The Old Testament shows many shadows of the Messiah—Adam, Isaac, Moses, David—and most Christians would add Solomon to that list. Surely someone like him would unite both Christians and Jews, says author and pastor Mark Biltz.
But in his newest book, Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times: What the Bible Says and What the Future Holds, Biltz writes that typically our understanding of Solomon includes how wise he was, how famous he was, his incredible wealth and how Israel was at the top of its game during his reign.
“But if we look closer at the details within Scripture, we might find we have been deceived!” he says. “But didn’t he bring peace to the Middle East? Yes. This peace enabled him to accomplish great things, such as the building of the temple. But then why has it gone downhill for Israel ever since? I believe it is because Solomon compromised the Word of God for peace.
“The Antichrist will be equally deceptive,” Biltz continued. “The world will cry out for a messiah like King Solomon to solve the problems in the Middle East. But I believe the Antichrist will appear similar to King Solomon in many ways.”
For example, Solomon had all the power, all the wealth and all the fame to advance the kingdom of God, but he chose to advance his own kingdom instead. He allowed his heart to be lifted up after he obtained riches for himself, as told in Ezekiel 28:1-7.
“God had given specific instructions in the Torah for Israel’s king,” Biltz said. “God held the king to a higher standard just so he would not think of himself as better than others and turn from God’s commands as stated in Deuteronomy 17. Surely Solomon wouldn’t think he was above the Law, would he?”
Biltz outlines some of the deceptions carried out by Solomon:
1. Solomon multiplied horses and was an international arms trader.
According to Deuteronomy 17:16, God demanded that the king was not to increase his number of horses or make the people return to Egypt to increase his horses. Yet we find in 1 Kings 4:26 that “Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen.”
Then, verse 27 says that through their agents he exported these horses and chariots to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. Solomon was acting as an arms merchant selling weapons directly to Israel’s enemies.
2. Solomon had multiple wives and married foreign wives.
Deuteronomy 17:17 says the king was not to multiply wives for himself. Yet in 1 Kings 11:3, Solomon “had seven hundred wives who were princess and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away” (1 Kings 11:3).
Solomon also married foreign women, which God said not to do. According to his wisdom, what better way to secure peace than by marrying the daughters of foreign kings? But it was a direct affront to God’s commands. He achieved peace at a very expensive cost. How will the Antichrist achieve peace? Will it be according to God’s law or through political means?
3. Solomon multiplied silver and gold.
In His warning in Deuteronomy 17, God also told the Israelites that their king must not “greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.” However, 1 Kings 10:22 says Solomon had a fleet of ships, and every three years they brought in gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.
1 Kings 10:25 says everything that came into Solomon’s kingdom was at a specific rate. And the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents (verse 14)—a man associated with both wisdom and the number 666. The number 666 is found only twice in the Bible, once referring to Solomon’s gold trade and wisdom and once referring to the Antichrist.
4. Solomon built pagan altars rather than destroying them.
Deuteronomy 7:5 highlights how the Israelites were commanded to destroy their enemy’s altars, break down their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images. But in 1 Kings 11, we see that Solomon built a “high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is close to Jerusalem, and for Molek, the abomination of the children of Ammon” (v. 7). Verse 8 says he did this for all his foreign wives, “who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.”
“Solomon had obtained all the fame, riches and power, yet he considered all of his life’s actions to be in vain, including the building of the temple,” Biltz said. “This is because he felt it was all about himself! He had to be the ‘narcissist in chief.’
“Is this the type of king the world is seeking to bring peace to the Middle East?” he continued. “No wonder many will be deceived. Instead of trying to figure out who the Antichrist will be, we need to study what he will be like. Solomon was a total narcissist, and the Antichrist will be as well. I believe historical patterns will also be repeated in other aspects. Someone who will seem to be wiser than everyone else will try to achieve a false peace by entering into ungodly covenants with all the foreign nations. He will try to achieve a land for peace agreement in Israel, thinking it wiser to cut the baby in half and create two nations as two people groups are claiming the land of Israel as their own. This will only result in killing the baby that is alive! We must not be deceived.”
Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times takes an in-depth look at some of the deepest questions surrounding the Antichrist, such as the following:
- What does the Bible say about the Antichrist’s tactics and his motivation?
- Will he be a Muslim, a Jew or a professed Christian—or something else?
- Will the Antichrist work through modern technology to seize control?
Mark Biltz is founder of El Shaddai Ministries and a well-known and popular commentator on the feasts of the Lord. In fact, he has produced a series of DVDs on the feasts that have gone around the world. Biltz is also the author of Blood Moons and God’s Day Timer. His research and theories have led to guest appearances on both radio and television as well as being featured on the covers of magazines.
Decoding the Antichrist and the End Times is published by Charisma House, which has published books that challenge, encourage, teach and equip Christians, including 14 New York Times’ best-sellers.
