Daniel 11.36d-The Prophecy of the Duration of the Antichrist’s Reign Being Determined by God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 3, 2014
Daniel: Daniel 11:36d-The Prophecy of the Duration of the Antichrist’s Reign Being Determined by God
Lesson # 357
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 11:36.
Daniel 11:36 “Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.” (NASB95)
“And he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done” is a concessive clause indicating that this wicked king will reign successfully with absolute power until the time of wrath is complete for his reign has been decreed by God despite the fact that he will openly oppose God.
“He will prosper” is the verb ṣā·lǎḥ (צָלַח) (tsaw-lakh´), which means “to succeed” in the sense of attaining a desired end indicating that this unique king with absolute power and who opposes the true God will succeed in bringing about that which he desires, namely reigning with absolute power while opposing the true God.
“Until the indignation is finished” is composed of the preposition ʿǎḏ (עַד) (ad), “until” and its object is the verb kā·lā(h) (כָּלָה) (kaw-law´), “is finished” which is followed by the noun zǎ·ʿǎm (זַעַם) (zah´-am), “the indignation.”
The noun zǎ·ʿǎm means “wrath, righteous indignation” since it refers to a curse that expresses extreme indignation and here it refers to God’s wrath or righteous indignation which will be manifested against the inhabitants of the earth during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week.
This noun is the object of the preposition ʿǎḏ which means “until” since it denotes a continuous extent of time up to a point indicating that this unique king with absolute power who opposes the true God will succeed “until” the righteous indignation of God is finished or brought to an end.
The verb kā·lā(h) means “to finish, to bring to an end, to be completed” in the sense of bringing a situation or set of circumstances or process to completion referring to a forcible cessation of an activity and always points to a complete stop and not a mere hindrance to something.
Here in Daniel 11:36, the verb kā·lā(h) speaks of bringing to an end or completion the exercise of God’s righteous indignation against the inhabitants of the earth for rejecting His Son Jesus Christ during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week.
“For that which is decreed will be done” presents the reason why this unique king with absolute power while opposing the true God will succeed until the righteous indignation is completed.
“That which is decreed will be done” means that the reign of this unique king with absolute power while opposing the true God has been decreed by God to take place in history.
Daniel 11:36 “Then, a unique king will do according to his desire. Consequently, he will exalt himself so that he will magnify himself above every deity. He will also issue extraordinary statements against the true God. However, despite this, he will succeed until the righteous indignation related to the end is completed because that which has been decreed must take place.” (My translation)
The fourth and final prophetic statement in Daniel 11:36 continues to describe the character and actions of the unique king mentioned in the first prophetic statement.
Since we have already determined that this wicked king is the Antichrist, we can conclude that this righteous indignation related to the end is referring to the last three and a half years of the seventieth week.
This corresponds to the prophecy in Daniel 7:25.
Daniel 7:25 “‘Furthermore, he will issue statements against the Most High. Also, he will make it his habit of persecuting the Most High’s saints as well as attempting to change the times, yes even the Law. Indeed, they will be given into his power for a period of a time, times and a half a time.’” (Author’s translation)
The expression “for a period of time, times, and a half time” refers to the last three and a half years of the seventieth week which is called by expositors of the Scripture, “the Great Tribulation.”
“A time” means one year, “times” two years and “half a time” six months which corresponds to the 1,260 days in Revelation 12:6 and the 42 months in Revelation 11:2 and 13:5.
This righteous indignation refers to the exercise of God’s legitimate holy anger toward the inhabitants of planet earth for rejecting His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.
Righteousness indignation speaks of God’s wrath, which is an expression of His holiness.
The difference between righteous indignation and anger is that the former is based upon concern for the holiness of God whereas the latter is emotional, selfish, self-centered, vindictive and intent on harming another.
God’s righteous indignation is the legitimate anger towards evil and sin since both are contrary to His holiness or perfect character and nature.
In fact, God’s righteous indignation expresses His holiness.
