No one in America thought Hitler was The Antichrist (a follow up post)

 This is a follow up to this post.

https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2019/08/did-anyone-actually-think-hitler-was.html

I've done some more research on this topic largely thanks to a book called Naming The Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession which focuses on the history of popular Antichrist views among Futurist Americans.

In that prior post I talked about the Mussolini theory existing at the time, and well it wasn't just a couple people, the popular mainstream view among most Futurist Evangelicals especially the Dispensationaliists was that he would be either Mussolini or rise to power via the League of Nations, and of course some combined those views.

The reason none of these Christians who were anti-Communist looked to Stalin or the USSR is because they viewed Magog as Russia.  And while occasionally some have tried to make Gog and the Antichrist the same person they've generally been viewed as separate, and it turns out at this time it was popular to view Gog and the Antichrist as being adversaries.  So yeah the anti-Bolshevism of the Fascists in that context further helped make them an Antichrist candidate agaisnt Stalin as Gog.

But what about the fringe minorities who broke from standard Dispensationalist orthodoxy?  Well only one alternative approach to Bible Prophecy of this era was considered worth noting by this book anyway, and that was the views of William Dudley Pelley and other members of his Silver Legion of America commonly called The Silver Shirts.  They were the progenitors of what we today know as the Christian Identity Movement, an Antisemtic offshoot of British Israelism (which was Philosemitic originally).

The internet talks a lot about Post-War American Neo-Fascism, but the Silver Legion of America was one of the actual American Fascist Parties of the Fascist era.  However they were distinct from their European Counterparts in the way they incorporated aspects of traditional American Fundamentalist Apocalypticism.  Pelley said different seemingly contradictory things about the Identity of The Antichrist.  He accused The Jews, Communists, FDR and Bernard Baruch.  What's interesting is that what he said about Hitler makes him the opposite of The Antichrist.  

There is no real basis in Revelation for some good mortal political leader who'll be opposed to or precede the Antichrist, but Extra-Biblical traditions have constantly tried to create one, from the Last Roman Emperor to the Great Catholic Monarch to the Islamic Mahdi tradition to Mormonism's Rider on the White Horse prophecy. Back when people thought Napoleon was the Antichrist this role was given to Tsar Alexander and maybe also Wellington. Among those turn of the Millennium Evangelical End Times movies there were two that gave some role like this to a Last President of the United States Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 and Left Behind: World At War.  The Silver Shirts opposed the then current President however, Pelley was such a fan of Hitler that he seemed to be all for giving this unofficial Prophetic role to Hitler.

This was a very minority fringe belief however, Pelley ran in the 1936 Presidential Election but couldn't even get close to 0.03% of the vote.  Most Americans who had Futurist views of Bible Prophecy couldn't see Hitler as positioned to be relevant at all.

You may think, "if Hitler's geographical position as leading a country seemingly not mentioned in The Bible is a reason he wasn't eligible then how has accusing US Presidents been so popular?".  I think part of it is a logic similar to the Uncanny Valley, Germany was close enough to the Biblical World that the Prophets could have had a frame of reference to identify it, but the American Continents are so far removed that of course they couldn't have explained them to people living in Judea 2000 years ago.

But also American Exceptionalism has caused American Christians to ignore all logic when it comes to their wanting America to be in Bible Prophecy.  

Historicists of the era focused on the Vatican as they always do, and that never fit the Nazis who were quite Anti-Catholic.  But while Mussolini was also anti-Clerical originally he did wind up making a deal with the Vatican that has made him stay relevant to Historicism to this day.

The only people who might have seen Hitler as the Antichrist were Catholics in Germany and the countries Hitler invaded.  Maybe also the descendants of the Husites in Bohemia.  But I don't even know how to begin investigating that topic in English.

It's also possible some Jews of the time may have identified him with Armilus.  But I also know no Muslims called him the Dajjal because the Nazis actually made a cozy alliance with the radical Muslims in their war agaisnt The Jews.

Why do I want to talk about this subject so much?  Because the commonly unsourced claim that people thought Hitler was the Antichrist encourages a bad stereotype of Futurists, that we can see the Antichrist anywhere.  But the fact is at least during this era they knew certain requirements were necessary besides just being Popular or Evil enough.

Maometis al-Mahdi and Islamic Eschatology

This somewhat spins off from my Seventh Day Adventist post.

If you really want to twist the text of Revelation 13 to allude to a day of the week, the Sixth Day is what makes sense, 666 being a multiple of 6.  And I've observed reasons before to thematically link this part of Revelation 13 to Genesis 2 and Adam's creation.

The Antichrist would presumably be taking titles of Christ for himself.  One of those is The Last Adam.  Gnosticism and Kabbalah have given the Last Adam concept their own special meanings.

Islam interestingly does call for weekly observance on Friday to commemorate the creation of Adam.  Because Islam has actually canonized the Apocryphal legend that God ordered The Angels to worship Adam.

Main article: Jumu'ah

The Quran acknowledges a six-part Creation period (32:4, 50:38) and the Biblical Sabbath as the seventh-day (yaum as-Sabt: 2:65, 4:47, 154, 7:163, 16:124), but Allah's mounting the throne after Creation is taken in contradistinction to Elohim's concluding and resting from his labors, and so Muslims replace Sabbath rest with jumu'ah (Arabic جمعة ). Also known as "Friday prayer", jumu'ah is a congregational prayer (salat) held every Friday (the Day of Assembly), just after midday, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer; it commemorates the creation of Adam on the sixth day, as a loving gathering of Adam's sons. The Quran states: "When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday, hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business: That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). The next verse ("When the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land ...") leads many Muslims not to consider Friday a rest day, as in Indonesia, which regards the seventh-day Sabbath as unchanged; but many Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, do consider Friday a nonwork day, a holiday or a weekend; and other Muslim countries, likePakistan, count it as half a rest day (after the Friday prayer is over). Jumu'ah attendance is strictly incumbent upon all free adult males who are legal residents of the locality.

I remain highly skeptical of the Islamic Antichrist theory, but this is an interesting observation.

What has become the standard way of making the Mark of the Beast point to Islam Chris White has thoroughly debunked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQkcFOPuvIg

http://bibleprophecytalk.com/bpt-thoughts-on-walid-shoebats-mark-of-the-beast-theory/

The proper interpretation of the Number of The Beast has been applied to Muhammad.  Maometis being a Greek rendering of his name that has a Gemetria value of 666.

