Mon.’s Devo - The Antichrist

Read: Daniel 11:36-12:13; 1 John 4:1-21; Psalm 123:1-4; Proverbs 29:2-4
The king is Antiochus which is also a type of the Antichrist of Revelation. He is the seventh head of the seven headed beast and the ten horned beast of Revelation 13:1-18. He will be the beast of Revelation 16:13 and 19:19. The Pope will rise to be the false prophet. Antiochus identified himself as the god, Jupiter Olympus. He forbad the worship of Jehovah and attack the temple of Venus that was worshipped by the women. Rome forbid women to marry.
Verse 38 speaks of the god of forces which was probably referring to Jupiter Capitolenes. Antiochus was erecting a fortress to this god at Antioch. He also honored the god Mahuzzim which was a guardian. The Jews were discriminated against and their land taken and divided. Antichurch invaded Egypt and Judea and took Palestine and devastated all Phonecia. He finally marched against Ptolemy and was side-tracked by his zeal to persecute the Jews. He used Edom, Moab and
Amon who were life-long enemies of Israel to help him against Israel.
Antiochus’ last venture was against the Armenians in the north. He died on his return.
The “tabernacles”of 11:45 have to do with the desolation of the sanctuary by Antiochus, all the Roman symbols place around Jerusalem during the time of Christ and the Islamic mosque placed on the temple mosque that is still there today. The last Antichrist will sit on this mount and be brought down to hell (Isaiah 14:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:8)
The Antichrist will be destroyed at Christ’s return but right before that happens there will be an unleashing of persecution that the world has never seen. God’s people will be refined by fire. Those who have confessed Christ before he comes will live in their glorified body. Those that died in Christ will rise to live the last millennium but those that didn’t know Christ will remain in the grave to be judged in the end.
There are many ideas about the number of days but I can’t say that I agree with any of them nor do I have revelation about them but I believe that the closer it comes to the day of Christ’s return the more revelation we will receive about it.
First John tells us how to tell if a spirit is from God or not. If the person believes that Jesus came down in the flesh then that person has the right spirit. John’s theme is love. He defines love as not our love but God’s. He gave his Son to atone for our sins which is our example of how we should love one another.
Lord, help us to walk in love and truth.