Antiochus Epiphanes: A Foreshadowing of the Antichrist

Before and appreciate the music tonight.

Appreciate the music this morning.

What a wonderful choir special this morning.

And again we are so blessed with wonderful talent in our church

and so well tonight if you would turn your Bibles to Daniel

Daniel 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8 and brought additional notes to the pulpit tonight.

So I hope that don't distract you and some of the reason is because

I do want to read in particular about some of these leaders.

And so I hope I don't bore you with it.

But there are things about Antiochus Epiphanes that would be

easier just to read it to you and let you hear the history and

behind him and then of course other leaders as well.

As we look at the prophecies of Daniel.

Daniel chapter 8.

Daniel 8 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 8.

Daniel 8 · chapter mention

The theme of the book of Daniel is God rules in the affairs

of man.

And I think it's very appropriate this week that we remember

that that God rules in the affairs of man.

He's in control.

He does not and will not forsake us.

And we can trust him.

We can trust him before we read here in Daniel because what

I'm going to do tonight especially is just do I'm going to

pull a Brother Stewart and do a running commentary as we read because

it will be easier on this chapter to do it that way.

So let me give you some just preliminary thoughts before we get

into this.

This is going to be a lesson, more of a Sunday school lesson, maybe

more than a preaching service.

So we'll just call you guys, you are the class and I'm just the

teacher and the application will still be there at the end.

But there is a lot of information and this is built upon

the other, the previous chapter, chapter seven.

And so let's go through this.

This is the last year of Babylon or this is the last years

of Babylon and Belshazzar now is still on the throne.

He has reigned three years with his dad as co regent.

So they're reigning together.

Usually when they do that the reigning together, when father and

son are reigning together, it usually means that dad's about to

die off and so he's training the son to come on.

But that's not the case in this particular situation.

It is that the dad just has no interest in being king and he's just

out doing his hobbies and the son Belshazzar is running the country

and not doing a very good job of it.

And so we see the prophecies we know we've already covered, you

know, chapter six.

We know that the Medo Persian Empire is about to come into Babylon.

They're going to divert the Euphrates river and literally the

Medo Persian Empire's army comes under the wall.

They couldn't get through it, couldn't get over it, but they went

under the wall and defeated Babylon.

That no one, no one thought would ever happen.

And so that's where we're at.

So again, chapter seven and eight, you have to kind of back up.

You put this between chapter four and five and you have this again,

this vision or this prophecy of Daniel.

So the vision received in this chapter is two years after the vision

of chapter seven.

Remember now, in chapter seven he saw the beasts, he saw four beasts.

And it works in the same tandem along with the statue found

in chapter two of Daniel.

And that is, here are the future kingdoms that are going to

reign.

Here's Babylon, who's reigning?

And then the next major power is going to be the Medo Persian power.

The next major power is going to be Greece.

The next major power is going to be Rome.

And so the vision of Chapter 7 correlated with the vision of Chapter

2, that King Nebuchadnezzar saw that big statue.

So you can go back and read that.

And this kind of built chapter eight builds on top of that in that

it deals mainly with the Medo Persian Empire and the Grecian Empire,

of course, Alexander the Great.

And so it builds upon those two things.

In fact, it even gets down to the nuts and bolts of it gives you

that when Alexander the Great dies.

Of course it doesn't name Alexander the Great.

By the way, in this particular instance, when Gabriel's giving the

interpretation of the dream, he absolutely tells you, and this

is how we know without a doubt, he says that the Medo Persian

Empire are represented.

They are the ones who are going to defeat Babylon.

So now Daniel knows for sure that it is the Medo Persian Empire.

So we'll get that in a moment.

But out of Alexander the Great, if you know your history,

you know that when he died that he left no, you know, he left

no one in charge.

And it took about, there was about a 20 or 30 year period of just

a little bit of, you know, fighting going on.

And then four generals of Alexander the Great divided up the

kingdom and that's where it stood after Alexander the Great's

death.

One of those, not generals, but one of the leaders in that group

was Anticus Epiphanes.

And in this chapter we find Anticus Epiphanies not named, but

there is zero doubt who Daniel's talking about.

Zero doubt.

And I can we'll prove it here in a moment.

Zero doubt.

