Prophecies of Daniel: Why the Antichrist Isn’t a Fringe, Silly, or Irrelevant Issue (Dalton Thomas)

you're about to watch a session from the Maranatha global bible study of the prophecies of the book of daniel if you're watching this on youtube either an fai youtube channel Joel Richardson's YouTube channel or a bootleg version of this we just want to make you aware that on the fai app which is available on all major platforms and all major app stores on the fi app is a ton of content that doesn't make its way to youtube that's exclusive to the app so if you want more free resources to go deep in the word together go download the FAI app Maranatha we hope you enjoyed this session [Applause] [Music] hey friends welcome back to the Maranatha Global Bible study of the prophecies of the Book of Daniel today we're jumping back into Daniel chapter 11 verse 21 we're not gonna make it very far in this session in Daniel because we're actually gonna go do some cross-referencing in context setting before we move further through this incredible passage as we said in the last session Daniel 11 is one of the most significant if not the most significant prophecy in the Old Testament concerning both the person of the final Antichrist his military conquests and what happens before during and after the Great Tribulation that's what Daniel 11 21 to the end of the book details it's a very long prophecy it's very very detailed in fact it's so detailed that liberal scholars reject its authenticity because it's so detailed and because what led up to it was so accurate in terms of prophecy concerning what has already happened in history and the argument goes that there's no way Daniel could have known this unless prophecy is true unless this is an actual prophetic utterance concerning the unfolding of history which we know it is and which is why we don't throw in with the liberal critics in the litter the liberal scholars who reject the authenticity of this incredible book today what we're gonna be doing is working our way through a number of passages that I think are important to have in our mind and the reason why I want to do this is because and if you've been tracking with any of the sessions up to this point you know that we like just going verse by verse word by word through passages because I think any time you're doing topical Bible teaching you can go you can do weird things it's called cherry-picking you just pick the ones you want to make your case but when you have to go through a book word by word verse by verse sentence by sentence it forces you to acknowledge the grammar the context the audience the author the internal logic of the the portion of Scripture what comes after it what comes before it and so we very much believe in the power of exegesis which means just going through the text line upon line and letting it interpret itself so that we don't impose anything on it that said because of the stigma I'll say it that way because of the stigma associated with this issue of the Antichrist I wanted to take some time in this session to actually look at what other passages in the Bible say about the Antichrist and here's why I think a lot of people level-headed people who love the Lord who love the word and who are let's say balanced individuals they're not too excited about this issue of the Antichrist typically it's kind of a caricature but you know the kind of people that are very bad that are excited about studying the Antichrist from time to time I don't want to throw a blanket over this and sound judgmental but a lot of the people who are interested in Antichrist stuff aren't the most balanced people out there the point is you get some you get some Kooks and weirdos who are excited about the Antichrist and there's lots of reasons that go into that what I wanted to do in in a way is argue for or encourage or exhort us in the normalization of the issue of the Antichrist both in the old and in the new testament because the reality is this and I'll make my assertion here at the beginning and then we'll go through the passages and look at them the issue of the Antichrist is actually not a fringe issue in the Bible it's a fringe issue within contemporary pop culture Christianity because of the abuses of eschatology end times that has made it weird and has brought kind of a shame upon the issue it's it's a bit of a stigma like when's the last time that you've been in a you know been in front of someone preaching and teaching I said today we're going to open up and we're gonna study the Antichrist it's just is you don't really hear that too often and if you hear it and the places that do mention it you're gonna hear it all the time because there's this obsession with Antichrist stuff now I'm gonna give a shout out here real quick - Joel Richardson's books Joel has written a number books about this issue the Antichrist and I think Joel has you know taking a lot of heat over the years for being a sensationalist and being you know kind of getting thrown into the cuckoo bucket and one of the things that really won me at the beginning when I first met Joel years ago was just seeing how level-headed it was and how evangelistic it was for him and the ethical issues associated with this issue of the Antichrist because there are actually ethical issues associated with it and we'll talk about that in our future sessions and in fact Joel is about to do a debate with a individual who has an antichrist view that with it come death occurs in fact very heavy ethical issues this other individual argues that the coming Antichrist will be Jewish so what happens is it's kind of like blood in the water for sharks for anti-semites and people who hate the Jews and who hate the State of Israel and who ate all things Judaism they hear that and they jump on to