No word from the Bible conjures up more dread than the word Antichrist. It is kind of unfortunate, because the word is not used in the Bible in the sense that we use the word. It is John who introduces the word in his first New Testament letter.

Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; by which we know that it is the last time.

But John’s usage does not speak to a singular, world-ruling Antichrist. (Which is what most people mean when they use the term.)

Now, Paul does speak of such a one in 2 Thessalonians 3. He doesn’t call him Antichrist, but he puts a finger on one powerful person who is a harbinger of the last days. The passage calls him the son of destruction, using the root that forms one of the names of the Devil: Apollyon—the destroyer. And if Daniel is any guide, this man will be a son of the Devil and a destroyer, indeed. Let’s begin in Daniel, chapter 11.

Early in the 2nd century BC, a truly vile man came on the scene in the Middle East. What is it about planet earth that our soil periodically brings forth such singular men—men of consummate evil? That they recur again and again is clear enough. What you may not realize is that the prophets recognized this repetition—at least they predicted that it would be so. How much they understood is less clear. It is only from a later vantage point that we can look back over the prophecies and the history of the time and see the importance of this theme.

If you are computer oriented, you know what an icon is. They are the little images around the your computer screen, each one standing for some action you might want to take. We also see them all the time on signs and labels, implicitly representing a concept.

Daniel, like most of the prophets is loaded with icons. They are verbal descriptions of things he saw. And the things he saw stood for events, systems of government, rulers, kingdoms. Even certain people or kinds of people. If Daniel were on a computer screen with all of his icons around the screen, there would be one singularly important icon. It would be a little horn. So what does this represent?

One of the most fascinating prophecies in the Book of Daniel (and one that raises as many questions as it answers) is the 70 weeks prophecy at the end of the ninth chapter. Frankly, explaining the implications of this prophecy will stretch my abilities to the limit. But maybe, if we concentrate, we can study this together.

Daniel has been in prayer, a deep and repentant prayer that followed on the heels of his realization that he would not return home to Jerusalem. He would grow old and die in Babylon. He learned that the captivity would last for 70 long years. It was a crushing blow and it underlined for him how grievous the sins of Judah had been.

But there was another 70 about to be revealed when the angel Gabriel showed up on his doorstep and tapped him on the shoulder as he prayed. Gabriel said he had come with a message from God that would give Daniel insight and understanding. Let’s hear that message.

What did the First Christians believe and practice about Christmas? I know in a way that is a loaded question, because the word Christmas is found nowhere in the New Testament, nor is any noticeable celebration of Christmas as we know it.

Among many Jews, birthday observance is eschewed as originating in Egypt, and that could have influenced many among the First Christians, most of whom were Jews. Whatever the case, there is nothing in the New Testament that so much as hints at celebrating Jesus’ birth. It could be argued that this fact does not weigh against modern celebration, but that is not what interests me at this point.

My question is what the First Christians believed and practiced relative to Jesus’ nativity. To get a better understanding of this, let’s first look at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke and the story of another birth—that of John the Baptist.

One of the things that puzzles me about the Book of Daniel is the question, Why now? Why did God, at this particular juncture in history, lay out the prophecies that he did? The visions that he gave to Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar span a panorama of prophecy that goes from their day all the way to the very end.

And as you read along through here and see the incredible breadth of revelations of times and empires and places and you ask yourself, Why? I’m not sure I have the answer to that question, but sometimes it’s important to ask the questions and get them out on the table so that we can better know where we are going—and recognize when we get there.

We have been going through Daniel in this series of programs and now arrive at the eighth chapter, which is, appropriately enough, another vision given to Daniel. It begins with the prophet standing beside a river and witnessing a conflict between two fantastic beasts. Let’s join him beside that river as the vision is explained.

What was it about Daniel? Through at least three major administration changes in Babylon, he kept coming out on top. For the believer, it makes perfect sense. God gave Daniel and his companions favor through these hard and dangerous times for his own purposes. But you have to wonder what this looked like from the perspective of King Darius, the latest king Daniel had to deal with.

From Darius’ point of view, Daniel and his ilk were smart. And they had a great common sense. They made wise decisions and he could depend on them. What Darius had no way of knowing was that the Jews in his newly-conquered kingdom made their decisions within the framework of the Law. This is more important than most people realize. Most of us make life’s decision based on what feels good and looks safe at the moment, with no overriding framework. And that can leave us all over the landscape in our decisions; having no standards, no consistency.

Daniel and the Hebrew children had been brought up on the law of God and it formed the framework for all of life’s decisions. And the biggest thing about this is that the system works. As the psalmist said, Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And it can help you see in the darkest places. We’ll find the story in Daniel, chapter 6.

Did you know that Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king of Babylon, wrote one chapter of the Book of Daniel? Initially, I couldn’t help but wonder why God would allow a writing from a pagan king to enter the Bible. But then the answer occurred to me.

Yes, the Bible is the word of God—and inspired by God—but it many cases, it takes the form of testimony. One of the strong threads in biblical jurisprudence is that everything has to be established by witnesses. No man could be condemned except by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Perhaps that is part of the reason we have four Gospels in the New Testament, not just one.

So it is, that the best way to establish for history what happened to Nebuchadnezzar was to have him write it down and have Daniel attest to it—two witnesses. Here is that king’s account of his encounter with the God of Israel.

Daniel may be the most important prophet in the Bible. He is easily the most fascinating. And he is the one that most tempts us to offer interpretations. And his work is of singular value in providing a framework for understanding those who would come later.

The dream of Nebuchadnezzar in the second chapter is an excellent example of this. Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream a great statue—the image of a man. The image degenerated from head to foot. The head was gold. The breast and arms were silver. The belly and thighs were mere brass; the legs, iron. The feet and toes were iron and clay.

I want to be careful not to over interpret Daniel, because that has been done too often. But what makes this prophecy so important is that it outlines the history of a governmental system (a kingdom, if you will) that continues from Nebuchadnezzar until it is destroyed and supplanted by the Kingdom of God. Here is how Daniel interpreted the dream for the king.