JOEL RICHARDSON ANTICHRIST CONFUSION: LEGS OF IRON - ROME OR ISLAM?

(5) DANIEL'S FOUR BEASTS: The Four Beasts in Daniel 7 Revealed! (ENDTIME PROPHECY) Underground show #129 - YouTube

Legs of iron.. Rome or Islam?  

The traditional interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2 identifies the four empires as the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires. The thinking behind this is that these empires followed one another chronologically. In particular, the Roman Empire followed the Greek empire. Since Egypt and Assyria preceded Babylon, we arrive at the seven heads/mountains/kings/kingdoms referred to by John in Revelation 17:9 (including the feet of iron and clay). We have an anchor in that Revelation 17:10 refers to one is i.e. Rome (existent when John wrote the book of Revelation), as the sixth of seven kings/kingdoms. The eighth king (the beast/Antichrist) is of the seven, or morphs out of the seven. (Revelation 17:11). This all seems to tie together logically and few futurists have challenged this interpretation until recent times. Richardson omits the Roman Empire completely and inserts the Islamic Caliphate in its place as per his illustration below.

 ..they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. (Revelation 17:10).

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream interpreted by the prophet Daniel:

You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 

“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” (Daniel 2:31-45).

Richardson's First Problem - Daniel 7:17

Chris White and David Pawson (amongst others) have presented convincing reasons to reject the traditional interpretation that correlate the four beasts in Daniel 7 with the four kingdoms (Nebuchadnezzar's statue) in Daniel 2. Pawson gives four reasons for this deduction: [1] history contradicts the traditional interpretation [2] Persia is represented by a ram, and Greece is represented by a goat in Daniel 8:20, whereas Daniel 7:5-6 describes the likeness of a bear and a leopard as the second and third beasts. [3] Daniel 7 describes four future beasts, whereas Babylon already exists in Daniel 2; 4; [4] Three beasts will survive after the fourth beast is destroyed (Daniel 7:11-12). {1} 

These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. (Daniel 7:17).

Richardson gets pseudo-technical at around the 43:40 mark of the above video regarding Daniel 7:17 ~ shall arise (Qal). He claims that our bibles are incorrect and that Qal imperfect is not linked to tense. According to Richardson, the Aramaic Qal does not necessarily mean future tense. Richardson: "This 'will arise'.. it could just as easily be translated 'have arisen', 'are arising'.. right at this moment they 'are arising', they 'have arisen' past tense or will arise ."   Richardson makes an invalid comparison with "shall arise" (Qal Imperfect) in Daniel 7:17 with “came”, the perfect past form of Qal in Deutoronomy 33:2. Qal Imperfect is used to denote an incomplete action and is NEVER used for a completed action. Qal is basically a future tense verb in the active voice. {2} Even if we take Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 as analogous passages as Richardson does, the chronology in Daniel 2 also confirms the future interpretation of Daniel 7:17: But after you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron.. (Daniel 2:39-40). It is safe to say that our bibles are correct, and that the usual interpretation "shall arise" in Daniel 7:17 is in fact future. The problem is that when teachers like Richardson attempt to blind us with pseudo-science, most people will accept what they are saying without question. (1 John 4:1). Richardson effectively spends several minutes in this video wasting everyone's time and misleading his hearers!  This misrepresentation in itself does not disprove Richardson's Islamic Antichrist speculation, but it should make us wary about accepting his exegesis. 

Richardson's Second Problem: The Rest of the Beasts.

Richardson chooses to completely disregard Daniel 7:12 and calls its implications "a fundamental contradiction" in light of Daniel 2:31-25. 

Then I kept watching because of the arrogant words the horn was speaking. As I continued to watch, the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was removed, but they were granted an extension of life for a season and a time. (Daniel 7:11-12).

As you, O king, were watching, a great statue appeared. A great and dazzling statue stood before you, and its form was awesome. The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were part iron and part clay. As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (Daniel 2:31-35).

In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever. And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. (Daniel 2:44-45).

Daniel 7:12 is a difficult verse, but I don't think that Richardson can disregard it's specific implications just because it conflicts with his presuppositions! My understanding is that the dominion of the rest of the beasts, (as represented by the nations), is decisively and instantaneously removed at the return of Jesus Christ. The nations will be rendered impotent following the destruction of the Antichrist and the false prophet, and the incarceration of Satan in the Abyss. (Revelation 19:20, 20:2-3). Certain things do happen quickly and decisively, but it also appears that Jesus Christ will proceed to set up, establish His kingdom over a longer period of time: ..the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain. 

