THE BOOK OF DANIEL

CHAPTER SEVEN AND EIGHT

THE ANTI-CHRIST.

This lesson will help us to see and to understand the Bible teaching about the Anti-Christ, who he is and what will be his government. The teaching of the Anti-Christ is not to cause the people of God to be afraid but to rejoice, for their Lord doth come and will set up His glorious kingdom.

“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
Daniel 7:24—25

There is a man coming on the scene sometime in the future, closer than what we think, that will be a world governor and will govern the world with a wicked hand. He will be the last of the Gentile kings spoken of by Daniel, and he will be the worse of them all, as Mr. Wickedness Incarnated.

Genesis 3:15 speaks of Christ as the seed of woman. It also prophetically declares the Antichrist as being the seed of the serpent. The seed of the serpent, the Antichrist, is mentioned first in the first book of the Bible and is described fully in the last book of the Bible. Daniel also reveals to us some facts about him and his work.

“Anti-Christ” —“anti” means against or false. “Christ” means the anointed one.

Thus, the name “Anti-Christ” means against the Anointed One.

This name describes the character of the Antichrist, as well, as his works, he is totally against Christ the Lord.

The cry of the world is for a man; a man to answer the problems of this age. The teaching of Evolution demands that a super man come the forefront with answers to man’s needs. The
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political world cries for a man. The religious world cries for a man. The Bible clearly predicts the coming of such a man, Satan’s answer to the world’s needs. The day of Antichrist is fast coming upon us.

I.	RIB PERSON.

Many different opinions have been presented concerning the who of the Antichrist. Some believed that Nero was this man. Others have believed and taught that the Pope is this man. Some believe that is was Napoleon, others Hitler, He has not yet been revealed and will not be revealed to the world until the church has been raptured out of the world.

A.	He will be a man. Rev. 13:18

—	the number of man”

We have the Scriptures presenting to us that he will be a man. The number 6 is the number of man, and the Antichrist will have the number
666. He is not a system, but he is a man. He will rule and reign in Jerusalem, or at least be closely tied to Jerusalem.

B.	He will be a Jew. Daniel 11:37

-	neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,”

The term “God of his fathers” speaks of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The term “Antichrist” is a Jewish term. It is not likely that the Jews would accept a Gentile for their Messiah.

Also, note carefully that if you study this subject much, and listen to sermons on this subject, some preachers will not agree on the above statement.

C.	He will be a genius. Daniel 8:23

—	a king of understanding dark sentences”

He will be the most remarkable man the world has ever seen apart from Jesus Christ.

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1.	An intellectual genius.
Daniel 8:23: Ezek. 28:3

2. An oratorical genius.
Daniel 11:21

He shall be a mockery and an imitation of Him
of whom it is said, “Never man spake like this man.”

3.	A governmental genius.
Daniel 7 & 8; Rev. 13 & 14.

4. A commercial genius.
Rev. 13:17

No one will be able to buy or sell without his seal.

5.	A military genius.
Rev. 6:2; Rev. 13:4

No nation will be able to stand before him, and his destruction will be by the Lord’s coming.

6.	A religious genius.

II	Thess. 2:4

He demands to be worshipped as God.

7.	A financial genius.

Daniel 11:43; Ezek. 28:4,5

To the world, he will be the answer to their
problems, according to their thinking, but little will be known by the world what God has to say about it.

II.	HIS NAMES.

Many names are given to him in the Bible, yet they describe the same person, and each name helps us to see and to understand his person, his character and his work.

A.	The Man of Sin.

II	These. 2:3

This is the most important and most terrible of all his titles. All the sins of man will be

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embodied and headed up in him. He will be Mr. Iniquity.

B.	The Son of Perdition.

II	These. 2:3

The above scripture declares him to be the son of perdition.

“Perdition” speaks of destruction, ruin, or loss.

C.	The Lawless One.

II	These. 2:8

Christ is the righteous one, the Antichrist is the lawless one.

That is, he will not hold to laws that are wholesome but he will change them to his own advantage and purpose.

D.	The Liar.

II	These. 2:11

John 8:44

The Devil is a liar and the. father of lies. As Christ is the truth, Satan is a liar.

E.	The Antichrist.

I John 2:18

Anti means against. He is against Christ and all of those who belongs to Christ.

F.	The King of Babylon. Revelation 17 & 18

Babylon is always the seat of Satan. Babylon shall be revived in the last days, and the Antichrist shall reign over it. This could be speaking more of a system than a location.

C.	The Little Horn. Daniel 8:9, 23

One that will be great, that is dominating others.

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H.	The Willful King. Daniel 11:36

His attitude is to please self. So, he will be exalting himself in all things. He will even exalt himself up to be god and to be worshipped by the people.

I.	The Assyrian. Isaiah 10:5, 12, 24

This could imply that he will come from Syria.
Most certainly it speaks of the wicked character of the man.

