I am taking a short break from our study in Matthew to address some questions and concerns once again. One of the major concerns is the number of people who are willing to tell us that we are looking for the antichrist to come out of the Roman Empire. (Sorry, but I do not see that in scripture, so I will discuss it.) The other concern, and quite frequently a question, has to do with the rule and influence of the antichrist. The assumption that many make is that he is a power to contend with throughout the seven years, but that is not the case, and I will show you why.
Who are we looking for that can come and fulfill the role of the antichrist?
The answer has little to do with the followers of Christ, for we, the church, will never knowingly see the antichrist.
When people say we are looking for a man to come out of the resurrected Roman Empire, they are leaning upon traditional teachings that are wrong, or they are trying to put all their weight upon Daniel 9:26, which speaks of “the people of the prince who is to come.”
“And
after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for
Himself; And the
people
of the prince who is to come Shall
destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a
flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”
Daniel
9:26
NKJV
A thought on Daniel 9:26 before we move forward.
Within this verse, there is a chronological context and an allusion to a time, which for us in 2023 is long past, and yet an event that must happen again; that would be the destruction of the temple. A very obvious fact is that there is no temple today.
Yes, even then, Titus was alluded to as the prince, but the context that we should be concerned with is the time after “the sixty-two weeks” in which the “Messiah” was cut off. It is during this time that another prince shall come. (I was initiated into the World of Disney, where princes were the heroes. Now that may be what the deluded perceive him as, but it will be shortlived.) Nowhere does it say that this coming prince will be associated with the Roman Empire (which, by the way, no longer exists.) Since it was recorded that Assyrians destroyed the temple, then this prince that is yet to come, which shall also destroy the city and the sanctuary, will most likely be associated with the Assyrians – Islam.
I am confident that many of us have seen the person who will hold the position of the antichrist, but because this explicit information is NOT available to us, we will NOT know that we are looking at the antichrist.
If you want proof, 2 Thessalonians chapter two has much of it. The New King James version reads like this.
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, 2 Thessalonians 2:3 NKJV
I have talked about this translation problem in detail in previous posts, how the Catholic church – the State Church of England in the 1500s, demanded that King James change the wording of known Bibles, like the Geneva Bible, to reflect the church’s contempt for people leaving the official church as they migrated to Protestantism. The Geneva Bible, though difficult to read, gives us a more appropriate translation of the Greek word apostasia when it tells us that we are looking for the church to depart first, and then the son of perdition will come.
Let no man deceiue you by any meanes: for that day shall not come, except there come a departing first, and that that man of sinne be disclosed, euen the sonne of perdition,
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Geneva
In general, he will only be revealed when his time comes, and that time is after the church is removed from the earth.
There is one other translation (The Literal Standard Version) that also uses the word departure, but the language is old English and confusing; it gives the impression that we should be waiting for the man of lawlessness to be revealed, and that is NOT the case. I think it is safe to say that the church has fallen away from the Lord. It would be best if you looked up the Greek word – apostasia to understand why we, the church, are struggling.
The KJV, with the Strong’s numbers, reads like this, “exceptG3362 there comeG2064 a falling awayG646 first.” Strong's G646 is the Greek word apostasia and can be translated as apostasy, falling away, or departure.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, the phrase “that day” is indicative of the day in which Jesus comes back for His bride, the church, and then reveals the antichrist.
Departure denotes the removal of the church from the earth before God’s wrath is poured out and prior to the revealing of the antichrist.
“And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.”
2 Thessalonians 2:6 NASB
More evidence to confirm that one event has to happen before the other can, is, in virtually every translation, shown to us in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8.
“For
the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only
He
who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
And
then the
lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy
with the brightness of His coming.”
2 Thessalonians
2:7-8 NKJV
Typically, when you see a capitalized personal pronoun, such as He, it typically refers to one of the trinity; in this case, the Holy Spirit; it could refer to one of two others, Jesus or the church.
Why the church?
Because we, the church, are in Jesus Christ. When we ask Jesus Christ into our lives, the Holy Spirit becomes a part of our lives as well, and it should be easy to perceive either as the subject here. The restrainer is the Holy Spirit operating in the life of the believer and responding to our cries for help (prayers.) So as long as we who possess the Holy Spirit are still on the earth, we are restraining the antichrist (he) from being revealed.