This chapter is really the reason why liberals date the writing

of Daniel in the second century instead of the sixth century.

They want to put it in the second century because it's so meticulous

and so precise about what it's the prophecy it's giving.

They're just saying there's no way Daniel knew that.

Well, of course he didn't know it.

God gave it to him.

And by the way, if you have Daniel being written in the second

century, it's no longer prophecy.

It means it already happened.

That's ludicrous.

What a bunch of stinking liberals.

As some of you know, I have a pretty good library.

And so, and yes, there are books in my library that I haven't

cracked open every once in a while, books that are given to me.

And so every once in a while I'll crack a book open that has to

do with the subject I'm preaching on and I'll start reading

it.

And I found out pretty quick, man, this author is not on board

with the Bible.

He's just going to correct it and he's going to discount all the

miracles.

And it's so easy to see in the writing of someone how that they

want to, you know, discount the miracles.

There's a great huge group of scholars who do that, which is just

preposterous.

So that's what's happening when you have, when you're reading

a commentary or reading some historian about Daniel and they say

Daniel was written in the second century.

They're discounting the prophecies.

They're discounting it because it is so precise.

It's going to tell you.

Daniel's about to tell you how long Antiochus Epiphanes reigned

or reigned in the temple.

How long.

It's so cool.

I'll show you in a moment.

So remind you that Antiochus Epiphanes is absolutely a pre picture

of the Antichrist.

He is.

He's an amazing.

It's sad, but an amazing pre picture of the Antichrist remind

you that Old Testament prophecies have a near and partial

fulfillment and then have a far reaching full fulfillment.

All right, so when Daniel's prophesying, most of the prophecies

will have a near and partial fulfillment.

And that's what we'll see in Anticus Epiphanes.

He is the near and partial fulfillment.

But the far reaching and full fulfillment that's described here

is the Antichrist who is the culmination of this prophecy.

It's very Obvious in this chapter that it's referencing Anticus.

And by the way, he called himself Epiphanes.

He did that.

Antiochus Epiphanes.

He self named himself.

Why did he do that?

Listen.

Because.

Listen to what it means.

It means glorious One.

It means God manifest.

And he truly believed that.

He believed that.

In Daniel, chapter 17, 17, Daniel, chapter 7 and 8, there are

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

19 references to the horns.

Not.

I'm talking about animal horns, the horns that come out of

the head.

10 horns.

And remember the 10.

It had 10 horns that came up, but then three of them.

In the midst of three of them, a little horn came up and the little

horn defeated the three horns that was the Antichrist.

And there will be a.

There will be 10 major powers at the end, at the end of when Christ

returns, and so forth and so on.

The antichrist leading them.

19 references to horns.

This is extra.

Why?

Why does the Bible use horns when it comes to that?

Well, the horn is the focal point because that's the animal's

strength, or considered the animal's strength.

So as he's giving these visions, it's giving these major

powers, the end times, these major powers as horns.

In this particular chapter we have a ram and a goat.

In this particular chapter we have little horns.

And then we have Gabriel the angel interpreting the vision for

us and a little more precise in that interpretation than in the

previous messages that we preached.

So let's look at this chapter and we'll get right into it.

Daniel, chapter 8, verse 1.

Daniel 8:1

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared

unto me.

Even unto me, Daniel, after that which I appeared unto me at

the first.

Again, this is two years later from vision they received in chapter

seven.

And I saw in a vision.

And it came to pass when I saw that I was at Shushan in.

In the palace.

Now, whether or not he was physically there or there by way

of vision, it doesn't tell us.

But we know in other areas where prophets were moved, not physically

but just by way of vision, that he was there.

And it says, which is in the province of Elam.

And I saw in a vision and was by the river Eulah.

Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before

the river a ram which had two horns.

And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other.

And the higher came up last.

And I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward,

so that no beast might stand before him, neither was there any

that could deliver out of his hand.

But he did according to his will and became great.

And so we see again here we see the ram with two horns, one higher

than the other.

As we think about Shushan the palace, Shushan the palace was a

primary city of Medo Persian empire.

The Medo Persian empire was going to again defeat and destroy

the Babylonians.

Daniel again may have been been there in spirit and not bodily.

We don't know that.

