Angels and End Times Part 5 (Daniel 11:36-40) | Adult Sunday School

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Adult Sunday School, Kootenai Community Church. Rick has some of the End Times handouts if anybody doesn't have them. And then I also have the King's Chronology with the incorrect last date, yeah.

I also noticed on the End Times chronology, I thought I went through it very well, but there's one place where it says, when we get to it, it's not a problem, it's just a misspelling, but it's not a terrible misspelling for North Idaho.

And given where I went to high school, it's on the End Times, T-I-N-E-S, what that refers to is that there will be no more hunting, no more hunting, no more tines, no more tines. Okay, yours says tines?

Okay, I must have fixed it when I gave it to everybody else, because mine doesn't. Okay, then never mind.

Well, good morning.

We'll get started here. Let's open in prayer. Father, we thank you for your Word. You have given it to us for correction, instruction, for refining, for purging, for purifying, as it says in the Old Testament.

And Lord, we look forward this morning to what you have for us. You always present us with what we need for the day and for all time. You have spoken with sovereignty and with clarity and with authority throughout the Word.

We thank you for that, especially as we study through the book of Daniel. It is a comfort to us to know that what you have said has come to pass, and that what you have said about what is coming will come to pass.

We look forward to those times, both with fear, trepidation, and with delight, and with comfort. This morning, we ask you for your wisdom as we study your Word. Illuminate us and give us opportunity to glorify you today and this week.

And we'll thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Refining, Purging, and Purifying in Daniel

So, refine, purge, and purify. Those are the key words as we study the book of Daniel, and especially chapter 11. He's always refining, he's always purging, and he's always purifying his people, Israel, and the church.

And those terms overlap. Last week, I gave a quote about how at this time in history, one of the greater dangers to the Israelites was the traitors within the house of Israel. And I made an allusion to the fact, A-L-L-U-S-I-O-N, to the fact that that's the same, that it's difficult, that unbelievers in the church, false Christians, are more of a danger to.

The church.

But one thing I didn't mention was that in human history, men can destroy a city because of traitors, but God is building His church. And so we can have comfort and confidence knowing that though men can destroy a city, God will continue to build His church, and there will be infidels and unbelievers and false Christians within the church, and they will go out from us.

But I forgot that we need to have the confidence to remember that that will not happen to the.

Church.

The church will not be destroyed because God is building the church. Men build cities, and they are under the sands of time, but the church will continue because God is building it. I just wanted to remind us of that.

I was reminded of it last week after I finished the class and got home, and the next morning I was looking at it, and I thought, well, we need to make sure that that's clarified. So we're going to read the book of Daniel, chapter 11, verse 29 through the end of the chapter.

It starts on page 1159. So 29 through 45, Daniel 11, 29 through 45, and you might find in your Bible Ezekiel 38 and 39. We're going to be reading through that today, too, later on, so you can stick your finger there, and it won't take you so long to get there.

Daniel 11, chapter 11, verse 29. These first four words should be of great comfort to the people of God. At the appointed time, he will return and come into the south, but this last time it will not turn out the way it did before, speaking of the forays and the plundering of the kings.

For ships of Chitim will come against him, therefore he will be disheartened and will return and become enraged at the holy covenant and take action, so he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant, speaking of Antiochus Epiphanes.

And forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice, and they will set up the abomination of desolation. And by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant.

But the people who know their god will display strength and take action, and those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many, yet they will fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days.

Now when they fall, they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. And some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine, purge, and make them pure until the end time, because it is still to come at the appointed time.

Then the king will do as he pleases at that appointed time, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods, and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done, and he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show any regard for any other god, for he will magnify himself above them all.

But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know. He will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones, and treasures, and he will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god, and he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him, and he will cause them to rule over the many, and he will parcel out land for a price.

At the end time, the king of the south will collide with him, and the king of the north will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen, and with many ships, and he will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through.

He will also enter the beautiful land, and many countries will fall, but these will be rescued out of his hand, Edom, Moab, and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape, but he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt, and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels.

