Lessons from Antiochus Epiphanes and End-time Ruler

I talked to Mike and he suggested, since this is a little bit longer sermon than usual, we're still going to end it with just one and a half hours of services. With what's going on in the Middle East, it's important to go over some prophecies, and especially about a person that usually we don't talk about very much that's described in the Bible. And so, as the events in the Middle East are getting worse, and we don't know, as they say, you can always tell the date when wars begin, but you never can tell when they end. When things have serious repercussions. But remember, above all things, this is a clash between two great civilizations. One is the Islamic civilization in the region mostly south of Israel, but that's that area of the Middle East, and what we would call the Judeo-Christian North, which includes the Jewish people, but as well basically all of Europe, and the United States, and many other nations that have the Judeo-Christian, because they're two religious systems that are clashing all the time. In fact, since around 630 AD, since Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, declared world conquest for Islam, and within a few years they mounted armies, and basically they took over all of the Middle East. They went all the way into the Asian area. You have countries like Indonesia that are mostly Islam, as well. And then they went up north into Europe, and three times they were at the doorstep of Vienna, the city of Vienna in Austria. But they were turned back, and they never could conquer Europe, but they haven't stopped trying, because that's part of their teachings, that Islam should conquer the entire world. And so they've been this clash of civilizations, and now we see again this clash, and some countries have been Islamic, and then they become Judeo-Christian, and some Judeo-Christian countries have become Islamic. So there's always this flux. And I want to focus on a particular personage that personifies that clash of civilizations. It is perfectly described by Daniel in his book as the king of the north, that clashes against the king of the south. Now this person in particular is what you would call a prototype of the first beast of Revelation 13, called the beast. And this first personage in Revelation 13, I'm not going to go into all the details, but there are two called beasts. And the first beast is more the military and political person in charge, and the second beast is the religious, what he is later called as a false prophet in Revelation 16 and verse 13. So there are two that are allied, and it seems like in the Bible there are some six or seven of these pairs. They have good pairs like Moses and Aaron, and then they have bad pairs as well as Pharaoh and his chief magician, and how there's this clash all the time.

We're going to focus then on that first beast in Revelation 13. I'll go into it systematically because it's very important as you see the Middle East and the clash. It is prophesied that you're going to have a person similar to this personage that's described in the Bible. Anybody know who that could be? He's called Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Epiphanes. So he's usually known as Antiochus Epiphanes because that's the name he gave himself. Epiphanes means the glorified one or the one who is divine. So he gave that name.

You might not know about it, but he's described in the book of Daniel and then in the end times. So this is a person that you have this prototype, this person that is just the first fulfillment of a greater fulfillment that you will have later on. Oh, in the literature and poetry you use the term one is the type which is the forerunner. He's the first one and then you have that anti-type who is the real fulfillment. So Antiochus IV is the type of this future leader that has not arisen yet. It could happen with all the things going on. It's just a matter when God knows is the time to allow these things to happen. As he sees the world deteriorating and now the problem is that nuclear bombs are involved. And that's where Jesus Christ mentioned that if things did not stop, man would annihilate himself. Believe me, nobody questions that that's a possibility. So it's very important to know about this person because you'll see how much time God took to describe him and then project a similar person in the future. Why? Number one, we need to know the characteristics so we will not be deceived. So you will not be taken by the deception that's going to happen in the future. So God took a lot of time to say, look for these individual traits so you will not be deceived. Secondly, when he arises, he is going to attack God's people. And believe me, some people when they say, be careful because I'm not kidding, this person was the same way. When he says he's going to impose his world system and his religious system upon the world, he's not kidding. And Satan is going to receive permission to back him and basically possess him as Antiochus Epiphanes, as you will see, has the characteristics. He was actually by a Greek historian named Polybius who lived around 200 to... let's see, I've got that information about Polybius. Yes, from 200 BC to 118 BC. So actually Polybius was a contemporary of Antiochus Epiphanes. So he wasn't talking about history in the past. He lived it. And this Polybius, which was just a Greek historian, changed the title of Antiochus from Antiochus Epiphanes to Epimanes, which means the madman. The madman. Because something got into him. And he tried to destroy God's people as thoroughly as Adolf Hitler tried to do during World War II. And so again, you have these prototypes that are filled with this demonic desire to destroy God's people. But here's one in the Bible that is important. You've spent years, decades here receiving instruction. This is one person that we need to understand thoroughly. Because God, as you will see, took great pains to reveal so much about him. So let's go to Daniel 8.