The completion of this righteous indignation will take place at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
The last three and a half years of the seventieth week when God pours out His righteous indignation against the inhabitants of the earth is referred to in Daniel 9:27.
In fact, the last prophetic statement corresponds to the last prophetic statement in Daniel 9:27.
Daniel 9:27 “Then, he will establish a firm covenant with the leaders, which will be one unit of seven years. However, he will cause the sacrificial offering to stop in the middle of this unit of seven years while between the wings which results in abominations, he will cause desecration. Indeed, until a decreed complete destruction is poured out against the desecrater.” (Author’s translation)
So during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week God will pour out His righteous indignation against the inhabitants of the earth.
During this period of time, the Lord Jesus Christ will break seven seals, which contain judgments that will be poured out upon the earth at that time.
These seven seal judgments are recorded in Revelation 6:1-17 and 8:1-5.
The seventh seal triggers seven trumpet judgments, which are recorded in Revelation 8:1-9:21 and 11:15-19.
The seventh trumpet judgment triggers seven bowl judgments, which are recorded in Revelation 16.
These bowl judgments complete the third and final portion of God’s program to exercise His wrath, i.e. righteous indignation during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth, which is also called by students of prophecy as the “Great Tribulation.”
The Scriptures plainly teach that the wrath poured out during the Great Tribulation period originates with God and is therefore a time of God’s wrath upon a Christ rejecting a world that is deceived by the devil (See Isaiah 34:1-2; Joel 1:15; Obadiah 15; Revelation 15:1, 7; 16:1; Revelation 19:11-21).
The Scriptures plainly reveal that Daniel’s Seventieth Week, also known as the Great Tribulation period is distinctly the time when God’s wrath and judgment fall upon the earth.
This is not wrath from men, nor from Satan, except as God may use these agencies as instruments for the execution of His will, thus the wrath during Daniel’s Seventieth Week is tribulation from God.
This period differs from all preceding tribulation, not only in intensity but also in the kind of tribulation, since it comes from God Himself.
The pouring out of God’s Wrath will be administered by the Lord Jesus Christ when He executes the seven seal judgments.
One of the purposes of the tribulation is to pour out judgment on unbelieving man and nations (Joel 3:2).
The seven seal judgments are directly related to this judgment of the world’s inhabitants who are deceived by the devil.
The divine judgments that will fall on the inhabitants of the earth are designed to lead men to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ since God desires all men to be saved (2 Peter 3:9).
The divine judgments that will fall on the earth are also designed to destroy Satan’s cosmic system and establish Christ’s millennial rule (Revelation 11:15).
So at His “Second Advent,” the Lord Jesus Christ will bring to an end the Times of the Gentiles and the seventieth week and thus the exercise of God’s righteous indignation during the seventieth week.
There will also be a national regeneration of the nation of Israel at the Second Advent.
He will also destroy the Tribulational armies, have Antichrist and the False Prophet thrown into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 19:11-19), will imprison Satan for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3) and will establish His millennial reign on planet earth (Rev. 20:4-6).
At that time, the Lord and His armies will orbit the earth before landing on the Mount of Olives, which was the site of His Ascension (Acts. 1:9-11).
There will be a great earthquake when our Lord’s foot touches the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:1-8) and will be a unique day having neither day nor night (Zech. 14:7).
The “Second Advent” of Jesus Christ is taught in both the Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalm 2:1-9; 24:7-10; 96:10-13; 110; Isaiah 9:6-7; 63:1-6; Jeremiah 23:1-8; Daniel 2:44-45; 7:18-27; Zechariah 12; 14:1-9; Matthew 19:28; 24:27-31; Mark 13:24-30; Luke 12:35-40; 17:24-37; 18:8; 21:25-28; Acts 1:10-11; 15:16-18; Romans 11:25-27; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; 2:8; 2 Peter 3:3-4; Jude 14-15; Revelation 1:7-8; 2:25-28; 16:15; 19:11-21).