Israel’s election campaign has produced an unusual candidate whose very name is enough to capture the attention of Bible prophecy students.
Yeshua Ben David, whose name can be rendered “Jesus, Son of David,” is running for prime minister of Israel as chairman of a political party called Gan Eden, meaning “Garden of Eden” or “Paradise.” His platform combines politics with striking religious themes. He envisions priestly service in the Temple, views Israel’s Knesset as a type of Sanhedrin and says his party wants to transform Israel into a “paradise.”
To be absolutely clear, we are not suggesting that Yeshua Ben David is the prophesied Antichrist. There is no biblical basis for making that identification.
Nevertheless, the story gives an intriguing new dimension to the word Antichrist. The prefix anti can convey the idea of opposition, but it can also carry the sense of something standing in place of another. The coming Antichrist will not merely oppose Jesus Christ. According to Scripture, he will ultimately exalt himself as a counterfeit object of worship.
Daniel 7 describes the coming Antichrist as a little horn whose “look was more stout than his fellows” (Daniel 7:20). Interestingly, photographs of Ben David show him as a physically large, imposing man among those around him. That is certainly not evidence that he is the Antichrist, and Daniel’s language primarily concerns the little horn’s prominence among the other horns, not simply physical stature. Still, the visual parallel makes an already unusual story even more interesting.
Then there is the name itself.
Here is a man named Yeshua Ben David, “Jesus, Son of David,” seeking Israel’s highest political office while speaking of the Temple, priestly service and national restoration. For students of Bible prophecy, it is difficult to encounter such a combination without recognizing the remarkable irony.
But there is also a major reason this candidate does not fit the prophetic picture we have been given of the Antichrist.
Daniel’s prophecies point toward the final world government arising in connection with the revived Holy Roman Empire.
Daniel 2 portrays the final world empire through the feet of iron and clay, emerging from the historical Holy Roman Empire system and existing when Jesus Christ returns to establish His Kingdom. The Antichrist will ultimately rule through that final global system. Nothing presently known about this Israeli political candidate establishes such a connection.
So this story should not become an exercise in identifying the Antichrist. Instead, it provides a fascinating reminder of how important counterfeit messianic claims and identities become as Bible prophecy moves toward its culmination.
Jesus warned, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets” (Matthew 24:24).
Paul likewise foretold a coming man of sin who will exalt himself “above all that is called God, or that is worshipped” and ultimately sit in the Temple of God, “shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
There will be counterfeits. But there is only one true Messiah.
The real Jesus Christ is truly the Son of David.
Revelation 22:16 records His declaration: “I am the root and the offspring of David.”
Isaiah 11:1 also prophesied that Christ would come from the lineage of Jesse, while verse 10 describes Him as the “root of Jesse.”
A man may be an offspring of Jesse or David according to his human ancestry. But Jesus Christ is something no ordinary descendant could ever be. He is both the promised descendant and the Root from which the promise ultimately comes.
There is only one Jesus who fulfills the Messianic prophecies. There is only one Savior. There is only one way to the Father.
As Jesus Himself declared in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Bryan Smith
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