But rumors from the east and from the north will disturb him, and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many, and he will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful holy mountain.

Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him. So last week we left off with verse 35, which ends the career of Antiochus Epiphanes. Some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine purge and make them pure until the end time, because it is still to come at the appointed time.

And the tenor of Daniel 11 changes now, and we see a different grammar, a little bit different grammar, not significantly different, but different focus, and we'll talk about the three different views that commentators take of this last section of Daniel, chapter 11, starting with verse 36.

Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the god of gods, and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.

Even today people speak monstrous things against the god of gods, but this will be an unprecedented time. It will be clear to those who live at that time that this is different. This is as bad as it gets.

Remember that, beloved, that we want to see, we would really like to know when all these things are going to happen, and we're not going to. We will have signs, and we will have bookmarks, Bible bookmarks, but the people who are actually living when these things happen, it says we'll have insight, and they will begin to see as it starts to line up.

In some ways I want to live in those times, in some ways I don't, but God will be God, and at the appointed time these things will all happen. So as mentioned before, until the end time makes a break in the tenor of this prophecy, up to verse 35, Daniel is talking about a historical king, Antiochus Epiphanes, Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

But now, using different language, a different king is in view. Up to this point, the prophecies were fulfilled in great historical detail, and we took kind of a deep dive into that, looking at all the different aspects of that.

They were fulfilled marvelously, as God indicated. And they were fulfilled in detail in the historical events that were embedded in the lives of the kings we discussed throughout this section. Here, however, there is no such connection.

There are some, to be sure, who believe that the following verses through the end of the chapter, through verse 45, also refer to Antiochus Epiphanes. But even those who believe this, who believe that concept, admit that the accuracy is gone.

The accuracy that attended up through verse 35, pinpointing the things that happened that we can detail in history, is gone if they believe that. So there are three major views of this section of Daniel, chapter 11, verse 36 through 45.

First, the first view is that it is a history, more history, describing the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. The second view is that it is a fictional account that whoever wrote wished had come to pass. And the third is that it is a genuine, unfulfilled prophecy of Jehovah God.

Those who believe that Daniel was written by a second-century BC writer generally believe that this was fulfilled in the life and death of Antiochus Epiphanes. They take the second view. Excuse me, the first view.

But liberal scholars who believe this have to admit that it is not in any way an exact description of the rest of Antiochus' life. It doesn't fit his life at all from here on out, from there on out. Most will admit that it seems to be imaginary of a history.

They uniformly admit that there is a big difference between 1 through 35 and 36 through 45. All of the scholars that I've looked at who take this view in some way confess that it's not as accurate, it doesn't seem to fit as well as 1 through 35, especially the section on Antiochus' specific life fit him.

Conservative scholars, biblical scholars, reject any idea that this is a history and see this section as a future fulfillment. This is coming in the future. And I'm going to hit this, nail this idea every time I can think of it.

That should be a comfort. What God has said will come to pass. Period. End of statement. I'll just move on to this section here. The idea that it is a fiction has attracted very few followers other than most atheists would agree that it's a fiction.

Atheists is actually a contradiction in terms of...I'm not going to get into that. Some compare the passage to Constantine the Great. Some compare it to the Roman Empire. Some compare it to the Pope of Rome or the papal system or Herod the Great.

Of course, none of these remotely satisfy the considerations or the descriptions herein. This section is a prophecy of the culmination of history in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It meshes perfectly with the end of chapter 2 of Daniel and the destruction of the image.

It also corresponds perfectly with the destruction of the little horn in Daniel chapter 7 which is also described in Revelation chapter 6 through 19. These 10 verses have nothing to do with the second century B .C.

We have changed places in history from that which happened to that which is to come. But they look forward to an incredible prophecy of the future. The two main different views of conservative scholars begin with this idea that the king of verse 36 is the Antichrist who is an unregenerate Jew living in Israel in the end times and who is in cahoots with the Roman world ruler at the time.

