Daniel Episode 13: God’s Astonishing Predictions of Future Events

The chapter reveals ongoing power struggles among men, but even an anti-Christ with widespread power is subject to God's sovereignty and ultimate control.

- PODCAST TRANSCRIPT - 

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you're interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today's episode.

This is episode 13 in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled God's Astonishing Predictions of Future Events where we'll discuss Daniel 11:1-45. I'm Wes Treadway and I'm here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses we're looking at today?

Andy

Well, Daniel 11 is one of the most remarkable chapters in the entire Bible. Meticulous, specific predictions, prophecies. Maybe more than 150 total in this chapter about minor wars carried on between Greek kings that were fighting each other. But it shows God's sovereign control over the events of human history, even over those events that we do not consider to be very significant. Most modern people know almost nothing about this phase of human history. This is in the period between Alexander the Great and Jesus Christ. Very few people know much about it at all. This is before the rise of the Roman Empire, and yet there are these battles here. And so we're going to see in Daniel 11 God's ability to meticulously predict details of the future. But even more than that, God's sovereign control over the rise and fall of nations for the purpose of building his own kingdom.

Wes

Well, let me go ahead and read Daniel chapter 11:1-45.

And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.

Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. After some years, they shall make an alliance and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times.

And from a branch from her roots one shall arise in his place. He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the north. Then, the latter shall come into the realm of the king of the south but shall return to his own land.

His sons shall wage war and assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall keep coming and overflow and pass through, and again shall carry the war as far as his fortress. Then, the king of the south, moved with rage, shall come out and fight against the king of the north. And he shall raise a great multitude, but it shall be given into his hand. And when the multitude is taken away, his heart shall be exalted, and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail. For the king of the north shall again raise a multitude, greater than the first. And after some years he shall come on with a great army and abundant supplies.

In those times many shall rise against the king of the south, and the violent among your own people shall lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they shall fail. Then the king of the north shall come and throw up siegeworks and take a well-fortified city. And the forces of the south shall not stand, or even his best troops, for there shall be no strength to stand. But he who comes against him shall do as he wills, and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land, with destruction in his hand. He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and he shall bring terms of an agreement and perform them. He shall give him the daughter of women to destroy the kingdom, but it shall not stand or be to his advantage. Afterward he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall capture many of them, but a commander shall put an end to his insolence. Indeed, he shall turn his insolence back upon him. Then he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.

Then shall arise in his place one who shall send an exactor of tribute for the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he shall be broken, neither in anger nor in battle. In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and broken, even the prince of the covenant. And from the time that an alliance is made with him he shall act deceitfully, and he shall become strong with a small people. Without warning, he shall come into the richest parts of the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his father's fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall wage war with an exceedingly great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for plots shall be devised against him. Even those who eat his food shall break him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. And as for the two kings, their hearts shall be bent on doing evil. They shall speak lies at the same table, but to no avail, for the end is yet to be at the time appointed. And he shall return to his land with great wealth, but his heart shall be set against the holy covenant. And he shall work his will and return to his own land.

At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south, but it shall not be this time as it was before. For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.

And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done.

He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god for he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.

At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train. But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction. And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.

Andy, before we dig into the details of these 45 verses, I wonder if you might help us understand the big picture, the broader strokes of this passage. When you preached this before, how did you divide up this text, these 45 verses in Daniel 11?

Andy

All right. So, first of all for us the big picture is not so much what happened with a bunch of Greek kings that we know nothing about, but what it teaches us about God and his meticulous ability to predict the future. We believe in a God who knows everything before it happens and actually decrees things. So, there's multiple phrases in here. The end will still come at the appointed time. So, it fits into that overall picture of God as sovereign over the rise and fall of every nation however great or small. The fact that God knows very well that we don't know the details of these kings and kingdoms actually even heightens the sense if this is true of the little kings and kingdoms that we know very little about, how much more of the great empires like the Roman Empire or others.

