Antichrists Far, Near, and Right in Front of You

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. For many prophecies in the Bible, there is both a near fulfillment and a far one. And the near fulfillment gives you a picture or a type of the far one.

And a lot of times Old Testament prophets talk about both fulfillments as if they are one, even though when you get closer to them, you see that they were separate. Welcome back to another week of solid gospel centered teaching here on Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. Today, Pastor J.D. tackles two of the most obscure prophecies in the entire book of Daniel. Although the imagery can be confusing, lions and beasts and fiery thrones, the message is as timely as ever. What God says to Daniel, he says to believers in every generation. And that is this, if you are going to faithfully shine in the present, you need to have a crystal clear vision of the future. If you've missed any of the messages in this Daniel teaching series, listen online at JDCreer.com.

But for now, let's get started. Here's Pastor J.D. I'm very excited to dive back into the book of Daniel. So if you got your Bible this weekend, and I hope you do open it to Daniel chapter seven and eight, I know some of you thought that we were just going to kind of fade out of Daniel after chapter six, because you figured I was just too scared to deal with all the weird stuff that Daniel gets into in these chapters. And I will admit to you that the second half of the book of Daniel is a bit bizarre and it can be a little intimidating. Daniel has these dreams about beasts and dragons and the antichrist and end times. And I know, let's just be honest, I know some of you really, really love that stuff.

Am I right? Let's just be honest. Who in here is really, really excited to get into all the prophecies? Raise your hand. Okay. All right. All right. Save space, save space.

Who wishes we just stopped at chapter six? Just put your hand up. You will notice my hand went up both times.

Okay. I've told you that in the church that I grew up in, we capital L loved end times prophecy. Our annual prophecy conference was our best attended event of the year. And our pastor made rapture jokes like there was no tomorrow.

There you go. We had charts. We had charts in Sunday school classrooms that showed us, you know, what world leaders represented by different beasts, which one was FDR, which one was Jimmy Carter and all these kinds of things. Y'all I've heard that there are two surefire ways to fill up a church. One is to preach a series on sex. And the other is to preach a series on the end times. It makes me wonder if I preach the message on the question, will there be sex in the end times?

What might happen then? That might be something worth considering, but today we're not going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Daniel seven and eight. Let me encourage you in case you end up just a little overwhelmed over the next bit, next week or two. Let me encourage you to persevere in this. Listen, 25% of your Bible is prophecy.

25%. For every one mention of Christ's first coming, there are more than eight about his second. So this is very important. There's a lot of Bible space devoted to it.

And I think it's going to be helpful and I think it's going to be good. I want you to recall how the book of Daniel is set up. Remember the first half of the book, chapters one through six, chronicle the adventures of four Hebrew immigrant teenage boys seeking to live faithfully in the midst of a hostile culture of Babylon where they had been taken captive.

And Daniel shows us how it is possible to not only survive in such an environment, he shows us how we can thrive. Those first chapters I pointed out to you are written mostly not in Hebrew, but they're written in Aramaic. Hebrew was the language of Israel. Aramaic was the language of Babylon. And Daniel wrote those chapters in Aramaic because the focus is on shining out there in Babylon. Well, chapter seven is going to shift back to the Hebrew language because these prophecies are specifically given to God's people to prepare them for the future.

They're not so much messages for people out there as they are for us in here. In fact, you will notice that up until now, the dreams in the book of Daniel have been given to pagan kings and Daniel has been the interpreter. Now Daniel himself is the dreamer and Gabriel the angel is going to be the interpreter. These prophecies are for God's people, for you and for me, to teach us how to look at the future if we are going to shine in the present. Let me just ask, you just consider, okay, which of these two words best characterizes your attitude toward the future right now, this morning?

Would it be stressful or peaceful? Are you the kind of person who is just always depressed about what's going on? You are addicted to cable news. You are cussing at the anchor person. You are always griping to everybody, your small group, your family, your kids, about how the world is going to hail in a hand basket and always depressed about the world that we're leaving to our kids, right?

Or how about this? Are you the kind of person who finds themselves hating, I mean hating those who voted the other way, particularly if they call themselves Christians? I mean you're like, how could anybody be so dumb? You're always trolling them and leaving them nasty messages. Are you the kind of person that does that because it's just so obsessive in your heart? Or are you the kind of person who, while you're concerned about the future, you certainly should be, that you still have a sense of optimism about what God is doing? And get this, you can even love those who voted the other way.

