Daniel 11 and 12
Antiochus anti-Christ

Daniel 11 is the interpretation of another one of Daniel’s visions. In Daniel 10:14, the angel Michael told Daniel, “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” Daniel 11 and 12 contain the enlightenment Daniel received concerning the things that will befall his people in the latter days. It is important to understand that Daniel’s people include both the Jewish people who are kin to Daniel in the flesh and those who are made righteous through the covenants of God and are kin to Daniel in spirit. This vision is very specific to the nation of Israel as God reveals some of the details of their prewrath judgment in view of the fact that He allows them to fall into the hands of the Antichrist before His wrath begins. In more general terms, we see that even some of God’s holy redeemed, which means born-again saints, will suffer at the hand of the Antichrist also, as he attempts to wipe out all vestiges of the work of God on the earth. This does not include the 144,000 who are being protected from Satan’s wrath during the Great Tribulation.

Daniel 11 actually takes us back to Daniel’s time in the Medo- Persian Empire. He again sees the imminent fall of Medo-Persia to Alexander’s Greece. This vision is an amplification of the third and fourth empires that Daniel had already seen in earlier visions about the four great empires that emerge on the earth. It shows great detail about the divided Greek Empire up to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and then jumps to the final Antichrist empire that emerges from the modern-day region of the former Greek Empire. The first four verses of chapter 11 explain that the Babylonian Empire had already passed, and Daniel was now a resident of the Persian Empire. After the Persians try to overthrow the region of Grecia, Alexander the Great will turn things against them with his conquests, which give birth to the Greek Empire while bringing demise to the Persian Empire.

Daniel 11:1-4

1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him.

2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.

3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those.

After Alexander establishes the Greek Empire, he passes away and the kingdom is divided into four. Verses 5-20 are omitted here, but for those interested, the topic they cover can be further studied in an encyclopedia or in other books that touch on the subject. Those verses foretell the rise of the four sub-kingdoms that emerged from the Greek empire.However, the focus is on the two that battled between themselves and traded control of Israel back and forth. They both brought a Greek influence to the region. The first kingdom was the Seleucids of the north who ruled from Syria, and the second kingdom was the Ptolemies of the south who controlled Egypt. The reason they are mentioned is because God used them in judgment against Israel when they were in sin. More importantly, though, is the fact that Antiochus Epiphanes, from the Seleucid kingdom, foreshadowed the Antichrist by entering the holy place and placing a statue of Zeus Olympus in God’s temple to be worshipped. It was during his reign that the Maccabean revolt began. The Maccabeans were devoted Jews who were finally fed up with what was going on in the temple in particular, and in Israel in general, and started to fight back. They recaptured the temple, but only after the daily sacrifice had been prohibited for two days short of three years according to history. Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication, is observed in celebration of the cleansing of the temple at that time.

It is difficult to pick a place and say this is where Antiochus ends and this is where the final Antichrist begins.However, when we get to verse 21, the remainder of the prophecy begins to focus primarily on just one king. The final king in all of Daniel’s prophecies has been the Antichrist, and it is no different here. God is showing us many of the moves that the Antichrist will make in the latter days. The rivalry that existed during the Seleucids and the Ptolemies of ancient Greece will be resumed by the Antichrist as he attempts to bring the king of the south under his control. However, much of what is written from verse 21 to verse 39 can be applied to Antiochus or the Antichrist. It seems to be a double or extended prophecy dealing with both the earlier Antichrist and the end-times Antichrist. In verse 30, the ships of Chittim can be traced back to Roman interference when Antiochus attempted to conquer Egypt, but it is written of the future king who will again make the same attempt. It appears that many of the steps Antiochus took will be repeated in the future. The reason that overlap occurs could be to alert us to the fact that a European alliance containing many of the European nations that once made up the former Roman Empire—and possibly including the U.S. and other nations—will attempt to stand against the beast as he works to spread his borders.

In the next several verses, we see that the Antichrist will arise from within the northern kingdom and be rejected at first, and then he will use peace, flatteries, war and whatever other means he has at his disposal to gain control of the kingdom. We are told that he has only a small following at first, but then he uses his great deceptive abilities to gain a toehold into the kingdom offering peace so he can then gain full control, strengthen and enrich himself for the conquests to come. This is somewhat different from some of the theories of a great charismatic leader that appears out of nowhere and is immediately accepted because of his great wisdom in dealing with world problems.

Daniel 11:21-24

21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.

