20 October 2010: "Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow..." Revelation 9:16-17 (NKJV). Notice the emblem on Chinese PLA General Liang Guanglie's hat. Is it mere coincidence that the above Communist Chinese Army emblem contains the prophecied colors of the 200-million man army of the kings of the East?
Let's look as some prophetic specifics.
According to God, per Revelation 1:1, these kings of the East are on the move at the sounding of the 6th angel's trumpet during Daniel's 70th Week. Their army is numbered at 200,000,000 strong, and they kill a third of mankind while enroute across Asia to a crossing of the river Euphrates which is dried up in the 6th Bowl wrath of God Judgment found in Revelation 16:12-16.
According to the text of Daniel 11, particularly verses 42-44, after the other Middle Eastern military campaigns which the Antichrist executes successfully, news (i.e. military intelligence) comes to him about an approaching enemy force from the East and the North. Antichrist goes out with his military forces to engage them in battle.
"He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many."
A 200-million man army coming from East Asia would not approach the Euphrates along a single axis of advance. No, sound military tactics and warfighting doctrine would determine that these Asian forces will enter the region in several columns across a broad, 800-mile front from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea/Caucasus region. This 200-million man armed force will approach from the East and the North exactly as Daniel has foretold.
"He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many."
A 200-million man army coming from East Asia would not approach the Euphrates along a single axis of advance. No, sound military tactics and warfighting doctrine would determine that these Asian forces will enter the region in several columns across a broad, 800-mile front from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea/Caucasus region. This 200-million man armed force will approach from the East and the North exactly as Daniel has foretold.
Incidentally, the third of mankind which killed by these military forces are not necessarily resident on the continent of Asia, but all over the world, and which when expressed in real numbers and based upon today's population of the earth, amounts to over 2.025 billion people. These deaths are attribbuted to the Eastern kings weaponry which is described as fire, smoke and brimstone. The text provides a clear description of nuclear warfare on an unprecedented scale, and it is at the same time quite symbolic of their nuclear weaponry and its effects: the fire - of a nuclear blast, the smoke - the over-pressure of the expanding sphere of destruction, and the brimstone- the fallout of nuclear debris.
I hold no doubt that the prinicple of these kings of the East is mainland China. The colors match, they can field a conquering army of 200 million men and they are nuclear armed. China is the emergent eastern superpower.
And where is this 200-million man Army going? To the Battle of Har Megiddo where the Antichrist awaits with his own armies several hundred miles west of the Euphrates River. These kings of the East will be at war with the Antichrist. Coming to this realization answered another question I have long pondered: why must the Euphrates River be dried up? The answer is because in that day all of the land west of the Euphrates will be within the boundaries of a much enlarged Israel.
Here's proof:
"On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” - Genesis 15:18-20
“I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you." - Exodus 23:27-31
“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him — then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you." - Deuteronomy 11:22-25
"From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory." - Joshua 1:4
Interestingly, these verses also put the kibosh to the theory espoused by the proponents of an Islamic Antichrist - Eastern Leg empire since these soon-to-be-former Muslims lands will at that time belong to Israel - from Lebanon north to the former Hittite Empire which today comprises the bulk of modern Turkey and northern Syria, east to the Euphrates river and Iraq. When in all of previous history has Israel occupied the lands of the Hittites? Since the answer is never, then the occurance of Israel's occupation of the land promised by God in Exodus must be a future reality, and logically a result of the coming Gog-Magog war.
So why is this subject on my mind? In the past week both Bill Gertz and Debka posted reports on the presence of Chinese PLA Air Force warbirds in Turkey for participation in the recent "Anatolian Eagle" air combat exercise. The Su-27 and MiG-29 aircraft flew direct from China to a refueling on the ground in eastern Iran and then continued to the their deployment station at Konya Air Base in central Turkey. Previously only NATO allies and Israel participated in the exercise. Turkish PM Ergodan stated the Red Chinese participation signalled a raising of bi-lateral Turkish-Chinese military relations to a "strategic level" per an agreement signed in Ankara on 8 October 2010. An advance guard 'kings of the East" have arrived per the strategic agreement between Turkey and the People's Republic of China.
Bible prophecy is continually in the news these days.
