Rabbi Schneider - What Is the Antichrist?
There's 150 chapters in the Bible, the Word of God, that talk about the end of the age and the return of God's manifest presence to the earth that we call the return of Jesus. We have been going through different elements of this and today I'm picking up where I left off last week. I'm talking, beloved ones, about the rise of a human being on our planet that's going to appear to be a person of good will. He's gonna be very charismatic. He's gonna unite the peoples of the earth together. People will believe in him as having the answers for world peace and prosperity. What is amazing to me is that this individual that I'm describing is talked about, not only in the Book of Revelation, but he's described in detail by Daniel.
And I want you to hear this. When Yeshua's disciples asked him in Matthew, 24, Tell us, they said to Him, about the end of the age, and about the signs of your coming. Jesus answered them by quoting from Daniel's book. So without further ado, I'm gonna go right back to where I left off last week. I'm gonna be reading to you from the Book of Daniel, chapter 8. I did read this last week, those of you that are tuning in right now, so don't think that if you were paying attention last week that now it's a repeat message. It's a new message, but I have other material that I want to communicate to you about the rise of this anti-Messiah or anti-Christ.
Hear the Word of God now, as I go to the Book of Daniel. I'm reading chapter 8, verses number 9-12. Daniel is describing a world ruler. He's talking about a political figure that's going to arise, and he says: One of them, speaking of the world leaders that he sees at the end of the age, out of them came forth a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land, which is Israel. It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the starts to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. Now this is mysterious language. How could this human being grow up to the hosts of heaven? Because it's not just a human being, it's Satan incarnated in a human being. Even as Jesus, get this now, church, is God incarnate. In other words, Jesus is fully God and fully man. Jesus is God clothes in humanity. This one that Daniel's describing is gonna be Satan clothed in humanity. So he's both a man, but he is also fully possessed and, and owned by the devil.
So listen again: He grew up to having caused some of the hosts and some of the stars to fall to the earth and it trampled them down; even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the hosts... I spoke last week, this is Jesus, Himself. ...and it removed... It's interesting here how Daniel calls this anti-Christ an it, 'cause this thing isn't human. He's got a human body but it is no longer a human. There's no vestige of humanity left in him. He's merciless. In other words, he has no feeling for anything of beauty. Now he's gonna, of course, look completely different than this. It's kind of like a woman that knows how to seduce a man for her own purposes. Let's say, for example, and forgive me women, I'm not picking on you, but let's just use an example to try to bring this, flush this out so people can grasp it. Let's say, for example, there's a woman that wants to marry somebody that has a lot of money, and that's her primary goal is to marry somebody that has a lot of money.
I know that none of you are like that, but we know there's a few women out there that are like that. And so what she does is she finds a man that has a lot of money, and what does she do? She represents herself to him with seduction, with being so loving, with being so caring, with being all these things that this rich man would desire. But underneath all that craftiness all there is is a spirit and a heart of selfishness. She just wants to use the man. And so this anti-Messiah is gonna arise with craftiness. And what he wants to do, beloved ones, is to take the place of God in humanity's hearts. So it grew up to the hosts of heaven, causing some of the host and some of the starts to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down.
Now what does this mean? Remember when, when, when Daniel began to pray, an angel from heaven was released to come to him. But the angel couldn't get to him because there was this cosmic war that was going on. Not until Michael was released to release the angel that had been taken captive by the devil, did the answer come. There's a cosmic war that's going on. Just 'cause we can't see it, let's not be so arrogant to think that it doesn't exist. Here we are, human little, you know, little human beings, and yet we're so arrogant we think that if we can't see it under a test tube it must not be real. How arrogant of us to have this kind of an attitude. We think that unless we can measure it with science it doesn't exist. And we throw God out of our concept of reality. The reality is, beloved, we're only here because God put us here. And I could go on with a whole separate message about this. But I'm just trying to help you grasp the fact that there are other beings in reality besides human beings. There are spirit beings. And just because we can't see them, we shouldn't be so arrogant into thinking that they don't exist. That's pure arrogance of us to do that.
