Ron Graham

Is Nicolas Sarkozy the Antichrist?

by Rodrigo Silva

I have recently received e-mails from people saying they believe that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the Antichrist .As I regularly check my website statistics, I have also noticed that people all over the United States and Europe are asking whether Sarkozy is the Antichrist by typing phrases such as ''Is Sarkozy the Antichrist'' on search engines.

As I study the Bible particularly the subject of prophecy, I realize that people in the West tend to read the prophetic passages of the Bible with a Western mind. Since the Bible is a Middle Eastern book, I came to realize that the Bible should be read with a Middle Eastern mind.

When it comes to the person of the Antichrist, people in the West tend to believe or expect that the Antichrist will come from the West. That conclusion is based on the theory that the Antichrist will come from within the region of a revived Roman Empire and most prophecy students see the Western section of the European Union as the revived Roman Empire.

Bible prophecy students should not confine Western Europe as the main sector of the Roman Empire because the Roman Empire extended all the way East to what we geographically know today as modern day Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. Besides, after the East and West division of the Roman Empire, the Eastern section outlasted the Western section for more than one thousand years with Constantinople as its capital. Constantinople is known today as Istanbul in modern day Turkey.

In prophesying about the Antichrist, Daniel said that he would be a little horn to rise among 10 other horns which represent 10 kings of nations to be ruling a geopolitical confederacy, which will not only include Europe but also the Middle East. Most prophecy students see the fourth beast of Daniel 7 as the Roman Empire. When we examine the passage in light of Revelation 13, we see that what Daniel saw was something greater than Rome. In his prophetic vision, Daniel could only describe the beast as dreadful and terrible (Daniel 7:7).But when we read Revelation 13, it becomes quite clear that John was able to describe the beast that Daniel had seen 600 years prior to John's vision. John describes the beast as:

''And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.'' (Revelation 13:1-2)

Notice that John describes the beast as partly leopard, partly bear and partly lion. You might recall that these are the first three beasts described by Daniel in his vision All conservative prophecy scholars agree that the first three beasts of Daniel represent the Babylonian Empire (Lion) ,the Medo-Persian Empire (bear) and the Grecian Empire (Leopard).What John saw in Revelation 13 and Daniel could not describe in his vision, is a combination of Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian Empires united in a single geopolitical entity which will be used by the Antichrist as his political empire. In our day, this would be a political union between Iraq (Babylon) Iran (Persia), and Syria (Syria was the main sector of the divided Grecian Empire).

By taking a closer look at the physical description of the beast seen by Daniel and by John in Revelation 13, we find that the beast is geographically located in the Middle East for the most part, not in the West. I believe that Rome will be a part of this beastly empire as represented by one of the seven heads of the beast. The seven heads are another characteristic of the beast seen by John which Daniel could not describe. In Revelation 17 the angel explains to John what the seven heads represent:

''And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.''(Revelation 17:9-10)

Mountains are symbolically used of empires or kingdom in prophetic passages. In Jeremiah we read:

''And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth:''(Jeremiah 51:24-25)

In this passage the Babylonian Empire is compared to a mountain. The seven mountain kingdoms that John sees as the heads of the beast are:

1- Egyptian Empire

2- Assyrian Empire

3- Babylonian Empire

4- Medo- Persian Empire

5- Grecian Empire

These are the five that had fallen

6- Roman Empire

This is the one that is at the time John was receiving the prophetic vision

7-Ottoman Empire

This is the one that had not yet come, but would come and continue a short space

All of these kingdom dominated the Middle East and Israel during the time of they ruled Rome was the sixth empire represented by one of the heads of the beast which had the body partly Leopard (Grecian), partly bear (Persian) and partly lion (Babylonian).This means that although the Western section of the Roman Empire (Europe) is part of the beast as represented by one of the heads, it is only a faction of the beast, not the entire beast itself. Concluding that the Antichrist will rise from the Western section of the Roman Empire is not in accordance with the vision of John for the following reasons:

1-The beast is predominantly Eastern in its geography, not Western.

2- The Antichrist is described as a little horn. This implies that he will come from a nation of little political and military significance in the beginning of his ascension to power (Daniel 7:8) and that is not the case with France. France is one of the strongest nations of the European Union. Let's suppose for a moment that the European Union alone is the base of the Antichrist. It is more likely that France would be one of the strong 10 horns of the beast, not the eleventh little horn that rises after the 10 already in power.

Conclusion

The Bible seems to clearly indicate that the Antichrist will come from the Middle East, probably from a newly reborn Assyria in Northern Iraq, not from France or any other Western nation in Europe and that his geopolitical base will be more than just the European Union as explained in our article titled ''The Kingdom of the Antichrist: An Alternate View''. That being said, we totally reject the view that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the Antichrist.

God Bless You!

Rodrigo Silva

6/22/08