Who Is the Man of Sin?

Throughout the Bibles that God has inspired and given to us, we have multiple stories of God's interactions with mankind. There's a lot of gaps, there's a lot of questions we have because there's certain information that just isn't available in our Bibles, such as, like, where do the dinosaurs come from and things like that, and where do they fit in. But God's Bible is His story and His, the lessons of His interactions with mankind. And through these accounts and these stories, we see some great exploits that His people were able to do and to go forward in a very positive way. And we see some bad stories, too, along the way where mankind has chosen not to listen, not to follow God. Some of these stories involve good people and some of them involve some pretty bad folks, as we've seen. And this is where your part comes in. When you think of some of the evil people, some of those bad people of the Bible, who are, who comes to mind? And go ahead and shout out a few. Help me out here. Haman is, he's on my list. Chris, you had somebody. Jezebel. Jezebel, I hear Ahab.

Cain, yep. Mr. St. Charles is just going to start going down the list.

Any others? Nebuchadnezzar. Yep. Judas. Judas. There's some pretty, pretty bad. Some, we'd even put them in the category as evil men, and women, even with Jezebel and some others. What about Antiochus Epiphanes? That name alone just sounds like a bad guy. I mean, if I had to create an arch-enemy, I think I'd have to name him Antiochus Epiphanes. We'll get to him a little bit more later in the sermon. The last time I was with you, we reviewed the spirit of Antichrist, as described by the Apostle John. In literal terms, it means against Christ, or as variously defined, an adversary of Christ, or an opponent of Christ. This can be an attitude. This can be like a description one can have said about them, that they have the spirit of Antichrist. It can also refer to an end-time character that we see outlined in Scripture. But Antichrist means against Christ, against his teachings, against what he believed, against what he came to do.

It means not following the Bible, as we see, and as he expounded on and explained to us to do, can mean a spirit of rebellion. It can mean a spirit of wanting to do your own thing the way that you want. It could be selfishness. There's a level of pride that comes in with this attitude of Antichrist. And so, in the time we have together, we will look at the description of an end-time Antichrist that is to come on the scene at the end of days. As we consider a coming Antichrist figure in the future, what information do we know about this person, and how should this information cause us to handle our lives today? From Vine's commentary and comments on the Antichrist, it explains that the term can refer to an individual who is opposed to or instead of Christ, or perhaps combining the two. It says, one who, assuming the guise of Christ, is an opponent of Christ. Again, in that last sermon I shared, we considered what John wrote in his letter, the first letter that we have in our Bibles from the Apostle John. But the Apostle Paul also had a lot of thoughts about the Antichrist when he wrote about the great apostasy or the great fallen away that would occur before the return of Christ. Let's open our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1. In the church chair in Thessalonica, Paul is writing to encourage and to admonish them to some changes that need to be made. But also in the second letter, he's pointing out that there's some false leaders or some false insides or some false ideas that the end time is approaching or it's right there, that the time is near, that they need to alter their plans or even be fearful in some sense. And he starts off in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1 with an admonition to those he's writing to, to not be troubled, not to be shaken. Notice what he says, and notice this is something for us to understand as well today. He says, Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, do not be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, because this information was coming by word of mouth, some were writing it. He says, As if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. He says, Let no one deceive you by any means. So there's this warning of deception. He says, For that day, talking about the end day, will not come unless the following away comes first. So that's one of the aspects that has to occur within the body of Christ is this following away. And the second is, And that the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worship, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This is important to understand as we continue, because in a moment, we're going to dive into another character that we see in the Bible, of a character who thought they were God and behaved and operated as if they were God.

And we will look at this historical figure, who, as I mentioned, did the exact same thing. So keep this mind, this verse four in your mind, because certain men over time have elevated themselves, they have put them in a position where they believe that they were God and they wanted to be worshiped as God. And it's a dangerous mindset, as we know, for anyone to think, but it also leads them to behave in a way that often is damaging to God and to his people. Paul goes on in verse five, he says, Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? He says, I'm reminding you that at the end time, what will occur. But he says, For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