This is the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 3 -10 and the false prophet of Revelation 13, 11 -18. Some believe that this person must be a Jew because even a false messiah would have to be Jewish to be acceptable to the Jewish people at the time.

Some people believe that. They find their support for this in verse 37 which says and he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers. And of course they identify the god as Yahweh. The second and more likely view is that the Antichrist is the Roman world ruler.

We'll talk about the Muslim view. We'll get to that here later actually pretty quickly. Most believe that he is the second and most likely view, let me rephrase myself, is that this is the Antichrist is the Roman world ruler.

Say that three times fast. The same is the little horn of Daniel 7 and the beast of Revelation chapter 13, 1 -10. According to this verse he is an absolute ruler. He will do as he pleases. He is an absolute ruler who does whatever he wants.

This is best contemplated in the person of the Antichrist rather than in Antiochus. Antiochus was run out of town by the Romans. That's not what happens here. This man, this king, this perversion does whatever he pleases.

This is considered an absolute authority. Antiochus did have authority in his kingdom but not elsewhere. This is the world ruler of Daniel chapter 7 verse 23 that will quote devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it, unquote.

There will be others associated with him, the ten horns of Revelation 17 and the false prophet of Revelation 13 but none of these are absolute rulers. He will claim deity. Now Antiochus claimed deity nominally but he still insisted on the worship of the Greek gods.

So he claimed to be a god alongside of other gods. He will claim deity. This ruler we will see will book no worship of anyone but himself, the violation of which is a death penalty. You will be punished by death if you do not worship him.

Now this is another view that I ran across that people have talked about and I hadn't thought of it which is interesting or not interesting. I don't think of a lot of things. Some believe this wicked ruler may be a Muslim.

In this well-taught group here, this probably comes as no shock but the Muslims have a completely different view of the Lord Jesus Christ than do Christians. The god of the Muslims, Allah, is not at all the god of Christianity.

So when you see someone on Facebook or some other stupid platform say that well we all serve the same god. No we don't. No we don't. Their prophecies, their view of God is unbiblical and blasphemous. Can I be any more clear?

What do you really think Cornell? It's evil. It's perverted. It's apostate. It's perversionistic. Okay. Allah is not the god of Christianity. The true god of all creation is Yahweh. Spoken of in the Bible.

The Jesus that the Muslims believe in was simply a very good prophet. He did not die on the cross. He did not rise from the dead. He went to heaven like Elijah and is in heaven right now waiting for Allah to send him back.

His return will be purposefully for the correcting of the false theology of Christianity. Yours and mine. At the point of a sword. Of course the source for this is the Quran. The Bible of the Muslims and the Sunnah which is the words and works of Muhammad.

So Jesus will return. He will set the record straight so that Christians stop believing. Stop believing that he is the second person of the Trinity. The son of God. And then he will get married, have children and die to be buried next to Muhammad.

This is utter blasphemy. But it is their belief.

Peter, any philosophy of.

Life that violates what the scripture says is specifically for the satanic purpose of blaspheming Jesus Christ. So that is correct. I don't care what version of religion it is. If it doesn't adhere to scriptural tenets it is blasphemy.

And blasphemy is always against God.

Peter. Very convicted. They will acknowledge Jesus.

Remember that the demons acknowledge Jesus. And they have good theology. So according to Muslim eschatology we're going to look at this because there is a growing contingent of people and it's been around longer than I thought it was.

I didn't actually look at the origins of this idea but it's been around a while. There is a growing contingent that believe this and it's fine. It's an alternate view and I could actually see some correspondence to scripture.

According to Muslim eschatology there will be three great signs of the end. The first sign will be that the Mahdi also called the 12th Imam will return and he will slaughter all who will not worship Allah and convert to Islam.

Muslim writings identify these infidels who will not worship Allah as pigs and dogs. He will establish the final kingdom of Islam. He will establish the final caliphate. And he will carry on a holy war and either you convert or you die.

