Question: The idea that the Antichrist will be resurrected from the dead by Satan seems to be the ...

Question: The idea that the Antichrist will be resurrected from the dead by Satan seems to be the prevailing opinion among evangelical pretrib teachers. I would appreciate an expression of your opinion in a future issue of The Berean Call.

Response: This popular idea comes from Revelation:13:3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
See All.... For example, in his book, The Prewrath Rapture of the Church, Marvin Rosenthal states, “According to the Word of God, the Antichrist is a man who lived before. He ruled one of the seven great empires which directly impacted Israel. ...He will literally be raised from the dead. Concerning this raised ruler...the Word of God has much to say. ‘And I saw one of his heads as though it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed...’ (Rv 13:3).”

Note, however, that it is one of the beast’s seven heads, not all of them, that is affected. Furthermore, the head (much less the beast) is not killed but appears “as though it were wounded to death.” Seemingly, the beast could have died from this wound, but verses 3 and 12 declare that its “deadly wound was healed.” So we have a healing, not a resurrection. I believe it is referring to the Roman Empire which has indeed suffered from a deadly wound but has never died and is being revived before our eyes.

Only God can raise the dead. Satan has no such power. At best he might pull off a “fake death and resurrection” of Antichrist, which John MacArthur suggests in his Study Bible as a possibility.