Mu	Alpha	Omicron	Mu	Epsilon	Tau	Iota	Sigma	TOTAL
40	1	70	40	5	300	10	200	666

Critics of that theory say the proper Greek rendering of Muhammad should be Maometh or Mouchoumet.  But those were contemporary Byzantine Greek transliterations.  A NT era Greek rendering in the rules of Koine Greek would have to end with a Sigma being a male proper name of foreign origin.  This rule of Koine Greek is the reason we are used to having an S at the end of Jesus and Moses.  David Thorn should have remembered this.

The concept of The Mahdi is not in The Koran.  During his lifetime Muhammad saw himself as the last awaited Prophet besides the return of Jesus.  While much is often made of that the Koran and traditional Islamic doctrine don't call Muhammad a Messiah and give that title only to Jesus.  The fact is early on when he was trying to appeal to Jews he did play up to their Messianic Expectations which were very high following the death of Nehemiah Ben-Hushiel who they were convinced at that time was Messiah Ben-Joseph, and so next in line must be Elijah The Prophet and then Ben-David.

Muhammad was definitely an antichrist because he denied the deity of Christ and the relationship of The Father and The Son.

The Mahdi concept began developing in Islam after the Second Civil War from 680-692 AD.

In the Hadiths the only Mahdi Prophecy attributed directly to Muhammad, and thus arguably the most important, if only one detail is accurate it must be that one.  Is...

His name will be my name, and his father’s name my father’s name^[6]

Even if the entire duration of the world’s existence has already been exhausted and only one day is left before Doomsday, Allah will expand that day to such length of time as to accommodate the kingdom of a person from my Ahlul-Bayt who will be called by my name. He will fill out the earth with peace and justice as it will have been full of injustice and tyranny (by then).^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]}

So the most important fact about the Mahdi is him having Muhammad's name.  I don't think that has to be someone's birth name for them to successfully convince people they're The Mahdi, he'd probably just change his name to make it fit him.

The Twelver doctrine of Shia Islam believes the Mahdi is Muhammad ibin Hassan who was born in 869 AD and they believe entered Occultation in 874 AD.  So that further links the name of Muhammad to the Mahdi.

Even back when I leaned heavily towards a version of the Mahdi view, I disliked many aspects of how many Christians like Perry Stone promoted it.  Especially making ad-Dajjal a good guy, (Chris White in his criticisms seems familiar only with people making Dajjal Jesus, but Stone and most I read made him Elijah/Two Witnesses)  The Bible foretells many Antichrists, and indeed plenty of people who'd be an Antichrist to Christians would be to Muslims as well, especially if he claims to be Messiah Ben-Joseph.  I also generally suspected it would be a Sunni claimant not the Shia Twelfth Imam fixation.

I even went back and forth on the Isa=False Prophet connection.  On the one hand I have argued independent of the Mahdi theory that the False Prophet will claim to be Jesus and right now think that's most likely who he'll claim to be.  But on the other hand in the Koran Duhl-Qarnayn which means "two horned" kinda fits the Second Beast's description.  Among the theories of those rejecting the traditional Alexander The Great identification are that he was Cyrus and also Messiah Ben-Joseph.  Britam has argued Cyrus was a type of Messiah Ben-Joseph, and Yair Davidy told me personally in an email many Rabbinic Jews are open to Ben-Joseph and Elijah being the same, since Elijah was of Manasseh.  In the same Sura is the story of Al-Khadir which some view as linked.  Al-Khadir is clearly based on a Rabbinic story about Elijah.

I now, still, even after all I feel compelled to observe here do not think the Mahdi model is the most likely.  What I do believe is all the messianic exceptions of false religions (including heretical Judeo-Christian traditions) are potential seeds for The Antichrist planted by Satan who I think himself doesn't know exactly how things will play out.  And obviously does not necessarily want them to play out how The Bible says anyway.  None of these false Prophecies account for the Abomination of Desolation event because that is when the deception ends and things become open Satanism.

I likewise even now as a critic of the Mahdi theory have issues with many common arguments against it including Chris White's.

I enjoy Chris White's video on the origins of Islamic Eschatology.  But I disagree with the idea that this natural development of the idea contradicts a Satanic subconscious influence.  Especially since The Last Roman Emperor tradition is EVEN MORE OBVIOUSLY based on The Antichrist.  And there is another factor to the figure's origin he leaves out, it was probably originally about the Third Abbasid Caliph, predictions made by people then who felt they were in the End Times. 

Biblically The Antichrist is the Last Roman Emperor (I know that White disagrees with that).  And he's also said to be Greek fitting how Chris White interprets Daniel 8.

Chris White also obsesses over seeing Daniel 11:40 as the key to recognizing The Antichrist.  I have come to reject that Prophecy being Antichrist relevant at all.  But even so as White was describing The Last Roman Emperor he records how he's supposed to conquer Syria and Egypt and doesn't even stop to comment on that similarity.

Meanwhile White elsewhere tries to use Daniel 11:40 against an Islamic Antichrist by saying "why would he be waging war with all these Islamic countries".  It comes off as ignorant of contemporary geo-politics where they're at war with each other all the time.  But also the Mahdi prophecies include statements that...

• The vast majority of people who profess to be Muslim will be so only in name despite their practice of Islamic rites and it will be they who make war with the Mahdi.

Sunnis and Shiites both include the other in this fake Muslim category.  And there is also the figure of Sufyani who will rule much of Syria and possibly some of Iraq fitting the King of The North.  Who is said to be the first enemy The Mahdi will defeat.

And White's logic here hurts his own theory, because the Messiah Ben-Joseph tradition entered it's modern form in that exact same cultural context, largely inspired by Nehemiah Ben-Hushiel.

Another thing White could have mentioned is how The Antichrist having a darkened right eye probably has it's roots in Zechariah 11:17.

I used to be confused by how the traditional Jewish Messiah aspect of Al-Maish ad-Dajja fits with the Koran and other oldest sources saying he'll first emerge in Iraq (between Syria and Persia).  But as I've learned more about the historical context of Muhammad's life, I've learned there were attempts by the Davidic Jewish Exilarchs in Babylon to rebel against the Sasanian Empire and create an independent Jewish state in Mesopotamia.

Dajjal leading a migration of Jews from Persian territory to Israel has me thinking the best parallel for him in the Book of Revelation is the Kings of The East.

Perry Stone thinks all Muslims expect the Mahdi to emerge in Iraq because he's basing his acknowledge on local tradition and local Iraqi Muslims fighting with each other.  No Sunni Muslims outside Iraq expect him to emerge there.  The only thing geographically agreed upon is he'll be first acknowledged in Mecca.

