Global SITREP A10-24: The End of HAMAS and The War in the North Part V

The Theater of Prophetic War

UPDATED 30 May 2024: Eschatology Today may be the first to note that the current war launched against Israel by the Islamic jihadists of HAMAS in Gaza on October 7, 2023, and then joined by the Islamic jihadists in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Yemen has fully transitioned from a war of localized tactical engagements to a war of theater-wide strategic engagements. This transition brings us to the doorstep of the over-arching prophetic scenario discussed here for more than the past decade. The deployment and use of strategic strike weapons such as 1,000 miles plus drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles is the defining character of the strategic change to this war. As such great and fearful changes lie ahead as detailed by the inspired prophets of ancient Israel.

UPDATE 03 June 2024: Fires in northern Israel today started by Hezbollah rockets and incendiary drone attacks. 

Most of us will recall that incendiaries were sent over the border from Gaza into Israel prior to HAMAS' invasion and massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. Those incendiary devices sparked dozens of fires in southern Israel. 

How long will Israel wait before the Hezbollah menace is neutralized? The IDF is well aware that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies have been practicing repeating what HAMAS did, but this time in northern Israel. The clock is ticking.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP E1-19: Conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

TOP Image: Greek and Internationally recognized East Med EEZs
Bottom Image: Turkish unilaterally imposed East Med EEZs

UPDATE 28 December 2019: As noted in the last paragraph of theoriginal 3 December posting, there are significant issues to be addressed and they grow more critical day by day. 

On the front lines in the outskirts of Tripoli there are Turkish soldiers (supporting the GNA) in urban combat against Russian mercenaries of the ChVK Wagner Group (supporting the LNA). The Russians are the spearhead of the LNA offensive. 

The fighting has escalated in Tripoli and Misrata with the news that new deployments of Turkish Army troops, Turkomen militia from northwestern Syria, and ships of the Turkish Navy are enroute to join the battle. There they will oppose the Haftar-led LNA that has been buttressed by more Russian mercenaries, counter-drone technology, Egyptian armor and UAE UCAV aircraft. The Turkish military deployments are in response to the slow but steady advance of LNA forces westward. 

20 December 2019: Egyptian Navy has conducted exercises in the Mediterranean Sea that include submarine-launched Harpoon cruise missiles. The exercises simulate naval warfare against the Turkish Navy.

Egypt has also deployed T-72 tanks to Haftar's LNA Army for their offensive to liberate Tripoli and Sirte from GNA militias. The LNA has given a 72-hour ultimatum for the militias to withdraw from both cities. 

8 December 2019: On the sidelines of the NATO Summit in London last week, direct talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek President Kyriakos Mitsotakis failed to find a resolution to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ) crisis. No great surprise here, as the Greeks have noted to the international community, there isn't a neighboring country on any Turkish border that is not in a bilateral conflict with Turkey. 

By way of publication in the Turkish Government's Official Gazette and ratification by the Turkish Parliament, the Istanbul Accord, a maritime exclusive economic zone agreement between Turkey and Libya's internationally recognized GNA government in Tripoli, Libya went into effect yesterday to divide the Eastern Mediterranean Sea between them. Erdogan also announced yesterday that accord has been delivered to the United Nations by Turkey.

Greece, which views the Accord as a violation of its sovereign rights and having no legal standing in international law, expelled the Libyan GNA Ambassador Mohamed Menfi. Ambassador Menfi has until Monday to depart from Greece. 

For his part, Greek President Mitsotakis said the Turkish move in denying Greek sovereignty over its many islands has placed Turkey in "unprecedented diplomatic isolation." Greece has announced it will use military force to immediately halt any Turkish oil or gas drilling in the sea southeast of Crete. The application of a European Union sanctions regime against Turkey is also imminent.

3 December 2019: Last week Turkey and the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, Libya signed a military pact that essentially divides the whole Eastern Mediterranean Sea between them. Eschatology Today will refer to this pact as the 'Istanbul Accord.' 

As if the Middle East didn't need another point of conflict that could spark a war between two supposed NATO allies (Greece and Turkey), the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a single stroke of their pen annexed a massive swath of the Greek economic zone. For their part the Greeks describe the Istanbul Accord as being "ridiculous." 

