Antichrist & Tribulation - Past or Future? — Shane Idleman

Matthew 24 and the Division Over Eschatology

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Matthew 24, and it's an interesting chapter because some people will say this has to do with eschatology, which has to do with the study of the last times. It has to do with future events.

Other people say it's already occurred, it was already fulfilled, and that's why there's a division within the body of Christ on what exactly Matthew 24 is pertaining to. As I read it, as I read Daniel and different things throughout probably the last 15, 16 years, it can get confusing.

I'll be the first to admit that. I have not fully grasped this topic. The topic of Christ is the only way, the only truth, the only life, I got it. But when it comes to eschatology and when things are going to happen, the Antichrist, the rapture, has it already occurred, the catching away, the pre-tribulation, the mid-tribulation, is there a tribulation, millennial reign of Christ, is there a millennial reign of Christ?

There's a lot of differing views. And Matthew 24 is complex. And I was happy to come across a statement from D .A. Carson, who said this, The history and the interpretation of this chapter is immensely complex.

So I said, good, I'm in good company. This is a, I believe he has a Ph .D. in New Testament studies. And a lot of these guys are divided. You can have someone like John Piper, who I spoke about last week, and R .C. Sproul, and Sam Storm, and Doug Wilson, and all these people.

And they'll sit at a table for an hour and a half, and they'll each give their view. And a lot of them have a good point. So my whole point in saying that is, I don't believe this is an area that we should argue over and fight and bicker and complain.

And we spend three hours in a discussion of arguing and complaining when there's lost people dying in the Antelope Valley because they haven't heard of Jesus Christ. And a lot of people that want to debate often ask, when was the last time you spoke to somebody about Jesus Christ and gave the gospel?

Why don't I? I'm too busy. No, they won't. So be careful. We don't want this to turn into a big debate when the primary focus is reaching other people, loving other people, and dying to self, and letting God use us.

Theology, Biblical Interpretation, and the Literal Reading of Scripture

Now that doesn't mean we minimize theology. Theology is important. To have a correct understanding of theology and God's Word is something that's foundational for West Side Christian Fellowship. Now I want to recap a few things I said last week.

Do we take the Bible literally? Do you take the Bible literally? I hope so. You take the Bible literally when it's to be taken literally. There's no reason not to unless the context and different things speak otherwise.

I'm not going to get into a lot of that because I did last week. And if you didn't hear the message, you can go online and listen to part one. This is part two. Part one was, do you take the Bible literally?

And I'm trying to lay a foundation. So this might not make a lot of sense today if you don't go back and listen to last week's message. So with that said, Matthew 24, when Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple, and Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things?

Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. That's pretty clear. There's the temple. Jesus says that this is going to be destroyed. And most agree that that was fulfilled in AD 70 when Titus, who later became an emperor of Rome, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, ransacked it, knocked down the walls, destroyed the temple.

I believe it was estimated that one million Jews, men, women, and children were killed in that siege against Jerusalem. It was horrific at the time of this massive destruction took place. I mean, to see the temple demolished and the wall broken down and the city of Jerusalem utterly destroyed was, back then, catastrophic.

So you can see the context here that Jesus is writing. Now here's where most agree to that, that that was fulfilled. But then verse 3, it goes into a different setting. He's up on the Mount of Olives.

That's why it's called the Olivet Discourse. He's looking down on the city of Jerusalem now with his disciples. And he says, and the disciples came to him privately, tell us, when will these things be?

What things? Not one stone will be left upon another. And what will be the sign of your coming? And what is the end of the age? So what we do now is we take this as three separate questions. Okay, the first one, when will these things be?

What's fulfilled? And what will be the sign of your coming? Hasn't happened. And what will be the end of the age? Hasn't happened. So we can look back 2 ,000 years ago and break it apart. But as I said last week, in my opinion, I believe that the disciples looked at this as one event.

When's this going to happen? When are you coming? And when's the end? They, they, they, I don't think would have thought 2 ,000 years from now. They viewed that as all one event. Now, does that mean that this can't have practical application for us today?

