2 End Times Scenarios and the Temple

So it seems I’m always running scenarios in the back of my mind on the end. It’s a puzzle that I can never solve, but I enjoy trying to get the pieces to fit. I have a couple scenarios on how the end times could play out and I wanna get your thoughts! (remember that I am pre-wrath – I don’t think the rapture happens until after the 6th seal. Please see my earlier posts here and here to see my thought processes). 

1. The antichrist arises out of a far right coalition. This is the one that I am most concerned about. Reading through Daniel 9 and 11, it appears that the antichrist is pretty pro-Israel in his warfare. He attacks all of Israel’s enemies, he apparently makes a covenant with Israel to re-institute the Levitical covenant, he’s doing everything that somebody entrenched in today’s extreme far right who happens to be pro-Jewish, would be doing. Now, I’m not Republican bashing here, so my don’t get your feathers too ruffled my Republican friends. Yes, there is a good amount of convergence between the Church’s morality in the Word and some of the morality and legislation pushed by the right. However, this is what, in my opinion, makes it prime breeding ground for Satan to bring the antichrist up out of. The deception would be extra strong (2 Thessalonians 2). Many heavy political-leaning Christians would be deceived. No, I don’t believe Trump is the antichrist at all. I think Daniel 9 is clear enough that the antichrist will arise out of the Roman Empire, the context of which probably meant Italy or southern Europe/Roman Empire proper. I postulate that maybe what we see is a couple more violent, possibly larger scale ISIS attacks on Europe which finally galvanizes them with the political right who would be willing to put troops on the ground. We have gone right in America, we then see France elect a right candidate (eg Le-Pen) and the tide continues to the rest of central/southern Europe. Out of those waters we see the beast arise, the beast being the Antichrist’s kingdom, and the little horn comes soon after as an apparent pro-Jewish leader in Europe, probably Italy, who goes to war against ISIS and other Muslim countries surrounding Israel. He cleans house in the Middle East except Israel, walks into Israel (btw the Hebrew does not say he invades Israel, the Hebrew says he enters or goes into Israel in Dan 11:41) and declares himself God.
2. Opposite solution. The antichrist arises out of a far left coalition (I owe this one to my good brother in Christ CJ for walking me through this scenario over morning coffee the other week). We have seen a resurgence of the right in American politics. But, if we assume that the next four years go badly, there could be a cultural backwash effect on Christians afterward. In other words, things went badly, secular America blames Christians for the failures of the right, far leftist candidates are elected in and things start to go really badly for the church in America. Out of that persecution greatly arises (cf the fifth seal) plus a few more ISIS attacks draws a leftist coalition into the Middle East which eventually results in the antichrist declaring himself God in the temple.

Last problem, how does the temple get rebuilt? Well, good question. The answer is that it possibly technically could be rebuilt now and not affect what is considered to be the temple mount. The reason is that what the Jews consider the temple mount and what the Muslims consider the dome of the rock isn’t (possibly) where the temple was actually located. And there is a growing body of evidence to suggest this is true here and here. This also really jives with Jesus words on the temple, Matthew 24:2, ‘”Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”‘

Did we ever stop to ask ourselves, uhhh, so if Jesus said every single stone will be thrown down, why do we never question the remnants of it at the temple mount? Well, we know Jesus’ words are more trust worthy than anything else, so the only conclusion is…that’s not the temple mount.

And lastly to tack onto that one, if there truly was an illuminati from which the antichrist could arise out of, which I’m not saying there is or isn’t, one could then make the leap that such a secretive organization could be funneling cash into operations to rebuild the temple. Right? But that’s a data mining research problem outside the scope of this post. Just food for thought 😉

Let me know what you think friends!

Joel