it and it is like throwing blood into the water all the Sharks come out and the reason why Joel is burdened by this the reason why I am burdened by it is because there are actual ethical issues moral issues associated with this that because this is your trajectory you know the old expression show me your friends and I'll show you your future oh I want to add to that show me your friends and the books that you're reading or the YouTube videos or the podcast you're listening to and I'll show you your future meaning if you put what you believe about the Antichrist actually has missiological implications it actually has ethical moral implications especially if you're living in a generation where the spirit of the Antichrist and the man the Antichrist which we're going to delineate the difference between those two things in a moment when we get to a passage about it in the New Testament but it's important for us to have a functioning theology of who the Antichrist is in the purpose behind Antichrist which by the way Moses is the one who laid out the theology of the Antichrist which is very fascinating we're gonna look at that passage today but in Daniel chapter 11 if you're just watching this on youtube or you haven't been tracking with the whole study I want to encourage you to go back and start at the beginning and go with us through the Book of Daniel because we're going line upon line through the book and today we're in Daniel 11 verse 21 which is verse 21 is the the first verse which describes the emergence of the Antichrist in Daniels 4th vision so in verse 21 it describes how he comes into power and emerges onto the world scene but we're gonna actually pause put pause on on Daniel chapter 11 and we're gonna bounce around the New Testament in the Old Testament and look at some things because again here's what I want you to wrestle with and grapple with and don't just take it from take it as what I'm saying I want you to go wrestle with it read these passages yourself but the issue of the Antichrist in the early church was not what the issue of the Antichrist is now in the church in our generation meaning then it was a very normal reality that everyone was aware of and they understood him to be a central player in God's unfolding purposes on the earth in the generation before the Lord returns in that those purposes inform what's taking place in generations before the Lord returns meaning Paul could write to a brand new church in Asia Minor in the first century and talk about the theology of Antichrist and say this actually has bearings in your for your life today and I'm gonna show you how that's so Paul doesn't one of the letters he takes the issue of the Antichrist and actually speaks into the here and the now of the life of the church and in context to a church that was an unreached people group before Paul went and engaged it so it's a very fascinating thing to see that you know I come from the the missions world the frontier missions world the frontier missions world avoids the issue of end times and eschatology like the plague it's like hey don't talk about it it's confusing it's bad for the Great Commission it's and which are all terrible ideas and they're not true they actually I believe that eschatology is the fuel for the Great Commission and for the but that's another subject for another day but the point is this is that the I you know you wouldn't see in the kind of church planting discipleship movement the the missions world today you wouldn't see apostolic leaders using the issue of the Antichrist to speak into the life of the church in a recently reached formally unengaged area of the world you just won't see it it's very normal it's very abnormal but in the life of the early church it was very normal and so what I wanted to do today is lay out what I would call a case for the normalizing or the D cuca fiying or the D weirding of the theology of the Antichrist in the old and the new testament because what we want is not to you know teach through the Antichrist so that we can have you know that right now and I want to make mention of this as well it's not connected to this but it kind of is there is like a hyper lust for conspiracy stuff right now it's it's almost cult-like in the way that there's this interest in all things conspiratorial and whenever governments try to do something it always that that's just a normal thing you know after 9/11 you had it you know there's we had there's all there's all kinds of interest stirred up whenever anything happens like the season we're in right now with this whole corona thing and when these seasons pop out there's this interest in the in all of the you know looking around in the shadows and trying to figure out what's who's pulling the strings and whatnot I want to say that's not the vantage point that we're coming from with this and that's not to say that there aren't conspiracies and there aren't things that are people aren't conspiring and doing things but the point is this we want to study the Antichrist primarily so that we can understand God's purposes on the earth and our generation and in the generation of the Lord's return so that we could be holy so that we could be engaged so that we can be clear so that we could be of redemptive use in our generation and in the generation of the Lord's return and that might be the same generation it might not be but we'll talk about it more once we get into it but the context for the emergence of the little horn as we're gonna see in our next few sessions in Daniel 11 the context globally right now is very conducive for that emergence meaning for the first time in two thousand years there are now preliminary prerequisite conditions that must be met in order for his emergence to be possible and we're now looking at that it