(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, Daniel chapter 11 is by far the most complicated, the most difficult chapter in the book of Daniel. And I'm actually going to go through every single verse tonight and explain every verse in this mammoth chapter. So hang in there with me tonight, I'm going to do my best to keep your interest, but before I get into it, let me just explain to you, first of all, the context of this chapter and just in general, the significance of this chapter and just what it means in the grand scheme of things. Now first of all, there are a lot of people who say that there's kind of this big gap between where the Old Testament leaves off and where the New Testament picks up. After you have the stories of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and you have some of the minor prophets that are prophesying around the same time, they say there's this big gap in between. But this chapter, in many ways, fills that gap because the events that are prophesied in this chapter take us from around 533 B.C. to around 164 B.C. So that covers a huge amount of time, and it gets us pretty close to the time of Christ. And then if you think about how the rest of the book of Daniel prophesied these four kingdoms – Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome – Rome gets us all the way to when Christ is born because it's during that Roman Empire and the days of Caesar Augustus that the decree is given that all the world should be taxed, and that brings us right into the birth of Jesus Christ. So a lot of people will say, well, you know, to fill in that gap, we need the Apocrypha to tell us what happened during that time. Just stay away from the Apocrypha, my friend. It's garbage. It's junk. People will say, well, it's not inspired by God, but it's got good historical value. I don't even believe that because it's very historically inaccurate, it is theologically inaccurate, it is hard to read because it's just such bad literature. It's just bad, okay? So don't even mess with it. It would be my advice to you. Now a lot of people are confused by the fact that in the King James Bible, in the original First Edition, it has the Apocrypha in a special section between the Old and New Testaments. People have tried to twist that and say, oh, yeah, you know, they considered that part of the Bible. No. If you actually look in the explanatory notes, and I can show you some after the service, where the King James translators flat out say, well, this part's wrong, this part's corrupt, this part's inaccurate, and not only that, but if you look at the 39 articles of the Church of England that were enforced when the King James Bible was translated, it flat out says, no doctrine shall be based upon these 14 books, and it lists the 14 books of the Apocrypha, and we know that all scripture is profitable for doctrine. So when you're saying, hey, don't use these for doctrine, what are you saying? It's not scripture. They thought it had good historical value. I disagree. I think that it is historically inaccurate. It's not worth going to. If you want to understand some of the things that happened between the Testaments, chapters like this fill you in on some of the history that went on during that time, and really the main important thing is just that Israel got back in the land, they rebuilt the temple, and they were there, they went through these things, and the Roman Empire's in power, and that gets you up to the point where Christ comes on the scene. Now this chapter is significant because it's such a detailed prophecy, and it's pretty amazing how the Book of Daniel detailed these things before they happened. Now worldly scholars will say, well, this just proves that the Book of Daniel must have been written after all this stuff happened. Except the problem is that they have evidence of when the Book of Daniel had for sure already been around, and even worldly scholars must admit that the Book of Daniel was around before all of these things had happened. They've only been able to trace it back to the early second century BC or mid second century BC, but they have to admit that some of these things did happen after, very few according to them. But one thing they can't explain is how chapter nine predicted the Roman Empire coming and destroying the city of Jerusalem and destroying the temple in the midst of a seven-year period and on and on. So there's some pretty amazing prophecies in the Book of Daniel. Now we don't know exactly when the Book of Daniel was written because it's not written by Daniel, because it talks about Daniel in the third person most of the time throughout the book. So we don't know when it was written. It doesn't matter when it was written. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So when it was physically penned down isn't the point. But what we do know is that Daniel for sure heard these prophecies before they happened. All of these things were explained to Daniel before they happened and he understood those things going into them. So let's go through this verse by verse and understand this chapter. We have a little bit the benefit of hindsight because a lot of these things are historical facts that we could look up and compare with what the Bible said would happen versus what actually happened. But let's start out in verse number one and start to plow through this. It says in Daniel chapter 11 verse 1, also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. Let me just remind you this is the angel from chapter 10. Daniel is actually receiving this prophecy in the third year of King Cyrus according to chapter 10 verse 1. But in chapter 11 verse 1 the angel is saying how the angel confirmed and strengthened Darius in the first year of his reign. Verse 2, and now will I show 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. Now again this prophecy is coming in the third year of Cyrus the Great so there are three more kings that are coming after Cyrus the Great. Now these three kings that are all mentioned in the Bible, we can find them all in the book of Ezra, also in the book of Nehemiah and Esther. Those three kings in order are Artaxerxes, then Darius, not Darius the Mede but Darius the king of Persia, different Darius, and then Ahasuerus is the fourth king. Now Ahasuerus is the guy from the book of Esther. Now it makes sense because in verse 2 here it says that the fourth shall be far richer than they all and doesn't that jive