So this lawlessness, this person is being restrained. And Paul's saying, but he will be allowed to go forward and do what he wants to do. Verse eight, and he says, And then the lawless one will be revealed. So two times Paul has used the word revealing as with a connection to this end time figure. And so we don't have to worry about, well, do we know who this person will be? Or will we recognize this person? If we're doing our part, we're remaining close to God. We are being wise as serpents and harmless as does, as we heard in the sermonette. If we have our house in order spiritually, we won't get caught up and be tricked or miss who this end time figure is because God says he will be revealed. But he says, whom the Lord, and so, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. So he's saying, I will take care of this person. I will show you who he is, and I will also take care of him. Verse nine, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And this is important. This is where it hits home again for you and for me because there will be some who are deceived. And he's speaking of within the church. He's speaking of within the body of Christ. Some will be not doing what we should be doing, and when the sin-time figure comes on, we'll be deceived, we'll be caught up, may even be influenced by the sin-time figure. And Paul is saying, be careful because those who got wrapped up, those who missed it, did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And he goes on to say, and for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they may that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness. This is a warning for you and for me today not to be fearful of the sin-time figure because God will reveal this person to us, but saying, don't worry about those things. I'll handle it, God is saying, but you do what you know you need to do. We each have that responsibility. So some will believe these lies of the sin-time figure, but there will be people who will also hold the line and continue down the path that God wants us to go down. The man of sin who Paul describes here is posing as divine. He will perform supernatural acts with the help of the devil, deceiving all of those who have rejected God and setting himself up to be worshipped by the world. So who is this man of sin that Paul references? Who will be the Antichrist? You ready? Write it down? I don't know, right? I know. You're ready. Don't head for the doors. It's still got some information that'll start to describe this, but I was telling Kelis last week when she was asking what I was speaking on, and I told her, and I said, yeah, I'm going to go and tell everybody who this person is. You want to make sure you don't miss it. And she just rolled her eyes and walked away, you know, what our kids do, right? Because she knows that's not what we're going to be able to do. But we're given a glimpse of this man through a historical account of a real-time person who was an enemy of God's people and a type of the Antichrist who will eventually come on the scene. Go ahead and begin turning your Bible to Daniel 8, and we'll be getting in on the beginning of verse 1. Daniel 8 and verse 1.

Now, when Daniel was alive, it was a very strange time for God's people. The Babylonian Empire had taken over Judah and left Jerusalem in ruin. Many people were killed, the poor and the elderly, and those who were maimed and unable to really be of good service. They were scattered and left behind in their homeland and did not have a lot going for them. It was a very difficult time. But those who were young, smart, and had something going for them, they were taken away captive to serve the Empire. And Daniel was one such person taken away to Babylon. But God was not done working through the hands of His people to influence others and to be a light in a dark empire. Daniel stood for God, and God used him to demonstrate his power to understand and predict the future. And we see this in chapter 8 of Daniel. When Daniel received the vision that we're about to read, he was probably nearing the end of his death, probably in his 70s to 80s, with not a lot of time left in this physical form. And in verse 1, we get the timeline and the understanding of what this is that he was being given. Daniel 8 in verse 1, it says, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me, Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. And I saw in the vision, so this is a vision that he was kind of transported away to see in his mind, and then he recorded it for us and for our edification. He says, I saw in the vision, and so it happened while I was looking that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ule, which later would have been this prominent city that would have been in the Persian Empire. Shushan would have been kind of one of their central areas, kind of like the state capitals that we have today. And so God took him to see another time and the events that are going on and to record these events for us. In verse 3, he says, then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside a river, was a ram, which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. This ram is the symbol of the Persian Empire, which would come to power in the region, probably in the ballpark of about 10 years after Daniel saw this vision. The Persian Empire was known as the Medio-Persian Empire, thus represented as these two horns, the Medes and the Persians, being the two sides. Verse 3 mentions that one horn was larger than the other, and the Persian side of the empire was the more powerful side and had greater influence over the Medes side of the empire. So we have this ram with two horns, that is the Persian Empire coming into the region.