But he stood by the river, a ram of two horns.

These two horns represent the Medo Persian empire.

The Medo Persian empire with the higher horn being the Persian

empire.

So you had after Babylon you had the Medo Persian empire.

You had two countries over ruling over the then known world

per se together, ruling together.

In verse four it talks about the ram pushing westward and northward

and southward.

And this is speaking of Cyrus.

Because of the Medo Persian empire, the Persian empire rose up

and became more powerful than the Medo empire.

And Cyrus was the leader of that empire.

And we know Cyrus because he is the one that Isaiah spoke about,

prophesied over 100 years before that Cyrus is the one who

would make the decree for the children of Israel to return to Jerusalem

and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

And Cyrus was a mighty king, a mighty leader.

And the Bible says here everywhere he went, he defeated his

enemies.

Everywhere he went.

So let's look at verse five.

And 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.

And he came to the ram that had two horns which I had seen standing

before the river and ran into him in the fury of his power.

And I saw him come close unto the ram.

And he was moved with color 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.

That's bad.

And there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

Therefore the he goat waxed very great.

This is speaking of Alexander the Great.

So Alexander the Great Grecian empire defeated the Medo Persian

empire.

So therefore the goat waxed very great.

Verse 8.

And when he was strong, the great horn was what?

Broken, Right?

So we know Alexander the Great was cut off at the age of 30, 31

years of age.

The horn was broken.

Notice what rose up.

And for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds

of heaven.

Those are the four generals that divided up the empire of Alexander

the Great.

And out of the one of them came forth a little horn which waxed

exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and toward

the pleasant land, speaking of Israel.

And it waxed great even to the hosts of heaven.

And it cast down some of the hosts and 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 his

sanctuary was cast down.

And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason

of transgression.

And it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced and

prospered.

And this I believe, and we'll see by way of the interpretation

that this is alluding to Anticus Epiphanes.

It's a description, very vivid description, by the way, of Anticus

Epiphanes, but also a very vivid description of the Antichrist.

The pleasant land here is speaking of Israel, and it says he

cast down some of the hosts of the stars, referencing to the Jews,

he magnified even to the prince of the hosts, again against

Christ.

Ultimately, the Antichrist magnifies himself against him.

And here's what.

I wanted to read something to you.

So everybody don't be bored.

Y' all ready?

I'll try to be very charismatic in the way that I read

this.

Antiochus Epiphanes may be in view here, and I think it's very

clear that he is.

He came from again from the Grecian empire, was a ruler over

Syria and Israel from 175 to 163 BC and for a short time even

ruler over Egypt.

And in 167B.C.

He sought to overthrow the Jewish religion.

And some of y' all read about him in history again, in this he

was also.

That meant he included the forbidding of circumcision and Sabbath

observance, that they could not observe the Sabbath day.

He burned Jerusalem and murdered numerous Jews.

And on December 16, he offered a pig, an unclean animal, on the

temple altar.

This was the utmost in sacrilege and hypocrisy and blasphemy.

This is history.

This is not.

I'm not making this up.

This is what happened.

If you go read about Antiochus Epiphanies, you can look him up,

you'll read all this.

He further tried to Hellenize the Jews.

What does that mean?

To make them Greeks, he indoctrinated them into Grecian culture.

He wanted to make Greeks out of them.

And through Greek literature, culture, plays, sports, government,

religion and language, he forced his worldview upon Jews in

the land.

And they reacted in many different ways.

Some compromised, some headed to the heels.

Others ultimately rebelled.

Most of you who've done any reading know about the Maccabees.

Upon officers being sent throughout the land.

Listen to this.

Upon officers being sent throughout the land to force leading

citizens to offer sacrifices, Zeus.

The rebellion crystallized.

He is said to have even put an image of Zeus in the most holy place

of the temple.

In a village called Midian, about halfway between Jerusalem and

Joppa, an aged priest named Matthias was chosen to offer just

such a sacrifice.

So we understand what he's doing here.

He is sending troops into these areas of the Jews and saying

to you, you have to make a sacrifice to Zeus to make them make

a sacrifice to Zeus.

This particular priest, Mattethus refused.

But a young Jew volunteered to do it, this aged Matetheus.

And he killed both the Jew and the officer.

