David Berg
DFO799_219 May 1979
1. WHEN THE ANTICHRIST ABOLISHES ALL RELIGIONS but his own, it will seem logical‚ reasonable & politically expedient in order to unite the World & bring World peace—from man's carnal standpoint—& the Devil's too, of course. So most of the world is going to agree with him. (Rev.13:3 & 4): "That's a great idea! You finally solved the problems of all these religions fighting & warring with each other & that have torn up the whole world for thousands of years—by just doing away with them all & establishing a One–World Religion!"
2. HE HAS ALREADY ESTABLISHED A ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT under a One-World Dictator, the Antichrist himself. But this is the final & worst problem of all, this is one world problem to which he finds the only possible solution is One-World Religion.
3. SO, THIS ANTICHRIST PRINCE BREAKS THE VERY COVENANT THAT HE HAS MADE to try to knock their heads together, & says, "Enough!" He's sick & fed up with all their fighting, so he breaks the Covenant & stops all the worship & he sets up his own image at the rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, & says:
4. "NOW, WORSHIP ME!—WORSHIP THIS! We'll just have one religion, & this is it!" So, he is spoken of as the Prince of the Covenant, because he is the one who both makes & breaks the Covenant. Jesus also makes it very specific in Mt. 24:15-21:
5. THIS BEGINS THE GREAT TRIBULATION, THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS OF THE BROKEN COVENANT, after he breaks it at the end of the first 3 1/2 years, when he sets up "the abomination of desolation" (his image) "in the Holy Place" (The rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem).
6. "WHEN YE THEREFORE SHALL SEE THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand(ing) in the Holy Place", then "whosoever readeth let him understand...For then shall be (the) Great Tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be!"—Hallelujah! Because that means Jesus is coming soon! TTL!
7. —NOW DEAR BROTHER SCOFIELD HAS JESUS COMING BEFORE THIS & taking the church out at this time so they won't have to go through the Tribulation!—Ha! But you can't find any foundation for that in fact or Scripture anywhere in the Bible. The 29th verse plainly says‚ "Immediately after the Tribulation...then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven."
8. SO THERE IS THE ORDER OF EVENTS‚ so simple any child can read it. After all these wars & rumours of wars & earthquakes & pestilences & famines for 2,000 years from that time until the Antichrist, He says‚ "But the End is not yet." (Mt.24:6.)
9. "BUT WHEN YOU SEE THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, SPOKEN OF BY DANIEL THE PROPHET, stand(ing) in the Holy Place, then" shall the End be near, for‚ "Then shall be (the) Great Tribulation" which is ended by His Coming, as He says then in verses 29 & 30: "Immediately after the Tribulation shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven" & He will come to rescue His own in the Rapture! (Vs. 31; Ac.1:11; 1Co.15:52; 1Thes.4; Rev.14.)
10.—IN MANY PASSAGES IT TELLS US EXACTLY HOW LONG THE TRIBULATION'S GOING TO BE—3-1/2 YEARS! All of these passages all through the Bible teach the same thing, & give the length of the Tribulation in many ways: It will begin in the middle of the 7-year Covenant (Dan.9:27), which leaves 3 1/2 years.—Or a time (one year) & times (two years) & half–a-time (half–a-year) (Dan.7:25 & 12:7)—or 3-1/2 years. Or it says 42 months (Rev.13:5) which is 3–1/2 years. Or it says 1260 days (Rev.12:6), which is 3-1/2 years! All say the same:
11. THE GREAT TRIBULATION‚ OR PERSECUTION OF THE RELIGIONS BY THE ANTICHRIST SHALL LAST 3-1/2 YEARS EXACTLY—the last half of the broken Covenant. God made it so specific & counted it in so many different ways that nobody could possibly misinterpret it or misunderstand or misfigure it like some of these Bible interpreters try to! I wish I had time to read you all the passages that refer to the Antichrist, this Prince who makes the Covenant, & therefore is usually known as the "Prince of the Covenant":
12. BECAUSE THE ANTICHRIST IS THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT THAT IS SPOKEN OF IN DANIEL 11:22; 8:11-13; 9:27; 11:30-31; 12:11; 2Thes.2; Rev.11 & 13, etc.—And when he tries to abolish all religions, that's when his troubles really begin! It's bad enough for him to have to fight with the Jews & the Arabs & the Christians, but in this case he goes a little too far. Because he declares himself God‚ he's got to fight against God too, & that's too much!
13. WHEN HE DOES THIS, HE TURNS MUCH OF THE WORLD AGAINST HIM‚ instead of uniting the world, & it obviously causes him no end of trouble. He has war after war after war (Dan.11) trying to put down all these religious rebellions all over the world!
