In the Last Hour - Daniel 11:36-45

A few times this week I mentioned to people that I was preparing to preach about the Antichrist. Each time I was met with some raised eyebrows or startled looks. The biggest questions among those who believe that such a figure is coming are “Who is he?” and “When exactly will he arrive?” 

I cannot answer those questions because the Scriptures do not. But there are things the Scriptures do tell us about this figure, which are important for us as the Church. We should not speculate beyond what God tells us in His Word, yet we need to be watchful and wise as history unfolds. Jesus Christ could return at any time, therefore the Antichrist could emerge at any time. 

The apostle John told the churches in the first century that they were living in “the last hour,”  the final stage of history, what God’s Word calls “the last days.” We live in the era between the ascension of Jesus Christ after his resurrection and the time when he will return. The Antichrist will emerge, there will be rampant evil and great persecution of the church, and then Jesus will come back to destroy the Antichrist and remove all sin.

Whether or not the Antichrist is in the world today, we cannot know for sure, but without a doubt, the spirit of the Antichrist is at work in the world today just as he was in the first century. As we complete Daniel 11 that will become clear. The call to the Church, however, is to remain faithful to God during these last days, which is difficult for many reasons, not least of which is the reality that we don’t know how long until Jesus will return. 

Why does that make it difficult? Well, by comparison, I recently completed my first year as the head coach of my daughters’ cross country running team. And on Mondays, we did speed work, training to run faster. They ran sprints around the West Florence HS track, and the kids always asked the same question: how many are we running? They wanted to know exactly when they would be finished, so they could remain motivated and disciplined. 

God has not told the church exactly how long until we are finished. We must remain faithful anyway, with God’s truth, holiness, and glory as our motivation. But this is hard for us.

We’re naturally governed by our feelings and circumstances, rather than the truth of God. We’re naturally swayed by our fears and appetites, rather than God’s holiness. We’re naturally enticed by what is easy, comfortable, or pleasing, rather than God’s glory. We’re able to be deceived or led astray, and we have provoked the wrath of God against us.

And yet, in every way, the Lord Jesus Christ has addressed this through His saving work. He fully absorbed the divine wrath that we provoke. In his life, death, and resurrection, God’s truth governed Jesus, God’s holiness swayed Him; and God’s glory brought Him the greatest pleasure.

This is why His followers should remain faithful to God in the last hour and avoid being deceived or led astray. How do we do that? I see two clues here in Daniel 11. They are printed in the WG for you. Faithfulness to God in the last hour requires the rejection of two things: whatever sets man in the place of God and whatever makes war against the Word of God.

Last week we looked at the first part of chapter 11, in which Daniel’s visitor from heaven described to him how over and over again power would be seized and would change hands until the rise of Antiochus IV, an evil ruler who wanted to be seen as God. Antiochus was exceptionally wicked; he was remarkably monstrous. His corruption and brutality and black-hearted viciousness was extraordinary. He boldly attempted to rival God’s power and destroy God’s holiness. He failed miserably, but he stood to foreshadow someone and something yet to come.

Often when we talk about the OT, we talk about what Bible scholars call “typology.” Beginning with Adam, we understand that the OT story of redemption features people and events whose experiences must be interpreted in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ. In Luke 24, Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection, and Luke writes, “Then [Jesus] said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

Well, the Law of Moses in Genesis through Deuteronomy, the first five OT books. What do they say about Jesus? The Prophets includes the book of Daniel. Where does this book mention Jesus? They do not mention him by the name Jesus, but they foreshadow him. In other words, everything in the whole OT - people and events - were pointing to Jesus. 

So, for instance, Noah, walking by faith and delivering his family from the wrath of God, was a type of Christ who would walk by faith and deliver His people from the ultimate death. Young David, seemingly at a disadvantage as he went out to the battlefield against the mighty Goliath to represent the people of Israel and conquer their enemies, was a type of Christ who would represent His people to defeat the ultimate enemies of sin and death. 

We see this repeated throughout the OT. It is not just a clever trick to make interesting sermons. The Scriptures teach us to interpret them in this way. Jesus tells us that the OT is first and foremost about Him. In a secondary way, you may see similarities between your life and experiences and those of the Israelites and the heroes of the faith, but if you do not make the connection to the saving work of Jesus, you miss the main point of the Scriptures. 