He then fled to the hills with his five sons and others who were

in support of him.

The uprising that became known as the Maccabean and revolt was underway.

What a revolt it was on December 25, 164 B.C.

the temple was cleansed and rededicated again.

Again as Anticus Epiphanes sacrificed a pig upon the altar.

And three years to the day, three years later, after the Maccabean

revolt, the temple was cleansed.

And then history tells us the temple was cleansed and rededicated.

One day's supply of oil.

Or oil if you're from.

From the north, oil if you're from the south, oil if you're from

the north, Ol if you're.

If you're.

Anyway, one day supply of oil miraculously kept the golden lampstand

burning for eight days.

This event has been celebrated ever since by the Jews as the Feast

of Dedication or what.

Do y' all know Hanukkah, right?

So you think about why do the Jews celebrate Hanukkah?

Well, because of the miracle that was performed by God.

And keeping the lamp burning.

One day of oil lasted eight days, you say?

Preacher, do you believe that happened?

I have no reason to discount it.

It's before the New Testament covenant.

God spoke to the Jew.

Anyway, look back with me now at the scripture, verse 13.

Then I heard one saint speaking to another saint and said

unto that certain saint which spake, how long shall be the vision

concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation

to get both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?

So how long is God going to allow his sanctuary to how long Is

God going to allow his temple and his altar to be blasphemed, to

be trodden underfoot?

And he said unto me, unto 2,300 days.

Then shall the sanctuary be what cleansed.

If you look up the dates and I have them here if you want a copy

of this later to the day, to the day.

2,300 days.

That's described here is to the day from the time that Antiochus

Epiphanes offered the pig in the sanctuary to the time in which

the Maccabean revolt happened and they cleansed the temple exactly

to the day.

2,300 days.

Not 2,301 day, not 2,299 days.

2,300 days to the day.

Isn't this a wonderful book?

And now can't you see why the liberals would go, we better do better

say this thing was written in the second century because it's so

precise.

It tells the exact day that amazing.

And Daniel prophesied the exact day.

And here's the dates if you want them.

From September 6, 171 BC to December 25, 165 BC and this was

the period of days in which the Jews were under the persecution

of Anticus Epiphanes, who is, as we're going to see a picture,

a pre picture of the Antichrist.

The Antichrist will do the same thing.

The Antichrist will come in peace and all those things.

But by the same thing, I mean he will offer up a sacrifice in the

temple midway through the tribulation as well.

He will set an altar up in the temple to himself.

He is the one who will proclaim himself as the glorious

One, as God manifest.

Alright, so now let's look at the rest of this.

Look at verse 15.

And it came to pass when I, even I, Daniel, had seen the vision

and sought for the meaning.

All right, so he's going to seek for the meaning.

Then behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a

man.

And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulah, which

called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

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.

So this is why most scholars would say again there's a near partial

fulfillment and there's a far reaching full fulfillment.

Because now it says, shall be the end.

The end.

Now as we verse 18.

Now as he was speaking with me.

I was in deep sleep on my face toward the ground, but he touched

me and set me upright.

Pretty powerful.

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.

So he's very precise this time.

No beating around the bush.

There's no.

Well, this might be.

No, that's who it is.

And the rough goat is the king of Greece, man, how more precise

could you get?

And the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

All right.

Alexander the Great.

Now that being broken, whereas four stood up from it, or for it,

four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his

power, not descendants of him, not because of him.

Alexander the Great did not leave anybody to rule the empire.

So four generals, verse 23.

And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressions

are come to the full.

And a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark

sentences shall stand up.

Now, what we're saying here is.

Is this describing Antiochus Epiphanies?

Probably, in some ways, yes.

But there is more here than can be describing Antiochus Epiphanes.

A lot more.

A man who is a fierce countenance, understanding, dark

sentences shall stand up.

Verse 24.

And his power shall be mighty.

Listen to this.

But not by his own power.

And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and

practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his

hand, witchcraft and just.

Again, we know that when the Antichrist comes, that the power

he has is not the power of himself.

It's not his power that he is performing these miracles with.

The Antichrist will come and perform miracles with Satanic power,

destroy many again himself.

Look at verse 25 again.

And through his policy also there shall cause craft to prosper

in his hand.