Of course not. But reading in context and looking back even to Matthew 16, 17, 18, looking up, Jesus is preparing the disciples and they, they believe the end is near, the Messiah is coming. So I can't picture, at least through my studies, that they're thinking that these, these questions are being, will be answered thousands of years from the time of Jesus.

When are you coming again? When's the end of the age? When is all this going to happen? Because for them to think all of Jerusalem and the temple is going to be utterly destroyed is not the end. They think that's the end, the Messiah is coming.

So that's why, and the reason I'm saying that is that's why there's, there's differing opinions on this topic. Because if that was all happening at that point in history, then about, then what he's, what I'm about to read already took place.

False Christs, Tribulation, and the Signs of the Times

So verse four, And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceived you. This is key. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many. And you will hear of rumors of wars and you will see different things.

Verse six, let me read that again. And you will hear of rumors of war, see that you are not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

And there will be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation. They will kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

So is Jesus speaking to them? He's calling, he's saying you will be, you will be, you will be, you will be. He's talking to the, to that, that group that's right there with him. So as D .A. Carson rightly noted, is this, if this is a future event for us, still more future, if it is, then it's the only place in the recorded gospels where Jesus is doing an audience shift.

So he's not really talking to his contemporaries. He's not, when I say you, I don't mean you. I mean thousands of years from now. So that's a good point. And I will concede to that, that he's audience shifting.

He's saying, okay, disciples, you know, you will see this, you will see this. But I'm really meaning for thousands of years from now. However, this could have dual application that many people have attested to, where he's talking about you will go through sorrows.

You will see pestilence and famines and earthquakes. You will see these things. And guess what we're seeing? I mean, you go, you can Google earthquake, the charts and different things and the pestilence and rumors of war and nation rising against nation.

So it's those things that make you go, hmm, well, that's interesting, isn't it? That sure has application today. So the challenge with studying a topic like this is you see the context. You see Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

And I'm quite confident that they saw pestilence. They felt earthquakes. They saw these things. But does it have application for us today? Well, we're seeing many of the same things. And the reason I'm trying to take two views is I haven't gained a position yet where I can say, yep, this is the only way.

When you have great men of God divided on this issue who have forgotten more than I'll ever know about theology, who am I going to say, well, no, John Piper, you're wrong, and you're wrong, and you're wrong, and this is right, this is why.

Because I don't have it. There's so many good, yeah, but this, but that, but, you know, and you see all these things. You see the poising of a one-world government. That is crystal clear. Nobody can ignore that.

For a nation to be reborn in 1948 is a miracle. You see the nations, Magog, surrounding Jerusalem, Turkey, Syria, Russia, you see all of them poised for battle. You see the setup for a possible one-world government and a one-world exchange of system.

So these things, to me, I see them and I go, hmm, interesting. Wow, that could take place. I mean, we're not living in where bayonets and bow and arrows. We're living in an age where we have the nuclear capacity to wipe out millions of people.

So we see, we can read this and go, you know what? This could have application for today. We can't ignore that. To ignore that, I think, is not a good thing because we clearly see the signs of the times.

However, does this have context with only what happened here in Matthew 24 in Jesus' time? Well, we will know at some point. Not today, not next week, not next month, but there will come a time, maybe on that side of heaven, where we will know what exactly the layout was.

Matthew 24:11 and the Meaning of “This Generation”

So the key questions are, what is, well, let me go back to this real quick. In verse 11, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Something I'm not going to get to today, but it's important, is verse 34.

Jesus says, I'm telling you, verily, verily, I say, I'm telling you that this generation will not pass away until everything I just said is fulfilled. So that also makes you go, well, it has immediate application to the people he's speaking to.

Well, no, generation can be a group of people. It can be the nation of Israel. It could, the word could be used as, but if you look at the context with you, you, you, and this generation will not pass away, you will see.

Why would you say that? Why would you say this generation will not pass away until all these things happen, if it's thousands of years from now? It will just happen. You don't have to say that. So that's why there's a lot of difficulty in understanding who he's talking to.

But again, if we fast forward our time, a lot of these things are, and we say pestilence, pestilence. Google what a pestilence is. Pestilence. It can be disease even. Fam, you see, there's different things that we see are rising up, and people say, well, that's always been out throughout all of history.