with what we see in the book of Esther. I mean that guy is far richer than anybody you've ever seen. He rules over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia and he has a six month party if you remember where they're just indulging and whining and dining so he is a super rich guy. Now historically this guy is known by his name in another language so it's known as Xerxes. So if you're reading a history book you'll see him as Xerxes. We know him in the Bible by the name Ahasuerus. Now this is the one who attacked Greece because it says by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia and this is where we get the famous battle of Thermopylae. Who's ever heard of the battle of Thermopylae and the battle of Athens because this is when the Persians are coming in and invading Greece and that's what's being talked about in verse 2. Verse 3, and a mighty king shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will and when he shall stand up his kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven. Now this great king that stands up and does according to his own will and rules with great dominion is Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king, the son of Philip II, Philip of Macedon and he rises up and becomes this great king. We saw him in Daniel chapter 8 if you remember and then it says that when his kingdom is broken it's divided toward the four winds of heaven. Remember in chapter 7 this was pictured as a leopard with four heads. Remember in chapter 8 it talked about it also being divided four different ways. This is because when Alexander the Great died his kingdom was split up by four of his generals. That's why it says in verse 4 here that it will 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 besides those. So the four generals of Alexander the Great that succeeded him they each ruled over a part of his kingdom. So you have these four parts and I'm just going to kind of oversimplify this for sake of time but you have Egypt as part of that. That was one of the kingdoms and that was ruled over by a guy named Ptolemy, okay, that's one of the four kingdoms. Then you have a guy named Seleucus in Mesopotamia or Babylon. Then you have a guy named Lysimachus in Asia Minor or Modern Day Turkey and then there's another guy named Cassander that's ruling in Greece. Now these four guys are ruling over their parts of the kingdom but the two that are the most important are Ptolemy over Egypt and Seleucus in Babylon or Mesopotamia. Now all throughout this chapter these two kingdoms are known as the Kingdom of the North and the Kingdom of the South. So again just quickly Alexander the Great conquers this gigantic kingdom, defeats the Persians, sets up this Greek empire. He dies very young, 32, 33 years old. He gets drunk, he parties, he gets a fever, a week or two later he's dead and this kingdom is split into these four smaller kingdoms, four of his generals are ruling over these kingdoms and the two that become the most powerful and important are the Seleucid Empire in the north and the Ptolemaic Empire in the south. So this is Egypt and Babylon just to make it super simple for you. King of the north, king of the south, everybody got that? Now I'll tell you what one of the hardest things about Daniel chapter 11 is, is keeping track of the he, him and his. I had to read this chapter over and over and over again and finally I just had to write down in my Bible next to the he's, the him's and the his whether we're talking King of the north or King of the south. It goes back and forth and you have to read over and over and over it sometimes to figure out which one is being referred to. Once you do that then this chapter is not that hard but that's the thing that makes it difficult. So again, these two kings that are important are Egypt and that's the king Ptolemy and then in the north is Mesopotamia, Babylon, Seleucid Empire. Now it says in verse 5, and the king of the south, so that's the guy down where? In Egypt. King of the south shall be strong and one of his princes and he shall be strong above him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. Verse 6 and in the end of years they shall join themselves together for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement but she shall not retain the power of the arm neither shall he stand nor his arm but she shall be given up and they that brought her and he that begat her and he that strengthened her in these times. Okay, what in the world is this talking about? Well, we've got the king of the north and the king of the south. They're going to join together or make some kind of an alliance or join affinity. Now often in the ancient world, the way this would be done, and even in modern times, this would be done by one king marrying the daughter of another king, right? Well here's the problem though, is that the king of the north was already married, okay? So he's already got a wife but it says here the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. So what the guy in the north did is he actually divorces his wife and marries this daughter of the king of the south and her name is Bernice and this is the daughter of one of these kings named Ptolemy, okay? But it says but she shall not retain the power of the arm neither shall he stand nor his arm but she shall be given up and they that brought her. Now what does that mean, she's going to be given up? Well here's what happened historically is that this guy divorces his wife and marries this king of the south's daughter. Well the king of the south dies and once he dies then the king of the north says I don't want to be married to his daughter anymore and then he goes back to his old wife and so the whole deal kind of falls through is how that worked and so she ends up being given up and then he goes back to his first wife, etc. Now it's pretty confusing when you read the history on this because everybody has the same name. So you know if you look up these kings of the south they're all named Ptolemy, it's like Ptolemy the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and all the guys up in the king of the north they're all named Antiochus, Antiochus, Theos, Antiochus, Epiphanes, the second, third, fourth, fifth and they have these other appellations like the king of the south will be called Ptolemais Philadelphus or whatever they have all these different names but it's pretty hard to keep track of it. That's why God just kind of makes it simple