I'm also curious about the traditions that ad-Dajjal will die in Lud.  Because in the Toldoth Yeshu traditions (Jewish anti-christian parodies of the Gospel narrative) Yeshu was stoned on the eve of Passover in Lud.  Which has it's roots in what Talmud Sanhedrin 67a says about Ben-Stada.  Is it possible Muhammad or other early Muslims were influenced by the developing Yeshu traditions?  He certainly showed familiarity with the Talmud elsewhere.

I believe there will be decoy Antichrists.  It's possible there will be Jewish and Muslim would be Messiahs waging war with each other each accusing the other of being The Antichrist, and maybe neither of those will be the real deal.  I still strongly think I.S.I.S. could be the Assyrian.

The Tiburtine Sibyl and The Last Roman Emperor Constans

A Prophecy attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl in 380 AD forms the embryo of the Last Roman Emperor tradition.

Of all the false prophecies I view as Antichrist seeds, The Last Roman Emperor is perhaps the most directly like the Biblical Antichrist, being defined as Greek and Roman at the same time, since it developed largely in the Byzantine Empire, it easily reconciles the way Daniel points to both Rome and Greece as the nations the Antichrist will rule.  And in some of the 7th century apocalypses he's said to conquer both Syria and Egypt, which is interesting if you still think Daniel 11:40 is about the Antichrist.

Usually, when dealing with these false prophecies my view is that the Antichrist figure within said Prophecy is in the role of a Decoy Antichrist.  And that is certainly the case with the later elaborations of the Last Roman Emperor tradition.

But this is short, and it's attributed to a pagan Oracle.  Oracles usually give cryptic prophecies, that could have two potentially opposite meanings, or an unexpected meaning that in hindsight should have been obvious.  "A Prophecy that misread could have been"-Yoda, Revenge of The Sith.

So let's look at what this Prophecy says closely.

THE LATIN TIBURTINE SIBYL
Then will arise a king of the Greeks whose name is Constans. He will be king of the Romans and the Greeks. He will be tall of stature, of handsome appearance with shining face, and well put together in all parts of his body. His reign will be ended after one hundred and twelve years. In those days there will be great riches and the earth will give fruit abundantly so that a measure of wheat will be sold for a denarius, a measure of wine for a denarius, and a measure of oil for a denarius. The king will have a text before his eyes that says: "The king of the Romans will claim the whole Christian empire for himself." He will devastate all the islands and the cities of the pagans and will destroy all idolatrous temples; he will call all pagans to baptism and in every temple the Cross of Christ will be erected. "Then Egypt and Ethiopia will be eager to stretch their hands to God." ~ Whoever does not adore the Cross of Jesus Christ will be punished by the sword. When the one hundred and twelve years have been completed, the Jews will be converted to the Lord, and "his sepulchre will be glorified by all." In those days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell with confidence. At that time the Prince of Iniquity who will be called Antichrist will arise from the tribe of Dan. He will be the Son of Perdition, the head of pride, the master of error, the fullness of malice who will overturn the world and do wonders and great signs through dissimulation. He will delude many by magic art so that fire will seem to come down from heaven. The years will be shortened like months, the months like weeks, the weeks like days, the days like hours, and an hour like a moment. The unclean nations that Alexander, the Indian king, shut up (i.e., Gog and Magog) will arise from the North. These are the twenty-two realms whose number is like the sand of the sea. When the king of the Romans hears of this he will call his army together and vanquish and utterly destroy them. After this he will come to Jerusalem, and having put off the diadem from his head and laid aside the whole imperial garb, he will hand over the empire of the Christians to God the Father and to Jesus Christ his Son. When the Roman empire shall have ceased, then the Antichrist will be openly revealed and will sit in the House of the Lord in Jerusalem. While he is reigning, two very famous men, Elijah and Enoch, will go forth to announce the coming of the Lord. Antichrist will kill them and after three days they will be raised up by the Lord. Then there will be a great persecution, such as has not been before nor shall be thereafter. The Lord will shorten those days for the sake of the elect, and the Antichrist will be slain by the power of God through Michael the Archangel on the Mount of Olives.
Translated from the edition of E. Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen. pp. 185—86.

1. It never describes Constans as actually fighting the Antichrist, the enemy he goes to war with is Gog and Magog.

2. Although the Antichrist is mentioned while Constans is still reigning, it's not till after Constans puts down his Crown in Jerusalem that the Antichrist is "openly revealed", and reigns in the House of God in Jerusalem.  Same place we were just told Constans was.

I think this prophecy, even as it's author originally intended, is open to a reading where Constans and The Antichrist are the same individual.  That he will "give up" his authority to beings that present themselves as being God and Jesus but are perhaps actually Satan and The False Prophet.

Constans is an interesting name, it's a diminutive form of Constantine and Constantinius (but a few lesser known Emperors are known by that name exactly).  The seventh century Syrian elaborations on the Last Roman Emperor figure didn't give him a name.  And the Western Catholic tradition of the Great Catholic Monarch removed the Greek affiliation altogether saying he'll descend from Clovis, the Merovingian.  However...

When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 AD.  Emperor Constantine XI removed his royal garments on the battlefield when he knew it was lost so no one could tell who he was.  After the battle was over the Turks identified a body as his and marched it around the city in victory, but the people failed to recognize it as Constantine.  No body was ever indisputably identified as Constantine.  A rumor spread that an Angel had saved him and turned him into a marble statue and hid him beneath the wall of Constantinople, and that one day God would revive him to drive out the Turks.  The legacy of this legend remained important to the Greeks ever since, it was rekindled during their War of Independence in the 1800s and lingers to this day.

You may be thinking of course, "How can the same person be both  King of the Greeks and a Prince from the Tribe of Dan?"

Ezekiel 27 speaks of Dan and Javan having a connection.  And indeed Greek mythology speaks of the Danoi.  This further leads to speculation about connecting Dan to the Tutha de Dannan who in Irish mythology came from Northern Europe.  I'm highly skeptical of most British Israelism claims, but the Tribe of Dan is very interesting.

Britam identifies Dan with Denmark (which is the only Britam identification I kinda agree with). The Royal family of modern Greece from George I on are also Danish Royalty by virtue of their direct Pater-lineal descent from Christian IX of Denmark.  Every modern King of Greece (King of the Hellenes as they call themselves) is also officially a Prince of Denmark.  King of the Greeks and Prince of Dan.

