Who Is the Antichrist? Part 3    03.2008

Part 3

"You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue — an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them." (Dan 2:31-34)

When the Messiah came the first time, many seemingly contradicting prophecies were perfectly fulfilled in a very short time. It will be the same at his return concerning all the prophecies about the antichrist. Many times we only understand certain prophecies after they have been fulfilled. It is more or less impossible to figure all of them out in advance. But we can, and we should know the broad picture ahead of time. That is why the prophecies are in the Bible. In this series we want to stick as much as possible to what is clear and obvious, and do our best to avoid speculations over the details.

In Part 2 we mentioned that the antichrist is a person, as well as a political world power. We talked about the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream and that later was revealed to Daniel. This statue is a picture of the Gentile world powers, from the time of the last heir of David reigning in Jerusalem, until the coming of the Messiah, the Great Son of David. This time period in world history is also referred to in the Scriptures as "the time of the Gentiles."

According to the dream, there would be four succeeding Gentile world powers: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. However, we see also in this dream that the fourth world power will be extended into the end time beast system, pictured by the ten toes made up of iron and clay: "its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay." We have already seen that the iron speaks about the Roman Empire. The final beast system will be an end time version of the fourth one, with an added ingredient.

Since the fourth world power, the Roman Empire, does not exist any longer, it is important to find out what happened when it fell apart. If Nebuchadnezzar's vision was from God, the world power that succeeded Rome ought to give us an indication of the identity of the final Beast system of ten toes, made up of iron and clay. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy." (Dan 2:45)

The Mixing of Iron and Clay

During the time of the Roman Empire, the Gospel began to spread among the nations. In the beginning of the 4th century the Roman Empire and the Church began to merge under Emperor Constantine. Could this alliance represent the mixing of iron and clay in Nebuchadnezzar's dream?

Clay is in the Scriptures often a symbol of God's people or man formed by God's hand. Isaiah 64:8 says, "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." And in Jeremiah 18:6, "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." And in Rom 9:20-21, "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?' Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?" (NKJV)

The Roman Empire lasted longer than all of the other previous three. However, in the beginning of the fourth century, the Roman Empire had begun to fall apart. Constantine's predecessor Diocletian tried to solve the problem by wiping out Christianity in a very cruel persecution. He was not successful. Constantine took another rout and chose instead to favor Christianity and make it the state religion that could unite the empire.

In order to make it work he, however, mixed in quite a lot of Roman paganism. It did not take long until all the Greek and Roman deities in different forms were incorporated into the church. Hercules became the Apostle Peter, Venus became Virgin Mary, etc. One of the most common pictures of Zeus eventually became the standard pattern for the classical picture of Jesus with beard and long hair and without head covering. No Jewish rabbi looked like this in the time of Yeshua (Jn 1:49) Only Greek philosophers and male pagan deities had long hair.

Let's look at Eusebius description of Emperor Constantine at the first Church Council, where the uniting of Rome and the Church officially began. Bear in mind that at this time Constantine was not a baptized believer, but an ardent sun worshipper. In the beginning of his career, Constantine changed the inscription on the Roman coins from saying "To the Genius of the Roman people" to "To the Unconquered Son my companion." Sun worship is of course something that the Eternal both forbids and abhors, see for example Deut 17:2-5 and Ez 8:15-16.

Let us first look at a couple of quotes from Eusebius' general description of Constantine.

"For no one was comparable to him for grace and beauty of person, or height of stature and he so far surpassed his compeers in personal strength as to be a terror to them. He was, however, even more conspicuous for the excellence of his mental qualities. …distinguished in no ordinary degree both by natural intelligence and divinely imparted wisdom."1

"In short, as the sun, when he rises upon the earth, liberally imparts his rays of light to all, so did Constantine, proceeding at early dawn from the imperial palace and rising as it were with the heavenly luminary, impart the rays of his own beneficence to all who came into his presence."2

Then let us see how Eusebius described the opening and ending of the First Church Council, which Constantine called together.