for us in Daniel 11 by just saying king of the north, king of the south but what you have to understand is that this isn't the same guy the whole chapter because this chapter covers hundreds of years so it's a different king of the north and king of the south as we keep going deeper into this chapter. So what we see is just kind of a back and forth, some wrangling, they try to form this alliance but this marriage goes sour, people get poisoned, people die, stuff like that. Let's keep moving. Verse 7 it says but out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate which shall come with an army and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north and shall deal against them and shall prevail. Okay so what have we learned so far? The king of the south's daughter, she went up and married the king of the north, that was kind of a complicated situation because he was already married and divorced her and blah blah blah but the point is out of a branch of her roots, now what are her roots? What do roots mean? It's actually where you came from so your roots would be like your ancestors, your parents, your grandparents, that's your roots and then your branches would be your offspring right? So when the Bible says out of a branch of her roots what it means is that just one of her relatives right? So this is like a child of her parents or a child of her grandparents, just some kind of a relative whether it's a cousin or a brother or whatever. So she goes up there and she kind of fails at the mission up in the north but out of a branch of her roots comes another guy down in the south in his estate meaning there's a new king in the south that takes his place which shall come with an army and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north verse 7 and shall deal against them and shall prevail and shall also carry captives into Egypt, their gods with their princes and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold and he shall continue more years than the king of the north. So what they were not able to accomplish through this marriage, this branch of her roots just goes up there and just takes it by force and defeats the king of the north, takes the captives back to Egypt. Verse 9, so the king of the south shall come into his kingdom and shall return into his own land but his sons shall be stirred up and shall assemble a multitude of great forces and one shall certainly come and overflow and pass through then shall he return and be stirred up even to his fortress and the king of the south shall be moved with collar, collar means anger or rage and shall come forth and fight with him even with the king of the north and he shall set forth a great multitude but the multitude shall be given into his hand. Basically the king of the north is going to set forth a great multitude and the great multitude is going to be given into the hand of the king of the south meaning the king of the south is going to win this battle. So this is two defeats in a row for the king of the north. There's a back and forth here, king of the south is winning. Verse 12, and when he hath taken away the multitude his heart shall be lifted up. Whose heart is lifted up? The king of the south, right? Because he's the winner and when somebody has a great military victory they're very likely to become puffed up and arrogant and proud. So the king of the south, which is not the same king of the south from earlier in the chapter but we've already gone through a couple generations now, it says that he is going to be lifted up and he will cast down many ten thousands but he shall not be strengthened by it. So he pretty much defeats the king of the north and his armies. He kills ten thousands of troops but it doesn't really make him stronger. It's more just like a moral victory like, hey, we won, man, we're so cool and he's all lifted up but it doesn't really benefit him. He's not really strengthened by it. Verse 13, for the king of the north shall return and shall set forth a great multitude I'm sorry, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches and in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south. So what's going on? It's just back and forth, folks. King of the north, king of the south, king of the north, oh, yeah, will you beat me? Well, no, I'm going to beat you. They're just warring and going back and forth. Here's where it gets kind of interesting. It says in verse 14, and in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south. Also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision but they shall fall. Now, keep in mind, this angel is talking to Daniel. So when he says the robbers of thy people, he's talking about the Jews. So so far this hasn't really involved the Jews, has it? It's just been Seleucid versus Egypt, kingdoms fighting back and forth, back and forth. Well now the robbers of Daniel's people get involved. These bunch of stealing Jews here in verse 14 that are going to exalt themselves. Basically they're saying, hey, maybe we can use this battle or we can kind of hitch our wagon to one of these sides to establish the vision. Basically they have some kind of a vision for Israel's greatness or their own personal gain or their own personal prosperity. These are called the robbers of Daniel's people. So they want to basically use this for their own advantage, but it says, but they shall fall. So it's not going to work out. Verse 15. So the king of the north shall come and cast up a mount and take the most fenced cities and the arms of the south. Let me just stop and say this. When it says arms, think armies. It's not that different of a word, arms, armies, armed forces, right? Being armed. That's what it's talking about here. It says the arms, meaning the armies of the south, shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand. Now when it says his chosen people, what that's referring to is that soldiers are often classified as the chosen soldiers or the choice soldiers. So when you have an army, you have the special forces. You have the chosen ones who are like David's mighty men, for example. That's what that means here. When it says chosen people, we're not talking about Israel here. It's talking about the king of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people. So the king of the south has his chosen people in his army. They're not going to stand. They're going to get defeated in battle as well. Neither shall there be any strength to