I discus the genealogy of George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark on a different blog.  That information can be overlapped with my Genealogy of The Antichrist study to show that they descend from the Seleucid Dynasty. as well as probable Merovingian descent from Clovis.  This family is also taking over the British Royal family, involving a few of the lines different people have in different ways sought to connect to the House of David.

The current King in exile is Constantine II and is often called by his supporters Constantine XIII, viewing the modern Greek Kingdom as heir to the Byzantine Empire, and evoking the mythology about Constantine XI.

Constantine II has 4 children, Pavolos the oldest son is the Crown-Prince.  Pavolos has 5 children, 4 of whom were born in the United States.  Princess Maria-Olympia, Prince Constantine-Alexios, and Prince Achileas-Andreas all three of whom were born in New York.  Prince Odysseus-Kimon and Prince Aristidis-Stravos who was born in Los Angeles.

The pieces are in place for some charismatic leader of this royal family to bring together the Byzantine Last Roman Emperor tradition, the Great Catholic Monarch Tradition, and the British Israelite understanding of Messiah Ben-Joseph and/or the Talmudic tradition that says Messiah Ben-David will also be half Danite, like how Samson was half Danite and half Judean.

Modern Greece had 7 Kings when it was a Kingdom.  Now that is certainly not what the 7 Kings of Revelation mainly mean as I've firmly shown elsewhere, but it's interesting how patterns repeat.

Long ago when I hadn't settled on my current view of the 7 heads, when discussing a possible connection to the Kings of Rome, I argued that the 7th reigning a little while might not be about reign length so much as implying being driven from his position rather then reigning till he died as a King normally does.  Which also happened to Constantine II.

From there it is interesting that it was during the reign of the Sixth King that Israel was reestablished in 1948.

Update Feb21st2016: Another option I just considered re-reading the Oracle is maybe the "Antichrist" there is really The False Prophet.

Awaited Messiahs of False Religions

One of the unique things about True Biblical Christianity is we believe our Messiah has already come. We're not awaiting anyone new. We're awaiting his return, but it will not be necessary to identify him, the Church will be gathered to him and then he'll go to directly where believing Israel is. Those we expect to appear before him, the Two Witnesses (Enoch and Elijah), are also men who lived on the Earth before. We are awaiting only second comings.

Now false religions may also be expecting someone to return, (including hijacking figures of our tradition, Jesus, Elijah and Enoch ect.), but they're also expecting a new Messiah, or Avatar of their chief god to arise. But we Christians know the next important person to be revealed shall be the Wicked One, and he shall have a False Prophet to back him up as well.

I believe Satan himself doesn't know how things will play out exactly.  I think all these were seeds he planted to potentially use, but it's still possible none will be relevant in the end.

I have discussed The False Prophet in a separate study. I have come to the view he is Judas and will claim to be Jesus. He may claim to be other expected returning figures as well. He may endorse Mormon theories about Jesus coming to the new world after the Resurrection, and also identify himself with Quetzalcoatl, Kukulcan and Gukumatz.

The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life and ministry." (Mediation and Atonement, p. 194.) John Taylor.

Which are also tied into New Age/Ancient Aliens theories.

The Islamic Mahdi and Messiah Ben-Ephraim, are of unique importance, as one is extra-Biblical Rabbinic Jewish tradition and the other is awaited by Israel's nearest enemies. I have talked about them alreayd and will more in the future. Also "Abrahamic" religions tend to be more detailed in their prophecies, so there is more to say on them.

The Cumaean Sibyl in Virgl's 4th Ecolouge is a prophecy of a new Golden Age, ushered in by Apollo and Saturn, where men and gods will mingle together.  The originally intent was to be about Augustus, but later post Constantine Christians co-opted it and now it is somewhat infamous in New Age and Neo-Pagan circles.

As I've said elsewhere, I believe The Antichrist will claim to be all the awaited Messiahs of all false religions.
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Saoshyant [sou-shyuhnt] is a figure of Zoroastrian eschatology.

I personally believe the original Zarathustra lived about 600 A.D. "258 years before Alexander." And might have been partially descended from exiled Israelites, but that his teachings where corrupted over the generations (and may have been corrupt to begin with, givne the state of the Northern Kingdom), the oldest written texts attributed to hm are much later. Legends about him over time tried to place him further in the past.

Yasht 19.88-96 is the oldest reference to Saoshyant as an expected savior, and only one that comes in the B.C. era. Not a lot of details exist there, he emerges from a sacred lake("rise up out of the sea"?), makes the world perfect and destroys evil.  But he is said to wield a sacred weapon called Verethragna. The Verethragna is sometimes represented as Bow, and is said to have "conquering superiority" (Revelation 6, First Horseman).

He's developed in greater detail in 9th-12th century texts. Zoroastrian tradition envisions three future saviors, one for the end of each 1,000-year period that comprise the last 3,000 years of the world. All three will be born of maidens, conceived while their mothers bathed in a lake that miraculously preserved the seed of the prophet Zoroaster himself. The first will be named Hushedar, the second Hushedarmah, and the third will be Saoshyant, who will lead humanity in the final battle against falsehood.

As you can see, they have begun to borrow aspects of Jesus. The legends elaborate a great deal on this Virgin Birth, and state it'll be 30 years before the finale battle, but this is then contradicted by references to him living for 57 years.

No details are known about those preceding saviors. But if The Antichrist claims to be Saoshyant, and that the third of those millenniums are ending about now, The False Prophet/Pseudo Jesus may well claim to be Hushedar.
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Kalki, the final Avatar of Vishnu in Vedic mythology and Hindu religion, who will end the Kali Yuga.

I could first note that his name means "Destroyer" and can thus be viewed as a Vedic translation of Apollyon. He is also said to come Riding atop a White Horse.

The previous Avatars were Krishna and Rama. Krishna died because an Arrow pierced his Heel. Rama I believe was the Raamah son of Cush of Genesis 10, but the legends were embellished greatly.

Padma will be his consort, an Avatar of Lakshmi, previous Avatars include Sita wife of Rama and Radha consort of Krishna.

The the Kali Yuga is today traditionally viewed to have begun in 3102 B.C. and is supposed to last 432,000 years, someone calming to be him now might seem implausible, but many already have, and their faithful rationalize it all. At any rate I personally believe whoever historically inspired Krishna lived not around 3100 BC but in the 9th century B.C. Due to the archeological evidence for the Kurukshetra war being around that time.

