By Terry James
End of Days
However, he will appear at first to be a miracle worker of unprecedented magnitude: "And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many…” (Dan. 8:25).
He is called the man of sin, the son of perdition, Antichrist, the beast, the king of fierce countenance, the prince that shall come, and other names. But, interestingly, he is called “the Assyrian.”
I recommend that you get a book by my great friend, Phillip Goodman, The Assyrian Connection, to read about the Bible’s reference to this man. He and Antichrist seem to be one and the same in terms of considering the future tyrant that is referred to as the beast most prominently in Revelation, chapter 13.
Antichrist, though coming out of the geographic area of the ancient Roman Empire, based upon Daniel 9:26-27, will nonetheless be of Middle Eastern extraction.
I will let you read Phillip’s much-studied thoughts on the whys and wherefores surrounding this postulation, but suffice it to say that –in my view, at least—the following prophecy seems to reference, to some extent, the beast’s ethnic origin: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all" (Dan. 11:37).
Who is this “God of his fathers?” If this most terrible tyrant of history is Assyrian, based upon ethnic and/or religious history considerations, the “god” referred to might be the “god” of Islam. However, the “God of his fathers” could refer to God Jehovah, Abraham, and Abraham’s predecessors. The God of Heaven. The use of the capital G in God makes it almost certain that this refers to the one, true God.
He rejects the true God of Heaven. (And, I don’t mean that he will be a Jew. Abraham –and Abraham’s fathers before that great patriarch—sired many, many people who are not Jewish. The whole of the Arab nations, for example, have Abraham as their Gentile father-progenitor.
This man, the son of perdition, who stands above all others of like mind –to rule the world, by hook or by crook— is out of the geographical area that comprised the old Roman Empire. While he is a prince who comes forth out of territories encompassed by the ancient Roman Empire, his ethnic origin is from people (his fathers) of Middle Eastern extraction.
He honors the “god of forces.” This is a most interesting proposition. And, there are other fascinating factors and considerations in pursuing this line of conjecture.
The prince –in our end-of-days scenario--has come forth from the people (the Romans) who destroyed the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Jewish Temple) just as foretold by Daniel the prophet (Dan. 9:27). He comes guaranteeing a peace that has already been negotiated, and through great, swelling words aggrandizes himself in the eyes of many peoples throughout the world (Dan. 7:20).
Daniel 11:38: "But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things."
The Assyrian beast magnifies himself above all. He has attained godhood in his own inflated opinion of his abilities. He manifests the prideful arrogance of all of the great kings, princes, and tyrants of history in one ego-maniacal, supernaturally empowered man.
The great leader, at the same time –according to Daniel 11: 38—is in league with the “god of forces," and heaps riches upon a god his fathers would have no part of worshipping. These are a couple of fascinating foretellings about the prince who has come forth. He casts his lot, at least initially, with a couple of interesting “gods.” The first god referenced is a god that invokes aggressive, militant, and deadly action to achieve its way. The prince who has come uses this god and its forces to accomplish great things –for himself, of course.
The second god spoken of indicates a religious system, whose love of the riches of life is at the center of all worship. The former “god” fits the profile of Allah, whose holy book, the Koran, demands that all who do not bow the knee to Islam be dispatched from this life. The latter “god” is further described in Revelation chapter 17. The false religious system that seduces the kings of the earth is both Catholic and Protestant apostate religionists, all rolled cozily together with ecumenical entities from the various religions of the world. Antichrist will, the Scriptures say, turn on both the god of forces and on the god his fathers –Abraham and his predecessors-- would not worship. He will –ultimately—abide no worship other than of himself.
While Islam grows more fanatic, and proliferates through birth rate that far outstrips any other militant ethnic people, the great leader from the EU and other western powers combine and turn against the “god of forces.” Islam has gotten too threatening to the technological democracy the latest and greatest Fuhrer wants to institute. Islam will not adjust. These forces –whose god commands them to remain pure in Islam’s draconian ways, recede, and reconnoiter in regions native to their hordes. They join with powerful allies north of their comfort zone. The revived Russian military force is led by a leader who has special mention in end-of-days Bible prophecy.