withstand, verse 16. But he that cometh against him, and again, this is one of those times where you have to scratch your head and say, who coming against who? He is the king of the north. He that cometh against him, king of the south, shall do according to his own will and none shall stand before him and he shall stand in the glorious land. Now, the glorious land here is referring to Israel. So the king of the north comes against the king of the south and he stands in the glorious land. Why is that? Well, because if you look at a map and you look at where the king of the north is and where the king of the south is, guess what's in the middle? Israel is in the middle. Israel is pretty much between those two places. So he stands in the glorious land, the king of the north, that is, which by his hand shall be consumed. Okay, so he ends up harming the glorious land or Israel. Verse 17. He, king of the north, shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom and upright ones with him. Thus shall he do and he shall give him the daughter of women corrupting her. But she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. Now this is kind of a throwback to earlier in the chapter, which is of course many, many decades earlier, where they tried to do that marriage thing, like where the king of the south tried to give their daughter unto the king of the north in marriage and it didn't work out. Okay. Well, now the king of the north is basically doing the same thing. Now he's giving his daughter down to the king of the south, right, because it says that he shall give him, the king of the north shall give the king of the south, the daughter of women corrupting her. Now what does that mean, the daughter of women? Well do you remember the term in the Bible, son of man? Well sons of men in the Bible or son of man is just a fancy way of saying men. It just means human beings, the sons of men, son of man, it just means man. And so daughter of women simply just means a woman, it's just a fancy way of saying that. So he gives him the daughter of women corrupting her, but what's the result at the end of verse 17, but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him, okay. So try to stay with me here, I'm trying to plow through this as fast as I can. The king of the north sends his daughter down to the king of the south, right, as basically his ambassador that's going to marry him and get him to do what we want him to do, right. Well this woman historically is known as Cleopatra the first, okay. Now the famous Cleopatra that we know of that, you know, killed herself by letting the ass bite her, who knows what I'm talking about, Cleopatra committing suicide. That's Cleopatra the seventh, because remember that Cleopatra was hanging around with Mark Antony, so that's around the time of like the Roman empire. This is much earlier, this is Cleopatra the first. So he gives him the daughter of women corrupting her, but it says, but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. So what it's saying is when she gets down to Egypt, instead of basically doing what the king of the north wanted her to do, what he sent her there to do, she's pretty much just down there in it for herself. She just does her thing down in Egypt and does what she wants and doesn't really forward the agenda of the king of the north that sent her down there. Verse 18, after this shall he turn his face unto the isles, king of the north, and shall take many. Now what are the isles? This is just referring to the fact that he's going to have naval victories. So when it says he turns to the isles it means he takes his ships and goes out in the Mediterranean Sea and fights a bunch of naval battles and has some naval victories. But a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease. Now what's a reproach? A reproach is where you basically offend someone or humiliate someone, right? Christ was reproached for our sins because he was humiliated on the cross. And so basically this king of the north goes out and has a bunch of naval victories. So he's basically reproaching. He's slapping people around, as it were, by whipping up on this army and that army. But then a prince for his own behalf, which is actually a Roman prince in this case, ends up turning the reproach around on him. Because what does it say? He shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease. Without his own reproach, he shall cause it to turn upon him. Verse 19. Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land. So this guy goes out, has a bunch of naval victories, finally some prince whips him and he has to go home. Okay, I'm just trying to simplify this here. Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and not be found. Translation, he dies. He goes home, he stumbles, he falls, and you can't find him anymore because he's dead. Okay. Trying to break this down here. Verse 20. Then shall stand up in his estate a razor of taxes. Okay. So after that king goes home and dies, now there's another king that rises up in his estate in the glory of the kingdom. Verse 20. But within few days, he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle. Okay. So basically, another king comes, he's really into taxation, and he doesn't last long. He doesn't get wiped out in anger or in battle or anything, but he just dies. Okay. And it doesn't really give us any more detail than that. Then it says in verse 21, and in his estate shall stand up a vile person. Now, this is where we need to make a major note if you're taking notes tonight or if you're marking your Bible. Verse 21 is where we start talking about the most important person in this chapter, the vile person, which is Antiochus Epiphanes, which is the antichrist of Daniel chapter 8. He is the antichrist who sets up the abomination of desolation in 168 B.C., okay. So this is a forerunner to the future antichrist that's still coming in the future, but this guy is an antichrist. The Bible says there are many antichrists, okay. This guy, the reason that I call him an antichrist is because this guy, Antiochus Epiphanes, was one who declared himself to be God. In fact, archaeologists have even found coins that say on them, Antiochus Epiphanes, manifest God. Now, what does the Bible say about Jesus? That God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. But this man himself claimed to be that, right. So he's putting himself in the place of Jesus Christ in that sense. Anti means in the place of. In