A lot of work among Hindu scholars involves trying to use Astrological references to give him a Birth Date. The possibility of an Evil Counterpart to the Star of Bethleham (Jupiter's conjunction with Regulus on September 11th/First of Tishri 3 B.C.) is intriguing. Sri Potuluri Virabrahmendra Swami, for example, wrote 400 years ago in his Divya Maha Kala Gnana, or 'Divine Knowledge of the Time,' that Kalki would arrive when the moon, sun, Venus and Jupiter entered the same sign. This is not a rare occurrence and last happened in early 2012.
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Maitreya, the next Buddha

Buddhism doesn't really give any specific details at all. But one mention of the prophecy of Maitreya is in the Sanskrit text, the Maitreyavyākaraṇa (The Prophecy of Maitreya). It implies that he is a teacher of meditative trance sadhana and states that gods, men and other beings:

"will lose their doubts, and the torrents of their cravings will be cut off: free from all misery they will manage to cross the ocean of becoming; and, as a result of Maitreya's teachings, they will lead a holy life. No longer will they regard anything as their own, they will have no possession, no gold or silver, no home, no relatives! But they will lead the holy life of oneness under Maitreya's guidance. They will have torn the net of the passions, they will manage to enter into trances, and theirs will be an abundance of joy and happiness, for they will lead a holy life under Maitreya's guidance." (Trans. in Conze 1959:241)

Sounds like a possible precedent for ending all currency to bring in the Mark of the Beast.

One random site on the Internet suggests that Maitreya will be the actual name of the Antichrist. They claim there are 7 different ways to spell Maitreya in Hebrew and that each has a numerical value of 666. I have not independently verified this claim yet, and I still prefer to use Greek to decipher the Number of The Beast. But at the beginning of Revelation 13 it says "having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." So could it be a different form of the same name on each head?

The Maitreya concept is expanded on in Theosphy, and other New Age religions. Which also often utilize Kalki as well.

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The Baha'i faith, is a mingling of Judeo-Chrstian, Islamic and Zorosatrian ideas.

In 1873 Bahá'u'lláh wrote in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:

"How great the blessedness that awaiteth the king who will arise to aid My Cause in My kingdom, who will detach himself from all else but Me! Such a king is numbered with the companions of the Crimson Ark--the Ark which God hath prepared for the people of Bahá. All must glorify his name, must reverence his station, and aid him to unlock the cities with the keys of My Name, the omnipotent Protector of all that inhabit the visible and invisible kingdoms. Such a king is the very eye of mankind, the luminous ornament on the brow of creation, the fountainhead of blessings unto the whole world. Offer up, O people of Bahá, your substance, nay your very lives, for his assistance."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 1873) 

This is elaborated specifically:

"In the Lawh-i-Ra'ís He actually and categorically prophesies the rise of such a king: "Erelong will God raise up from among the kings one who will aid His loved ones. He, verily, encompasseth all things. He will instill in the hearts the love of His loved ones. This, indeed, is irrevocably decreed by One Who is the Almighty, the Beneficent." In the Ridvánu'l-`Adl, wherein the virtue of justice is exalted, He makes a parallel prediction: "Erelong will God make manifest on earth kings who will recline on the couches of justice, and will rule amongst men even as they rule their own selves. They, indeed, are among the choicest of My creatures in the entire creation.""

(Bahá'u'lláh, 1868, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in Promised Day is Come)

Globalism in general is important to Baha'i belief.

Shoghi Effendi wrote:

"... It must, however long and tortuous the way, lead, through a series of victories and reverses, to the political unification of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, to the emergence of a world government and the establishment of the Lesser Peace, as foretold by Bahá’u’lláh and foreshadowed by the Prophet Isaiah."

(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, 1947) 

Bahá'u'lláh wrote in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:

"We have appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race: the first, which is the most firm foundation, We have set down in other of Our Tablets, while the second hath been revealed in this wondrous Book."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 1873)

The first sign refers to the selection of a single language and the adoption of a common script:

"O members of parliaments throughout the world! Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth, and adopt ye likewise a common script. ... This will be the cause of unity, could ye but comprehend it, and the greatest instrument for promoting harmony and civilization, would that ye might understand!"

(Bahá'u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 1873)

The second sign refers to the emergence of a "divine philosophy" which will include the discovery of a radical approach to the transmutation of elements:

"Consider the doubts which they who have joined partners with God have instilled into the hearts of the people of this land. “Is it ever possible,” they ask, “for copper to be transmuted into gold?” Say, Yes, by my Lord, it is possible. Its secret, however, lieth hidden in Our Knowledge. We will reveal it unto whom We will. Whoso doubteth Our power, let him ask the Lord his God, that He may disclose unto him the secret, and assure him of its truth. That copper can be turned into gold is in itself sufficient proof that gold can, in like manner, be transmuted into copper, if they be of them that can apprehend this truth. Every mineral can be made to acquire the density, form, and substance of each and every other mineral. The knowledge thereof is with Us in the Hidden Book."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writing of Bahá'u'lláh, Section XCVII, undated)

In Bahá'u'lláh's tablet addressed to Shaykh Salmán, he mentions a third sign, which is that no one will accept to bear the weight of kingship:

"One of the signs of the maturity of the world is that no one will accept to bear the weight of kingship. Kingship will remain with none willing to bear alone its weight. That day will be the day whereon wisdom will be manifested among mankind. Only in order to proclaim the Cause of God and spread abroad His Faith will anyone be willing to bear this grievous weight. Well is it with him who, for love of God and His Cause, and for the sake of God and for the purpose of proclaiming His Faith, will expose himself unto this great danger, and will accept this toil and trouble.”"

(Bahá'u'lláh, undated, quoted in Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come)

Shoghi Effendi wrote:

"The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded…"

"A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East and the West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of all the available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation—such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving."

(Shoghi Effendi, The Unfoldment of World Civilization, 1936)

"The Most Great Peace... a peace that must inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races, creeds, classes and nations..."

(Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, 1936) 

Of course Bahá'u'lláh was against anyone in the next Thousand years calming to be God, but I don't believe the Antichrist will deify himself at first, only after his counterfeit resurrection in the mid-way point of the Tribulation.
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As I said, True Christianity is not awaiting any new Messiah, but Heretical Christianity has always been around, and it's always had a thing for creating new Messiahs to expect.
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Emperor Constans, foretold by The Tiburtine Sibyl or Albune.

A Prophecy attributed to another of the Sybils written down in 380 A.D.