7. Beast.

Revelation 13:17, 19

This seems to be the most common of his names given in the book of Revelation.

These names reveals his character and shows how wicked he will be and the work of wickedness that he will do. He will be the most fierce, and formidable and mischievous of any king before him, and there will never be another king liken unto him for wickedness again.

III.	HIS TYPES.

His forerunners are only types to help us to see what a violent man the Antichrist will be. This doesn’t mean that these men were in any way associated with the Antichrist nor do I think they were the Antichrist in any given manner, but their character helps to display some of the Antichrist’s character.

A.	Cain.

I John 3:12

He denied the blood atonement and was a liar as well as a murderer.

B. Nimrod.

Genesis 10:8

“Nimrod” means rebel. His history preceded the calling of Abraham to the Promised land. The Antichrist will precede the call of Abraham’s

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seed back into the Promise Land the second time. While the Scriptures speak of Nimrod as being a mighty hunter, it means that he was a hunter-of souls. He was a mighty hunter against the Lord. So will the Antichrist be.

C.	Saul.

I Samuel 28:18

We look at Saul’s life as being one that sought the life of the Anointed One, David. The Antichrist will be one that will literally hate the Jews and Christ the Anointed One.

D.	Absalom.

II	Samuel 15:1—6

“Absalom” means Father of Peace, yet he denied his father. He posed as a man of peace and tried to steal the kingdom. So will the Antichrist speak of great peace but he is deceiving the people.

Absalom	was a man of beauty-; was a man of flatteries; was a man of self glory;
was a man who came to a violent end.

We can see in the Scriptures these things in the life of the Antichrist.

B • Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 2:37—38

He was the first world ruler, thus, he becomes the forerunner of the last world ruler.

F.	Antiochus Ephphanes.

He was the mad man who sacked Jerusalem, killing four hundred thousand Jews. He took a sow and burned it upon the altar. These took place during the four hundred years between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

You see this history in the study of the Maccabees.

The Antichrist will have no mercy upon the Jewish people nor anyone that holds to the truths of Jesus Christ. He will also pollute the altar during the last period of his reign.

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0.	Alexander the Great.

He was known as the “Un-satisfier”. He was a military genius who never suffered defeat. He sought to be worshipped as the Son of God.

This will also be the work of the Antichrist, that is, to be worshipped.

H.	Caias Caligula.

The Roman Emperor was considered mad. No doubt he was possessed by a demon. The Antichrist shall be fully possessed by the Devil.

I.	Nero.

During his life, he was thought to be the Antichrist by the early Christians. Many believed that when he died he would be raised from the dead. The Antichrist shall be raised from the dead and great power given unto him.

The Antichrist will imitate the Lord
Jesus Christ in every way he can.

J.	Charlemagne.

This man was considered a great warrior and statesman. The Antichrist shall be considered to be a great statesman.

K.	Napoleon.

He sought to revise the Holy Roman Empire. This furtive empire is considered to comprise those countries whose lands are washed by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Napoleon planned a New Jewish kingdom and Sanhedrin. This Antichrist will accomplish many of these plans, but they all will be short lived.

L.	Kaiser Wilhelm.

This leader of the German empire had the same objectives as Napoleon. It is said that every general carried a man of the Holy Roman Empire.

H.	Mussolini

There were no doubts as to the objectives of this man. At one time, he made a map of the old Roman

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Empire and included England in it. England protested, but the many remained. The Antichrist will not only make a map, but he will make a kingdom with all empires in it.

All of these men have come and gone, but yet the world has not seen a man as wicked as the Antichrist will be. No doubt you can add others to this list, for the world has seen many wicked men who have displayed the characteristics of the Devil himself, but yet, none of them were the Antichrist.

He is still yet to come, and when he comes, his wickedness will be felt through out the world.

IV.	HIS WORK.

His work is described in the first part of the lesson under His Person and His Names, as well, as we can see it under his types also.

Read carefully Isaiah 10:12—27.

A.	His work will be motivated by Satan. Revelation 13.

I think it can be said without hesitation, that he will be Satan incarnated. For no man has ever had, nor will there ever be a man to follow that will have the power of Satan upon them such as the Antichrist will.

B.	His work will be to rule and to reign over the nations of the world.

He will set himself up as king of the world, as well, as their god. He will demand that all nations will submit to his authority.

C.	His work will be to destroy the Jews. -

The Jews have been the butt end of the hatred of all the kings that have come on the scene. No doubt they have been greatly influenced by the Devil, for the Devil has a demonic hatred for the Jews.

The work of the Antichrist will be wicked in every manner and it will be totally against God.

He shall speak great words against the most High -
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He shall wear out the saints of the most High -
(to wear out —means to be much
trouble to.)

