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. And he said, our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep. Only when his disciples pestered him by saying that if he was sleeping he would do well did Jesus admit that Lazarus was dead.
3. This was a big act that could make or break Jesus as the Son of God. Would they be able to stage it successfully, what if they failed; wasn’t the risk too high? And their activities had to be kept a secret. Tension was running high and Jesus could neither enter Lazarus’ house nor face the crowd.
4. Thomas was not at all confident of staging the drama successfully. That was why he blurted out to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
5. Why did Jesus shed tears when he very well knew that Lazarus was going to be resurrected? Wasn’t it because of his worry about his plan going astray and Lazarus actually dies consuming the drug? Martha and Mary, would have to endure the pains, but for what purpose? Didn’t Jesus’ empathy make him shed tears?
6. Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, and this was done deliberately to ensure that Lazarus woke up and came out at the right time so that it looked like a miracle. If the spirit was to re-enter the dead body of Lazarus wasn’t Jesus needed to command from anywhere and that too in a low voice?
7. The fact that Lazarus was a friend of Jesus magnifies the suspicion. Though Jesus had resurrected a widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter, the details given about it are insufficient to conclude whether Jesus knew them beforehand. There are no historical evidences on these resurrections other than the Scriptures. Further the number of resurrections was so few; they really had to limit it so that the secret was not spilled out.
This was how the younger one interpreted the resurrection of Lazarus. Now see how he tried to interpret the resurrection of Jesus itself as a staged act.
Resurrection of Jesus
According to the Prodigal Son Jesus’ resurrection was also a preplanned act carried out well. This time the conspirators were Jesus, Joseph of Ari-ma-thea, Judas and a Roman soldier. Thomas, though conspired in Lazarus’ case was kept in the dark because he seemed to succumb to fear, he had almost spoilt the game while playing out Lazarus’ resurrection.
Proof
1. When Jesus was crucified on the cross the drug had to be administered at the appropriate time. The soldier was ready with the drug and was waiting for the signal. The drug was vinegar mingled with gall (wine mixed with myrrh as per the Gospel of Mark) and sour in taste, so sour that Jesus found it difficult to drink. Or did he refuse to drink it initially as he wanted to wait for some more time before drinking it. Then came the signal from Jesus, the words ‘I thirst’ . Isn’t it mentioned that one soldier was more eager to give him the drink than others when Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying E-lo’I, E-lo’I, la’ma sa-bach’tha-ni?(Mark 15:34-36)
2. Jesus ‘passed away’ as soon as he drank it. He said ‘it is finished’ and bowed his head and ‘gave up his ghost’. It happened so fast that even Pilate was surprised. So it is logical to think that the drink contained the sedative drug.
3. The ‘hasty death’ saved Jesus from his legs being broken. If it were broken he wouldn’t have been able to walk after the ‘resurrection.’
4. The soldier who pierced his side might be the same one who had given him the sedative. It is said that blood and water came out of his wounds, but how deep were those wounds? It was done carefully so that the prophesy ‘A bone of him shall not be broken’ was fulfilled.
5. Why did Joseph of Ari-ma-thea take initiative to bury Jesus when his own parents and disciples stood back? Wasn’t he worried about the wrath of the Romans when Jesus’ disciples were reluctant to bury him out of fear of Roman’s wrath? This casts doubts on this Joseph as a conspirator. Further Mark 15:42-45 says that this Joseph went boldly to Pilate and requested him to hand over the body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. He thus ensured that the body didn’t lie on the cross for long.
6. Jesus was buried in a new sepulcher. Wasn’t this to avoid the stench inside a used sepulcher and the inconvenience of lying with the bones and carcasses?
7. Didn’t the mixture of myrrh and aloes that weighted about an hundred pounds contain medicines to heal the wounds? If not for healing then for what other purpose did they wound the corpse (in linen clothes) with spices?
8. On the third day when the corpse should stink why did Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Sa-lo’me go there very early in the morning? Weren’t the spices and ointments carried by the women medicines to anoint on the wounds? Why would the guards let them inside?
9. The wounds caused by piercing nails and the wounds on his side were there even after his resurrection. Unlike the marks of the whips which would have healed soon those wounds were deep and didn’t heal in three days.
