Who Is the Antichrist? Part2   03.2008

Part 2

"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God." (2 Th 2:1-4)

In Part 1 in this series we began to look at the subject of who the coming antichrist is. It is clear from the Scriptures that before the rapture, mentioned in the text above as "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him" (2 Th 2:1), the antichrist must first be revealed.

It is very possible that the revealing of the antichrist is not far away, and so we need to study the Scriptures in order to find out who he is, in order to not be deceived. We have already stated that the word "anti," does not just mean "against," but also "instead of." The antichrist will be a false Messiah, who will attempt to copy the real Messiah as much as possible in order to take his place.

Yeshua mentioned that the antichrist will appear in some way "in the holy place." It is clear that this is referring to the Temple Mount, since Yeshua is telling his disciples who are in Judea to flee to the mountains when this happens. The fact that the Temple Mount is the place where Yeshua will be reigning from, also confirms this, since the antichrist will attempt to take his place. Psalm 132 says,

"The LORD swore an oath to David, a sure oath that he will not revoke: 'One of your own descendants I will place on your throne — …For the LORD has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: 'This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.'" (Ps 132:11,13-14)

What a glorious promise this is. The kingdom of God will one day come to this earth! It is the same good news that the angel Gabriel confirmed to Miriam (Mary), "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus [Yeshua]. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." (Lk 1:31-33) The antichrist will make an attempt to take Yeshua's place, and fulfill this promise.

We also mentioned in Part 1, that the Apostle John tells us that the antichrist will emerge from a Christian background, see 1 Jn 2:18-19. Like Judas, who betrayed Yeshua with a kiss, the antichrist will also appear as a friend of Jesus. But at the same time, he will also be someone who rejects Moses and he will be against the Jewish people.

The Beast

This week we will look at the fact that the antichrist will not only be a person, but he is also referred to as a political world power. In the Book of Revelation, the antichrist is called the Beast. We read about this beast that he is "coming out of the sea." The sea in the Scriptures refers to the nations or the Gentiles.

Later on in the same chapter, John also describes another beast that is "coming out of the earth." The word for earth in Hebrew is the same as the word for land. This refers prophetically to Israel, as opposed to the Gentiles being the sea. It seems like the beast from the nations and a beast also coming out of Israel will cooperate together. The antichrist will work together with a betrayer from Israel in order to fulfill his plans.

Let us now look at the first beast.

"And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, 'Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?' …This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666." (Rev 13:1-4,18)

The beast that is described here by John, and also further on in chapter 17 is the same world power that the prophet Daniel also saw in several visions. In Daniel chapter 2, we read about the great image in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. This image outlines the different world powers in world history, during the time of the Gentiles. This was the time period in history after the destruction of the First Temple, when there was no longer an heir sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Daniel interpreted the dream and told the king,

"You, O king, are the king of kings. …You are that head of gold. After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron — for iron breaks and smashes everything — and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. …In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people." (Dan 2:37-44)

All Bible teachers agree that the head of gold is a symbol of Babylon Empire, also pictured later on as a lion, the chest of silver is Medo-Persia, which is the bear, the belly of bronze is Greece, the leopard, and the legs of iron symbolize the Roman Empire.

All of these four world powers have greatly persecuted the Jewish people. Babylon tore down the First Temple and brought the people into the first exile. During the time of Medo-Persia, Haman tried to wipe out the Jewish people. Antiochus Epiphanies desecrated the second Temple, harassed and murdered the Jews. Finally Rome destroyed the Second Temple, murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews and brought about the second exile.

All of this is past history. It is, however, important to notice the continuation of the two legs in the two feet with ten toes, which pictures the end time beast system of ten kings mentioned in Revelation 13. Notice that the ten toes are a mixture of iron, representing Rome, and of clay. The end time beast system, which is the final antichrist system, will be partly strong and partly weak. Its number is 666.

The Greek text seems to indicate that the number 666 is both the number of the beast system and the number of a specific person. The New King James Bible reads, "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666." (Rev 13:18) Who is this man?

Looking for Answers

The Early Church Father Irenaeus is considered to be a spiritual "grandson" to the Apostle John, who wrote this verse about the number of the Beast. Irenaeus had at least some acquaintance with Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. This is what Irenaeus said about the number 666, "Then also Lateinos has the number of six hundred and sixty-six; and it is a very probable [solution], this being the name of the last kingdom of the four seen by Daniel."1 Lateinos means "the Latin [Man]" and obviously refers to the person ruling in Rome, the capital of the Latin world.

In the Jewish world, their corresponding antichrist or antimessiah, the enemy of God's people, is called Armilius. This term began to develop in the second century and is considered to be a rewriting of the name Romulus, the founder of Rome. The name appears in different Targums (paraphrase translations) of Isa 11:14 and Deut 34:3. According to Jewish scholars, Rome was founded by a descendant of Esau and in their prophetic writings Edom always refers to Rome. See also the prophecies in Gen 27:27-41 and Obad v. 17-21 for further understanding.

Both the suggestion by Irenaeus and Jewish tradition are in line with what the Bible teaches in Daniel chapter 2, where the final antichrist system clearly emerges out of the Roman Empire. It is an extension of the fourth beast, which obviously represents Rome. The interpretation of Daniel 2 is so clear, which is the reason why Irenaeus called the antichrist "the Latin Man" and confirmed it by stating that the numerical value of Lateinos in Greek is 666.

How are we to understand the prophetic continuation of the fourth beast into the end time ten toes of iron and clay? And how does this relate to the other indications of whom the antichrist is that we have mentioned, specifically concerning the Temple Mount? We will look at this in Part 3.

Before we end this time we want to mention something that we believe is of great relevance to this study. In the preparations for the upcoming Middle East peace conference in November, Israeli media has reported about a proposal that Jerusalem will be divided between Israel and "Palestine" and that special oversight over the religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, like the Temple Mount, will be handed over to "an international body." More about this in the next article! We need to watch and pray!

Read: "Who Is the Antichrist? Part 3"

 

"Prepare the Way for the LORD"

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1 Rev. Alexander Roberts, DD., and Rev. W.H. Rambaut, A.B., The Writings of Irenaeus, page 137