The Turkish action is noted in the Eschatology Today map above (click to enlarge). It is in the stripped fluorescent yellow portion. This map is based upon initial reports of the Istanbul Accord as none has as yet been published by Turkey or the GNA. The Turks claim their maritime border now extends from southwestern Turkey all the way across the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Libyan coast line of Derna (Darnah) and Tobruk (i.e. all of the Libyan coast to the Egyptian border).

The Istanbul Accord pretends as if the Greek island of Crete and hundreds of other Greek islands going back into antiquity simply no longer exist. Greek citizens inhabit all of those sovereign Greek islands. Eschatology Today would liken Erdogan's Istanbul Accord to that of Adolf Hitler's 1938 military annexation (invasion) of the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland. 

The Istanbul Accord also involves Israel and Cyprus who are, as we've discussed here before, in a military alliance with Greece. The Turkish move directly threatens the proposed gas and oil pipelines between Israel and Cyprus to the Greek mainland and European Union Markets. This move also occurred just prior to the NATO Summit of this week, and alliance fallout is likely to be severe against Turkey, not to mention European Union anger at what the Turks have done. Current levels of EU sanctions against Turkey stand a very good change of becoming far more harsh. Turkey's status within NATO is also in peril. 

Additionally, the Istanbul Accord tosses a wrench into the Berlin peace talks scheduled for January 2020 between the two governments in the Libyan Civil War. Most international recognition is with the GNA Tripoli government led by Fayez Sarraj, while an assortment of other nations, including Russia, Egypt and the UAE are militarily supporting the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) in Benghazi under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's leadership (whom we've also discussed previously). There are approximately 1,500 Russian Wagner Group mercenaries that have intervened in the war to fight alongside Haftar's LNA. Armed UAE drones also routinely bomb the Tripoli airport. The Istanbul Accord is likely to cost the GNA in Tripoli dearly in terms of international recognition.

The prophetic implications are obvious and numerous, touching on the fulfillment of Scripture from Daniel through Ezekiel. The issues between Turkey and Russia alone stand out profoundly so that clearly major changes will have to occur for the Magog Confederation to materialize as many interpret Ezekiel 38/39 indicating Turkey being part of that confederation (also discussed in-depth previously on Eschatology Today).

Global SITREP E6-15: Rise of the European Superstate

5 December 2015: What makes a state a state? Its sovereignty. When states lose their sovereignty the become the subject of something larger and more powerful than themselves - a superstate. The map image above is a depiction of what the European superstate may look like in a very few years time.  Take a real good up-close and studied look at this map and its blue-shaded areas and compare what you see to a map of the European Union as it exists today.

Also notice there are no internal borders or individual states within this European superstate. It portends to achieve what both Napoleon and Hitler failed to achieve in the past 200 years. It looks more like ancient Rome than a modern and independent continent of European nations. 

The loss of sovereign border control is what has just occurred to the nation of Greece. That country now has foreign guards from elsewhere in Europe on its borders, and it's all because of a flood of "refugees" which Greece was unable to stop. A sovereign nation which cannot control its own borders is no longer a sovereign nation. 

Suddenly, Greece is a subject state of the ever growing European superstate. There are lots of things on the march these days, and the European superstate is one of them and its growing into the beast that is prophesied to exist in the 70th Week.

There's more to come...

Revived Roman Empire: Correcting a Hermeneutical Error

29 March 2014:  Where in the Word of God should one go to read a prophetic text, even so much as a single sentence, which is  descriptive of the concept of a revival of the Roman Empire?  I have searched all of the prophetic texts, of which the prophetically quintessential 2nd and 7th and 8th chapters of Daniel  plus the 13th chapter of The Revelation of Jesus Christ are the most vividly descriptive, and I came away with... nothing. These things and recent discussions with fellow students of Biblical eschatology once again have served to remind that what I believe is an error in hermeneutics that needs to be addressed at the minimum and corrected at some point. This is my attempt at a correction.