“Gog,” which means ”leader,” looks with lust toward the south and all of the oil-based riches of the Middle East. Economic and other factors make the Russian Gog think an evil thought. The Islamics, unwelcome in their interference with the Assyrian leader of the newly forming one-world plan, hitch their ambitions to the Russian leader’s evil thought to rule the petroleum fields –and to thereby destroy Israel. Destroying Israel is at the heart of Islamic thinking. The Jews must forever be eradicated from the land they proclaim belongs to them.
The great western leader eyes the great eastern leader. The supernaturally saturated prince of Bible prophecy will –in our scenario—know that Gog is about to get his come-uppance. The western leader, directed by the same “god” as the eastern leader, knows what is about to happen. He bides his time.
Israel sits, without means to defend herself. The Jewish nation’s leaders have given their complete trust to the western leader, who has personally guaranteed their peace and safety. But, the great western leader, in spite of his watching the situation develop, isn’t quite confident in his assessment of what Bible prophecy has to say about this moment in human history. He’s not certain developments are necessarily in his favor.
His own kingdom Is still under construction. While he won’t move until he fully consolidates his unstoppable power, he watches Gog and the Islamics gather for assault on the Middle East. His time will come. He will move, then, as no other leader in history has ever moved --in all-out aggression.
“But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many” (Dan 11:44).
But, it will be another force that deals with Israel’s great enemy at this particular moment.
Israel, in our ongoing end-of-days scenario, has agreed to all stipulations the western international community –under inspiration of a great world leader—has required of the Jewish state. Key to getting the leader to assure Israel’s security –its peace—is the requirement that Israel give over her nuclear arsenal to the still-forming, growing superstate. God’s prophetic Word has two things, basically, to say about this action by Israel:
1. The first involves not only Israel, but all who embrace this “peace” spawned by the western superstar and the nations that back him. The world will get its much-desired, then ballyhooed, “peace and safety,” but it will come at a tremendous price. It will, of course, be not a true peace at all, but a horrific war.
2. The second thing God says about this attempt at peace is exclusively directed at God’s chosen people –the Jews –and the nation Israel: “Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves… And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it” (Isa. 28:15,18). “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1Th. 5:3).
Jesus, speaking to the nation Israel, prophesied that Israel would accept this Roman prince’s overtures, while rejecting Him, their true Messiah: “I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (Jn. 5:43).
Israel sits now –in our scenario—like an ungated community. It doesn’t even have a local constabulary to protect it. It depends totally on the great Roman prince’s promises of peace and safety. It is just at this moment that the other leader of supernaturally-infused power –the eastern leader to the north of Israel--realizes all of the Middle East is ripe for the pickings, while the western coalition is still consolidating power.
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land” (Ezek. 38:10-12).
The only response of the prince and his cronies out of the west to the hordes they see coalescing in war-like configuration that surrounds Israel and the oil fields of the region seems wrapped up in the following prophecy: ”Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezek. 38:13).
The “protectors” of Israel offer only a note of diplomatic protest. The Russian and Islamic heads of Russia’s Arab and Persian allies seize upon the perceived weakness of the west’s leadership.
The questions that need to be considered here –at least in my opinion—are: Is the note of protest sent out of true weakness, or does the Roman prince realize what fate awaits the one called Gog and his Magog forces?
The demons, God’s Word says, believe in God and tremble. The satanically-driven prince that shall come will certainly know the Ezekiel prophecies. He will be the most brilliant military strategist ever to inhabit flesh on the planet. Can there be much doubt that he will think –in advance—to take advantage of every possibility?
In our scenario, he takes a look at the gathering storm and sends his note of protest, all with a sly grin of belief in what Scripture says. He will let other forces take care of the insolent Russian and the deluded war lords of Israel’s enemies.
His own authority is not fully consolidated. He will, along with his great titans of wealth backers, watch the Russians destruct upon the mountains of Israel while he, himself, prepares to fill the most fortuitous vacuum that is about to be created in the Middle East.
Gog, the prophesied leader of the Israel-hating coalition north of Jerusalem, has hooks in his jaws--put there by none other than the Lord God of all creation. Our scenario has that hook as lubricated generously with the black, liquid gold of the Middle East.
The dictator who rules Russia has watched, with Luciferian-inspired obsession, the whole international rearrangements following the disappearance of millions. He receives an “evil thought,” and thinks to take “great spoil” –the vast oil supplies of the regions surrounding Israel.
