CHAPTER 14
“THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTICHRIST”
By Doug Krieger
Pergamos Ministries
The Tribulation Network
www.the-tribulation-network.com
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTICHRIST AS SEEN IN DANIEL 11
In sum . . . as seen in Antiochus Epiphanes, “The Glorious One” (for so presumptuous was he to assume such a title unto himself, lit., “God is Manifest”), we witness this singular, but useful braggart, leaving an abominable legacy of falderal as recorded in Daniel 11:21-35 (as Antiochus) and 11:36-45 (clearly as Antichrist); thus, highlighting his wretched person and works:
1.
He
is a “despicable (i.e., “vile” KJV) person” (vs. 21)
2. The “honor of kingship” was not “officially conferred” upon him (vs. 21)
3. He comes to power in a relative time of “tranquility” (vs. 21)
4. He seizes the kingdom by intrigue (vs. 23)
5. After an alliance is made with him, he will practice deception (vs. 23)
6. He goes up and gains power “with a small force of people” (vs. 23)
7. In a “time of tranquility” he will enter the “richest parts of the realm” (vs. 24)
8. He will accomplish what his fathers never did, nor his ancestors (vs. 24)
9. He will distribute plunder, booty, and possessions (vs. 24)
10. He will devise his schemes against strongholds, but only for a time (vs. 24)
11. Ultimately, he is “enraged at the holy covenant and takes action” (vs. 30).
12. Ultimately, he commits the “Abomination of Desolation” in the Temple (vs. 31)
13. He’s a “smooth talker” who “turns to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant” (vs. 32)
14. He will do as he pleases (vs. 36)
15. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god (vs. 36)
16. He will speak monstrous things against the God of gods (vs. 36)
17. He will prosper until the indignation is finished (vs. 36)
18. He will show no regard for the gods of his father (vs. 37)
19. He will show no regard for the desire of women (vs. 37)
20. He will show no regard for any other god (vs. 37)
21. He will magnify himself above them all (i.e., all gods) (vs. 37)
22. He will honor a god of fortresses (vs. 38)
23. He will honor a god his fathers did not know (vs. 38)
24. He will give to this “god” by honoring him “with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures” (vs. 38)
25. He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god (vs. 39)
26. He will give great honor to those who acknowledge him, and he will cause them to rule over the many, and will parcel out land for a price (vs. 39)
27. The King of the South (at the “end time”) will collide with him (vs. 40)
28. The King of the North will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships (vs. 40)
29. He will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through (vs. 40) (This verse introduces the Gog/Magog Conflagration.).
30. He will enter the Beautiful Land (vs. 41)
31. Many countries will fall . . . but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon (i.e., modern Jordan) (vs. 41)
32. He will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape (vs. 42)
33. He will gain control over the hidden treasures . . . of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians (Cush) will follow at his heels (vs. 43)
34. Rumors from the East will disturb him (vs. 44)
35. Rumors from the North will disturb him (vs. 44)
36. He will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many (i.e., in the East and North (vs. 44)
37. He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain (vs. 45)
38. He will come to his end, and no one will help him (vs. 45)
I am confident that others could glean more characteristics from the chapter than I; however, let us keep before us THE culprit. The adumbrative prophetic style, common among the Hebrew prophets, suggests this pathetic excuse, who craves our worship, has been brought up before the divine court (for the “court sat” and judgment was rendered on behalf of the saints) wherein his final conviction is decided by an overwhelming compilation of evidence aforementioned in Daniel’s elaborate presentation of this “crime scene investigation” par excel lance!
We most certainly will draw upon this panoply of prophetic evidence from time to time. The point of the matter is this: Daniel has documented this one can no longer hide his serpentine pursuits seen in his Archetype, Antiochus Epiphanes, nor in the more overt expressions revealed in the latter part of Daniel 11.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTICHRIST AS SEEN THROUGHOUT DANIEL
And, lest we forget, elsewhere in Daniel his blatant enumerations are endless:
39. His Roman heritage (i.e., the Fourth Beast), as iron, crushes and shatters all things . . . especially, the aforementioned kingdoms who preceded it (Daniel 2:40).
40. He, the FOURTH BEAST (again, his source is Rome) is dreadful and terrible and extremely strong (Daniel 7:7).
41. He is described as having “iron teeth.” (Daniel 7:7)
42. He “trampled down the remainder with its feet” (Daniel 7:7)
(Note: Jesus Himself uses this to describe Gentile World Powers which “trod(den) down” Jerusalem until the “times of the Gentiles” are fulfilled (Luke 21:24) (Also, cf. Revelation 11:2)
43. He is the “younger horn” among the kingdoms (Daniel 7:8)
44. He possessed eyes like the eyes of a man (Daniel 7:8)
45. His mouth utters great boasts (Daniel 7:8)
46. He will uproot three other horns when he arises (Daniel 7:8)
47. He, “the younger horn” will utter “the sound of the boastful words” (Daniel 7:11).
48. Ultimately, he will be slain and his body will be destroyed and given to the burning fire (Daniel 7:11)
49. He is described as exceeding dreadful (Daniel 7:19)
50. He devours, crushes, and tramples down the remainder with its feet (Daniel 7:19).
51. He has TEN HORNS on his head + “the other horn (i.e., the ELEVENTH HORN) which came up” before which three of them fell (Daniel 7:20)
52. He is larger in appearance than his (its) associates (Daniel 7:20).
53. He wages war with the saints and overpowers them (Daniel 7:21).
54. He is “different from all the other kingdoms” (Daniel 7:23).
55. He “will devour the whole earth” (Daniel 7:23).
56. Again, it will “tread it down and crush it” (Daniel 7:23).
57. He will “subdue three kings” after the TEN KINGS (i.e., “horns”) have been raised up (Daniel 7:24).
58. “He will speak out against the Most High” (Daniel 7:25).