10. Jesus was with body even after resurrection. He didn’t let Mary Magdalene touch him in fear of infection though at a later stage when the wounds were healed better he let Thomas touch it. How could he have a body when he himself said that after resurrection one would be like the angels of heaven? Doesn’t it imply that a person who dies in an accident would be resurrected with a mutilated face and not like an angel of heaven which is absurd?
11. Thomas knew that Jesus, if resurrected, would have the wounds of the nails and that of the wound on his side. Why was he so confident that the resurrected Jesus would still possess human body with the marks of the wounds? How did he know that the resurrected Jesus wouldn’t be like the angels?
12. Among his disciples only Thomas found it difficult to believe the resurrection of his master. This was because he had seen how exactly Lazarus was resurrected. In Jesus’ case he was kept in the dark about it and so he couldn’t believe in the resurrected Christ unless he put his hand in the wounds. He had truly believed Jesus to be dead because he was unaware of the arrangements made.
13. The most unfortunate case was that of Judas Iscariot. He was so confident that Thomas would have made arrangements for staging the death and resurrection that he went out and betrayed his master without any suspicion. He bargained the price of his master as just thirty silver coins, the price of a slave at that time, because only then would the scriptures be fulfilled. When Jesus sent him saying, Judas that you doest do quickly, he went out without any premonition of trouble. He came and kissed his master without remorse or shame because he didn’t feel that he was doing anything wrong. He was merely obeying his master’s instructions.
Only after the master was taken a prisoner did he learn from Thomas that no arrangements had been made to rescue the master. Imagine his confusion when he realized that he had truly betrayed his master into the hands of those waiting to kill him. He couldn’t approach Jesus for clarification, as there was no way of approaching him without being caught. So he rushed to the chief priests hoping that he could reverse the whole process just by returning the silver coins.
The priests wouldn’t listen to him because it was Judas who set the price and now they thought him to be greedy. Shocked, crestfallen and stricken with remorse he threw the coins into the church and committed suicide. Why else was Judas shocked when Jesus was condemned to death? What else did he expect the priests to do with that innocent person when he betrayed him in?
14. The Acts of Thomas, which were discarded at the Synod of Carthage in AD 379, would have thrown more light into this. Didn’t the church accept only the texts that fit into their beliefs?
15. The Jews still have not believed in the resurrection of Christ. Why couldn’t they if the whole world could believe it?
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After knowing the truth, the good fig tree that had put on leaves was about to produce corrupt fruits and it had to be hewn down. That is what made the Father say that his second son was dead and lost. The assumption on which he made the interpretation itself was baseless.
Shakespeare brought in that potion because he couldn’t attribute the powers of the Son of God on an ordinary friar. The second son could understand the limitations of a dramatist only after creating similar characters himself. He was obstinate and naïve to run after unworthy things, and was wasting my goods when he was supposed to bear good fruits for all.
He was not prudent enough to realize that these miracles were not that what made Jesus the Son of God. If Jesus resurrected a few people numerous others died before his own eyes. He cured a few but didn’t eradicate diseases and death from among the mankind. A few blinds were given sight but many others were left out and blindness still haunts mankind.
The biggest miracle given in the Scripture is the creation of the universe and the creation of man and other living beings. Animals, birds (and people also) with little knowledge on the complexities of the body procreate and give birth to young ones. These are not miracles of the past but every moment we bear witness to it. If the hands of God can’t be seen behind these miracles it is futile to look into the scripture to see that driving power. The fruits Jesus bear us, his teachings, are more important than those miracles because only a few benefited from his miracles but the entire mankind benefit from his teachings.
Now you have seen how the Second One tried to escape from his duty. Does it surprise you that the Father found his younger son lost and dead?
He was proving that a man’s greatest enemy was within the family itself. He was squandering all that he had inherited.
He was sent to work for the Father and the elder son, not against them. He has to be found and made alive. The Father was not the one to merely look at the road waiting for his son to return but the one to act and bring him back. That sets the stage for the Father to Act in a big way.
When he attained the frame of mind to accept Jesus and the Father as my own, after leaving them for a while, he decided to fulfill the duty for which he has been sent for i.e. to judge the world and to bear the fruits of everlasting life.