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Thank you very much to Ron Reese for this fascinating post:
I was listening to an endtime prophecy scholar on the religious
channel the other day and heard him mention Daniel 11 a few times and
how it begins talking about Antiochus the Great, who was the father of
Antiochus Ephiphanes who is an antichrist type in the Book of
Maccabees. I went to the Amplified Bible and found it agrees that the
first part of Daniel 11 is referring to Antiochus the Great, and the
last part of Daniel 11 are some well known references to the future
antichrist of the Book of Revelation:
The part about Antiochus the Great
Daniel 11:14-19
(Amplified Bible)
:
14In
those times many shall rise up against the king of the South (Egypt);
also the men of violence among your own people shall lift themselves up
in order to fulfill the visions [of Dan. 8 and 9], but they shall fail
and fall.
15Then
the king of the North shall come and cast up siege works and take a
well-fortified city, and the forces of the South shall not stand, or
even his chosen troops, for there shall be no strength to stand [against
the Syrian king].
16But
he [Antiochus the Great] who comes against him [from Syria] shall do
according to his own will, and none shall stand before him; he shall
stand in the glorious land [of Israel], and in his hand shall be
destruction and all the land shall be in his power.
17He
[Antiochus the Great] shall set his face to come with the strength of
his whole kingdom, and with him upright conditions and terms of peace,
and he shall perform them [by making an agreement with the king of the
South]. He shall give him [his] daughter to corrupt and destroy it [his
league with Egypt] and the kingdom, but it shall not succeed or be to
his advantage.
18After
this he shall turn his attention to the islands and coastlands and
shall take over many of them. But a prince or commander shall teach him
[Antiochus the Great] to put an end to the insults offered by him; in
fact he shall turn his insolence and reproaches back upon him.
19Then
he shall turn his face back toward the fortresses of his own land [of
Syria], but he shall stumble and fall and not be found.
The part about the future antichrist of Revelation:
36And
the king shall do according to his will; he shall exalt himself and
magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things
against the God of gods and shall prosper till the indignation be
accomplished, for that which is determined [by God] shall be done.
37He
shall not regard the gods of his fathers or Him [to Whom] women desire
[to give birth--the Messiah] or any other god, for he shall magnify
himself above all.
38But
in their place he shall honor the god of fortresses; a god whom his
fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver, with precious
stones, and with pleasant and expensive things. . .
43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver and over all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall accompany him [compelled to follow his steps].
44But
rumors from the east and from the north shall alarm and hasten him. And
he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away
many.
45And
he shall pitch his palatial tents between the seas and the glorious
holy Mount [Zion]; yet he shall come to his end with none to help him.
That Daniel 11, first talks about Antiochus the Great and then the
antichrist of Revelation, following is very interesting if the future
antichrist is a close relative of Antiochus the Great. Obama's
geneologies indicate he is a first cousin 69 times removed to Antiochus
Epiphanes; I presume this makes Antiochus the Great a great uncle 69 or
70 times over to Obama, our current POTUS.
I found some interesting facts about Antiochus Epiphanes at
Wikipedia concerning the Maccabees writings, and it may project some
behavior to be expected from the future antichrist of Revelation:
2 Maccabees 6:1-11
"Not long after this the king sent an Athenian senator to force the
Jews to abandon the customs of their ancestors and live no longer by
the laws of God; also to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it
to Olympian Zeus, and that on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as
the inhabitants of the place requested...They also brought into the
temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with
abominable offerings prohibited by the laws. A man could not keep the
sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a
Jew. At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was
issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way
against the Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices, and put to
death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It
was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended. Thus, two women who
were arrested for having circumcised their children
were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their
breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall. Others, who
had assembled in nearby caves to observe the sabbath in secret, were
betrayed to Philip and all burned to death."
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