The Bible is not primarily about you and me; it is about Jesus Christ. In the providence of God, these unfolding OT events were teaching the people of God about the Savior who was to come.

I’ll talk some more about typology next Sunday as we conclude Daniel, but it is important today because the evil Antiochus was also a type of one yet to come, only it was not a good one. You see, Antiochus was not a type of Christ, but rather, a type of antichrist. Antiochus foreshadowed and therefore teaches us things about this central earthly figure on the evil side of the great moral and spiritual conflict. In Daniel 9 and 11, we learn about something called “the abomination of desolation.” This referred to the desecration of the Jewish temple by Antiochus. I spoke about that last week. 

Jesus brings that up in Matthew 24, using Daniel’s words to describe something yet to come: the complete destruction of that temple by the Roman Empire in the year 70 A.D. What Antiochus did prefigured what Rome would do, which prefigured a final time of great evil before the second coming of Jesus Christ and the end of time as we know it.

Now, you’ll notice in these verses that the terms still sound like Antiochus is the subject. But at this point, the events no longer match up with his behavior and his downfall. However, it is a common characteristic of apocalyptic literature - end-times literature - to describe the future in terms that the original listeners will understand. 

When the final Antichrist comes on the scene, the world will be much different than it was in Daniel’s time. Daniel could not comprehend the technology and state of the world today, for instance. So the ambiguous nature of this is intentional and typical of prophecy. 

Like Daniel and God’s people at that time, we must walk by faith and trust God. We must seek primarily to obey Him as future events unfold. We also understand this to describe the Antichrist because in chapter 12, Daniel describes the final resurrection. 

This last part of chapter 11 fits perfectly with the subject of chapter 12. There is a jump in time from verse 35 to verse 36 in chapter 11. Now notice these things about the Antichrist: Verse 36, he will “do as he wills.” He will “exalt himself” as god. He will “magnify himself above every god” and “speak astonishing things against” the one true God. Verse 37 is interesting: “He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all.” The Antichrist will act as though he knows better than all who came before him. 

That he will pay no attention to “the one beloved by women” is a hard phrase, but it seems to indicate that the Antichrist will disregard even the most basic aspects of humanity, such as the love between mother and child. E.J. Young says, “He has no piety or reverence toward any god whatsoever. The reason why...is that he magnifies himself above all.” 

Verse 38, his god will be “fortresses” or power; his god will be dominance. He will bring an offering, so to speak, to the altar of War. And he will do so, it seems, with means like none before him. He will attract many to himself and reward their loyalty. He will entice many. He will appeal to the worldly appetites of men, and sway many to his side.

All of this occurs in what the apostle John calls “the last hour.” We have read in recent weeks the NT book of 2 Thessalonians. One subject in that letter written by Paul to the church at Thessalonica was the Antichrist. At that time, there was apparently a rumor and a fear that Jesus had already returned. 

Paul assures the church that this was not the case. He says, “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, [4] who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

The apostle John discusses this as well. In the letter of 1 John, he tells the churches, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

Paul and John were urging the churches to remain faithful to God, to be steadfast in prayer, to be diligent in obedience to God, to humble themselves and pursue holiness. Daniel was receiving this description of the Antichrist in order that he and all believers after him would understand that evil will ramp up again and again in history. God’s people must endure and remain faithful to God in the last hour, and faithfulness to God in the last hour requires the rejection of what is central to the Antichrist: we must reject whatever sets man in the place of God. 

It was true in the time of John and Paul that many antichrists had come. It is true today. That is not to say that the final Antichrist, the pinnacle of all things evil, is in the world today. Perhaps he is, perhaps not. It’s not our place to guess that. Believers in every age have tried, and they no doubt identified many antichrists. 

But it is our place, however, to be keenly aware of anything or anyone that would take the place of God. Anything of that nature is against God, it is against Christ, is anti-Christ. What things in your own life do you allow to remain which attempt to pull you away from God, which demand that you turn from God, which command your worship? John communicated that there will be many false teachers who are worthy to be called “antichrist,” who will teach people to put things other than God in the place of God.