True, it has. But to see all of these things lining up, it makes you want to hold your eschatology somewhat lightly, right? We hold on theology, the essential. Sorry, can't bend on this. But when it comes to eschatology, you can say that's an interesting concept.

That we will, we will know at some point. And as I've said before, if you see a one world leader coming to power, you see a one monetary system, you see a lot of these things, then it's going to give credit to what is called a pre-millennial, pre-tribulation view.

If you don't see these things, and the world's becoming more Christianized, and we're not seeing a one world government and different things. There's also views on, is America in the end times? Will America be around?

Well, there's people such as Waleed Shobab, an ex-terrorist. You can Google his videos, who thinks that America is still around, and is very strong. And they're going to be part of the alliance that defeats those coming against Israel.

Interesting concepts. Very interesting. I mean, I personally like that one. You know, versus, oh, America. You know, people are like, America, you know, will be destroyed. Look at how, and I'm worried about the spiritual condition of our nation.

But I'm also thankful that we have tens of thousands of praying believers. Who knows, a million, two million praying believers, fasting and contending. And as Abraham asked God, will you destroy the nation over 50?

No. How about 35? How about 20? How about, no, no, no. So we see that God's wrath sometimes is withheld when those who are standing and interceding for the land. I sought for a man from among them who would build a wall and stand in the gap before my people, so that I might not destroy the land, but I found no one.

The Great Tribulation and Competing Interpretations

So there's a lot of encouraging text in that area. So just hold your views lightly, if you can, with palms open. So let's talk about briefly the Great Tribulation and the Antichrist. What is the Great Tribulation?

Well, the Great Tribulation, again, to some, already occurred in AD 70, when Jerusalem was taken over and a million people were slain. All the blood was running down the steps and different things. But personally, when I read Revelation, I have a hard time jumping to that and saying that all this already happened.

Again, personally, it's hard for me to say, you know, one-third of the sea, one-third of this, one-third of this, one-third of the population, you know, two-thirds of the population. And a million people were killed in Jerusalem in AD 70.

That's horrific. Any idea how many were killed under Hitler? Just Jews? Six million. So you start to, you know, try to look at the whole picture. And I do believe, I won't say this arrogantly, I'll just say it, that I think as time progresses, those who live later on and can look at a bigger, broad scope of church history, can look at eschatology and arrive to certain opinions based on where they see things now.

You would have said the nation of Israel to become a nation again back in Martin Luther's day, or John Calvin, or Urich Zwingli in Switzerland, or John Knox in Scotland, the Reformers. That would have not even happened.

So a lot of this theology comes out of the Reformation movement. The Reformers held on to this theology. That's why you'll see people like R .C. Sproul and different people who are in the Reformed faith.

One exception is John MacArthur. He'd be Reformed, but he's a dispensationalist. He's a futurist thinking that these things are in the future. So you see a division even there. But the Reformers taught these things.

Even D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who I love as far as commentaries, would be somebody who'd be called an amillennial, that there is no coming millennial reign of Christ. That's all allegory or figuratively speaking.

And Satan will not be bound, let alone an actual chain. He will not be bound. It's a fight, it's a struggle between the church age and the world and things like that. So if we had four hours, I could maybe scratch the surface.

And that's why we have to go over different topics over the next few weeks. But again, the Great Tribulation has already occurred to some who believe that happened in 80 -70. Point of clarification, the Tribulation period, if you believe it's still coming, it's a seven-year period.

You have to understand that whole thing is not tribulation. It is, but the first half is tribulation because of the Antichrist. The last half is the tribulation because Almighty God pours out His fury and judgment on an unbelieving, Christ-rejecting world.

So it's actually two separate tribulations. One is the tribulation that comes to the saints, to those who believe in God, who are not going to take the mark, who are not going to denounce Christ, and there's a tribulation for them.

But then you see God pouring out His wrath. Jesus says the Great Tribulation. So there's different tribulations in that tribulation period. The tribulation, again, to the group that believes it's coming, is a future time period when the Lord will accomplish at least two aspects of His plan.

Israel, Replacement Theology, and Covenant Theology

Number one, He will complete His discipline of the nation of Israel, according to Daniel 9 .24. Now, on this, the view that's normally held with Reformation theology is the church has replaced Israel.