Daniel goes on in verse 4 and says, I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, southward, so that no animal could withstand him, nor was there any that could be delivered from his hand. But he did according to his will, and he became great. When you look at maps of the Middle East at this time of the the greatness of the Persian Empire, it's a vast empire, similar to the influence and the spread of the Roman Empire many years later. But it spread northward, eastward, southward, down to Egypt. And often when it says he this withstood other animals and no other animals could withstand him, often when we see this in prophecy, animals represent kingdoms. And then the horns usually represent individual people, which we'll see detailed out here more specifically in a moment. But so this is a strong empire. It was vast. It was booming. But it all changes quickly in the next verse in verse 5. And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. This is in a reference to the speed at which this goat ran. It was as if it's legs, so those cartoons where the legs are going so fast that it's not even touching the ground. That's the best description here of this empire, this army. And the goat had a notable horn between its eyes. So instead of the ram having two horns, this goat has one horn. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which had been standing beside the river and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram and he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram and broke his two horns. And there was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him. And there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. So we have this second animal introduced, this goat, that takes by force and overpowers the ram. Now this goat represents the kingdom of Greece under Alexander the Great. What is significant about this part of the prophecy is that at the time of Daniel's vision, the Greek Empire was not much of anything at all. In fact, the Persians, at least on two different occasions, tried to attack the Greeks and make that their property as well. You may have seen this depicted in some different movies over the years of the Athenians and coming together, and the Greeks coming together to withstand this Persian attack. And so, but Greece at this time is not really a power figure. Nobody expected this to happen. And what I find always fascinating when you dive into prophecy and you dive into these timelines is Daniel is describing and prophesying about something that would happen about 200 years down the road, that this Persian Empire would be taken over by Alexander the Great. It's just exciting when you come across these things. God says, I'm going to do it, and then you see it unfold and unfold, and then the way it goes about, even to like in part of this prophecy not recorded here, but plays into it, is the rising up of even Cyrus the Great, which God said who it would be. That Cyrus, he didn't just name an empire that would rise up, he said not only will this empire rise up, but Cyrus will be the head. I sometimes joke, I joked at camp, it would be like me thinking down the road and prophesying and saying something like, in 200 years we're going to go back to becoming a monarchy as a country. Could it happen? It could happen, right? But, and so some people would be like, maybe in 200 years. But then if I went further and said, oh, and the first king is going to be of the descendant, one of my descendants.

Now, now people are like, okay, now this is getting ridiculous, right? God did that with Cyrus. He's done that with these empires, and he's doing it here again with Daniel, which I don't know, I kind of geek out on some of this stuff when I come across it, and we see in time and historical records these things.

It makes the Bible come to life for me. It makes it, because who else can, who can predict the future, right? With any, our weather people mess it up left and right. And I'm not blaming them. I would mess it up, too, if I was a weather person, because that's not easy to predict the weather. But even two to three days out, sometimes the forecasts will change by the time it appears. But this is just exciting for me when we read about it, and you see that what God says is going to happen happens.

And it gives us that confidence that as time goes on, and he says these other events will happen, good and bad, that it gives us that encouragement, too, as we go forward. But getting back to the story, I got to say on task, you guys want snacks. Alexander came to the throne as a young man. His father, Philip II, built the Macedonian Empire, essentially because of Persia trying to take them over twice, right? How many times are you going to let your neighbor come over and try to take your house before you finally say, we're going to have to do something about this?

And so Philip, his father Philip, did this. He built an army and had it fortified, had it ready to go to war. And so Alexander takes over the army as his goat from the west, and with such lightning speed, he completely conquers the entirety of the Persian Empire. Alexander has often been noted as one of the greatest generals to have ever existed, and many other powerful leaders over time have been noted and recorded as studying his tactics in hope of reproducing their own military victories as they have led their armies.

But Alexander the Great's reign, though, is short-lived as he dies around the age of 33, after leading this army for about 11 years. Let's continue in the story, and we see this described here in verse 8. Therefore, the male goat grew very great, and the empire, the Greek Empire in Alexander, was very great. But when he became strong, the large horn was broken, and in its place, and in place of it, four notable ones came up towards the four winds of heaven.

So after Alexander's death, four of his generals started to vie for power of this empire, and because they were his great generals, they were kind of located in different regions, and so they made those regions theirs. And then over about the next 20 years, they battled among themselves for the borderlines of what would be their reigning empire and their power.

But because of this infighting, because of the challenges that they had, because they weren't unified as well, this empire was not very strong. It was kind of a divided empire, and there was no global power at the time to just reign and to be in control. And then, in getting to verse 9, we have another character introduced in the middle of this weekend Greek empire that would then rise to power in this region.

And this is the one that then starts to influence the church, God's people, directly. Notice Daniel 8 in verse 9. It says, And out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great towards the south, towards the east, and towards the glorious land. That glorious land, of course, being the promised land around Jerusalem, around Judah, that area. And it grew up to the host of heavens, and it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them. And so this symbolism to the stars, we know that no man has the power to just grab stars and cast them or destroy them, cast them to the ground, destroy them.

Often when we see stars in Scripture, it's referencing God's people. One of the greatest examples is when we look back to Genesis chapter 15 and we consider Abraham, and God is saying, You will be great among the nations. Your descendants will be innumerable. And then he takes them outside and says, Count the stars in the heaven, and we know those stars were to represent Abraham's descendants.

