A Roman Antichrist?

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Disclaimer: I do not claim to have all the answers. As with everything there is a certain amount of growth that happens over time and this page is my journey to find those answers. Acts 17:11 speaks to what I hope from anyone reading this page as I also attempt to strive toward the goal of being a compitent watchman.

Since beginning to study Bible prophecy, this was my primary belief, but Chris White's work researching prophecy in light of a Jewish messianic figure deceiving the Jews into accepting him as their long-awaited messiah has me rethinking the paradigm I've been looking at prophecy in. It is a very compelling scriptural view and truly would be a great deception.

It would seem the antichrist is rising from the last kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream interpreted by Daniel in Daniel 2. There were several sections to the statue. The only two sections which contained the same metal were the two legs which we know as the Roman Empire, Eastern and Western legs. The feet and 10 toes also contain iron, but this time it is partly strong and partly weak for the mixing of “their” seed with the seed of men. Daniel 2:41-44 Whatever that ends up meaning, it’s still the same metal.

In keeping with the symbology of the Eastern and Western legs of the Roman Empire, it would appear that the iron and clay feet and toes would also be a combination of the East and West, but I’m not sure this necessarily must be the case.

If so, this would seem to fit with what the Daniel’s 70 weeks Bible study explains. Here is the relevant excerpt:

Daniel 9:26
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

7 weeks (rebuilding temple and city of Jerusalem) + 62 weeks = 69 weeks (the time from the order to rebuild until the triumphal entry, the first and only time that Yeshua declared His kingship, to the day as prophesied.)

So what this is saying is after the 69 weeks (483 years) is accomplished, the Messiah would be killed, not for Himself. Christ died on the cross for your sins! The triumphal entry was the end of the 69th week. Christ was crucified on Passover, April 10, 32 AD, four days after the triumphal entry. However, all of verse 24 was not fulfilled 7 years after the triumphal entry. That tells us several things when we put it together.

• The 69 and 70th weeks of prophecy are not consecutive (there’s an unknown gap of time implied through logic)
• Christ’s crucifixion was outside the scope of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy, having occurred several days after the end of the 69th week and nowhere near the middle of the seven years.

“The people of the prince” - We know who the people are because they destroyed the temple and we know the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD. There is some research pointing to the actual people in the army being conscripted from the surrounding Arab peoples.

Who is the prince? According to scripture, he wasn’t there. The Bible says “the people of the prince that shall come...” This indicates he is not yet there. The people of this prince attack the Jews, Jerusalem, and their temple, but the prince is not yet there. Is this an allusion to the revived Roman empire of the end times headed by the prince (antichrist) yet to come? I believe it is. Verse 27 addresses “the prince that shall come.”

What About the Roman Empire?

“Many Christian teachers have taught that the Antichrist will emerge from the Roman Empire and then rule over most parts, if not all, of Europe. Thus, his empire will be a revived version of the Roman Empire. For an idea of what the Roman Empire looked like, see this map. It stretched from Spain to Mesopotamia and Assyria (modern day Iraq). In Daniel Chapter 8, we read of another of Daniel’s vision that concerns the End Times. In this chapter, Daniel saw a two-horned ram that was attacked by a goat and killing the ram. Then the large horn of the goat was broken, and in its place four horns took its place. The Angel Gabriel identified that the ram was the Medo-Persian Empire (Daniel 8:20), and the goat the Greek Empire (Daniel 8:21).

When Alexander the Great died at the young age of 33 (“at the height of his power”) (Daniel 8:8), his empire was divided by his four generals (Daniel 8:8): Seleucus (Seleucid Empire), Ptolemy (Egypt), Lysimachos (Thrace) and Cassander (Macedon and Greece). See this map for this partition.

The Seleucid Empire has its capitol over Babylon and was the largest of the four. It is also the one that the Bible described concerning the Antichrist: Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. (Daniel 8:9) “Beautiful Land” of course refers to the land of Israel. Thus, we can see that this “little horn” comes from the geographic region of the Seleucid Empire.

Many have also seen that the description of the little horn also fit somewhat Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a ruthless Seleucid king who desecrated the Jewish Temple by sacrificing a pig on its altar and setting up a statue of Zeus. However, the problem of simply treating the passage as dealing with Antiochus is that the Angel Gabriel explicitly told Daniel that “the vision concerns the time of the end” (Daniel 8:17), and the visions concern “what will happen later in the time of wrath because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end” (Daniel 8:19). It’s fulfillment, therefore, is two-fold, one concerning Antiochus and the other the Antichrist “at the appointed time of the end”. It is clear that Antiochus IV Epiphanes was, at the most, a prototype of the Antichrist that is to come.”

This view believes that the antichrist comes from the revived Roman Empire, heading the end-time alliance of nations, which has been viewed to be the European Union today, the Fourth Kingdom of Daniel 7. There is also a view that while the antichrist will rise to power in the revived Roman Empire, that his lineage comes from the Seleucid Empire.

Yellow area is the Seleucid Empire

Antichrist coming from ancient Greece?

Daniel 8:5-12
And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. [Alexander the Great] And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, [antichrist] which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, [abomination of desolation] and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

Daniel 8:17-25
So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

Here we see that the goat is the Grecian empire. The notable horn between his eyes is Alexander the Great, who conquered Medo-Persia. This is the belly and thighs of brass kingdom from Daniel 2. When Alexander the Great died, his four generals divided his kingdom, the four horns. Where I believe the Bible says the antichrist comes from the Grecian kingdom is the next verse that says a little horn came from one of these four horns, the Seleucid Empire. However, the timing of the rising of this little horn is stated later as the latter time of their kingdom, “for at the time of the end shall be the vision.”