THE LATIN TIBURTINE SIBYL

Then will arise a king of the Greeks whose name is Constans. He will be king of the Romans and the Greeks. He will be tall of stature, of handsome appearance with shining face, and well put together in all parts of his body. His reign will be ended after one hundred and twelve years. In those days there will be great riches and the earth will give fruit abundantly so that a measure of wheat will be sold for a denarius, a measure of wine for a denarius, and a measure of oil for a denarius. The king will have a text before his eyes that says: "The king of the Romans will claim the whole Christian empire for himself." He will devastate all the islands and the cities of the pagans and will destroy all idolatrous temples; he will call all pagans to baptism and in every temple the Cross of Christ will be erected. "Then Egypt and Ethiopia will be eager to stretch their hands to God." ~ Whoever does not adore the Cross of Jesus Christ will be punished by the sword. When the one hundred and twelve years have been completed, the Jews will be converted to the Lord, and "his sepulchre will be glorified by all." In those days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell with confidence. At that time the Prince of Iniquity who will be called Antichrist will arise from the tribe of Dan. He will be the Son of Perdition, the head of pride, the master of error, the fullness of malice who will overturn the world and do wonders and great signs through dissimulation. He will delude many by magic art so that fire will seem to come down from heaven. The years will be shortened like months, the months like weeks, the weeks like days, the days like hours, and an hour like a moment. The unclean nations that Alexander, the Indian king, shut up (i.e., Gog and Magog) will arise from the North. These are the twenty-two realms whose number is like the sand of the sea. When the king of the Romans hears of this he will call his army together and vanquish and utterly destroy them. After this he will come to Jerusalem, and having put off the diadem from his head and laid aside the whole imperial garb, he will hand over the empire of the Christians to God the Father and to Jesus Christ his Son. When the Roman empire shall have ceased,39 then the Antichrist will be openly revealed and will sit in the House of the Lord in Jerusalem. While he is reigning, two very famous men, Elijah and Enoch, will go forth to announce the coming of the Lord. Antichrist will kill them and after three days they will be raised up by the Lord. Then there will be a great persecution, such as has not been before nor shall be thereafter. The Lord will shorten those days for the sake of the elect, and the Antichrist will be slain by the power of God through Michael the Archangel on the Mount of Olives.

Translated from the edition of E. Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen. pp. 185—86.

In a lot of ways this shows how many of my Futurist interpretations of Scripture were pretty unanimous to early Christians, (Enoch and Elijah, Israel being destined to be redeemed).  Though I no longer support a premillenial Gog and Magog invasion, but I still geographically place Magog in Russia.   It's popular to claim the Gates of Alexander legend wasn't connected to Magog untill the Seventh Century.  In addition to this reference, I feel I can also show it's pre-Christian because Josephus in Wars of The Jews Book 7 Chapter 7 Section 4 says the Scythians (who he in Antiquities says are Magog) were who the Gates of Alexander shut up.

But there is no Biblical basis for this great Christian Emperor, it is in fact the Antichrist who shall restore Rome to greatness again. Before Constantine, men like Ireneaus and Hippolytus got this right.
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Last Roman Emperor or Last World Emperor

The legend first appears in the 7th-century apocalyptic text known as the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, and developed over the centuries, becoming particularly prominent in the 15th century. The notion of the Great Catholic Monarch is related to it

The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius is a 7th-century apocalypse that shaped the eschatological imagination of Christendom throughout the Middle Ages. The work was written in Syriac in the late 7th century, in reaction to the Islamic conquest of the Near East, and is falsely attributed to the 4th-century Church Father Methodius of Olympus. It depicts many familiar Christian eschatological themes: the rise and rule of Antichrist, the invasions of Gog and Magog, and the tribulations that precede the end of the world.

A new element, probably adopted from the Tiburtine Sibyl, was a Messiah-like Last Roman Emperor, who would be a central figure in apocalyptic literature until the end of the medieval period. It was translated into Greek soon after its composition, and thence into Latin (by the eighth century), Slavonic, Russian, Armenian, and Arabic.

Its precise date is difficult to ascertain; dates proposed by recent historians fall within the range 644 - 691 AD (Palmer 1993:225).

It was developed in the writings of Adso of Montier-en-Der, and was particularly current around the end of the fifteenth century.[S.N., Mirabilis Liber, 1522] Christopher Columbus refers to it in his Book of Prophecies.

The 7th Century apocalypses also emphasizes the Last Roman Emperor conquering both Egypt and Syria, which is interesting if you still think Daniel 11:36-45 is about The Antichrist.

Christ White has discussed this subject in the context of comparing it to to the Islamic Mahdi.  One mistake he makes is most Islamic Antichrist theorists make Dajjal Elijah not Jesus.  When I used to lean towards however I never agreed with that and say Dajjal as a Decoy Antichrist.  Another note, the Antichrist being blind in one eye possibly has a Biblical basis in Zachariah 11.

What he misses is the Messiah Ben-Joseph idea was entering it's current form in the 7th Century AD as well.  Particularly due to the Messianic status given to Nehemiah Ben Hushiel which is a part of works like the Sefer Zeubbabel, the poems of Eleazer Ben Killir, the Otot ha-Masiah and the Pirqie Masiah.  And Messiah Ben-Joseph has a Mahdi parallel the Last Roman Emperor does not, being killed by The Antichrist/Armillus/Dajjal to be resurrected by Messiah Ben-David/Isa the Muslim Jesus.  A book called The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition discussed how the Last Roman Emperor is probably base don Jewish Messianic expectations.

To me none of that refutes the notion that all these awaited Messiahs were potential Antichrist seeds Satan had planted.
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The Great Catholic Monarch

In Catholic tradition, the Great Monarch is predicted to have a restorationist character and to restore the European Catholic royalty in the West, destroy the power of heretics and atheistic rebels, and successfully convert many Muslims and Jews to the Faith.(See Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement by Yves Dupont)

The concept of the Great King features prominently in mystical and folk traditions, as well as writings of people thought to have been granted gifts of prophecy or special visitations by messengers from heaven (such as angels, saints, or Christ). 

Saint Remigius, bishop of Reims and apostle of the Franks, baptised Clovis I, king of the Franks on 24 December 496. This baptism, leading to the conversion of the entire Frankish people to Nicene Christianity, was a momentous success for the Catholic Church and a seminal event in European history. Allegedly he had had a vision and prophesied that in the distant future, the last monarch who descended from the line of the kings of France, would be revealed and reestablish the Holy Roman Empire at the end of time. This prophecy was related through Hincmar, archbishop of Reims (806 – 21 December 882), and Rabanus Maurus Magnentius O.S.B., archbishop of Mainz (780 – 4 February 856).

