Global SITREP C6-16: "In the Latter Time of Their Kingdom"

The Roman Empire c. 117 AD Greatest Extent

21 July 2016: The great overflowing of instability that has come upon the modern Republic of Turkey is no accident. One of the prime views of the Eschatology Today blog is that nothing which occurs in the world these days, at this late hour of the pre-70th Week era (a/k/a "the Church Age"), is unrelated to coming prophetic fulfillment. One hyphenated word which accurately has conveyed what these events represent in the context of near-future prophetic fulfillment is "stage-setting" and which is precisely what is occurring in Turkey today.

Interpreting and assessing what is occurring in Turkey from the Biblical prophetic perspective simply has to begin with the prophetic words of the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel. These words are within the interpretation Gabriel provided to Daniel regarding his Divine vision of the Ram and a Goat, and which move temporally into our present time, are found in Daniel 8:23. They describe the time immediately preceding the rise of the Antichrist, also identified as the beast from the sea in Revelation 13.

“And in the latter time of their kingdom,

When the transgressors have reached their fullness..."

Gabriel said, "And in the latter time of their kingdom." Whose kingdom?  

Obviously, their's is the kingdom that would give rise to the kingdom of the Antichrist in the last days! Their's is the kingdom in the specific context of Gabriel's interpretation of the vision Daniel was given by God. 

It is the kingdom symbolically represented by the male goat which came from the west (Daniel 8:5) and unambiguously identified by Gabriel as Greece. It was also represented symbolically by the notable or conspicuous horn that was Alexander the Great, and the four little horns which was the division of Alexander's empire into four less powerful empires, and which in its final form achieved within the generation immediately preceding the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, was conquered and absorbed into the Roman Empire.

And the Roman Empire is the western empire which Gabriel also unambiguously identified by the angel Gabriel in Daniel 9:26b in time (Messiah Jesus) and by its specific military action in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple.

"And after the sixty-two weeks

Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;

And the people of the prince who is to come

Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary."

This now brings us to the purpose of the map at the head of this SITREP. Take a good, long look at this map. Study its details as they are very instructive also. You know where modern Turkey is located on this map of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. You also know that Turkey is an integral part of NATO and has seen itself as a potential member of the European Union, particularly since negotiations to this end commenced 11 years ago.

This brings us to a couple of questions. The prophetic symbolism seen in the vision of Daniel and the very concise interpretation provided by the angel Gabriel are inviolable Scripture. Have we seen anything here that even remotely could be construed as representative of Turkey's symbols of a crescent moon and star? Is their anything in Scripture that specifically references Turkey? No, there is not. Zip, nada, nothing that singles out modern-day Turkey in any manner. 

Turkey, if we are to go by prophetic Scripture, has always been within something larger than itself. This should be speaking volumes to us about the stage setting that is yet to occur in the very near future. And remember, the final beast empire is represented by ten horns, three of which Antichrist will subdue and take for himself.

Turkey and Ezekiel 38/39 - Briefly

Then we have the nations identified by the prophet Ezekiel in the 38th and 39th chapters of the prophetic book which bears his name. The names of those nations are all sons of Noah's son Japheth, except for Togarmah who was the third-born son of Japheth's first-born son Gomer. All of these sons of Japheth and the son of Gomer are identified by Ezekiel to denote peoples, or nations of people who descended from them, and not the land which they at one time in the distant past occupied. The lone exception to this is the leader of the military confederation, Gog, who is clearly identified as coming from the land of Magog. Magog means in Hebrew, 'from Gog.'

All of these sons are variously identified by ancient sources in connection with the Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Scythians, Caucasian Iberians, Georgians and Armenians. And Magog itself is located by the ancient sources as being either in the Caucasus region west of the Caspian Sea, or even in some ancient maps as north of China in what we know today to be Mongolia and Russian Siberia. Also of note are correlations of Tubal with the city of Tobolsk in the Russian Federation, and Meshech which is directly related to the Russian language name for the city of Moscow - Moskva. 

The bottom line in this exegesis is that Turkey is peripheral to the nations which will be a part of the prophetic event described in Ezekiel 38/39; it is not a participant in the invasion, but will be on the opposing western side of the war which results as seen in Ezekiel 38:21-22 and 39:3-6. Most who read Eschatology Today regularly are well aware of this exegesis because it has been dealt with previously in some detail. 

What Next?

It doesn't take a crystal ball to see the potential for Erdogan and his AKP reaching too far for absolute power. A few steps too far into totalitarian dictatorship in post-coup d'etat Turkey and it could all backfire badly upon them pretty quickly. 

The current status is that Erdogan has become a virtual dictator and has taken upwards of 100,000 Turks as domestic prisoners of war. Human rights in Turkey are presently nonexistent. American service personnel and family members at Incirlik Air Base as well as the 50-some odd nuclear weapons stored there are virtual hostages - pawns in all actuality - in the political chess match Erdogan and his AKP party are playing with the US Obama Administration and NATO. One wrong move and it could well be an unforeseen 'checkmate.'

Bottom line: the situation in Turkey is utterly inconsistent with the principles that bind together the nations of NATO and EU member states. Without a rapid reversal of the situation in Turkey, let's just say 'regime change' might well be a viable option to save Turkey from the extremist ravages of the AKP and returned to a kinder, gentler version of Islam, an "Abrahamic religion' kind of Islam that NATO and the EU as well as the Ezekiel 38:13 political and religious global elite have since the end of World War II been very comfortable being in a very close alliance with, and will be in the future.

Three months is about all the time i would assess that Erdogan and the AKP have remaining in pressing their luck in this gambit and without going too far with it. And then there's the fairly strong possibility of a Trump Administration coming to power in six months time and turning Washington, the District of Corruption upon its head, and what that will mean for NATO, the EU, Israel and the rest of the world, not to mention Turkey. 

Law and Order, leading from the front will again be the norm. NATO, as has been discussed here, is already on its way towards massive financial investments in defense industries and rearmament. In particular note here is the nation of Greece whose new defense spending per GDP is among the highest in NATO. They've all read the writing on the wall of a coming Trump Administration. These new paradigms will have a profound across the board effect. Americans are not the only people on this planet who like and want to be associated with winners and winning; Europeans like it and so do a lot of other countries, including Turks.