the place of Christ. That's why we call him an antichrist. Now, he's not the antichrist that's coming in the future, but he's the antichrist of that period, okay. So this guy, this vile person, this is the little horn of Daniel chapter 8. He is 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. And we're going to be talking about this guy for the whole rest of the chapter. So everything up to this point, verses 1 through 20, we're just going through King of the North, King of the South, King of the North, King of the South, a bunch of different dynasties just taking us forward a few hundred years in history. Now we kind of get to the part where we're going to spend a lot of time talking about one guy, Antiochus Epiphanes, the vile person, this forerunner or predecessor of the antichrist. And so it says, he will obtain the kingdom peaceably, he'll obtain it by flatteries. Verse 22, and with the arms of a flood, again, a flood referring to a great throng of people, a great army, with the arms of a flood, shall they, those who oppose him that is, be overflown from before him and shall be broken, yea also the prince of the covenant. Now who is the prince of the covenant? We're going to see a lot of talk about the covenant here going forward in this chapter. That covenant is the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. Obviously this is before the New Covenant was around. So what we're talking about is the Old Covenant between God and Israel. And so when it says the prince of the covenant, this is most likely referring to the high priest of Israel, because it's saying that a lot of people who oppose this guy are going to get wiped out, including the prince of the covenant. Well this guy who's called the prince of the covenant gets wiped out, probably the high priest at that time. Because prince means the first one, it means the ruler, the guy who's in charge. So it would make sense if that's the high priest, although I don't think we can say a hundred percent for sure, but that's what I believe that means. Verse 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. So he's going to make a league with people, he's going to make some kind of an agreement, but it's a tricky agreement where he's working deceitfully, he's stabbing people in the back, he's using people, he's using flattery, he's creeping in, he's killing people, he's just a very wicked person. He becomes strong with a small people. Verse 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 father's fathers. He shall scatter among them the prey and spoil and riches, yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds, even for a time. Now if we remember Daniel chapter 8, it talked about how this king would use dark arts and sorcery and witchcraft and things like that. Here it talks about him forecasting devices. So this could refer to some kind of an occultic kind of forecasting or trying to predict things and because we know that he uses that kind of satanic power according to Daniel chapter 8, the parallel passage over there. And so he defeats these strongholds, verse 25, and he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south. Big surprise, the king of the north wants to fight the king of the south again 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. Again that could refer to some kind of evil, dark magic that they're using there as well. And then it says in verse 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. That's referring to the king of the south getting beaten and getting wiped out. Verse 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. So these two kings, the king of the south, the king of the north, they're both out to rip the other guy off, they're both out to, they sit out at a table to have a peace talk between the king of the north and the king of the south, but they're both lying through their teeth and they're both just trying to subdue the other guy. They both speak lies at one table, but it's not going to prosper. Verse 28, then shall he, king of the north, return into his land with great riches, because he's the winner, he's defeated the king of the south in a sense. Watch this, and his heart shall be against the holy covenant. What's the holy covenant? It's the old testament. So on his way back from the king of the south, his heart is against the holy covenant. He's thinking evil thoughts toward the old testament, toward the God of Israel, toward the religion of the Jews. And he shall do exploits and return to his own land. At the time appointed he shall return and come toward the south, but it shall not be as the former or as the latter. For the ships of Ketim shall come against him, therefore he shall be grieved and return. So he wants to go fight the king of the south again, but he has to stop and pull off and fight against these ships of Ketim. There's other fighting going on, so it distracts him. But look what it says. Then it says he'll return, verse 30, and have indignation against the holy covenant. So remember what it said in verse 28 is, his heart will be against the holy covenant. Now it says he's going to have indignation against the holy covenant. So he's mad at the holy covenant. So shall he do, he shall even return, and watch this, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. Now who are them that forsake the holy covenant? These are Jews who don't follow the old testament. Jews who don't believe the bible. These are the liberals among the Jews who don't follow the old testament. They're forsaking the covenant. This guy doesn't like the bible. This guy doesn't like the old testament. So he has intelligence with Jews who are also traitors against their own god and their own religion and their own people. So he has intelligence with the Jews that forsake the holy covenant. Basically he's going to team up with them to put a stop to the worship of the lord. He hates the lord because he's satanic, he's evil, he's a vile person. So he wants to stop the children of Israel from worshiping the lord. He hates the bible, he hates their religion. And so he teams up with the Jews who don't follow the bible. Those that forsake the holy covenant, verse 31, and arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. The sanctuary again, that word means the holy place. So we're talking about the temple of the lord. They shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. So what do they do? They take away the daily sacrifice and put in its place the