You might strongly disagree with them, but you find yourself still able to love them. In a word, in a word, what word characterizes your outlook on the future? Would it be stressful or peaceful? The reason I ask that question is because Daniel's prophecy makes the difference between those two attitudes. We left off in Daniel 6 when Daniel was over 80 years old. Now Daniel 7, we're going to jump back a couple decades to Daniel in his mid-60s. Now let me warn you, there's a lot of detail in these chapters. Daniel's dreams got bears and flying leopards with wings and talking horns and a chariot with wheels of fire. And when you first read all of it, you're concerned that Daniel might need to get drug tested.

You're like, I'm not sure where this came from. But what I want to show you is that running through all these myriad details is a very simple, easy to follow message that just weaves its way through it. So just hang on, okay? And don't get overwhelmed by the details. It's going to be a lot. And at some points today, you're going to be like, what is going on, right?

Just hang on. And I promise I will make it simple for us at the end, okay? Reading these chapters reminded me of that Disney World ride, It's a Small World. I mean, that ride is in many ways an assault on your senses, right? I mean, everywhere you look, there are things spinning and individual small scenes and different themes and sounds coming at you from every direction and you feel like, have I gone to music?

Hell, right? But through it, there's a river that just moves gradually through and there's one dominant song that's being played the whole time. And if you'll just sit still and not get out of the boat, I promise you, you'll make it out and guaranteed you will be singing that song in your head for the rest of the day to the point that you might have to go see a psychiatrist to make it stop, right? That's how Daniel chapter seven and eight is, okay? So here we go. Daniel seven verse two. Daniel said, in my vision at night, I was watching and suddenly the four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea. Four huge beasts came up out of the sea.

Sea is always a metaphor in the Old Testament for the world, okay? All right, and beasts are a metaphor for governments. Four huge beasts came up from the sea, each one different from the other, all right? So we're looking at four world kingdoms represented by these beasts. The first, verse four, was like a lion, but it had eagle's wings.

I continued watching until its wings were torn off. It was lifted up from the ground, set on its feet like a man and given a human mind. This is Babylon. It's Babylon. The wings getting torn off represent God humbling Nebuchadnezzar by making him go insane.

Do you remember this? And eat grass like a cow for seven years, after which seven years he's lifted up off the ground and he's given a human mind, which represents him coming to his senses and his conversion. We saw all this in Daniel chapter four. Remember verse five, suddenly another beast appeared, a second one that looked like a bear. It was raised up. It was larger on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.

It was told, get up, gorge yourself on flesh. This bear represents the Medo-Persian empire, which conquered Babylon. That's the three ribs there in its mouth.

That's what we saw in chapter five, right? The fact that the bear is larger on one side than the other represents the fact that Persia in the Medo-Persian empire, Persia was bigger than the Medes and eventually would take over and it would just be the Persian empire. Verse six, after this, while I was watching, suddenly another beast appeared, a third beast. It was like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back. It had four heads and it was given dominion. This third animal represents Greece under the leadership of Alexander the Great.

The fact that it's a leopard with wings is supposed to communicate the speed at which Daniel is prophesying Greece would overtake the world. And by the way, Alexander conquered the world by the time he was 30 years old. He was an incredible warrior.

Maybe historians say the greatest conqueror the world has ever known. In fact, in 323, when Alexander conquered Persia, which is prophesied here, he brought with him to Persia only 35,000 soldiers. Persia had a standing army of 100,000. Yet Alexander won magnificently. Persia in that battle lost 20,000 soldiers and Alexander only lost 100. And Persia, by the way, was on their home turf. They were defending.

So they had the advantage. The point is Alexander the Great is the leopard with wings. The four wings that become four heads is a prophecy that Alexander's kingdom, after he died, would be divided up between four generals.

And that's what happened, by the way. After Alexander won and he died, there was a bitter power struggle between four of his generals, which we're going to talk about here in a minute. Verse 7, after this, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, frightening and dreadful and incredibly strong, with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and it trampled with its feet whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns.

This fourth beast is Rome, who would conquer the Greeks. It has iron teeth, which represented Rome's incredible strength. It's got 10 horns. You know, that's kind of weird imagery. What is that all about? Horns in the Bible almost always represent power.

The horn, the ability to do damage, that makes sense, right? I mean, raise your hands. Raise your hands if you have an animal living in your home.

Raise your hand, okay? You got an animal in your home. What would some of those animals be?

Dog, a bunny, a hamster, a fish. Some of you still have cats, I'm not sure why. But anybody, anybody have a pet in their home with a horn?

Typically, the answer is no. Now, there might be somebody at our Alamance campus that just raised their hand, but we typically avoid animals with horns. We love you guys, by the way, all right? Now, think of some animals that have horns, a bull, a ram, a rhino, dangerous animals. What happens when an animal without a horn, like your bunny, runs up against an animal with a horn, like a bull? Well, typically, a horn is going to win every single time. So, these horned nations represent conquering nations who are able to subdue and bring damage.

