Many of those posting on the end times forum assume that the coming Antichrist will be a Jew. Some specifically say that he will be a Jew born in Israel and that the nation of Israel will hail him as their leader. Is this true? Should we take this scenario seriously?
Prophecy in the Book of Daniel makes it clear that the Little Horn person is a military Antichrist. He wages "war against the holy people," who are saved by God's intervention. If this person was Jewish or Israeli, there would surely be some mention that he is betraying his own people, but there isn't.
11 “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.
Daniel 7:11 NIV
21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
Daniel 7:21 NIV
There is widespread agreement that the sea is a Biblical symbol of non-Jewish peoples, nations or tribes. Thomas Ice's notion that the Beast emerging from the sea points to a gentile, non-Jewish, origin for the coming military Antichrist, is solid.
The notion that the end-times antichrist must be Jewish is related to the belief that he must be accepted as the Jewish messiah. This doesn't fit with what Daniel says about this person "waging war against the holy people." The Dispensationalist theologian Thomas Ice doesn't accept the claim that Jews (or the State of Israel) will accept him as the Messiah.
"Just because the Jews make a covenant with the Antichrist (Isa. 28:15; Dan. 9:26), does not mean that they accept him as their Messiah. It does not follow from these texts either textually or
logically that Israel accepts him as Messiah (or Antichrist). ... ince they are not
accepting him as Messiah, the fact that he is a Gentile peacemaker is irrelevant."
Ice sees the coming Antichrist as a gentile peacemaker.
" ... iblical imagery supports a Gentile origin of Antichrist. Scripture pictures
Antichrist as rising up out of the sea (Rev. 13:1; 17:15). In prophetic literature the sea isan image of the Gentile nations. Thus, Antichrist is seen as a Gentile progeny."
Thomas Ice isn't the only one who believes that the sea the Beast rises from symbolizes gentiles or gentile nations.
<< Supporting the position that the Antichrist is not a Jew are passages such as Revelation 13:1 and 17:15, indicating that the Beast will rise up out of the sea. “The sea” in Scripture depicts the Gentile nations. >>
This is from an article, Must Antichrist Be a Jew?, in the Baptist Bulletin.
From an article by Chad Bird:
<< Swallowed by the Gentile Sea
Throughout the Old Testament, fish, great sea creatures, the sea and raging rivers were all emblematic of the Gentile world. For instance, deliverance from “the waters” is deliverance from “foreigners” (
Ps. 144:7). The thundering of the Gentiles is like the thundering and roaring of the seas (
Isa. 17:12). Gentile kingdoms and their rulers were likened to great oceanic creatures like legendary Rahab (
Dan. 7;
Isa. 51:9). Even in the New Testament, John echoes this imagery when he says “the waters” are “the peoples and multitudes and nations and languages” (
Rev. 17:15). >>
From
www.raystedman.org:
<< The land, the sea, and the trees are also used as symbols here. The land or the earth, is used frequently as a symbol for Israel throughout the Old Testament. Israel is viewed as a nation with stability because it had God as its head. It had structure, order, and foundation, and so it was depicted as "land." But the sea is used many places in Scripture to describe the Gentile nations (pagan nations, by and large), which had no inner stability because there was no recognition of the authority of God. >>
There is widespread agreement that the sea is a Biblical symbol of non-Jewish peoples, nations or tribes. Thomas Ice's notion that the Beast emerging from the sea points to a gentile, non-Jewish, origin for the coming military Antichrist, is solid.
Links
To download Thomas Ice article from Liberty University archive:
The Ethnicity of the Antichrist
Must Antichrist Be a Jew?
Chad Bird article:
Why Did God Add Fish to His Diet? | 1517
Message: To Jew And Gentile (Revelation 7:1-17)