24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

Verse 25 shows the Antichrist reviving the ancient rivalry against the king of the south after gaining firm control of the northern kingdom by coming against the great army of Egypt. There will be a great slaughter, but neither king will prevail even though the generals and advisors of the Egyptian king turn against him and aid the Antichrist in his efforts. In verse 27, it appears that either the life of the Egyptian king will be spared or one of those who sold him out will take his place and hatch devious plans with the Antichrist. Their plans are to overthrow Israel, conquer many nations, destroy Christians and Jews and enforce on many their own narrow and ungodly way of thinking. These are the great plans of the beast in his end-times kingdom. His plans, however, do not come to fruition because it is not yet the appointed time of the end. By the way, the only thing that lies between the king of the north in Syria and the king of the south in Egypt is Israel.

Daniel 11:25-27

25 And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.

26 Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain.

27 And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: FOR YET THE END SHALL BE AT THE TIME APPOINTED.

None of what we have just read from Daniel 11 is a part of the Great Tribulation. The appointed time of the end has not yet come. The Antichrist will be in power before the Great Tribulation for at least the first three-and-one-half years of the false covenant of peace he establishes with Israel. The actions described above could be during that time, or they could even predate the false covenant. The Antichrist may not even be what we consider to be the Antichrist at that time. If these actions are those of a mere man, and it requires the infilling of the unholy spirit from the bottomless pit to make him the Antichrist, then he won’t fully become the Antichrist until the appointed time when he begins his demon empowered earth ministry, which is meant to be an exact opposite—and in opposition to— the true Christ. It’s interesting to note that there is no mention here of the deadly wound that was healed or the beast from the bottomless pit bringing a perverted form of life back into his body.

The Antichrist will return to his land and later come against Egypt again, but the ships of Chittim—most likely NATO—will repel him. In his despair he will return to his own land and begin conspiring with the Jewish traders of the covenant. Afterwards, he will enter Jerusalem and take over the temple, put a stop to the daily sacrifice and set up the Abomination of Desolation. These things will not happen all a once but will be spread over time. The Tribulation is approaching fast.

Daniel 11:28-31

28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.

29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.

30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

The reprobate Jews will be taken in by the lying flatteries of the Antichrist and conspire with him. Those who know the true and living God and who cling to the Lord of the New Covenant will flee Jerusalem. They will also be busy doing great works for God by instructing others to escape the trap of submission to the beast by submitting to Jesus Christ instead.Many of the true servants of God will lose their lives for their opposition to the Antichrist, but they will not lose their souls. As a result of their faithfulness and their testimony, many new converts will walk the streets of gold in the city of God.

The Great Tribulation will not be a time for God’s people to faint and draw back but will be a time to serve God gallantly and do exploits in His name. Any adversity we suffer during the Tribulation will serve to purge and purify us if we are following the Lord. The following verses are given for our admonition. You can almost hear the voice of Jesus in these verses. “Fear not, only believe.” Verse 32 declares that the people who “know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are perfect examples of men who knew their God and did exploits. At the end of time, some of us may be ordered to bow down to a golden image of the beast as they were. They refused to do so, and so must we if we are going to serve the living God. The words they spoke must be in our mouths if we are counted among those who are confronted by the servants of the beast: “Our God is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace, but if he chooses not to, we still will not bow to your gods.” This is particularly true of those who live in the Middle East.

Daniel 11:32-36

32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.

34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, EVEN TO THE TIME OF THE END: BECAUSE IT IS YET FOR A TIME APPOINTED.

36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that which is determined shall be done.

The indignation of verse 36 that has been predetermined is the desecration of the temple during the Great Tribulation, along with open rebellion against God by the followers of the Antichrist. Much of the persecution described above takes place on a continuing basis even now, but it will escalate to an all-time high after the Tribulation begins. Both the persecution and the work of the saints during the Tribulation are described, but the Tribulation doesn’t begin until verse 40. In verse 38, we see the Antichrist in an act of reverence to the god of forces. The word “forces” speaks of strength, primarily of a military nature. The same word is used in verse 39 to describe the strongholds. The Antichrist is giving glory to Satan, the one who empowers him to make war and to reign by terror.