By the same token one can go online and search the phrase "revived Roman Empire" or some closely related phrase and find active links to 800,000 articles and literary works which discuss it at length. The vast majority of those articles and literary works support the concept, and even identify the revival of the Roman Empire as a sure sign of the arrival of the last days. And don't get me wrong here, I am as guilty as the next guy (or gal) in having previously made use of the phrase "revived Rome" when discussing things of an eschatological nature. It seems to be a natural and widely accepted practice. But is it purely Biblical? The short answer is no,  the eschatological concept of a "revived Rome" is not Biblical, it is a man-made assumption.

What was the key detail of the God-breathed interpretation given by the prophet Daniel to Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar about the fourth kingdom represented in his vision? In Daniel 2 the interpretation regarding the first the world empire, that of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, in contained in all of two verses (37 and 38). The next two subsequent world empires (Medo-Persia and Greece) each share one-half of the single verse within Daniel 2:39. But then from Daniel 2:40-43 the interpretive attributes of the fourth empire are given some very good detail which denotes the importance of this empire as the world's last empire. The key God-breathed detail here is that the two legs of iron resolve themselves to a pair of feet each containing ten individual toes. Those ten toes, the essential elements or nations of  the Roman Empire, exist to this day.

In Daniel 7:7-8; 23-27 even more detail is given about the fourth beast in a God-breathed vision Daniel received just prior to the fall of Babylon to the Medo-Persian Empire. These two sets of verses in Daniel 7 say absolutely nothing about the fourth beast falling only to be revived again. This beast is continuous throughout time, from its first appearance in ancient history where it supplanted the Greek third beast to its destruction in the future by Jesus Christ at the conclusion of the 70th Week.

In Daniel 8:23-26 where the angel Gabriel is providing an even more detailed interpretation of his vision regarding of the Greek conquest of the Persian Empire, once again there is the central theme of continuity from those ancient times to the present and future times of the 70th Week. I would advise the reader to continue reading the Book of Daniel, chapters 9 through 12 as the unrelenting prophetic narrative is continued to the conclusion.

Revelation 13 is the basis of the interpretive artistic imagery seen above. It is also the God-breathed reiteration of all that was revealed to the prophet Daniel through earlier visions and Gabriel's interpretations.

As a more current benchmark reference for this subject I submit to you that Don Koenig's article "In God's eyes the Roman fourth beast still rules the world" at his ThePropheticYears.Com website fulfills this role. You can also find reference my own "Daniel 7: The Key Prophecy Confirming a Roman Antichrist." Both of these articles cover slightly different aspects of the correct Biblical instruction. However, the essential element, as Don states in his article, 

"There is no other worldwide Gentile kingdom in scripture between the time of the ancient Roman Empire and the time that the latter-day prince makes a seven-year covenant with Israel at the end of the Gentile age (Dan 9:27). Therefore, in God’s eyes we must still exist in the era of the Roman fourth beast that is recorded in the book of Daniel (Dan 2:40, 7)."

The bottom line here is that as a sign that the last days have arrived one need not bother to look for a revival of something that from the Lord's perspective never ceased to exist. There is no break in the Biblical prophetic narrative where the fourth beast ceased to exist only to be revived again in the last days. You want to see the sign of a revived Rome, to see the fourth beast empire, then look outside your front door, look on a map, look no further than where you are living right now if that place is anywhere in Europe west of the Russian Federation, anywhere in the entirety of the Western Hemisphere, and also in certain nations in Africa and the Western Pacific rim. In these same locations you will also find "Tarshish and all their young lions" as declared by the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel.

So, Rome never fell, and there is no "revival of the Roman Empire" that we need to see occur prior to the 70th Week. The fourth world empire is here now and it is a global power: economically, politically and militarily. And consider this if you're interested in looking for a definitive sign of the last days. Daniel 11:21 contains a detailed precursory view of the coming Antichrist and his sudden rise to global power. That precursor was manifest in the person of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the supreme ruler of the Hellenic (Greek) Seleucid Empire. The man who will be the Antichrist leading the already existent fourth world empire will be one of the leaders of an existing Western nation who will suddenly, and by intrigue or the aid of a few of the elite of the peer leadership around him, take full control of the already existing reigns of power of the already existing political structure, exactly as Antiochus IV Epiphanes did with the Seleucid Empire in the Daniel 11:21 template of 2,189 years ago. That man could very well be any one of the men seen standing in front of national flags and symbols in a lineup of Western leaders at any of the numerous summits or peace negotiations seen on the evening news. He just hasn't been revealed yet.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP B6-13: France, Israel and Saudi Arabia United in Preemption of Iranian Nukes

UPDATE 21 November 2013: “They (Iran)  must not have nuclear weapons — and I promise you that they will not have nuclear weapons.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a speaking engagement in Russia this morning.

