A Figure of the Antichrist
Dan. 11:
21 And there shall stand up in his place one despised, and the kingly honour shall not be given him: and he shall come privately, and shall obtain the kingdom by fraud. 22 And the arms of the fighter shall be overcome before his face, and shall be broken; yea also the prince of the covenant. 23 And after friendships, he will deal deceitfully with him: and he shall go up, and shall overcome with a small people. 24 And he shall enter into rich and plentiful cities: and he shall do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter their spoils, and their prey, and their riches, and shall forecast devices against the best fenced places: and this untila time. 25 And his strength and his heart shall be stirred up against the king of the south with a great army: and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with many and very strong succours: and they shall not stand, for they shall form designs against him. 21 "One despised"... Viz., Antiochus Epiphanes, who at first was despised and not received for king. What is here said of this prince, is accommodated by St. Jerome and others to Antichrist; of whom this Antiochus was a figure. 26 And they that eat bread with him, shall destroy him, and his army shall be overthrown: and many shall fall down slain. 27 And the heart of the two kings shall be to do evil, and they shall speak lies at one table, and they shall not prosper: because as yet the end is unto another time. 28 And he shall return into his land with much riches: and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he shall succeed and shall return into his own land. 29 At the time appointed he shall return, and he shall come to the south, but the latter time shall not be like the former. 30 And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary. 30 "The galleys and the Romans"... Popilius, and the other Roman ambassadors, who came in galleys, and obliged him to depart from Egypt. 31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation. 32 And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed. 33 And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days. 34 And when they shall have fallen they shall be relieved with a small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully. 35 And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white even to the appointed time, because yet there shall be another time. 31 "They shall place there the abomination"... The idol of Jupiter Olympius, which Antiochus ordered to be set up in the sanctuary of the temple: which is here called the sanctuary of strength, from the Almighty that was worshipped there. 36 And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made. 37 And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against all things. 38 But he shall worship the god Maozim in his place: and a god whom hisfathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price. 39 And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land gratis. 40 And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall destroy, and pass through. 38 "The god Maozim"... That is, the god of forces or strong holds. 41 And he shall enter into the glorious land, and manyshall fall: and these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the children of Ammon. 42 And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Libya, and Ethiopia. 44 And tidings out of the east, and out of the north shall trouble him: and he shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many. 45 And he shall fix his tabernacle Apadno between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and noneshall help him. 45 "Apadno"... Some take it for the proper name of a place: others, from the Hebrew, translate it his palace. |
Ver. 36-39.Instead of venerating Apollo, one of the gods of his ancestors, Antiochus venerated, and even identified himself with, Zeus Olympios, whom the Romans equated the god of their fortress in Rome, Jupiter Capitolinus, the god, of strongholds. |
From:
http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-357#cite
[brief excerpt]
In the Temple an altar to Zeus Olympios was erected, and sacrifices were to be made at the feet of an idol in the image of the King.
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The epitome of black magic in the ancient world was the use of human sacrifice (especially children) in front of an idol with a high-priest/king murdering the child as an offering to gain magical power. Given the types in Ezechiel and Daniel above, it is certain that the Antichrist will do the same thing in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. This, with the Antichrist’s declaration (utterly false) that he is god, will be the Abomination of Desolation that Our Lord Jesus Christ warned us of in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 24.
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