See, this is not hard at all. It all makes sense, right? All right, now, so far, this vision is tracking along with Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the statue in Daniel 2 of the four kingdoms.

Do you remember that? The statue with the head of gold and the body of silver and kind of worked our way down? But this vision is tracking right along with that. It's just using animals as the metaphor instead of the different kinds of metal. But then, verse 8, a new detail gets added, all right?

Something new. Verse 8, while I was considering the horns, suddenly another horn, a little horn, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. And suddenly, in this horn, there were eyes like the eyes of a human and a mouth that was speaking arrogantly.

Out of Rome comes a little horn. This is our first prophecy of the Antichrist. Notice, Daniel says that this little horn, the Antichrist, has eyes like the eyes of a human. Like the eyes of a human means they seem human, but when you look into them, you see something different, something darker, something behind those eyes. Think of one of those scenes in a horror movie where you look into the killer's eyes and you see something not human. You see something in their eyes that is demonic. He had eyes that seemed like they were human, but they weren't. And he had a mouth that was speaking arrogantly.

He boasted and blasphemed against God. Now, let's move on to the vision of chapter 8, because it's going to come at the exact same thing. It's just going to come at it from a different angle. And then I want to draw some conclusions for us from both visions, okay?

So hang on. Here we go. Chapter 8. This time, the vision is about a two-horned ram and a goat, where basically the ram gets pulverized by the goat. Chapter 8, verse 5. The goat came toward the two-horned ram and rushed at him with savage fury.

He struck the ram, and the ram was not strong enough to stand against him. The two-horned ram is the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, the two horns representing each side of that. And the goat is Alexander the Great, who again, was one of the most successful conquerors the world has ever known. Verse 8. Then the male goat acted even more arrogantly, but when he became powerful, the large horn was broken. And four conspicuous horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven. From one of them, verse 9, a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. It's a very important detail we'll come back to, okay?

Southeast and beautiful land. Verse 16. Daniel said, I heard a human voice calling me, calling, Gabriel, explain the vision to this man. So Gabriel the angel approached where I was standing.

When he came near, I was terrified and I fell face down. Son of man, he said to me, understand that the vision refers to the time of the end. The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes represents the first king, Alexander the Great. Verse 22. The four horns that took the place of the broken horn represent four kingdoms.

They will rise from that nation, but without its power. Get this, Alexander, I told you, died in his early 30s. Most scholars say of alcoholism.

The large horn was broken, right? When he died, there was a vicious power struggle between his four generals, greatly weakening Greece's power. Greece would never be what it was under Alexander the Great. And by the way, Daniel wrote all of this over 200 years before any of it happened. It is amazing in its specificity of prophecy.

Verse 23. Near the end of their kingdoms, when the rebels have reached the full measure of their sin, a ruthless king, skilled and intrigued, will come to the throne. His power will be great, but it will not be his own. He will cause outrageous destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the powerful along with the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper through his cunning and by his influence. And in his own mind, he will exalt himself. He will destroy many in a time of peace.

He will even stand against the prince of princes, yet he will be broken, just not by human hands. Out of those four horns of Greece, a ruthless small horn would arise who would be especially cunning and violent and especially vicious toward God's people. Well, sure enough, around 170 BC, a couple hundred years after Daniel wrote this, a man named Antiochus Epiphanes arose from one of the four sub-kingdoms of Greece and set out on a violent campaign of conquest for himself. I showed you in verse nine that verse nine prophesied that this little horn would aim his conquest toward the south and the east, which would have been, from Greece's perspective, Egypt and Israel.

Israel is the beautiful land that's being referred to. And that's exactly what Antiochus did. Y'all, the specificity of this prophecy is amazing. And as Daniel prophesied in Daniel eight, right, this rule was ruthless. Antiochus Epiphanes has been called the Hitler of the Old Testament. He murdered, for example, 80,000 Jews in one day upon entering Jerusalem.

Old women, pregnant women, kids, everybody. He issued coins in Israel with his image on the front of the coin that read King Antiochus, God in the flesh. And to top it all off, he set up his statue in the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant had been, the holy place of God. He set up his statue and made the Jews worship him right there in the Holy of Holies and eat swine flesh right in the middle of the temple. It is almost impossible to describe the offensiveness of this to the Jews. It was complete and utter blasphemy against God, the lowest, the bottom, the worst thing they could imagine. Scripture calls it the abomination of desolations. And then, out of nowhere, history tells us that Antiochus Epiphanes developed a stomach virus, went insane and died, just like Daniel predicted.

