So the book of Daniel is historical, you say? Already done in history, you say? Yes, that can be proved. And it was done again to some extent in A.D. 70. And history will repeat itself one more time...Jesus said that when we see the event Daniel spoke of, it's quitting time. And that same event is here before us in chapter 11 of Daniel. The army. The defiling. The removal of sacrifices. The abomination put in place. The chaos. The desolation. The martyrs. The heroes. Daniel spoke of end time events here and in chapter 8 and 9 and 12. To be consistent, I suggest that the events of verses 29-35 will be back on the world's stage.
Consider the history: Antiochus, like his father of the same name, is out to conquer the world. He is stopped by Rome and Jewish desire for independence. He dies an utter failure, diseased and heavily in debt. It seems to me that his return is very significant to him and it makes sense that one of his first moves will be "South", to pick up where he left off. This time he must conquer Rome, control it, and claim the planet as his own.
Perhaps the reason we have had such difficulty in the past identifying the man of sin is because he has been hiding in plain sight in the book of Daniel. Nowhere is this more true than in these few verses. Notice that nowhere, even yet, are we told exactly what the abomination is! Checking history you will find a pig and an idol. But Daniel does not say that. He deliberately keeps the end-time option open.
Verses 32-35, referring to the way antichrist uses the Jewish people, and the suffering of other Jews who will not compromise, can easily be seen historically or prophetically. A savvy leader knows how to win people to his cause, in any generation. But God's people will forever be strong and creative, whether they are called Maccabee or modern saint. And as throughout church history, the Lord's army is willing to die at the hands of those who hate them.
Verse 35 is yet another key to the dual role of this passage. It is linked by word usage to chapter 12, verse 10. Look at both:
11:35, "...those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purge them, and make them white..." 12:10, "Many shall be purified, made white, and refined..."
Yes, chapter 12 is in the column of "end-time" events. The linkage between chapters 11 and 12 is important. Another such link is 11:31 and 12:11. Between these two passages we learn of the abomination of desolation, its happening, its duration, its placement at the end.
From verse 36 on through the rest of chapter 11 and 12, there is general agreement among Bible believers that the subject is the end of history. Our job now is to find clues that the man being described from 36-45 is the same man as was pointed out from verse 21. And once that is established, our crisis is no longer one of understanding, but believing.
The traditional line of thought here is that Daniel is referring in the earlier verses to Antiochus Epiphanes, a great "type" of the antichrist, but that the last verses are the antichrist himself, totally disassociated from the prior verses. It is that thinking I am asking readers to challenge, based on the text itself, and some mysteries that the book of Revelation and the letter to Thessalonica point out.
Yes, I am saying that Antiochus Epiphanes is the antichrist, not just a type of him. The literal rendition of these verses seems to be able to carry no other meaning.
http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. Just about every day I'm writing a blog featuring some news, a book, or a story of North Korea. There's a live news feed on the site, lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together!
And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond on my site.
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