“And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.” (Revelation 13:16)
GOD MANIFEST
I don’t know why a person could think that he was able to do as he pleased and disobey laws while requiring others to obey them (and I do know why). (Proverbs 16:25; Jeremiah 17:9).
I don’t know why a person could think that he was “God” (a supreme being, deity).
For Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek king in the 2nd Century B.C., his very name said it all. (Epiphanes stands for “God manifest.”)
ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION
This arrogance would move Antiochus to humiliate the Jews by desecrating their Temple at Jerusalem (among other hideous things that he did).
The act is recorded in the historical book of 1st Maccabees…
Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Juda on every side. (1 Maccabees 1:54)
This “abomination of desolation” included sacrificing a pig to Zeus to further horrify the Jews.
GOD COMPLEX
And this is the problem with someone who has a “God complex.”
He’s operating on the level of Lucifer, who thought he should be “God” (a supreme being, deity), too.
The prophet Isaiah records…
“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning (Lucifer; KJV), son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.” (Isaiah 14:12-15)
It’s amazing what pride can make somebody (an angel, human being / President of the United States) do.
(Statue of Antiochus IV of Syria picture file above is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license: click here. CC BY-SA 3.0)
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