Daniel 11:37-39

37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

38 But in his estate shall he honor the god of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

39 Thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

The time of the end has finally come. The three-and-one-half year Great Tribulation begins in verse 40 as the king of Egypt rebels and attacks the Antichrist. The Antichrist wipes him out, along with many other nations to the south, and he shall take Israel at this time also. According to Daniel 12, the daily sacrifice is taken away 75 days before the Tribulation begins. In this chapter, the daily sacrifice is taken away in verse 31 after the Antichrist is repelled by the ships of Chittim, which would be an alliance of the European portion of the former Roman Empire. Within 75 days he attacks, is repelled and attacks again to successfully conquer Egypt, along with other nations.

In verse 43,we are told that Libya and Ethiopia are at his steps. This seems to convey a sense of closeness. In all of the activities of the Antichrist, we never see him venturing far from his homeland. Libya and Ethiopia are also named as a part of the Gog alliance that forms before the rise of the Antichrist with the single-minded objective of ridding the world of a nation called Israel. They could represent a much larger portion of North Africa, or they could be just lonely outposts that are a part of the Middle East beast empire. That is, until the Antichrist takes Egypt, along with other North African countries. The Libyans and Ethiopians may even send troops to assist in the capture of Egypt,which has successfully resisted the Antichrist up to this point.

Only three little mountainous areas between Israel and Jordan east of the Dead Sea will escape the final southern thrust of the Antichrist— Edom, Moab and Ammon. Edom is the land that Esau settled. Moab and Ammon are the lands of the two children of Lot. This may be where the 144,000 are hiding safe and secure during the Tribulation. God will obviously blind the Antichrist to the whereabouts of the 144,000 select Jews; otherwise, he would be there to destroy them.

Daniel 11:40-43

40 And AT THE TIME OF THE END shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

With the conquest of Egypt, the Antichrist will gain great wealth and a stockpile of military hardware.With one problem resolved and becoming stronger because of that victory, the Antichrist can set his sights elsewhere. If the Antichrist is ruling from Jerusalem at this time, the news from the east could be coming from Jordan, Iraq, Iran or any part of Asia, including China. Tidings from the north could be Syria, Turkey, Russia or even Europe to the northeast. The news he receives will cause him to return back to protect his home base of ten nations and possibly to push further into other lands, and he does it with great fury.Whoever it is that counterattacks and causes him to go into this fit of rage will not prevail against him. The tidings from the east could actually be that revival is breaking out in the lands that are under his control, as many of the people are finally forced to deal with the reality that they are serving the wrong god.

Daniel 11:33 declares that those of understanding among God’s people will instruct many, yet many of them will still fall by the sword. Because the gospel of Jesus Christ has already been preached throughout the kingdom of the Antichrist before the end-times begin, and now, after seeing the brutishness of the one who claims to be their god, there could be millions of converts right under the nose of the beast as he is rejected by many. God wants His people on the earth at this time for several reasons, two of which are: 1) to bring them to a place of purity where they stop loving this world so much and are ready to lay everything on the line. After all, Jesus is coming for a spotless Church. And, 2) to complete the reaping phase of the great commission. All over the world people will be forced to face their own destiny and examine their loyalties. God wants us here to reach out for the final harvest of souls.

Verse 45 states that the beast will rule from Jerusalem until he comes to his end; however, his end will not come from the armies of the earth. At about this time, Jesus will throw a bucket of cold water on things by rapturing the saints. This removes one of the biggest objectives of the war plan of the beast. He owns Israel at this time, and God has already given the reprobate Jews into his hands, but now there are no Christians left for him to persecute to death.He will continue to rule from Israel during the time of God’s wrath, and will gather a great army at Armageddon to take on the armies of heaven at the end of the wrath. He will then be taken and cast into the Lakeof Fire, and none shall help him. That final statement is the only one that makes any reference to the Wrath of God. Everything else is either a view of the activities of the Antichrist leading into, and including, the Tribulation at ground zero—the lands of the former Greek Empire—or a historical view of some of the turmoil that took place during that earlier empire. The Great Tribulation, more than anything else, will be military actions in the Middle East that the world cannot afford to ignore. In the same spirit of war that has been a part of Middle East history from the very earliest days, the Antichrist will resume a more recent quest for world domination under the banner of Islam and will be very successful until God interrupts things with His wrath.

Daniel 11:44-45

44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Daniel finishes with his vision of the end-times in chapter 11 and then begins a grand overview of the end-times in chapter 12. After seeing the Antichrist come to his end in chapter 11, the first thing Daniel does is jump way back to a time just before the beginning of the Tribulation. Chapter 12 is not a reliable outline of the end-times and will only add confusion to those who attempt to make it that. This chapter is simply highlighting a few important points which help us to understand the overall end-times prophecies.

