For it was this Seleucus, having inherited a weakened Seleucid kingdom (Syria) from his father Antiochus III (the Great), who set about to strengthen his realm. He became king in 187 BC, one year after the peace of 188--the terms of which were devastating for the Seleucid kingdom: Antiochus III, upon his defeat by the Romans (following his bid to dominate Asia Minor), agreed to pay an indemnity of 15,000 talents of gold to the victor: the largest penalty the Roman republic had ever leveled against a defeated foe.
Seleucus IV thus raised taxes in an effort to restore financial soundness to the kingdom. He was assassinated in 175 BC by a court official named Heliodorus, who had been sent out by the former to raise money in Judea.
Seleucus' younger brother, Mithradates, ascended the Seleucid throne. Once king, he took on the name of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He is the one spoken of in Daniel 11:21, "And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries." Antiochus had been a hostage in Rome, and he had learned to present a facade of pleasantness. So when he moved to consolidate power in the Seleucid kingdom--which involved the execution of Heliodorus--he was agreeable with people, and by this he won the kingdom to himself.
Verse 22 says: "And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant." This "prince" was the high-priest Onias III. His opponents, backed by Antiochus IV, had the high-priest deposed. Working deceptively, Antiochus had the next high-priest, Jason, replaced by Menelaus (as verse 23 relates). Antiochus became "strong with a small people." These people are the Judahites.
Now moving onto Daniel 11:29-31 we have, "At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant... and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." The ships from Chittim refers to a Roman fleet coming to rescue the "king of the south" (Egypt). This time in his move against Egypt Antiochus ran into Roman intervention. Antiochus knew that he could not take on the Romans. On his return to Antioch he stopped in Jerusalem to vent his anger at being interrupted during his siege of Alexandria. He did so by sacrificing pigs (unclean animals according to the Torah) on the brazen altar. This act drove the Judahites to rebel against his rule--the events of which are described in Daniel 11:32-35.
From verse 36 on is an account of the acts of the soon coming Antichrist. Note what it says in verse 37: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers..." This clearly indicates that the Antichrist will come from a Christian background. He will be from Europe--specifically from England.
The seed of Cain--also known as the serpent's seed--most likely mixed in with the Kenites. And the Kenites were living with the Amalekites (descendants of Esau) for a time, as related in 1 Samuel 15:6, "And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites." By the time of Jesus, these sons of the serpent had, through the Edomite Jews, worked their way in among the Judahite population of Jerusalem: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." (John 8:44) Thus the seed of the serpent came to be part of the line of Esau, which controls the world today (Genesis 27:40). Some may cite what John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:9 as proof that Cain's father was not truly the serpent: "And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." It appears that John the Baptist was saying that these Jewish leaders (many of them being the seed of the serpent) thought of themselves as being children of Abraham). It was impossible for these Cainites to have Abraham's blood in them; it was not impossible for God to turn the nearby stones into literal children of Abraham.
These sons of Cain have been working very hard for millenia to bring their father (Lucifer) into this material plane: in the form of the Antichrist, who interestingly enough will not actually be of the serpent's seed; but rather will be a clone of Jesus--and therefore of the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). The seed of the serpent would--through their rituals (using signs and symbols)--bring about Satan's main objective: a man's body by which he would establish his Babylon kingdom in the world--Atlantis revived. Lucifer's seed began with Cain, whom he had with Eve. The serpent has been quite busy throughout the centuries--before the 1st coming of Jesus--trying to corrupt the woman's seed (especially described in Genesis 6 when he employed a group of fallen angels) so that that Christ Jesus could not be born among men: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman..." Satan failed in this work, so he has been laboring on the next best thing (to him): to bring about the man who would be in the place of Jesus Christ: their god on this earth (for a short time), the Antichrist--through whom Satan will incarnate.