So, in terms of the overall chapter, the 45 verses breaks into four main sections. So, verse 1-4 is from the Persian rulers to the rise and death of Alexander the Great. That's verse 1-4. The second section is verses 5-20. In the aftermath of Alexander the Great, his kingdom was divided into four parts, and the two that we focus on in this chapter, the kings of the north and the kings of the south, were Greek kings. And their dynasties that constantly fought each other and hated each other like the Greeks did in Greece before Philip of Macedon and Alexander unified them. They were into city-state warfare.

So, they used to do that. So, the kings of the north were the Seleucids Syria, and the kings of the south were the Ptolemies based in Egypt. So that's verses 5-20, the back and forth between those. Then suddenly in verse 21-35, we have a very significant figure who comes along, who history has identified as Antiochus IV called Epiphanies or, "manifest one," who believed he was a god in human form. So, the career of Antiochus IV is laid out in verses 21-35.

Now I think there's a big difference though between this individual and then the individual spoken of in verses 36-45, the final Antichrist. There are aspects of what's said in that final section that just aren't true of Antiochus IV. For example, the fact that he had no reverence for the gods of his fathers. That was not true of Antiochus. He very much reverenced Hellenism and the gods of his ancestors and sought to establish Greek god worship in the temple and in other places. So that was not true of him. So, this is talking about somebody yet to come. And the fact that the apostle Paul almost word for word quotes a portion of Daniel 11 in ascribing it to the final Antichrist, I think that's who we're talking about in verses 36-45.

Wes

Well Andy, let's begin in verse one. How does this connect with the end of Daniel 10 that we looked at last time we were together?

Andy

So as we remember, Daniel 10 is the appearance of a heavenly warrior, an angel, who comes to bring this prophecy to Daniel. He's come, and he had to battle his way through the Persian kingdom. The king of Persia, probably Satan himself or a ruler under Satan, a demonic ruler under Satan, fights him. And then Michael has to come and help Gabriel to get the message through.

And so, at the very end of chapter 10, Gabriel says, "I've come to give you this message to tell you about the future of your own people and what's going to happen. And I'm going to go back to my warfare against the prince of Persia and against the prince of Greece, and I'm going to be fighting in the heavenly realms. But in the meantime, I want to tell you what is written about your people and what's called the book of Truth." And then he said, "By the way, in my heavenly warfare, no one is supporting me except Michael." So the Archangel Michael. And then, "In the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand," it says, "to support and protect him," in my translation. So that's the link, heavenly warrior Gabriel who's come to give this message to Daniel, and it's set in the time of Darius.

Wes

Andy, that overview really helps put in perspective what each of the sections we'll look at is dealing with. So, we have a sense of the period of world history that verses two through four on the heels of verse one are helping us to explore. Who is the mighty king described in verse three and what details does verse four give us about the kingdom of this king?

Andy

All right. So, the final king of Persia is far richer than all the others. That's King Xerxes I that we read about in Esther. He invaded, with a massive army, invaded west to the Greeks and very much enraged them, motivating then the Greeks to come east under Alexander the Great, and so, the mighty king. Already we've seen the career of Alexander the Great spoken of in Daniel 8, but that's who the mighty king is. He rules with great power and does as he pleases in verse three.

But then, his empire is broken up, verse four, and parceled out, it says toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised. So, Alexander the Great had no son. He had no heir. And so, his four generals divided up the kingdom among themselves and that was all true, historically. So, two of his key generals, Ptolemy in Egypt and Seleucus in Babylonia form the beginning of this dynasty, the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. The Ptolemies were the kings of the south, and the Seleucids ruled in Syria-they were the kings of the north in this chapter.

Wes

What does the fact that this kingdom does not go to the king's descendants teach us about the limits of human power?