is now possible so it's all the more important if Paul was doing in the first century saying hey this is relevant I think we should conclude that it is also relevant for our generation so with that we're gonna start in second Thessalonians because I think this is a this is a pastoral epistle and I think when you see that from a pastoral perspective it puts it into the right context meaning I don't think we need to study the Antichrist so that we can have you know a clear understanding of eschatology per se as a standalone thing I believe that when eschatology is clear in our hearts and in our minds that actually affects every other area of our lives but the context of that clarity is very important and I think the pastoral framework is a really healthy framework to wrestle and grapple with this in so the context of second Thessalonians is it's a church that's going through persecution that's going through immense suffering and Paul's writing to them saying hey guys look in Chapter one he says I know you're being afflicted but here's the deal here's how you can have comfort in the midst of your affliction and he talks about the the coming of the Lord and then we get to chapter two and he says this now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the coming of our Lord and our being gathered together to him okay we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come that's very important what he's doing here is he's tying the coming of the Lord the second coming with the gathering of the Saints this is called the rapture the gathering of the Saints with the day of the Lord in other words he's defining the day of the Lord as the day Jesus comes and the day Jesus comes to gather his people that day so grammatically if grammer means anything when he says that day that the that day is referring to the two events of that singular day that he comes and he gathers his people that's the day of the Lord now there's an argument out there the day of the Lord has spread out all over these different time frames and it's this long in this long and Paul says no no it's a day it's an actual day there's a lot of deviant theology that comes out when you start splitting up the day of the Lord and putting some of it over here and some of it over there then you can split it up however you want which is a big problem we can't do that Paul's saying this Jesus comes and gathers his people that's the day of the Lord it's a singular day and he goes on to say this let no one deceive you in any way for that day what day the coming of our Lord and the gathering of the saints that day will not come until or unless the rebellion or the great falling away comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction who opposes now he quotes Daniel 11 which is a passage we're gonna look at next week he quotes Daniel 11 verbatim straight from the Book of Daniel okay so pause for a minute think about this Paul the Apostle is writing to a brand-new church fledgling young church and he's saying guys I want to encourage you from Daniel 11 from Daniel 11 the day of the Lord which is the day Jesus comes and gathers his people will not come until a falling away happens and the son of destruction the Antichrist is revealed made known disclosed he opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God in the temple in Jerusalem which presupposes there will be another temple in a holy place in Jerusalem in the generation of the Lord's attorney now these are all prerequisites look at the timing the day the Lord can't come until Antichrist is revealed now Antichrist can't be revealed until there's a temple in Jerusalem there can't be a temple in Jerusalem unless there's Jewish presence in Jerusalem there can't be Jewish presence in Jerusalem unless and you see the the unfolding of events that are leading up to a pinnacle moment when this man stands in Jerusalem and declares himself to be God proclaiming himself to be God in the temple of God now look at this guys this is what this is the part about normalizing it okay look at verse five do you not remember when I was with you I told you these things don't guys don't you remember I told you all this when I was with you that's wildly significant why now it says in the book of Acts that Paul wasn't vessel and I got four three Sabbath's three weeks okay so he goes into an unreached people group that doesn't know the Lord that doesn't know the gospel he goes in and he proclaims the gospel he makes disciples he sets elders in place and he leaves and then they're confused because there is there's disagreement over the issue of the day of the Lord some people said the day the Lord has already come and Paul goes uh-uh let me define the day of the Lord for you guys there's no way you missed it I promise okay Jesus comes and gathers his people that's the day of the Lord that didn't happen okay it didn't happen so don't whoever told you that don't buy it okay and then he goes that day guys here's the deal that they can't come anyway because there's events that have to happen first what has to happen first is the man of sin must be revealed and a great falling away must place first that happens first but then he says this guys don't you remember when I was with you I told you this in other words Paul said I saw appropriate and fitting in my three weeks with the brand-new believers to teach them about what the Book of Daniel says about the final Antichrist that's unusual this apostolic leader is engaging in unreached people group for the first time and within the beginning stages of them discovering who Jesus is what the gospel and the church is Paul's already deep into the Book of Daniel and eschatology with them that's incredible then he goes on to say this and you know what is restraining him meaning the Antichrist