by Phillip Goodman
Vice-President, Thy Kingdom Come Ministries

The subject of Daniel 11:36-45 is clearly the Antichrist. The timeframe for the events of this passage is the end time (11:40; 12:1, 2).[1]  Based primarily on data gleaned from the Daniel passage, some have claimed that the Antichrist will be Jewish.  The ethnic or racial origins of the Antichrist cannot be determined from the data in this passage alone.  The verse most often used to show that the Antichrist will arise from Jewish ancestry is Daniel 11:37, which states, “neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,” which implies that his fathers worshipped the God of Israel (KJV).  However, this verse can just as legitimately be translated to read “and he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers,” as it reads in the NASV and the NIV.[2]  In fact, the latter translation is more favorable.  It would be a redundant statement to say that the Antichrist will have no regard for “the God of his fathers,” since the previous verse has already stated that he “will speak monstrous things against the God of gods,” that is, the God of the fathers of Israel (e.g. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

The emphatic teaching of Scripture is that the Antichrist would be a Gentile.  One line of reasoning which I believe to be particularly compelling served as the basis for my book, The Assyrian Connection.[3]  When one reads the prophecies of Daniel concerning the final world power, he witnesses a systematic narrowing of the prophetic focus devoted to this infamous character.  Daniel 2 records the final Gentile power of this age emerging as the revived Roman empire, which includes a western “leg” and an eastern “leg.”  This two-fold division of the revived Roman empire implies the a 10-nation confederacy evidenced by the toes of the image.  Chapter 7 teaches explicitly that this end-time empire with its 10 kings will eventually sharpen the focus to introduce an 11^th king, “the Antichrist.”  Chapter 8 continues to sharpen the focus by blending the person, career and realm of Antiochus Epiphanes (ancient Syrian king) in the same manner as that of the Antichrist.  The strength of the message of Daniel 8 is recounted in chapter 11 with an even tighter focus offering more details.  It is in that chapter that one again witnesses this almost imperceptible merger from the arch-type, Antiochus, to his clone-like anti-type, the Antichrist.

It is in verse 36 that one suddenly finds the Antichrist (vv. 36-45) standing in the place of Antiochus (vv. 21-35).  This passage does not miss a beat in the discussion of this “king of the north.”  It is as though these verses were one sweeping panorama of the same king and kingdom.  The subject actually leaps more than two millennia from the one to the other!  The upshot of this to the present discussion is that this premier antichrist-type “Antiochus Epiphanes” was a Gentile.  Since Antiochus is by far the strongest foreshadow of the Antichrist presented in the Bible, it makes imminent sense that the Antichrist will also be a Gentile.

Daniel 9:27 states that the Antichrist deceives Israel with a false peace covenant.  To some this implies that he must be Jewish.  Actually, the Americans and the Russians are trying to accomplish this covenant at this very moment.  Furthermore, such a Gentile-Jewish pact is entirely within the scope of this prophecy.  It is even probable that the imprimatur of a Gentile power will be required to seal the seven year covenant regarding the rebuilding of the Temple and the resumption of temple sacrifices.  There really is no hint that the Antichrist is a Jew unless one accepts the elusive Daniel 11:36 to read, “God of his fathers,” rather than “gods of his fathers.”

It is preferable that in light of other prophecies whose meaning is more clear one would ask:  “Will not the end-time Gentile kingdom, which is the repository of all previous Gentile empires, be headed up by a Gentile?” (cf. Dan. 7; Rev. 13)  “Will not the world leader who presides over the final hour of the “times of the Gentiles” be himself a Gentile?” (cf. Lk. 21:24)  It is best to understand that the beast-like Antichrist who is seen “coming up out of the sea [of Gentile nations]” in Revelation 13:1 is a Gentile.  Finally, one must note that the term “antichrist” (antichristos) means “against Christ.”  He is not “in place” of Christ, which is the meaning of the term “psuedochristos” or “false Christ,” for he has magnified himself above “every so-called god or object of worship.”  In Matthew 24, the Antichrist is eluded to in verse 15, but is then followed by the appearance of many false Christs (plural, vv. 23-26).  This implies that the Antichrist will display himself as God in the Temple, and then commission his “anointed” messianic emissaries to certify his false peace act with Israel.  It is probable that these false Christs will be Jews.  These gnostic-style new age “Christ-conscious” types will oppose the testimony of the 144,000 Messianic Jews and seek converts to the new god of this earth, the Gentile Antichrist.