Verse 1 tells us that the Tribulation, which is described as a time of trouble unlike the world has ever seen, will start after Michael stands up. That doesn’t make much sense until you realize that he is standing up at God’s appointed time to cast Satan out of heaven for good.We see that in Revelation 12 where Michael and his angels fight against Satan and his angels and cast them to the earth. Satan immediately goes forth with great anger to make war with the seed of Abraham as he sees his own time drawing to an end. The second half of verse 1 identifies Daniel’s people as those who are written in the book. That book is the Lamb’s Book of Life and those in it are the same New Testament elect that Jesus gathers into the clouds of Matthew 24. The saints of God will receive their final deliverance at the end of that time of trouble just before the start of the Wrath of God. Verse 2 speaks of the resurrection of some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt; however, the resurrection of the ones to everlasting life actually takes place a thousand years before those resurrected to shame and everlasting contempt. During the first resurrection, those who have died in Christ are raised from their graves first so that all of God’s people may participate in the Rapture together. Then at the end of the Millennial Reign, those who have died outside of Christ are raised just in time for the White Throne Judgment.

Daniel 12:1-12

1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

If you read verse 1 by itself, it may appear that the Rapture occurs at the beginning of or before the Tribulation.However, it does not say that. It does not say whether Daniel’s people are delivered before or after the time of trouble; it simply states that they will be delivered sometime in the future when that time of trouble has come upon us. Not until we arrive at verse 7 are we told that God will not deliver His people until after the time of trouble in which the Antichrist persecutes and scatters the righteous for three-and-one-half years. The opening statement about Michael standing up and the time of trouble beginning immediately afterwards is not talking about Michael standing up to rescue the saints. That’s not really his job—it’s Jesus’ job to rescue the saints. Daniel’s name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and those who are listed in the book alongside him will be delivered in the Rapture. Those words are not referring to the Jewish nation that is divided between sinners and saints.

God is not going to deliver His people out of the world to keep them from being persecuted. If He was going to do that, we would already be out of the world, or at least, those saints that are suffering persecution right now would have to be removed from the earth. Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”Then in John 17:15,He said, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”He didn’t overcome the world and leave us here just to turn around later and snatch us out because things are getting a little too rough for our liking. He left us here to continue the work of salvation, which He began, right up to the end of the Tribulation. People still have an opportunity to get saved during the Tribulation as long they are not already sporting the mark of the beast.

Persecution is like a tool that the Holy Spirit uses to get people saved. Paul got saved as a direct result of the persecution he was bringing against the Church—and Stephen in particular. Any time a person persecutes one of God’s children, he must face the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If the conscience of the individual has not been hardened and seared by hatred and denial, he will be faced with the choice of either repenting and giving in to the Spirit of the living God like Paul did or continuing down a path of spiritual destruction. All the world will be on trial during the time of Daniel’s trouble. The saints will be tried by Satan to see if they are truly committed to God, while sinners will be convicted by the Holy Spirit to see if they will repent unto salvation or continue unto damnation. This trial of hearts will continue right up to the end of the Tribulation when Jesus will remove us from the earth before God’s wrath begins. Verse 10 explains that many will be tried and purified during this time of trouble, but the truly wicked will continue to do wicked deeds. Verse 12 again points out that many blessed ones, referring to the saints, will come to the end of this time of trouble before they are finally delivered.

The next two verses just provide us with general information. Verse 3 describes the glory that will be bestowed on those who live contagiously and lead many to Christ, especially during the Great Tribulation. Verse 4 tells us two different things. First, that the words of this book were sealed up until the time of the end. The Book of Daniel became unsealed when John completed the Revelation and was told in Revelation 22:10 to “seal not the sayings of this book: for the time is at hand.” It is through Revelation, the Holy Spirit and the remainder of the New Testament that we receive the insight we need to understand Daniel and the rest of the Old Testament prophecies. The second thing we see in verse 4 is a sign of the end-times. There will be a great increase in travel and in knowledge. These are signs that are being fulfilled in our time and will continue to escalate as we move into the limited amount of future that remains.