who's gonna be revealed something's restraining him it's keeping him from being revealed now so that he may be revealed in his time for the mystery of lawlessness or the mystery of iniquity is already at work only so here's that already okay so what he's saying is that what hid the power of that man when he comes onto the scene that's going to be a unique time in human history but the power the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work in our myths it's already moving which means this it's you can't say oh well we're not living the generation there is no temple therefore he can't you know the temple is destroyed there is no temple in Jerusalem so we don't need to worry about it why bother right Paul says not exactly not exactly because there are implications this issue of the final Antichrist casts shadows on the present and you need to be aware of it because it actually affects the way you think and the way that you feel and the way that you behave so specil onehans telling you this power is already at work among us he goes on to say for the mystery of lawlessness already work only he who now restrains the Antichrist who's restraining Antichrist until he's taken out of the way now there's lots of teachings about who who the restrainer is I personally believe that it is Satan for a number of reasons Satan is the one who does not want the tribulation to begin he doesn't want it because he knows at the end of it it's his destruction and his demise now the fullness of time for the revealing of the Antichrist is being hindered by none other than the man who does not want this thing to go forward Satan himself when Satan is cast out of heaven the mystery of iniquity will be manifest on the earth in the physical body of the man which is a counterpart or a mirror image of the incarnation of Jesus it's a demonic incarnation the satanic incarnation of the man of sin the little horn and Daniel 11 is gonna describe in detail what that emergence onto the world scene looks like he goes on to say this verse 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will kill hold on Paul you mean the guy that the Savior guy that we worship who died on the cross you're saying he's gonna kill somebody yeah he's gonna physically personally kill him he's gonna kill him at his return whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming just the mere appearance of his coming in the breath of his mouth he will annihilate the final Beast I mean it's no contest it's it's incredible especially given the fact that the nation's up to this point I've been saying who can make war with this man and Jesus goes breathes on him verse 9 the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders this is an important phrase and we're going to jump to the writings of Moses after this so hold this in your mind coming the laws one is by the activity of Satan with all power and fall signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved therefore God sends them a strong delusion God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order to they may be condemned who did not believe the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness but we brothers then he goes on and talks more about how to stand firm in light of this in the present in the now meaning this you may not be living in the generation that sees him emerge but you will have to battle with the spirit and the working of Satan because it's already at work in our midst so love the truth cling to the truth of who Jesus is what he's done for us what the gospel of the kingdom is all about this is how we fight against and stand against the onslaught of the evil one that at the end will culminate in the dislodging of Satan from his place of power and authority right now in heavenly places where he will be forced into the body of the final beast the final Antichrist who will dig Stan in the Temple in Jerusalem where Jesus will sit when he returns as God the beast will sit in the very place Jesus is going to sit and declare himself to be God this is the mystery of iniquity now this is going to have profound implications and consequences for the State of Israel for the city of Jerusalem for the Jewish people that's why there are ethical implications involved in this because once this man kicks off and initiates and begins his military conquest it's gonna affect the whole Middle East and over the next few weeks we're gonna look at it we see things happening in North Africa we see things happening in the Mediterranean in Europe we see things happening in the Middle East described in the Book of Daniel in vivid detail this has implications this is going to have geopolitical implications ethical implications we're talking about genocide the details and the Book of Daniel are vivid they describe nothing short of full-blown attempted annihilation of the Jewish people comparable to that of the Nazi Third Reich this will actually far eclipse that this will far eclipse what happened in Europe in the 1930s and 40s because this time it will be in the Middle East and it won't just be one man and one army it's going to be a coalition of nations under the leadership of this man who are Middle Eastern nations leveling a vicious savage assault on the city of Jerusalem on the State of Israel and the Jewish people below it that's gonna have a massive ethical implications for your life because the question in those days will be are you going to stand indifferent to it and just let watch it or are you gonna join it and support it are you gonna oppose it and potentially lose your life these are everyone's gonna be forced to make a decision about what to do when this man emerges onto the scene and we're called to be lovers of truth and to walk in the light when this growing darkness begins to cover