A Personal UPDATE Article

Pedigree of the Coming World Leader?

The Genealogy of the Antichrist

Waiting in the wings of the forthcoming global turmoil is the Man with a Plan—the one whom the world will
welcome to resolve its many problems. The Bible gives us many provocative clues to his identity1, and from
many prophetic glimpses his genealogical line may prove to be traceable.
Daniel Chapters 7, 8 and 11 describe the career of Alexander the Great and his successors so vividly they
constitute some of the most remarkable prophecies in the Bible. We also find that Alexander’s four generals—
Lysimachus, Cassander,Ptolemy, and Seleucus—divide the empire after his death just as the passages indicated.
2
As Israel is sandwiched by the subsequent tensions between Ptolemy (Egypt) to the south and Seleucus (Syria)
to the north, it is also amazing to note the precision with which Daniel records their respective successors in
Chapter 11.3
Antiochus Epiphanes
The Seleucid ruler that figures so prominently in Biblical studies is, of course, Antiochus IV, who also adopted
the label Epiphanes or Coming One. Committed to crushing Judaism, he outlawed the keeping of the Torah,
persecuted the Jews, and confirmed his place in history by having a sow sacrificed on the sacred altar in the
Temple in Jerusalem and placing an idol to Zeus inside the Holy of Holies itself. This desecration is known
specifically as The Abomination of Desolation.
The consequent outrage led to the famed Maccabbean revolt which success fully threw off the yoke of the
Greek rulers and ushered in the Hasmonean period of Israel’s history. On the third anniversary of the Temple’s
desecration, on the 25th of Kislev, 165 b.c., the Temple was rededicated. This rededication is celebrated to this
very day as Hanukkah.4
This historical event took on additional prophetic significance two centuries later when four disciples received a
private briefing by Jesus Himself on the Second Coming, in which Jesus alluded to a future reoccurrence of a
similar desecration as the key to all end-time prophecy.5 This repetition of the Abomination of Desolation is the
central milestone in the middle of the climactic seven-year period comprising the Seventieth Week of Daniel
Chapter 9.6
However, as so often occurs in Biblical prophecy, many times the immediate, local application of a passage
clearly transcends the context to yield a glimpse of a larger, more climactic application.7 While the passage in
Daniel 11--up to verse 35--has clearly been historically fulfilled, verses 36-45 seem to strangely overlap both
the career of Antiochus Epiphanes of the past and also the final world ruler, portrayed as the Willful King.8
After the horrible reign of Antiochus IV, the Seleucid line continued under the same title, with Antiochus V, VI,
VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIII. The Seleucid dynasty came to an end in 63 b.c. when Pompey declared that Syria
would become a Roman province. However, the descendants of the Seleucids continued in importance and
became intertwined with the Herodians and the royal houses of Rome.9
The Prince That Shall Come
The Coming World Leader—commonly known as the Antichrist—has 33 titles in the Old Testament and 13 in