Bibi and "Gog." In this image Bibi has a pleasant look of calm assurance upon his countenance, almost amused and ready to bust out in a great, big smile of a victor-in-waiting. In stark contrast Mr. Gog doesn't mutually reciprocate Bibi's facial expression in the aftermath of their chat in the Kremlin. His look is decidedly grim, foreboding, like all those aged Soviet leaders of yesteryear used to display when confronting a nation of strength and determination as America was under President Reagan. I know this isn't a thousand words, but you get the general drift of what this image is telling me. It's all good for the good guys.

I would remind all readers that a great war is in-progress. We would all be wise to heed the words of Winston Churchill when reading various accounts in global media these days: "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." In other words, exercise extreme caution before accepting anything but the Word of God as truth and fact. Fulfilled prophecy will be self-evident.

20 November 2013: The .jpg graphic below is as relevant today as it was 32 years ago when Israel launched "Operation Opera" against Saddam Hussein's nearly completed and French-made Osiris-class nuclear reactor known as "Osirak." This was the IAF's first operational use of its newly acquired F-16s from the United States. Screaming in at just 150 feet above the Saudi and Iraqi desert floor to avoid radar detection, and all the way from the Gulf of Aqaba, the IAF achieved total tactical surprise against the Iraqi defenders. The Iranian's will likely suffer the same tactical defeat; they'll never see the Israeli's coming, and quite possibly, when they're leaving after hitting and destroying multiple nuclear targets in western Iran.

Didn't hear many Saudi Arabian complaints back then; don't expect to hear them this time around either.

19 November 2013: A pair of suicide bombers attacked the Iranian Embassy is Beirut this morning killing an Iranian "cultural attache" and approximately two-dozen others, with nearly 150 wounded. Both bombs were VBIEDs, one via a motorcycle, the other a car. Iran immediately blamed Israel, but just as quickly an Al Qaeda-linked "Abdullah Azzan Brigades" terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. An event such as this could easily be used as a "shoot first, ask questions later" casus belli for a preemptive war launched by Iran and its allies against Israel. This is something that might be of some utility to Iran during the most difficult phase of P5+1 negotiations which Iran has no intention of accepting as discussed below. Expect the unexpected.

18 November 2013: Less than 48 hours before the next IAEA P5+1 round of negotiations with Iran commences in Geneva, the Paris, France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says that members of its affiliate People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) group inside Iran had obtained reliable information about a previously undisclosed and recently completed underground nuclear site. This afternoon NCRI official Mehdi Abrichamtchi spoke to media saying, "According to specific information obtained by the Iranian resistance, the clerical regime is establishing or completing parallel secret and undeclared sites for its nuclear project."  The now exposed nuclear site is a 600-meter long tunnel complex beneath the mountains in Esfahan Province, six miles from the town of Mobarekeh. This site is the location of Iran's Mobarekeh Steel Company and within the Haft-e Tir military industrial complex, the largest industrial complex in Iran. NCRI said that it has passed this information to the IAEA. In 2009 the NCRI exposed the Fordow nuclear weapons complex near Qom to western intelligence agencies, as well as much of the other formerly covert Iranian nuclear weapons program sites since 2006 according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK.

17 November 2013: Once again word is leeching out via Britain's premier media that the State of Israel is covertly working with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in coordinating the tactical planning for a strike to render moot the object of the P5+1 negotiations in Geneva this coming week. According to a just published article by the Times of Israel which cites Britain's The Sunday Times as the originating source (Two old foes unite against Tehran), Jerusalem and Riyadh have reached an agreement whereby Saudi Arabia will open their airspace and provide other tactical support in the current plan to preemptively kill all Iranian nuclear weapons ambition for the foreseeable future.