He will think to change times and laws -

Daniel 7:25

He will exalt himself to be god and will demand to be worship —He will perform great miracles to deceive the people -

II	Thessalonians 2:4-9

He will have power over the kindreds, and tongues, and nations of the world -

Revelation 13:7

The work of the Antichrist might be short lived, only about seven years and less, but it will be very dreadful and very wicked. Much damage will be done to man—kind, as well, as to the earth itself before he is totally put down.

The good that will come out of his reign is that Israel will turn back to God in true repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

V.	HIS CAREER.

Remember, this is the mocker and mimic of Christ. No doubt, the coming of the Antichrist to the ascendancy of world rule in the seventieth week of Daniel. He demands to be worshipped as God at this time, and thus, he marks the beginning of the Day of the Lord. The phrase “Day of the Lord” refers to the day of judgment.

A.	He shall confirm the covenant with the Jews.

The word “confirm” means to recognize. For the first three and one-half years of the Tribulation, the Jews will be allowed to worship in their new temple.

This would have been hard to-believe a -hundred years ago when there was only a hand full of Jews in the land, but today, Jews have come from all the nations in the world, and the population is

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many times greater. They are today, truly, a nation among the nations of the world. Since May of 1948 they have proven themselves to be a nation to be recognized by the nations of the world.

One of the reasons why the Jews will accept the covenant of the Antichrist so easily is that they have gone back to their land but in unbelief. They will remain so until the covenant is broken by the Antichrist.

B.	According to the Scriptures and revelation 17, we see that the Antichrist shall suffer death, that he will die.

The words “deadly wound" present a death stroke. Revelation 13:12 has the phrase, “whose deadly wound was healed,” which describes fully the death and resurrection of the Antichrist.
(Rev. 13:14)

He will mimic the Lord Jesus in every given way in order to deceive the people.

C.	He shall be the seventh of seven kings who shall be world rulers.

When he dies and is resurrected, he becomes the eighth ruler of the world. The world shall be divided into ten kingdoms, over looked by ten rulers.
(Rev. 17:11)

Remember to the believer this is good news, for this teaches us that the Lord is fulfilling all things so that His Son could come and to set up the everlasting kingdom of David in which will rule and reign righteousness.

VI.	HIS TIME.

His coming has been expected since the beginning of Christianity, but he has not yet appeared. In the light of present-day events, possibly, somewhere in the world he is alive today. He doesn’t know that he is the Antichrist but will reveal himself in the proper time as the events unfold themselves.

I think it should be said here, that the True Believer is not to be looking for the Antichrist but for the coming of the Lord.

Our concern is not so much of the
Antichrist’s coming, but is all well

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for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.

A.	He will not appear as the Antichrist until the Old Roman Empire is revived, composed of the ten— toed kingdom of Daniel chapter two and the ten-horned beast of Daniel chapter seven and Revelation chapters thirteen and seventeen.

As you watch the world news today, you can see how quickly this is shaping up in that part of the world. The closer that we get to the fulfillment of all things, we will see the quicker that it will mold itself and manifest itself.

Look up the Lord is coming!

B.	He will not appear until the church has been raptured out of the world bringing to an end the grace dispensation and will usher in the “Day of the Lord.”

The church which is the body of Christ .is in the world today. When she is gone, then the front door is open for the manifestation of the Antichrist.

The church will be raptured before the tribulation period, for the church is living in the time between the 69th and the 70th week of Daniel. The 70th week of Daniel is when the Lord will climax all things and purify the Nation of Israel once for all and they will return to the Lord in true faith and true repentance.

C.	We do not know the hour, the day, nor the month when the Lord will come again.

We don’t know the time, the day, the month, nor the year when the Lord will return. The Antichrist will not appear on the scene until the Lord has come in the clouds for His people.

Since we don’t know the time, it is of the upmost importance that we be found ready and looking for the Lord’s return at any given moment.

When the Lord does come and takes His church out of this world, the events leading up to the manifestation of the Antichrist will speed up, and

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in a matter of a few years, no more than seven, the Lord will have put down all wickedness and His Son will be throned King of kings and Lord of lords.

Look up your redemption draweth nigh!

VII.	HIS APPEARANCE.

Many things we don’t understand about the Antichrist, but we have some of the things that we have already studied and things to follow that will give us a clear picture of him so that we are not to stay in the dark.

A.	He shall be a Jew.

Daniel 11:37

This is not believed by all preachers. Some believe that he will be an Arab—Jew, some a Syrian-Jew, and some a Gentile person in order to bring peace to the region.

I have always felt that he would be a Jew for I have a hard time seeing in the Scriptures, and with the prejudice of Jews, that they would not accepted anyone that wasn’t a Jew. And, they are still looking for the Messiah to come, and they are most certainly looking for a Jew from the lineage of David.

B.	He shall be a Roman by citizenship. Daniel 8:9, 23.

This I think shows us that he will be a member of the new revived Roman Empire and will be a man of great authority.