You are killed. Their writings stipulate that the Mahdi will at first make a peace agreement. I want you to hear this. The similarities and as Peter has pointed out this was composed satanically to inculcate enough truth to fool many.

But the false writings that comprise the Quran and it is false are designed to lead people away from Christ as is all false religion. So listen to the similarities to scripture. Remember that the Bible all of the Bible was in existence at this time when the Quran was written in 600 AD.

So it would have been really easy to research the scriptures and come up with an alternate story that would address what the Bible said. He will carry on a holy war. Their writings stipulate that the Mahdi will at first make a peace agreement with the Jews for seven years.

Get that. He will come riding in on a beamer. No, a white horse. A white horse. He'll come riding on a white horse. He will discover hidden scriptures. Hidden scriptures, you know, that everybody wants to find.

Near the Sea of Galilee and a hidden Torah. As a descendant of Muhammad he will be an unprecedented leader. He will make a seven year peace treaty with the Jews and then conquer Israel and massacre the Jews.

That's the dream of every Muslim there is, I think. He will establish the world headquarters of Islam in Jerusalem establishing Islam as the only religion while he rules in Jerusalem for seven years. All the people on earth will love him.

Or die. This is the description of the Biblical Antichrist. The beast of Revelation 13. He will be greater than Jesus. The second sign is the return of the Muslim Jesus. Jesus returns as a radical Muslim to assist the Mahdi.

He will even pray to the Mahdi acknowledging the Mahdi as his Lord. He will worship Allah and lead Christians to reject their incorrect notion of Jesus and he will establish worldwide Sharia law. He will be the final witness on the Day of Judgment against all non-Muslims and because of this, Christians will admit that they were wrong.

That the Gospel is wrong and that the New Testament is a lie. There's no either or here. Beloved, this is unutterable. I'm uttering it so it's not unutterable but it's unbelievable blasphemy. They will admit that he didn't die.

He didn't rise. He isn't God. He isn't the Son of God. He, the Muslim Jesus, will come back to testify to that. His correction of all the misrepresentations is spoken of in the Islamic Scriptures as quote, he will shatter crosses, unquote.

This speaks of the destruction of the church. He will then kill the Islamic Antichrist yes, they have one of those too. He will die and be buried next to Muhammad. This evil creature corresponds to the false prophet in Revelation chapters 13, 16, 19, and 20.

The Mahdi is the replication, is the replica of the Antichrist and the Islamic Jesus is the replica of the false prophet. Make no mistake. The third person to show up boy, I'm getting all excited. The third person to show up in the final Islamic panorama of the final days is called Dajjal, the great deceiver.

This is their Antichrist, the Islamic Antichrist. According to their writings, but guess who he claims to be? He claims to be Jesus, their Antichrist. The son of God, he claims deity and he will attempt to destroy the Mahdi and the Islamic Jesus.

This is nearly the complete reverse of biblical eschatology. Their writings say that the Muslim Jesus will fight the false Jesus, the Dajjal, and establish Islam forever. Many believe that the Muslim ascendancy, which is about 60 of the old Roman Empire is now under, happens to be under Muslim control, demonstrates that Muslims will have a major play in the end times.

Ezekiel 38 describes a listing of nations that form a coalition that supports that the Antichrist and eight of the nations are Muslim nations today. So it's possible. It's possible. And make no mistake of this, the people who are in that time, living in that time, Daniel says, will have insight.

In Revelation chapter 17, verses 9 through 11, the Lord Jesus Christ tells John that there are seven kings or kingdoms which have fallen. One is, that would be Rome, and the other has not yet come. The seventh kingdom has traditionally been thought to be the revived Roman Empire, but these folks, the folks who believe that a Muslim will be the Antichrist, they believe it could be the Ottoman Turk Empire, which lasted about 500 years and ended in 1923.

This is essentially the basis of the idea that out of the Ottoman Empire will spring the Muslim Antichrist and false prophet. It does make for a plausible scenario. I give them that. I am going to stick with the revived Roman Empire variation, but the point is, there's no end to unbiblical iterations of what's going to happen in the end times.