14. THIS CREATES THE 3-1/2 YEARS OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION when he tries to wipe out all religions, including Christianity & all the Christians, including us! He will slaughter millions of people, including Jews & Arabs & Christians alike (Rev.13-15). In Dan.9:26 it tells us this Prince (AC) that shall come shall destroy the city (Jerusalem) & the sanctuary (the rebuilt Temple) etc. The Antichrist gets fed up with all their religious wars & fights & finally tries to destroy the whole works. Dan.9:27 says:
15. "HE CONFIRMS THE COVENANT WITH MANY FOR 7 YEARS, but in the midst of the 7 (at the end of the first 3–1/2 years) he shall cause the sacrifice & oblation to cease, & as for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation." There again is the "abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet" & quoted by Jesus in Mt.24:15. There are several other references to it also throughout Daniel that I have already given.
16. NOW COMES THE 11TH CHAPTER OF DANIEL, that very mysterious chapter in which so many Bible students & teachers go astray! Trying to interpret it all & identify everybody here, you're going to get in trouble. However, it comes to a point about the 21st verse when it begins to speak very clearly & obviously of a certain person who continues to dominate the world scene right on through the rest of the whole passage.
17. HERE FROM DAN.11:21 ON, NEARLY ALL BIBLE STUDENTS & TEACHERS AGREE‚ IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE ANTICHRIST, after many other descriptions in Daniel previous to this (Dan.7:8,20-25; 8:9-12,23-25; 9:26-27, etc.). Now, where you get thrown off is the way things are often oddly worded or translated in the Bible. So this detailed description of the Antichrist begins here in the 21st verse: "A vile (evil) person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, & obtain the kingdom by flatteries. (powerful persuasion‚ propaganda, like Communism).
18. HERE COMES THE ANTICHRIST! How does he take over the world? Does Communism, the Red government of the world, have to fight wars in every little country to take them over?—No! How does it take over countries?—Mostly by "flatteries", powerful peaceful propaganda! They take over the hearts & minds of the people‚ & then they don't have to fire a shot!
19. THE ANTICHRIST SYSTEM CONQUERS THE COUNTRIES & THEIR PEOPLE BY PROPAGANDA, "peaceably", "by flatteries", powerful "peace" propaganda. That's how Communism has won the world! It has often not had to fire a shot to conquer country after country! It has persuaded the people to overthrow their own governments, because they have been won over by Communist propaganda.
20. THIS ANTICHRIST GOVERNMENT DESCRIBED IN THE BIBLE IS A PICTURE OF RED COMMUNISM IF I EVER SAW ONE! He certainly is using the tactics of Communism-which shows it works! So then he just walks in peaceably. Others who are stubborn, like the U.S., he takes over "with the arms of a flood (of atom bombs?) shall they be overthrown from before him, & shall be broken". He gets his start with peaceful propaganda, but in the long run he takes over by force.
21. ISN'T THIS THE WAY THE REDS HAVE DONE TIME & AGAIN, COUNTRY BY COUNTRY?—They first soften them up & get the peoples hearts won. Then of course there is always a hard core that won't surrender, so then they have to march in with their tanks & their guns & missiles & bombs & take over by force! So‚ he does it. "They shall be overflown (by planes & missiles?) from before him, & shall be broken."
22. NOW IT SAYS, "YEA, ALSO THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT!" Now, listen, because this is one of those places in which, if you don't watch out, you're going to get overthrown here just like Sam did in his lesson here on Daniel 11, & started all this problem! Don't stop here & don't link it too closely with what has just been read, because originally the Bible was not even divided into chapters & verses, neither was it even punctuated!
23. THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE HEBREW DOESN'T HAVE ANY PUNCTUATION, so you can make a mistake & divide things where they shouldn't be divided, & run them together where they shouldn't be run together. There is kind of a pause here‚ & it looks almost like the translator has linked it together: "Yea, also the Prince of the Covenant." Now, this sounds like, if you interpret it the way Sam has, & you punctuate it & run it together the way the translator did here that put these verses together, it sounds like‚ "Oh! The Prince of the Covenant got run over too! He too got broken, right?" But what it is saying here is: "Yea"—& if the translator had only thought to add one more little word here it would've made it clear:
24. "YEA, (HE'S) ALSO THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT!" This is literally what this passage means. It does not mean, "Yea, also the Prince of the Covenant" is broken. I'll grant you, that's what at first sight it might look like & sound like, if you don't really know your Bible & all the rest of the passages. Let's say this, for example:
25. IF YOU FIND A WHOLE BUNCH OF SCRIPTURES THAT SAY SO-AND–SO, but then you find one little passage that seems to say the opposite, then what are you going to accept?—The preponderance of the Scriptures!—Right?—So, "Well, now, there is something wrong here, we've misinterpreted it or mistranslated it or mispunctuated or divided it or put it together wrong, so we don't quite get the point in this one passage." Otherwise you'd have to say:
26. "BECAUSE THIS ONE PASSAGE SAYS SO-AND-SO‚ ALL THE REST OF THE SCRIPTURES ARE WRONG!" But we've already shown you how all through God's Word, especially Daniel, 2Thessalonians, Revelation, Matthew & all the other prophetic passages, it speaks of this Antichrist, this Prince, this King as the Prince of the Covenant, the one who makes & breaks it. It speaks of him time & time & time again‚ so many times!
