The Antichrist Signs a Covenant
Scripture reveals that the single event that starts the tribulation period is the antichrist’s signing of a covenant with Israel. This relates directly to Daniel’s prophecy of seventy weeks.
In Daniel 9 God provided a prophetic timetable for the nation of Israel. The prophetic clock began ticking when the command went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem following its destruction by Babylon (Daniel 9:25). According to this verse, Israel’s timetable was divided into 70 groups of 7 years—a total of 490 years.
The first 69 groups of 7 years—or 483 years—counted the years “from the going out of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince” (Daniel 9:25). The Anointed One, or Messiah, is Jesus Christ. The day Jesus rode into Jerusalem to proclaim Himself Israel’s Messiah was 483 years to the day after the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem had been given.
At that point God’s prophetic clock stopped. Daniel describes a gap between these 483 years and the final 7 years of Israel’s prophetic timetable. Several events were to take place during this gap, according to Daniel 9:26: The Messiah would be killed, the city of Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed (which occurred in AD 70), and the Jews would encounter difficulty and hardship from that time on.
The final “week” of seven years will begin for Israel when the antichrist confirms a seven-year covenant (Daniel 9:27). The signing of this peace pact will signal the beginning of the tribulation period. It will begin the seven-year countdown to the second coming of Christ, which follows the tribulation period.
This seven-year time frame for the tribulation is reflected in other ancient Jewish literature, as Renald Showers shows in his helpful book Maranatha: Our Lord Come!
The Babylonian Talmud states, “Our Rabbis taught: In the seven-year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come…at the conclusion of the septennate the son of David will come.”
Raphael Patai, writing on the Messianic texts, said, “The idea became entrenched that the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by greatly increased suffering…This will last seven years. And then, unexpectedly, the Messiah will come.”1
The antichrist’s signing of the covenant with Israel constitutes not only the beginning of the tribulation period but also the beginning of the day of the Lord. The term day of the Lord is used in several senses in Scripture. The Old Testament prophets sometimes used it to describe an event to be fulfilled in the near future. At other times, they referred to an event in the distant eschatological future (the future tribulation period). The immediate context of the term generally indicates which sense is intended.
In both cases, the day of the Lord is characterized by God supernaturally intervening in order to bring judgment against sin in the world. The day of the Lord is a time in which God actively controls and dominates history in a direct way instead of working through secondary causes.
Among the New Testament writers, the term is generally used of the judgment that will climax in the end-time seven-year tribulation period (see 2 Thessalonians 2:2; Revelation 16–18) as well as the judgment that will usher in the new earth after the millennial kingdom (2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 20:7–21:1; see also Isaiah 65:17-19; 66:22; Revelation 21:1). This theme of judgment against sin runs like a thread through the many references to the day of the Lord.
A number of scriptural passages indicate that this aspect of the day of the Lord has not yet taken place but awaits the end times. For example, Isaiah 34:1-8 describes a day of the Lord in which God will judge all nations of the earth: “The LORD is enraged against all the nations… he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter” (verse 2). None of the past days of the Lord ever involved divine judgment of all the nations. This indicates that the day of the Lord of Isaiah 34 must be yet future—that is, the tribulation period.
Similarly, Joel 3:1-16 and Zechariah 14:1-3,12-15 speak of a day of the Lord that will involve God’s judgment of the armies of all the nations when they gather to wage war against Israel. We are told that the Jewish Messiah will come to war against these nations. This seems to coincide with Revelation 16:12-16, where we find that the armies will not begin to gather until the sixth bowl is poured out during the seventieth week of Daniel 9. Revelation 19:11-21 reveals that Christ will wage war against these armies when He comes from heaven to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. Such facts force the conclusion that the day of the Lord spoken of by Joel 3 and Zechariah 14 is yet future.
Likewise, the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 reveals that this eschatological day of the Lord is yet future. Paul warned that this day would bring sudden, inescapable destruction upon the unsaved of the world. The context of 1 Thessalonians 5 clearly points to the end-times tribulation period.