In verse 7, the one time plus two times plus a half time equals three-and-one-half years—each time being a year—which is the duration of the Great Tribulation. The second half of the verse explains that the Antichrist will only be allowed to persecute believers without any apparent restraints for that amount of time. For the first three-and-one-half years of Daniel’s seventieth week Christians and Jews will more or less be off limits to the Antichrist, but when the Tribulation begins in the second half of the week, he will overrun Jerusalem and put a death sentence on Christians, Jews and anyone who refuses the mark of the beast.During that time, he will disrupt all organized Christian endeavors that fall within the reach of his tennation war machine and attempt to kill as many Christians as he is able. His reach will be extended considerably through the export of war and terror. At the end of the Tribulation, the Lord will descend from heaven and remove all Christians from the reach of the Antichrist forever through the Rapture. Daniel does not use the words“rapture,”“catching away” or any other words that would describe the lifting of the Church from the earth.However, in verse 12 he does refer to the Rapture as simply a blessing. After the Church is gone, the wrath can begin.

Daniel 12:5-9

5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.

6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

Daniel is told a second time in verse 9 that the words he has just finished writing down are to be sealed spiritually from human understanding until the time of the end when they will be made complete by the additional information provided by The Revelation.When he is told to be on his way, he is essentially told to be involved with the present and not worry about what the future will bring. He was given a partial revelation of what the future holds because of his intense interest in the matter, but it would have been a complete waste of time and cerebral resources for him to try to understand it. If he had attempted to figure it out without the Spirit of God and the future revelations of God to rely upon, Satan would have led him down the same crooked path that he leads many of the modern-day “experts” who believe the teachings of men, their own mental prowess and the baseless “revelations” that continually come to them more than they believe the Word of God.

Verse 10 shows us once more one of the reasons why the Church will go through the Tribulation. We have already seen in Daniel 11:32-35 that those who know their God intimately through the covenant that He has established with them will do great exploits in reaching the lost. At the same time, those who are not one hundred percent sure of where they stand will be tried and purified as they reject all hope in this life and lay their lives down for the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ. By the same token, some will spare their own lives for a short while longer by either outright rejection of Christ or gradual embracing of the ways of the world and the will of the Antichrist. There will be many Christians who are Christians by the new birth but not by their actions or lifestyle. Many sinners will exhibit traits of righteousness but remain sinners simply because they have not taken the step of faith into the body of Christ. The Tribulation will make it clear that there is no middle ground to stand on. You are either for Christ, or you are against Him. You are either for the Antichrist, or you are against him. You are for the God of hope, salvation and life, or you are for the god of despair,murder and death. The choice will be forced upon all living souls by Satan and allowed by God before He closes the door on the age of grace. There is a price to pay regardless of which way you decide. Choosing the true Christ could cost you everything in this life, including life itself, but the eternal reward makes that choice the right one. Choosing the Antichrist will only keep a person alive for a short time longer— maybe—with nothing but despair and misery as an eternal reward.

Daniel 12:10-12

10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

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.

12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

Now, if we look at verse 12 in the scripture above, the number 1335 is given, which is 75 days or two-and-a-half months longer than the Great Tribulation using thirty-day months. Because we have established that the Rapture will occur at the end of the Tribulation, the last day of the 1335 days must be the Rapture.What other “blessing” could God be referring to at that time? It is the same blessing or “blessed hope” for which we are looking to this very day. Daniel 9:27 declares that the daily sacrifice is taken away in the midst of the seven-year peace plan which makes up Daniel’s seventieth week. However, from the verses above we see that it is not actually the dead center of the seven years but rather 75 days before the middle of the seven-year week. That means the Antichrist stops the sacrifice 75 days before the Tribulation begins, and it will be 1290 days from that point before the Abomination of Desolation is set up; then only 45 days later the Rapture will occur.

Matthew 24:15-21 states that when we see the Abomination of Desolation stand in the holy place, the Great Tribulation will begin. Second Thessalonians 2:4 says that “he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” By these verses, it appears that the Antichrist will march into Jerusalem 1335 days before the Rapture and bring an end to the daily sacrifice.He may even enter the temple and stand there as a sign to believers in Jerusalem to flee into the wilderness.At 1260 days before the Rapture he will enter the temple to seat himself as God and the Tribulation will officially begin. It won’t be until the last 45 days that the image of the beast is erected in the temple, which is what the 1290 days after the sacrifice is stopped in verse 11 is referring to.And on the final day, Jesus will come for His redeemed. The name “Abomination of Desolation” is used interchangeably between the beast and his image.

