"WHY THE ANTICHRIST WILL PROBABLY COME FROM ASSYRIA AND BE A MUSLIM" (PART FIVE) BY NEVILLE STEPHENS.

Following the excellent contributions from Amy Van Gerping and Jack Kelley which comprise chapters three and four of this series, for chapter five I would like to return to the theme of the opening two sections, and to prove that the Antichrist will indeed be a Muslim from the ancient area of “Assyria”.

For this fifth segment of the series, I wish to refer back to Daniel 2 and the dream given by the Almighty to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. This dream consisted of a large image comprising four main sections, namely the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly of and thighs of brass, and the feet part of iron and part of clay (Dan 2: 31-33).

Most Biblical scholars and historians are in total agreement that the explanation and interpretation given by Daniel that the head of gold represented the then world dominance of the mighty Babylon. This super-power was eventually succeeded by the Medes and the Persians, and these are represented by the breast and arms of silver.

In turn, this victorious power was eventually superseded by the all-conquering Greek Kingdom led by the totally dominant Alexander the Great, which is represented by the belly and thighs of brass in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan 2: 36-39).

At this point, comes a division amongst the Biblical scholars, for most Western commentators and expositors then go on to expound that the fourth part of the image, (namely “the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, for iron will break into pieces and subdue all things……and shall break in pieces and bruise” (verse 40), and that this vision represents Rome with all of its might and power.

I will come back to this point shortly to show that this probably is not the case at all, and that the fourth kingdom envisioned by the King has nothing to do with Rome at all! However, for the moment, I would like to concentrate on the third kingdom represented by Alexander the Great and his Greek legions, for here we will find a major clue to assist us in our pursuit of the identity of the Antichrist.

When the all-conquering “Alexander III of Macedon” died in Babylon in 323 BC at the unexpectedly young age of just 33, his direct heirs were not considered strong enough to inherit his kingdom, therefore after his death, Alexander’s vast empire was divided up by his generals, friends, and family. What ensued were roughly fifty years of wars between these various successors, known as the Diadochi. By the third century, Alexander’s kingdom was largely controlled by four dynasties. These four divisions were:

1.      The Ptolemaic dynasty ruling over Egypt, and the South.

2.      The Seleucid dynasty ruling over the North and North Eastern part of the kingdom incorporating Babylon (modern day Iraq), and Syria, and also including modern day Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

3.      The Lysimachean dynasty ruled over ancient the north western part of the empire covering Lydia, Ionia, Phrygia, and the north coast of Asia Minor, roughly equating to what we would call modern day Bulgaria and the surrounding area.

4.      The Cassandrian dynasty ruled over the region of Macedonia, or modern day Greece, the Western part of the empire.

We need to keep a careful eye on this splitting of Alexander’s empire, for out of one of these four succeeding kingdoms, the Antichrist will arise according to the Scriptures. And it is quite obvious from other sections of Daniel’s prophecy, which we will now look at, which is the area we need to pay careful attention to.

Iraq (Babylon) is now a haven for terrorists following the fall of the dictator Saddam Hussein who ruled with a rod of iron, and kept this country of factions together by the use of mighty force. A huge vacuum has been left since the overthrow of this modern day Nebuchadnezzar! And the Scriptures have much to say about Babylon in the last days scenario, and is heavily featured in the Book Of Revelation.

Similarly with Syria at present. Civil War has broken out, and the fall of another despot, Bashar al-Assad, is very imminent. This will leave this ancient country with huge Biblical history also very vulnerable to a take over by the various terrorist factions of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt has gone the same way in what is known as “The Arab Spring”. Yet another dictator and despot, Hosni Mubarak was recently overthrown, and in a very short space of time, the evil Muslim Brotherhood swept to power. It is these “kings of the north and south” which play such a vital role in end times Bible prophecy, and the puzzle is gradually being unravelled and revealed before our very eyes in the Middle East today.

Although slightly outside the scope of this immediate study, it is interesting to note that in this Arab uprising which started in the Spring of 2011, that yet another hated despot, Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in Libya, and this country also plays a significant role in future Bible Prophecy (Ezek 38:5 for example).

Coming back to Daniel, and he was given another vision, which he expounds in his eighth chapter. The interpretation is given towards the end, where it states that the kings of Media and Persia (the second segment of Nebuchadnezzar’s image) are overtaken by the King of Greece, namely Alexander (read verses 20,21).

