The Antichrist Makes Peace With Israel
The Antichrist Makes Peace With Israel
By Nathan Jones
The signs of the times indicate that we are on the threshold of the Tribulation — a time of unparalleled carnage that will befall the earth. The earth will plunge into a period of time that the Bible describes will be the most horrific in all of human history.
How do we know the covenant the Antichrist signs will provide Israel with a time of peace?
For the answers to these questions and many others concerning the Tribulation, Dr. David Reagan and Nathan E. Jones address these important end times questions. The full discussion can be found on a special television episode of Christ in Prophecy.
The Peace Confirmed
Dr. Reagan: Daniel 9:27a reads, “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.” Daniel prophesies a “he” who confirms a covenant or treaty, depending on the translation, with the many that will last for one week. And yet, prophecy teachers conclude from this verse that the Antichrist will make a seven-year peace treaty with Israel.
Nathan Jones: Some say that conclusion is a stretch, but the rest of verse 27 fills in much of the interpretation. “But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
Verse 27, along with other biblical references to the Antichrist, would continue the interpreted account to be that in the middle of the week of years (i.e. halfway through seven years) the he, being the Antichrist based on context, breaks a covenant he has made with the many. The many must be Israel, because he enters into the newly built Jewish Temple. Currently, there is no Third Temple on the Temple Mount. Only the Islamic Dome of the Rock stands in the original Temple’s location, so a Temple must one day again stand. Once in the Third Temple, the Antichrist sets up an abomination, ends the sacrifices and offerings, and then he declares himself to be God and the only one the world’s inhabitants are allowed to worship.
Some theologians have translated this passage to mean the Antichrist breaks a treaty which specified permissions for the Jewish people which allowed them to rebuild the Temple. Some naturally figure that in order for the Jewish people to rebuild their temple, some kind of peace would have to exist between Israel and the Muslim world. As long as the Muslims are dominating the Temple Mount, and would unify to annihilate Israel if the Israelis ever attempted to rebuild their temple there, then some paradigm has to change that would grant Israel permission.
I believe the War of Gog and Magog as described in Ezekiel 38-39 is what changes that paradigm. Timing indicators would place that epic war between the God of Israel and the Russian-Islamic coalition just before or at the onset of the Tribulation. God steps in and supernaturally destroys both Russian and Islamic armies and nations, which would most decisively end the Islamic threat.
Imagine a world where Russia and Islam are no longer threats. Christianity has been raptured out, leaving the Americas and China crippled. A new superpower and its leader would rise to step into the power vacuum. That leader would then want peace between the God of Israel and the rest of the world, and that would involve a covenant. This is the very covenant that starts the countdown of the Daniel’s Seventieth Week prophecy. Hence, we know the week reference is a week of years, equaling seven years.
Dr. Reagan: Bible prophecy reveals the Third Temple must be rebuilt, and that the Temple can only be rebuilt on the original site of the Temple Mount. The Jews believe with all their heart that the original site stands where the Dome of the Rock sits today on the Temple Mount.
Something has got to happen to the Dome of the Rock so that the Third Temple can be built in its place. Perhaps the Dome is going to be destroyed during the Psalm 83 War, when Israel deals with its hostile bordering neighbors, or during the Gog and Magog War. The Temple must to be rebuilt in order for the Antichrist to set up an abomination in it, so there has to be some sort of peace treaty signed where the Antichrist guarantees peace for Israel and allows them to rebuild their Temple without any Islamic reprisal.
The Peace Betrayed
Daniel, along with Revelation 13, also reveals to the reader that in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist declares himself to be God. His False Prophet sets up a “living” image of the Antichrist that must be worshiped. At this point, the Jewish people totally reject their would-be savior. In response to their rejections, the Antichrist becomes obsessed with annihilating all the Jewish people during the second and last half of the Tribulation. Jesus referred to the last half of the Tribulation as the Great Tribulation, and He referred to it that way because he was speaking specifically to the Jewish people. The Gentile world may have been suffering under 3.5 years of God’s judgment, but the broken treaty of the second half will be when the Jews face their worst tribulation.
Some have misconstrued that the first half of the Tribulation is going to be very peaceful, but the Bible doesn’t indicate that other than for the Jewish people under their covenant with the Antichrist. Rather, the first half of the Tribulation will be defined by constant war and death, even escalating into nuclear war. Revelation 6 tells us that with all the war, famine and disease, nearly one-half of the Gentiles on planet Earth are going to die. So, no, there will be no peace on the world during the whole seven year span of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
When it comes to the the pouring out of God’s wrath, let’s look at the book of Nahum. Billy Graham’s wife once said that if God doesn’t judge San Francisco soon He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. This statement is based on Nahum 1:2.
“A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries. He reserves wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, but the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
The day of God’s wrath is coming on God’s enemies!