Daniel 8. That's why I don't want to come short of time, to have enough time to be able to cover this. Because it's so important and so serious. Our salvation could depend on how we analyze these things. Because God gave this as a warning. He says, watch, examine, because it's going to happen again. It's the same way, using the, again, the example of Adolf Hitler. He got away with deceiving a lot of people. Why? Because nobody had been the same way. He brought a new view of things, and he did a lot of good things for the German people. And he promised so much, and people were enraptured and spellbound. But the result was over 50 million people dying and leaving the greater part of Europe devastating, devastated. And over 6 million Jews killed, according to historians. So let's go to Daniel chapter 8, because we're going to see a similar type of attitude. And it's no exaggeration.

I'm going to begin with the description of Antiochus Epiphanes, because before this, in Daniel 8, it covers about his father, who was called Antiochus the Great, and some of the Seleucid kings before him. But I want to focus in particular about Antiochus Epiphanes. Why God considers this so important? And so let's go, let's see, let's go to Daniel 8 verse 7, because I want to just give a brief description before I get to verse 8. Now, this is all being seen by Daniel in a vision. The date of Daniel's vision, we know pretty much because this is when the 70 weeks prophecy, I mean the 70, yeah, let's see, the 70 year prophecy had been given that the Jewish people were going to be captured for 70 years. During that time, Daniel was in charge there with first the Babylonian king and then the Persian kings. So about 636 before Christ, because you calculate Jerusalem was first conquered by the Babylonians around 606. So this is, it should be 536, not 6, 536. Those are the 70 years. So probably Daniel being a young man, he was in his 80s at this time.

Because 70 years had been passed and he was taken to Babylon as a teenager.

And so it says, and I saw him confronting the ram.

Talking about the He-goat being Alexander the Great, and here you're talking about confronting the ram, the Persian king at that time Xerxes. And he was moved with rage against him. I want to go back. Xerxes was one of the Persian kings, but then this was another one that Alexander defeated. He said he attacked the ram, talking about the Persian king, and broke his two horns, because this was a Medo-Persian empire. The Medes and the Persians had combined to create one empire. So these are the two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him. Alexander beat him thoroughly. And Alexander never is recorded to have lost one battle in basically those more than 13 years that he went to conquer. But he cast him down to the ground and trampled him, and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore the male goat grew very great, Alexander. That's why he's called Alexander the Great. But when he became strong, the large horn was broken. This was the first. This is called the dominant, which is talking about Alexander, died in 323 BC. And in place of it, four notable horns came up toward the four winds. These are the four Greek generals that took over, and they had Lysimachus, they had the king of the north. That was Seleucid. And then you have also the king of the south, Ptolemy. And there was Cassandra in the area of Greece. It says, And out of one of them, out of one of those generals, came out one of the descendants, a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. And so, talking about one of those that were in the north of Egypt, where the king of the south had his empire. This one was the Seleucid empire. And one of the descendants, talking about Antiochus Epiphanes, grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, toward the glorious land, toward, that's Israel. And he grew up to the host of heaven. So he just became so vain, so confident, and powerful. Again, a more contemporary, contemporaneous example would be Hitler. How from just being an unemployed painter in Austria, became the great leader, and he didn't lose one battle for some years. He just won everything and became so great. It says, And it cast down some of the host, and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. This probably has to do with that, since Daniel mentions about the different angels that control different areas. He said about the prince of Persia, and the prince of Greece, and all of these. Well, now this prince of Greece cast down everybody. All of the other ones in charge, all the nations buckled under him. He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host. That's why, again, from Antiochus Epiphanes, now you have Antiochus Epiphanes, which means the madman. He was just so full of himself, and so powerful and rich. And by him, the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast out. So this personage was the one that came to Jerusalem, and basically ransacked the temple, took all of the riches, cast out the priests, and he stopped the daily sacrifices. This is a moment in history which you can read in the book of 1 Maccabees, which is a history. It was written shortly after this time of 168, basically from 167 to 164, which is when those daily sacrifices stopped, a little over three years. And so he stopped the daily sacrifices, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down. Because he not only stopped the sacrifices, but also he put a Greek altar in the area of the temple, and he sacrificed pigs on them. And he had pigs' blood, and so it desecrated the whole place. In other words, it was impure. That's why it's called the Abomination Desolation, because that whole area became impure, desolate, and it actually tells you how long that would be.