He died not by human hands, but by God's hands. By the way, a lot of these events that I'm telling you are recorded in the, what we call the Apocrypha, which is that little section of books that Catholics have in their Bibles, which is why their Bible's heavier than yours, between the Old and New Testaments. Those books are not scripture and have never been regarded by the church at large as scripture.

It's just that they've got some good history in them. So they're good for history. They're not scripture though. But a lot of these stories are going to be found in that little intertestamental group thing called the Apocrypha. Point is, it is safe to say that Antiochus Epiphanes was the specific fulfillment of this prophecy. But, but, let me show you something really interesting about how later Bible writers, including Jesus, treat this prophecy because it teaches us a couple of very important things about prophecy, what you and I are supposed to do with it, and how it applies to us today in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and 21st century America.

Okay? First, even though the events of Daniel 8 were clearly fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes, watch this, both Jesus and the apostles, John and Paul, all who lived some 200 or so years after Antiochus Epiphanes, both of them used Daniel 8 to point to something still in the future, namely the rise of the Antichrist. Even though Antiochus Epiphanes clearly fulfilled the prophecy, Jesus, John, and Paul all used Daniel 7 and 8 to point to something that is still yet to come. In fact, you could say that the entire book of Revelation is built on the prophecies of Daniel 7 and 8, which leads us to our first point if you're writing things down. Number one, the prophecies about the Antichrist are already not yet fulfilled.

The prophecies about the Antichrist are already not yet fulfilled. For many prophecies in the Bible, there is both a near fulfillment and a far one. And the near fulfillment gives you a picture or a type of the far one. And a lot of times Old Testament prophets talk about both fulfillments as if they are one, even though when you get closer to them, you see that they were separate.

Think of it like this. If you've ever been to the rocky mountains, you can stand on one peak and look off into the distance at what looks like a far away mountain with two peaks. But if you were to travel to them, you would see that in between those two peaks that look to you like they were part of one mountain are actually individual mountains whose peaks are separated by a distance of dozens of miles.

From a distance, they look to you like one, but they're actually separated by a great distance. That's what Old Testament prophecy is like. The Bible presents these peaks together, but there is a near fulfillment and a far one. Antiochus Epiphanes was a picture of what the ultimate Antichrist that was coming, what he would be like. Give you just one example of this in Scripture. When the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2 talks about the future Antichrist, listen to how he describes it in terms that are very similar to Daniel 8. It's very obvious what he's borrowing from.

Listen to what he says. Paul, by the way, is answering the charge to the Thessalonians that the end has already come and that the Antichrist has already been here. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3.

Don't let anyone deceive you, he says in any way. The end hasn't come. That day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness, that's his name for the Antichrist, is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He, the Antichrist, opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that he sits in God's temple proclaiming that he himself is God. The coming of the lawless one, the Antichrist, is based on Satan's working.

He has the eyes of a man, but there's actually something else at work there. Working every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders that serve the lie. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming.

You see that? That is all Daniel 8 imagery. A future Antichrist is coming, Paul says, and he will do all the things that Antiochus Epiphanes did. By the way, what is very interesting is that the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and has not been rebuilt yet. There's been talk of rebuilding the temple, but there's been no follow through.

The passages like this one imply that it will happen eventually and that the Antichrist, when it is rebuilt, the Antichrist will aim for it and seat himself there. Obscure prophecies take time to understand and process, so don't miss the conclusion to this message tomorrow when Pastor JD lays out what exactly we are supposed to learn from these two passages of scripture. This is Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian JD Greer. We are in a brand new teaching series called The Book of Daniel, Shining in Babylon. And our goal in being with you here every day on the radio and the web is to help you dive deeper into the message of the gospel. Like Daniel, we live as exiles in a hostile culture.

That's literally what the apostle Peter calls us. We are to be a part of Babylon, seeking the good of our city and praying for it. This month, we have a Bible study designed specifically to help you process this truth.

As you use this workbook, you'll learn how to really study the Bible as you grow and become a better student of the Bible. Ask for your copy of the Daniel Bible study when you donate today at the suggested level of $35 or more. Give us a call at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or it might be more convenient to give and request the book online at jdgreer.com. While you're on the website, you can learn more about becoming a gospel partner. Gospel partners are an integral part of boldly proclaiming the gospel through radio ministry, television, online, and print resources. And as a growing ministry, we desire more gospel partners to join us in helping others dive deeper into the love of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you sign up for a regular ongoing monthly gift of $35 or more, you become part of our gospel partner family. We'd love to have you join with us today. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Be sure to listen Tuesday as Pastor JD concludes today's message in Daniel chapters seven and eight right here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.