The Sunday Times reports that both Jerusalem and Riyadh clearly reject the American assurances coming from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry and are convinced that they "amount to appeasement and will do little to slow its development of a nuclear warhead." An anonymous diplomatic source has told the Sunday Times, "The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs." So, the news today is that the French, Israeli and Saudi governments (as well as the rest of the at-risk GCC governments) have determined to unite behind the execution of a military option to eliminate the threat posed by an apocalyptically-guided Iran in possession of nuclear weapons. They have determined to preempt both a ridiculously "bad deal" and a nuclear-armed Iran. 

Israel and the Saudi's are defending their existence, and France is defending it's stake in the joint European Union and Sunni Arab nations "Union for the Mediterranean" (UfM). UfM member states Lebanon and Syria are both League of Nations mandate territories mandated to French control following World War I. As a note for those who are unaware, the UfM was created in Paris, France 13 July 2008 based upon the Paris and Marseilles Declarations and the Statues adopted on 3 March 2010. The UfM membership is comprised of the EU member nations, the League of Arab States, Israel, Palestine and Turkey. The Bible prophecy implications of the UfM relative to the texts of Daniel, Ezekiel and The Revelation of Jesus Christ are glaringly apparent.

Comparison: Roman Empire and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)

Today's news comes with the arrival this morning in Israel of French President Francois Hollande along with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Israel's lone ally sitting at the P5+1 negotiation table in Geneva, Switzerland, for further consultations with Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu. On Wednesday, 20 November, PM Netanyahu flies north fully buttressed with his new (and also nuclear-armed allies) to meet in Moscow, Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This will be a different Benjamin Netanyahu than Vladimir Putin has met previously, even without his former American ally.

The direct effects this newly emergent alliance will have on European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, and thus Bible prophecy, are currently unmeasurable but they clearly will also be immense. This SITREP  will be revisited for frequent updates in the coming days as events transpire. Stay tuned.

Late Development 17 November:  After meeting for several hours with PM Netanyahu, President Hollande of France (left in the image above) set the gauntlet Iran will have have to run if it is to emerge with an interim agreement with the P5+1 this coming Wednesday.  On the surface Hollande's gauntlet would appear to be a four-point set of demands that the Ayatollah's nuclear emissary will have to reject, possibly even before the negotiating session commences. The publicly announced conditions are:

1. The immediate assumption of international control over all Iranian nuclear installations.
2. The immediate suspension of all processing of  Uranium Hexaflouride (UF6) to 20% U-235.
3. The immediate reduction of Iranian stocks of Uranium Hexaflouride.
4. The immediate halt of construction at the IR-40 heavy water plant at Arak.

These conditions are totally consistent with achieving the Israeli, Saudi and French position that Iran relinquish its dream of possessing a nuclear weapons capability forever. It would appear that an expected Iranian rejection of these conditions will mean war.

Ezekiel 37:10 "Meh'ode Gadowl Chayil"

29 December 2012:  Ezekiel 37 is a now fulfilled prophecy about the restoration of modern Israel. In modern times Ezekiel's ancient prophetic vision of a valley filled with dead, dry bones which received new flesh upon them and a spirit that God breathed upon from the four winds of the earth came to fulfillment just two years after the Holocaust in the death camps and ovens of Nazi controlled Europe. The tenth verse of Ezekiel 37 tells us these bones then stood up as "mehode gadowl chayil" - "an exceedingly great army."  This army is "the whole house of Israel," and it is known to us as Tzva Hahagana LeYisra'el, literally The Army of Defense for Israel, the IDF.

We will take a look at the eschatological future of the IDF, what the Word of God does and, surprisingly enough, does not have to say about it. However, no discussion about the future of the IDF can be complete without at least a brief look at its origins, exactly as Ezekiel foretold that this exceedingly great army would suddenly arise in the land of Israel and that valley of dry bones. An executive summary on origin of the IDF and its Psalm 83 adversaries can be found in Eschatology Today's original 5-part series from 2009: The Prophetic Road to Revelation (Part II). 