It's only happened once in history that we can look back and say, this is the same person, and he was the one that did it. And it goes on to say, then I heard a Holy One speaking, and another Holy One said to that certain one who was speaking, how long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? Now, how long is that going to all happen?

By the way, a good way of talking about that Abomination Desolation, which sounds so strange, it actually just means that the temple area was completely made impure. So the term is the sacrilege that leaves desolate, the whole area.

It goes on to say here, and he said to me, for 2,300 days, and here, it should, as I have here in the margin, not 2,300 days, it should be 2,300 mornings and evenings, because you have two sacrifices per day. So it's talking about the sacrifices. Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed, it shall be purified.

In the InterVarsity Press background commentary, it has a good comment. It says, if 2,300 sacrifices will be missed, and two are offered each day, 1,150 days will pass, roughly three years and two months. Antiochus IV Epiphanes instituted sacrifices to his gods in the temple on the 25th of Kislev, which is December, in the year 167 BC.

But he had put a stop to the Jewish ritual some time earlier. This is when he started his own sacrifices there. But before that, he had let it all become vacant and desolate. He says, sometime earlier that year. And this is reported in 1 Maccabees 1 44 through 51. So I took the time to read again. Now the book of Maccabees is not part of the Bible, but it is good historical information. And it's not part of the Bible, because the last part of the Old Testament was the book of Malachi, which basically around 400 BC.

That's when the last prophet spoke. Now you're talking about some 250 years later when you have Antiochus defiling the temple. And so some Jewish historians wrote about this time. But it wasn't inspired. It wasn't something that God put a prophet or somebody with the name and and say, thus says the Lord. There's a difference. Also, the books of Maccabee contain contradictions to Bible teaching. One is, it mentions about some offering prayers to the dead.

And so the Catholic Church took that and said, oh, we do that. So let's include this book, because when you go to the Bible, let's go to, it's in 2 Maccabees, go here. You see how they were praying for the dead? That's what we do, too. We think the dead are still alive in heaven. And it also talks about purgatory, about people in hell suffering and paying for their sins. So these are all Greek immortality of the soul type ideas. This is not part of the scriptures. What it tells us is that the dead are awaiting their resurrection.

They're not someplace now. So I'm just covering this, what it says here in the IVP background commentary. It goes on to say, and the exact date of the proclamation and its enforcement is not known. The rededication of the temple in the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt took place three years to the day after the desecration on the 25th of Kislev in the year 164. And remember, that's when the Jews to this day celebrate Hanukkah in December for eight days, because when Judas Maccabee defeated the Greeks and expelled them out of that place, and then they purified the sanctuary, they had to tear all of those altars, even the one that was presented to God, it had already been defiled with pig's blood.

So it couldn't be used, so they had to dismount that whole thing and rebuild an altar. They had to rebuild so much because everything that had been tainted with this unclean animals had to be removed. And they had the menorah with the seven lamps there, and thankfully that was still pure.

It hadn't been defiled, but they only found one day's worth of oil that had not been defiled. And so when they lit the lamp up, they said, we don't have any more, and it will take us eight days to produce more. And miraculously, the oil lasted eight days instead of one day, and that's why Hanukkah is celebrated every year for eight days. Just a little background that goes from what we're reading here.

So let's continue in Daniel 8, 19 through 26. It says, Daniel receives another vision to explain a little more about what he saw. The Bible explains itself, and he said, look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation, for at the appointed time the end shall be. God's indignation will be manifested to mankind one day.

The ram which you saw, having the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. The male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king, talking about Alexander the Great. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, because Alexander didn't have much time until he died, and then four of the generals began. They divided the Greek kingdom into four parts. Four kingdoms shall arise out of that nation, but not with its power. In other words, none could equal what Alexander the Great did.