So they wouldn't agree with this either. The church now has replaced Israel. It's called Replacement theology for that reason. The church, the Church of Jesus Christ has replaced Israel. It's also called Covenant theology, which means the church has replaced Israel.

The reason it's called Covenant theology is God made covenants with people. We can see the Adamic covenant with Adam, the Noahic covenant with Noah, Abraham, the covenant with Abraham, Davidic covenant with David.

You see, God is a covenant-keeping God. And when He said, Israel, if you do these things, if you continue, if you walk in my, if you do these, you will have these promises. Now, did Israel do that? No, just read the Old Testament.

It was not good. They rejected God. So God, Covenant theology, God, the covenant was based on if. In other words, we like to read those covenants too. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will heal their land.

If we don't humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from sin, God's not gonna do that. And we can see that in our own individual lives. So many people are praying, God, if you would do this, if you would heal my marriage, if you would heal this, take this away.

But I'm not gonna humble myself. I sure don't have time to pray. I'm not gonna seek you with all my heart. I'm not gonna turn from my wicked way because I enjoy it. But throughout all of the New Testament, we can see if, if you do these things, God will bless us.

People say, no, Shane, that's all works. No, it's not. That's not works. That's somebody submitting to the work of God. If my people do these things. So that's why a lot of people don't believe that there is a plan for Israel because the church has replaced Israel.

Now, there's a lot of promises that where you could see that could take place. But if you just read Romans 9, 10, and 11, chapters 9, 10, 11, in my opinion, and one of those, I believe it's chapter 11, Paul says, has God given up on his people?

Certainly not. So you read chapters 9, 10, and 11, you're like, I don't know if that quite works. You know, I can see where two separate plans would fall into place. His plan for Israel, his plan for the church.

I can see that. But I can also see that Israel through covenant theology did not keep their covenant. But also regarding covenant theology, they might have not received the blessings of God, but his eternal purposes and decrees will prevail regardless of what Israel did.

So if God made promises to David and promises that, and the reason a lot of people believe in the millennial reign of Christ is because then that's when those promises will be fulfilled. But then one problem I have with the millennium is the sacrificial system is brought back in again.

And people say, well, that's just for a memorial. Well, it's not a very good memorial to sacrifice animals. And they'll say, well, that never really covered sin. They needed Christ. Right, but it was a temporary covering, waiting for the fulfillment of the true Passover lamb.

So the reason the whole point of shedding of blood in the Old Testament was to cover, temporary covering of those sins until the Messiah came. So now that the Messiah comes, why would you bring back the sacrificial system?

There'll be sacrificing at the temple. And I don't have an answer for that. It doesn't make sense. And you can say it's for a memorial, but why would you do that? Why would you slaughter animals as a memorial?

Well, we have a memorial of the Lord separate. Okay, that's a quantum leap. You know, let's be careful there. So that's what the tribulation is to some people. It's a future time when the Lord will accomplish at least two aspects of his plan.

He will complete his discipline of Israel. He will judge the unbelieving, godless inhabitants of the earth. The length of the tribulation is seven years. This is determined by an understanding of the 70 weeks of Daniel.

And if you want to turn to Daniel 9, maybe we'll get to that. Then we can spend another couple hours. But that's what the tribulation is. In a nutshell, what a lot of people teach is the rapture of the church.

The Rapture, the Catching Away, and Christian Readiness

And people say, well, the rapture is not even mentioned in the Bible. Well, the word Bible is not in the Bible. The word Old Testament is not in the Bible. The word New Testament is not in the Bible. So rapture, the word rapture comes from Thessalonians.

When Paul was talking to the church in Thessalonica, he said, don't worry, there'll be a catching away. When Christ comes, there'll be a catching away, a catching up to meet him in the sky. And then when Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate, the Bible to Latin, he used the word rapturus, I believe it is, in Latin, where it's where we get our word rapture.

So rapture, rapturus, catching away, caught up, it's all the same thing. And there will be a catching up. There will be a catching up somehow. Now, when it is, people think, or when it all occurred. And there's, again, debates on that.