abomination. Now what is this abomination that we keep saying? It's an idol. In the new testament, in the future, in revelation, this is going to be the great image to the beast in revelation 13. That is going to be known as the abomination of desolation. Here we see the abomination that maketh desolate being put in the temple. This is a statue of Zeus, you know, that was put in the temple of Israel in 168 B.C. when the temple is polluted and the daily sacrifice is taken away. Verse 32, and such is due wickedly against the covenant. What are these? These are Jews that do wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by flattery. So he says hey guys, you know, you want to take over, you're this liberal faction of Jews that wants to get away from the traditional worship of the lord and following the bible and following the old testament, here let me team up with you guys, I'm going to put you guys in charge, let's shut down the worship of the lord, let's shut down the sacrifice, let's have them worshiping Greek gods and you guys will have the power. I'll put you in charge. So it says, such is due wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by flattery. So he's allying himself with the apostate Jews. But the people that do know their god, so these are the Jews that are still following the old testament, they still believe the bible, they know the lord, they shall be strong and do exploits. 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. Now when they shall fall, they shall be hoping with a little help. Okay so, you know, yeah, they're getting killed, they're being martyred in many cases, they're being defeated, but they're going to be helped out a little bit. Now again, this mirrors what's going to be happening in the end times, right? And I'm trying to cram all this into one sermon, but this all begins to mirror what happens in the end times. Even though everything from, you know, Daniel 11, 21 and on in this chapter, it all happened back then. It already happened. But it all mirrors things that are going to happen in the end times. It also has an end times application, because there's going to be another anti-Christ, there's going to be another abomination of desolation, and all of these same things will play out in a similar way. So just as the bible says that the anti-Christ in the end times in Revelation 13 will make war against the saints and overcome them, isn't that what we see here? We see this king of the north, Antiochus Epiphanes, making war against the Jews who know the Lord, the Jews who are faithful to the Holy Covenant, and he basically fights against them and many of them fall, the bible says. But they're also helped out. But many shall cleave to them with flatteries, verse 35. And some of them of understanding, so those are the good guys, shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white, even at the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed. So again, this is really similar to Revelation, you know, the devil's going to cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I'll give thee a crown of life. Verse 36, and the king, this is Antiochus Epiphanes, this Antichrist figure, the vile person, shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself, watch this, and magnify himself above every god. That sounds pretty similar to 2 Thessalonians 2, about the future coming Antichrist, who's going to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. But of course, this happened in 168 B.C., 2 Thessalonians is talking about it happening in the future, right? So it says here that he will exalt himself, magnify himself above every god, verse 36, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. He's saying, you know, these things have to happen. Verse 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. Now many have interpreted this verse as the fact that this guy is a sodomite. And I think that they're probably right, because the Bible did say he's a vile person. And what does the Bible say in Romans 1 about sodomites? That they're given over to vile affections. This guy's a vile person. And notice, he's not into women. It says that he shall not regard the God of his fathers. So he doesn't acknowledge the God of his fathers. He doesn't worship the God of his fathers. Now remember, this guy's not a Jew, so the God of his fathers is not Abraham. It's other gods that his fathers worshiped, other guys who were also named Antiochus. But he's also not going to regard the desire of women, which is what most people would regard in that situation, especially kings. They like to have their wives and their concubines, don't they, throughout history and throughout the Bible. Not this guy. It's very likely that he's a sodomite. And then it says that he shall magnify himself above every god. I'm sorry, I already read that. Back to verse 37. Nor regard any god. So he's not going to regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces. So in place of the God of his fathers, and in place of any other god, he magnifies himself, but then he also honors the God of forces. This is the Star Wars god. It says, and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. You say, wait a minute, I thought he didn't honor any god. Now all of a sudden he's honoring a god? Well this god of forces is an impersonal god. So when it says he won't honor any god, it's saying he gets to a point where he rejects even the Greek gods. He rejects the gods of Syria. He rejects all the gods in this world that are personal gods, you know, gods like Jehovah, the true god, or gods like Zeus and Poseidon and people like that. And he just has this kind of impersonal god that he's going to teach people to worship, the god of forces. And this is pretty similar to like the god of Hinduism, right, where it's this impersonal god that's just sort of everywhere and in all of us, and it's sort of like those type of new age concepts that we would think of today. And then it says in verse 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, 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. He shall enter also into the glorious land. What's the glorious land? Israel. And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape out of his hands. So these are the countries that he's not able to overthrow. Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon. Those are the ones that get away from him, okay? He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape, 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, 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, and he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. So he's fighting more wars, fighting the king of the south. He wins victories in the south. The Ethiopians and the Libyans are at his steps. Those are African nations, and he wins all these victories, but then he hears some news out of the east and the north in verse 44. So he goes forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many, but he ends up parking it or setting up shop in the land of Israel because it says he's between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. Obviously the glorious holy mountain between the seas, we're talking about in Israel, between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, he sets up his tabernacles of his palace there in his glorious holy mountain, and it says, yet shall he come to his end and none shall help him. He dies, and the story's over at that point. Okay? He's a human being. He dies. That's it. Now, quickly, flip over to Daniel 8, 23. We got through it. We did it. All right. Go to Daniel chapter 8, verse 23. That's a serious chapter, isn't it? Now, I have some closing remarks here, though, where it's not over yet. Hang in there. Daniel 8, 23. Let's talk more about the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. All it said in Daniel 11, 45 was just that he shall come to his end and none shall help him. Okay. Let's get more information from Daniel chapter 8, verse 23. The Bible says, in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, this is the king of the north, Antiochus Epiphanes from Daniel 11, 21 and onward, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences, we talked about that, shall stand up and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. Why? Because he's empowered by Satan. He's into dark arts. It says that he shall destroy wonderfully and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people, isn't that what we saw in chapter 11? He's fighting against the saints, overcoming them, those that know the Lord in Israel. And through his policy also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnify himself in his heart, right? We saw that in Daniel 11 in much more detail. And by peace shall destroy many, we saw that in Daniel 11, didn't we? He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, which I believe is referring to the Lord himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah, God, if you will, but he shall be broken without hand. Now that's talking about Antiochus Epiphanes' death. It says, he shall be broken without hand. So how does Antiochus Epiphanes die? Is he killed in battle? No. Because he's broken without hand, meaning he dies or is killed or is broken or wiped out without anyone laying their hand on him. Now according to the Apocrypha, he's in battle and he gets run over by a chariot and all this, you know. But I'm telling you, the Apocrypha is just filled with fantastical stories that are just made up. It's not a viable source of history or scripture or anything else, okay? If you want to know what happened during this period, the book of Daniel is your source. The book of Esther is your source, okay? And there is a secular source, there's a scroll of Epiphanes that was found that states that he was killed by drowning himself, that he basically, he realized he was going to lose the battle and he drowned himself. Now that could jive with this because if he drowned himself, well that's him being destroyed without hand because, you know, I don't know if that's how he died. We don't really know because the history on that particular portion is a little bit sketchy and I wouldn't trust the Apocrypha as far as I could throw it. So basically, the point is, all we know is that he dies not in battle, he dies without hand, he sets up his tabernacle, he's flourishing and he dies and that's it. Okay. Now one other thing I want to point out that's very important. At the end of chapter 11 in verse 45 it says, he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain, yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him. Now how does this roll into chapter 12? That's the real question. Because chapter 12 is a major gear change. Because chapter 12 says, 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 what – look, that gets into stuff that is clearly end times, talks about the resurrection of the dead. I mean, look, we know the dead are not going to rise until the end times. We don't want to fall into that heresy that the resurrection has passed already, right? That's coming in the future. And this war in heaven is in Revelation 12 where there's the war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, the dragon fought his angels. Here's what's going on. Chapter 12 does not have any application for back then. Chapter 12 is purely end times. So it's a great place to put a chapter break because chapter 11 is all about stuff that happened back then. Chapter 12 is purely end times. Now this is why 11 flows into 12 though because even though everything in chapter 11 already happened back then, we're almost done so pay attention to these key points at the end. Even though everything already happened back in chapter 11, we talked about how it's historical fact, how it already took place. It's all going to happen again in the end times because it's all foreshadowing what? The Antichrist, the one world government, one world religion, mark of the beast, abomination of desolation, image to the beast, everything we read about in Revelation 12 and 13, okay? This all in chapter 11 is talking about events that happened back then but that more importantly are going to happen in the future. It's a foreshadowing of future events. Now very important, the literal interpretation of chapter 11 all happened back then. That's the literal. But it's all figurative or pointing us toward future events as well of the Antichrist. Now at the beginning of chapter 12 it says, and at that time, now let's stop and talk about that phrase for a moment, at that time. This does not say and then next, here's what's going to happen next. When you see the term at that time in the Bible, it's referring to things that are happening at the same time during that period like, you know, at the time when the judges ruled or something like that. Just at that time means in those days. It doesn't mean the events of chapter 