As I touched on in my last installment, the word “antichrist” never appears in the book of Revelation. Yep, it’s a doctrine to many folks but like most of the B.S. propagated by C.I. Scofield, it cannot be found in the actual text of the Bible.
The Antichrist, of popular culture, is a composite of several different symbols and images that are not related but simply linked together in much the same way as a child would link a few random Legos and then declare it a flower or a spaceship. Abstraction and imagination are more essential to see the Antichrist than sound analysis and fidelity to the biblical text.
One of the key building blocks for this composite is the Beast of Revelation. Actually, there are two beasts—found in the account in Revelation chapter 13. The sea beast and the land beast. The sea beast is related to the Roman Empire. The sea is a reference to the Gentile nations. The land is a reference to the Jews that live in the “Promised Land”.
The second thing to point out about the beast is the number given in the latter part of the chapter. Contrary to popular belief, lots of that going around, the number is not six, six, six. It is six hundred, threescore and six. Like all symbols in Revelation, the reference to this number is from the Old Testament.
Secondly, the text of Revelation 13 states that it was possible for the original hearers and readers of this book to know who the beast was. Yep, like his actual name. That is because Revelation was a prophecy about things about to take place during the lives of the original audience of John’s book. Jesus states that he was coming quickly to the readers of the First Century.
Six Hundred, Threescore and Six
Rules for Rulers
The Old Testament background of this number is rooted in two passages.
16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
Deuteronomy 17:16–17
Per my Logos software:
Deuteronomy 17:16–17 establishes three restrictions on Israel’s king: he must not accumulate horses, multiply wives, or amass silver and gold.
These prohibitions operate on multiple levels. The restriction on horses prevents the king from building a professional standing army and limits foreign military alliances1, while requiring the monarch to trust Yahweh rather than military strength.2 The prohibition on multiple wives guards against foreign entanglements and the religious compromise that accompanies marriages outside Israel’s covenant community.1 Limiting wealth prevents the king from dominating other Israelites through commercial power and status accumulation.1
Beyond these specific prohibitions, the rules reflect a broader theological vision. Israel’s king operates under a fundamentally different model than the monarchs of surrounding nations—not conforming to typical ancient Near Eastern expectations of kingship.3 Since Yahweh is Israel’s supreme King, no human monarch may claim absolute power; these limitations force the king to acknowledge his dependence on God.2 The king’s restricted role reflects Deuteronomy’s core theology that Israel functions as a covenant community and brotherhood.3
1 Patricia Dutcher-Walls, “The Circumscription of the King: Deuteronomy 17: 16–17 in Its Ancient Social Context,” Journal of Biblical Literature (2002), 121:604.
2 Paul R. Gilchrist, “Deuteronomy,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 3:121.
3 Andreas J. Köstenberger and Gregory Goswell, Biblical Theology: A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), 141–143.
Oh, please note these rules for kings were written by Moses before anyone ever conquered the Promised Land and hundreds of years before Saul was anointed the first king.
Rulers Breaking the Rules
Now that you know what the rules were, it’s time to introduce the guy that broke them all. As is often the case, it didn’t take long for Solomon, Israel’s third king, to violate them all in spades.
Rule 1 Broken: Multiply Horses
26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.
1 Kings 10:26.
28 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price. 29 And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.
1 Kings 10:28–29.
Rule 2 Broken: Multiply Wives
1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1 Kings 11:1–3.
Rule 3 Broken: Multiply Silver and Gold
27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones,
1 Ki 10:27a.
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,
1 Kings 10:14.
A ruler that breaks the God’s rules is a wicked and rebellious leader. All of what I just explained, and more is packed into the idea that the number of the guy in Revelation 13 is six hundred threescore and six.
So, who was six hundred threescore and six?
It was Nero Ceasar. The number of his name written in Hebrew was 666. The textual variant of this verse in Revelation is 616. This is Nero Ceasar written in Greek. Thus, when John wrote:
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:18.
He expected that folks reading or hearing Revelation in his day would be capable of solving the riddle.
The Man of Sin
Another New Testament character often shoehorned into being part of the composite antichrist is called “the man of sin”.
This passage is long but here goes:
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2 Thessalonians 2:2–12.
No, I am not going to go line-by-line through this passage. The words everyone keys on in this passage are as follows from verse 3: “that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”
Verse 4 says this guy sits in the temple “shewing himself that he is God”.
Verses 6 and 7 speak of him being held back until it’s time to be revealed.
From verse 6, “ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.”
Verse 7 states that whatever was holding this man of sin back will eventually be removed; “only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way”.
Here is the same passage from a different translation. It is easier to follow than the King James Version quoted above.
6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
ESV 2 Thessalonians 2:6–8.
Folks, there are two main reasons that this passage gets used when making a composite of the antichrist. First, nobody can agree who this guy is or the name of the guy who is restraining him. This makes the passage more malleable. Secondly, and as usual, this time indicators must be ignored to use these verses as part of the composite.
