In the spirit of keeping last week’s promise—here are some of the anti-Christ contenders who have appeared over the centuries: Nero, Emperor Frederick II of Sicily, Muhammad, Saladin the Sultan, Napoleon, Tsar Peter the Great, Benito Mussolini, Hitler, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, and (mentioned only for purposes of sheer absurdity—) Henry Kissinger, FDR, JFK, Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama; more recently, Prince William, Vladimir Putin, President Trump, and not to let the ladies off scot-free, Hillary Clinton (yup); plus, of course, the unfortunate age-old assault of the papal office, because of the “Beast = Rome” eschatological stance.

How did generations miss the mark in understanding the signs of the times and the emergence of the anti-Christ? They read the same Books of the Prophets and Revelation that we’re reading, and believed ardently that they had the decryption algorithm. But it turns out that they only had early beta versions. Daniel was told to seal up the book until the time when people will rush here and there (travel everywhere) and knowledge will increase. (Heck, I can fulfill that prophecy just by turning my cell phone on, doing a global facetime, and accessing the internet which probably contains billions of library volumes by now.) So maybe we’re more ready for the release version of the decryption algorithm than some would think.

In the meantime, I believe that we’ve come a long way over the intervening centuries. I also don’t think the theologians would have had a clue what the Book of Revelation meant, without the benefit of the Book of Daniel. Without that Book it’s like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together with 25% of the pieces missing. The beauty of the Book of Daniel is that there are two phases of fulfillment—an early phase from ~600 B.C. to ~50 A.D.—and an end time fulfillment phase. Not only was Daniel given a decoder ring for the first phase (Daniel 7:19-27), but Phase 1 was a type/shadow of Phase 2. Daniel saw kingdoms emerging and dissolving in prophetic visions that were then precisely fulfilled. He described a type of the anti-Christ with such accuracy that, when the latter came on the scene, he immediately became the template for the end time anti-Christ. The template’s name was Antiochus Epiphanes.

Known as “The Mad One,” he was “King of Syria; reigned from 175 B.C.; died 164…exercised great influence upon Jewish history and the development of the Jewish religion…The Jews themselves afforded Antiochus the first opportunity to interfere in their domestic affairs…when false tidings came to Jerusalem that Antiochus had died on a campaign in Egypt, Menelaus (Antiochus’ High Priest appointee) could not maintain himself in the city, and together with the Tobiads fled to Egypt. On his return homeward, Antiochus came to Jerusalem to reinstate Menelaus, and then the true character of the Hellenism that Antiochus desired was revealed to the Jews. He entered the Temple precincts, not out of curiosity, but to plunder the treasury, and carried away valuable utensils, such as the golden candlestick upon the altar and the showbread table, likewise of gold…even the most well-disposed of Hellenizers among (the Jewish priesthood) felt outraged at this desecration. They must have given vent to their sentiment very freely; for only thus can the policy of extermination waged by Antiochus against the Jews and Judaism, two years later, 168, be explained: (his henchman) Apollonius, was sent through the country with an armed troop, commissioned to slay and destroy…men were butchered, women and children sold into slavery, and in order to give permanence to the work of desolation, the walls and numerous houses were torn down…Having thus made Jerusalem a Greek colony, the king’s attention was next turned to the destruction of the national religion. A royal decree proclaimed the abolition of the Jewish mode of worship; Sabbaths and festivals were not to be observed; circumcision was not to be performed; the sacred books were to be surrendered and the Jews were compelled to offer sacrifices to the idols that had been erected…On Kislew (Nov.-Dec.) 25, 168, the ‘abomination of desolation’ (, Dan. xi. 31, xii. 11) was set up on the altar of burnt offering in the Temple, and the Jews required to make obeisance to it. This was probably the Olympian Zeus, or Baal Shamem.”¹

For anyone who’s wondering what the end time anti-Christ will be like, he’ll be Antiochus Epiphanes on steroids and uppers. But, to give us further insight into the nature of the anti-Christ, we also have stunning symbolism, as well as strong convergence between the prophecies in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. We start out with a riveting description of the ensuing socio-political environment that will engender the anti-Christ’s ascendency.

Daniel 7:2-8 The four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart (mind) was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; Here’s what the commentators were saying:

Lion with eagle’s wings – symbolizes Nebuchadnezzar – the eagle’s wings, connote swiftness. Nebuchadnezzar conquered country after country in Mesopotamia until the day he mocked God by patting himself on the back. Then his wings were clipped, and conquering ways halted. He crawled around on the ground for seven years, eating low carb lawn derivatives, and forgoing all hair stylist and nail salon appointments—before his mind was given back to him. It was a new mind (and heart) that served God.

Bear – Darius/Cyrus and the Medo-Persian empire. One side of the bear was higher than the other. The Persian empire was stronger than the Medes. The three ribs in the mouth are perhaps three cities or countries that were conquered by the Medes and Persians (Babylon, Egypt, and Lydia were proposed).

Leopard with four horns – Alexander the Great—died young, possibly in great torment, without coherently passing the baton. Four kings eventually stepped in to fill the void.

The 4th Beast was the Roman empire and a series of nutcase emperors.

Revelation also talks about a beast, but it’s a composite fusion of Daniel’s: Rev 13:1,2 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.

So we see the same animal theme operating here. Plus we have some additional insight because Daniel actually was given a decoder ring. He subsequently asked for/received the interpretation of his visions. Daniel 7:19-27 So he told me the interpretation of these things: ‘These four great beasts are four kings who will arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever—yes, forever and ever.’

What if having all these characteristics in one beast is a timeline thing. Daniel speaks about a serial, sequential progression of four kings/kingdoms. What if they are a type of four kingdoms that are all co-existing today? Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars—not just one—right before it was “watch-the-sky time.” So who would the leopard, the bear, the eagle, and the lion be today? More on that next week…

Bottom line, as horrible as the anti-Christ, and his deeds will be, we have ultimate and resounding victory—in Christ. And the goliaths in our lives shrink down to little Lilliputians in the truth and light of His power and might. Isaiah 54:17

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¹Ed. Cyrus Adler and Isidore Singer, The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, (New York, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1907) 635.