As we all see from the history of the Psalm 83 military engagements fought thus far, the IDF has emerged victorious at a high cost in each one of them. The concluding battles on the southern, central and northern fronts will be the same, and according to the related Isaiah 17 text, even more so. However, as with most things prophetic, the IDF does not operate in a vacuum, particularly in these few years prior to the 70th Week. The difference has been the spiritual realm activity manifest on Earth by Israel's prince, the archangel Michael. In these days prior to the Lord pouring out His Spirit upon the whole house of Israel the archangel Michael has been busy and he's going to become busier.

It is the final prophetic word of Gabriel  to Daniel found in chapter 12 verses1-3 which tie all of this together and informs us of the archangel Michael's role:

“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever."

Going 'Back to the Future' with the angel Gabriel

The direct interaction between the prophet Daniel and the angel Gabriel occurs over several chapters. Chapters 10-12 repeat and refine the visions given to Daniel in chapter 7, as well as 8 and 9. Daniel  chapters 8 through 12 in themselves are a more detailed look at the last days. These details Daniel tells us about came from Gabriel beginning in 550 BC (Daniel 8:1) and are a focused prophetic look at the period of human history beginning one-hundred ninety six years into the future, or 334 BC, when the Macedonian-Greek army under Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont (the Dardanelles Strait) between Greece and the Persian Empire fulfilling the prophecy of the "Ram and the Goat" and concluding with the empire of the fourth beast, the Antichrist and the verses of Daniel 12 quoted above still in our future.

What is amazing in all of this is that there's not so much as a single mention of an Israeli army, the IDF, in the last days events and battles described. Nothing. The closest approach to describing the period of time we are living in right now is found in Daniel 9 where Daniel, fully understanding the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah and the visions given to him thus far by Gabriel, is in the midst of extremely fervent imprecatory prayer and supplications to the Lord in loudly confessing all of the sins of the whole of Israel from the Exodus out of Egypt to the present day. We can know that the concluding period within this prayer is the present day because the Israel that Daniel is referring to is not the one taken captive in Babylon, but rather mirrors the Israel that Aspah prophesied about in Psalm 83.

Daniel 9:16 (emphasis added)

“O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us." 

The very next sentence in Daniel's prayer refers directly to the currently non-existent Temple in Jerusalem, and it is followed with a plea that is also in agreement with that of Asaph in the very first words of Psalm 83. I think it to be more than obvious that the IDF has been raised up as declared in Ezekiel 37:10 to be the Lord's instrument in accomplishing His purposes in answering the Spirit-led prayers of Asaph, Daniel and all of ancient Israel's prophets. These ultimate last day purposes of the Lord commence with the fulfillment Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 and they are purposes which precede the arrival of the 70th Week as foretold by Gabriel.

What is not evident in Scripture is that following the overwhelming victory of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 28 when Israel is subsequently dwelling in the land safely and securely that anything like the IDF and its nuclear weaponry exists to defend Israel during the 70th Week. It may exist in its present form up until the Antichrist's confirmation of a "covenant among many," but during the 70th Week there is no reference in Scripture that points to the continued existence of the IDF. At that time God is working His will directly and through the activities of the Two Witness and 144,000 Jewish evangelists.

The TEN

The TEN (seen in red)

"Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom (hereinafter called "the Ten")..."

14 August 2011: As detailed on 5 August 2011 by Hal Lindsey in his MUST SEE 28:30 long video, the above quote is taken directly from a .pdf found on the Western European Union website. "WEO Council Decision at 10" is found on page 2, item number three under the heading "AGREED THE FOLLOWING."

Once again, nothing in English (or French for that matter) makes utterly false the non-Spirit inspired claims of the so-called Eastern Leg-Islamic Antichrist (EL-IA) proponents (i.e. Walid Shoebat and Joel Richardson among others) more than this .pdf document because it absolutely confirms the Word of God from the prophet Daniel and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, both of which we know are ultimately from Almighty God Himself.

Once Again, Thank You Hal Lindsey!