Let's continue on. He goes on to say: This being, this, this anti-Messiah, this anti-Christ, even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed regular sacrifice from Him. Again, I spoke about this last week but I'm continuing on here. And the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. And on account of transgression the hosts will be given to the horn along with the regular sacrifice. Meaning that because of sin, God has reached a point where He's going to allow this enemy of His to gain power, to, to take things captive. Listen, on account of transgression the hosts will be given over to the horn... God's gonna allow it to happen because of sin. ...along with the regular sacrifice and it, this thing, this anti-Christ, this being that is filled with the devil, will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper.
Now let me just comment here. Why does the Word say here that because of transgression God allowed these things to happen? Regular sacrifice was given over, etc. It's because, beloved, the Bible tells us that Jesus can't return and won't return until the anti-Christ is first exposed and revealed. It's just part of God's plan. And so God is allowing this to happen because sin has to reach its climax for the anti-Messiah to arise. Once the anti-Messiah arises, there's gonna come a point where Jesus is gonna break in, destroy him, and establish His kingdom. He's gonna cleanse the earth of sin, and control now, the atmosphere of the world. So it's gonna be a world of righteousness. But He's not gonna do that until the anti-Christ is revealed.
And so the point is, is God has done all that he can do. At this point, all of humanity that would have received Jesus have received Him. Those that have not have hardened themselves to a place where they no longer are capable of receiving God's grace. And so God is allowing Satan to prosper for the purposes of destroying him to manifest His glory, just like we read about, church, in Romans, 9, where God said to Pharaoh, For this very purpose, Pharaoh, have I raised you up to make My glory known. In other words, God raised Pharaoh up then hardened his heart.
Now Pharaoh's heart was already hard, so God wasn't hardening an innocent person's heart. But God was hardening a heart that was already hardened. God said, For this very purpose I raised you up. In other words, he brought Pharaoh to be a king, then He hardened his heart. Why? Because God wanted to show His glory by doing the miracles. Every time Pharaoh resisted God, God released a miracle and all the world heard about the fame of God through the miracles that God released in Egypt for the salvation of the children of Israel. So sometimes God will allow evil to arise because He has a greater purpose in mind, and that is to reveal His glory. And that is what is happening here that we're reading about in Daniel, 8. God is allowing the anti-Christ to prosper because it's not until the anti-Christ is revealed that God's gonna step in, crush him under His feet, and establish His own kingdom.
So let's continue on with this. So it says: Because of the rebellion, an army was given to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifice; and it cast truth to the ground. It practiced this, get this now, church, and prospered. So first of all we see that God is gonna allow the anti-Christ here to cause sacrifice, get this now, to cease. In other words, listen now, what God is gonna allow the devil, the forces of darkness that oppose light that are being manifest through the anti-Christ, what God is gonna allow to happen is for the anti-Christ to be successful by and large, listen now, from removing, get this, the worship of the true God on the earth. Now, of course, the elect will still worship. The elect will still love. But the elect are gonna be a very small number of people. It's gonna be a remnant.
So we already see this happening in the world. We see it happening in Europe, where the flame of the love of Jesus has largely gone out in Europe; very few living alive churches in Europe. We see it happening in the mainline churches today. Forgive me those of you that are part of a mainline church. But you see that the mainline churches are dying out; that younger people are not, generally speaking now, keeping those flames alive. And that those that call themselves Christians today, so many of them are not fully, radically in love with and committed to Jesus. They've got one foot in the world and one foot, beloved, in the church. They, many of them, enjoy the worship music, and they like the feeling of the energy of the worship. But when it comes to discipleship, when it comes to maintaining sexual fidelity, when it comes to things that involve sacrifice like tithing, when it comes to witnessing, we have a remnant that's alive and on fire for Jesus. But by and large, beloved, the world's committed Christians are shrinking, and the anti-Messiah is replacing the worship, and honor, and the heart of sacrifice to the one true God to himself.
And who is the anti-Christ? He's a god, beloved, that worships me. In other words, he's all about himself. And when you look today at human beings, it's no longer for most about the worship of God and the Creator. But it's more about the god of me. And so we see this. It's not just the destruction of a third temple. It's destruction, beloved, of the biblical ideology that puts God at the center of everything. The Bible speaks about God as being the one from Whom are all things. For from Him, and through Him, Paul said, and to Him are all things. It's the Lamb in the center of the throne. When we see a scene in heaven in the Book of Revelation, all of creation is worshipping God and the Lamb on the throne. God's at the center. But today, we've removed, what Daniel said, we've removed the sacrifice. We've removed worship. We've removed the sanctuary. This is an ideological demolition of the worship of the true God of the Bible. And the true God of the Bible has been replaced with an ideology, beloved, that is similar to the heart of Satan who is all about me.
