Daniel 11:35

And some of them of understanding shall fall, death and various attendant tribulations taking their toll, to try them and to purge and to make them white, even to the time of the end, for all these afflictions would serve as trials in separating the dress from the pure metal, because it is yet for a time appointed, that is, the period of tribulation would extend until then. Thus the enemies, in trying to harm the believers, succeed only in contributing to the purifying of God's people, in the great process of winnowing out the real from the false, the hypocritical from the true. It will readily be seen that the entire description of the career of Antiochus Epiphanes shows him to have been a bitter opponent of the true God. By an ignoring of the factor of time, now, which is peculiar to prophetic utterances, the following section is devoted to a description of Antichrist, of whom Antiochus was a type.