Hal Lindsey Report: The Mystery of the Magi

26 December 2010: Click this embedded link to HisChannel to watch today's rebroadcast of The Hal Lindsey Report on "The Mystery of the Magi." This program is a truly Spirit-inspired study of the earthly birth of our Our Lord and Saviour - from Micah to the Book of Revelation - which is a blessing to all who will view it.

Babylon: The Megas Pornē Riding on the Fourth Beast

19 January 2009: In my continuing in-depth research there is a considerable amount of Macedonian/Greek reference, in particular as it applies to both Antiochus IV Epiphanes (of Antioch, Seleucid Empire circa 167 BC) and a descendant of his, Gaius Julius Antiochus IV Epiphanes, circa 70 AD, (a/k/a Antiochus IV Commagene as referenced by Flavius Josephus in his history "The Wars Of The Jews." These two, the latter in particular, were prototypical or templates of the coming Antichrist. The ultimate common ancestor of both of these ancient Greek/Macedonian kings is one of Alexander the Great's Macedonian Generals (Diadochi) named Seleucus. Seleucus founded the Seleucid Empire (one of four rump Empires carved from Alexander's Empire) upon the death of Alexander and took for himself the title Seleucus I Nicator, in a fulfillment of prophecy as foretold by the Hebrew prophet Daniel.

The currency seen above is the current Greek 2 Euro coin minted in 2002, which has a certain prophetic meaning relative to Revelation 17:1. It features the Megas Pornē (Great Harlot - one who yields herself to defilement for the sake of gain) riding upon a beast. The beast featured on the coin is not identical that the scarlet-colored beast of seven heads and ten horns of Revelation 17:3.

Debunking the Islamic Antichrist

18 January 2009

During additional research last evening, some crucial, inter-related eschatological points made themselves apparent. The notion that Antichrist will be Islamic carries with it the implied baggage that his global empire arises from within the Islamic world which has been mutated by some authors into an implication of reference to the eastern leg of the Roman Empire. Nothing could be further from the truth of this prophetic matter.

The prophetic Word of God declared otherwise, most recently about 1,980 years ago through John on Patmos, who declared to all mankind, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:1-3 NKJV)

I also remind the reader of the Lord’s admonition regarding this prophetic Word, for it is NOT to be trifled with: “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19 NKJV)

“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” (Revelation 13:1-2 NKJV)

As I referenced in blog comments made to Bill Salus' Prophecy Depot, this above prophetic picture is given in the reverse order as it was originally given to the prophet Daniel. (see Daniel 2: 31-43) Instead of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome we see Rome, Greece, Persia and Babylon.

The key eschatological reference here is that not one leg of the Roman Empire is singled about, but both are. And below them are the ten toes of the two feet upon which it stood, not just five of the eastern foot, but all ten of both feet, which is inclusive of all the territories of its predecessors.

Then in Daniel 2: 44-45 we are given the key with which to interpret the prophetic Word of God: "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

The above is a direct reference to the Kingdom Of God, and of the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Messiah Jesus Christ. It was His Kingdom which came to be in 33 AD with His Crucifixion and Resurrection during the period of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was THE LAST of all earthly empires according to God Almighty.

It is all of those specifically referenced ten toes of loose iron and clay that arise again as the kingdom of the Antichrist, not just five of them at the terminus of the eastern leg and foot. This prophetic image specifically details that all subsequent empires are irrelevant to the prophetic picture from our Lords perspective. And this includes the subsequent Empire of Islam, which truly was no empire of individual states, but of a single political entity – the Islamic Khalifa (Caliphate) in all of its various forms. At no time in history did the Roman Empire ever have dominion over Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. Neither did the Macedonian-Greek Empire of Alexander the Great, nor Persia at its greatest territorial extent under either Darius I or as reconstituted under Artaxerxes III, nor did the Babylonians.

Clearly and unambiguously, with the prophetic Word of God being the final arbiter as it is written in Daniel 9:26b (NKJV) “And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” is a direct reference to the Roman Empire and its peoples, of all ten toes and none other. It was indeed the Legions of Rome who destroyed the city and the sanctuary in 70 AD and it will be from the descendants of the people of Rome that Antichrist will arise in these ‘Last Days.”