And he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall

destroy many.

And he shall.

By the way, he calls for peace the first three and a half years.

And peace does rule and reign.

I mean, he rules and reigns in peace, but he shall be broken without

hand.

Amen.

Anyway.

And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is

true.

Wherefore shut up thou up the vision.

For it shall be for many, not for many days.

So the angel says, hey, close the vision.

This is not going to be for many days.

And Daniel fainted Sorry and was sick certain days.

And afterward I rose and did the king's business.

And I was astonished at the vision.

But none understood it.

So, just like the previous vision, this affected Daniel physically.

Physically.

And what a vision it was.

As we see the description of Antiochus Epiphanes, as we see the

time in which Antiochus Epiphanes is going to rule over the

Jews, precisely given to us in the word of God four centuries before

it happened.

I'm so thankful for a book that is true from COVID to cover.

Every prophecy ever given is what is and will be fulfilled.

As we describe, as it describes this Antichrist and Antichrist

epiphanies of a king of fierce countenance.

And again, the Antichrist is going to have occultic abilities

described unto him.

He is empowered outside of himself Satanically.

He is seen to be broken without hand, supernaturally struck

down.

It's no doubt that Antiochus Epiphanes is clearly foreshadowing

the Antichrist.

Amen.

And what a comparison there is.

I'll stop there and give you the application and we'll be done.

I'm so thankful God's in control.

And no matter what may come our way as a country, no matter what

may come our way as Christians, we understand and we

know without a doubt that God rules in the affairs of men.

That God knows the future.

He knows the beginning, he knows the end.

He knows what lies beyond the curve.

I've used this illustration a few times.

We bought a car a few years back, and it was fancy, you know,

when you got to a corner and you turned the wheel, the actual

headlights would turn just a little bit like that, like it was

really going to help you.

I don't know if age or whatever gets you, but at night now,

I can't see what's over there anymore.

You know what I'm saying?

So I just.

I just guess I said, I think the curb is about right there.

Those headlights weren't helping me a bit.

He can't see around the corner.

You know, I got to get around the corner before I can see it.

But you know what?

God doesn't?

God already knows what's around the corner.

We serve and a loving God.

We serve.

A God who is all knowing.

He knows what's occurring in your life.

He is concerned and knows and cares about what's happening in your

life.

Aren't you thankful for that?

I'm so thankful for a God who didn't just wind the clock up, you

know, the earth up like a clock and just throw it in outer

space and say, oh, I'll come back in a hundred years and see how

things are going.

No.

He is intimately involved in his creation.

In fact, he said to you, cast all your care upon him, for he careth

for you.

He knows exactly what's going to happen today, tomorrow, next day,

again.

God knows and controls the future.

God's people, from Daniel's time until the return of Christ,

will continue to face hostile societies.

We know that true today, don't we?

Nothing more, nothing more visual and example of that than what

happened this week.

Those of us who stand, and I know this church does, and I know

you do, stand for biblical truth.

Those who strive for the faith, those who contend for the

faith, will continually face hostile, hostile environments.

But one day Jesus will return.

And so, as the Israelites faced anticus epiphanies, some compromised,

and may we never be in that group.

Some ran for the hills.

That's also the solution for you, is not to run to some place

and just get off grid, you know, and, and separate yourself

from society and from humanity and think, oh, that'll save you.

No, that's not going to save you.

But some Israelites did that.

They just ran to the hills called zillots, and they found themselves

in a position of thinking that, well, if I sacrifice and do

this and this and this, God will love me.

And it's not true.

God loves you for who you like you are.

But then some Israelites stood.

In fact, most of them did.

And we have the Maccabean revolt, a little band of Israelites,

a little band of Jews defeating, you know, some of the

Grecian army and taking over parts of Jerusalem and taking over

parts of Israel for a while until Rome came, controlled the temple

and was able to go in and take out all the junk that Antiochus Epiphanes

had put in there.

And they cleansed the temple.

I'm telling you, one day Jesus Christ will cleanse the temple.

One day he will rule and reign over the whole earth.

One day David will sit on the throne in Jerusalem.

Think about that.

What a cool thing.

God's in control.

Let's all stand.

We dismissed tonight, or we have a verse of it.