When we add Luke’s portrayal of the beginning of the Tribulation from Luke 21:20 and 21,we see that 75 days before the Tribulation ever begins the Antichrist will have Jerusalem surrounded by armies, put a stop to the daily sacrifice and enter the temple probably to curse God and magnify himself as God. That means the believers in Jerusalem will have about that much time to leave the city as the Antichrist basks in his own grandiose glory before the real trouble begins. The Tribulation has an appointed time, both in its timing and duration, however, due to the urgency of Jesus’ warning to His people when He instructs them to drop everything and don’t look back, it must be assumed that the Antichrist will be in a killing mood as soon as he arrives.Working in conjunction with the reprobate Jews, he will very likely be attempting to eliminate any known believers in the city from the very outset.

God does not allow the three-and-one-half years of the actual Tribulation to begin until the appointed time. Everything that happens before that time will cause tribulation, anguish and anxiety, mixed with a false sense hope for many throughout the world, but it will not be the full unleashed fury of the Antichrist until after he is loosed by God to fulfill his evil destiny. The second half of Daniel 9:26 provides us with a snapshot of what the Great Tribulation is all about. “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.”The Antichrist will be making war against all things godly.

As we have seen, the war will not be confined to just Israel or Jerusalem. It will be scattered throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and then it will turn north, perhaps reaching Russia and Europe as the end of the war approaches—when the Rapture interrupts everything. The Antichrist’s mission is to tread down the earth, stamp out the residue and destroy all flesh, targeting Christians and Jews first. God will allow him to overrun Israel as a final pre-wrath judgment against those Jews who ignore the Savior’s warning to flee the city. For many others, it will be a wake-up call to abandon their resistance to the gospel that has been preached to them and embrace the true Christ, before dying at the hands of the Antichrist. God is always able to use those things that Satan intends for our hurt and destruction and turn them around for our good. The Tribulation is no different. Many will be saved as they come face to face with the one whom Christians call Antichrist.

When it is time for the Wrath of God, the only warning will be the skies turning to momentary darkness just before the appearing of Jesus Christ in all of His glory, and then there will be nowhere left to flee. The war of the Antichrist will end in total destruction of all mankind without the intervention of Jesus Christ to rescue His people. But Jesus will suddenly appear in the skies to personally gather His people and take them away to a place of safety called heaven. After the Rapture, Satan’s war ends as the Wrath of God begins to fall on the ungodly.

In the final verse, Daniel is told to be about his business again, but in this last passage he is told that he will rest until the time of the end. And not only that, but he is told that he would stand in his lot or destiny at the end of days.Whether he understood it or not, he was being told that he will be one of the witnesses. Daniel died hundreds of years before the Greeks arrived and approximately four hundred years before Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the temple with a statue of Zeus Olympus. He was not around for either of those events, and he was not resurrected in a.d. 70 when the Romans demolished the temple.He has not fulfilled his duty to God at the end of days yet, but when the time comes he is going to be right there, shoulder to shoulder with John the Beloved, proclaiming the goodness and severity of God to a world that has passed from grace unto judgment.

Daniel 12:13

But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

John and Daniel can be assumed to be the two witnesses who torment the earth during the Wrath of God. In Revelation 10 John was given a book to eat, along with some commentary about the book from the seven thunders that came out of heaven. After swallowing the book, he was immediately told that he would prophesy again before many nations, peoples and tongues, which he did not accomplish before his death. Daniel was not told that he would prophesy again, but he was told in Daniel 12:13, which we just read, to go his way till the end and that he would stand in his lot (destiny) at the end of days. There are so many similarities between the two prophecies that both John and Daniel must have been given basically the same vision but in such a way as to make it personal to each of them.

We are still not privy to the information that was recorded in the book John swallowed in Revelation 10, nor are we aware of what the seven thunders uttered, but all of the rest was written for us to understand. For 2000 years the veil has been lifted from the Revelation. Daniel had only limited insight into the things of the end-times. He had pieces of the puzzle, but it wasn’t until John recieved the final pieces that we could finally understand it. The Old Testament was given as a prophetic mystery that was sealed from the understanding of man until the last days, which we are now living in. Our understanding of the prophecies must be squarely based on the newer, eyeopening revelations of the New Testament. By the same token, Daniel’sprophecies are neccesary to be able to fully understand New Testament prophecies such as Matthew 24 and the Book of Revelation, and indeed, agree fully with them.

Think about it!

­Is the king of the north the beast from Daniel’s other visions?

­Does the king of the north rule or even make war with the whole world?

­Does Michael cause the great time of trouble by standing up?

~Selah~Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

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