Forerunners to Antichrist

Daniel 8

v. 1          It’s two years after Daniel’s first vision from chapter 7, but what he sees are future events. Daniel has another amazing vision. And he sees three figures. The third is the Antichrist. The first two are forerunners to him, and they tell us a lot about what he will be like.

The first one predicted is Alexander the Great - although he’s not even born yet - the second is Antiochus Epiphanes, who will arrive hundreds of years later, and the third is the actual Antichrist. The first two are prototypes.

v. 3  And here, he sees the Medo-Persian empire in the figure of a ram, with its two parts, the Medes, and the Persians. And the latter horn will rise higher than the former. Indeed, Persia, or Iran, is the center of the news today. Its name wasn’t changed until 1935, but the people still call themselves Persians.

v. 4  Those 3 directions are exactly where the Medes and the Persians went out to conquer –They swept over Babylon [the first beast] to the west, the north, and the south, and conquered the world. [v. 20]

But just as the Babylonian Empire came to be defeated at the hands of Persia, so Persia met its match in the Greeks. But time out: It should be noted that during the greatness of Persia, their leader, king Cyrus, let the Jews go home, free from captivity.

539 BC – Persia freed the Jews.

2026 AD – The Jews freed Persia!

Did you know that the fastest growing underground Christian church in the world today is in Iran? And now they have a shot at religious freedom. But make no mistake, the many lost radicals still alive in that land are the embodiment of ‘the wild man’.

Genesis 16:12

¹² And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Indeed, they have been launching everything in all directions even at their own Muslim neighbors. And Persia will remain on the scene until the end of the world. Jeremiah 49:34-39 calls them by their original name of Elam, and says they and their leader will be taken out, but raised up for the last days.

Jeremiah 49:34-39

³⁴ The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ³⁵ Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. ³⁶ And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. ³⁷ For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them: ³⁸ And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD. ³⁹ But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.

Ezekiel 38-39 reveal that they are in league with Magog which is Russia, led by Gog. We don’t know for sure who Gog is, but if the end is near, we all probably could make a strong guess! [It should be noted that the Jeremiah passage may have already been fulfilled, or that fulfillment might be a precursor to a greater fulfillment such as we are witnessing presently, or perhaps yet future.]

v. 5  And the he-goat signifies the third world empire, Greece; the horn refers to the ruler of the Greek empire. It tells us that very clearly in verse 21. The first king was Alexander the Great.

vv. 6-7     This is exactly what history records about Alexander.

v. 8  He’s so strong. And yet, in the middle of his strength, his horn is broken - Alexander the Great died in a drunken orgy at the age of 33 - and out of that Greek chaos in the death of Alexander, four generals split up the kingdom. And that’s the end of verse 8; four notable ones will take over. Amazing Biblical accuracy.

v. 9  The pleasant land refers to Israel. This leader is named Seleucus.

Out of him came the second figure to consider: Antiochus Epiphanes. He reigned from 175 to 164 BC. This is during the 400 year time of silence between the OT and NT. And it was in that time that this Greek power dominated the land of Israel, and at that time, this man Antiochus rose to a place of prominence. Now, up until his time, the land of Palestine had been under the control of the Ptolemies. One of the four generals was a man named Ptolemy, and out of him came a series of rulers called the Ptolemies, and they occupied Egypt; and up until the time of Antiochus, Egypt ruled Palestine.

But at around 195 BC, Antiochus’ father, a man who was apparently a very powerful man, defeated the fifth in the line of the Ptolemies, and took Palestine into the possession of the Seleucids. So, when Antiochus came to reign, it belonged to the Seleucid territory. Now, let me just give you a little bit of insight into what that means. This basically means that the Seleucids, who were extremely Greek in their culture, began to impose upon the land of Palestine a very Greek approach to life.

They wanted to do everything they could to destroy their Jewishness. One of the things that conquerors often do when they take over a new land is to destroy the religion of the people that are there, so they don’t hold to the traditions of the past. The Japanese attempted to do that in Korea. Muslims attempt that everywhere they go. That’s very common in history.