It is the Tribulation era--Daniel’s 70th week—the last seven years of human history that will culminate in Christ’s second advent. Man has always claimed, in his humanistic pride, that he can make this world into paradise. This has been true since before the time of Nimrod and Babel (Genesis chapter 11). The leader of the newly formed super agglomeration of western powers has brokered the peace that the “prince” promises will make things heaven on earth for the world. Israel has bitten into the apple from the great leader’s garden of promises. God Almighty takes His hand off Planet Earth to the extent He will now allow mankind to see if they can achieve their utopia. The Holy Spirit has withdrawn from acting as restrainer upon the consciences of human beings.
Gog knows the leadership of the western nations are consolidating their power. Once that is done, the forces of the reviving Roman Empire will be formidable–perhaps even impossible to defeat. They have the most awesome thermonuclear arsenal ever stockpiled. But, Russia, China, and even some of Gog’s other allies have such weapons, too. Enough to destroy the world, as a matter of fact. The western behemoth that is gathering strength is quite unlikely–in Gog’s self-inflated estimation—to use military power to try to stop his invasion at this point. Their weak note of diplomatic protest proves it in the Russian's mind.
Gog is inspired by one other profound realization. The West’s true power has always been in its great technological capabilities –its fantastic, wealth-producing machinery that is far advanced of anything the humanity-oppressive regimes of the East have been able to match. The only true things achieved by the eastern world has been, for the most part, mere replication of things produced by the freedom-loving people of the West.
The Russian, in consort with his cohorts of the coalition he has gathered, knows that to take away the western powers’ ability to run their machinery –thus their technological production—is to cripple them. He will claim all of the oil of the Middle East. The West –having long fallen prey to those who preached the ecological mumbo-jumbo, the political correctness that they were raping “Mother Earth” by drilling and refining petroleum—will be without resources to fuel their drive to dominate the world.
The leader who brokered the peace remains peaceful. He has sent his diplomatic protest. But, he believes in Bible prophecy. His knowledge comes from the father of lies, who convinces him that all of prophecy is true, except the part that says he–the prince that shall come—will ultimately lose to the returning King of all kings (Rev. 19:20).
The western leader watches the Gog-Magog forces gather. He is troubled, but bides his time.
While the beast of Revelation 13 watches, the beast of the East–Gog—doesn’t keep his nemesis waiting long. The assault is quick, all-out, and, seen from satellite reconnaissance, looks like a massive storm moving southward toward Jerusalem. Israel sits, vulnerable, without defense. The leader squints from Brussels at the many monitors while awaiting to see if the things his special minion-mentors are telling him will play out on schedule.
He is not disappointed. Here is how Ezekiel, under God’s direction, reported this battle thousands of years ago:
Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD (Ezek. 39:1-5).
Many, particularly the Jews within Israel, will believe that God has won the victory. And, indeed, there is no evidence to the contrary. God did it all. Even the great peacemaker from his proud perch has to say to himself –inwardly—that the Deity has done this marvelous thing. But, so far as he is concerned, it only means advantage to his ambition. All resistance has been crushed for him, paving his way to fill the power vacuum. All of the oil riches are his. Now he will truly be able to build his one-world kingdom. To him belongs the great spoil Gog foolishly thought would be his.
He rides into the region a conqueror. He has–in his more and more demonically possessed mind—correctly understood the “dark sentences” given him by his minion-mentors from the father of lies. Jerusalem, the very capitol of Jehovah on earth—is his for the taking. He, himself will be the god of this planet:
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God (2 Thes. 2:3-4).
Antichrist has revealed himself. He demands worship. The greatest holocaust of history will begin. It is the time of Jacob’s Trouble: "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7).
Jesus said of this time: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21).
So, we come to the last of this series. But, of course, the story is far from over. The beautiful part of this scenario –and it is God’s scenario that really matters—is found in these last few words of the great old prophet Jeremiah: “…but he shall be saved out of it.” All of Israel –the believing remnant—will be saved out of this horrible holocaust. (Read Revelation, chapter 12.)
We at Rapture Ready pray that you will accept Jesus Christ as Savior now, before these prophesied end-of-days events overtake you and this judgment-bound world.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).
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