Meet the Antichrist, Part 8: Temple and False Prophet

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Meet the Antichrist Part Eight:
The Temple and False Prophet

By John of AllFaith © 7.21.08

So then the natural question arises, by whom, how and when will the Third Temple be built?

Of this the great Torah scholar Maimonides writes:

The anointed King [i.e. the Moshiach] is destined to stand up and restore the Davidic Kingdom to its antiquity, to the first sovereignty. He will build the Temple in Jerusalem and gather the strayed ones of Israel together. All laws will return in his days as they were before: Sacrificial offerings are offered and the Sabbatical years and Jubilees are kept, according to all its precepts that are mentioned in the Torah. Whoever does not believe in him, or whoever does not wait for his coming, not only does he defy the other prophets, but also the Torah and Moses our teacher. For the Torah testifies about him, thus: "And the Lord Your God will return your returned ones and will show you mercy and will return and gather you... If your strayed one shall be at the edge of Heaven... And He shall bring you" etc. (Deuteronomy 30:3-5).

Since the prophets show that most Jews, Christians and others will accept the Rex Mundi as Moshiach (Messiah), understanding what is expected of the true Moshiach will fill in the blanks of what the false one will have to do.

We see then that this coming Son of Perdition will build the Third Temple and that that act will, for a time, be accepted as partial evidence that is the promised Moshiach. The rebuilding of the Temple will doubtless be part of his treaty with Israel referenced by various prophets at the End of Days. Since the Rambam (Maimonides) clearly states here that Moshiach will rebuild the Temple and bring peace to Israel, when this coming ruler accomplishes these tasks it will be only natural for the Jews to accept him as their long awaited king and national redeemer.

John 5:43 I [Y'shua] am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

The vast majority of Christians believe Master Y'shua was the Messiah even though he failed to fulfill several of the key scriptural requirements. While it is admitted by scripturally knowledgeable Christians that the Master did not fulfill these requirements, they believe he will return and fulfill them at a later date, at the End of Days. I discuss this at my Noahide Nazarene site in some detail. This failure to fulfill the essential messianic prophecies, coupled with Y'shua's rejection of the Oral Torah which had become Judaism's main source of doctrine by his day, is the main reason he was rejected by the leaders of Israel and impaled.

Now obviously some of these things will not be seen during the reign of the Son of Perdition. For instance, he will not be able to "swallow up death forever." However, even these more incredible prophetic requirements will seem to be just around the corner with the incredible advances of technology as the Rex Mundi consolidates his power over the earth.

The Temple Rebuilt

As stated earlier, this leader will have "...a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies..." It will be through his personal charisma, diplomacy and the enacting of treatise that he will come to power. During a time of great international chaos and fear, he appear to be the voice of reason, the bringer of peace:

I Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

We can now understand that the Antichrist will be a political ruler who will use religion as a tool. He will proclaim himself the Messiah, the Madhi, Lord Kalki, Maitreya and so on. Most people will accept him as the World Teacher. He will be a great unifier of humanity and be widely accepted in this role by much of the world. Rex Mundi will solve the diverse global and regional crises and establish a time of global peace and security. He will not only defend Israel, he will promote Judaism as a religion deserving of respect even as his own Secular Humanist religion establishes the Universal Church led by the False Prophet.

11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

It will be this False Prophet who will lead Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and others into the Universal Secular Humanist Church. The head of that church will be the Rex Mundi. And the False Prophet will lead them.

The Rex Mundi will publicly honor this view and hence Orthodox rabbis will accept him and he will rebuild the Jerusalem Temple. As time goes by they will come to question his wisdom and his sincerity until finally they will reject him as Moshiach after he commits the abomination of desolation.

The treaty the Antichrist signs with Israel will be for seven years, which is a relatively short duration as such things go. It does not necessarily follow that the Antichrist will only be on the scene for this amount of time. Although his administration will be short lived, it will doubtless be developed over a period of years prior to the signing of this treaty.

This is the second forty-two months following the signing of the treaty. This will begin when the Antichrist willfully profanes the new Jerusalem Temple causing the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet.

Verses 3-20 of this chapter gives a prophetic overview of the third beast (i.e. Greece) especially with regard to Syria and Egypt that directly impacted Eretz Israel unto the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. It then describes his abuses (verses 21-35). At this point, the information leaps forward to Daniel's main interest, the end of the Gentile Times. Then, beginning in verse 36, Daniel narrates events of the Last Days. In this, Antiochus Epiphanes is presented as a shadow of the coming king, the Little Horn of 7:8, here referred to as willful king. That this is not Antiochus Epiphanes but the future enemy of Israel in the last days is confirmed by verse 40: "...And at the time of the end..."

Dan 11:6 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
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.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds 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.

These verses coincide perfectly with what we know of the coming Antichrist.

It is also noteworthy that pans are now underway to divide the Holy City and give its eastern section to the Islamic Ummah.

The Rex Mundi will obviously be Jewish and hence "the God of his fathers" will be HaShem of Israel whom his family worshiped but whom he will reject. At this point the Son of perdition will openly reject the God of Israel and proclaim his allegiance to a god previously unknown to them.

Neither the Torah nor the Tanakh accepts the idea that the God of Israel might take upon himself physical form. This idea is held by Nicean Christianity however and the Son of Perdition is referred to as the Antichrist. Now we see that he will proclaim not only his own divinity but also the worship of a god unknown to the Jews (a god his fathers did not know). The identity of this god is not revealed to us in the biblical prophecies directly, but we can see the relationship of the Son of the Perdition to this god. The False Prophet will explain that the god of the Universal Church is the totality of God, the Godhead from Whom all conceptions of divinity flow. This view is a mirror image of the truth.

Truth mixed with heresy. Secular Humanism has led the world toward what we might call the unification of God, but under the False Prophet the One God of Light will be flipped into a god of darkness. The perfect counterfeit. Christ means the anointed, this teaching will be the anti-anointing.

The Rex Mundi will proclaim himself the embodiment of this "god of light" in the same way that most Christians hold that Y'shua is the embodiment of the God of Light bodily. Hence Lucifer will be proclaimed the god of the earth and the worship of any other will be strictly forbidden on pain of death. In the follow texts, we can glean a bit more insight:

Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast [the Antichrist] rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns [compare Daniel 7], and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

The identity of the god proclaimed by the Antichrist, regardless of the name he might employ, is shown to be the Dragon, who in biblical terms we know to be the fallen angel Lucifer, Son of the Morning. Lucifer himself will therefore bestow upon the beast his power and great authority over the earth.

The basic time line appears to be that after committing the abomination of desolation in the Holy of Holies of Jerusalem Temple, the world leader will walk outside into the limelight of the world's media to receive praise. TV crews will rush forward to record his every word and movement – a living god in their midst! The whole world will be enthused with honor and admiration for this man...

The prophecy doesn't tell us how long the leader will remain dead however considering his desire to mimic the accounts of Master Y'shua it is likely that he will be dead for three and half days, as was Prophet Y'shua. It will certainly be long enough to remove any doubt that his wound was fatal, that the dear leader was dead.

And yet some people will make war against him!

Part Nine Coming Soon!