27. THEN SUDDENLY you find here that all of a sudden it sounds like he is broken, he is overflown!—And yet it goes right on talking about him all through the rest of the Scriptures—including the very next verses—all about what he does from then on!—Then you must've made some kind of mistake here in your interpretation or your translation or meaning of that one little statement there!—Right?
28. THEN OBVIOUSLY, THIS HAS SOME KIND OF ANOTHER MEANING, an extra emphasis, when he says, "Yea, also the Prince of the Covenant!" Why does the writer do that? Why does he stop & make some big emphasis about this, about this Prince of the Covenant? Well, now if we want to find out who this Prince of the Covenant really is, first of all we've got to study all these other passages I've already given you.
29. IN ALL THESE OTHER PASSAGES, IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT IS THE ANTICHRIST! He is the King, the Prince that makes & breaks The Covenant! So he cannot be overthrown here, as he is the one who is overthrowing! In other words, if the translator had just made it a little clearer, he would have said, "And with the arms of a flood shall they be overthrown from before him, & shall be broken;
30. "YEA‚ (HE'S) ALSO THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT!" But Hebrew is a very funny language‚ & there is a lot of difficulty in translation & no punctuation. In the original not even the words are divided, much less Chapters & Verses! So the writer just stops & says, "Yea, also the Prince of the Covenant." So to you & me in the English, it looks & sounds like it means that the Prince of the Covenant was overthrown too! Ahhhh! He too was broken! But this is impossible! If you make that interpretation of this passage‚ then you belie all the other passages & their interpretation regarding the Prince of the Covenant that I've already given you. Because the Prince of the Covenant is the Antichrist, who makes & breaks the Covenant! Do you understand me?—Is that simple enough for your simple minds to understand?—The way that it would clarify this translation here in the King James would have been to have said, "Yea, (he's) also the Prince of the Covenant!" If they had stuck in that one little clarifying word in here, it would have cleared up the whole thing!
31. BUT I'LL GRANT YOU, I SYMPATHISE WITH DEAR SAM WARNER who wrote the Lesson, & I sympathize with poor "Son of Sam," Ara's Samson, who followed Sam Warner's interpretation of it. I sympathize with those guys, because in their simple minds & their lack of understanding of more Bible prophecy, when you come to these really tough spots, then you have got to go back through the whole Bible to see who this King or this Prince is who makes & breaks the Covenant‚ & is therefore known as the "Prince of the Covenant."
32. BECAUSE HERE WE RUN ACROSS ONE LITTLE SCRIPTURE right in the middle of it all that sounds like, "Oh! My God! He's overthrown & broken before he hardly even gets started!" It certainly does sound like it, & that's exactly what Sam says!
33. SO THIS ALSO THROWS SAM OFF ON HOW HE INTERPRETS THE COVENANT! He says it's a sacred religious thing made by God's people, maybe by a prophet of God. He sounds like he is interpreting the Prince of the Covenant to be some prophet of God who makes the Covenant! Well, that is not at all according to the Scripture anywhere, not a bit! Sorry. Where he gets that idea, I don't know. He certainly didn't get it out of the Bible, & he never got it from me!
34. THE ANTICHRIST IS REALLY THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT, this vile person who becomes the Antichrist, according to the passage here. "To whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably & obtain the kingdom by flatteries."—He talks them out of it! He's a usurper!—"And with the arms of a flood (of atom bombs?) shall they (the West?) be overflown from before him & shall be broken.
35. "YEA, (HE'S ALSO THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT!" Now, what the writer here is trying to bring out is that he is not only doing all these things, but this is also the guy we have been talking about in all these other Scriptures!: This is the guy who is also the Prince of the Covenant! He is the one that's going to make & break the Covenant that we've been talking about & that is so important. So it says,
36. "AND AFTER THE LEAGUE (COVENANT?) MADE WITH HIM"—After the league made with him?—With whom?! Who has it just said?—"The Prince of the Covenant!" After the league (League of Nations? UN? Communism? Covenant?) made with him, he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up & shall become strong with a small people."—Russia & Communism were very small & weak at first.—But "He shall enter peaceably (SALT?) even upon the fattest places (U.S. & West?) of the provinces (powers)," etc.