When the authority is given to him and he overthrows three other kings, then, he will start his drive to be lord and master of all.

C.	He shall be a Syrian by nationality. Daniel 8:9.

He marches on to conquer the nations of the south, and the east, and the west. He does not conquer the north, for that is where he shall come from, Syria.

It is well to note that all- the- countries- around -~••~ --

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Israel are all Arab nations, and thus, they will always be against Israel. Many of them will join with the anti-christ because of his power. Even though he has made a covenant with the Jews, the Arab nations will no doubt think that this is the means of overcoming and destroying the Jewish nation.

You can be sure that even though the
Antichrist will be a world governor, there
will still be a great hatred toward the
Jewish people.

VIII.	HIS END.

The end will be quicker than the beginning.

A.	The Antichrist’s victor.

II	These. 2:8

“Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth.”

B.	The Antichrist’s destruction.

II	These. 2:8

shall destroy with the brightness of his coming”

C.	The Antichrist’s eternity. Revelation 19:20

“ the lake of fire burning with brimstone”

You will read the account of the destruction of the Antichrist in Revelation chapters 19 & 20.

We must warn men of the danger that rejection of the gospel of grace in this age will mean they will be given over to the Antichrist. (II Thess.. 2:10-12) Those who take the mark of the Beast will be everlastingly damned (Rev. 14:9—11).

Those who are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will worship Antichrist (Rev. 13:8)

CONCLUSION:

Here are some quotations that show how the political and religious world are looking for the Antichrist, though ignorant of the evil implications involved.

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“The truth is that the method of international committees has failed. What we need is a person, someone of the highest order or great experience, of great authority, of wide influence, of great energy. Let him come and let him come quickly. Either a civilian or a military man, no matter what his nationality, who will cut all the red tape, shove out of the way all committees, wake up all the people and galvanize all governments into action. Let him come quickly. This man we need and for whom we wait will take charge of the defence of the West. Once more I say, it is not too late, but it is high time.”

P.H. Spock, Premier of Belgium, in LaSeur.

“Someday, I predict, a man will rise by whose hands a federation of the world will be effected, and wars stopped thereby, that his name will go down across the centuries associated with that great achievement, as Copernicus’ name is with the new astronomy, or Lincoln’s with the preservation of our Union. That man will come. Someday he will arise. For all we know, he may be living this morning in some unknown village in his crib. But when he comes,  hat will it take t~ make him decisive? A multitude of plain people must prepare the way for the decisive Messiah can come with peace in his hands. All of us do matter; personality in us does count.”

Harry	Emerson Fosdick in Living Under Tension. (This is the blessed hope of modernism)

When men look outside of Christ, then the Devil will give them the Antichrist.

The Secretary of the Common Market said several years ago, Give us a man who can bring the answers to the world’s problems, if he be of God, or of Satan, and we will receive him. This is the spirit that prevails today around the world.

Genesis 3:15 is completely fulfilled at the time that the Antichrist is completely destroyed in Revelation 19 & 20. This is the destruction of the “head of the serpent’s seed.” That is, the head speaks of authority and this says that the Antichrist will never—rise -again.

It would do us well to compare the Antichrist with Christ to show that he will mock Christ in every way, but never will he be Christ the Lord.

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1.	Christ comes from above — John 3:31
*Antichrist comes from below - Rev. 11:7

2.	Christ came in the Father’s name - John 5:43
*Antichrist comes in his own name - John 5:43

3.	Christ humbles himself as a servant — Phil. 2:8
*Antichrist exalts himself above all —
II	These. 2:4

4.	Christ was despised and lightly esteemed —
 Isa. 53:3
*Antichrist shall be the object of an universal adoration - Revelation 13:3

5.	Christ did the Father’s will and glorified Him - John 17:4
*Antichrist shall do wickedly his own will and blaspheme the name of God - Rev. 13:6

6.	Christ wrought miracles to set forth the truth — Acts 2:22
*Antichrist shall do miracles to deceive the people — II These. 2:9,10; Revelation 13:13,14

7.	Christ is the good shepherd - John 10:14,15
*Antichrist is the idol shepherd -
Zech. 11: 16—17

8.	Christ is the prince of peace — Isa. 7:14
Isa. 9:6—7
*Antichrist is the king of Babylon (confusion) Revelation 13:3; 17:8

9.	Christ will be exalted by God and all will bow to him - Phil. 2:9—11
*Antichrist will be exalted by Satan, and all will be compelled to worship him - Rev. 13:8

10.	Christ’s followers will have the Father’s name written on their forehead - Rev. 14:1
*Antichrist’s followers will have their mark on them — Rev. 13:16—17

How true it is, no man lives without a religion, and no man dies without a religion, but if he knows not Christ then he dies lost.

John 14:6

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