September 28: COUNTERFEIT “RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION”

Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. Daniel 11:36

Today we find the second occurrence of the phrase shall do according to his own will, echoing verse 16, the pivotal verse that introduces pagan Rome as king of the North, even as Greek rule came to its end in verse 15. History has no shortage of arrogant leaders. Adolf Hitler, who had a complex diplomatic relationship with the papacy, declared, “I shall give the world a superman.” Mussolini, who aided the downed papacy back onto its feet after Napoleon inflicted the deadly wound (Revelation 13:3,14), said “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”

Rome, in its papal phase, also operates according to his own will. It is a system of thinking that has ensnared much of the world; his own will is patterned after him who said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13). That verse 36 above applies to the great apostate power of Christian history is made clearer by parallel verses in other parts of Scripture: He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily [was] taken away, and the place of His sanctuary cast down (8:11). And he shall exalt himself in his heart . . . he shall even rise against the Prince of princes (v.25).

[He] opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). This reference to the temple of God is clarified: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16) Our archenemy wants control of your mind!

Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority (Revelation 13:2). Make note: as the apostle John was looking back over time, he saw the symbolic characteristics of this conglomerate beast in the reverse order as Daniel saw as he was looking forward through time: the three separate beasts which led up to the fourth, dreadful and terrible beast (see Daniel 7:4-7) had all contributed to the philosophies that were rolled together into what became Rome. He will be allowed to prosper till the wrath has been accomplished. The Bible refers to the teachings of Rome as Babylon’s wine of wrath (Revelation 14:8, 18:3), as a major end-time strategy to unite people through counterfeit “righteous indignation”, harnessing wrath toward legislation of Rome’s doctrine into law. Jeremiah prophesied: Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations are deranged (Jeremiah 51:17). Beloved, each of us is called to cultivate a desire and love for truth—through the study of God’s word—in a world of lies. Paul wrote:

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie… 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11