We need to be careful to be spending our time reading what the Scripture says about the end times and comparing verse to verse, Scripture to Scripture, letting Scripture comment upon itself. So, that was just kind of a primer on Muslim eschatology, and it is a perversion of biblical eschatology.

Any questions about that? Or any other insights that I kind of might have missed? It was quite involved, quite interesting, in a perverse sort of way. The remaining verses to come in this chapter make statements regarding the character of this coming king.

These statements are not true of Antiochus, Epiphanes, but agree with statements elsewhere in Scripture that talk about the Antichrist. So, what is going to come in Daniel chapter 11 is statements about this coming king, and they agree with statements about the Antichrist in other parts of Scripture, whether Old or New Testament.

They will detail some of the actions of this person as though he is being spoken of for the first time. That's what I meant about a change in grammatical tenor. Antiochus' actions in life have already been detailed in Daniel, and so this seems to reference another king.

Verses 40 through 45 detail historical events from the life of this king, which do not match the historical record of the life of Antiochus, but they do describe the activities and life of the Antichrist that is detailed in other sections of Scripture.

Antiochus has never been designated before as the king. He and his predecessors have always been called king of the north. In verse 40, both the king of the south and the king of the north come against this king, so it cannot be Antiochus.

It cannot be either of them. Chapter 12 verse 1 states that along with this king will come a time of trouble for Israel worse than any other time in history. This corresponds with Matthew chapter 24 verse 21 which says, for then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

Jesus was speaking that in his time in 30 AD, 33 AD. It hadn't occurred up to then and never will. It's going to occur in the end time. This describes the great tribulation during the rule of the Antichrist.

Finally and for our purposes to remember comparing Scripture with Scripture the Antichrist has already been presented three times in the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 7 verses 7 and 8. After this I kept looking in the night visions and behold the fourth beast dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong and it had large iron teeth.

Can you go ahead and advance it for me? Yeah, that's what I would have done. There we go. Daniel 7, 7, 8. After this I kept looking in the night visions and behold the fourth beast dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong and it had large iron teeth.

It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet and it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns. While I was contemplating the horns behold another horn, a little horn, a little one came up among them and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it and behold this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.

Blaspheming God. Then in Daniel chapter 8 verses 23 and 24. In the latter period of their rule when the transgressors have run their course a king will arise insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty but not by his own power and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will.

He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And finally in Daniel chapter 9 26 and 27. Then after the 62 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood.

Even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction.

One that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate. The agreement with Israel. The violation of the agreement. This is the antichrist described three times in Daniel previous to this. This presentation of this king as the antichrist is nothing new in this marvelous revelation of God.

So as we have worked our way through the rest of the chapter and the final chapter in the book let us understand what Daniel has said about this evil one so far. Here's what he said. He will be one who will arise from the final kingdom, the final Gentile kingdom which we contemplate as the revived Roman Empire most likely.

Remember that Daniel chapter 9 verse 26 indicates that the people who destroy the temple in 70 A .D. will have a prince arise out of them who will make the covenant with Israel. That verse 27 of this chapter stipulates.

He is the little horn of Daniel 7. 7 through 8. And we've read that. And you have it in your Bible. Probably not on page 1120 but somewhere. This little horn will wage war with the saints. The persecution of the godly Jews as we see in Daniel 7 .21 and further explained in Revelation 13 .7.

In 7 .21 Daniel says this. I kept looking and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them. And then in Revelation 13 .7 it was also given to him to make war with the saints and overcome them and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

This little horn is further described in verse 25 of chapter 7. He will speak out against the most high and will wear down the saints of the highest one and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law and they will be given into his hand for a time, times and half a time.

And he is also the first beast of Revelation chapter 13. Chapter 13 verse 5. There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him.