But I wanted to clarify that they would believe that the rapture is coming soon. We'll be out of here as soon as it gets difficult, we're out of here. Well, again, tell people in Syria that, or Iran, or the 250 believe the young girls that ISIS is going to kill because they don't wanna become sex slaves.

Tell them it's not really that bad yet. The bad stuff's coming later. It doesn't get any worse than that. So I think we just have to be careful. So one view is there's a rapture coming, we're raptured up, the Antichrist is revealed.

We won't see that, they say, and that's what I tell those people. So if you see a one world government and a one world system, you might change your view. That might change my view, okay. We'll see how we're going through and we're watching these things.

The Antichrist will rule and reign. He'll make a covenant with the nation of Israel who'll break that covenant and put up this thing in the temple to where the people are worshiping him. And then God's wrath is poured out on this world is one view.

The other view is a lot of those things that Jesus talked about already happened. And the world is getting difficult. There is tribulation, but it's not what we read in Matthew 24. Oh, I found it here, Romans 9 through 11.

Romans 11, I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. So throughout 9, 10, and 11, he's talking about God's plan for Israel.

So when you read the scriptures, that's why there's two views. You can see the covenant theology's view that Israel broke their covenant with God. God doesn't need to honor it. The church comes in and fulfills those promises.

Or you see the view that there's two. There's Israel and the church. God has a distinct and separate plan. Well, what about the Gentiles being grafted in? Yeah, they're grafted in. It doesn't mean the vine's pulled out from the roots.

They're grafted into this plan that God has. So each one of those topics could take an hour, hour and a half sermon. And that's why, you know, we just have to throw out nuggets and try to work our way through this.

And many people right now are going, yeah, but what about this? What about this? Well, welcome to my world, last two weeks. But if you have genuine questions, ask one of the ushers on your way out. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Because all these views, I mean, somebody sent me a Chuck Missler video, four and a half hours long. So I watch half of that. John Piper, you know, all these guys sitting around the table, read that or read articles.

I've been reading lots of articles. You read the word, you read the word. And it's just, I think it's for a reason that we don't have a full grasp on what's coming. Because the thing that's always highlighted is are you ready?

Are you ready for my return? Be ready, be alert, be vigilant. And then how do we know? Well, after 24, have you ever heard the parable, the 10 virgins? Five weren't prepared, five were. And that's all context.

Are you ready for my return? And Jesus is speaking. The interesting thing about the word of God, it's living, it's powerful, sharper than any double-edged sword. So when people say, well, that's not relevant today.

I want to say, yes, it is. It's as relevant today as it was 2 ,000 years ago. And it's living. So it's speaking to people 2 ,000 years ago to give them comfort, to give them direction, to have them prepare.

It spoke to Martin Luther in 1517 when he nailed the 95 thesis to the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, and the Reformation was sparked. And William Tyndall, John Husson, it kept showing people. And that's why you have to hold these types of views rather loosely, because there's lots of different dynamics that are taking place.

Prophecy, Israel, and the Temple Institute

Zechariah 4, 12, I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. They say, this has not occurred. The battle will be at the end of the tribulation, also referred to as the Battle of Armageddon.

Now, this is interesting. Temple sacrifices could be resumed by the Jews. If you go online, you look at the Temple Institute. It has prepared all the priestly garments and sacred vessels for the rebuilt temple, which can be viewed on their website.

It even trains members of the priestly family to be ready to serve as soon as the temple is constructed. So either that's an outright lie and that's all wrong and Snopes will even pick it up. Snopes or whatever that's called that identifies fake stories with real stories.

Or you see them doing this, getting ready, preparing. You see the future that is taking shape with the one world government, all these things, and you can form your own opinion of what is happening here.

The Antichrist and the Spirit of False Prophecy

Okay, that's a tribulation in a nutshell. What is or who is the Antichrist? Well, a couple of things we need to remember. The word is not used in Revelation. The word Antichrist is not used in Revelation.

The Antichrist spirit was at work in the first century. In John 2, 18, John said that he was, that John was in the last hour. So John thought he was in the last hour, not 2 ,000 years from now. So they're living with this immediate return of Christ because the anti-spirit via false prophets had already come into the church.