Andy

Well, it's appointed to each one of us to die once and after that face judgment. Some have said that the statue in Daniel 2 that Nebuchadnezzar saw, the feet of clay, which is symbolic for a fundamental weakness in an individual, so-and-so's "feet of clay," is that they were an alcoholic or they loved women. They were constantly committing adultery, or they gambled. It's a fatal weakness, a fatal flaw. But the feet of clay fundamentally refers to mortality. And the fact is you could have a tremendously capable, mighty, wise leader, but he's going to die. And who knows whether a successor as Ecclesiastes says will be a wise man or a fool. And so, Alexander was a tremendously capable military leader and political leader, but he dies at age 32, and nobody that followed him had anywhere near his talent. So, it shows just the limits of human empires.

Wes

Now verse five gives us some specific details about the king of the south and his reign. And verses five through 20 as we've noted, describe in great detail the ebbs and flows of intrigue and military struggle between the kings of the south or the Ptolemies and of the north, the Seleucids. How does the struggle between the kings of the south and the north epitomize the struggle for possessions, power, authority, and land that really has existed since the time of Cain and Abel?

Andy

Right. So, this is going on all over the world, not just here in the ancient near East and the centuries before Christ, but that's what we're dealing with here. Focuses on Jerusalem, on the promised land and the Jews. And these are Greek kings that are battling it back and forth over the Jews and over their promised land. All right. So, this is obviously after the exile to Babylon and the restoration of the people back into the promised land after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and all that. So, the Jews are living in their land, they've rebuilt their city, they rebuilt the temple, and then along comes the Greeks and they're ruling.

And so, that's why we're focused on it. And now the details, as I said, they won't mean anything to you if you don't have a good ancient near Eastern history account. And then the ability to line up the details, verse six, verse seven, verse eight, each one of these kings of the north, kings of the south, the daughter of the king of the north, this queen will do this and that, then it won't mean anything to you unless you can corroborate it by secular history. And that's what I did when I preached the sermon. And you can listen to the sermon on Two Journeys and get into the details, but what it shows is just the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, the pride of life. This is what motivates all pagan kings, all worldly kings and their lust for power and pleasure and their jealousy of each other and then their vindictiveness and the rage that comes on. And when you lose a battle, and you want to come back and raise another army and fight again and all that, and that's what we see happening in verses five through 20.

Wes

It really is fascinating as you mentioned at the outset. The number of predictions that flow in these verses. Again and again, we read will or shall, this language of certainty about these things taking place. And it is just remarkable what is happening in chapter 11 here.

Andy

Right, the word will in English language is a prediction. It's a statement of the future. I will do this tomorrow, I will go here, I will go there. James says, we ought to say if the Lord wills we will live and do this or that. But it's different though when it comes to God because he knows the future and he decrees things. And we counted 122 appearances of the word will in my translation of Daniel 11, 122.

I myself have gone through and in verses one through 35 have traced out 135 specific predictions. And then there are more to come after that concerning the final Antichrist. And so, I would say easily over 150 specific predictions. This is God flexing his prophetic muscles saying, I can do this all day long. He could have done this for the rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. He could have done it anywhere on earth. He could have talked about the various dynasties in China, the Ming Dynasty or the Ying dynasty or any of these others, the Han, that rose in power, all of that. Things we don't know anything about. God knows everything. So, what this is a sample of what he can do and a sense of the absolute sovereignty of God and his meticulous foreknowledge ahead of time.

Wes

So, after this detailed account of the ebb and flow, of the back and forth, between the kings of the south and the kings of the north, who is the contemptible person described in verses 21 and 26, and why is he described this way?

Andy

This is Antiochus IV, who called himself Epiphanies, or Manifest One, who like Alexander the Great believed he was an incarnation of a Greek god. And so, he is particularly noteworthy because of his hatred for the Jewish religion, his hatred of the God of the Jews, and his desire to defile the temple and to seize it for his vision of Hellenism of the Greek gods and goddesses. And so, the establishment of that in the actual Holy of Holies. So, he is predicted that he is the little horn of Daniel 8. We already covered that, Daniel 8:9-12 and 23-25, this kind of description. So, the rise and early success of Antiochus IV is described in verses 21-28. He's called, as you said, a contemptible person. So, he's low-born, perhaps, or somebody who is maybe there's nothing... No attributes that would cause him to become eventually king.