the earth so with that said turn to Deuteronomy chapter 13 very interesting passage if we compare it to what Paul is saying in 2nd Thessalonians and then we compare it with what the rest of the New Testament is describing as well about the role of the Antichrist and particularly the issue of signs and wonders because for those of you who tracked with our our Bible study through Matthew 24 and 25 lying signs and wonders false signs and wonders are one of the key hallmark signs of the times in Jesus's all of it discourse Jesus says there's going to be signs and wonders and it's gonna if possible deceive even the elect which is why deception becomes a major issue in the eschatology of the old and the new testament which is why Jesus would say in Matthew 24 is opening line would be don't be to see don't be led astray Paul's saying the same thing many are going to be deceived and they're not going to love the truth and God is going to give them over to love lies through a God even delusion it's a very powerful now you go okay why God is giving people a spirit of delusion so that he could destroy them that doesn't sound like the God of my childhood Vacation Bible study what is that what is this again this is why it's important for us to study this and to normalize this because it raises ultimate issues about the nature and character of God that we have to grapple with that when you're just studying every week from the pulpit is another message about how Jesus died on the cross and loves you or how he has a good plan for your life but we're ignorant of what the Bible says about these things that will be costly in a generation when these things begin to touch our lives in a very intimate way and that's actually we're going to end our session today is talking about painting a picture of what that can look like so Deuteronomy 13 verse 1 if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass and if he says let us go after other gods which you've not known and let us serve them you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of Dreams here it is for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep his Commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve Him and hold fast to him but that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God he has taught rebellion look at the language in 2nd Thessalonians the day of the Lord will not come until the great rebellion happens first and the man of sin is revealed who is by the working of Satan doing lying signs and wonders and if all who throw in with him and follow him God will give them a strong delusion because they did not love the truth it's a paraphrase of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 13 Moses is saying this look you there arises a prophet who does signs and wonders love the truth love the truth don't follow after him if his message is not consistent with this message signs and wonders are not proof of God or endorsing someone's life or their ministry whether it's someone in the body of Christ or the Anti Christ himself signs and wonders do not affirm the authenticity of a prophet or a dreamer of dreams what God is saying is this God uses signs and wonders to test people he also uses signs and wonders to heal people and to awaken people to him in his power it's both you say well Dalton how do you know the difference how do you know the difference between a lying sign and a wonder and a true sign in a wonder I'm not gonna get into that today but I will say this it's important to distinguish the difference because a lot of people in the body of Christ have a disdain for signs and wonders and they've written all of them off because they think everything there's deception around every corner and they're more afraid of being deceived than they are confident that God can reveal truth that's that's an error we don't want to fall into that ditch the other ditch we don't want to fall into is loving signs and wonders so much that we have no discernment to hear the message of he who is doing the sign of the wonder and what Moses is laying out is the theology of testing and this is why I believe we need to normalize the whole theology of Antichrist why because the Antichrist bottom line exists in the plan the unfolding plan of God in the mind of God for the purpose of testing the people of God and to refine them and to prepare them and to make them ready for the day that they will be gathered to the Lord and made one and joined with him it's the great testing the Lord is going to use the final beast empire to test the nation's so he can separate them as sheep and goats and he's also gonna use it to test the church in the body of Christ now judging by the way Jesus talked about how severe this time is going to be I don't think that we can exaggerate just how intense it will be it's hard to exaggerate meaning Jesus says this look if it's possible even the elect are gonna be deceived in that day and he is gonna be so violent that if Jesus himself doesn't cut those days short no human being would survive so we're not only talking about extreme violence and so survival will be rare we're also talking about extreme deception and delusion that culminates in what Paul says is what God Himself giving the people who gave in to the message of the Antichrist he gives them a delusion that hardens them in their deception that brings about their eternal destruction guys this is not light stuff this is heavy heavy stuff so now we look at this we go okay Moses had a theology of Antichrist and testing the Apostle Paul the apostolic leader the frontier missions guy the disciple making church planting map traversing Apostle Paul is telling new believers that he explained to them this very passage and n11 he's describing to them the theology of the Antichrist to new