59. He will “wear down the saints of the Highest One” (Daniel 7:25).
60. “He will intend to make alterations in times and in law” (Daniel 7:25).
61. The saints will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time (3 ½ years, 3 ½ days, 42 months).
62. “His dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever” (Daniel 7:26).
63. He is referred to as “a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land” (Daniel 8:9).
64. He “grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down” (Daniel 8:10).
65. He will “magnify itself to be equal with the Commander of the host” (Daniel 8:11).
66. Eventually, “he will remove the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down” (Daniel 8:11).
67. The “host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice” (Daniel 8:12) because of “transgression.”
68. He will “fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper” (Daniel 8:12b).
69. This “little horn” is described as “insolent and skilled in intrigue” (Daniel 8:23).
70. His “power will be mighty, but not by his own power” (Daniel 8:24).
71. He “will destroy to an extraordinary degree” (Daniel 8:24).
72. He “will prosper and perform his will” (Daniel 8:24).
73. He “will destroy mighty men” (Daniel 8:24).
74. He “will destroy the holy people” (Daniel 8:24).
75. He possesses “shrewdness” (Daniel 8:25).
76. He “will cause deceit to succeed by his influence” (Daniel 8:25).
mm. He “will magnify himself in his heart” (Daniel 8:25)
77. He “will destroy many while they are at ease” (Daniel 8:25)
78.
He
“will even oppose the Prince of princes” (Daniel
8:25)
79. He “will be broken without human agency” (Daniel 8:25)
80. His “people . . . will destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:26 (Accomplished by the Roman Legions in 70 A.D. against Jerusalem and the Temple).
81. He is referred to as “The prince who is to come” (Daniel 9:26)
82. He, “The Coming Prince” will enforce a “defense pact” with a regathered Israel in the latter days (Daniel 9:26).
83. In the Middle of Daniel’s 70th Week he will break his agreement “with the many” (Daniel 9:27) by stopping the sacrifices and the grain offering in what appears to be a reconstituted Third Temple in Jerusalem.
84. He is the one “who makes desolate” (Daniel 9:27).
85. A “complete destruction” will be poured out upon him (i.e., “upon the one who makes desolate”) (Daniel 9:27).
Daniel has amassed such a grotesque dossier of the Beast by inference, adumbration, allusion, suggestion, through direct and indirect innuendo, exposing the true identity and future discourse, destruction, and dissuasions of this despicable one, that to obfuscate his personage and work, one would have to be a spiritual ignoramus and/or wholly caught up in the deceit that he proffers to those predisposed to his charade, chicanery and cunning.
THE TIME OF “JACOB’S TROUBLE”
Finally, as we conclude Daniel, let us not think that the prophet has dismissed with this despicable character; for, in chapter 12 there abides a last reminder of his persecutions and war against the saints.
“And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time . . . How long will it be until the end of these wonders? . . . it will be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed . . . many will be purged, purified and refined; but the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand . . . from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days” (Daniel 12:1, 6-7, 11).
It is abundantly clear that Jacob’s Trouble, the Great Tribulation in general, bears the mark of this frightful figure . . . until he and his kingdom are destroyed.
Tracing the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, the Lawless One, “The Prince Who is to Come” throughout Daniel’s accounting should convince us all that when we arrive at his quest for the “hidden treasures” of the Middle East, as seen in the Gog-Magog conflagration, his limitless powers of war will accomplish all he desires, for his immediate destiny is to prosper.
We will continue this diatribe along more “secular lines” in our next chapter . . . realizing that far more of the Despicable One is revealed in other Hebrew and New Testament Scriptures. What we have seen here is exhausting . . . now we see why such exhaustion described the condition of Daniel, again and again, as the Almighty revealed the progression of Gentile World Power throughout the ages, culminating in the final catastrophic amalgamation of evil, deceit, war, carnage, famine, pestilence, war and death.
THE “ANCIENT OF DAYS” IS OUR HOPE
It would be remiss for us to leave this depressive scene without the full disclosure of the Ancient of Days Whose “vesture was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool . . . (Whose) throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire . . . a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened . . .” (Daniel 7:9-10) . . . though the sinister figure of Antichrist is seen in the very midst of this celestial scene; to wit:
“Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking unto the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire . . .” (Daniel 7:13).
Then, bless God, Daniel keeps looking and the scene’s dramatic relief transverses the universe . . . it is here, centered on the Son of Man, that we conclude this elongated exposure of Daniel’s counterfeit Messiah, and leave you with the real Anointed One:
“Behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).