"And now, all rising at the signal which indicated the emperor's entrance, at last he himself proceeded down through the midst of the assembly, like some heavenly messenger of God, clothed in raiment which glittered as it were in rays of light, reflecting the glowing radiance of a purple robe, and adorned with the brilliant splendor of gold and precious stones. Such was the external appearance of his person; and with regard to his mind, it was evident that he was distinguished by piety and godly fear."3

At the time of writing Constantine was worshiping the sun and within one year he murdered his oldest son and his own wife.

This is what Eusebius wrote about the ending of the Council:

"…the circumstances of which were beyond description: Detachments of the body-guard and other troops surrounded the entrance of the palace with drawn swords, and through the midst of these the men of God proceeded without fear into the innermost of the imperial apartments, in which some were the emperor's own companions at table, while others reclined on couches arranged on either side. One might have thought that a picture of Christ's kingdom was thus shadowed forth, and a dream rather than reality."4

But was this really Christ's kingdom coming in power through Constantine or did it more resemble what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 about the antichrist, the false Messiah? "He 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." At Nicea Constantine also fulfilled the description of "the lawless one," by changing God's set times and laws. Even though "the secret power of lawlessness" had already been at work since the time of Paul, the way had now been prepared for Constantine to officially outlaw God's calendar, changing the set time of the Passover and the weekly Sabbath, and forbidding everything Jewish.

It needs to be stated here that Constantine invited around 1800 church leaders from the entire Empire, out of which, however, not one was a Jew. He paid all the expenses for their luxurious travel, food and lodging for several months. Yet, of the 1800 invited, only about 300 accepted his invitation to come to Nicea. Far from all leaders went along with Constantine's deceptions. Throughout history the Eternal has always preserved a faithful remnant.

We have also mentioned earlier that all of the Gentile world powers pictured in the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw, have greatly persecuted and afflicted the Jewish people. This is one of the common denominators among them. At one time or another they have turned against the Jews. After the sun worshipping Constantine merged the Roman Empire and the Church together at the First Church Council in Nicea, the most severe, systematic and longstanding persecution of the Jewish people in world history soon began. Here are some excerpts from what Constantine wrote to all the bishops after the Church Council at Nicea concerning the celebration of the Christian Passover renamed Easter after a pagan fertility goddess.

"And truly, in the first place, it seemed to everyone a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who polluted wretches! having stained their hands with the most fearful of crimes, are justly blinded in their minds.

"It is fit, therefore, that, rejecting the practice of this people, we should perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of this rite, in a more legitimate order, which we have kept from the first day of our Lord's passion even to the present times. Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile mob of the Jews. … In pursuing this course with a unanimous consent, let us withdraw ourselves, my much honored brethren, from that most detestable fellowship.

"Why then should we follow those who are acknowledged to labor under a grievous error? …But if what I have said should not be thought sufficient, it belongs to your ready discernment, both by diligence and prayer, to use every means, that the purity of your minds may not be affected by a conformity in any thing with the customs of the vilest of mankind. …As it is necessary that this fault should be so amended that we may have nothing in common with the usage of these parricides and murderers of our Lord; …and to have no fellowship with the perjury of the Jews. …May God preserve you, my beloved brethren."5

The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:18, "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour."Undoubtedly we have in Constantine a clear description of an antichrist, which gives us a picture of the final end time antichrist. It is very serious that the antichrist will come disguised as a messenger of light. We need to learn from history and watch and pray in this hour that we will discern the deceptions of the enemy!

In the next part in this series we will study more about the antichrist, pictured in the Book of Daniel as "the littlehorn." We will also look at the emergence of the EU and the Middle East crisis.

Read: "Who Is the Antichrist? Part 4"

 

"Prepare the Way for the LORD"

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1 James Carroll, Constantine's Sword – The Church and the Jews, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston – New York 2001, P. 178
2 Ibid, 179
3 Ibid, 180
4 Ibid, 192
5 Daniel Gruber, The Church and the Jews – The Biblical Relationship, Serenity Books – Hagerstown, MD, USA 1997, Pp. 33-35