And so when we see stars and we see them being cast down, this is talking about persecution of God's people here in verse 10. And so we see this leader, not to be outdone by Alexander and others, we see this new strong leader rise up as an additional horn of the goat, and this leader would become Antiochus IV or Antiochus Epiphanes.

Antiochus Epiphanes came out from under one of Alexander the Great's generals, General Seleucus.

And while Antiochus Epiphanes did not have a very long reign, he did some very profound things, which most likely points us to a similar future character and the events that that future character will do before the return of Jesus Christ. We find to describe some parallels between Antiochus Epiphanes and the end time Antichrist ruler. And in verse 10 through 12, we see prophesied what Antiochus Epiphanes would do. And in historical accounts, we can now look back and see what he actually did was the exact thing that Daniel references some 200-plus years earlier. Again, let's read Daniel 8 and verse 10 again to get the context and continue on. He says, And it grew up to the host of heaven, and this leader, Antiochus Epiphanes, and it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars through the ground and trampled them. He even exalted himself as high as the prince of the host. So capital P, that's referencing Christ himself. And by him, the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of his sanctuary, God's sanctuary, was cast down. Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices, and he cast not only the sacrifices to the ground, but truth, it says here, was cast down to the ground. So he did all of this and prospered. And so we see this powerful ruler going up against God's people, going up against God's laws and commandments, and God for a time allowing him to prosper. So here begins this reference to the things that Antiochus Epiphanes did.

He exalts himself against the people of God, and not only the people of God, but God himself.

Antiochus took on the name Epiphanes, which means God manifest, or God incarnate. He literally looked upon himself and wanted to be worshipped as God. And so he took on this name Epiphanes. And what he did for a literal period of about three years in Jerusalem was to stop the twice daily sacrifices at the temple. There would be two sacrifices, one in the morning and one in the evening, and Antiochus said no more. He brought that to an end. The Jews themselves, though, were not an easy people to rule over because they had their own homes, they had their own land, they had their own temple and temple practices, and they had their own religion, and they had their own God, that they worshipped. They were not to be governed by man because they were to be governed by God. And because of this, the Jews were not against fighting in order to do what was right before God. And so for a national leader like Antiochus Epiphanes, this is not an easy group of people to manage. So the temple sacrifices were going on, and Antiochus comes in. He clamps down on the Jews at the time and their authority, and he begins to tear it all apart, and he cast, ultimately, casting truth to the ground. And we have Antiochus exalting himself as the Prince of Hosts, and this is very similar to what we read in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when Paul talks about the one who exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped. He sits at the temple of God, remember what we just read there. This is a great description of Antiochus Epiphanes, but we'll also see this later as an end-time ruler.

We also note a few additional things. We see that Antiochus had an army that he controlled, which did his dirty work, and we see a future Antichrist will also have a force of an army behind him as well. Antiochus broke up the ability for God's people to do what God had commanded them to do, and we know a time will come when we ourselves will be challenged to be able to follow and worship God the way that he instructs. So as we see in John and Paul's writings, God is going to allow there to become a time when a great end-time power will arise to exalt themselves as God and to persecute God's saints and his people. The details of this persecution we find captured in another book, not part of the Bible canon that we have in our laps. In the book of 1 Maccabees, this is a book that is part of the Apocrypha, which means from the Greek word meaning obscure or hidden, and it has a little bit of a disputed authority, and that's why it's not part of our canon that we have with us in our Bible. It's not believed to be inspired the same way that the rest of the scriptures are, but it is noted to be helpful as we explore some historical aspects. The book of Maccabees talks about this uprising that the Jews wanted to fight back, and it records part of what King Antiochus did to them that is not captured in scripture. So looking and comparing what Antiochus was prophesied to do, what other historical accounts show that he did, and then to compare that with 1 Maccabees, it blends very, very well, and it's probably the most accurate depiction that we have. And so I'm going to share this from 1 Maccabees chapter 1 starting in verse 41 if you want that for your notes, if you want to go back and consider this. But it kind of fills in a few of the gaps in between our lines of scripture and add some color to the story in a pretty dreadful way. It says, Moreover, King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people. There is this mindset in order to rule this people let's make them all have the same religion, same government, same thoughts, same ideals.

We could even talk about that being a concept that we have even going on in society today, and one that will be even more elevated as time goes on, especially towards the end time. It's a way to inspire people to come together, right? To be of one mind, but it's also a way to control thought, to control idea, and to push down a group of people trying to follow another leader, which ours is, of course, God. So it says, Moreover, King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and everyone should leave his law so that the heathens agreed according to the commandments of the kings. Yea, many also the Israelites, this is important to note, consented to his religion and sacrificed unto idols and profane the Sabbath. Sounds similar to what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians, that if they were not doing what we're supposed to be doing, we could easily be swayed to follow another leader. It says, For the king had sent letters by messengers unto Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, that they should follow the strange laws of the land, and forbid burnt offerings and sacrifice and drink offerings in the temple, and that they should profane the Sabbath and festival days. And they polluted the sanctuary and holy people. They set up altars and groves and chapels of idols, and sacrificed swine's flesh and unclean beasts, that they should also leave their children uncircumcised and make their souls abominable with all manner of uncleanness and profanation. And to the end, they might forget the law and change all the ordinances. So this is what King Antiochus Epiphanes decreed. This is what went out. And sadly, even some of God's people probably were thinking, well, we have two choices, right? We consent to what we're told to do and continue to live and thrive and be able to have families and even worship our God behind closed doors the way that we want to, or else we're going to stick out like a sore thumb. And so maybe some like the money that they were making in the land. Maybe some liked the homes that they were living in. We don't know. We could all put ourselves in shoes and realize that there could be a time where we're placed in a similar situation, and most likely we will be. But notice, first Maccabees goes on to say in 56, getting to those who are continuing in this discourse, but also then showing some of the description of those who took a stand for God. It says, "...and when they had rent the pieces of the books of the law which they found, and they burnt them with fire..." So any Bible, or not Bibles, but any scrolls that they found at that time, they tore up and they burned with fire. And it says, "...and whoever was found with any of the book of the testament, or any committed to the law, the king's commandment was that they should put him to death. Thus they did by their authority to the Israelites every month to as many as were found in the cities. Now the five and twentieth day of the month they did sacrifice upon their idle altar, which was upon the altar of God, at which time according to the commandment they put to death certain women that had caused their children to be circumcised." And so it became this public, public spectacle that not only on the fifth and twentieth of the month you come out and you worship to these pagan gods on their pagan altars, but then they would most likely walk out the Israelites who were withstanding and fighting back, and then publicly execute them as well.

The book of Maccabees goes on to detail out a lot of these horrific events in more detail. I'm going to shy away from that. It's well recorded in not just historical accounts, but also in Maccabees.

So to say that Antiochus Epiphanes was one of the evil guys of the Bible is a very easy category to place them in. What he did to God's people was dreadful, and what they had to endure was unspeakable. Now, this sounds like a very downer of a message, right? Especially as we talk about prophecy, we talk about events to come, and we don't know precisely what is going to come down our path. We don't know what God will permit. We don't know what He will allow. I remember sitting in the audience like you many years back as a teen and as a young child in the audience hearing similar messaging. Many of you from a little bit back, you know this isn't anything new that I'm sharing or what we teach as a church. But I remember being a kid and not really liking these types of messages, right? Because I want to live. I don't want to be persecuted. I don't want to die. And I remember being even fearful and talking to my mom one time. And I appreciate, mom doesn't like when I bring up only her negative things. So this is one of the positive stories.

Mom's listening in on a few of my sermons. And she goes, you need to stop saying the negative stuff, Mike. So this, if she's listening in, this is one of the positives. I was sharing my concerns. I was sharing these heartfelt feelings about my fears with her. And she gave me some advice, which I think stands when you compare and look at what God has done through the ages with His people. She goes, if God is going to ask you to give your life for His sake, He's going to prepare you for that moment. Now, I'm not going to find that. We're not going to find that in any scripture phrase that exact way. But she went on to explain that God prepares His people. And we look through Daniel, we look through Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the example that then the courage in which, and we read through it, like, where did they have this courage from? Well, God put that in them. They did their part. He built them up for that moment, even to that point where Shadrach, Meshach, and Menego before the fiery furnace was like, we're not going to bow down to your idols, and you can cast us in this furnace, and yeah, maybe we might even die. But it's going to be according to God. If that's what He decides, so be it. And we think about other accounts, I think of Stephen as one of those, the disciple in the early church. It was a young church. Jesus had only been gone a few years.

And here's not even a few years. It's even less time than that. And here's Stephen, who is taking the task, the religious leaders at the time, for their failure to continue to follow, in faith, the forefathers. And he goes through this historical account, going all the way back, believe it's all the way back to Abraham, and talking through the generations and saying, these people did this great exploit, and they did this, and they followed faithfully. And then he gets pointed and says, you guys aren't doing it. And yet he spoke so boldly to the point, and they gnashed their teeth at him, and they even went as far as to stone him.

Even Saul, who would become Paul, was present. And each person laid their robes down at Saul's feet, pretty much Saul signing off that this is fine to do. But yet we don't see him shaking in his boots. We don't see him crying out out of fear to God. We see him boldly breaching the truth, and we see God intervening, even letting him see into a vision, into the heavens, to see the throne of God, and to assure him that this is okay. And even to the point that I'm paraphrasing, but Stephen even says, don't hold this against them. He had that type of courage, that type of confidence in God, that he knew his next waking moment where he would be. He knew that this wasn't the end for him. And so we look at these accounts, and I think back to what my mom shared, because I don't want us to be fearful, even if we're older, and we've been here a long time, and we're like, yep, I'm ready to die for God, or whatever. I don't know if any of you feel that way.

But for any of the younger people we may have in our audience or online, I think there's a real truth to that. That if God is going to ask us to do something of that magnitude for him, as a representation of who he is and his power, he'll make sure we're ready for that moment. And that brought me a lot of courage, not only in the moment, but also going forward from here. Because I'll be honest, I think I might have even told you this before, when I finally agreed to say yes to go into the ministry training program, because I know you can't run from God, right? Jonah shows me that one. It occurred to me I could very easily be an in-time pastor in the church. That is nothing that I ever wanted to be on my radar, to have that target on my back, to be an in-time minister of Jesus Christ. But yet, we can't get caught up in the fearful side of that. If that's what God asks of me to be, then I'm going to have to go forward in faith that he's going to provide my needs in that time, right? And just as he will provide for your needs in that time, and for whatever role or service he calls you to serve in that time, he will provide for you and for me. And that we know the end of the book. We know who wins. We know the promises that are assured to those who finish their race in this physical life. And so we can read through this account of Antiochus Epiphanes. We can read through the book of 1st Maccabees and see the persecution that God's people have gone through in time. And it can be a heavy message to consider and to weigh out.

But as Paul said, he doesn't want us to be uninformed. He doesn't want us to not have this information. He doesn't want us to get that when a power figure shows up in the scenes of the future, that then we let fear come into our minds as far as, oh, I better obey because I don't want to die. Or I better obey because I don't want to lose my life or what I have. And Paul is saying, and God is saying, hold strong because I've got this, and I'll be your God, and you'll be my people.

And so going back to Daniel, again, chapter 8 and verse 13, to continue this message that God gave Daniel, it says, 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 and desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled under foot? I mean, it's a fair question. If this is going to happen to God's people, how long will this last? Is this forever? Is this the end? Is it going to be quick? And he said to me, For 2,300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. So this setting up of false idols, of pagan worship within the temple, of offering swine or unclean animals on the temple will be cleansed. It will be gone.

And so this opens up another question for us, this 2,300 days. What does this represent, and how does this fit with prophecy and also the events of Antiochus Epiphanes? The best understanding that we have for verse 14 is to remember that there were two sacrifices, two daily sacrifices that were offered in the temple every day, a morning and an afternoon. And so if you take some translations, even in, let me get, yeah, I'm in Daniel. No, I'm not. Somehow I got out of Daniel.

Let me get to Daniel really quick. Daniel 8, and if you look at verse 14, and some of your bibles will have this, mine does, when you get down to, let me find it. It says for 2,300 days, the word days in my Bible has a number one next to it, which means go to the center column and look at the center reference. And in verse 14, it says evening dash, evening dash mornings. So even in a lot of our Bibles, it shows that this days can represent and most accurately probably represents two time periods, days and mornings. So if you take that 2,300 days and you divide it into two daily sacrifices, that number comes out to 1,150 days. And then if you divide that by how many days or in a year, it comes out to three years and 55 days. Now what's significant about three years and 55 days is this is roughly the time period from when Antiochus Epiphanes established and tore down the proper sacrifices in the temple to when the Maccabees rose up and then cast and cleansed out the temple as it was prophesied they would do was about three years time frame from about 167 BC until three years later 164 BC when the Jews took back the temple. So it's another one of those fun things that you see in Scripture. And God says this is what it's going to be. This is even how long it's going to be. Not just the power that will rise up, but even how long that power will be able to do what they did. And so this is this uprising, this taking back and cleansing the temple is what the Jews celebrate today with Hanukkah. And so again, God gave Daniel a prophecy that would occur hundreds of years later and historical records have backed that up. And then we continue to see then in a future time when there will be this rising of this Antichrist figure as well.

To continue with the account in chapter 8, we find Daniel seeking meaning to the vision that God sent through an angel to help him understand. Let's pick up the account in verse 18.

It says, now as he was speaking with me and speak of this angel, he says, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground, but he touched me and stood me upright. 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. And so this is an end time prophecy still. This indignation or this time of trouble, this indignation against God's people, against God's purpose, even against humanity in terms of the suffering and brought about as a result of sin and other issues, is what Daniel is being told here by this angel. God knows exactly when this time will be. Even Jesus Christ said as much that we will never know what exactly when this appointed time will come or this specific day will be. But we know that God says it will happen. He has said multiple other times in prophecies, events that have occurred exactly as he has described. And so we're getting to this end time description again. In verse 20, the angel tells Daniel, the ram which you saw having the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. And so we see this fact, and the male goat is a kingdom of Greece, the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. And so this reference again to Alexander the Great. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall rise out of that nation, but not with its power. And in the latter time of the kingdom, when the transgressors has reached their fullness, a king shall rise having fierce features who understands sinister schemes. And so the sinister scheming leaders of reference to Antiochus Epiphanes. He goes on to say, his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And that's important to note too, right? We see Alexander the Great, it was his own army, right? Though his father built. We see the Persians, they were able to conquer Babylonians, the Babylonian Empire, because of their great armies.

But he's saying that this one will have another power behind him that will not just be of his own might. And we know that that is Satan the devil here being described. It says, he shall destroy fearfully, and he shall prosper and thrive. He shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people.

And so this great spiritual power behind Antiochus, God permitted, God allowed. He allowed it in the past, and he's going to allow it again in the future. God allowed persecution to come in by his hand against the Jews, and in the Antichrist time it will likely be God's people, again, us, who will be dealing with that persecution. He goes on in verse 25, he says, through his cunning, he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule, and he shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the prince of princes, again, a reference to Jesus Christ. But he shall be broken, and note, without human means. Remember all these other empires, bad guys that get taken over by someone else, God says. God says, I'm going to take care of this guy myself. I'm going to deal with him myself. You won't have to worry about how he's going to be handled. And it says, in the vision of the evenings and mornings, which is told, is true. Therefore seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future. And says, and I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days. Afterward, I arose and went about the king's business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it. So we see that all that recorded in Daniel 8 is a type of the real anti-type that is still to come in the future.

Another aspect of this story that I find interesting about Antiochus Epiphanes is how he physically died at the end of his life. He did not die in battle, as many other leaders did at that time, as the kings would be out of battle. He didn't die on a battlefield. He didn't die of an uprising by his own family, trying to take control or maybe another powerful general. That was common in this time, too. Assassination was the way. He also didn't die just living of old age, sitting on a beach, drinking little cocktails with pink umbrellas in them. He didn't go out in that way, either. He died by the hand of God, and he died in a rather gruesome way. According to 2nd Maccabees, upon hearing about his own defeats, Antiochus' own defeats at the hands of God's people, he rose up his armies, and it says this about Antiochus. This is from 2nd Maccabees chapter 9 verse 4. Then, swelling with anger, he thought to avenge upon the Jews the disgrace done unto him by those that made him flee. Therefore, he commanded his chariot man to drive without ceasing and to dispatch the journey, the judgment of God now following him, for he had spoken proudly in this sword, that he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place for the Jews. He pretty much made a statement against God, saying, I'm going to turn his Holy Land into a graveyard.

of his own people. And so, he planned to do that and to make that happen. But it goes on to say, But the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, smote him with an incurable and invisible plague, where as soon as he had spoken these words, the pain of the bowels that was remedyless came upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts. And that most justly, for he had tormented other men's bowels with many and strange torments. Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging, but still was filled with pride, breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews, commanding to haste the journey. But it came to pass that he fell down from his chariot, carried violently, so that having a sore fall, all the members of his body were much pained. And then just a couple verses later, it said that worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and while he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to his army. And the man that thought a little afore he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man could endure to carry for his intolerable stink. And so it goes on to some other graphic aspects. And if you look at the historical, some other historical writings, we don't know. I don't know that we had a video recording of what all happened here, but by the hand of God, it seems, by all counts, that he did not go out of this life in a pleasurable way. It's a reminder to us that not just that God remembers his people, but that God takes the care of those who are most evil. And we can go forward from here again with a high hand, knowing that we are his people, but we have a responsibility to continue to the end. And that's two quick lessons I want to just share as we begin to wrap up.