Because the antichrist’s signing of the covenant with Israel begins the tribulation period, we can also say that this signing of the covenant begins the eschatological day of the Lord. Thankfully, Christians will escape this day because of the rapture.2
The apostle Paul warned of a “man of lawlessness,” which is the antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:3,8-9). Though sin and lawlessness are already at work in our own day (verse 7), Paul says a day is coming in which a specific individual will come into power in the future tribulation period who will be the embodiment of sin and lawlessness (compare with 1 John 2:18; Revelation 11:7; 13:1-10).
This lawless one will ultimately lead the entire world into rebellion against God (2 Thessalonians 2:10) as the son of destruction (verse 3). He is presently being restrained by the Holy Spirit, but after the rapture (when Christians indwelt by the Holy Spirit will be removed from the earth), he will be made manifest (verse 6) and will deceive multitudes (Revelation 19:20).
Scripture reveals that the antichrist will be a genius in intellect (Daniel 8:23), commerce (Daniel 11:43; Revelation 13:16-17), war (Revelation 6:2; 13:2), speech (Daniel 11:36), and politics (Revelation 17:11-12).
This individual will perform counterfeit signs and wonders and deceive many people during the future tribulation period (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). In the book of Revelation, the apostle John describes this anti-God individual as a beast (Revelation 13:1-10).
This Satan-inspired individual will rise to prominence in the tribulation period, initially making a peace treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27). In his desire to dominate the world, he will double-cross and then seek to destroy the Jews, persecute believers, and set up his own kingdom (Revelation 13). He will speak arrogant and boastful words, glorifying himself (2 Thessalonians 2:4). His assistant, the false prophet, will seek to make the world worship the antichrist (Revelation 13:11-12). The false prophet will control the global economy by forcing people around the world to receive the mark of the antichrist in order to buy or sell (Revelation 13:16-17). However, to receive this mark ensures one of being the recipient of God’s wrath. The antichrist will eventually rule the whole world (Revelation 13:7) from his headquarters in Rome (Revelation 17:8-9). This beast will be defeated and bound by Jesus at His second coming (Revelation 19:11-16).
This is the big picture. Now let’s consider some details about this evil person.
Some interpreters have tried to argue that the antichrist will be a Jew. For example, an early tradition held that the antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan (one of the 12 tribes of Israel). Some relate this to the fact that the tribe of Dan fell into deep apostasy and idolatry, setting up a graven image (Judges 18:30). The Testament of Dan (5:6) names Satan as the prince of the tribe. Irenaeus, writing in the latter part of the second century, noted that the omission of Dan from the list of tribes in Revelation 7 was due to a tradition that the antichrist was to come from that tribe (Adv. Haer. v.30.2.).
However, Revelation 13:1 and 17:15 picture the antichrist as rising up out of the sea—a scriptural metaphor for the Gentile nations. Antiochus Epiphanes, himself a Gentile, typifies the future antichrist in Daniel 11. The antichrist is therefore not likely to be a Jew. Besides, he will persecute the Jews in the tribulation period (Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-21; Revelation 12:6,13-14).
More recently, for understandable reasons, many have claimed that the antichrist will be a Muslim. However, this view has significant theological problems. For one thing, Daniel 11:36 tells us the antichrist “shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god.” We also read in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 that the antichrist ultimately “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.”
To say the very least, a Muslim antichrist who claimed to be God would be trashing the Muslim creed, “There is one God named Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” No true Muslim would make any claim that he was God. Just as it is anathema to Muslims to call Jesus “God incarnate” or the “Son of God,” so it would be anathema to Muslims for any human to claim he was God. (Keep in mind that Muslims are radical monotheists.) A Muslim antichrist would thus be viewed as an infidel among Quran-believing Muslims.
Muslim teaching avows, “God can have no partners.” Muslims generally quote this as an argument against the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but it is certainly applicable to human leaders on earth who claim to be God. It is impossible to fathom a Muslim exalting himself to deity in this way.
Still further, Muslim teaching asserts that Allah is so radically unlike any earthly reality—so utterly transcendent and beyond anything in the finite realm—that he can scarcely be described using earthly terms. How, then, could a human, Muslim antichrist claim to be God? Again, it is impossible to fathom a Muslim describing himself in this way.