They wanted the Jews to become Hellenized, or to be made into Greek-thinking people, in terms of culture. He made a guy named Jason his high priest. And one of the things that he did was, right outside the tower where the Holy of Holies was located, he built a place of exercise. And you say, “Well, what’s wrong with that?”

Well, the place of exercise literally means a gaming place, or a gaming house - a sporting stadium is what it is. He built a sports arena right there. You say, “Well, I still don’t understand the point. Why are they so concerned about it? What’s such a big deal, if the priests want to go out on their lunch hour and have a little exercise? What’s the deal? Why should God be so displeased with the discus throwers?”

Well, the issue was simply this, folks: it was the custom of the Greeks to participate stark naked; the only covering they had on their bodies was a thin coat of oil. That was the Olympic pattern. Now, nakedness was a major issue with the Jewish people, especially next door to the Holy of Holies. This was an affront to God, who had clothed man in the Garden. True Jews could tolerate all this nakedness running around in this arena, right in full view of the Holy of Holies. He built his stadium in a valley, just to make sure everybody could see. But that was not the end of the scandal.

Soon, the Jews began to join them. And not only did the Jews begin to join them, but the priests abandoned the temple, and went out there stark naked, and began to participate in the games. Now, I think you’re getting the picture. And when they got out there, according to history, they began to recognize that the Gentiles and the Greeks were uncircumcised, and so they thought that was the best way to be, and they began to adopt the practice of uncircumcision. They were ridiculed, and desired to fit in.

Further, all of the Greek games were dedicated to the gods, Zeus and Apollo. And so, there was paganism and nudity at the foot of the Holy of Holies.

Now, Antiochus had introduced all of this to corrupt the people of God, to infuriate them, and to introduce them to Greek culture. Well, what he did was set up an inevitable war; that’s what he did. Because while there were some who followed him, there were some who did not.

It says in chapter 11 that Antiochus took the throne by treachery, and indeed he did.

v. 10        Now what is the host of heaven? You look up in the sky, and you see the host of heaven, and what are the host of heaven? Stars; they’re stars. And what it is saying is that he cast down some of the stars. Now, who are these stars that this Antiochus approached?

Well, I think the best explanation is to look at chapter 12, verse 3. It says this: “And they that be wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” The stars, as Daniel comments on it in 12:3, are those who are wise, and wisdom is to know God and follow him; those who turn many to righteousness. The stars, then, in Daniel’s mind, refer to the people of God.

And the antichrist is going to do that very same thing when he comes. He is going to do everything he can to massacre the people of God. He will bring about a worldwide bloodbath. The Bible says he will wear out the saints of the Most High. He will slaughter two out of three Jews across the earth. He will do all he can to destroy all of the godly from all of the nations, and peoples, and tribes, and tongues, that come to Christ in the time of the tribulation. He will be one who massacres the godly, and that is exactly what we see with Antiochus. He is stamping on the people of God.

In review, Alexander the Great showed us the power of antichrist to conquer. He shows us the swiftness, and the comprehensiveness of his conquering. But Antiochus shows us the murderous personality of antichrist, and Antiochus executed large numbers of Jews.

They had known persecution under the Babylonians. They had known persecution, to some degree, under the Assyrians, before the Babylonians. There were even some tough times under the Medes and the Persians. And it wasn’t easy under Alexander. But they never knew anything in their history to rival this man, Antiochus. What he did was utterly beyond understanding.

Pretty soon, he brought the evil into God’s temple. He set up Zeus in the Holy of Holies. Now, you can imagine what that did to the Jewish people. And he went further than that. If any Jew participated in any Jewish ceremony - If you kept the Sabbath, if you circumcised your child, if you offered a sacrifice - the penalty was death. When he found a mother who circumcised a child, he slew the baby, and tied the baby around the mother’s neck, marched her right through the middle of town, and threw her over a cliff.

