God’s Word for You

Daniel 11:36 Antichrist

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, January 22, 2026

THE ANTICHRIST

Some readers may be offended by the conclusions presented here. It is not my intention to offend, but to point out the truths of Scripture, and to comfort souls.

Here the prophecy changes from the beginning of the chapter. Up until now we have been shown the coming kings in the immediate future (for Daniel) who were coming before the arrival of Christ. Now, one certain enemy is foreseen who will disturb the church after Christ’s first coming up until the time of his second coming: this enemy is the Antichrist.

The divergence in the text might not be obvious unless two things are taken into consideration. First, everything in chapter 11 up to verse 36 has been a clear and precise prophecy about the succession of the Greek kings who came after Alexander the Great. The Seleucid “kings of the North” and the Ptolemaic “kings of the South” have been on display, and the prophecies have matched what we now know to be history, important event by important event. Second, this precision ends between verses 35 and 36. From this point, another king, one who has not yet appeared in Daniel’s time or even in Christ’s time, is being described. Therefore this is a prophecy of one who is, or was, yet to come. The Antichrist was foreshadowed by the kings of the North in the Seleucid era, and especially by the madman, Antiochus Epiphanes, but now the prophecy is about Antichrist directly. We show this in the translation by a paragraph break, but it must be admitted that in Hebrew manuscripts, there is no regular break in most copies. Yet the paragraph breaks, or lack thereof, are not a part of the inspired text.

    36 “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and will say astonishing things against the God of gods. He will prosper until the curse is ended, for what is determined shall be done.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Paul describes the one he calls “the man of lawlessness, the man doomed to destruction,” or the Antichrist. Paul says, “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” This is more than Antiochus Epiphanes ever did. This is one of the marks of the Antichrist. The Antichrist “says astonishing things against the God of gods,” astonishing because they are so incredibly blasphemous.

This blasphemous power robs the Christian of comfort and confidence in salvation, and uses the sin-troubled conscience of the believer as a weapon against them. He does this by laying heavier and heavier burdens on troubled souls. The Antichrist uses confusing language to undermine the pure doctrines of justification and repentance, which should point us directly to Christ, and he re-defines them with words the Bible never uses to point people to someone other than Christ. The Antichrist uses subtle words to do this; not so subtle to the student of the Bible who knows that we are saved by faith in Christ alone with no other contribution from within or from without. For the Scriptures says: “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). And Jesus our Lord said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And yet one of the Roman Catholic councils has declared:

“If anyone says that the ungodly is justified by faith alone in such a way that he understands that nothing else is required which cooperates toward obtaining the grace of justification and that it is in no way necessary for him to be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will, let him be eternally damned” (Council of Trent, Canon 9).

And again, the Catholic Church declares:

“If anyone says that men are justified either alone by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, or alone by the remission of sins, to the exclusion of [that] grace and love which is infused into their hearts by the Holy Spirit and inheres in them, or that the grace by which we are justified is only the favor of God, let him be eternally damned” (Council of Trent, Session VI, Canon 11).

And yet again:

“If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this trust alone by which we are justified, let him be eternally damned” (Ibid.).

It is our duty to show the Antichrist for what it is. We have already looked at the marks. But let us apply these marks to more specific details:

1, He does not come from outside the Church, nor from the Jews, but he comes from within Christianity, from within the Church (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; 1 John 2:18-19).

2, He is not Satan nor a powerful demon, nor a personification of Satan. He is a human (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Yet his coming takes place by the working of Satan (also 2 Thessalonians 2:9). As a man, he is God’s creation, but fallen into terrible sin.

3, Since he is at work from the time of Paul until Judgment Day (2 Thessalonians 2:2-8), he cannot be a single individual, but a group of persons viewed collectively. Each is “that which the man of sin is said to be in 2 Thessalonians 2:2f., so in each successively appearing person, one and the same Antichrist is always present.”

4, He has his seat (role, job, authority, center of power) in the church of God, in Christendom (2 Thessalonians 2:4), setting himself up in God’s temple (which cannot be the temple in Jerusalem since Christ himself pronounces the destruction on the temple of Jerusalem, Matthew 23:38, 24:2; Luke 19:44).

5, His rule in the temple of the Christian church involves rule over the hearts and consciences of Christians, since his “sitting in the temple” and “exalting himself over everything that is called God and the worship of God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4) usurps the spiritual rule over hearts and consciences by teaching false doctrine and removing and forbidding true doctrine.

6, Antichrist appears when that which was restraining him is taken out of the way and a place is made for him (2 Thessalonians 2:7). According to this, his mark is a mighty rise after the fall of another power that is holding him back.

This last detail seems to me to have happened with the overthrow of four of the six ancient centers of Christianity, when North Africa, Egypt, Judea, and Asia Minor, all fell to the Muslims in the Seventh Century, leaving only the “Eastern” Church (Byzantium) and the “Western” Church (Rome) intact, followed by the Great Schism that divided even these two remaining groups into separate fellowships.

We will apply these more directly to the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the next verse. But we must also say that recognizing the papacy as the Antichrist, and that only the papacy fits all of the marks of the Antichrist, does not condemn the poor people in the Roman Catholic Church, nor even every successive pope. For despite the pope and his councils warning that people are not saved by faith in Christ alone, this is precisely, precisely, what the Scripture says, and what our Lord Jesus Christ teaches. To teach otherwise is an abomination that causes desolation—and is an astonishing thing to say against the God of gods. But all who put their faith in Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life will have it, and already have it, as surely as the thief on the cross had it from the lips and heart of Jesus, our dear Jesus. As John writes, “Your sins have been forgiven by Jesus, and on account of his name” (1 John 2:12).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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