37. NOW, IT MAKES IT VERY CLEAR THAT THE LEAGUE IS MADE WITH THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT‚ right? Isn't this the very thing that the Reds are up to all the time, trying to get in league with governments & peoples & kings & princes & anybody that'll cooperate with them? Isn't this exactly what world Communism is doing today?—Getting these people to league or join together‚ to become a One-World government & to take over the whole world?
38. OK, THERE IT IS: THE LEAGUE MADE WITH THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT! How therefore can he be overthrown?—This shows you clearly as anything that the Prince of the Covenant can't be the one who is overthrown! It says, "Yea‚ also the Prince of the Covenant". What it really means here is: "Yea, (he's) also the Prince of the Covenant!"
39. "AND AFTER THE LEAGUE MADE WITH HIM HE SHALL WORK DECEITFULLY." He can't be broken here, he can't be killed here, he can't be the one that is overthrown here (as he is in the End, Dan.8:25 & 11:45), because a league is made with him here, & he continues to work deceitfully to take over the whole world! Now this shows you how easily you can be led astray by misunderstanding one little line in the Bible, not even a chapter nor a verse nor even a clause nor a sentence‚ just one phrase! In fact, it's hardly even a phrase, it's just a declaration of him as being the Prince of the Covenant!
40. DANIEL'S BEEN DESCRIBING THE ANTICHRIST & HIS WORK & what he's going to do, & so he identifies him, boom‚ right flat off, & says‚ "Yes, this is the guy we've been talking about. Here he is, the Prince of the Covenant I told you about in Dan.9:27!"—And now you've got to go right on with the next passage‚ or you're going to be thrown completely:
41. "AND AFTER THE LEAGUE MADE WITH HIM, he shall work deceitfully‚ for he shall come up & shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably upon the fattest places of the province; & he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers: He shall scatter (share, communism) among them (the poor) the prey & spoil & riches (of the rich!)." After the league made with whom?—The one they just said!: The Prince of the Covenant! So how the hell is he going to be broken or overthrown so soon even before the league? All the way through the rest of the Chapter it's talking about the Prince of the Covenant!
42. I NEVER FOUND A BIBLE TEACHER YET WHO DIDN'T BELIEVE THAT THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT WAS THE ANTICHRIST!—Except poor Sam! He makes the Covenant & then breaks it! Now, I'll grant you, & I'll give the poor boys credit that it's a little catchy there, because they are not too smart & they haven't studied the thing all their lives like I have, & read so many books on it & heard so many interpretations & so many Bible prophecy students & teachers as I have.
43. BUT I AM TEACHING YOU THE CONSENSUS OF OPINION of most, including the Catholics & the Catholic Bible—they are straighter on it than some of the Protestants! They know this is the Antichrist. This is the consensus of opinion about the Antichrist as being this one who makes & breaks the Covenant.
44. HE IS CALLED "THE PRINCE" THAT SHALL "CONFIRM THE COVENANT" BEGINNING IN DANIEL 9:26-27. Right there it calls him "the Prince" that "confirms the Covenant with many for one week (7 years)". Who else is the Prince of the Covenant but this Prince who makes the Covenant??? Why else would he be called the "Prince of the Covenant"? Huh?
45. —AND IF HE IS THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT, then how can he be overthrown or broken before he even gets started or makes it?—If he is going to be the one that makes the Covenant & then breaks it?—It's impossible! So, I'm sorry, but therefore Sam's interpretation has to be wrong because it doesn't agree with any of the rest of the Bible, you understand?—Just because at first, without full knowledge of all the other Scriptures‚ it looks & sounds like that –if you read it real fast and run it together, that he was also overthrown & broken!—But that can't be!
46. (MARIA: HE'S INTERPRETING THE ANTICHRIST AS OVERTHROWING THE PRINCE OF THE COVENANT!) Yes! Exactly! They're saying that, "Yes, this is talking about the Antichrist". But then they're saying‚ "Ah, the Antichrist overthrows & breaks the Prince of the Covenant!" I missed that somehow. Somehow I never caught that & saw that that was what he was teaching. I'm so sorry!
47. BUT I CONFESS IT'S VERY EASY TO MAKE THAT MISTAKE because of the way the King James Version is translated here, & the way it's punctuated, & the way it is phrased, & the position of it.
(Continued in Part 3!)