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GL,

Sorry I've been quite busy last night and today.

I did read your link and some other material on the same site. It is interesting. And I spent the past few hours processing this in comparison to Scripture.

So here are some thoughts back to you...

[I am assuming you are suggesting that Emporer Gaius could have been the anti-Christ? If this is not your point, tell me what you meant.]
And I am assuming you are posting this in response to one of my questions to you, "If you take the position that this refers to the second temple, you will also have to conclude the anti-christ has been revealed already and set himself in the temple as God. If so, who is he? When did this occur?"

The section of the article you quote says this...

Caligula gave an order to set up his statue in the Holy of Holies in the Temple: Now Gaius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem to place his statues in the temple,
This seems to open the door to the possibility that he may qualify as the anti-Christ. It sounds similar, right?

Let's compare what Paul says in II Thessalonians 2:1-12 to what you posted and consider it.

1. We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him,
2 not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a “spirit,” or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god—
5 do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things?
6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present, until he is removed from the scene.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord [Jesus] will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming,
9 the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie,
10 and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved.
11 Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie,
12 that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned.

I underlined some sections for our discussion. Here they are in summary form:

The context is Paul addressing a concern that the Day of the Lord has already occurred. (v 1, 2) This is understandable, because in I Thess. 5:2, Paul had written that the Day of the Lord would come "as a thief in the night." Easy to miss. They were worried they had missed it.

Paul lists three things that must happen first:

1. "the apostacy (Greek: hē apostasia) comes first" (v. 3)
This is significant for our discussion. The church has experienced apostacy since the beginning. This is much more significant. I am providing other verses where it is described. Here, Paul referred to a specific distinguishable apostasy that will come in the future (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1–3; 2 Tim. 3:1–5; 4:3–4; James 5:1–8; 2 Peter 2; 3:3–6; Jude).
2. the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction (v 3, 4, 8)
3. and the removal of restraint against lawlessness (vv. 6–7)
The Holy Spirit of God is the only Person with supernatural power to restrain against lawlessness. I'm taking time to note those three things because they impact the identification of the anti-Christ and the timing of the event.

For Gaius to qualify as a candidate for anti-Christ, he would have to meet these criteria:

1. He appeared after a worldwide Christian apostacy (v. 3)
2. The Holy Spirit's restraining influence has to be removed from the world. (v. 6, 7)
3. He will "who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship". This is important because he will insist that HE ranks above any other god or object of worship. (v. 4)
4. He will "seat himself in the temple of God and claim he is a god." (v. 4)
5. He will be not just an evil one, but the one doomed for perdition and "His coming springs from the power of Satan." (v. 3, 9)
6. He himself will be the lawless one. (v. 3, 8)
7. His coming springs from the power of Satan (v. 9)
8. As such, the anti-Christ will manifest the power of Satan, "in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit. (v. 9,10) 9. He will be killed by the Lord [Jesus] by the breath of His mouth (v. 8)
10. He comes because God is sending them a deceiving power that they may believe the lie." (I take this to mean that people who fall away in the worldwide apostacy will fall for the deceiving power of the anti-Christ. (v. 11, 12)

Now, when I look at all that God reveals about the timing of the anti-Christ, and the satanic power of the anti-Christ, and the world-wide apostacy that will occur before the anti-Christ, and that the anti-Christ will be killed personally by Christ Himself...

I have to conclude that Gaius partially met just one criteria.
He set up a statue in the Temple.
The rest of the extensive criteria was not met.

So, to circle back, we have never seen this prophecy fulfilled (let alone Daniel's 70th week events that also bear on the anti-Christ).

This means I also must conclude that the anti-Christ has never appeared in a Jewish Temple.
The 2nd Temple was destroyed.
This means for the prophecy to be fulfilled, we need a Third temple.
That third Temple will exist when Christ returns, in order for the anti-Christ to fulfill setting himself up as god, and be killed by Christ.
And I circle back to the temple Ezekiel prophesied about, that will exist in the Millennial Kingdom on earth, in Jerusalem. That will be the fourth and final Temple.

Apologies if I've failed to edit my thoughts very well. I want to get this to you and I am notorious for editing and leaving in words that should come out etc. Also, any spelling errors.

Sorry in advance!

Kind regards.

cc: mark17: I know you love end-times stuff, so I am pinging you