Bible teacher John Bevere believes the Antichrist walks among us — and that the church’s greatest days are still ahead.
He may be a teenager. He may still be a small child. But according to bestselling author, John Bevere, the man the Bible calls the Antichrist is almost certainly alive on the earth right now.
“I actually believe he’s alive today,” Bevere told his son and co-host Arden on a recent episode of The John Bevere Podcast. “He might be an 18-year-old young man. He might be a 7-year-old man.”
“He is the perfect antithesis of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God without measure, this guy is going to be filled with the spirit of Satan without measure.” — John Bevere
Bevere further grounds his timeline in Jesus’ own words. When Christ declared that the generation that sees Israel restored would not pass away before all things are fulfilled, He set a prophetic clock in motion, one that, by Bevere’s reckoning, began ticking in 1967 when Jerusalem was no longer trampled by Gentiles. “I believe between now and 2075,” he said, “we’re going to see the return of Jesus.”
Central to their discussion is a figure Paul calls “the restrainer” in 2 Thessalonians 2, the force holding back the full unleashing of lawlessness. While many theologians have argued this is the Holy Spirit, Bevere pushes back strongly.
“I don’t believe it’s the Holy Spirit,” he said. “The Bible says nobody can confess that Jesus is the Christ without the Holy Spirit. There are going to be a massive amount of people saved in the Tribulation. So if you remove the Holy Spirit, how do people get saved?”
His answer: the restrainer is the church itself. “Think about if we pull every bit of the church out of all sectors of society,” he warned. “You won’t have a Red Cross. You won’t have nursing homes. Utter selfishness will rule and reign.”
“You pull the church out and your world goes to utter darkness — rapidly.” — John Bevere
Arden pushed back on what he called an “escapism mentality” that can paralyze believers.
“If you’re just living in this mentality of the world getting darker and darker,” Arden said, “then the gospel is not being advanced. There’s opportunity in persecution — that persecution is going to lead to more salvation.”
His father agreed without hesitation.
“We, right now, present time, are never to have an escape mentality,” John responded. “We, right now, present time, are to have an advancing-the-kingdom-of-God mentality.”
He compared the church to runners in a 5K — the closer to the finish line, the faster the sprint.
“The kingdom of heaven suffers violence,” he added. “The violent take it by force. We have to have a violent love.”
Yet for all the sobering prophetic weight of the conversation, Bevere closed with something that sounded less like a warning and more like wonder. He said he believes a great end-times revival — what Scripture calls the latter rain — is coming before the catching away of the church, and that the generation to carry it is already here.
“This generation — I’m talking about the 18 to 25 year olds right now — they would die for their faith. I haven’t seen a group of young men and women like this in my lifetime.” — John Bevere
“I’ve never had this kind of urgency in 43 years of ministry,” he said. “I believe the hour is very, very late. We’re approaching the midnight hour. And I don’t want to see you without oil.”
As the end of time draws to a close the question we must all ask now is this: Are we ready for the return of our King?
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
I agree Bevere is so correct that if the Holy Spirit is taken out, there would not be tribulation saints. God’s hand allows the AC to reign at the time God allows. He alone is the restrainer. We will see the man of lawlessness and we will need to endure persecution like our brothers and sisters do in many countries. I love these verses which speak so clearly how the events will go before the rapture of the church. They speak for themselves among many other verses:
2 Thess. 2, “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, 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.”
1 Thess. 4:15-17, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
Acts 1:9-11: Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”