believers that's significant we could look at first John chapter 2 first John is writing and he's writing to my little children my beloved he's encouraging them in that they would overcome the world I love first John it's one of my favorite books in the Bible first John and right in the middle of the John the Beloved this glorious epistle about love and glory right lodged in the middle of it in Chapter two is an exhortation concerning the coming of the Antichrist you go wait hold on a second Paul's encouraging people going through suffering and he encourages them by expositing Daniel 11 Moses is preparing people to go into the land and he's telling them about this spirit of the Antichrist and the God ordained testing associated with it we would look at first John and the upon me this is the epistle of love and the apostle of love God is love it's all love love love it's an amazing epistle about the love of God and right in the middle of it is an exhortation concerning the Antichrist it's just blood that the Antichrist is coming but there are already antichrists among us because the spirit of Antichrist is working in our midst which is what a paraphrase of what Paul sang which is what the Antichrist is working according to the power of Satan what is the spirit of Antichrist it's the influence the power of Satan being manifest on a historical plane he goes guys look Antichrist is going to be the incarnation of Satan himself in the same way that Jesus is the incarnation of the uncreated God himself in karna the word the in the beginning the was the word and the Word was with God and the word became flesh in the same way Satan is going to be made flesh this is the mystery of iniquity you know the mystery of godliness first first Timothy 3:16 Paul says the mystery of godliness is this God was manifested in the flesh that's the mystery of godliness it's a mystery so if the mystery of godliness is God being manifested in the flesh then the mystery of iniquity is Satan being manifested in the flesh and that manifestation in the flesh is in accordance with or in line with all of Satan's behavior and influence down through history it's consistent because he's behind it and what John is saying is this is it look you guys you may not live to see the Antichrist but you're already in combat with a spirit of the Antichrist because you have an enemy who's roaming around like a in lyon now what happens at the end with the final antichrist is really the culmination or the climax of this historical continuum of satanic influence and power in the world that God is going to allow he's going to raise up to test the church and to test the nations and to test Israel herself he's going to use this final tyrant as a way to separate the sheep from the goats in the nations he's going to use the final beast as a way to separate the sheep from the goats within the church he's going to use the final beast Empire as a way of separating the sheep's and the goats among Israel it's a great testing rod it's a great divider the final Antichrist is all about testing the hearts of humanity before the coming of the day the Lord in the same way that Pharaoh is a picture type of the Antichrist God raised Pharaoh up Pharaoh was not yes he was moving against God and he was moving in agreement with the devil but God is using it for his purposes in his glory the same could be said of Nebuchadnezzar the same could be said of any of the dictators down through history that God is using them he's not surprised by them he's using them the same could be said of Adolf Hitler the same could be said of Bashar al-assad he's using these men to test the hearts he's using them to divide and to test as a bunch of other passage here but we're running out of time in this session so I'm just gonna encourage you if you haven't watched Joel's sessions on Ezekiel 38 and 39 from our Maranatha global Bible study going through the studies at the end of the age would encourage you to go watch those because Ezekiel 38 and 39 are among the most important chapters in the Bible that describe the activity in the military conquest of the final beast Empire in its geopolitical Khan and I say that to say this that in the coming days we're gonna be looking at what happens in the Middle East as the final beast emerges onto the world scene and I'm gonna I'm gonna leave it there I want to encourage you to go read that is to go listen to those sessions and to go through that and to read Ezekiel 38 and 39 but I'm gonna end with a bit of contemporary news just so that you're aware of this a lot of people are not even where this is happening but turkey the nation of Turkey air diwan's regime this thrown in in the country of Libya now Libya has had a very you know rough decade or so since the Arab Spring began Libya was really at the beginning of that thing and from the time of the beginning of the Arab Spring we've been watching this reconfiguring of the Middle East we watched the Lions of the Middle East topple you know watch Gaddafi fall we watched Mubarak fall we watched Saddam Hussein fall we watched all of these the strongmen of the Middle East topple and we watched the Middle East try to find her footing ever since and right now we're in a very interesting situation when we look at passages in Daniel 11 passages like Ezekiel 38 and 39 when we look at passages that describe the final tribulation the final the conquest of the final beast what we see is that these nations particularly coming out of what is today modern-day Turkey and Syria throw in with specific countries in North Africa and there's a brutal earth-shattering clash with the nation of Egypt with the nation of Israel the city of Jerusalem and the Arabian Peninsula is in the great divide in the middle of this great conflict the Mediterranean