And that's why he said, do not be deceived. Many false prophets will come up and rise up. And this is one of those things, again, that make you go, hmm, do we see a lot of false prophets today? Well, let me answer it for you.

Yes, with a big exclamation point. And believe it or not, a false prophet is not what many people think. You'll hear a lot of different answers out there. They're not dressed in red carrying a pitchfork, misleading.

They're actually smooth talkers, intentionally deceiving, telling people what they want to hear. So in a nutshell, a false prophet tells you what you need to hear, I mean, sorry, tells you what you want to hear and not what you need to hear.

That's the difference. A false teacher will tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear. Now, not everybody that tells you what you want to hear, like a lot of those people on TV, I wouldn't call them false prophets necessarily.

Some I would, some I wouldn't. But a lot of them just need a mighty baptism of the Spirit to be filled with power and unction and boldness. And they don't spend time with God. They're just a motivational speakers.

And so they're telling people what they want to hear. But I don't, I don't quickly label them a false prophet because I don't think they'll intentionally deceiving anybody. I just think they're good old boys that know it, know it even better.

They just want to be everybody's friend. And that's not biblical necessarily, because when you spend time in God's word, he wants you to speak with boldness what the truth is. So false prophet, we're going to, we see those today.

They are intentionally deceiving people. They're telling them what they want to hear. Perfect example, look out through Jeremiah. In Jeremiah's ministry, God, he told Jeremiah that I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.

I did not speak to them, yet they spoke. But had they truly stood in my counsel and told the people what they need to hear, it could have turned the entire nation back to God. But these false teachers would come up saying, peace, peace, peace, safety, there's nothing wrong.

It'd be like running into a marriage counseling meeting and you see that there's tons of issues here. Oh my Lord, there's tons of things they need, repentance and this. And you say, hey guys, don't worry about anything.

Just trust in God. Just keep doing what you're doing. He'll see you through. Man, can I buy you lunch? You're good. Don't, you guys are beating yourself up. It's like, yeah, okay. And they leave and nothing changes.

They come back, nothing changes. Peace, peace, safety. The building's on fire. And we say, guys, don't worry, don't worry. It's a smoke screen. Nothing's happening. Peace, peace, just sit here. Let's get through the service.

It's okay. When they should be saying, sounding the alarm. And that's the difference. A false prophet doesn't want to sound the alarm. They're building up their own ministry and they're telling people what they want to hear.

They're tickling the ears. That's where that saying comes from. They're tickling the ears. Paul said there will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine. That men will be led astray by teachers telling them what they want to hear.

Because tickling the ears is like, oh, I like that. Tell me some more. Tell me some more. Not tickling the ears is this. Get me out of here. And that happens always in a church, especially this size. There's some people saying, hurry up and get through this sermon.

I do not like what you're saying. I'm convicted. And conviction's a good thing. That's the mark often of somebody truly reading from the word of God is there's conviction. But also God's word builds up.

And that's why I'm just, we're so encouraged sometimes when we get emails from even unbelievers that attend the service and they say, I don't know what it is, but I want to keep coming back. I'm convicted, but I want to keep coming back.

So that tells me there's something working or the single mom who's barely getting by. She doesn't feel beat up. She feels encouraged. Well, how can that guy back there feel convicted and doesn't want to come again?

And that girl that's 23, her husband's just left, single mom can't get enough of church. So see, it might not be the messenger or the food. It might be the condition of the heart that we don't want to hear it.

And that's why we don't want to change often. Because conviction is one thing, change is something quite different. A lot of people are convicted and they don't change. The whole point of conviction is to change.

Daniel 11 and Interpretations of the Antichrist

You can't have one without the other. So let's talk about this antichrist for a minute. Daniel 11 .37 says that he will show no regard for the God of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself.

Now again, right there, this could be a whole sermon, but I'm going to just pull out a few things. Many people say, there's a line of thought that the antichrist will be a homosexual because the desire by women or there's no desire for women or he will not honor the desire of women.

There's many different ways to translate this, but if you look at this whole verse in the context, it's about exalting himself. He will show no regard for the God of his fathers or for the one that desired by women, which could mean the God longed for by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself.