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While Israel will be victorious to the end (in spite of the greatest tribulation they will ever experience), the biggest enemy of Israel in these coming end-times will be the antichrist (although he is never actually referred to as the antichrist in all of the book of Revelation). The antichrist will be satan’s man in Israel’s final 7-year period before Christ their Messiah returns to save His people Israel at Armageddon. Effectively, the antichrist will be the embodiment of satan, who is the ruler of all that is evil in this world.
Jesus said of satan (the devil) that “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44) While God’s every word is truth, all lies are the work of satan.
A passage in 2 Thessalonians gives us a clear understanding of who he really is.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; 7-12 – 3Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. ….
7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way. 8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9[Even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
He will be satan’s man; 2 Thessalonians 2:9 declares the antichrist to be “him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” In that same passage he is called the “man of sin“, “the son of perdition“, the “Wicked“, the one who “opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.“
Satan has always desired to be as God. Note Isaiah 14:12-15 – 12How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Satan (= “Lucifer” here) wished to “be like the most High“. He challenged God and lost. Since then satan has tried to control what he considers his kingdom on earth: its people. 1 John 5:19 says that “the whole world lieth in wickedness” or, more correctly, “the whole world lies in the wicked one” or “under the power of the wicked one” (where “the whole world” here represents all the inhabitants of earth). The people of this world are its citizens while God’s people are no longer citizens of this world but of heaven.
Satan already has the worship of much of the world, but that’s just not enough to satisfy him. He desires the worship of all the world, and in the end-times tribulation period he will, through his servant “the beast” (= the antichrist), demand that all worship him or be executed.
Revelation 13:15 – And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
In particular satan (through his antichrist, the beast) desires to be worshipped by God’s people, Israel. He desired to be as God (“like the most High“) and to him that means being declared God by Israel. He would then be their god and they would be his people. This is the rationale behind him wanting to sit in the temple of God such that he would be seen as their God.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 – 3Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
During the tribulation the antichrist will seat himself in the temple as the one to be worshipped, demanding that Israel worship him as their god. This will occur at the midpoint of Israel’s final 7-year period, the tribulation. Jesus alluded to this when He said, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place …” (Matthew 24:15) Daniel spoke of it in Daniel 12:11 – And from the time [that] the daily [sacrifice] shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, [there shall be] a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Daniel 9:27 says “And he (the antichrist) shall confirm the covenant with many (the nation of Israel) for one week (Israel’s final 7-year period): and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (the daily sacrifice will be taken away), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate (the antichrist will sit in the temple to be worshipped), even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.“
Jesus said that when they saw this “abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place“, they were to urgently flee for their very lives, not even wasting any time to get supplies or clothing etc. Note that in Daniel 9:27 this will occur “in the midst of the week“, that is, in the middle of that 7-year period.
Matthew 24:15-21 – 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
The following from Revelation 12 refers to that flight.
Revelation 12:6, 14 – 6And the woman (Israel) fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days.
14And to the woman (Israel) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
God causes Israel to be assisted to flee from the antichrist abomination in the temple, protecting and caring for her for that 2nd half of the tribulation period while the antichrist sits in the temple to be worshipped. This is really ironic in that all satan’s antichrist wants here is to be worshipped by God’s people but when he sets himself up in the temple to be worshipped, Israel up and disappears! It’s certain that God will do everything to avoid His people, Israel, worshipping satan.
Not only does Israel disappear while the antichrist is in the temple, God’s two witnesses (suggested by many to be Elijah and Moses) cause heaps of trouble in Jerusalem at this time. The antichrist cannot get rid of them in a hurry, either.
Revelation 11:3-6 – 3And I will give [power] unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 5And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Finally, after 3½ years, the antichrist manages to have them killed. They lie in the streets of Jerusalem for 3½ days with the world throwing thanksgiving parties celebrating their deaths. Then, in view of everyone, the two dead witnesses come back to life and rise to heaven.
Revelation 11:7-12 – 7And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 8And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 9And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 10And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. 11And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. 12And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
After this, there’s the build-up to Armageddon. Israel has somehow returned to Jerusalem and the antichrist gathers his armies to attack Jerusalem. Instead of destroying the city with a huge weapons-barrage of some sort, the antichrist commences taking Jerusalem bit by bit. He clearly doesn’t wish to destroy the city too badly for it will still be his intention to sit in the temple and force Israel to worship him. He manages to capture half of the city, taking half of the population captive.
Zechariah 14:2 – For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
But then, just when the antichrist would be thinking that he’s finally going to get Israel worshipping him as their god, Christ the Messiah returns and destroys the antichrist’s armies.
Zechariah 14:3, 12 – 3Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
12And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
(It does sound like the symptoms of nuclear warfare!)
Revelation 19:19-21 – 19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which [sword] proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
But where does the antichrist come from? In fact, Daniel 9:26-27 gives us some of the answer.
and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (Daniel 9:26b-27a)
The people who would destroy the city and sanctuary were the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 70 AD. The antichrist is “the prince that shall come” and he will be from that people, the Romans. The Roman empire was in power during Jesus’ day, and Daniel prophesies (in Daniel 2:40-43) the Roman empire and then a ten-nation revived Roman empire in latter days (represented by the toes of the huge image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream). Therefore the antichrist is likely to come from a revived Roman empire (today most likely represented by Europe).
Revelation 13:1 (And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.) describes the antichrist (the beast) as having 7 heads and 10 horns with 10 crowns, referring to the ten nations that put him into power (Revelation 17:12-13). Also see Daniel 7:7-8 & 19-21 which also refer to this antichrist/beast.
Daniel 9:27 (And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week) does mention one more important fact about the antichrist. The antichrist will make a defence pact with Israel at the beginning of this 7-year tribulation period. It will come as a result of Israel being attacked by a confederation of muslim nations plus Russia from the north (Ezekiel 38). God will cause this huge army to attack Israel (“And I will … put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army – Ezekiel 38:4). This will draw the antichrist (probably a European leader) to Israel to effectively save them, and to be seen as a type of saviour to them. This is what brings the antichrist into part-controlling Israel. We could be heading into that war of Ezekiel 38 right now.
The one thing that the antichrist desires above all is to be worshipped as god by God’s people Israel. And this is the one thing God completely denies him having. If the antichrist cannot be worshipped by Israel, then he will destroy them, but God denies him this also; Israel will be victorious at the end, and they will be God’s people and He will be their God!
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Israel’s coming tribulation
While it is clear that Israel will continue until the end, it is also clear that this will be accompanied by severe tribulation and great oppression. In fact, Jesus promised Israel (via the Jews) that it would be the greatest tribulation that they would ever experience in all their history. (For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. – Matthew 24:21) Other nations around them also sinned but God held Israel particularly responsible for their sin because they alone of all nations should have known better. The prophet Amos, speaking God’s words to Israel, said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:2)
Back around 740 BC, Isaiah gave God’s message to Judah and Jerusalem, long before they were taken into captivity (607 – 587 BC). Even then God pronounced them rebellious, sinful, iniquitous, corrupters, revolting, sin-sick from head to toe. He refused to accept their sacrifices according to the Law because they were corrupted, unclean from their spiritual adultery with the gods of other nations.
Some excerpts from Isaiah 1 demonstrating their serious problem with mixing the worship of God with the worship of false gods:
Isaiah 1 – 2Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
4Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
11To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. 15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken [it].
Judah thought they could enjoy sin as long as they carried out the temple sacrifices as well. They thought that it was OK as long as they also did what God required. But when you mix unclean with clean, the consequence is that it all becomes unclean. Even the “clean” actions of worshiping God according to the Law were rendered unclean by their worship of the unclean. Clean + unclean = all unclean!
Haggai 2:11-14 – 11Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests [concerning] the law, saying, 12If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. 13Then said Haggai, If [one that is] unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. 14Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean.
There are many today who believe the lie that it’s OK to do sin as long as you “get right” with God on Sundays!
Israel was warned to not serve other gods to see what happened or else they would be ensnared into worshiping them.
