This is the chapter in which I can make many enemies. Since about the time of 911, what had become the traditional view of End Times prophecy and the identity of the Antichrist has faced some challenges. Thus is the scenario that passes for the standard interpretation in many circles. The Antichrist will come on the scene after a war and / or a series of catastrophic events presenting Israel and the world with their last best hope for peace. So far so good! He will hail from the EU, which will be the Revived Roman Empire, – tied closely with the Church of Rome. (And that’s where the problems start. Many of the newer scholars have come to believe that the evidence indicates that the Antichrist will likely be a professing Muslim, coming as the Islamic Messiah, the Mahdi. In comparing the Islamic writings with the Bible, we see that the predicted careers of the Mahdi and the Antichrist are almost identical. During the course of his reign Israel will be attacked by a leader named Gog from Magog, understood by many to be Russia. The Russians will lead a coalition that will include Iran, Turkey and many of the outer tier of the Islamic former Soviet Republics, – (all the ‘STANS’ – Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan etc.) That’s essentially right, except for one rather big thing…The Scriptural evidence that Russia will be a part of that coalition Is,- in the eyes of many scholars,- fairly weak. In fact the Bible may have another prophetic role picked out for her. Let’s start unpacking the evidence.
THE ‘STANDARD’ PROPHETIC LINE
“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” (Revelation 17:1-2)
Let’s begin by looking at what has become the more traditional and popularly dominant view of prophetic interpretation. Here are the words of Daniel 7:7-8: “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” Daniel is describing here both the system and the man that will dominate the 7-year period at the end of this age known as the Tribulation.
But why do Bible scholars believe that this refers to a revived Roman Empire? Well, let’s look at some more Scripture. Daniel chapter 2 describes a dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon. The dream has prophetic significance, – but is only able to be interpreted by Daniel. The King won’t tell him, so Daniel learns of both the dream and its interpretation directly from God. In this prophetic vision Daniel sees a statue with its various parts representing the succession of empires that would rule the Middle East including the Holy Land. During the final empire, as Chuck Missler puts it, “God Himself would establish his own kingdom with the ‘stone cut without hands,’” (Daniel 2:45), the coming Messiah, Jesus Himself.[i] Historians have recognized that the empires of the statue represent in succession; – Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Each succeeding world power conquered and took the mantle of power from the previous. Now at the bottom of course, this statue of a man was divided into its 2 legs and of course 10 toes, – 5 in each foot. This division represents the division of the Roman Empire into its Western and Eastern halves during the Middle Ages. While the Western leg disintegrated, the Eastern Empire, known as Byzantium, survived in Constantinople until it was conquered in 1453. Hang on to that little nugget of information. It will become important later. But still: Why a New Rome?
Let’s keep going. Daniel had another vision recorded in chapter seven. In this one he sees four beasts, – again depicting the four empires. And each of the “four great beasts came up from the sea,” (Daniel 7:2) representing the nations and peoples. “The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings,” (Daniel 7:4) – the very symbol of Babylon. The next was a bear representing Medo-Persia. Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon when he established the Persian Empire. Following that was a leopard with four heads. The Armies of Alexander the Great conquered with the swiftness of a leopard, establishing an empire that stretched from Egypt to India. At his death his kingdom was divided among his four leading generals.[ii] Finally, Daniel saw “A fourth beast, exceedingly terrifying…different from all the beasts that had preceded it…[with] ten horns.” (Daniel 7:7) These 10 horns of this beast, (and horns represent power), are the ten kings that comprise this manifestation of empire. Daniel 7:8 goes on to tell us: “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” This specifically describes the rise of the Antichrist himself from within this imperial system.[iii]
But there’s more. Daniel 9:24-26 describes the exact timing of Christ’s first coming, his execution and references the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. And it tells us who will work that destruction and why it is significant. “And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” (Daniel 9:26) It was of course the Roman legions that wreaked their havoc on Jerusalem and the Second Temple; – specifically Legions V, X, XII, and XV.[iv] So Bible scholars recognize that the “prince who is to come” will have some connection to the people that fulfilled this prophecy of destruction. So there will be some connection with the ancient Roman Empire. [But what will that connection be? We will revisit that question later.]
So let’s return to the vision of the statue in Daniel 2. In verses 41 & 42, the prophet is giving the explanation of the final version of the final empire; The kingdom of the Antichrist. “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.” Many see the ethnically mixed European Union; – possessing essentially the borders of the Western leg of the old Roman Empire; – as The Revived Roman Empire. Others point to the UN with the ten horns being the 10 bio-regions into which the globe was divided.[v] Still others look at the burgeoning division of the world into 10 economic regions such as the EU and a still-to-come North American Union.
So, boiling all of this down, here’s what we’ve got. The “beast” is a system, or kingdom of world domination. It will find its ultimate expression it the man that heads it, the Antichrist. Now look at the next verse as it describes a kingdom that will combine all the characteristics of the vision found in Daniel 7. Yes, the final world empire of Antichrist will take on the most fearful character of all the previous world empires. “Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” (Rev 13:2) This world power will draw its authority and its ability to govern from Satan himself. And it will well serve his destructive purposes.
[i] Chuck Missler, Europa Rising: Part I, Chuck Missler, 2003
[ii] John MacArthur, The John MacArthur Study Bible, notes for Daniel 7:6
[iii] Jennifer Rast, Is the E.U. the Revived Roman Empire?, Contender Ministries
[iv] Chuck Missler, Europa Rising: Part I, Chuck Missler, 2003
[v] Jennifer Rast, Is the E.U. the Revived Roman Empire?, Contender Ministries
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