And in the latter time of their kingdom, that talking about the Greek kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise. This is the same one that we're talking about before in Tychus. Having fierce features, who understand sinister schemes, he has satanic help, his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. So again, he's being led by Satan. He's given a lot of power. He shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. So this was a type of a great tribulation period that the Jewish people had. And by the way, nowadays you can download the King James Bible with the Apocrypha, which are all these books. And so if you want to read the first chapter of first Maccabees, and all the way through to the eighth, basically, section, it goes into every part, every detail that we're reading here today. It says, through his cunning he shall cause disease to prosper under his rule. So again, he's a trickster. He knows how to deceive. And like I mentioned, he had the help of the religious leader that was with him at the time, that was teaching the Jewish people how to think with Greek religion. They were imposing the Greek religion on the Jewish people.

And he shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without human means. And so he doesn't regard God, he doesn't regard anybody, and he will end up being broken, but not by natural means. And division of the evenings and mornings, which was told, is true. Therefore, seal up division, for it refers to many days in the future. It was that way because basically a few years later, Daniel died. He was still in the 500s, and here you're in around the mid-150s. So you're talking about 250 years later. The Jews had the prophecies, and they saw how it all came true. But this is only a type because, as God reveals, this is going to be repeated in the end times as well.

There's even more detail in Daniel chapter 11. This is more extensive than what I have given you. So again, God just focuses on every detail to warn his people. Notice in Daniel chapter 11 verse 21. Again, there are some prophecies of other, of the Greek kings, but then we come here after his brother, which the rumor was that Antiochus had his brother Selus killed. It says in verse 21, And in his place shall arise a vile person, that's Antiochus, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty, but he shall come in peacefully and seize the kingdom by intrigue. So the angel was telling Daniel that after this brief reign of Antiochus' brother, the former king of the north, the next king would be a vile person. He would not be recognized as royalty, but shall take power by intrigue. This was fulfilled with the successor of Selusid III, name Antiochus IV. He did not come to the throne legitimately because it was strongly suspected that he murdered his older brother, the previous king. The other potential heir, the son of Selusid III, who was killed, was imprisoned in Rome. So the legitimate heir was not given the kingdom, but instead to Antiochus. He shall come in peaceably, apart from the murder of his older brother, Antiochus IV. He did not use terror to gain power. He used flattery, smooth promises, and intrigue. Very good at buying people over. This is from the Clark commentary. He flattered Eumenes, the king of Pergamos, and Attalus, his brother, and got their assistance. He flattered the Romans and sent ambassadors to court their favor and pay them arrears of the tribute he owed them. He flattered the Syrians and gained their agreement. So he really did a lot of wheeling and dealing. Let's continue. Antiochus IV then took the title of Epiphanes, meaning, God Manifest. But others, the Greek historian Polybius, derisively called him Epimenes, meaning the madman. Now let's go to verse 22 of Daniel 11. It says, with the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him, and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. So he's going to come into Israel. And after the league is made with him, he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province, and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers. He shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil and riches, and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. So he is good, paying bribes, accumulating friends through buying them off. In verse 25, it says, he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army. So now he's going to invade the area that Ptolemies control, who was the king of the south. And he did.

This all was fulfilled when Antiochus Epiphanes carried on the feud between the dynasties, between the Seleucids in the north and the Ptolemies in the south, but pretended friendship and alliance to catch them off guard. Despite massive efforts and epic battles, Antiochus Epiphanes did not stand and his army was swept away. So he never was able to conquer that area of Egypt. Now you might say, well, how can be so clever? Look what's happened in the last hundred years. How many people have deceived the world? Look what happened in Japan with the emperor worship and the people, Japanese people, were deceived. How about the communist system? Look how people were deceived with that. 70 years. So clever people can take over as we see here. Continuing on, it says, now verse 25, it says, he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army, and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army. But he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him. Yes, those who eat the portion of his delicacies shall destroy him. His army shall be swept away and many shall fall down slain. Both these kings' hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table, but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time. While returning to his land with great riches, his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant, so he shall do damage and return to his own land. So you have the treachery also against Antiochus Epiphanes by his own counselors in the famous battle with the defeat of Antiochus Epiphanes at his second campaign against Egypt. He was prosperous in the first one, but he came down to complete his conquest.

It says, Egypt beat Antiochus with the help of Rome. So Rome was becoming now a regional power. At the end of it all, Antiochus Epiphanes and his kingdom were under the dominion of Rome.