He takes the kingdom by intrigue. He's not given the honor of royalty so in 175 BC connives to take the throne from its rightful heir, Demetrius the First, and he grabs it by political cunning and intrigue. He promises political favors to governmental officials. And so, in this way Antiochus IV gained the throne. Because of the deceitful way that he gained the throne he was always insecure about his power. And so, he took the title Epiphanies or God Manifest to display his authority. He ruled like a tyrant with fits of rage. And so fundamentally that's the kind of individual this was. He is an antichrist, but he's not the final antichrist, obviously, because he died before Christ was even born.

Wes

Verses 27 and 29 talk about the appointed time. What is the appointed time, and how is this similar to the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream all the way back in Daniel 2?

Andy

Well, the concept of the appointed time is that everything has been ordained ahead of time, that the sparrows don't fall to the ground apart from the meticulous plan of God. Even the very hairs of our head are all numbered. God is a meticulous builder of history and an ordainer of history, and it extends to people that don't acknowledge him, that don't know him. He rules over them anyway. By the way, we've noted before verse 27 is just one of my favorite verses in the entire book of Daniel, and it just sums up so much of what you see in terms of political intrigue and power and negotiations. And it says, in my translation, "The two kings with their hearts bent on evil will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail because an end will still come at the appointed time."

"God is a meticulous builder of history and an ordainer of history, and it extends to people that don't acknowledge him, that don't know him. He rules over them anyway."

So, I love that because how many times has that happened, diplomats representing this kingdom or that kingdom is sitting down, and they're flattering each other and fawning over each other and lying to each other and making false promises, things that they're definitely going to break later and all that. This is just what human beings do. But it doesn't matter because the end won't be changed by any of the stuff they do. There is a decreed end that God has meticulously planned, and that's what's going to happen. As it says also in Proverbs, "Many of the purposes of man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails."

Wes

Andy, you highlighted that same verse as you've been preaching through the gospel of Mark, and we think about the plans of the religious rulers to prevent Jesus from being crucified during the feast, the exact time when it would take place according to God's plan and purpose. So this here is just another example of that idea that God is sovereignly ruling over these things, and things will happen at their appointed time according to God's purposes. What is the covenant in verses 30-32 and what happens to those who resist the contemptible man in the verses that follow?

Wes

So, Antiochus IV was fanatically committed to Hellenism, to Greek culture that included the pantheon, which is the sum total of all the Greek gods and goddesses. And so fundamentally, he especially honored Zeus, the king of the gods. He wanted to force the Jews to forsake their monotheism and bow the knee to Greek gods in Greek ways, Greek culture. And so, he vents in verse 30, his fury against the holy covenant. That is the Old Covenant, the Mosaic covenant. That includes animal sacrifice, which was at the center of the Mosaic covenant. And so again, verse 30, he will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant. So, these are traitor Jews that cross over into Hellenism just to curry his favor. And so, fundamentally, it's zeroing in on the temple and on animal sacrifice, and he's going to focus his hatred and his fury on that specific thing.

Wes

Now in the midst of that, Andy, we see this phrase again, the abomination that causes desolation. What is this? How should we understand this phrase?

Andy

Well, I think as we walked through it before, and as I preached on it, it has to do with Gentile rulers using military force to gain control of the sacred space of the Jews, the temple or the tabernacle. Could have been back in the days of Shiloh when the ark of the covenant was seized by the Philistines. But then definitely in Jeremiah 7 where the people were saying, "The temple of the Lord, temple of the Lord, temple of the Lord," and God allowed Nebuchadnezzar come and burn the temple and destroy it.

But the abomination of desolation-desolation means emptiness. Abomination means the Gentiles establishing paganism and establishing a false god in the Holy of Holies. And so that's what happened. In verse 31, it says, speaking of Antiochus, his armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. So, he puts an end to the animal sacrifice, and then they will establish or set up the abomination that causes desolation.

All right. So, what happened? At this point in history, December 168 BC, Antiochus desecrated the temple and went down as one of the most demonic rulers in history. All valuable gold and silver articles were taken out of the temple, including the cups and vessels used for sacrifice. The daily morning and evening sacrifice were abolished for 2300 mornings and evenings according to Daniel 8. The abomination that causes desolation was erected in the temple. That was a statue of Zeus Olympus in the Holy of Holies and the renaming of the temple as the temple of Zeus, Olympus. And Antiochus then had a pig sacrificed on the altar as a specific defilement of the laws of Moses to shock the Jews to cause them to come to their senses and come over to Hellenism and to worship of the Greek gods. 2 Maccabees 6:4, an apocryphal book, describes it this way: "The Gentiles filled the temple with debauchery and revelry. They amuse themselves with prostitutes even in the temple court. They also brought into the temple things that were forbidden so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws." So fundamentally, this is what he's doing. Meanwhile, he is using flattery, verse 32, to corrupt people who have violated the covenant. These are Jews that are getting sucked into this pagan lifestyle. However, some Jews stood fast in verse 32, 33 because they knew God. The people who knew their God were willing to stand firm and act boldly in reference to this evil man Antiochus. So, some Jews refuse to be corrupted at the key moment because they knew God.

Wes

In verse 35, we see another mention of the appointed time. Why is this phrase repeated often in these prophecies about future troubling events? And why would it have been so helpful to those who were reading of these things?

Andy

Well, all the days ordained for individuals are written in God's book before one of them came to be, but how much more than for history itself? And so, what the text says is those who are wise, so Jews who refuse to get sucked into this whole paganism, will instruct many, though for a time they'll fall by the sword of be burned or captured or plundered. So, he's got military power, and they're going to pay for it with their lives. They're basically Jewish martyrs to the Old Covenant.

When they fall, they'll receive a little help and many who are not sincere will join them. So, it's a mixing of motives and maybe some intrigue and perhaps some that are willing to betray those that are fighting against Antiochus. Verse 35 says, some of the wise will stumble so that they may be refined, purified, and made spotless until the time of the end. For that time's still going to come at the point of time. So, Antiochus isn't going to go on forever. So also the final Antichrist we'll talk about at the end of the chapter doesn't go on forever. The end comes when God ordains it.

"The end comes when God ordains it."

Wes

From verses 36-45, we have this shift from the conversation around Antiochus to someone we have not seen yet in history. We would say this is the Antichrist, and that this can't be the same person because these things have no match in history. If this is the Antichrist, how is God's sovereignty on display in this passage?

Andy

First of all, there's some key statements made about this individual, this king, who comes up in verse 36. It's just not the same. Verses 36-45, the king will do as he pleases, he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will say unheard of things against the God of gods. So, in that sense, he is similar to Antiochus IV. He'll be successful until the time of wrath is completed for what has been determined must take place. There's that same statement of God's sovereignty. All right. The Jews, at the time, considered these verses not to have been fulfilled by Antiochus because verse 37 especially is not true of Antiochus. This is the key. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god but will exalt himself above them all.

That's not true of Antiochus IV. He was establishing Zeus, the king of all the Greek gods within the Holy of Holies, and he didn't set himself up as God. The fact that I know that this is talking about the final antichrist is because the apostle Paul almost directly quotes this, ascribing it to the man of sin that Jesus is going to destroy with the splendor of his coming in the breath of his mouth. So, this is verse 36, the king will do as he pleases, he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard of things about the God of gods. And so, this is fundamentally what Paul writes. You can hear the similarities between 2 Thessalonians 2 in what I just read in Daniel 11:36. "Don't let anyone deceive you in any way for the second coming or the end of the world will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness or the man of sin is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or his worship so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be god." Listen again to Daniel 11:36, "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard of things against the God of gods." It's almost a direct paraphrase. And so, this is the one who 2 Thessalonians 2 were told Jesus will destroy what the splendor of his coming. So, he's going to be alive at the second coming of Christ. So, we know from the New Testament that this individual is not an Antiochus IV, this is somebody else now.