The prophecy continues to state that this Grecian kingdom “is broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in its own power” (verse 22), quite a vivid description of what we have just looked at above.
And it is from one of these kingdoms “in the latter times” that the Antichrist will emerge as the prophet goes on to describe in verses 23-27. 

And Daniel goes on in chapter eleven to offer us even more information by declaring that out of these four kingdoms will emerge the two strongest, namely the King of the North and King of the South (Dan 11:3,4). And the prophecy carries on to predict that the King of the North will prove decisive in battle to emerge victorious.

This is vital to remember before we move on to look at the fourth beast of the vision. The “King of the North” is one of the titles of the Antichrist, as is “The Assyrian” but it is “this north” from Daniel’s prophecy i.e. the ancient Assyrian empire of Babylon/Syria/Turkey, and not the “north” of Russia (which is not mentioned in Holy Writ).

Moving on to the fourth beast then, we need to note the description given to this empire by the prophet. Daniel describes it as “terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth, it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet” (Dan 7:7).

While the overwhelming majority of interpreters throughout Church history have believed this fourth beast to represent the Roman Empire, we need to remember that this powerful kingdom from Europe was anything but a destructive empire! Instead it was rather more constructive than destructive, often adding infrastructure, order, and law to the lands it conquered, rather than destroy utterly.

Commentators have applied much hype to the Roman Empire as a crushing entity, often referencing the strength of the Roman military and its great ability to crush rebellions. But is putting down rebellions sufficient to satisfy the dramatic descriptions found in Daniel’s prophecy?

When we consider the nature of the Roman Empire, it was very far from being a destructive influence to its conquered peoples. In fact, quite the opposite. Rome is well known for being a nation-building force of the ancient world. When they conquered a people, rather than destroying the culture, abolishing its religion, and imposing a new language, it generally tolerated these things while adding law, building roads, and creating order.

Beyond infrastructure, while the Romans expected to receive taxes and an acknowledgement of Caesar, the Jewish Temple stood prominently in Jerusalem under Roman authority, and the Jews practiced their religion freely. Roman law protected the Jews’ right to practice their religion for the most part, and it was only when rebellions took place, that they displayed their might in crushing such opposition.

In contrast to the Roman Empire, the other alternative in Daniel’s vision of the fourth beast, the Islamic Empire would never allow such lenience. Their belief has always been that Allah is the one true god, and that their religion of Islam must rule all territories and lands they have conquered.

The Islamic Caliphate from its inception was an Arab-Islamic supremacist force that crushed and erased the cultures and religions of the peoples it conquered. This is due to the uniquely all-encompassing ideology of Islam, which includes every facet of life. Islam has rules and commandments that pertain to far more than just theology. It also dictates law, government, language, military, and even the sexual and hygienic practices of those under its authority. The very name Islam means “submission” to the laws of Allah, as well as the practices of Muhammad their prophet.

Islam is the epitome of a totalitarian ideology. Wherever Islam spread, it brought with it this oppressive ideology of submission. Islam conquered all the regions of the former Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Greek empires. It exported and imposed the Arabic language onto a vast proportion of its conquered peoples.

Today, in Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and throughout much of North Africa, the people speak Arabic. While the Persians and the Turks have retained their own languages, their alphabets were both Arabised. Later, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk enforced a new anglicised alphabet in Turkey. As an imperial force, Islam imposed  Arab religion and culture onto all of its dominated peoples, while erasing evidence of previous religions and non-Islamic cultures.

In our next segment, we will expound more on this subject and give even more evidence to the argument that the Islamic Caliphate from Turkey offers a far more satisfying answer to the problematic question and identity of the fourth beast of Daniel’s dream.

As stated before, the western leg of the Roman Empire (from Rome in Italy itself) came to an end around 476 AD. The Eastern leg, however, ruled for approximately 1592 years, firstly from the Byzantine Kingdom from 330 AD (centred in Constantinople, modern day Istanbul, capital of Turkey) up to the end of the thirteenth century, and then followed by the Ottoman Empire (or the Turkish Empire) which ruled for 623 years from 1299  until 1922 when the monarchy was abolished.

Turkey, to the direct north of Israel and part of the ancient Assyrian Empire has a far better claim than Italy to being the area from which the Antichrist will arise. There is a lot more we can add to validate this point, but that will have to wait for chapter six.

To read all five chapters together, please go to

http://propheticwitnessmovementnewportbranch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/why-antichrist-will-probably-come-from_1.html

Nev.