And so I want to continue to help us understand that we need to think in bigger terms. Some of us just think about the abomination of desolation that Daniel spoke of in his book about, some of you that are more advanced in understanding the end times, you think about a third temple that's gonna be built in Jerusalem, and that the anti-Messiah is gonna sit in that temple and demand to be worshiped as God. But I want to propose to you that we're not just talking about a third temple, but we're talking about a complete system of ideologies that are contrary to the ideology of the Word of God. And so for example today, what is the mindset of our society in the Western World? No more Ten Commandments, as I said, on public property. No more prayers in public schools.
In fact, if you pray in Jesus' name at a public sporting event in a high school, you can literally be charged and prosecuted for that. It's a different world, beloved. The atmosphere that surrounds our planet today is no longer permeated like it has been with the atmosphere of heaven. We're living in a different world. And Daniel spoke about this when he said this one was gonna come forth, this little horn, and he was gonna cast truth to the ground. And from there he's gonna proceed to try to put himself in a position that people will worship him.
Now let me give you an example of this. We find in the, the tradition of Judaism the celebration of what we call Hanukkah. We read about this in John, chapter 10. In the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John, we read about Jesus in the temple during the Feast of Dedication. The word dedication is the English word for the Hebrew Hanukkah. What was this all about? What was Jesus celebrating in John, chapter 10? And what are Jewish people celebrating today when they celebrate Hanukkah? What they're celebrating, beloved ones, is a literal historical event. And the event was this. There was a ruler in 167 BC by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. And Antiochus Epiphanes conquered much of the land of Israel. And he went inside the temple there and he, he, he, turned the temple into a shrine where they were worshipping Zeus, literally sacrificing a pig to Zeus in that temple. He defiled it.
Antiochus Epiphanes, he set himself up as the one to be worshipped. He was a type of the anti-Christ. And somehow this world leader is gonna create an atmosphere on planet earth where he's gonna remove the worship of God and instead draw people to exalt him, much like Adolph Hitler did. You see, we read about this in the Book of Thessalonians; 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 3-4. Listen to this. He's speaking of, Paul is speaking about the return of the Lord and what's gonna have to happen before Jesus returns. And what Paul speaks of here is exactly what I just told you. Hear the Word of God: For that day will not come, the day of Jesus' return, for that day will not come unless a falling away comes first. A falling away, what? A falling away from God. For that day will not come unless a falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes, listen now, and, hear it, exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself as God.
And so we find that there's gonna be this being, and from the beginning what he wanted was to be worshipped. He was jealous that God is worshipped. That's why he was thrown out of heaven. We read about that in the Old Testament, in the Tanakh, that Satan was thrown out of heaven, Lucifer, was thrown out of heaven because he exalted himself trying to take the place of God. I'm reading now from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, verses number 12-14. You'll hear what I'm saying and how it was even revealed in the Old Testament or the Tanakh. Hear the Word of God: How you are fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, get it now, Isaiah, chapter 14:12-14, I will ascend to heaven.
This is the same thing that we read about in the Book of Thessalonians that I just read. He wanted to exalt himself. We read about it in Isaiah as well. I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. Do you see this thing? It's self-exaltation to the highest. Now we see this spirit in humanity, the propensity within fallen man to exalt himself. Where does this come from? It comes from Satan that fell from heaven that's working in the lives of humankind. And it's gonna climax in the rise of the anti-Messiah who's gonna be the very personification of Satan.
Beloved, hear me when I say to you, it's real. It's gonna happen, and it's coming down the pike towards you and I quick. And we need to get prepared so that we can stand. The good news is, neither nor height, nor depth, things past, present or things to come can separate us from the love of God. We're more than conquerors through all these things. But listen, like the five virgins that were prepared, we need to be prepared so that we can stand when we face these things that are coming in the near future. Things are happening very quickly upon the earth. Beloved, I want to encourage you to stand. Jesus' last words, I come quickly. Beloved one, get ready, Jesus is coming back for you and I very, very soon.