ANTICHRIST, ANTIOCHUS, ASSYRIAN: INTERESTING!

Daniel's prophecy of future empires, is revealed in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the second chapter.  The image's head was of fine gold (Babylon - Dan. 2:38), his breast and his arms of silver (Medo-Persia - Dan. 5:28), his belly and his thighs of brass (Greece - Dan. 8:20), his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay (Rome - Dan. 9:26 - We know this is Rome, because it is identified by stating it will kill the Messiah and destroy Jerusalem - Rome did that in circa A.D. 30 and A.D. 70).  "The people of the prince that shall come" were Roman citizens, but that does not mean the future prince must be from Rome; it means he must be from someplace controlled by the Roman Empire at the time of Christ's Crucifixion. 

There is an interesting factor about the identity of the future prince, that is lost in the English translation of the Bible.  The text reads, "And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men:  but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay" (Dan. 2:42-43).  The words "mixed" and "mingle" are English translations of the Aramaic Hebrew עֲרַב (`arab)! 

When one couples that "coincidence" with Micah 5:5-6, the idea that the Antichrist may be of Arab descent suddenly seems reasonable.  Micah wrote, "And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.  And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders." 

And just who is this One who will deliver Israel from the Assyrian?  Daniel tells us:  "Thou sawest till that a Stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the Stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" (Dan. 2:32-35).  At the end of the seven-year Tribulation, Jesus, represented over and over again as a mighty Stone in God's Word, will destroy His enemies (Mt. 24:29-30; Rev. 19:11-21; etc.)!

 

Antiochus Epiphanes, a type of Antichrist, ruled the area that was Assyria!