Many Jews chose rather to die than to be defiled. And so, he slaughtered them, in massive amounts, and that’s what verse 10 is saying. And he is a picture of antichrist, who will do the same thing. He persecutes God’s people. You read in Revelation chapter 12. It’ll describe how antichrist persecutes the Jews. Then read chapter 17, and it’ll tell you how antichrist persecutes the unbelieving Gentile church.

Ultimately, he wipes out both true and false believers. He wipes out all the people who associate themselves at all with God. And then he sets himself to be worshiped. He makes himself God. That’s what antichrist does; that’s exactly what this fellow did, too.

v. 11        Who is the host? God’s people. Who is their prince? Christ Himself. And so, he magnifies himself even to the equivalency of the prince of the host. I mean, he makes himself equal with God.

v. 12        An ungodly host, a segment of Israel. That’s what it’s referring to, I believe. A portion of the people of God, apostate, was given to him, and they moved against the daily sacrifice. Can you imagine such traitors, Jews themselves, who joined Antiochus in the slaughter of their own people.

And he ‘cast the truth to the ground.’ What’s the truth? God’s Word. He tore it up and burned it. And when he started this, it says at the end of verse 12, it continued and prospered. He had success in achieving his evil goals.

How could God allow such a vile, wretched, wicked, evil man, who would slaughter a pig on the altar, stuff pork down the throats of the priests, set up the god Zeus in the Holy of Holies, and bring nakedness? How could God allow him to continue?

v. 13        This could be an angel, or maybe some great saint who had passed on. How long will God allow Antiochus? Let me tell you something. The Antichrist, the Bible says, will only last 1,260 days, or three-and-a-half years.

And in Matthew 24, Jesus said if it lasted any longer, nobody in the world would be saved. If the time wasn’t shortened to three-and-a-half years, it would be the end of everybody. Antichrist will be so much worse than Antiochus, that Antichrist’s time is confined to 1,260, and Antiochus, who isn’t as severe as antichrist, gets longer than that.

v. 14                2,300 days. When the Bible starts getting that specific, that is really amazing. The atrocities ended in 165 BC. Count backward, and it should have started in 171…and it did!

Antiochus was such a maniac that he imprinted on the coins – and archaeologists have found at least found 126 coins - with this on them: Theos Antiochus Theos Epiphanes, which means Antiochus, God manifest.

What a picture of antichrist, who comes as the false god. Antiochus killed 80,000 Jews, sold 40,000 more into slavery, plundered the temple, dedicated it to his idols, spread the fluids that gushed out of the pig that he slaughtered on the altar - he spread those fluids all through the temple, so they were everywhere.

You know what else he did? He took the temple chambers, where the people had come to worship God, and he established prostitution in those, and they became brothels. He was a terrible man, but he’s nothing like the one that’s coming.

The Maccabeans came down out of the hills one day, and destroyed him; and the Jews got 100 years of freedom, before the Romans finally clenched the fist around their necks again. And it must have been a glorious freedom, from such a horrible man.

And with that we come to the final horn.

v. 23                The latter time of whose kingdom? The Revived Roman Empire.

A king shall stand up. That’s the antichrist.

v. 24        He is energized by Satan.

He’s energized by Satan, all the way. He is a Satan-possessed individual. And he will be far worse than an Antiochus, and far more powerful and glorious than an Alexander.

Revelation 13:2

² 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: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

v. 25, “And through his policy” - literally that means his cunning – “also he shall cause craft [or deceit] to prosper in his hand; and shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes” - that’s Christ – “but he shall be broken without hand.”

You know what that means, without hand? Supernaturally, without any human power, he’ll be shattered and broken.

As Revelation 6 says of Antichrist, “He comes with a bow,” but it doesn’t say he has arrows. He comes with a threat. And by peace, he gets control.

v. 27                Daniel fainted. We feel you, brother!