Why do I reject the idea that the antichrist will come out of the Roman Empire?
The majority of the religious world incorrectly hangs their hats on this one passage.
“And
after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for
Himself; And
the people of the prince who is to come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war
desolations are determined.”
Daniel 9:26 NKJV
In order to make the Roman Empire fit into their argument, they have to make the assumption that:
Titus fulfills the parameters for the destruction of the temple;
That the “people” are all Italians (I am being facetious) and maintain an allegiance to the Pope;
And they have to ignore documented history.
How many times was the temple destroyed?
Two.
The last time was in 70 AD, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Titus, the oldest son of Emperor Vespasian.
When conversing about the rebuilt temple, we typically talk about the third temple, which is yet to come. It will stand for a relatively short time, and then, it, too, will be destroyed.
Since I opened the can of worms, the next question should be, who are the people of the prince?
Notice that in 2 Thessalonians 2:5-6 “he” is NOT capitalized; therefore, “he” is not Jesus. The only persons this could refer to would be Titus or the Antichrist. Since Titus is still dead, the only other person to fill this role of the prince is the prophesied, coming antichrist.
I have a problem with the temple's destruction being tied to Titus?
Both historians, Josephus and Tacitus, recorded that Titus was under tremendous pressure from Caesar to maintain calm in the city and, therefore, was very much against allowing a riotous situation to be created in Jerusalem, for the Jews had already been severely oppressed, had their language banned, and were forced to speak Greek, and their Hebrew scrolls were removed from them and destroyed. Tearing down their temple could ignite the Jews even further and cause Titus to lose his own head at the hands of Caesar.
With the understanding that Titus did not want the temple destroyed, Josephus recorded that Titus, upon hearing that the Assyrian conscript troops, which had a vile hatred of the Jews, were burning the temple, ran partially clad, shouting orders to cease. But because of their hatred, the Assyrians ignored Titus's orders to stop and continued to burn the temple and tear it apart to obtain the gold that had melted into the cracks between the massive blocks.
Did you pay attention to the description of Assyrian conscript troops, which did not obey orders because of their hatred?
So, the one thing that diverts me away from Titus being the prince to come, and points me toward another, is that we are dealing with Assyrians as the people that will come. Give a little consideration to the enemies that Israel is dealing with now. They are all Assyrians.
Let me show you something from the Revelation.
“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.” Revelation 13:1 NASB
The dragon is Satan.
The seashore is easily seen as the Mediterranean. Remember that the Biblical narrative is focused exclusively on the Holy Land, as explained to Abraham. Since we are NOT concerned with oceans or the sands of a shoreline, we are looking at a specific region, the Mideast, and the people associated with that region – Assyrians.
“ Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea.” Dr. J Vernon McGee states, “In Scripture the sea is a picture of the nations of the world, of mankind, like the restless sea.”
I believe that the sea is representative of the people of the Mideast, primarily Assyrians. Since we understand that the sea represents people, then it is people of a specific region, the Middle East – Assyrians.
An obvious factor has shown its ugly head. Here in July of 2023, it appears that an organization with the acronym WEF, and it seems to have little to do with the Mideast, has arbitrarily raised its ugly head and wants to control us all, and that is what we perceive the antichrist to do. But wait, Klaus Schwab's second in command is a Jewish historian named Yuval Noah Harari. I am not looking for either of these two to take the role of the antichrist, but there is your huge link with the Mideast.
“having ten horns and seven heads.”
Is there anything out there that physically matches this description?
The answer is NO; therefore, it is an analogy.
But to what?
Kingdoms, empires, or perhaps dominant world leaders who have control over nations or regions today.
If you are thinking, as I am, about who is running this world today, then there are particular names and groups of people that come to mind, such as The World Health Organization; The World Economic Fund; the United Nations; and the people to run, organize and attempt to exercise dominance over the nations through these entities.
The defining features were given to John, just as they were to the prophet Daniel.
“And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.” Revelation 13:2 NASB
When the prophet Daniel was shown these things, they were explained this way.