Also, why would a Muslim antichrist make a covenant with Israel, guaranteeing its protection (Daniel 9:24-27)? Many radical Muslims today want to push Israel into the sea or blow Israel off the map. A Muslim leader would not be likely to sign a covenant to protect Israel.
Still further, the Israelites—fully aware of Muslim animosity and hatred toward them—would never place their hopes of survival and security in the hands of a Muslim. Such a view makes no sense.
Contrary to the assumptions of some today, Gog (the leader of the invasion of Israel described in Ezekiel 38) is not the antichrist. Bible interpreters will end up in prophetic chaos if they try to make this identification.
The antichrist heads up a revived Roman Empire (Daniel 2; 7), but Gog heads up an invasion force made up of Russia and a number of Muslim nations (Ezekiel 38:1-6). Moreover, Gog’s invasion into Israel constitutes a direct challenge to the antichrist’s covenant with Israel (Daniel 9:27). Further, Gog’s moment in the limelight is short-lived because God will destroy the invading force (Ezekiel 39), whereas the antichrist is in power over much of the seven-year tribulation.
Daniel 7:3-8 refers to four beasts. These represent kingdoms that play an important role in biblical prophecy. Daniel begins in verse 3 by affirming, “Four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.” These four beasts reveal much about prophetic chronology.
The first, Daniel says, was “like a lion and had eagles’ wings,” but “its wings were plucked off” (verse 4). This imagery apparently represents Babylon, its lion-like quality indicating power and strength. It is interesting to observe that winged lions guarded the gates of Babylon’s royal palaces (see Jeremiah 4:7). The wings indicate rapid mobility, and the plucking of the wings indicates a removal of mobility (perhaps a reference to Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity or to Babylon’s deterioration following his death).
Daniel continued in verse 5. “And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’” This is the Medo-Persia kingdom, and the ribs are vanquished nations—perhaps Lydia, Babylon, and Egypt. Medo-Persia was well-known for its strength and fierceness in battle (see Isaiah 13:17-18).
Daniel describes a third beast in verse 6. “And behold, another like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.” The leopard was known for its swiftness, cunning, and agility. This imagery represents Greece under Alexander the Great. The four heads depict the four generals who divided the kingdom following Alexander’s death, ruling Macedonia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.
Finally, in verse 7, Daniel mentions the fourth beast—a mongrel that was more terrifying and powerful than the three preceding beasts.
Behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
This wild imagery refers to the Roman Empire. Rome already existed in ancient days, but it fell apart in the fifth century AD. It will be revived, however, in the end times, apparently comprised of ten nations ruled by ten kings (ten horns). I noted previously in the book that animals used their horns as weapons (see Genesis 22:3; Psalm 69:31). For this reason, the horn eventually came to be seen as a symbol of power and might. As an extension of this symbol, horns in biblical times were sometimes used as emblems of dominion, representing kingdoms and kings, as is the case in the books of Daniel (chapters 7–8) and Revelation (12:13; 13:1,11; 17:3-16).
In Daniel 7, an eleventh horn—a little horn (the antichrist)—starts out apparently in an insignificant way but grows powerful enough to uproot three of the existing horns (kings). He eventually comes into absolute power and dominance over this revived Roman Empire, probably halfway through the tribulation period.
Related to this, Daniel 2 records a prophetic dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. In this dream, this end-times Roman Empire was pictured as a mixture of iron and clay (see verses 41-43). Daniel, the great interpreter of dreams, saw this as meaning that just as iron is strong, so this latter-day Roman Empire would be strong. But just as iron and clay do not naturally mix with each other, so this latter-day Roman Empire would have some divisions. It would not be completely integrated.
Many modern biblical interpreters see the European Union (which is characterized by both unity and some division) as a primary prospect for the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy.3 The stage is now appearing to be set for the fulfillment of Daniel 2 and 7. Once the antichrist emerges into power in a revived Rome, it is just a matter of time before he comes into complete global domination.