powers that be at the time are sucked into this war as well it's a brutal conflict and over the next few weeks we're gonna be looking at the details of that both in Daniel chapter 11 and in other passages that speak of this final military clash and crisis that revolves around this man who God raises up the test all nations or the return of his son but I wanted just to make you aware of this I don't you know we try to avoid as much as possible a newspaper clipping eschatology you know like oh look it says in the news this happened maybe this is that I think we need to avoid prophetic speculation that's just sensational and weird meaning not everything that happens in the world stage is connected to prophecy all of it is in some sense because we're moving towards but I just wanted to say this that it's very very significant that we have an aligning of certain Islamic countries right now in North Africa and that Syria is right in the middle of middle of this whole thing because Antiochus Epiphanes on end with this Antiochus Epiphanes who's the prototype in the Book of Daniel particularly chapter 11 he is a prototype of the emergence of the final beast the final little horn the final Antichrist he emerges onto the world scene in the wake of carnage in Syria and in and around modern-day Syria he's a prototype I believe what we're witnessing right now in the Middle East in North Africa is the beginning days of context setting for what will lead to the emergence and the rise of the little horn now here's what's sobering about this guy's he may be alive on the earth right now and it may be a matter of months or years before we start seeing him functioning in the beginning stages of his role which will lead to the final time of tribulation and I'll end with this story imagine that it's 1929 and you're a young man you're going to Bible school or you have a family business and you live in Berlin and you're looking out at the next few years of your life next few decades planning there's a sweet girl you've got a crush on you're hoping to marry have children with your you know you're either going into the ministry or you're wanting your business to be successful and you're planning what your future is going to look like all of a sudden a little austrian corporal named adolf hitler for the Chancellor he's not taken seriously no one pays attention to him and says yeah it was his weird guy he gets about 10-15 percent of the vote no one takes him seriously Winston Churchill took him seriously at that point but other than that not too many people took him very seriously now the next election would come around and he would sweep the election and it would move from a democracy to a dictatorship within three months and the final solution was put into motion after that to theatres of war exploded fifty million people died on battlefields all over the world over six million Jews systematically annihilated the church totally divided tested Europe lay in rubble the Western powers throw in to try to save Europe as this beast empire is ravaging Christian Europe and the Jewish people are in his clutches pushed to the very brink of annihilation why do I tell that story two reasons number one to show you how not weird it is to talk about antichrists being raised up Adolf Hitler was a dress rehearsal for what's to come it you know people we talk about the Antichrist and end times people go that's so crazy and fantastic and weird go guys it just happened it just happened there's people alive on the earth still have the tattoos on their skin from the concentration camps it's not that weird it already happened that a demonic dictator raises up with a obsession with the annihilation of the Jewish people that's not unusual it just happened the second reason why I mentioned the story is to say this to put it into a personal context imagine if it was 1929 and you had foresight and knowledge of what would follow over the next 15 years and the question is this and this is the question I'll leave you with in this session if that if you knew that what was gonna come was going to come would you live your life differently would you spend your time would you spend your money differently would you spend your relational energy differently what would you quit doing today what would you start doing today beloved this issue of the end of the age and this issue of the final little horn the final Antichrist has implications that are very far-reaching and go very deep and it's gonna touch all of us in a very intimate way in the same way that the proverbial 20 year old in Berlin Germany in 1929 was touched very deeply by the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Reich his empire and the same will be said in the generation of the Lord's return but in a much more catastrophic way this stuff needs to be normalized we need to teach on it we need to understand it we need to take it out of the closet this issue of the end of the age is not a drunk uncle that we hide away at family gatherings because we're embarrassed by it we need to not be embarrassed by this anymore because the days are urgent we need to be sober minded and we need to know what the word says so that we can understand what God is asking of us in these savage days of transition bless you thank you for watching join us in our next session to go further and deeper into the Book of Daniel maranatha

Channel: FAI STUDIOS

Views: 98,494

Keywords: dalton thomas, joel richardson, maranatha, maranatha bible studies, antichrist, rapture, end-times, eschatology, FAI, FAI STUDIOS, Book of Daniel, pretribulation rapture, post tribulation rapture, bible, kanye west, jesus is king, mike bickle, john piper, man of sin

Id: 6K2XLA-66hY

Length: 46min 26sec (2786 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020