Daniel 11:37 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Daniel 11:37

Comments

‘Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers.’ This means more than that he doesn't worship the God or gods of his ancestors. It means that when antichrist comes, all the right values that mankind has ever held – the Christian values, of course, God's standards, God's commandments – will be suddenly rejected. There will be a great change in the history of the world; things that have always been taken for granted and accepted, will be thrown aside. There will be an unwillingness to owe anything to the past, and a readiness to regard the judgments and values of previous generations as worth nothing. Only what this new set of values regards as good is to be called good. Satan will work to prepare for his coming, and will start to bring in these values even before antichrist appears; they would hardly be accepted if they came out of the blue. This is consistent with what we have been told already: that ‘he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god’, and that, as Paul tells us, when he comes he ‘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’ (2 Thessalonians 2:4). If he alone is to be recognised as God, all other gods must go. This seems to be a very serious claim. Roman emperors were to be recognised as gods, but this seems to go much further.‘Nor the desire of women’, which may mean that the distinctive preciousness of womanhood will be attacked and trodden underfoot as it is today, with the so-called equality movement, and the whole gender debate; the specialness and the distinctiveness of the sexes, and the value of womanhood has gone. Not just with feminism, but in the society's view of marriage, and relationships. Things that are entirely unnatural and peculiar have taken their place. This king when he comes will promote these strange new values and adopt them personally. ‘Nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.’ Man is his own authority. He is not bound to any principle. He is entitled to write his own values and ethics as it suits him. Authority is out. The reason for all these strange new values is given here. Antichrist wishes to magnify himself above everything, and to be bound by nothing, for any imposed standards would stand in the way of his blasphemous goal. Clearly there is unbounded pride at work here, for his self-image has exceeded all previous limits.‘But in his estate shall he honour the god of forces’ – strongholds, says the Hebrew – ‘and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.’ All his resources – antichrist on earth – will be for the promotion of strongholds, and he will apparently have great resources. The taking of strongholds – isn't it interesting? As the world strives to advance the cause of democracy – and we surely all agree that that is a good thing – the antichrist is striving to make strongholds, which will fool democracy. He is trying to take over governments. We have democracy; we elect our leaders. What we don't realise is that all of them, of whatever colour, whatever party, are being taken over by the antichrist. He takes over governments; he takes over institutions; he takes over the established church and makes it unchristian, and filled with error, so that the churches are now conducting mixed marriages. He takes over the education system. He takes over the world of entertainment, lock, stock, and barrel, so that it is really just a tool for promoting his anti-values, and Christians can have nothing to do with it. ‘Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.’ Is this a god provided by technology? It is hard to understand these things until they come to pass. The language is intended to be clear enough that, when it comes, the fulfilment is recognised, but not so clear that we should know in advance the detail of what will happen. His power and influence are certainly extensive, and his god is somehow helping him to achieve this power, and to reward those who are loyal to him.

Application

We see these changes in the age in which we live. Young people sometimes don't realise the speed of events. They have grown up in this climate. They don't realise how much of former days has been thrown away, and attacked, and rejected. As antichrist manifests himself more and more openly at the very end of the age, all past values will be disregarded and trashed. If you were born since the time of the moral revolution, you have grown up in a climate where authority is under attack. Man is his own authority. Divine authority is finished and out: we hate authority. I was talking to a couple of young people, and I was pointing out to them, ‘You shouldn't do that, you know, because the word of God teaches against it.’ You could see in their eyes: ‘But I like this. What’s the matter with it?’ There was no concept of authority. God's commandments are not grievous, but our learning processes are slow, and sometimes we don't appreciate why God commands certain things. We must obey regardless. We will learn; we will find out, maybe later, why they are such precious values and standards. But we must obey, because he is God, because we owe him everything, because he made us, because he is great and glorious, and we are puny, minute, and sinful. We owe him our redemption. That means obeying him on things that we may not want to obey on. A lady once came to see me and she said, ‘I am a preacher.’ I was very polite to her. I said, ‘But you shouldn't be a preacher. Here is this text, here is that text.’ Her friend who was with her was very indignant, and said, ‘But she loves the Lord and she likes preaching.’ No awareness of authority! Yes, but what does God say? When I showed her the text, she should have responded: ‘Oh, does it say that? Is that what I should be obeying?’ That is what our attitude ought to be. Here is the antichrist, and his great mission is to do away with divine authority, and that is what he is foisting on society in everything that hits us and influences us.

Have you had it in your heart to be a politician, to do good in society? You will find it very hard because, of course, there is a party system, and every party has been so influenced by the antichrist, that they make you sign up to all the things you can't possibly sign up to. So to be a politician you are going to have to agree with the whole gay-lesbian agenda, and all the other things that antichrist has promoted, anti-God, anti-moral, anti-everything. So here we have got democracy, and we think we are free, and we will elect a party; but the devil cunningly has gone round the Maginot line and taken over all the political parties, and stamped them with his own ideas.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Daniel 11:37 Commentary and Bible Study