Folks, who was the original audience?
If the guy being discussed was alive and contemporary with the Apostle Paul, then he is dead and has been for at least 19 centuries. Given this important but frequently discarded fact, the only coming where he could have been destroyed was when Jesus came in judgment in AD 70.
Lastly, this man of sin, whoever he may have been, was a religious leader and not a political figure. The person is clearly and predominantly associated with worship in the Temple, and thus, was alive and active prior to its destruction.
Daniel 9
The last place where folks look to mine nuggets to be used in their composite construct, commonly known as “Antichrist,” is in the book of Daniel. None of what is claimed as the modern understanding of antichrist is actually in the text; instead, it is injected there in the form of presuppositions which are added to the text prior to anyone actually reading said texts.
Daniel chapter 9 begins with this:
2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel 9:2.
Daniel takes Jeremiah literally when Jeremiah predicted that the Babylonian captivity would be a period of 70 years. This point will be important later in this discussion. Daniel’s response was repenting of his personal sins and also for the sins committed by his nation; something that I would argue we need to do more of in our day and age.
As Daniel is praying, the angel Gabriel appears (verse 21). This is important for at least two reasons, first, angels are rarely ever mentioned by name in the Bible and Gabriel is the same angel that announces the pregnancy of the Virgin Mary in the Gospel accounts.
Gabriel says, “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.” Daniel 9:22.
Gabriel then tells Daniel of a vision. This is the famous seventy weeks of seven years. Yep, seven times seventy; which, not so coincidentally also shows up in the words of Jesus when he is asked how often one should forgive his brother (Matthew 18:21-22).
Here is the prophecy given to Daniel:
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Daniel 9:24–27.
Please note that Daniel is told that from when the seventy years of captivity is ended and the reconstruction of Jerusalem begins to the time Messiah is cutoff is seven weeks plus threescore and two weeks. Doing the math, you get 69 (7+60+2) weeks of seven years or 483 (69*7) years. This math is why Simeon and Anna, in the Gospel of Luke (2:22-38) were looking for Messiah before their deaths. Their faith was in the word given to Daniel in this passage.
After Messiah is cutoff in verse 26, a prince will come and destroy the city and sanctuary. Said war will result in a flood that brings desolation. This vaguely echos Jesus in Matthew 24 invoking the flood of Noah (Matthew 24:38-42) and speaking of abomination that brings desolation (Matthew 24:15).
Please note that in Daniel 9:27 that this invader will “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…”
When Roman legions attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, in a war that lasted 42 months or 3 and one half years, the city was destroyed, the temple was razed to the ground as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:2b “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” This destruction was accomplished within one generation of Jesus making the prediction. Furthermore, the Jewish Historian Josephus says that Roman soldiers plowed the dirt upon which the temple had once sat after it was completely destroyed.
As John records in Revelation, Rome turned on the Jews and destroyed Jerusalem. This was the prediction of Daniel 9 being fulfilled.
There is no time when the 490 years of the prophecy was stopped or paused. It was completed just as Gabriel told Daniel. No such delay is indicated by the text or context. Yet modern prophecy pimps claim that there is a hidden 2,000 plus year gap being introduced as a parentheses, pause, or unforeseen delay found somewhere in this passage between the 69th and 70th week. They also claim it contains the Rapture doctrine and the C.I. Scofield/Hal Lindsey version of the Antichrist somewhere in all this; plus, a rebuilt 3rd or 4th temple in Jerusalem.
Again, none of this is found in the text of Scripture, it must be added via an external template or interpretive grid that is read into the text.
Closing Thoughts
As I am fond of quoting, “A text without a context is a pretext; usually, for error” Walter Martin.
If you look at the Scriptures from the point of view of the original hearers and respect the context, then none of the things that you are reading have application for the future. They were all concerned with God’s people living in those times not ours. To claim otherwise, is to make them irrelevant for the last 2,000 plus years.
However, all Scripture is given for our instruction. We are expected to learn from our history and apply the lessons to our age. This means that history is relevant for us to learn from, not that we are the focus of imminent and unfulfilled prophecy. It’s not about us; it’s about Him and His faithfulness. Because God demonstrated His faithfulness in the past, we know that He will be faithful to us in the present and guide us in the future.
Scripture was not written to us but for us.
The idea of antichrist being a ruler of a one-world government and murdering billions of people in a futile attempt to defy God is science fiction. Yes, this type of sensationalism sells millions of books to gullible Christians with itching ears, but it has no sound biblical warrant.
The biblical warrant is that this world belongs to Jesus Christ and He is ruling now and He will make, and is making, all his enemies his footstool. Our job is to make every area of life subject to His lordship and rule. The kingdom of God is now, and the Kingdom of God is Christian Civilization.
Burying your God given talents and waiting for the fictional Rapture instead of using them, has resulted in shallow Christianity and paralysis of the faithful. Satan has gained only what God’s people have willingly ceded to him through unbelief, which sadly is quite a lot.
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