The Lord’s Message:  The Coming of the Antichrist

The Lord’s Message:  The Coming of the Antichrist
Date:  September 22, 2024
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Daniel 11

            Has God been faithful in the past?  Yes!  Has God been faithful in the present?  Yes!  Will God be faithful in the future?  Yes!  This explanation by the Archangel Michael to the vision that God gave to Daniel will prove that God is faithful in the past, present and the future. 

            Let us pray. 

            If you remember in Daniel 7, Daniel has a vision of four beasts.  These beasts represented the four great kingdoms that would appear on the earth.  The lion with wings of an eagle represented the Babylonian Empire.  The beast that looked like a bear represented the Medo-Persian Empire.  The beast that looked like a leopard with four heads represented the Greek Empire.  The beast that was the most hideous of all the beasts represented the Roman Empire.  In Daniel 8, Daniel has another vision, this time the vision is about a ram with two horns, representing the Medo-Persian Empire and the goat with one horn representing the Greek Empire attacking the ram and the horns are broken off the ram.  This goat then has one horn that is broken off and four other horns.  The one horn represents Alexander the Great who dies at a young age.  Four of his generals divided up his kingdom.    Out of one of those four horns another horn forms although small in size quickly grows and grows and grows.  This horn is so filled with pride that he set himself up as great as God and does away with the even sacrifices.  This horn or person is Antiochus Epiphanes IV.  In Daniel 11, the vision is about the two Greek generals battling for control of the holy land.  If you had your history book open, these two generals would be Antiochus 1 also known as Seleucus and Ptolemy 1.  The king of the North ruling the nation of Syria is the Seleucus.  The king of the South ruling Egypt is Ptolemy.  In between the holy lands are no man’s land. 

            From Daniel 11 verse 5 to verse 35, you have a period of 350 years of interaction between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies.  If you continue reading your history book all of these verses in Daniel 11 will come true.  In verse 5, the king of the South becomes strong, Ptolemy, but one of his commanders becomes stronger, Seleucus.  The two families battle it out for a while, they finally agree to a truce.   In verse 6, Ptolemy II gives one of his daughters to Antiochus 1 for his wife.  In verses 9-13, Ptolemy III invades Syria the battle goes on.  Until Antiochus III defeats Ptolemy V and gives his daughter in marriage to Ptolemy in verse 17.  Antiochus IV or Epiphanes comes to power and takes over Syria from his brother through deceptive means as it says in verse 21.  In verse 25, Antiochus Epiphanes sends an army to attack the king of the South Ptolemy V.  It ends in a stalemate.  In verse 29, Antiochus Epiphanes comes with a greater army.  Ptolemy V hears about this massive army coming, he makes a contract with the Romans to help defeat Antiochus Epiphanes.  In verse 30, the Romans show up with this sailing ships and Antiochus Epiphanes sees that he is going to lose decisively.  Matter of fact, the Roman commander literally gives him a choice.  He captures Antiochus Epiphanes.  He draws a circle with his sword around Antiochus Epiphanes and says to him before stepping out of the circle you need to decide whether you are going to continue to fight or withdraw. In verses 31-33, Antiochus withdraws, but on the way back to Syria he is so filled with rage that he takes it out of the Jews and Jerusalem. He desecrates the temple with the idol of Zeus and has a pig slaughter on the altar of God.   He stops the worship of God and forces the Jewish people to abandon this worship of God.  Anyone who does not, he has them killed.  80,000 Jews are killed, until the Maccabees rise up against him.  After returning back to Syria, defeated by the Ptolemies with help from the Romans and the Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes loses his throne and goes mad and walks into the sea and drowns.  In verse 34, the Maccabees do not last very long, because Rome invades Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

            350 years of interaction between the Seleucids and Ptolemies are recorded here in Daniel 11:5-35.  Daniel was given this vision from God, 200 years before it occurred.  The details in this vision are so precise in their occurrence, that it has been argued that Daniel 10-12 was written by another person long after Daniel has died. 

            Now having known that God had predicted all of these events 200 years before it occurred, should we not put our faith and trust that God can predict what is going to happen in the future at the end of times.

            Let us look at verse 35.  If we have a Hebrew Bible, we will find that there is a paragraph break between verses 34 and 35.  The Hebrew Bible does not put paragraph breaks in like the English Bible does.  It does not divide the Bible into chapter and verses, but only paragraphs.  Only when there is a change, in this case the prophecy, is a paragraph divider inserted.  We are moving away from past history to future history. 

            In verse 35, it starts off with the Maccabees, “some of the wise will stumble”, and skips to the end of times, “So that they may be refined…”

In verse 36, the Antichrist comes.  There are five characteristics of the Antichrist.

1.  The king will do as he pleases.  Antichrist will be a dictator with a massive army and worldwide support.  What he says will be carried out.   
2. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god.  His heart will be filled with pride.  He will boast of his abilities, achievements, and greatness.  He will proclaim that he is a god.  (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
3. He will say unheard-of things against the God of gods.  He will be a blasphemer.  His speeches will be filled with anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-Bible, and anti-church rhetoric. (Revelation 13, 1, 5-6)
4. He will be successful until the time is complete.  He will be successful for a time.  His rise to power will be rapid, but he will meet a terrible end in the lake of burning sulphur.  (Revelation 19:20)
5. For what has been determined must take place. God will give him free reign until all the prophecies are fulfilled. 

Verse 37 gives us four more characteristics of the Antichrist.

1.  He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers. I have two thoughts on this.  One being that he comes from a pagan family, one who does not worship God.  The second is that he rejects God, so he could come from a Jewish or Christian family.  You decide for yourselves, either way, he will reject God.
2. He will show no desire for the one desired by women.  This is often interpreted as no desire for the Messiah, for Jesus.  It is well known that the Jewish women desire to be the mother of the Messiah.  The Antichrist will not care anything about the Messiah.  He will be anti-Messiah.
3. Nor will he regard any god.  He will not worship anyone’s god, because he will sit in the Temple and declare that he is god. 
4. But will exalt himself about them all.  His ultimate goal is to have everyone worship him. 

Verse 38, the Antichrist desires power. He will sell his soul for power.  He will spend great wealth to acquire it for Satan.  In verse 39, he comes a man of peace, but is really a man of war.  We see this in the next verse.  Verse 40, a coalition of Arab nations led by Egypt attack him.  Joining in the attack is a coalition of nations to the north, probably Russia, Syria and Turkey join in the attack.  He will wage war in the holy land and defeat them all, because Satan will provide him the power that he needs. 

Then in verses 42-43, he plunders the land of the forces that he has conquered.  Until, verse 44, countries from the east, China, and from the north, Russia, wage war against him.  In verse 45, this all happens in the holy land, between the Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea.  At the beautiful mountain – Jerusalem.  His reign will come to an end when Jesus returns upon this earth. 

            We do not need to fear the end of times, because God is in charge.  Let us continue to grow together in faith.  Amen.