So also verse 38 and 39 finds no parallel in the life of Antiochus. Daniel 11:38 and 39, "Instead of them, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god unknown to his fathers. He will honor with gold and silver and precious stones and costly gifts. He will attack the mightiest fortresses with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him. He will make them rulers over many people and will distribute the land at a price." None of that happened in the life of Antiochus IV.

Wes

So, the Antichrist here really is establishing a religion of self-worship where those who he has subdued or is ruling over, are worshiping him.

Andy

Yeah, he's setting himself up. That is the false religion he's establishing. Then verses 40-45, again, find no parallel in the life of Antiochus. Antiochus never fought against the king of the South, at the king of the South's initiative, nor did Antiochus ever use a great fleet of ships to fight against the king of the South. Verses 36-45 are speaking of an end time king, similar to Antiochus but different. This is, we believe the final Antichrist that 1 John 2 speaks of, "You've heard that antichrist is coming and even now many antichrists have come." I think it's the same little horn of Daniel 7. And also, it is the beast from the sea of Revelation 13, whom Jesus will destroy with his second coming, the Antichrist, the one world ruler.

Wes

How widespread will the reign of the Antichrist be? And what can we learn about his success in verses 40 and 43?

Andy

We're told in Revelation 13 in verse 7, he was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. So political power over everyone. That's the one world ruler, that's Revelation 13:7. And then all the inhabitants of the earth will worship him, all whose names have not been written in the book of life. So, he is seeking worship openly, 2 Thessalonians 2. He's establishing himself; he's going to exalt and magnify himself above every other god so that they worship him and focus on him. And so, these are specific predictions of the final Antichrist that we're putting together from other places, not just from Daniel. But Daniel gives us some details that are fascinating.

Wes

After verses 40 through 43, the tide starts to turn in verse 44, and ultimately, the Antichrist comes to his appointed end. What do we know about how this all ends for the Antichrist and what final thoughts do you have for us on Daniel 11?

Andy

Well, as I've already said, two or three times in this podcast, we know what the final end of the final Antichrist will be. He will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ. Jesus will come with a metaphorical sword coming out of his mouth, which is just his word, the power of his word. And when he says to the Antichrist, "be dead," "you're dead," or "Lose," then you lose. It's just because he's King of kings and Lord of lords. And so, I believe the final outcome will be military. The Antichrist will mobilize his forces to persecute the saints, believers, probably Jewish converts at that point, because all Israel will be saved. So, after he destroys the temple and puts an end to animal sacrifice, they have nothing left to live for in terms of the animal sacrificial system, and they turn to Christ. And I think that's the fulfillment of the prediction, "All Israel will be saved," in Romans 11.

And so, it could be that the Antichrist will be focusing his overwhelming military power on destroying what's left of the followers of Christ and that will motivate Jesus to come with the armies of heaven and destroy him with the splendors coming in with the breath of his mouth. So, for me, as I look at this, again, it's overwhelming, the amount of details in this. 150 specific predictions of wars that were fought that most of us know almost nothing about.

Looking back, doesn't have a lot of relevance for us other than God showing his ability to predict the future. But we believe there are aspects of Daniel 11 that look ahead, that are predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2 saying, "The end can't happen until this man comes," or the beast from the sea, in Revelation 13. So, we need to be aware of the Antichrist in his career as laid out in the Bible and teach it to our children and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren so that the day will not catch them unawares. They'll know very well what's coming, so they don't get swept in by this man's deceptions and his lies. And so, that's what I get out of this chapter. God's sovereignty, his forewarning of his people, and his love for his people, and his ability to establish his eternal kingdom.

"We need to be aware of the Antichrist in his career as laid out in the Bible and teach it to our children and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren so that the day will not catch them unawares. They'll know very well what's coming, so they don't get swept in by this man's deceptions and his lies."

Wes

This has been episode 13 in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 14 entitled The End of All Things, where we'll discuss Daniel 12:1-13. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

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