Himcar was the Propagandist for Charles the Bald, so he may have invented it to serve political purposes for the Holy Roman Empire. 

The Great Catholic Monarch was very popular in popular folklore until the 18th century Enlightenment. He reappeared in 19th century prophecy when French legitimists believed that the count of Chambord, Henry V of France would be the new king.

Perrie Plantard's original intent in creating the Priory of Sion Hoax was to claim that he was the Great Catholic Monarch, tying it into French Israelism/Franco Israelism. From there the idea is openly advocated for in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and it's follow up Messianic Legacy, which bring the Jesus Bloodline theory into it.  And Bloodline of the Holy Grail which further linked it to standard British Israelism ideas and Jacobite Politics, and it's follow up Genesis of the Grail Kings which ties in Ancient Aliens theories.
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Mab Darogan, once and future King of Welsh legend.

The concept is of a great future Briton leader who would restore Celtic England and drive out the Anglo-Saxons. The return of King Arthur derives from the concept.  

When The Tudor Dynasty was established it was popular to think this would be fulfilled by King Henry VII.

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The White Horse Prophecy of Joseph Smith

The Latter Day Saints, according to the prophecy, would "go to the Rocky Mountains and ... be a great and mighty people", identified figuratively with the White Horse described in the Revelation of John. The prophecy further predicts that the United States Constitution will one day "hang like a thread" and will be saved "by the efforts of the White Horse". 

Over time this developed specially into a concept that a Mormon would become President of the United States and turn the U.S. into a Mormon Theocracy. It has been speculated about in relation to various Mormon Presidential candidates like George and mitt Romney. Glen Beck who's a Mormon has also subtly alluded to it on TV many times.
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More recently I've become aware of others like how the Druze are awaiting Al-Hakim.  

This can also tie into any King In The Mountain myth.

The Seven Heads and Daniel 7

In the past I've been hostile to viewing the 7 Kings as 7 Kingdoms or Empires rather then a specific succession of individual Kings.  Chris White argues they are 7 Kings of 7 Kingdoms.

I'll never be convinced of a model that adds two empires or even one before Nebuchadnezzar.  But my perspective on this changed when I noticed something about how Daniel 7 and the Beast from the Sea in Revelation are compared.

This thesis here could damage a lot of my earlier theories.  But not my over all view of Bible Prophecy.

Seven is also the total number of heads in Daniel 7, 1 Lion, 1 Bear, 4 of the Leopard and the Ten horns are defined as on a head in Daniel 7.  The Beast of Revelation 13 is all four of Daniel 7's beasts merged together.

So we have 7 Kingdoms, each also with one specific of their Kings to single out.  That is how I now look at it.

The 7 kings do NOT each have to be a type of The Antichrist, that is just a made up rule some people have for studying this.  Cyrus is indisputably the Second King in question here, he is never portrayed negatively in Scripture.  In fact he is the only Gentile The Hebrew Bible ever declares a Messiah, and it's God himself saying it to Cyrus in Isaiah 44/45.  Some of them may be types, but they don't all need to be.

In fact even though I've done and may still do a lot of talking about potential types of The Anitchrist on this Blog.  The Biblical endorsement for the concept of types are entirely about Jesus, Paul in Colossians saying everything in the law was a foreshadowing of Jesus that had already been fulfilled, Jesus saying the Volume of The Book is of Him.  There is no Biblical basis for calling ANYONE a type of The Antichrist.

This model has to make Rome the 7th rather then 6th Empire.  How can Rome possibly be yet Future in John's time?  Or be said to have not lasted very long?

The 7 Kings we're are looking for are not rulers or occupiers of Israel/Jerusalem.  Revelation 17 is specifically about Babylon, it's about 7 Kings of 7 Kingdoms who ruled Babylon, starting with it's native kingdom.  Daniel 7 is in the Aramaic part of Daniel, the language of the Assyrians and Babylonians of Daniel's time.  And he was in Babylonia when he had this vision.  The four beasts are described as World Empires and all four are, but to the point of view of the Babylonians Daniel first made this Prophecy for, no one truly became a world empire till they conquered their world.

Rome did NOT rule Babylon at any point during the New Testament era or before it. John wrote Revelation at the latest during the reign of Domitian.  The second Emperor after that, Trajan, was the first Roman to take Mesopotamia and Assyria. and it was at the very end of his reign that he did.  Then Hadrian succeeded him, and he pretty much immediately gave them back to Parthia.  So Rome only ever ruled Babylon for a very short time, just a few years.

The ruler of Parthia when John wrote was Pacorus II. (Who's mother was a Greek concubine, further showing he can count as a Greek King, and his father's maternal grandmother had Seleucid ancestry).  When Pacorus died Trajan was already Emperor of Rome.  Later in the 160s AD there was another Roman military incursion into Mesopotamia, but it never reached Babylon, it's focus was on Seleucica.

While it's not a coincidence that the 4 heads of the Leopard are the same number of horns the Notable horn of the Ram breaks into.  I think what they represent specifically here could be sort of different.  We are dealing with four Hellenistic era Kingdoms that ruled Babylon.  The first is Alexander himself, then comes the successors.

I believe Parthia while often thought of as a quasi Persian empire can be looked at as coming out of Alexander's Empire.  He had conquered that region, and by the New Testament period the Arascid Royal Family had Seleucid blood intermingled into them.

Babylon was taken from the Seleucid Empire by Parthia in 150 BC.  It was still firmly Seleucid during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Hasomonean revolt.

Antigonus and Seleucus Nicator fought over Babylon early on after it was clear Alexander's own Dynasty would not survive.  Eventually Seleucus secured it.

I'm going to consider Ptolemy the true successor to Alexander in this context.  He had Alexander's body buried in the city named after him, an act that secured succession in Macedonian custom, and was possibly a half brother or cousin of Alexander.

The 4 Heads of the Leopard could be viewed as Antigonus in Macedon =The West, Antioch=The North, Alexandria=The South and Parthia=The East.  Thus fitting the Four Winds of Heaven reference in Daniel 11.  Though for that context we could also say the West was the Macedon-Greece homeland which was originally ruled by the Antipards but which the Antigonids took as they lost what was originally allotted to them to Seleucus.

So the 7 King(dom)s of Babylon from Daniel are Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander The Great, Antigonus, Seleucid Dynasty, Pacorus of Parthia, and Trajan of Rome.

In the past I firmly argued that I believe The Antichrist's Death and Resurrection must both be in the future.  And I was not comfortable with the theories making him some past King being brought back.

