The Lawless One – Behind Blood Falls

Pamela Thorson

May 2, 2024

And some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge, and make them pure, until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.

– Daniel 11:35

Another prince from the Roman Empire must arise at the end.

Daniel 9:24-27 refers to a set of seventy prophetic weeks, or “sevens” to accomplish the cleansing and eternal restoration of Israel. At the last “week,” or seven years, a prince will arise out of the old Roman Empire (the people of the prince who is to come). This prince will make a covenant for one week but break the covenant mid-week. The chapter ends with the declaration this prince will be destroyed. But neither Antiochus nor Titus met these conditions.

Daniel 11:1-34 relates a stunningly accurate prophecy regarding the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes and his political battles. Though written approximately 350 years before Antiochus, they describe him in amazing detail and establish Daniel’s credentials as a prophet.

Now we know exactly what an abomination of desolation looks like for the Jewish people.

Then in rest of the chapter and on to Daniel 12, there is a shift. This shift is signaled by the declaration that an appointed “end time” is still to come.

The Bible often employs a literary device called “prophetic foreshortening,” meaning sections of time are spanned within a short space in the word, sometimes from one verse or a single sentence to the next. A good example of this is the leap made by Isaiah:

For a child will be born to us; a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

– Isaiah 9:6

Between these verses lies a span of thousands of years. The son given to us is Jesus Christ. The coming government will be instituted at His Second Coming. One event has already transpired. The second has yet to be fulfilled. Yet the Scriptures speak the words as if in a single breath of time.

Daniel 11:36 through Daniel 12 describes a landscape filled with heavenly warfare and a man who speaks monstrous things against God. It forecasts a distress upon the nation of Israel like it has never seen. We read again of another abomination of desolation:

From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. How blessed he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1, 335 days!

– Daniel 12:11

The Rise of the Lawless One

The Bible clearly speaks of future time when a “man of lawlessness” sets himself up as God in the temple. His end is brought about by the second return of Christ in glory, which is a different event than the rapture.

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God…And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.

– 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; 6-8

Rightly Dividing the Truth

As with all Bible doctrine, the study of the last days must be understood in context of the whole of Scripture and history.

Luke 19:43-44 speaks directly of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple under Titus. Luke 21:20-24 begins with similar warning but is attached to a broader outline of events. Note the prediction of a Jewish diaspora until the “times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” This scattering of the Jewish nation began with Babylon in 586 BC. Even before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, about 5,000,000 Jews lived in areas other than their ancient homeland.

Note in Luke 19:45 Jesus continued to explain the next prophetic events after the end of the age of grace, culminating in the coming of Jesus Christ in great power and glory to redeem the Jewish people and believers who have endured through God’s wrath.

Mark 13:3-27 describe a similar scene to that of Matthew 24 and Luke 19-21. These plainly showed both coming immediate fulfillment and another at the time of the end.