11 happened and then the events of chapter 12 happened. It's just saying at that time, Michael's going to stand up and there's going to be great tribulation. Now here's what this is saying. Chapter 11 is describing events happening on earth. Chapter 12 is explaining that there are going to be events happening in heaven at that time. So at the time when the Antichrist comes, there's warfare, the Antichrist is set up in his kingdom, the abomination of desolation, at that time there's going to be other events going on at the same time concurrent with that, heavenly events. And those events are a war in heaven between Michael and his angels, the dragon is cast down on his angels and they're cast down to the earth. And again, I don't have the time, but you can easily demonstrate that the war in heaven happens, the dragon's cast down, he persecutes the woman, and then he ends up putting the Antichrist in power to persecute God's people. So what I'm saying is the events in chapter 12, verse 1 happened before the events in verse 11, but they're happening in two different places at the same time. So that's why he's at that time. So it's like, meanwhile, up in heaven, Michael is fighting this battle. So that's a little tricky there. This is a complicated scripture, the book of Daniel is a tough book. So I just wanted to point that out, that's pretty important. Now, I used to understand Daniel 11 a little bit differently, or rather not understand Daniel 11 a little bit differently. Here's where Daniel 11's confusing, where most of the confusion comes from, and why it's not confusing to me anymore, and why it shouldn't be confusing to you anymore. This is what I want to close with. What I used to think when I read Daniel 11 is, I started reading Daniel 11, and it's like, okay, we're talking about four kings of Persia, that makes sense. Alexander the Great, that makes sense. King of the North, King of the South, that makes sense, because those are the guys who took over after Alexander's gone. And I'm going along, going along, going along, going along, and then all of a sudden it's like we're talking about the Antichrist and the abomination of desolation, and I'm thinking like, when did we switch to end times? So I was always trying to find the spot in Daniel 11 where we made that shift, or that gear change, where all of a sudden we're talking about end times. But in reality, there is no such place in Daniel 11, because all of this stuff happened back then. And here's the proof of that, just to prove to you that that's really true, is that after we have all that talk about him magnifying himself as God, which, you know, I was obviously comparing to 2 Thessalonians 2 and saying this is end times. After that, we're right back to the same wrangling between the King of the North and the King of the South, and look at the nations we're talking about at the end of chapter 11, escaping out of his end. Edom, Moab, and Ammon, newsflash, those places don't exist anymore. But they did exist back then, because Edom, even in the New Testament, is known as Ijumiah, Edom, Ijumiah. Those places were still around a couple hundred years before Christ, and so it makes sense when it talks about Edom and Moab and Ijumiah and these places. That all makes sense. And verse 45 is clearly talking about the historical Antiochus Epiphanes, because that's not the way the Antichrist dies. He doesn't just set up a tabernacle between a couple seas and just die. The Lord throws him into the lake of fire. So the point is, the epiphany that I had, no pun intended, was to realize that Daniel chapter 11 is just an unbroken chronology. Is it hard to understand? Yeah. But it is possible to understand it, as I just demonstrated to you, that it is just an unbroken flow of events. But what you have to understand is that when we get to verse 21 and start talking about Antiochus Epiphanes, now all of a sudden there's a very strong correlation with the end times, because it's a foreshadowing of the end times. So it's not literally about the end times, but it is foreshadowing the end times. And that's why chapter 12 is there, talking about the end times. And we can put chapter 12 on top of chapter 11, because it's happening at that time, same time, concurrently. And we can understand, okay, this happened back then, but it has an end times application, because there's going to be another guy who's an antichrist, another abomination of desolation, and another series of events that are similar to this, where God's people are persecuted and killed and tried for the cause of Christ. Now I hope that this, now I hope that you can understand this, I hope that it made sense to you. I did the best I could to squeeze it into the short time that we have. And if you have any questions about this, feel free to come up to me after the service and ask me a question about it, because I've been really deep into this lately. So you know, don't ask me six months from now, it might get a little bit foggy in my mind. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, come ask me after the service if there's anything you didn't understand, but I hope that I was able to decrypt this difficult chapter for you tonight. And those of you that are maybe new to the Lord, or you don't really know the Bible that well, well, I hope you got something out of the sermon tonight. But we need to study these things as a church, we need to know these things, we need to be able to give an answer, because there's a lot of end times deception out there today, trying to tell us that there's no tribulation coming, there's no rapture coming, there's no antichrist coming, you know, and all these preterist and historicist views and so forth. So it's good that we understand the book of Daniel so we can say no, no, no, wait a minute. And you can counter these these bad arguments and bad doctrines, and understand the certainty of what we believe about revelation, and the rest of it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for this chapter, Lord, we thank you for the easy chapters, and we thank you for the Psalm 23's and 1 Corinthians 13's, but Lord we also thank you for Daniel 11 and other difficult chapters, Lord, that make us work a little harder, help us to study to show ourselves approved, Lord, and I pray that every single person tonight would be able to go away having a greater appreciation and understanding for your word and the book of Daniel in general, in Jesus' name, amen.