We meet him next in chapter 8 verses 24 and 25. Rick. Three and a half years. Yes, three and a half years. Time, times and time and a half. And half a time, excuse me. We next meet him in chapter 8 verses 24 and 25 which is specifically speaking about Antiochus Epiphanes who is clearly as Daniel describes a type of the Antichrist 2425 verse 8 chapter 8.

His power will be mighty but not by his own power and he will destroy to an ordinary extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will. He would destroy mighty men and the holy people and through his shrewdness he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence and he will magnify himself in his heart and he will destroy many while they are at ease.

He will even oppose the prince of princes but he will be broken without human agency. Following this he is seen again in Daniel 26 chapter 9 verses 26 and 27 especially in verse 27. Then after the 62 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood.

Even to the end there will be war. Desolations are determined. Verse 27. He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week but in the middle of the week, half the time of the final seven years, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of the abominations, on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction, one that is discreet is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

God will give him his just due but not until after he has poured out incredible wrath on the world. And now we come to chapter 11 where we see him in a type, in type through Antiochus Epiphanes in verses 21 through 23 and again in type in verses 31 through 32.

Note carefully however the last phrase in this verse for that which is decreed will be done. This continues to remind us that God is sovereign and it is his decree that will be followed even when the Antichrist thinks he is owning the world.

With that as background let's continue in this chapter. Verse 36. That's a little bit of the background from verse 36. Verse 37. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women nor will he show regard for any other god for he will magnify himself above them all.

The word for gods is the Hebrew Elohim instead of the more personal Yahweh. That would indicate the God of the Jews. This is a statement that this evil creature will not honor the gods of his fathers which would be the Roman gods or should the Antichrist be a Muslim it would be Allah.

He would not honor Allah. I take this to mean that the gods of Rome and the world at this time, the time that this occurs, that's who he's talking about. Whenever this occurs, whether it's tomorrow or in 50 years or in a thousand years, it will be the gods of that time.

Do not be disabused of the fact that even in this current generation people worship false gods. Oh, I didn't know that. Did you know that? There is even a worship of Gaia that the earth goddess around us.

It's remarkable. People have to worship something. And I don't want to talk about the god-shaped hole. But we were designed by Yahweh. We were built, we were created by Yahweh, by God, the God of the Bible.

And it is to him we owe our allegiance and our worship. There are those who believe, let's see, those who believe this man will be a Jew use this verse in some respects because, open quote, God of his fathers, quote, is an anecdotal expression of the ancient Israelites.

But the word again is not Yahweh that they would have probably used. It is the plural Elohim and refers to God's multiple. And that's what it is looking like in this verse. So whoever the gods of his fathers are at this time, he will not honor even them.

Regarding his lack of regard for the desire of women, interesting, very interesting information here. There are several possibilities. Some believe this indicates he may be a homosexual. Others think he may just have no interest in sexual relations.

One final concept is the understanding, is to understand the background for the book of Daniel, which is the Hebrew worldview. The average Jewish woman had a great desire to be the mother of the Messiah.

Every Jewish woman wanted to be the mother of the Messiah. This was the desire of women, Jewish women, throughout the history of Israel. So some believe this refers to the fact that the Antichrist would have no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor would he have any regard for the Messiah.

Indeed, he would hate him. His regard would be against the Messiah. Further, he will have no respect for any god at all, denying all of them and taking the place of God himself as the final authority.

And he claims supremacy as overall as described in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4, which says this, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

He will brook no worship of any other than himself. He will die if you don't worship him. Although Antiochus Epiphany prefigured the Antichrist by styling himself divine, he did not take it to the degree that the Antichrist will.

Antiochus continually forced the Jews to worship the Greek pantheon of gods. The Antichrist will kill anyone who does not revere him as the sovereign god of the universe. A tad bit arrogant, don't you think?

Any questions about verse 37? Comments? Verse 38. But instead, interesting play on words here, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know. He will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones, and treasures.

What happens on April 15th? What do you do? You pay your taxes. Do you think an empire this size, at the end times, would require a little bit of money to sustain? How about the military he's going to build?