Also, the final Antichrist, like those that come before Him, will make war against the Word of God. We see in verse 40 that the Antichrist will be opposed, similar to how Antiochus from the north was opposed by Egypt from the south. There will be a great conflict, a battle. But like I said earlier, the language used in this message to Daniel fits the time in which he lived. It is symbolic, as is typical of end-times prophecy. At the end of time, we don’t expect actual chariots and horsemen to make a comeback. 

This is battle language. The idea here is that the influence of the evil one will spread, and he will have many victories. And verse 41 says, “He shall come into the glorious land.” Palestine - the Holy Land - is in view. And so the people of God, which is the Church, the true Israel as Paul defines in Romans 9, will be greatly affected. 

The Antichrist will side, it says here, with Edom and Moab and the main part of the Ammonites. The symbolism here is important because even in Daniel’s time, Moab no longer existed. But these nations were the ancient enemies of Israel. This is a conflict as old as sin. They warred against the people of God. As the end draws near, the lines will become clearer between Jesus’ people and His enemies.

Verse [42] says, “He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.” So apparently those who oppose Him will be conquered. And verse 43 says, “the Libyans and the Cushites shall follow in his train.” These were the ancient allies of Egypt.  

In short, it is difficult to understand what will play out. But there will be a resistance, with both sides using their weapons. He will attempt to seize and control, to govern; he will have great resources; he will attempt to stamp out any resistance. But in the end, he will collide with the holy God and he will not prevail. Verse 45, “Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.” 

It will be a battle, but again, we have to remember the symbolism. In fact, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson points out that, “It is a mistake to assume that the conflict involved is to be understood exclusively in military terms. To do so draws our attention away from the fact that the real war for our souls is never fought on the battlefields of history but elsewhere.” Ferguson points out that this kind of war, “is as often manifested in financial, intellectual, and moral terms as it is in military terms.” 

We live in a war right now, do we not? War is being made against the law of God, against the truth of God, against the Word of God. Faithfulness to God in the last hour - and remember, the apostle John clearly said we are in the last hour - faithfulness to God in the last hour requires the rejection of whatever makes war against the Word of God. 

How bad is the war on God’s Word today? How devastating is the war on truth? Pastor John Macarthur recently summed it up this way: He said, “America is in a moral free-fall...You murder the babies in the womb. If they survive the womb, you try to seduce them into transgender sexual deviation when they’re young. If they survive that, you corrupt them with a godless education. If they survive that, you have divorce in the family and if they grow to be adults, you drown them in a sea of pornography...This is a nation so far down in the sewer of immorality and wickedness that nothing surprises me.” I agree. War against the Word.

We must not harden our hearts to the truth. We must not sear our consciences to what is right. Where have you been doing this in your daily life? This is what comes naturally to us. Beware.

Next week, Daniel will conclude with a prophecy of the second coming of Jesus. Without a doubt, this leaves us wondering the identity of that final Antichrist. It is scary, for sure. But I propose to you today something else that is frightening, and that is the degree to which these antichrist characteristics reside in our own hearts. 

Consider your own man-centered ways, your attempts to put yourself in the place of God in your own life, the ways in which you boldly oppose the Word of God in your daily living. The Antichrist is the ultimate earthly enemy of God, but consider this: Romans 5 says, “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” Paul says also, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Each of us - man, woman, and child - is, in our natural state, opposed to God, against God, against Christ, anti-Christ. 

Do you disagree? If so, consider that the lust and greed in your heart, and the unforgiveness you harbor, and the revenge you seek, and the bitterness you cling to, and the curses you utter, and your lack of love, empathy, sympathy, and compassion is certainly not “pro-Christ.” 

In the gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, the Lord Jesus himself proclaims, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” Where in your life have you been against the Lord Jesus? Will you confess these things to him this morning, and renew your faith? Will you admit these things and renew your commitment to follow Him? 

And if you never have before, will you cry out to him this morning for mercy, for pardon, for grace? Because he forgives, and only Jesus can make you right with God. Only through repentance of your sin and faith in Jesus alone, trusting solely in Him and His righteousness, can any of us ever hope to be seen by God as faithful in this last hour.

Let’s go now to his table. Bow with me, please, in prayer.