The Plastic Bible - Moriel Ministries

Jacob Prasch
Special Interest
E s c h a t o l o g y
and
Double Cross
“The Theology of Disillusionment”
In the aftermath of the Hasmonean
Period in the century before the birth of
Jesus, Israel quickly degenerated from the
spiritual revival of the Maccabees and the
national resurgence that followed. This
caused the Jews to be sucked into a bad
deal that had tremendous religious and political
ramifications. Because they looked
to man instead of to God, Judah’s leaders
entered into a treaty, trusting people who
should never have been trusted. Part of
their motive was economic and strategic in
terms of their national security. There were
also elements of cultural leanings towards
Rome as there had been towards Greece
before the Maccabees.
At the time of the Roman triumvirate,
the Roman general Pompey arrived from
Rome offering Israel the protection of the
Roman Republic and economic advantage.
The spiritual corruption of the Levitical
priesthood, and what emerged as the Sanhedrin,
predisposed the national leadership to
enter into a concordat not ordained by God.
At one point the High Priest, John
Huricanus, had himself proclaimed king,
violating the scriptural prohibition that a
king must be a descendant of David from
the tribe of Judah while the High Priest had
to be a descendant of Aaron from the tribe
of Levi. The Levitical priesthood became
a political monarchy in a union of what in
modern terms we would call “church and
state,” which God’s Word prohibited even
in the Old Testament. As Rome’s sphere
of power grew and new potential threats
bloomed, Israel’s leaders, both religious
and political, with popular backing of
much of the public, pressed for the protection
of Rome. Plainly, Israel had forgotten
the lessons of Isaiah 30-31 during the reign
of Hezekiah when God castigated those
pressing Judah to seek protection against
Assyria from Egypt.
No sooner had Israel agreed to become
a protectorate than Pompey entered the
holy city of Jerusalem and marched into the
Temple, trespassing into the Holy of Holies.
When anyone other than the High
Priest on the Day of Atonement (“Yom
Kippur”) entered the Holy of Holies, it is a
type of the Antichrist (Daniel 9:27; Daniel
11:31; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; Luke
21:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:4).
Israel had feared another Antiochus
Epiphanes (from whom the Maccabees led
their liberation) defiling God’s Temple, so
they looked to Rome for protection. Instead,
to the Jews’ shock and dismay, Rome
defiled the temple. They had not only been
betrayed by Rome, but by their religious
and national leaders. Ultimately, however,
in actual fact the majority of people
betrayed themselves. The very thing they
tried to prevent with their own devices
they foolishly caused to happen.
Not only was the Temple defiled by
Pompey, but instead of being a protectorate
they found themselves a Roman colony
governed by mad emperors from abroad
and by Roman surrogates locally. This period
saw the rise of two major types of the
Antichrist: one was Caesar Augustus (General
Octavius at the Battle of Actium), and
the other Herod the Great. While other emperors
had been deified posthumously by
the Roman senate, Caesar Augustus, who
was emperor when Christ was born, was
proclaimed to be a god in his lifetime. And
with his census, which is recorded in the nativity
narrative of Luke’s Gospel, numbers
were assigned to people in order to maintain
economic control of most of the known
world. Herod the Great was a Nabatean of
Idumean ethnicity who was culturally Roman
but who had embraced Judaism for
political purposes. This was much like
many politicians today are “born again”
at election time, or as all unionist politicians
are good Protestants at election time
in Northern Ireland, or as all Irish or Italian
politicians are good Catholics when they
are running for office in Boston or Chicago.
Herod personifies the beast of Daniel
that reappears in Revelation 12, trying to
kill the baby coming out of the woman.
When the baby is raptured in the divine
rescue he kills the rest of her offspring
(Rev. 12:1-5, 17).
Pompey, Caesar Augustus, and Herod
were one Antichrist after another, much as
their will be many Antichrists before the
ultimate Antichrist just prior to Jesus’ second
coming. There will be another Pompey
who will enter the Holy of Holies in
the character of Antiochus IV. There will
be another Caesar Augustus who will number
people to maintain full financial and
economic control (Rev. 13). And as Revelation
12 tells us, there will be another
Herod. These are complex typologies that
will be explored in greater depth in our
forthcoming book on the Antichrist. However,
the message and pattern is clear.
March 2010 • Moriel Quarterly 15