But in light of this, I must be consistent with my clear understanding of Revelation 17's terminology.  "Was, and is not" means the Eight King is one of the first 5, since it defines the present of this message as the 6th.

I still believe the Beast Empire is largely a Revived Roman Empire, but the Little Horn shows up among the ten horns in Daniel 7, distinct from Daniel 8 where he comes out of one of the 4 horns.  He's ruling Rome but not as a Roman himself.

I don't believe it has to be someone who died from a head wound.  The doctrine of The Antichrist's Resurrection to me is proven not by the mortal head wound being healed but by his ascending out of the Bottomless Pit, and how that theme ties into Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28-32, (though fatal sword wound references are there too).

It could be he's already an early example of the second resurrection when he receives the mortal wound, and what amazes people is him surviving something that should have killed him, because he now has a body like a fallen angel.

Alexander The Great is distinct as being in a sense the main King of the Leopard as a whole as well as one of the heads.  I see Daniel 7:12 saying both that the Assyrian, Persian and Greek nations will exist during the Millennium.  And that their main three Kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus and Alexander The Great, are saved individuals and will exist in The Millennium too.

That only leaves Antigonus and the Seleucids.

Daniel 11:40-45 seems to have The Antichrist as separate from the King of The North.  However, I've explained why I'm no longer certain that even is The Antichrist, and that it might be Augustus.  But if that is the End Times and is The 8th King, it's while he's not a ruler of his original kingdom anymore but of the 10 horns to emerge from Rome.

There is nothing to link Antigonus to the Antichrist, but a lot of reasons to link the Seleucids.  Daniel 8 as well as Epiphanes doing the first Abomination of Desolation, which Jesus clarifies there will be one yet future.

I argued in the past when discussing Daniel 8 that there The Little Horn is the Seleucid dynasty as a whole, not just 1 or 2 individuals.  So unlike others who've argued a thesis similar to what I'm arguing here, I don't necessarily think it's Antiochus Epiphanes himself who is the Seleucid ruler that will ascend out of the Bottomless Pit, but certainly could be.

There are reasons to believe The Antichrist will be someone The Jews accept at first until the Abomination of Desolation happens.  If he's Epiphanes and is known to be Epiphanes, that would be unlikely.  Epiphanes is up there with Hitler and Haman on the most hated by Jews list.

I do think it must be a Seleucid mentioned in Daniel 11, making him a Biblical figure.  Seleucus I might be the candidate to start with, but while important to Seleucid history obviously, what's said of him in Daniel 11 is brief and pales in comparison to some of the others.  But it is interesting that a legend existed in the ancient world that his mother Laodice claimed he was fathered by Apollo.

Three times in Daniel 11 a king is described as "doing according to his will".  One of these is verse 36 which is clearly past the immediate history of Epiphanes already, after the Hasmonean Kingdom has fallen to Rome.  And may or may not be about The Antichrist.  It's first used of Alexander The Great at the start of the chapter.  Between them it's in verse 16.

Verse 16 is during the time of Antiochus III The Great's wars. And usually he is identified by scholars as the one "doing according to his will" there.  But Hippolytus of Rome in his Daniel commentary confusingly says this was an Alexander not known from any other surviving historical sources we have on the period.  He might have gotten confused by how that phrase was earlier affiliated with Alexander The Great, or maybe it's a scribal/copyist error.

It was under Antiochus The Great that Israel was taken from the Ptolemies and became part of the Seleucid Empire.  He is overall remembered fondly by The Jews as recorded by Josephus.  His relationship with them in Daniel 11 seems positive.  He continued Alexander and the Ptolemies general policy of not interfering with their Faith or The Temple.

But Josephus seems to be familiar with only 1 Maccabees and not 2 Maccabees.  2 Maccabees chapter 1 seems to refer to the death of Antiochus III and deems him ungodly.  Some see the benefits Antiochus gave The Temple as having been good for the Priestly class but not really for the common people.

Epiphanes is still the key link this dynasty has to The Antichrist.  It's highly possible he will lie about who he is, even when he first reveals himself to be a resurrected past individual he may lie about exactly who he is. Maybe he'll try to claim he's Elijah or David or Solomon or someone like that.  Or maybe just a simple matter of lying about which Macedonian or Seleucid ruler he is.

Some have agreed that Daniel 11:36-45 can't refer to anything Epiphanes did, yet still feel that the tone of the text wants us to think of him.  This could agree with a notion that he was recorded earlier as the 5th King and 36-45 is about him as the 8th King.

On the notion that we're dealing with a ruler of one of the earlier Kingdoms now ruling/reviving Rome.  Epiphanes had been a hostage in Rome, and Polybus said he liked to rule as if he were a Roman.  Maybe he is the ideal person to revive the Roman Empire.

Which would create more options for someone he could claim to be, like Augustus.

But one interesting option is for him to claim to be Constantine XI, the last Byzantine Emperor.  Like all later Byzantine Emperors he was firmly Greek, so Antiochus could remain the same ethnicity and native language.  Constantine XI supposedly died in battle when Constantinople fell to the Turks, but his death was never solidly confirmed.  So a rumor spread that an Angel had saved him and turned him into a statue and hid him beneath the Gate of Constantinople and would one be awoken to drive to the Turks.  His legacy has remained important among the Greeks, drawing on it during their War of Independence in the 19th Century.

And the legend of his return no doubt became interwoven with the Last Roman Emperor tradition.  The original seed of which, the late 4th century prophecy attributed to the Tiburtine Sibyl called him a King of The Greeks named Constans.

One argument against the idea that 36-39 could be about Epiphanes is that he was consistent with the religion of his fathers.  However there is also a sense in which Epiphanes did change the religion of the Seleucid Empire, ironically the opposite of the change Augustus later made in Rome.  Apollo had been the favored deity of earlier Seleucids, but Epiphanes downplayed him and was more fond of Zeus.  But it still would be absurd to label Zeus a god "whom his fathers knew not" for any Greek people.

But if Epiphanes returns in the End Days his religion may be different, especially if he comes back after being resurrected and thinking Satan was responsible for it.

He did deify himself, technically the full name he used was Antíochos D' ho Epiphanḗs (Antiochus God Manifest, or Antiochus Zeus Manifest).  I've noticed that while none of the known forms of Epiphanes/Epiphany I've found used in ancient Greek texts have a Greek gemetria value of 666, it isn't difficult to construct a form that does have that value, it seems 1 or 2 letters could make the difference.

Update August 2016: I just argued that the Eight King could be a Ptolemy.