Two lessons from this that just pop out is, one, do not be afraid. We could go through scripture after scripture talking about what God does for his people, and I'm not going to do that.

We can't let a story or an account like this or a prophecy like this cause us to be afraid, because that's a natural tendency for people to have a fear to come in, right? I still don't.

Nothing has changed from being a kid. I still don't want to die by the hand of another person and some sort of persecution. None of us want that. But we have to go forward, continuing to do what we know we're to do, to continue to represent God and his plan, to continue to follow him with our whole heart, and to do that with courage and to go forward. We see so many accounts of courageous people through scripture doing mighty exploits. And we even see that prophesied at the end that there will be these great exploits that God's own people will do. And so I remind our teens, our young adults, others that still have a lot of life in front of them, you may be part of that those exploits. You may be part of those amazing stories at the end that will be written about God's faithful people and the things that they'll be able to witness and to do not by their own hand, but by God's. And so, yeah, there's two sides of this story in some effect. There is the persecution side and the downside, but there's also the positive side of not being afraid. And when people have been strong for God, he has been strong for them.

The other lesson is do not allow yourself to be deceived. Again, going back to the sermonette, I appreciate the focus to be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves, to be circumspect about the decisions we're making in life. Why are we doing what we're doing? What is the motivation? Is it just because God says to do it or is it because our whole heart is behind it as well?

We do exactly what God asks us to do, but we want to do it with the right motivation and to not get caught up in winds of doctrine because that's what John talked about in that letter we looked at with the previous sermon on the Antichrist, right? The spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of false ideas, this bringing in mistruths, things that don't even align with Scripture and saying, well, it sounds pretty good or it's close enough. It's okay, right? We can't allow ourselves to be deceived because Paul talked about that. Some will be deceived, but it will be because they weren't doing the right thing at the end time. And so we can't let ourselves fall into that category. We've got to be about our Father's business right now. We've got to be studying Scripture. We've got to be knowing what we should be doing and why we're doing what we're doing, not just because the pastor stands here and says this is what we do in the holy days or when we come together or this is what Scripture says. We need to be able to, if I wasn't here, because what happens if I'm not here, right? What happens if, whether it's just life or whether it's persecution and you don't have a pastor, I don't want to see you wander off. I don't want to see you fall for mistruths, right? So it's not just that we follow God because He says to do it, but we got to understand the whole picture and why. And we got to then bolster ourselves today when the time is easier, right? You can't wait till famine hits to start planting the corn. You got to be working at it. You got to be thinking about it. You got to be building your crop. You got to be putting it in your barns. And then if life comes, you're prepared. And so this is the time while it's relatively peaceful here. I mean, considering what it could be in this nation and how quickly things could change, we need to be putting the time in now in our prayer and our study in bolstering why it is that we do what we do so that when these end times come, when God says that He will reveal who this person is, then we can see them with our own eyes. We can recognize who this end time figure is and not be deceived and not be caught up. So don't be afraid and don't allow yourself to be deceived.

Two strong and powerful lessons to keep in mind as we go forward from here on our responsibility and what we're to take from this. As we conclude, there is much more we could continue to explore in comparing Antiochus Epiphanes, what he did to God's people, what his attitude, what his motivations were, to what we'll see in an end time Antichrist figure. But what we can easily see is at the end of the age, someone will rise to power who will go against God as the Antichrist.

He will influence the world and persecute God's people. Who it is exactly, we don't know. But with the information God has given us, let us go forward, not on our heels, but with confidence that as God has revealed to us the truth that will occur, we are prepared to handle it when those days come.

In reference to the Antichrist figure in the end times, the book of Revelation shares information about this specific figure in Revelation 13 and verse 11. And this is what we'll close here today.

Revelation 13 and verse 11.

And then he says, Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon. And so you have this vision that it looks like he's Christ, but he's speaking as Satan and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he caused the earth and those who dwell on it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. So again, it's a very similar parallel to Antiochus and what he did. And notice in these next descriptions, he performs great signs so that even he makes fire come down from heaven and on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He caused all both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand and on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, that him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, his number is 666. And the details of what I just read sounds like a sermon for another day.