HA Ironside: "But in Daniel 12:11 we learn that from the beginning of this tribulation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. The extra thirty days will, doubtless, be devoted to the purging out of the kingdom of all things that offend and do iniquity, though the Lord will appear, on behalf of the remnant and for the destruction of the Beast and Antichrist, at the expiration of the twelve hundred and sixty days. A longer period yet is given [in Daniel 12:12]: Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. Some have suggested that this would carry on the time to the celebration of the first millennial feast of the tabernacles, as in Zechariah, chapter 14. At any rate it clearly points us to the full establishment of the kingdom in power and glory (pp. 235-235).” {3} 

I have spent a significant amount of time reading Chris White's book The Islamic Antichrist Debunked. {4} White 's critique of Richardson's book The Islamic Antichrist {5} is exhaustive and he goes into considerable detail beyond the scope of this post. One particular area that caught my attention was White's research on Islamic eschatology. The unreliability of the Islamic hadiths and their inconsistency with Richardson's thesis of an Islamic Antichrist is striking. 

White's conclusion (page193).

"In this section we have looked at Islamic eschatology in detail. We saw that the writers of the hadiths based their end times doctrine partly on the Bible and partly on the extra-biblical beliefs of Christians at the time. We have seen that the Islamic Isa is based on Jesus, the Dajjal is based on the Antichrist, and the Mahdi is based on the so-called Last Roman Emperor. We have looked at the theories of Islamic Antichrist proponents like Joel Richardson who believe the Islamic version of the end times will actually come to pass more or less like the hadiths say, but that Isa is really the False Prophet, the Mahdi is the Antichrist, and the Dajjal is the real Jesus. I hope I have presented enough to show the flawed reasoning behind this theory and that the simplest explanation, which is that the hadith writers were simply plagiarizing Christian sources, is the correct one. There is absolutely no reason to expect the Islamic version of the end times to come to pass or to be true in any way."

Unless I am missing something, White's thesis that the Antichrist will claim to be the Jewish Messiah is problematic. Although this was the earliest view of the church, there is nothing in the scriptures that supports this view. The Antichrist will utter blasphemies against God. (Revelation 13:6). It appears to me that the arrival in Jerusalem of the Antichrist armies and the abomination of desolation event (Luke 21:20; Matthew 24:15; Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:4) are hostile acts, and that Jacob's Trouble i.e. the intense persecution of the Jewish people will immediately follow that event. That aside, White is very matter of fact and his arguments against Richardson's thesis are devastating.

I have voiced concerns regarding Richardson's associate and co-author Walid Shoebat in previous posts. White addresses Shoebat's problematic exegeses in Chapter 7 of his book. I will not repeat these views here, except to reiterate that Shoebat's hermeneutics are entirely unreliable. There is a definite problem with Richardson's affiliation with various false teachers on CNN and TBN, many of whom are ecumenical and apostate. Richardson's praise of Michael Heiser in this video is yet another red flag! Heiser has definite NAR leanings! {6}

A Mind With Wisdom

   

This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. Revelation 17:9-11 cf. Revelation 13:18).

The above verses appear to us as a riddle that require wisdom to solve. (cf. Revelation 13:18). The subject of the seven mountains/kings and the Antichrist is complex and confounds many. Richardson's Islamic Antichrist speculation is not only problematic on many levels, it is extremely reckless. The point at which the Antichrist makes or confirms a covenant with many at the beginning of the 70th week may give some clue to his identity. (Daniel 9:27). However, the definite point that Christians will recognize the Antichrist is at the event known as the abomination of desolation at the mid point of the week. (Mark 13:14).

1. David Pawson - Daniel Chapter 7
2. Hebrew Qal Imperfect with Strong Verbs (hebrew4christians.com)
3. Daniel 12 - Ironside's Notes on Selected Books - Bible Commentaries - StudyLight.org
4. Islamic_Antichrist_Debunked_Chris_White.pdf (bibleprophecytalk.com)
5. Islamic-Antichrist.pdf (joelstrumpet.com)
6. Michael Heiser: Warning Signals (narwatchisrael.info)