Who Is The Antichrist? Daniel 10-12 Series

Yes, I am saying that Antiochus Epiphanes is the antichrist, not just a type of him.

To the evidence in Daniel:

Remember the gap idea first. As in Daniel’s visions, as in the 490 years, chapter 11 is moving along smoothly when suddenly we jump thousands of years and wind up nearly in the Millennium. Do you remember when you first read this passage, knowing nothing of history? Did it not seem to you a smooth narrative that told the life story of an ancient king? The translators blocked our thinking by making a chapter division at the end of chapter 11. We went on glibly to 12, thinking a new story was starting. But it was the same event. The Tribulation, the judgment, the resurrections, tied irrevocably to the story of the ancient king.

Troubling. But the scholars assured us that two kings were being described, one that just looked like the other one, but was a different man. But what if it is the same man?

Historically we know that Antiochus did fill the role of king of the North. The Spirit has brought us to the geographical portions of the understanding, and we must stay with that. He is called a king in verse 27. He is never called in the prior section “king of the North”, just a king. So why should he not still be called that in verse 36? Could not the Spirit, the angel, the prophet, have been clear with us that a change in identity was intended?

Is there a change? Or is there an exaggerated capability of the same old Antiochus, who is troubled with the Jews and their God? Antiochus, the first king in history to assume and announce his own deity on the common coinage of his day. Antiochus, a madman who cares about power and property and money. Is he not the same, yet empowered differently from verse 36? Why must he be a different man?

Finally in verse 40 “the king of the North” is mentioned. It is possible to read this verse in two different ways. One could say Egypt attacks “the king”, then the (same) king, that is “the king of the North” attacks Egypt. Or one could imagine that by this time in history, the “king” (antichrist) has graduated from king of the “North” to world dictator, and both the South and the North attack him, but to no avail, for he is Satan-empowered.

Yes, now, whether the title “North” applies or not, he is acting, not as one of the four original horns, but as the “fifth” or “little” horn. It is not until “the latter time of their [the four horns’] kingdom” that the “king” with fierce features arises, the little horn.

He has arisen in our text now. Same man. Re-grown. Re-planted. Dead and resurrected. Infested with Satan himself. Of the fourth but the fifth. In Revelation, the “eighth” but one of the seven. New, yet old. Never been here before, not like this, but lived in a similar body centuries before. King of the North, but maybe graduated to King over all. The old “manifested one” seeking to be “God manifest in the flesh” as the Enemy he hates so passionately, our Lord Jesus Christ.