Unleashing the Beast

I DENTIFYING THE B EAST / 45

Antichrist would swallow up three of the kings (Daniel 7:8), and place his own kings in power for the final 42 months of the Tribulation (Revelation 17:12). The main feature of all previous kingdoms of Biblical prophecy is that they were all Gentile powers! Jesus made it clear that Jerusalem would be trodden down of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24). Christ also revealed this to John in Revelation 11:1, 2. John was told to measure the Tribulation temple in Jerusalem. The instructions were to omit the outer court, "For it is given to the Gentiles and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months" (Revelation 11:2). The Antichrist and his armies will capture and control Jerusalem for the last 42 months of the 7-year Tribulation. The future Antichrist will form the eighth and final Gentile kingdom prior to the visible return of Christ to earth. Some ask, "But won't the Jews accept him as Messiah?" The assumption this question reveals is based on two scriptures. One, Daniel said, "He will not regard the God of his fathers" (Daniel 11:37). "God of his fathers" refers to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Two, the Bible says in John 5:43 that Jesus came in the Father's name and they wouldn't receive Him, but another would come in his own name and they would receive him. Since the real Jewish Messiah, Christ, came and was not received, it is assumed that a false Jewish messiah will come and be received. Remember, however, that only about 18 percent of Jews in Israel and only a small percentage throughout the world have any belief at all in a coming messiah. All Jews,