"And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. "The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. "And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, 'Arise, devour much meat!' "After this, I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.” Daniel 7:3-6 NASB
In both passages, there was the lion, the bear, and the leopard. In (the) Revelation, John did not see a definition of the fourth beast, possibly because it is so diverse. Strangely, Daniel was shown that this bizarre beast had four heads. Fascinating, three bodies and yet four heads. Again, we have nothing on earth to compare this to; therefore, we have to be looking at not just an analogy but ruling bodies.
We are told that Daniel was so perplexed that it made him ill, and he sought a definition of what he saw.
'Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth.”
Daniel 7:17 NKJVThe earth, in general, refers to the nations.
We understand, because scripture can explain itself, that Nebuchadnezzar is the first of those kings. The second is the Medo-Persian empire under Darius, and the third is the Grecian empire under the reign of Alexander.
The fourth, which is NOT defined, although the common, misleading practice is to take the statement from Daniel 9:26, where it says, “the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,” and apply Titus, the Roman Emperor, to the defining role of the prince. This does NOT work because Titus was entirely against the temple’s destruction and served more of a reconstructive role to the Jews.
If it is NOT the Roman Empire, then who?
After the death of Alexander, the region continued under the Grecian influence, although progressively weaker, as four Grecian generals ruled, finally ending with two. It is these two that played the most prominent role after the death of Alexander. The Seleucid Empire was in the North, and the Ptolemaic Empire was in the Southern regions, encompassing Egypt and the Northern African nations. All of these have migrated into being Islamic and of varying sects of Islam, which makes for a very volatile region. And Israel, which still maintains an Islamic population, is the only nation that is NOT primarily Islamic, and that did not happen until 1948 when Israel became an independent nation.
The explanations continued for Daniel.
"Thus he said: 'The fourth beast shall be A fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.” Daniel 7:23 NKJV
The Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires were both Assyrians and capable of violence. The differences have more to do with who they worshiped.
How, then, is this fourth empire different?
It “shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.”
Did the Romans devour the whole earth?
No,
You might ask, where are they now?
I will let that hang there. The other thing about the Roman Empire is that they built infrastructure, such as roads, aqueducts, and sewerage systems.
Does that sound like someone who breaks the whole earth in pieces?
No.
So, what entity or ideology desires to destroy all those who refuse to adopt their ideologies?
If you said Islam, you would be correct, and Islam had its beginnings with the Assyrians.
“As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise. Another will arise after them, but he will be different from the previous ones; he will subdue three kings.”
Daniel 7:24 TLVAnother? Another kingdom.
I am NOT comfortable saying it is the Roman Empire because when someone says the Roman Empire, all I can visualize is the Pope. Yes, he is an older man, but just the fact that he is the Pope makes him powerful, and he is trying to influence the whole world, but projecting him as a global, destructive threat just does not work for me. The problem is we need more that defines this kingdom, but there are clues, and they come from his titles.
Micah 5:5 calls him the Assyrian. That one verse eliminates the Roman Empire unless you can prove some strong ancestral ties to the Assyrians. See Isa_10:24; Isa_14:25; Isa_31:8.
He is the desolator in Daniel 9:27.
We see him as the beast in Dan_7:11, Rev_11:7; Rev_13:1.
Nahum 2:1 (ASV) identifies him as he that dashes in pieces.
The Darby translation of Isaiah 16:4 expresses how the extortioner will come to an end.
Zechariah 11:15 (AMP) calls him a worthless and wicked shepherd.
Daniel 8:23-24 (Darby) And at the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors shall have come to the full, a king of bold countenance, and understanding riddles, shall stand up. 24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power, and he shall destroy marvelously, and shall prosper, and shall practice, and shall destroy the mighty ones, and the people of the saints.
The Amplified version of Daniel 8:23,24 tells us he is a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark trickery and craftiness.
Well, you should get the general idea. It sounds as though he worked for Hezbollah
“he will be different from the previous ones.” While going into captivity is challenging to see as a positive influence, Daniel, the captive, touched and won the heart of several kings. So the captivity served as a protection and a preservative role for Israel. This fourth kingdom will do nothing more than try to divide and destroy Israel and God's people.
End of part 1.
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