Deuteronomy 12:29-31 – 29When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; 30Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
They were told, not just once or twice, but many times to not go after other gods.
Deuteronomy 6:14 – Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which [are] round about you;
They were to not to listen to close friends or family members who tried to get them to serve other gods. Instead, God ordered them to put such people to death.
Deuteronomy 13:6-9 – 6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7[Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; 8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
Even after they (Judah) came back from captivity at Babylon, they went further in their spiritual adultery. Malachi was the last of the prophets of the Old Testament, writing about 400 years before Christ.
Malachi 2:11 – Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
And Jesus declared the pharisees (who were effectively the religious leaders of their day, even overruling the Levitical priesthood) to be the children of the devil.
John 8:44 – Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
So ultimately, Israel (via the Jews) had dug a sinful hole so deep that they couldn’t escape from it. God had sent punishments one after the other, but while they might have temporarily repented and turned back to God, it never lasted; they just went deeper and deeper into spiritual adultery against God.
God had demonstrated His lovingkindness to them as His special people, yet they had abused this privilege. They would not be purged via God’s kindness, but by being refined in “the furnace of affliction“. God sent plague after plague, judgment after judgment, but even today Israel is still under God’s condemnation for their spiritual sin.
Isaiah 48:9-11 – 9For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. 10Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 11For mine own sake, [even] for mine own sake, will I do [it]: for how should [my name] be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
Daniel 9:24 (Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.) makes it clear that one day their sin will be ended and they will be declared righteous for ever. This has never happened yet, in spite of all the affliction God has brought upon them so far. It will take an affliction far greater than they have ever experienced or could ever imagine to bring them to this point, to break them so surely that they will call upon the name of the Lord to be delivered (Joel 2:32). This time of extreme affliction is yet to come, and the fruit of that affliction will be their everlasting righteousness. (For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. – Matthew 24:21)
Daniel 9:24 also mentions the 70 weeks determined for Israel, actually 70 x 7 = 490 years remaining on their timeline. When they rejected Jesus (John 1:11) after 483 of those years, Israel (via the Jews) were sidelined with the Church taking over their tasks and promises. They were 7 years short of the end of their timeline.
But one day (very soon, now) Israel will take over again their ministry as God’s people once more. They have one week of years (7 years) remaining, and this 7-year period will involve the most extreme affliction they could ever know, so extreme that Jesus said, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)
At the end of this final 7-year period, Christ their Messiah will return to annihilate their enemies at Armageddon and then set up His thousand-year reign over the earth.
Zechariah 12:9-10 – 9And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
Ezekiel 37:22-27 – 22And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: 23Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. 24And David (= Christ the son of David) my servant [shall be] king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, [even] they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David (= Christ the son of David) [shall be] their prince for ever. 26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Much of Revelation records the extreme tribulation of that final 7 years before Christ returns to save His people Israel. It is only this extreme affliction that could ever turn the hearts of Israel back to their God. It has to be far more extreme than anything they have ever experienced up until then, for nothing else less than that has ever worked. However, it also has to be limited in time or else even the redeemed ones of Israel would not survive.
Matthew 24:15-22 – 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.“
Just one final note here. Any who think that Israel being hit with such suffering will enable their enemies to better defeat Israel, think again. In spite of Israel’s extreme tribulation and suffering, they will be the ones left standing at the end after Armageddon! And God’s everlasting covenant with Abraham long long ago has never been rescinded, never been revoked.
Genesis 12:2-3 – 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Those who today are seeking the destruction of Israel had best keep this in mind. No matter how much weaponry, nor how many soldiers, nor how many countries try to oppose Israel, at this time they will not ever be destroyed.
Zechariah 12:8 – In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David [shall be] as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
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If you have any questions or comments about this information, please feel free to say it or give advice, by using the Contact page. Genuine comments may be recorded on the Comments page. However, I may choose to reply to reasonable comments via email.
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If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment on the Comments and contact page
Reasonable comments and replies may be recorded on the Comments page.
However, due to the lack of logical comments, most comments will not be recorded.