And he hated that. In a famous battle, the Roman navy defeated the navy of Antiochus Epiphanes. After the battle, a Roman general drew a circle around Antiochus in the dirt and demanded to know if he would surrender and pay tribute to Rome, and demanded to know before he stepped out of the circle. From that point on, there was no doubt, and Antiochus Epiphanes took his orders from Rome and was under Roman dominion. Notice now in verse 28, it says, while returning to his land, with great riches his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant, so he shall do damage and return to his own land. This was fulfilled when Antiochus Epiphanes returned from Egypt. Bitter from defeat, he vented his anger against Jerusalem, which was already shaken because Antiochus sold the office of the high priest and persecuted the Jewish people to conform to Greek culture, forsaking the faith and the traditions of their fathers.

In verse 29, at the appointed time he shall return and go forward toward the south, but it shall not be like the former or the latter, for ships from, it says, kitim in the Hebrew, which has to do with the west. It says Cyprus, but actually it's more indicative of the Romans. The Romans came to stop Antiochus from conquering that whole area, and therefore he shall be grieved and return in rage against the holy covenant, and do damage, so he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. He starts insisting they give up the Jewish religion.

They shall, and then they shall take the daily sacrifices away, as it says, verse 31, and forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. Then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation.

So all of this is just very clear. This has happened once. It's going to happen another time. And who knows, with all that's going on, it's so unstable. Again, things can peter out, and then we'll have to wait. But right now, we're in the midst of a war between Israel and Iran, and the U.S. who knows whether it's going to get involved or not. But these are all very dangerous times. He goes on to say, Daniel, verse 32, those who do wickedly against the covenant, he shall corrupt with flattery. So here's the problem now that people under that pressure start yielding to Antiochus. They quit keeping the Sabbath. They quit keeping the feast days. They start eating pork and everything else. And they shall corrupt themselves. But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. This certainly describes the Maccabees. Those were Mathilias, who was a priest. He lived in a small village close to Jerusalem. And when Antiochus men came and with flatteries tried to say, well, you're the head of this town. And if you go ahead, like everybody else has yielded, because the pain of death is upon you. If you don't sacrifice pigs here and yield to being under Antiochus and start teaching the Greek religion. Well, this Mathiliah, he had five sons. And he was one of those that you don't cross. And when one of the Jews got up to do the sacrifices and everything, Mathilias came and he killed the Jew and he killed the Greek governor who had come. And then they fled into the hills. And before he fled, he said, whoever is for God, follow us. We will stand up and uphold God's laws. And so from that small group of that village and under the guidance of the first son, Judas Maccabee, whose name, of course, the Hammer, they finally defeated Antiochus. And through the Greek yoke of submission, and they restored not only the true religion back, continued with the Sabbaths, continued with the feast days, continued with the food laws.

And by the time Jesus Christ came, they still had a country. The Messiah could follow the true religion and not some Greek religion at the time. And so there's a parallel here. Now we've gone through one period here just about 25 years ago where we were all tested. Are we going to keep God's laws? Are we going to keep his feasts? Are we going to keep the Sabbath? Or are we going to start eating swine, as some did? Because after all, somebody can persuasively say, give up. This is not necessary anymore. You know, Christ nailed all this to the cross and everything. And how many people were duped? And some people, they just buckled. They just did not have that inner strength through God's Spirit to say, no, you can do what you want with me, but I'm not going to follow you. So this is the way you have to face these Antiochus.

Now and in the future. And then he goes on to say, verse 33, and those are the people who understand shall instruct many. See, it's not just what you know, you teach, you guide about God's laws. Yet for many days they shall fall by the sword and the flame by captivity and plundering. They went through a great tribulation at that time. It mentions that when Antiochus went through that area, he killed approximately 80,000 Jews, slaughtering them. So it wasn't just a friendly pressure at that time. Yes, he can use deceit, but if he doesn't get his way, it's brute force. Verse 34, now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help, but many shall join with them by intrigue. So there'll be some that just come along as they did, and then they later betrayed the Maccabees. So you never know why a person is where they're at. It'll show with the tests, and some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, and make them white until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time. God has everything scripted, programmed. Then the king shall do according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god. This is the same thing that's mentioned in Revelation, about Revelation 13, how it will rise up. This is called the beast power, that along with the false prophet will deceive the great part of this world.

He shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished, for what has been determined shall be done. So God, he has a certain amount of time to do his bidding. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, you know, who he regards himself. Again, going back to the example, the most recent example was Adolf Hitler. He just had power. He wasn't a family man, didn't have any children. He regarded the German people as all his children to command. It says in verse 38, but in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses, and a god which his fathers did not know. Now the god of fortresses could be this second beast power, that he shall honor, because it says he doesn't have any religious gods. But here's one that comes, and he's the one that's going to back him, which is the false prophet. We are not sure about this, but it makes sense because there are two involved. And a god which his fathers did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god. Again, somebody, his second in command, which he shall acknowledge and advance its glory. And he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain. So this is as far as we go, because in verse 40, now from the type, you go to the endotype. This is the reality now, because now god is projecting. Someone like Antiochus Epiphanes is going to appear. And so in verse 40, it says, at the time of the end, certainly Antiochus Epiphanes was not living at that time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him. Talking about who is the successor in the end time of Antiochus, and the king of the north shall come against him. This is the one who is in Revelation, the beast.

Like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships. And of course, this is in the time of the first century, but it's talking about all these implements of war. And with many ships, and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land. Talk about Israel. And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon, showing that these are part of the king of the south. This is today, those three different nations are the nation of Jordan. That's where, in one of them here, Ammon, we still have the name of Ammon as the capital of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. It's another one of the properties of the king of the south, which is also Muslim. All of these are Muslim countries. Islamic faith He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and overall the precious things of Egypt, also the Libyans, who are west of Egypt, and Ethiopians, which are south of Egypt, shall follow at his heels. These are all Islamic countries. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him. So he's the king of the European king, comes down into this Middle East area, and he's taking over all of this, and all of a sudden China and Russia are not happy, because they see this is going to change the balance of power in that part of the world. Therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. So this type of leader is on the offensive. He doesn't wait for the north and east, the army that comes. He goes after them. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. Talking about Jerusalem. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. So eventually that king of the north is going to establish himself in Jerusalem with the false prophet, both basically governing this new system, this new world system. And so, as we conclude, let's go to Matthew 24, verse 12 through 14, because Christ talks about the abomination, desolation of Antiochus Epiphanes. And let's start in verse 12.

It says, this is the end time, and because lawlessness will abound, and certainly it's the staple of the day, the love of many will grow cold. So the brethren, they're just not going to have as much spiritual strength, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. He who continues just like in those days of the Maccabees. God intervened, but he intervened with those who defended the faith that put their lives on the line. It says in verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. And part of our job is to have all these booklets, all of what we're doing on the internet and everywhere else. We're sending the message. This is all true. This is going to happen in the future. We don't know exactly when it all will come, but as we see now, from a period of two weeks ago, nobody had an idea this was going to happen right now. And from the news today, I guess the V2 bombers are going to Guam, which is a little bit south of in the Indian Ocean, and from there they can bomb. But you know what? That's going to open up. So we don't know what kind of world. But guess what? You think the people that were having to face Antiochus, the Jews at that time, they were so demoralized. They had this huge power and all this. But God was there. There are always people that stand up and put God first in their lives, no matter what happens. And so as we have a gospel to carry out, we have a work to carry out, and then right after, it says, the end will come. And how do we know the end will come? Verse 15, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by David, Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. Let's go back to Daniel and read what he said. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And certainly, the Israelites, they're fleeing wherever they can, and they're going into their bomb shelters several times a day. But God is going to protect his people. Let's go to the last scripture Revelation chapter 12 verse 14. During this whole time, as things happen, certain personages appear again, and they're going to look friendly and nice.

They're going to convince people that they're out there for your welfare. It says in verse 13 of Revelation 12, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, this hasn't happened yet, but it will, he persecuted the woman, talking about the church, who gave birth to the male child. Talking about Jesus Christ. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place. God knows where that is, where she's nourished for time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So this is the three and a half year period, and we know those sacrifices have to begin in Israel, because again, there will be this period of time, three and a half years where there won't be any sacrifices that will be carried out. So the serpent spewed water out of her mouth, his mouth, like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. It could be physically that tries to drown God's people, or it could be a flood like an army, because it says the many waters in Revelation 17 are symbolic of peoples. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. So it didn't touch God's people. And the dragon was enraged with a woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So we have to keep the commandments of God, and we have to have the testimony of Jesus Christ, that we are doing what pleases God the Father and Jesus Christ in our lives. It's so important to keep the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and the food laws. And everything else that God teaches us, that he says by this in 1 John 5 verse 4, it says, in this you show the love of God, that we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing to him.